Thursday, August 29, 2024

Viewer Log: Batman: Caped Crusader ep 5

 A clown comes to Gotham, just not the one you're thinking of. 

Last time on Batman: Caped Crusader, the Police began a Batman hunt. It goes about as well as you think. Gordon is forced to form a taskforce to hunt Batman, much to his own irritation. It’s led by detective Montoya. They try to stage assaults to draw him in, but he doesn’t fall for it. And then they stage a car chase, but he plows right through their fake runaway car. Montoya then taps Barbara’s friend and expert psychology witness Dr. Harleen Quinzel for tips. Harleen analyzes the Bat and realizes the cops aren’t his focus, but criminals, so deduces that the best bait for Batman would be another costumed criminal like Penguin, Clayface or Catwoman. Corrupt cops Flass and Bullock release and arm, covertly, a costumed crook to do just that, a pyromaniac named Firebug. Firebug starts the Eastside Flats, a low rent apartment complex, and the place goes up fast. Batman busts in to try to get the tenants out and the cops go in to chase after Batman. Flass and Bullock corner Firebug and Flass has Bullock execute Firebug to cover up their actions. Gordon chase Batman to the top floor of the building and gets him at gunpoint but finds him saving some kids. Gordon helps and they all escape down a laundry chute back to the ground floor, Batman escaping when Gordon’s back is turned. Gordon had every intention of firing Flass and Bullock for this, but they made the front page for their ‘heroics’ taking out Firebug. So, Mayor Jessup orders Gordon to put them in charge of the Batman taskforce. He does say that for Gordon’s own heroics for saving some kids that his job is safe for now. Afterward, Gordon, Montoya and Barbara have a drink, and Gordon tells Barbara that he’s not licked yet. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Ep 5: The Stress of Her Regard

 

The episode opens with a break in at Gotham bank. Batman has the thief tied up outside the bank and he’s trying to convince Batman to split the money with him. They’re both distracted by a man dressed up as an Egyptian Pharoh walking down the street and spouting insane nonsense. Batman stops him from getting run over by a truck and the man insist that he’s Batman’s “king” and Batman will do as he says.

 

We cut to Batman researching the Pharoh in the cave with Alfred. The Pharoh is Fletcher Demming, a real estate baron that disappeared a few months ago. Batman remembers seeing him at a party a few months back and he seemed fine but is now locked up in Arkham Asylum. Alfred seems confused by this as he assumed a rich man like Demming should be able to afford better care, but Batman reveals Demming isn’t rich anymore. A few weeks ago, he started donating his fortune to various charities, and now he’s flat broke. Alfred is further confused by this as he always thought Demming was a selfish man. Batman confirms that Demming was and that something weird is going on. We cut to a prison cell where a man dressed as a clown is being tortured. He’s got his feet in a stockade while someone tickles them, making him laugh until he cries and forcing him to swear to give all his money away. A woman on the radio tells the torturer to stop and asks the man if that’s a promise. He says it is, but she doesn’t believe him and the torture resumes.

 

We cut to Barbara and Harleen getting coffee, Barbara complaining that it feels like sometimes that Gotham is past the point of saving. Harleen tells her to learn to laugh it off. When Barbara asks if that’s her professional opinion, Harleen tells her that after listening to the greed and corruption that some of her patients tell her about, she often feels like Barbara. And yes, laughing helps. She’s interrupted by Montoya arriving, saying that she saw them from outside and asks to join them. She sits down and tells Barbara she’s worried about Jim and that since Flass and Bullock took over the task force that he’s pushing himself too hard to try to prove himself. Barbara says she’ll try but she’s not sure what to say. Harleen suggests some roleplay, but the other two women shoot her down immediately. Barbara assures Montoya that her dad will get through whatever funk he’s in. The women head out, Harleen telling her to keep her chin up before she drives off.  When alone, Harleen tells Montoya that she thinks it’s sweet that Montoya’s worried about Gordon. Montoya admits to her that he’s been more of a father to her than her own ever was. Harleen suggests that they get dinner, her treat, somewhere fancy.  Montoya says she could make tomorrow night work and Harleen says it’s a date.

 

That night, Batman breaks into Demming’s old office and sees everything boxed up. He finds a contract Demming signed that would donate a further 1.5 million dollars to Westside Charities. He notes a scuffmark on the floor near a bookcase and finds the secret lock to open the door. He finds Demming’s secret Egyptian themed room. Inside he finds Demming’s checkbook, the vast majority of which have a receipt page paid to the order of Dr, Harleen Quinzel. A moment later the cops throw a tear gas grenade at him. I guess he tripped an alarm or else they expected him to investigate something weird like Demming’s situation. He throws the tear gas canister back out at them and in the smoke takes out all of the cops save Flass and Bullock, who he leaves looking like idiots.

 

We cut to Dr. Quinzel’s office as a patient, Emerson Colins, is complaining about his workers trying to unionize. He calls them Chattel and thinks they owe him respect just for giving them work. The alarm goes off and the Emerson says that he felt like his blood pressure dropped 20 points just talking to her. Harleen says that she doesn’t think the sessions are working, hitting a button on her chair and locking Emerson’s wrists down. She takes off her glasses and says she’s tried to show him the humanity in his employees and family but it’s not sinking in. So, she’s decided to try a new tactic. We fade out and then back in, revealing that Harleen is the one holding the wealthy men hostage in cells and torturing them. She’s also got a full Harlequin Jester costume she dons, ya know, for vibes. She asks her assistant how one of her patients is doing. We see the man writing lines “I’ve been a bad, bad boy,” on chalkboards. When he complains, Harlequin adds another 10,000 lines. She has another man endlessly searching Christmas lights for a bad bulb and treating another like a big baby forced to eat vegetables until he cries. She checks on Emerson, who is now dressed up like a king and strapped to a chair. When he mouths off, she calls on the big baby, Mr. Belsky, and gives him a bat, telling him he’ll get desert after making Emerson agree to give up all his earthly possessions. She also rather creepily says that kings don’t rule this court, the Jester does.  I do like the little in joke that Belsky is doing this all for some puddin’.

 

Meanwhile, Batman is searching news articles for more million and billionaires that gave up their fortunes suddenly. Alfred finds another in his own search, Jorge Campos, died 3 years ago after giving up all his money to women’s shelters. Alfred asks who could possibly be convincing Gotham’s greediest men to give up their possessions, and (assumedly) then make them commit suicide to cover it up. Batman shows Alfred the check book and suggest maybe their psychiatrist.

 

Barbara heads over to Arkham Asylum to meet with Mr. Demming. She’s his court appointed public defender. Demming seems to be stable, at first, but then yells at Barbara to stop calling him Mister as he is a Pharoh. Barbara suggests getting a private psych evaluation to determine if he’s a threat to himself or others. When she namedrops Harleen Quinzel, Demming mutters Harley Quinn before having a panic attack and trying to escape the asylum. He makes it up to the roof and nearly jumps off, but Barbara catches him. Side note, for a fat guy and a woman in heels Demming and Barbara run extremely fast. She has the orderlies give him a sedative and she asks who the “she” he keeps screaming about is, but all he gets out is Har-har-har before passing out.

 

The next day, Barbara meets with Harleen at the courthouse. Harleen is excited to tell Barbara about asking Montoya out, but Barbara is all business today. She asks about Fletcher Demming, but Harleen plays dumb, saying she heard the name but doesn’t know him personally. She diverts Barbara’s attention by asking what Montoya likes and getting details on her.  

 

At GCPD, Barbara visits Jim, saying she brought him lunch. He thanks her and she asks how he’s doing. He says that the mayor seems to think Batman is the only criminal in town. He’s got cases pouring in and all of his people are stuck helping his two worst cops trying to catch a black-and-gray ghost. He notes Barbara is only half listening and asks what’s wrong. She asks what you do when the evidence points you to a place you really don’t want it to. He says it’s better to know as then you can do something about it. She tells him Montoya says he should take a day off, he knows but he also says that isn’t happening any time soon. She kisses his cheek and leaves him be.

 

Barbara heads over to Harleen’s office and tries to knock but finds the door ajar. The room has been ransacked and when she runs to the window, she just barely sees Batman running off across the rooftops. She looks through Harleen’s appointment book and sees Demming’s name in it, she’s clearly hurt her friend lied to her face. She sees a page torn out and uses a pencil to get a rubbing of what was written on the missing page “William Hastings” and his address.

 

She drives out to Hasting’s mansion, which is on the outskirts of Gotham on a cliffside. She meets William Hastings at the door and tries to talk to him about Demming and how both of them were patients of Dr. Quinzel, but Hastings cuts her off, saying this is an invasion of privacy and shuts the door in her face. Barbara leaves but pulls over a short drive from the house and doubles back. She tries to get in one of the windows and meets Batman, who asks her what she’s doing. She asks him the same question. He admits that he thinks Dr. Quinzel is brainwashing some of her patients and is here to get evidence. Barbara wants to help, as Harleen is her friend and if she’s hurting people she needs to stop her. Batman tells her to go back to the city and grappling hooks to the roof.

 

Meanwhile, Harleen and Montoya are having dinner and flirting hard. They’re interrupted by Harleen getting a call on the restaurant phone. She answers that she understands and will be right there. She tells Montoya that there’s an emergency with a patient and she has to go. She tells Montoya to meet her at Hopper’s later and they’ll pick up where they left off. She kisses Montoya and then leaves. This is how you know this isn’t the real 40s-50s, as I’m sure someone in the restaurant would have had a stroke at seeing two women kissing in public.

 

Back at the house, Batman has made it inside and finds most of Hasting’s valuables are also boxed up and ready for donation. He makes his way to the basement and finds all the wealthy men in their cages. Barbara also makes it inside and sees Harleen meeting with Hastings who tells her that Batman is in the playpen. Batman tries to figure out the controls when Harlequin comes in, saying that she knew Batman would eventually come for her after she profiled him for the police. She is his type. She asks him how many crooks will he need to put away to make himself feel better. She skillfully unleashes her patients and tells them that whoever stops Batman will make her very happy. Batman fights off the patients but gets forced into a cell. She drops the cell door and gases him. She says she doesn’t want to kill Batman but needs a head start so his hero complex won’t bite her. She sets the building to blow, saying Batman has five minutes to figure out how to escape. And maybe next time they’ll unpack some of his childhood trauma.   

 

Barbara just barely escape’s Harleen and her goons notice before slipping into the playpen.  She sees Batman in a cell, grabs a bat and tries to break him free. As they drive off, Hastings asks if Harleen is going to miss Gotham. She wipes the jester makeup from her face and tells him to just drive. She sees Barbara’s car, though, and orders him to turn around. She finds Barbara trying to break the glass (she did crack it at this point) and the explosives set to go off in less than a minute. Harleen tells her to run but Barbara isn’t leaving Batman. Harleen tries to free him, but Barbara broke the door. The explosives go off and Batman drops with his cell. The women run, but the whole house collapses. Harleen drops but Barbara grabs her wrist. Harleen says to let her drop, but Barbara won’t. She says she’s not going to prison or Arkham. The board Barbara is holding onto breaks, and they drop. Batman swings in, having freed himself somehow, and grabs Barbara. Harleen drops into the water below. Batman swings them onto the cliff side and starts to chastise Barbara for being reckless because she was Harleen’s friend. She tells him to shut up and let her grieve as she starts to cry. Sirens blare and Batman runs off, but not before telling Barbara that he’s sorry.

 

At Hoppers, Montoya is still waiting when a phonebooth starts ringing. She answers, and it’s Harleen. She says she needs to leave town for a bit but will look her up when she gets back. She asks that Montoya look after Barbara while she’s gone and says goodbye.

 

I want to start by saying that, regardless of what you think of the execution, the idea to introduce Harleen “Harley Quinn” Quinzel not only as a psychologist but as a villain in and of herself without the Joker was a big swing. I personally think it works. In nearly all of Harley’s appearances she’s either too mentally broken herself or playing up a ditzy persona to show off her intelligence, so this version of her that’s driving others to insanity with psychology tactics is a fun twist on her formula. I will say that her victims make me wonder if she truly wanted to help Bruce or if she was planning to have him join the ranks of her broken minions if he kept up his sessions. Hard to tell since she seems to be a genuinely good psychologist most of the time, she just had her own little mental breakdown after treating some genuinely horrible patients for years. That and it’s usually canon that even when Bruce is at his most useless in his public persona, he’s usually Gotham’s single biggest charity donator. Some folks have pointed out that using fears on her victims make her seem like the Scarecrow, but I think if Dr. Crane makes an appearance, they’ll find ways to differentiate the master from the apprentice. And that’s assuming Harleen doesn’t end up in Joker’s orbit whenever he shows up. I have to imagine that the writers had to wrack their brains for a while to connect her to clowns without the Clown Prince of crime. I think the angle they settled on works, as a sort of anti-hero punishing the 1% for their crimes against society and their loved ones. The line about ‘the jester’ ruling the court was great. I feel bad for both Montoya and Barbara in this one, as this is the first Gotham criminal connected to both. Montoya is being swept up in a romance, and while Barbara wants to be happy for them but has to deal with the mounting evidence against Harleen. Batman is clearly having a harder time operating now that he’s a known force in Gotham, with GCPD tracking his movements in the city and criminals like Harleen being able to prep for his eventual butting into their business. The price of fame, I suppose. I did like that brief moment where Batman says he’s sorry for Barbara. Usually in private or with the costume on, Batman has been totally closed off emotionally, so him realizing that Barbara just needed to hear that little bit of empathy from him is a step forward for him, me thinks. So yeah, a good episode. I’m genuinely shocked that Harley Quinn can work without Joker involved even in her origin. Have a good night!

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