Plot summary: When Barbara Gordon witnesses Batman murder a criminal, Bruce races to clear Terry’s name.
(Originally published on The Reel World December 11th, 2021)
Notes & Trivia
Original Air Date: January 22nd, 2000
Directed: Butch Lukic (8)
Written: Rich Fogel (5) (story) & Hilary J. Bader (6) (teleplay)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (27) & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (27)
Music: Lolita Ritmanis (8)
The first episode to be digitally colourised.
This episode contains yet another reference to Terry spending time in juvie after A Touch of Curaré’ and Rats. We won’t find out precisely why until ‘Big Time’.
Mad Stan is trapped in one of the virtual reality pods from Spellbinder’s last appearance, ‘Hooked Up’.
Recap
Batman interrupts a shady weapons deal… which turns out to be a police sting operation, with dozens of cops in place of the merchandise, but no criminals to arrest after they got away in the chaos.
An angry Barbara Gordon visits Bruce to caution him that Terry cannot make any more mistakes, dropping a veiled comment about his troubled past…
Mad Stan attacks during a fundraiser for Barbara’s husband, Sam, who is hoping to be re-elected as District Attorney. Terry comes to the rescue, disarming a number of Stan’s explosives.
Their fight continues to the parking garage, where Terry beats Stan to death!!! Barbara opens fire but he escapes. She vows to put an end to Batman!!!
Thus the GCPD are waiting outside Terry’s apartment, forcing him to head over to Max’s to call Bruce, who is sceptical of his story. He reviews the security footage, which goes blank during the incident, enough to convince him.
At Bruce’s suggestion, Terry infiltrates the morgue, where Mad Stan’s corpse is conveniently missing. An alarm sounds, so Bats makes a run for it… direclty into a GCPD ambush.
Bruce finally unscrambles the security footage to reveal Spellbinder was behind the whole thing. He calls Barbara who refuses to call off police pursuit, so he instead helps Terry locate the villain hiding in plain sight.
Terry takes Spellbinder down and the GCPD arrest him. Barbara apologises, but Terry immediately forgives her. Mad Stan is found in one of Spellbinder’s VR pods living out his anarchist fantasies.
Best Performance
We are absolutely spoiled for choice here. I’m still frustrated with how little Jon Cypher has gotten to talk in his return appearances as Spellbinder, because it’s such a creepy voice. I would love to give it to Henry Rollins for his zany portrayal of Mad Stan, which remains delightful, if not for the three major candidates.
Kevin Conroy and Stockard Channing pounce on their increased amount of dialogue, taking the script’s inherent tension and really making it sing. Even their false pleasantries are scintillating, but it’s them taking turns to make threats that really turns up the heat. Much to revisit down the line if desired.
However I have to give it up for Will Friedle, who manages to make Terry’s protests of innocence understated rather than over the top. You can sense his frustration and futility, which is a nice contrast from season one where he was more of a stereotypical melodramatic teen. He also sounds commanding in the opening when he’s stalking the sting before shifting over to banter during the action scenes with the arms dealers and Mad Stan, as well as genuinely creeped out by the morgue. It’s all great stuff, and he really sticks the landing with his forgiving nature towards Barbara and finally how elated he is to receive a civic honour that makes his mother proud of him. Honestly, this is probably his best performance to date.
Episode Ranking
This is a great little story about trust that explores the relationships between Barbara and Bruce as well the past and present Batmen. Babs dropping in on her former mentor is delightful, both due to winks and nods about Alfred, and their tense power dynamic. Bruce rightfully points out if she arrests Terry she’ll expose him and by extension herself, but she can’t just let him get away with ostensible murder. Her ability to counteract Terry’s evasion tactics due to her own experience is excellent, creating one of the more thrilling chase sequences in all of animated Batman. It’s interesting to me that Barbara is unwilling to believe Bruce in the climax and I hope to see that explored further, but if nothing else, her admitting to a mistake to Terry pairs nicely with his own from the start of the episode. Isn’t it amazing how effective it is to pay off something you set up?
Meanwhile, Bruce’s only minor scepticism before choosing to believe Terry (including defending him to Barbara) exhibits how far they’ve come. You could very easily see this story playing out early in season one and Terry having to convince Bruce, leading to a reluctant apology. Instead, we were rewarded for our ongoing investment in their development. Terry’s thanks are nevertheless touching. Likewise, his swift forgiveness of Barbara demonstrates what a Good Kid he is regardless of his ‘nefarious’ past. Plus the tension of him tossing a Batarang seemingly right at her, only to smash Spellbinder’s ‘magic eye’ is irrefutably badass, and also another exercise in trust… though Babs has no say in the matter.
Random note, but the morgue made for a staggeringly elaborate location, both in its size and the fancy futuristic computer-operated tubes in place of lockers. I guess when you have a Murder Clown and other colourful villains terrorising the city for decades, you need ample storage for corpses.
All in all, I loved this, as it reminded me of both ‘Perchance to Dream’ and ‘Over the Edge’, exploring the psyche of the heroes and pitting Batman against the police in a thrilling pursuit that culminates in the reveal of an illusion-based villain orhcestrating it all. Even the botched sting in the opening is stylish and exciting, so you really do get a great deal of bang for your buck here.
- Eyewitness (NEW ENTRY)
- Meltdown
- Babel
- Shriek
- Disappearing Inque
- Rebirth: Part 1
- A Touch of Curaré
- Spellbound
- Lost Soul
- Bloodsport
- Black Out
- Earth Mover
- Rebirth: Part 2
- Dead Man’s Hand
- Once Burned
- Splicers
- Hidden Agendas
- Golem
- Ascension
- Heroes
- Revenant
- Terry’s Friend Dates a Robot
- Mind Games
- Hooked Up
- Joyride
- The Winning Edge
- Rats
Rogues Roundup
Spellbinder (Jon Cypher) (third appearance)
As mentioned above, this episode reminded me a little of ‘Perchance to Dream’ and ‘Over the Edge’, excellent episodes that only reveal their villains in the final two minutes. Much like Mad Hatter and Scarecrow before him, the lateness of his appearance prevents Spellbinder from moving up the list, but doesn’t hurt him either, because the entire hook of the story depends on his abilities.
It’s unclear to me why he would continue to hang around Barbara during the chase scene (other than getting his jollies from watching), but it’s undeniably badass when Terry shatters his magic eye and there he is right among the cops. His accusation that Barbara found it so easy to believe the worst of Batman is a subtle piece of writing because he’s absolutely right.
Mad Stan (Henry Rollins) (second appearance)
This guy’s never not going to be a delight, is he? Henry Rollins’ larger than life persona must make him easy to write for, and Stan manically ranting about capitalism, bureaucracy and corruption while wildly firing guns and setting off bombs is perfect for a recurring minor villain.
- Inque
- Shriek
- Mr. Freeze
- Curaré
- Derek Powers/Blight
- Spellbinder (-)
- The Jokerz
- Earthmover
- The Royal Flush Gang
- Dr. Cuvier (and pals!)
- Stalker
- Mad Stan (-)
- Willie Watt
- Robert Vance
- The Terrific Trio
- The Brain Trust
- Cynthia
- Dr. Stephanie Lake
- Howard Hodges & General Norman
- Paxton Powers
- Jackson Chappell
- Mr. Fixx
- Ratboy
The Matt Signal 
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