Pigs use a bug to draw out the Bat.
Last time on Batman: Caped
Crusader, Catwoman entered the scene.
Bankrupt socialite and kleptomaniac Selena Kyle was inspired by images
of Batman in the newspaper and created her own Catwoman costume. She’s an
extremely successful burglar before being captured by Batman. She’s able to get
out of punishment by 1. Lying that Batman did it, and 2. Being white and
pretty. Immediately after leaving the courthouse, she was making plans for more
thefts, much to her maid’s chagrin. At the same time, Bruce Wayne is forced to
take therapy sessions after he punched out a reporter for talking about his
mother. His therapist, Dr. Quinzel, does her best to break down his walls but
Bruce’s walls are high and thick. Batman is ultimately able to catch Catwoman
using his mother’s pearls as bait and using a photographer to get evidence. The
situation is somewhat complicated by the photographer also getting shots of
Batman fighting Flass and Bullock, as the former of the pair was prepared to
execute Selena. Selena was arrested and put away, for now, and the police force
now have a reason to be much more interested in Batman. Oh, and Selena’s maid
sold all her valuables to get 3 years back pay and has left on a cruise. The
look on her face when she learns is priceless. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
Ep 4: The Night of the Hunters
We open with Gotham City reacting
to the Batman being confirmed real. Some like him, some hate him, and some are
just scared of him. Mayor Jessup (William Salyers) in a bid to get some good PR
for his reelection campaign, announces that he’s ordering Commissioner Gordon
to form a taskforce specifically to hunt down and capture Batman. Fun fact, if
you look at the crowd of reporters while Jessup is talking, you’ll see the
Fleischer era Lois Lane front and center. After his big announcement, Jessup
hisses at Jim that Batman is officially his problem and that he better not
screw it up.
Later, Bullock (sporting a neck
brace from his last encounter with Batman) whines to Gordon about how he and
Flass should be in charge of the taskforce, saying they’ve put more crooks away
than anyone else. Gordon, clearly already tired of hearing about this, yells at
him that he’s not going to reward his behavior. He’s furious he has to waste
officers chasing Batman, a man that’s been a shadow for a while now, when they
could be used to stop Rupert Thorne’s takeover of the Narrows. Bullock is
insistent that the men won’t follow ‘her’ but Gordon insists that his people
will follow the chain of command, even Bullock. We never learn if Bullock has a
sexist, racist, or homophobic reason for not liking Montoya, or he’s just
jealous she’s a better cop. Anyway, we enter Montoya’s taskforce briefing
already in progress. Montoya polls the cops about what they know about Batman.
They’ve got a rough idea of his patterns and territory, the works mostly
between10 and 4 and is seen largely in the East End of Gotham. His main targets
have been muggers and dope peddlers. Another officer, Corrigan adds that Batman
isn’t scared of the police. As this discussion goes on, Bullock whines again
about Montoya, Flass tells him to just bide his time while Flass thinks of something.
Montoya makes a crack about how Batman has put a dozen cops in the hospital in
the last month, not counting Flass and Bullock. Annoyed, Bullock asks what the
actual plan is. Montoya says they’re going to start by casting a wide net.
GCPD starts a wide undercover
operation through the East End of Gotham. They stage various crimes, muggings
mostly, in the hopes it’ll draw Batman out. Batman, though, is smarter than
that, letting most of the fake crimes go uninterrupted. He stops one fake
mugging by hanging two cops by their ankles with his grapple gun, I assume he
had a grudge against these two for some reason. Of the four decoy teams, just
number four ran into Batman but they didn’t see him, exactly. Montoya is
annoyed she didn’t think to put cops on the roofs, but Corrigan points out that
Batman would have spotted people up there. She decides that tomorrow they’re
upping the stakes.
The next night they staged a
high-speed chase, with fake gunfire and everything. Batman pulls in to
investigate. The cops immediately jump on him, the fake crooks in the lead car
switching from their blanks to live rounds. They stop and pepper the Batmobile
with gunshots, but the bullets don’t even dent it. He rams the fake criminal’s
car and keeps going. GCPD tries to cut
him off with SWAT vans but he shows off the Batmobile’s thrusters and rams
though them. He blows past a news stand, kicking up papers that blind the
following cops and cause them to hit a hydrant. Eel O’Brian, the
reporter/photographer from last time, is able to get shots of the chaos as he
was listening to the police scanner.
After that debacle, Harvey Dent
takes some jabs at Jessop, pointing out that the police taskforce is a waste of
taxpayer money and is apparently not up to the task it was created to do. In
his office, Gordon gets a call from Jessop who screams at him for what
happened. Jessop yells at Gordon that he wants good headlines, as that’s the
whole reason Gordon got the Commissioner position, to make good press. He hangs
up before Gordan can get a word in. Gordon goes to get a fresh cup of coffee.
He enters the conference room and just sees Batman, standing there, examining
their Bat-Board. He drops his coffee cup
in shock before pulling his gun. Gordon chases Batman up to the roof top but
Batman easily out runs him, leaping from the building and grappling hook swings
away. Later, Gordon tells Montoya about the incident. He says that he’s trying
to fix GCPD, root out the crooked cops and all that, but he’ll only be able to
do that if he’s not fired or demoted by Jessop. So, they need to catch Batman.
If they don’t he’ll be sent to Marshall Island and Montoya gets to go back to
being treated like the coffee girl. She points out that it’s only been a week,
they just need more time, but Gordon says that the Bat is too smart for their
tactics, they need to try something else. Montoya thinks about it and wonders
if maybe they can use his brains against him, get inside his head.
GCPD brings in Dr. Harleen Quinzel
to get a psychological profile on the Batman. She starts analyzing Batman, name
dropping her former mentor Dr. Crane as she does so. Gordon asks how Montoya
knows her, and she says she met Harleen through Barbara. She’s Barbara’s go-to
psychologist expert witness. She and Montoya met at the GCPD Christmas party
and kept in touch. Bullock finally asks her to cut the psycho mumbo jumbo and
give them an idea in plain English. Harleen says that she’s sure that Batman
isn’t actually after cops, they’re just in his way. He’s trying to punish
criminals, and thus, that’s the bait they use. They need a weirdo, her words,
to draw Batman out. This gives Flass an idea and he and Bullock head out.
Flass and Bullock go through the
criminals they have in lockup, settling on a pyromaniac they have who goes by
Firebug (Tom Kenny). They don’t say his name in this episode, but this version
of Firebug is credited as the Joe Rigger version if anyone is interested. Flass
initially calls him Firefly, but Firebug corrects him. He tells Flass to get
Firebug’s costume out of the evidence locker, as they’re going for a ride.
Barbara walks up as they finish loading up Firebug. She represents him and
wants to know what’s going on. Flass lies and says they’re taking him to Arkham
for a psyche evaluation and there must have been a mix up in filing, so that’s
why she wasn’t told. She warns them that he’s more dangerous than he looks, and
the crooked cops drive off.
In the building, Harleen mentions
that Barbara is meeting her and they’re getting dinner at Ginos. This is
apparently a ritzy establishment in Gotham, enough so that Gordon flat out says
she must know somebody important. Harleen teasingly says she knows too many
somebodies. She offers to have Montoya join them, but she’s on the clock but
writes Harleen a raincheck that she says she’ll hold Montoya to. Barbara bursts
in and tells her dad about Flass, Bullock and Firebug.
As Flass and Bullock drive Firebug,
Flass plays with a lighter. Once he does light it, Firebug gives a creepy
speech about hearing the people calling out to the flame and wanting to be
purged. Flass tells him to shut it. Bullock and Flass mock Firebug, but also
set up him up. They mention that they have all his gear in back, that their
trunk lock is busted so anyone can get it, and wouldn’t ya know it, they’re
having engine trouble and need to stop to have a look. While they feign looking
at the engine, Firebug grabs his stuff and runs. Seeing him scamper off, Flass
and Bullock stage the scene, Flass slashing one of their tires and has Bullock
punch him in the face so they could say Firebug attacked them and escaped.
Bullock asks if this plan, to use a costumed freak to burn down Eastside Flats,
will actually draw out Batman. Flass tells him that if it doesn’t, they’ll just
try something else while smiling evilly.
We get a brief shot of how Firebug
sees the world as he puts his goggles on. He sees a world on fire, the
buildings burning and the people as living flames moving about their lives. He
slips into a basement and mixes up the gas he uses for his tanks before using
Flass’s lighter to get the fire started. He sets the basement ablaze, a psycho
grin on his face.
Gordon and Montoya drive around
Gotham looking for Flass and Bullock. Gordon mentions that this is a classic
move by these two, doing just as much as they think they can get away with and
swearing this is the last time. Meanwhile, Batman spies the two from atop a
building. He asks Alfred if there’s anything happening on the Eastside and
Alfred tells him about the fire. He leaps into action, and Flass calls it in.
Gordon rushes over, telling Montoya that the Flats were on his beat and that a
fire there will be devastating without Flass and Bullock making it into a
warzone. He radios in and tells the cops that no one goes in until he arrives.
Unfortunately, Bullock’s got the radio, and he ignores the call. Flass leads a
SWAT team inside, telling them their orders are to shoot the costumed guys on
sight. Batman finds Firebug and the two face off, he unfortunately can’t get
close as Firebug’s got a flamethrower. He holds Batman off long enough to
escape, and then Batman is distracted fighting cops.
Outside, O’Brian is lobbying to be
let inside for pics as Montoya and Gordon arrive. He gets told the situation
and Gordon orders no one else goes in without his say so and to move the
civilians back. He goes in, telling Montoya he won’t let good cops die because
of Flass and Bullock. The gruesome twosome spot Batman in smoke and try to rush
him, but Batman dodges around them by leaping to the ceiling and holding
himself up. He finds a mother and two kids trying to get out of the building as
two cops find him and open fire on him. He dodges around their shots, knocking
them both down and directing the woman and her kids to the safest way down. He
then leaps out a window and grappling hook his way up to the upper floors.
Corrigan is rather impressed to see his flying leap. He radios Batman’s new
position to Gordon as he and Montoya find the downed SWAT guys. Gordon orders
Montoya to take the two officers down and to bring out anyone else she finds
while he goes on ahead.
Flass and Bullock find Firebug
watching the blaze from a top floor room. Flass says that Barbara (he calls her
the lady lawyer) was right that he was more dangerous than he looks. Firebug
says that he’s out of gas and tries to surrender. Flass tells Bullock that
he’ll talk about his escape if pressed. Bullock shoots Firebug, knocking him
out of a fifth or sixth floor window and onto a car. He’s obviously dead-on
impact. O’Brian gets a great shot of Bullock standing in the broken window for
the paper.
Gordon finds Batman on the top
floor and pulls his gun on him. Batman
turns and reveals he’s carrying two kids and says there’s one more inside.
Gordon grabs the third kid. Batman wants to take them down the way they came
up, but Gordon says his men may shoot at him without noticing the kids. He
instead takes them to a laundry chute; Batman asks what’s down there right as
an explosion rocks the building. Gordon says they’ll find out. Batman drops
first with his kids, then moves a big bin of laundry under the chute for Gordon
to land in. Batman runs off while his back is turned. Montoya meets with Gordon
as he comes up from the basement, he says he found a shortcut down. O’Brian comes over and asks if he saw Batman
inside, and Gordon lies and says no. He sees Bullock and Flass over by
Firebug’s body and glares.
The next day he has Flass and
Bullock in his office. He tells them he knows exactly what they did and how the
fire was their fault. He promises them that this is the last straw, and he’ll
have their badges for this. Bullock snorts and when Gordon asks him what’s
funny, Flass throws a paper on his desk with Bullock on the front page. Jessop
calls a moment later and orders Gordon to put the ‘hero’ cops he read about in
the paper in charge of the taskforce. He does add that he read that Gordon did
good work saving kids, so his job is safe for now. Flass rather smugly asks if
the call was about them when Gordon hangs up. Later, Jim, Montoya, and Barbara
hit up a bar for a drink. Barbara puts an arm on his shoulder, and he assures
her that he’s not licked yet.
This episode is the first time I
think that we get a clear picture of how Flass and Bullock’s partnership works.
Flass is clearly the brains of the two of them. He comes up with the ideas and
Bullock follows his orders. And he’s smart enough to just about always let
Bullock be the one to do the dirty work. Even when they were setting up the
fake Firebug escape, he had Bullock punch him in the face, presumably so that if
Firebug talked, he’d be able to say that Bullock forced him into that plan. He
also told Bullock to take the shot at Firebug, giving Bullock the 15 minutes of
fame as the hero cop, but also protecting himself if anyone ever starts asking
questions about the incident. Dirty, dirty cop. And obviously Bullock is too
dumb to notice how he’s always the one doing the actual crimes. Hell, flashback
to the first episode and he was the one that had to call the Penguin and let
her know what happened. Flass is an expert, it seems, on keeping Bullock
between him and actual criminal activity. It was fun seeing the cops chase
Batman and how they tried to refine their technique to catch him. He seemed to
be prepared for anything they threw at him, but it was fun to watch them
struggle. The whole ramming into their SWAT vans with his thrusters was a
particularly good move. It was interesting to see the show address one of the
bigger elephants in the room, ie how a Black man was made commissioner of GCPD
even in this more tolerant than real life, but still fairly racist 1940-50s
setting. The idea that GCPD was so corrupt that Jessop was willing to put a
Black cop in charge specifically for the good press that under him GCPD was
changing is a pretty easy one to formulate. And of course, he’d have an
automatic fall guy if Gordon couldn’t keep control of the corrupt cops at GCPD.
It was nice to see Harley Quinn again. Her namedropping Dr. Crane was a nice
easter egg. That’s the civilian ID for Batman’s villain the Scarecrow if it’s
not ringing any bells. And using her to come up with the effective but still
disastrous plan to use a costumed baddy to draw out Batman was a good choice. I
haven’t seen Harley Quinn on Max, so forgive me if that show has also
done this, but with two appearances of Harley as a shrink, she’s officially
done more psyche work than nearly all of her other appearances. Usually, they
show her doing just enough psychological work to get seduced by Joker. So,
like, one episode, usually like 10-15 minutes of screen time to show Dr.
Quinzel losing it. The whole chase through the burning building was done well
too. The smoke and chaos give a good excuse as to why the cops would open fire
on Batman without confirming civilians weren’t in the way and gave Batman an
excuse to flex his ninja skills on them. Shame that the whole thing led to
Flass and Bullock in a position of power. But we’ll see how that plays out next
time. Have a good night.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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