Plot summary: Inspired by Batman, thrill-seeking socialite Selina Kyle tries to restore her dwindling fortune as the costumed thief Catwoman.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 3 (S1.E3)
Original Air Date: August 1st, 2024
Directed: Christopher Berkeley (1)
Written: Adamma Ebo (1) & Adanne Ebo (1) (teleplay), and Bruce Timm (2) (story) & Ed Brubaker (1) (story)
Animation: Studio Grida (1)
Music: Frederik Wiedmann (3)
Selina Kyle lives at 125 Lewton Place. Valerie Lewton was an obsessive Catwoman stalker in the comics.
During a rooftop chase Batman and Catwoman run past a giant neon sign for ‘Clowder Industries’. Clowder is the collective noun for a group of cats. Cute!
Jackie Hoffman plays Selina’s maid, Greta, in what is almost definitely a caricature of Hoffman’s role in Feud: Bette and Joan.
Patrick ‘Eel’ O’Brian makes his debut as an annoying paparazzo. This is the alter-ego of Plastic Man, a sometimes creepy superhero who beat Mister Fantastic to the stretchy gimmick by several decades.
I may be way off, but one of the necklaces in the Wayne Collection at the museum looked a bit like the Nightwing logo to me.
Recap
Bruce is forced into multiple court-ordered therapy sessions with Dr. Harleen Quinzel after punching a man for making a comment about his mother’s death, which plays on his mind throughout the episode.
Meanwhile, Selina Kyle is inspired by Batman’s antics in the newspaper and creates her own costumed persona, Catwoman, going on a crime spree to offset her dire financial situation.
Batman easily captures Catwoman in their first encounter, but she’s able to evade charges thanks to Harvey Dent, and then upgrades her methods to escape our hero in their next meeting.
Bruce coerces photographer Eel O’Brian and springs a trap to catch Selina in the act. While this works and she is jailed, it partially backfires as he’s also documented attacking the GCPD to save Catwoman.
Episode Ranking
I do think this is a fun old school take on Catwoman, as you’ll read about below, but it was the decision to give this episode a true ‘A’ and ‘B’ story – a rarity for these more straightforward superhero cartoons – that really elevated it. Individually the classic Bat/Cat ‘chase me’ stuff, and the Dr. Harleen therapy angle would be solid, but blended together they sing.
I’ve heard a criticism that this series has made Bruce far too cold, but I actually think that doing so makes the few moments he loses his cool all the more interesting. It begins here with him decking a dude in public for victim-blaming his mother for getting murdered in a rough neighbourhood, which lands him in Dr. Quinzell’s office. Naturally he doesn’t believe in therapy (men, am I right?), but the fact that Harleen’s comments clearly do get to him despite putting on a facade demonstrates how far we’ve come since the days of BTAS, where I think the old writers room for the most part would not have taken psychiatry seriously. Or rather, they felt it was ‘only for crazies’ as it were. Guess that’s part of why sewer goblins think the show is too woke. Whatever.
Each session is well written and performed, with Harley actually reading Bruce almost perfectly, but he’s so practiced at his schtick that she never gets the satisfaction of knowing that. It’s also through these interactions that more is made of the death of the Waynes than we got in every episode of BTAS combined. That’s not a value judgement, as the network almost certainly didn’t want them dwelling on it (and Mask of the Phantasm did more thanks to relaxed censorship), more another example of how Caped Crusader is distinguishing itself from its predecessor. These kinds of scenes have become eye-roll inducing over the decades, but I thought they were done well here, focusing on the quiet psychological damage it dealt a young Bruce, rather than the melodrama… although it’s pretty fucking creepy when he wakes Alfred up to tell him his plan to take revenge on all criminals. I could imagine them ending an episode on that moment, but I’m glad they instead went with showing Alfred’s POV of that fateful night, something I don’t recall seeing much if ever in Batman history.
Oh, I also really like the foreshadowing of the Harley Quinn persona as she outfoxes him by planting a dummy patient file with a ‘gotcha’ note, knowing he’d steal it. Plus there are multiple ways to read her disappointment that he doesn’t want to keep seeing her; she’s either sincere as Bruce clearly has a boat load of trauma to work through… or… let’s put a pin in the alternative for a couple of episodes.
Meanwhile on the other side of the episode, the ever delicious Batman/Catwoman dynamic is in full effect. I really like that he takes her down quite easily the first time because she’s not considered you need “toys” to supplement the costume and the skills, and then learns from it and adds more to her act. Their chase scenes are a lot of fun, in particular when they’re bathed in gorgeous neon light, and I enjoyed them kissing as he gently lowers them with his grapple-gun, only pushing her away when they safely touch down. He could easily have resisted without dropping her, so my personal read was he was into it.
Wrapping everything up with a neat bow is Bruce’s gambit to provide irrefutable proof of Selina’s crimes this time, which works, but also directly sets up the next episode as he’s assaulted cops for the first time (that we know of), which is a slick piece of serialised plotting. Honestly, this is probably the best script of the season, I just personally have a predilection towards the old-timey Hollywood of the Clayface episode, so I can go no higher than second place for this one.
- … And Be a Villain
- Kiss of the Catwoman (NEW ENTRY)
- In Treacherous Waters
Best Performance
Christina Ricci sure did understand the assignment as Selina Kyle: Flirt outrageously with Bruce Wayne (and Batman). She’s sultry, mysterious and all that good stuff, but there’s also a sense of low-voiced, breathy jubilation about everything she does, perfectly matching the constant grin the character wears throughout. However I would say it’s not such a powerfully charismatic performance that she’s the obvious choice. This take lacks in the more emotional scenes necessary to secure a clean sweep. I think she still just about wins, but there’s serious competition from…
Jamie Chung, who is a million miles from Arleen Sorkin (and the various Harley soundalikes), which may seem like a red flag, but this is an excellent reinvention of the character, and with that goes a more sedate voice. She’s still plenty feisty in spots, but it comes more from a place of trying to one-up somebody in a back-and-forth exchange, rather than the motormouthed ‘always on’ gimmick. Otherwise she’s cheery, but more focused on her analytical work, and Chung did a good job of making Harleen sound genuinely concerned about Bruce’s mental health and life choices.
Hamish Linklater is pretty solid too, but I don’t think he quite competes with the ladies. He’s perhaps best at being a total dick to Alfred, which obviously irks my soul, but he had a job to do and he nailed what they’re going for.
Rogues Roundup
Catwoman (Christina Ricci) (first appearance)
Throwing back to something closer to Selina’s original design, it is interesting to see such a wildly different Catwoman. The character’s cultural cache has become enormous over time, and while the most ‘definitive’ take is the black leather-clad former street orphan, let’s not forget that our parents’ Catwoman is one/all of Julie Newmar/Lee Meriwether/Eartha Kitt, and that version of the character didn’t have that backstory and was far more camp and villainous. Likewise, the Michelle Pfeiffer take on the character is iconic but doesn’t actually adhere that closely to ‘default’ Catwoman beyond the visuals. All versions of Batman are valid, and the same goes for Catwoman!
Anyway, I enjoyed this take on the character, which plays far more in the Batman 66 lane, but I could totally see them taking her in a more BTAS/comics direction later. She starts out as a bored rich girl looking for a thrill, smirking as she nonchalantly runs from cops, before gradually improving her operation with the electric knuckle-dusters, Catmobile(!!!), and ‘black panther’, and of course by the end of the episode she’s functionally homeless and ruined. I also find it really interesting that much like in BTAS she’s publicly unmasked but still chooses to wear her costume because of the psychological boost it gives her.
Arnold Flass & Harvey Bullock (Gary Anthony Williams & John DiMaggio) (third appearance)
I haven’t been commenting on them in this section so far because while they’re clearly crooked cops, their roles have been minimal to date. But Flass was going to straight up execute Catwoman in this episode as revenge for her scratching Bullock’s face and being able to dodge jail time. Boo!
They work well together, with Flass the more overtly evil, while Bullock is more inept and looking for an easy life. But nothing to get too carried away about. Yet…
- Clayface
- Catwoman (NEW ENTRY)
- Rupert Thorne
- The Penguin
- Flass & Bullock (NEW ENTRY)
- Harvey Dent
Title Card
The Matt Signal 
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