Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 25

A clash is brewing in the forgotten Savage Land. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, the X-Men hit the big screen. The interdimensional producer/director Mojo teleported most of the team, (Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Storm, Rogue, and Wolverine) to his dimension Mojoworld to star in a series of his new brainless action television shows. He brought them in to replace his previous media darling Longshot. After everyone had a 3–5-minute little action scene, Jean used her powers to disrupt Mojo’s control room, and Longshot freed them to get his timeslot back. The team beat Mojo seemingly by crushing him with his control room and were sent home.  Mojo survived, though, and showed us what’s up with Charles and Magneto. The two had finally reached the outskirts of Magneto’s citadel. They also watched another of Magneto’s former Mutates, a humanoid pterosaur named Sauron, kidnapping a Savage Land woman. Magneto assessed Sauron as a being so powerful he’d be difficult to beat even if they had their powers. So, the journey is almost over but the hardest part is to come. Enough recap.  Let’s get to it.

 

We start in the Savage Land, Charles and Magneto are climbing cliff. They’re trying to get back to Charles’ plane in the hope they can call for help. They’re attacked by a group of Sky Riders, Savage Land humans astride Pterosaur mounts. They’re able to drive them off with a few well-placed rock throws and make it up the cliff.  They’re ambushed at the plane by the Mutates, Amphibious the frog man, Barbarous the four-armed man, Vertigo the mesmer and a white wolf man. They try to fight them off but, well, they’re two late middle-aged men against four people with superpowers. It doesn’t go well for them. They’re grabbed by Barbarous and Wolfie, and Vertigo uses her mental powers to knock them out. Huh, it’s almost like they should have attacked them as a group from the start or something.

 

Back in the US, the X-Men had gotten a message from Morph that sounds like he wants to come back but is under threat by someone, so Scott, Jean, and Logan are flying the Blackbird to check it out. I should note that it sounds like three separate soundbites cut together to make this message, but this episode does happen in 1993, they might not even know that you can splice audio together like that. They find Morph in Branson, Missouri, performing in a production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde under the alias Xavier Murphy. Morph is clearly using his powers to enhance his performance, shapeshifting on stage from Jekyll to Hyde. The X-Men follow him backstage. When they find Morph, he tries to play dumb, but they aren’t buying it and ask him why he called them. He tries to warn them about Mr. Sinister wanting Scott and Jean and how he has the professor, but Sinister, watching from outside the tent, activates a shock chip in Morph’s brain to make him compliant. Wolverine is ready to fight but he’s grabbed by Gorgeous George and Slab of the Nasty Boys. Mr. Sinister tells his team to be careful when they acquire Summers and Ms. Grey for him.

 

In the Savage Land, the Mutates are leading a hypnotized Charles and Magneto back to the citadel. Unbeknownst to them they’re being tracked. The pair watching them are Ka-Zar of the Savage Land and his Sabretooth tiger companion Zabu. Yes, he is Blonde Tarzan, that’s like his whole schtick. Ka-Zar wonders aloud if they could use the Mutates desire to destroy Magneto against them before he and Zabu run off to prepare. Ka-Zar finds a herd of Triceratops, and the two startle the beasts into a stampede and lure them towards the Mutates. They scatter when the Triceratops charge, and Ka-Zar leads Charles and Magneto away. Once they’re away from the Mutates, Charles tries to thank Ka-Zar but he grabs Charles by the shirt and demands to know who he is and why he brought the Devil Magneto back to this land.  He says that Magneto’s Mutates are the source of all the trouble in the Savage Land lately and it’s their fault his wife was kidnapped. His wife is Shanna the She-Devil, the blonde Savage Land woman kidnapped by Sauron last time. Charles stops Ka-Zar from beating on Magneto, saying that whatever his past crimes, Magneto isn’t to blame for this. He says the Mutates serve a new “master” and Ka-Zar thinks he must mean Sauron. He tells them that Sauron is kidnapping Savage Landers and bringing them to the Citadel for some reason. He’s hesitant to side with Magneto, but Magneto points out he doesn’t have much choice. Ka-Zar swears that Charles will suffer his vengeance if Magneto betrays him again. They begin to sketch out a plan to break into the Citadel.

 

In Branson, Scott demands to know what Sinister has done to the professor. Sinister isn’t talking and orders his men to grab them. Gorgeous George wraps them up in his stretchy goo hands before they can react. Sinister starts to gloat, but Wolverine freed himself from Slab and slashed Sinister’s side with his claws. Sinister regenerates and then blasts Logan, knocking him into a tree and knocking him out. Jean uses the distraction to telekinetically take off Scott’s shades and he starts blasting the Nasty Boys and then Sinister. He hits the mad scientist with his eye beams a few times before Ruckus uses his sonic shout to knock him, Jean and Morph out. Sinister thanks his minion and tells the X-Men that they escaped him once, but they won’t be so fortunate again.

 

Sinister has his men bring the X-Men to his plane. He tells them to make their guests comfortable. Wolverine wakes up and says he doesn’t want to be a burden and attacks his captor, Hairbag. A scuffle breaks out again, Sinister blasting Wolverine back and ordering Slab to get Jean to the plane. Wolverine tackles Slab and tries to free Jean, but this Jean is Morph, who hits Wolverine with a branch to knock him down. The Nasty Boys and Sinister get Jean on the plane and they take off. Scott chases after them and tries to shoot the plane down but he can’t get a good look at it. Logan tells him to take it easy, they’ll find her no matter what it takes.  

 

Back in the Savage Land, Magneto, Charles, Ka-Zar and Zabu take a raft towards the Citadel. Ka-Zar calls it a blight upon his land, but Magneto says that it wasn’t meant to be. It was supposed to be a symbol of his great ambition for this land. Charles points out that the ambitions of powerful men usually bring strife and misery to those they’d improve. They’re attacked by a plesiosaur that smashes their raft, but Ka-Zar gets on it’s back and drives it away. They reach the shore of the citadel and Magneto reveals a hidden passage to his lab. They enter it and are met by the Mutates and their soldiers. Magneto is shocked by their presence, Amphibious says their master found that passage long ago. Ka-Zar and Zabu bolt immediately, hoping they can find another way to save Shanna. Barbarous wants to go after him but he’s told to stop by… a short man with a huge head. Charles asks if he’s the master, but no, this is Brainchild. He serves as the master’s steward in his absence. He orders the two chained to the wall.

 

As they’re wrapped in vines, the Master, Mr. Sinister, arrives. Jean is so relieved to see the professor is alive, and Magneto claims to be less than impressed after finally meeting Sinister. Sinister gloats about the upgrades he’d made to the Citadel. He explains that he’d made a device using a tissue sample from Sauron that drains the power from any Mutant in the Savage Land. One of Sauron’s powers is to draw energy and power from people he touches, like a psionic vampire, so this tracks. Sinister and his people have devices that protect them from these effects. He admits that he didn’t know the device would somehow return Xavier’s ability to walk and he hopes Charles enjoyed it while he could. He tells them that he’s after their ‘essence’ but cuts off when he senses Morph going for a gun and warning his men to do something about it. Hairbag tackles him. Mr. Sinister asks him why he keeps fighting Sinister’s control. Morph says that he’s free of it. Sinister seems rather bored by this and tells him he’ll suffer the same fate as Xavier then. Morph says he’d rather die an X-Man than live as his slave. Mr. Sinister tells Charles that he’ll now contact the X-Men and bring them here. Charles refuses, but Sauron then arrives and says he doesn’t have a choice. Sauron uses his hypnotic stare to try to control Charles’ mind. Charles fights him but Sauron is extremely powerful. The others worry that this’ll break Charels’ mind, and Magneto adds the most powerful Mutants on Earth will avenge him for this. Charles finally breaks and he asks for his orders.

 

Back at the mansion, Charles contacts the X-Men via Cerebro. He tells them to meet him at the following coordinates before the transmission cuts out. Beast notes that he seemed… odd and asks Gambit to trace the single. He says he’ll do it in a minute, the Blackbird just landed. Beast and Cyclops tell each other at the same time they need to talk. The X-Men head out, realizing they’re headed into a trap as they know Charles was being controlled. Wolverine seems to be itching for a fight. Beast wonders how anyone could survive out in the Savage Land. Cyclops doesn’t know but he tells the team to brace themselves, they’re going in.

 

This was an excellent penultimate episode of the season. Most of the episodes this season hinted at Mr. Sinister’s plans being the overarching plot. He lured Charles and Magneto to the Savage Land to take them off the board for a while and ultimately capture them to lead the X-Men to his stronghold where they won’t have access to their powers. A little convoluted, as I noted above, he could have caught them day one if his Mutates didn’t go after them one at a time like they did for most of their episodes, but it works. I suppose you could take his not capturing them right away as a sign of his contempt. They’re without their powers in a land of dinosaurs, obviously his superhuman soldiers will catch them eventually. It was interesting to see Ka-Zar in the X-Men, I honestly forgot he would make an appearance. As noted above, he’s essentially Marvel’s Tarzan, being a white man that got stuck in a jungle only to become de facto king of the beasts. Though, the TV version implies he and his wife Shanna were born in the Savage Land where in the comics they’re marooned there until they make it their home. He’s strong, fast, and has a strong connection to the animals of the Savage Land. Him running away to fight another day doesn’t look great but I suppose that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day and all that. So, Magneto, Charles, and Jean are in Mr. Sinister’s hands. The X-Men are on their way, are expecting a trap, but don’t realize they’ll be without their powers once they enter this piece of an ancient, forgotten world.  This is shaping up to be a hell of a finale.  See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 24

 Mojo is gross looking... No I have nothing else to say. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, we saw what happens when you push a kind man too far. Beast had been helping a doctor friend of his work on a treatment to restore the sight of a blind young woman named Carly. He was quite taken with her, and she seemed to like him, but Hank really couldn’t pursuit anything with her due to his appearance and the fact her Father was a bigot. When Carly was kidnapped by the Friends of Humanity for associating with him, Beast went berserk, hunting the group down and attacking their base single handedly. Meanwhile, Logan infiltrated the group. He’d wanted to stick it to the FoH for a while, but Jean had insisted trying a light touch this time. So, he faked being attacked by a Mutant, told Graydon how much he hated Mutants, and it was all to learn a particular piece of information. Namely that Graydon Creed hails from Canada. The other X-Men arrive, having been called by both teammates independently, and activate the hologram projector Logan told them to bring. It played the image and relevant data of one Sabretooth aka Graydon Creed, Sr. Finding out their leader is the son of a Mutant caused the FoH to abandon him as Graydon shrieked at the ghostly image of Sabretooth that he is NOT his father and shooting at it. After things calmed down, Beast admitted his feelings for Carly but said they couldn’t be together due to prejudice against Mutants. He told her to carry his love and hope the world can change. Her bigot of a father showed that was possible, as when they’re reunited, he thanked Dr. McCoy by name and the two men shook hands. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open on a blonde man with a mullet battling alien monsters in a futuristic city. He escapes them and then out run some security robots and then does a bunch of other cool action stuff before it’s revealed to be the title sequence for Longshot, a TV series. We’re then introduced to Mojo, an obese alien monster that walks around on cybernetic legs that resemble a scorpion.  He’s screaming in rage and calling for his assistant Domo. When Domo asks what’s wrong, we learn that Mojo is a producer/director of Longshot and their ratings are in the toilet. He screams at the titular Longshot that his action figures aren’t sell and threatening with physical harm if he doesn’t do something about it. Longshot tells Mojo he’s a disgusting monster and there’s no way Mojo can replace him as he’s already abused every actor in the universe. Longshot and his entourage stormed out. Domo gives Mojo some Pepto for his indigestion and he asks if they have a replacement. Domo suggests a group from a primitive, backwater dimension that they don’t usually bother with, the X-Men. Mojo is instantly enamored with the idea, thinking that he’s making money on them just standing there. He orders the X-Men brought to him.

 

We cut to Scott and Jean shopping for a new TV for the mansion. Turns out Jubilee… broke the last one. Their shopping experience is interrupted by Mojo appearing on every screen in the store. Mojo tells them that he’s been following his career with great interest and is willing to offer them a lifetime contract. Scott and Jean try to leave, Mojo gets pissed and starts blasting them with electricity. Scott starts eyebeaming TV’s, but Mojo keeps on electrocuting him. The commotion draws Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, and Beast over as well. With most of the X-Men gathered, Mojo decides that’s good enough and orders his assistant Spiral to grab them and get them into wardrobe. Spiral, a six-armed warrior woman phases into their dimension through the TV’s and teleports everyone away.

 

The team arrive in a stadium on Mojoworld and are forcibly changed into their costumes. Mojo is already singing the group’s praises, saying that they’re already putting Longshot to shame and that he’ll never work in their dimension again.  Longshot, watching from just out of sight, is not happy to hear this. Cyclops tells Mojo they have ten seconds to send them back. Mojo ignores that comment and tells the X-Men are going to entertain his studio audience and the trillions watching at home or die.  Storm and Cyclops try to tell him no, but Mojo tells them that they need to increase his ratings or he’ll cancel the show and the actors permanently. He starts the first series, teleporting Storm and Cyclops away.

 

They’re put on a speedboat and get chased through a watery city by fighter copters. They’re able to dodge and blast their pursuiters for a bit but the boat is heavily damaged in the chase and Cyclops is nearly knocked out from the fumes. Cyclops and Storm are defeated, it seemed and put into a glass display. Mojo’s ratings are going through the roof, and he’s overjoyed. He tells Spiral in the control room to cue up show 2. Longshot overhears Mojo’s scream and that seems to give him an idea. The next show begins, Rogue Star, starring Rogue and Beast.

 

Rogue and Beast are placed in a space fighter and are chased by a huge warship. Rogue dodges around the big warship but it launches a missile at them that lodges in their hull. The controls get stuck and put them on courses to hit a nearby star. And to make matters worse a bunch of monster bugs. Beast and Rogue fight the things that looks a little like Broodlings, but one open a hatch and Beast gets sucked out into space just before the ship hits the star. Both Rogue and Beast are put on display as well. Mojo calls for show three to begin.

 

Jean and Wolverine are put in “I Dream of Jean.” No, it has nothing to do with I Dream of Jeannie, besides the title. They’re teleported to a city and Wolverine is climbing the side of a building. Jean calls out to him that Mojo is controlling all of this and so long as they’re ‘entertaining’ he won’t hurt them. Her speech is interrupted by a robot approaching her before transforming into the Punisher… I mean a guy in a skull T-shirt, who shoots at her. Wolverine leaps into the building to dodge some rubble and ends up fighting robot that take on the image off Gladiator, (Shi’ar Warrior, frenemy of the X-Men), Berserker (friend of the X-Men) and some grey alien guy. Logan fights and destroys two of them as Jean keeps fighting the skull shirt guy... Freddie… Fortress. Jean realizes that this whole thing is just super futuristic trash TV and that the electronics involved in TV can be overloaded with psychic energy.  She finds Spiral’s mind and starts ripping the control room apart with her powers. Mojo starts screaming for her to do something. Longshot slips into the control room and flips the switch to free the X-Men from the stasis glass. Why? To get them out of his timeslot. The X-Men are freed, and they do battle with Mojo, dropping control room on to him, and freeing them.

 

The X-Men are teleported back to the electronics store and Scott asks for someone to explain what the heck just happened. Back on Mojoworld, it’s revealed that while the audience is gone and the show is over, Mojo survived the crash. He immediately tries to get Longshot to agree to start a new show with him but gets distracted by a “Jungle Picture” playing on one of the monitors. We shift over to the Savage Land and see a Pterosaur man flying around and fighting a blonde woman. We’re shown Xavier and Magneto, who have just reached Magneto’s citadel. They hear the woman’s scream and Charles wants to help. But Magneto stops him from going to her aid. He says the Pterosaur man is Sauron, and that his powers would make him a powerful foe even if they had their powers. They watch as Sauron hypnotizes the woman and then flies off with her.

 

I don’t have that much to say about this episode. It feels like filler, which it very much is. Mojo is just an irritating show executive, screaming 90s television catchphrases and studio lingo for 20 minutes. The episode is basically just three action set pieces and then everyone is freed. Easy breezy. The concept of interdimensional TV is neat, but they don’t really do anything with it. There’s just no meat on this episode’s bone, which is ironic given how girthy Mojo is. Shame Jubilee had to miss this episode; she’d have probably loved being on TV for a bit. The final minutes with Charles and Magneto are short but it does hint that they’re nearly finished with their journey. They’ve reached Magneto’s citadel, so if they can get inside and get to the communications room, they can finally call for help. Sauron being there is expected, he is a pterosaur and the Savage Land is where you’d find one, but still serious complication. If he’s not the single most powerful Mutate in the Savage Land while Magneto and Charles are de-powered, it’s because his ‘boss’ is in the citadel. We’ve reached the penultimate episode next time, we’ll see why Magneto and Charles were lured here by Mr. Sinister. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 23

 Wolverine is crafty and Beast is a berserker, what's the world coming too?

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Rogue was haunted by a blonde. Mystique, in an attempt to get Rogue to remember the past that Charles Xavier had repressed, took on the guise of a blonde woman and stalked Rogue. This caused a psychological break in Rogue, making her see this Blonde as a ghost and goblin chasing her. Ultimately, Mystique leads Rogue to the hospital room of Carol Danvers, reveals herself to by Rogue’s adoptive mother and touches Rogue to trigger her memory. Rogue remembers her past, how she put her first boyfriend in a coma, her father disowning her, and meeting Mystique in disguise. Eventually, Mystique and her Brotherhood of Mutants faced off against Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers. She convinces Rogue to grab onto Ms. Marvel and hang on. This caused Rogue to drain Ms. Marvel’s powers permanently, but also lodged her mind in Rogue’s subconscious. Ms. Marvel attempts to exert control over Rogue and flies off with Mystique to get her revenge. Storm chases them, but it’s Jean using Cerebro that saves the day. She projects her mind into Rogue’s and the two successfully repress Ms. Marvel’s mind and get Rogue back in control. Rogue tells Mystique to buzz off, as she now recognizes that Mystique was just using her. She later visits Ms. Marvel in the hospital and it’s hinted that she might be waking up. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Beast aka Dr. Hank McCoy doing some medical consulting with his friend Alec Bohlson at a local hospital. Alan thanks Hank for the assistance on the patient he’s working with, and Hank says it’s a group effort. As Hank is looking through a microscope, a few other doctors come in and look… judgingly at Hank, but Alec waves them off. He asks Hank if they should look in on their patient and Hank agrees. We’re then introduced to Carly, a young blind woman that Hank is hoping they’ll be able to return her sight to. Carly seems fond of Hank, and he blushes when she asks if he’s there too. Impressive given his fur. Alec tells her that her tests are looking good, and she should be ready for her surgery. She asks Hank what it’ll be like to see and if they really think the surgery will work. Hank assures her that Alec and he have been working on this for a while and they’re very confident. The consultation is interrupted as the building shakes and a fire breaks out. Hank quickly uses his agility and strength to get Carly and Alec out of the hospital via a window. They’re then met by the rash of the X-Men Universe, Graydon Creed and the Friends of Humanity. They obviously set off a bomb to drag Beast out and accuse him of laying his filthy Mutant hands-on Carly. Hank passes Carly off to Alec and asks him to get her out of there while he deals with the FoH. He first tries to talk them down, but when they won’t listen to his lecture on the importance of Mutation, he throws them all like ragdolls. It’s like they forget he’s got literal superpowers. The cops arrive and the FoH run off.

 

Back at the Mansion, Wolverine is absolutely disgusted to see the FoH has attacked a hospital for the blind. He wants to tear into them, but Jean reminds him that X-Men don’t seek revenge. He asks if that means just letting them get away with causing trouble, to which she says no but they can’t just attack them. The group’s bread and butter is framing Mutants like rampaging monsters, after all. Wolverine begrudgingly agrees to not causing a scene, but he’s still going after them and if they can’t find a non-violent solution to breaking up the group, he’s putting at least a few of them in the ground. Jean wonders aloud where the Professor is, as they could really use his mediation skills.

We cut to the Savage Land. Charles and Magneto are wading through a swamp as Charles talks about this not being on the list of what he wanted to do if he ever got the use of his legs back. They’re suddenly caught in a net that raises up and holds them in the air. They’re attacked by more of the Mutates, led by a humanoid frog named Amphibious. Charles tells him to release them. Amphibious ignores the command, saying that he’d feed them to the river beasts, but he has orders before knocking them out with a ray gun. The men awake on Amphibious’ raft, the frog man saying that the Mutates will never serve their creator again and that the Savage Land’s new ruler has given them great power. Several Plesiosaurs attack the raft and Charles and Magneto jump back into the water to escape. They make it to shore and free their hands, but both men are exhausted.

 

Returning to New York we see Logan in civilian clothes, muttering to himself that he will try this delicate technique. He makes a whole bunch of noise outside an FoH base before knocking himself to the ground. When the guards come out to look, he tells them he’d been fighting a filth Mutant. They bring him inside and Logan smirks to himself.

 

Hank returns to the hospital and asks Alec how Carly is. He says she’s fine, but after the FoH attack yesterday, the Hospital Board has voted to bar Hank from continuing his work with Alec. Hank asks if there isn’t someway around this, but Alec also reveals that Carly’s father is a bigot and is railing at the Hospital director to keep the Mutant from his daughter. Hank is willing to do what’s best for Carly and leave but wants to say goodbye first. He visits her room, and she recognizes him as he opens the door, from his aftershave’s smell. She says she’d been worried about him since the anti-mutant group attacked. Hank is a bit shocked to learn she knew he was a Mutant… but bro, you’re big and hairy, she can notice that by touch. Still, he’s touched that she knows, and it doesn’t bother her. He tells her that he can’t be there at her surgery, lying that he has another case. He promises that he’ll be thinking of her every moment she’s in surgery and kisses the back of her head before leaving. As he does, Carly whispers that it was him that she wanted to see.

 

At the Mansion, Hank looks through his family photo album. We see how he was born a normal little boy before his powers manifested some time in his teens and from then on, he was blue and furry. He tosses the album aside and sighs. Jean brings him some lunch, but he says he’s not hungry. He looks in a mirror before screaming in rage and throwing the album at it, shattering the glass. He asks why this had to happen to him and why he couldn’t just be normal.  Jean reminds him to think about what good his powers bring to the world. Hank asks her “what good?” lamenting the fact that he’s one of the most obvious Mutants out there and that because of that he’s had to cut off ties to his entire family since being near him could put them at risk. He’s had to forego relationships with his parents and siblings, and now the woman he loves. Jean admits she didn’t know Carly meant that much to him. He says that it was easier when he was wrapped up in a project, as he could pretend that what other people thought didn’t bother him. Jean asks what Carly thinks of him, and he thinks she’s fond of him, but he won’t let her get close to him and get hurt. Jean tells him that he really should let Carly decide that.  

Hank arrives at the hospital as Alec starts snipping the bandages from Carly’s eyes. He initially tells him that he shouldn’t be there, but Carly recognizes his after shave and is excited that he’d made it. One of the orderlies asks if they should remove Hank, but Alec says that the doctor that invented the procedure should get to see it completed. He snips the last bandage and Carly see’s Hank. I’m willing to bet her favorite color is officially blue, despite not knowing that word connects to Beast’s fur just yet. She says he’s beautiful, and when Alec asks about himself, she says he’s not bad. Her father then comes in and starts screaming at Beast to get out. He says he’ll be in touch with her, but her dad says she will not. Alec tries to stick up for Hank, but Hank decides it’s better to just leave. He says that Carly can see, so they can at least agree today is a joyous day. Outside the room, Hank says he’s not sure if he’ll ever get through to people like that and asks Alec to give Carly the present he got for her. Alec goes back in and immediately screams for Hank. Inside, somehow without their notice, someone had attacked Carly’s father, knocking him and the nurse out and kidnapping Carly. Hank is furious at her being taken. Hank wakes up Carly’s father by pouring water over him. He starts accusing Hank of causing this, but Hank’s had all he can stand and he can’t stands no more. He shakes the man, saying that ignorant Mutant haters like him are the ones that took Carly and he’s going to get her back. Hank storms off and Carly’s dad chases after him.

 

At the FoH base, Logan has already made his way up to Graydon, charming the Mutant hater with his good ol’ Canadian boy smile. He introduces himself as John Logan and claims he punched the Mutant that attacked him before he was knocked out. He says all the right things about hating Mutants and calling for their extermination. He suddenly points out to Graydon that he seems familiar. He claims to have known a Creed about 20 years ago, and that he looks like he could be Graydon’s dad. Graydon, clearly nervous, asks for more. Logan says the Creed he knew was a Coal miner out in Kentucky. Graydon visibly relaxes and let slips that that couldn’t be his father, as his family is from Canada. Logan mutters to himself that he is too.

 

Beast and Carly, I’ll call him Carl, race through town. Beast radios into the team and asks Jubilee where the FoH base Morph sent her to is. She tells him it’s at the abandoned veterans building and he tells the X-Men to meet him there. Before Jean, Cyclops and Jubilee can leave, they get a radio call from Wolverine. He’s whispering to not draw attention to himself, but he tells the team he’s also at the FoH building. Cyclops tells him about Carly being captured and he promises to find Beast’s girl. He asks them to grab the portable Cerebro hologram generator and a file on an ‘old buddy’ of his.

 

We shift to Graydon interrogating Carly. He demands she tell him about Beast, and when she refuses to talk, he accuses her of being a Mutant lover and how Mutants and everyone that associates with them need to die. Beast brakes into their base and starts tearing through FoH. Logan goes to Creed’s guards, asking where he is as he needs to talk to him. The Guards say he’s busy, but then they get the call about Beast’s rampage. As they run off, Logan chuckles about his good fortune as he cuts into the interrogation room with his claws. Creed yells at him, saying new members aren’t allowed in the back room. Logan tells him to let Carly go, and when he demands to know what right Logan has to talk to him like that, Logan extends his claws and say they give him plenty of rights. Creed pulls a blaster on Logan. He easily dodges Creed’s shots, but then Creed puts the gun to Carly’s head. Logan starts taunting Creed, asking why “daddy’s little boy’ is afraid of claws. Creed immediately starts shaking but says he doesn’t know what that means. Logan keeps taunting and Creed shrieks at him to shut up. An FoH guard runs in, trying to tell Creed about the intruder, but Logan grabs him and hurls him at Creed. He grabs Carly and they run. Beast reaches them, but passes out from exhaustion. Logan grabs him and the three run. FoH members corner them. Creed tells ‘Mr. Logan’ that since he hates Mutants so much, he’ll give him the pleasure of watching one die. Logan promises to take few of these boys out with him. Cyclops eyebeams them from the street, causing a distraction.

 

Outside, Cyclops wonders aloud why Logan wanted a hologram projector and Jubilee adds that it’s weird to see Beast going berserk and Wolverine using his head. She powers up the projector and it plays the recording Logan wanted, of Sabretooth. The recording is a profile of the beast man, mentioning he was last seen in the Baffin Island region of Canada. Creed starts panicking, demanding that they shut the hologram off. He pulls a blaster and starts shooting it blindly. It gets to Sabretooth’s real name and Creed dives at the hologram screaming NO! as he does.  And then it’s revealed that in this universe his name is Graydon Creed, Sr. They changed it from the usual Victor Creed to make it obvious beyond doubt that he’s Graydon Creed’s father. Logan says “like father, like son,” smugly. Creed screams at his men that he HATES Sabretooth. The FoH members are shocked to learn their boss is the son of a Mutant. Creed begs that they listen, that he’s not like them, he’s a normal man. They keep walking away. Creed turns to the hologram and shoots at it some more, screaming at the top of his lungs that Sabretooth is NOT his father. Wolverine pics Beast up and helps him and Carly leave. They join the X-Men and Wolverine says, “Scratch one friend.” Beast pulls Carly aside and breaks up with her, saying that they live in a world where people fear and hate Mutants, and he can’t give her a normal life as he is. He hopes that someday the world will change, and until then, he hopes she can carry his love. Carl pulls up and hugs his daughter, asking if she’s okay. She says she will be but cries a little. He asks Beast, Dr. McCoy, how he can ever thank him, and Hank tells him this is a beginning. They leave while Beast watches them go with longing.

 

This was a great episode. It was fun to see Beast act more on emotion than logic and for Wolverine to act tactically. For Beast, plots about his physical appearance and how life is so much harder for him as a Mutant that can’t blend in is a fairly standard plot. I think just about all his focus episodes in X-Men: Evolution touched on that, but this is one of the few I can think of where it involves his desire for romantic affection. In many ways he’s like Rogue, while he can touch people, the fact he’s a hairy blue ape creature means it’s rare he finds someone who’d WANT to touch him. I like that the episode acknowledges that while Beast puts on a brave face, it simply isn’t easy to ignore every bigot screams at him. I liked the fact that Alec was in his corner the whole time. There were moments where I wasn’t sure if he genuinely liked Beast or was just using him to get the research done. The moment in the beginning, where he glares at two colleges when Beast isn’t looking, I think could be taken either as “don’t say anything he’s my friend” or “don’t say anything, I need him” depending on how you’re feeling. But he’s genuinely in Beast’s corner and Hank not being able to be involved with the surgery seems to legitimately bum him out. And it was nice to see Beast win Carl over.  He shouldn’t have to do it, really, but I like the message that a bigot can change, and Beast is gracious enough to accept said change. Logan’s stealth mission was great too. I’m not sure exactly when he figured out that Graydon Creed was Sabretooth’s son, but when he got confirmation that he was from Canada, he was smiling like a shark that smelt chum. Logan has a habit of just leaping at things with his claws drawn, but the man is clever and it’s nice to see that acknowledged here. And Creed’s breakdown is one for the record books. I wish more obvious hypocrites could be called out like this and have their reputation destroyed in mere moments. But it’s much harder in real life to do that then with the Mutant hating son of a Mutant. This isn’t the last we’ll see of Graydon, but his breakdown here marks the end of the Friends of Humanity being a constant threat to the X-Men with their smear campaigns. They need to restructure and regroup. Next time, we’re introduced to the most obnoxious gameshow host in the multiverses, Mojo. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 22

 Rogue deals with a living nightmare.

Back to X-Men for a bit, we’ll cover Agatha All Along in October and November.

 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, a new time traveler entered the arena. It’s revealed that Bishop, the mercenary from Genosha, is in fact a time traveler from the far future. He witnesses a time storm that begins erasing things due to Bishop interfering with the flow of time in 1993. Cable attacks the X-Men several times trying to stop Bishop but is unable to stop events from unfolding. He uses his computer to get a refresher on the X-Men and their powers, intentionally skipping Cyclops and Jean for some reason, and gets an idea when he’s reminded about Wolverine. He attacks the X-Men again during the senate hearing and kidnaps Wolverine just as things turn into a fiasco. He knocks Wolverine out for a bit, but then brings him along when the X-Men face off against Graydon Creed and the FoH scientist that’s really Apocalypse in disguise. Cable throws Wolverine into the tank of the virus, using Wolverine’s healing factor to create a perfect immunity to it, thus stopping Apocalypse’ plan and also exposing everyone to the virus that will one day stabilize the Mutant Genome. Bishop and Cable return to their respective futures. In Bishops, his ally Forge doesn’t know anything about any plague now, and Cable is reunited with his son Tyler. Alls well that ends well. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with a woman walking in the rain. A man tries to steal her umbrella. She covers herself with it and then reveals herself in a monster form, screaming at the man and making him run. Okay, so this is Mystique. Mystique enters an old apartment building and lights a candle, saying the person inside said they had a gift for her. It’s revealed to be Mr. Sinister. His gift is to tell her that Xavier is currently missing and that without their professor to look after them it might be easy for her to reclaim her daughter. Mystique runs off and Sinister laughs evilly.

 

We cut to the Brotherhood of Mutants, Avalanche, Pyro and Blob, causing a scene at a carnival. The X-Men arrive, and a fight ensues, for some of them. Pyro says that their job was to just lure them out and since they did that they could bail, but Avalanche and Blob want to stay and fight. Rogue bounces off Blob’s bulbous belly and crashes into a booth. She makes a crack about having just washed this uniform when she suddenly sees a blonde woman standing over her. This seems to trigger something in Rogue’s mind as she starts seeing mental flashes of the woman and screaming bloody murder. She passes out and has a very trippy dream seeing all of the people she’s absorbed power from floating in bubbles and the blonde woman as a lizard creature.

 

Rogue wakes up in the X-Mansion infirmary with Gambit and Scott looking after her. Scott asks her what happened, and Rogue tells him that she’d been seeing that woman in ‘flashes’ lately. We learn that Xavier had been working with Rogue with some kind of past trauma, he’d used his powers to repress memories she couldn’t handle but bring up during their therapy sessions. She can’t remember what they were working on since, ya know, the professor isn’t there. Jean comes in with a portable computer and disk recording, saying she used the Mansion’s system to run an image search on the blonde. She’d appeared at a lot of incidents they’d been involved in recently, like she wanted them to see her. Gambit shows Rogue the photos of the woman and asks if she recognizes her. Rogue doesn’t but seeing her triggers another mental pain spike. Rogue says she’s fine, just needs some air. She flies out of the mansion and finds Logan chopping wood with his claws. She then sees the blonde superimposed over Logan, saying “You can’t keep me bottled up forever.” She screams at this thing to leave her alone and she punches through the log Logan had been using to hold up the lumber. This knocks Logan back and he’s very confused. She hears someone say “Way to go, Rogue-y-roo” Gambit arrives outside and tries to get her attention but she lashes out and knocks him back. She tells them all to leave her alone and flies off.

 

She returns to the mansion, looking for Jean. Scott finds her first and he asks her wants wrong, but then Rogue sees the Blonde again. She starts screaming in pain and drops to the ground. She’s pulled into the lower depths of her mind by the woman, who says she wants Rogue to see what Rogue had put the woman through. She accuses Rogue of taking away her life.  She turns giant and attacks Rogue, who tries to fly away and screams at the woman to leave her alone. She crashes into Cyclops. He’d gotten Jean in the last minute, and they ask Rogue what’s wrong. Rogue answers in the voice of the blonde, asking where she is and who these people are. Jean tries to reach out to her but in her normal voice tells them to get away. Jean uses her powers on Rogue to stop her, probing her mind and trying to figure out what’s happening to her. She senses another presence in Rogue’s mind. Rogue sees the Blonde as some kind of goblin in her reflection. The woman dives at Rogue, and they wrestle before Rogue flies up and through the mansion, startling Jubilee, Logan and Ororo as she goes. They’re all on different floors. Scott tells Jean to tell Storm to follow her, they need to be prepared for the worst.

 

Storm follows Rogue to New York City and then to the Statue of Liberty. She lands on the torch and Storm follows her. Rogue admits to being scared and not sure what to do. Storm offers to help her but Rogue is sure that the Professor’s the only one who could help and he’s gone. Storm wants to try anyway. Rogue is about to accept when she sees the Blonde again, who says that Storm is lying, and that Rogue is hers now. Rogue flies at the Blonde, and Storm follows. The Blonde tells her to come to her, in the hospital where Rogue put her.  Rogue says she’s going to, and that she’ll shut her up when she does. Rogue lands on a building, rips the lock off the stair’s entrance and goes inside. Mystique appears, saying that she’s finally ready to return to her. She shifts into Rogue’s form to draw Storm in, and then has Blob attack her. She knocks Storm out with a spray, then take on her form and radios in to the others, telling the X-Men to assemble at the General hospital.

 

Rogue goes deeper into the building, which seems to be a long-term care facility. We see the Blonde is in a coma. A pair of nurses are looking after her, the more experienced nurse telling the newer that this is their Jane Doe that they refer to as Sleeping Beauty. She’d been brought to them a few years ago and she’s had almost no brain activity since they hooked her up to the monitor.

 

Cyclops, Wolverine and Gambit meet up with “Storm” and are immediately attacked by the Brotherhood. Mystique reveals herself after Blob and Avalanche trap the boys in rubble, saying they stole something important from her and she’s going to get it back. Avalanche starts to gloat, but then Cyclops hits him with an eyebeam. It’s like they forgot 2/3rds of this group are ranged specialists. Cyclops breaks them free, and a brawl begins, Pyro creating a flame lion to attack them. Mystique tells her team to keep them busy and runs off. Storm wakes up and catches the three Brotherhood boys in a hurricane and hurls them into a building to knock them out. She says they’re a distraction and that they need to search the hospital for Rogue and Mystique.

 

Rogue is searching through the hospital; Mystique takes on the Blonde’s form to lure her deeper into the building and up into the Blonde’s room. Mystique reveals herself and says that she did all this to lure Rogue to the Blonde to help her remember the past Xavier purged from her mind. She asks Rogue to touch her to learn the truth. Rogue does so, knocking Mystique out and turning blue before getting flashbacks.

 

She remembers how her powers first manifested, when she kissed her boyfriend and put him into a coma. Her father disowns her for being a Mutant and Rogue runs off on her own.  She had nowhere else to go, so when she met a kindly older woman looking to take her in, she was happy. This was obviously Mystique, she retains this older woman’s form the whole time Rogue knew her, to cover up the plot hole of how Rogue didn’t recognize her or the Brotherhood boys before. Another one opens where it’s revealed that Mystique trained Rogue to use her powers using the Brotherhood, a group that seemingly didn’t exist in universe before. Remember, in episode 9 ‘The Cure’ Pyro was introducing Avalanche to Mystique, and yet here we learn they’ve worked together for years. Whatever, Rogue drained their powers to train. The training was for ‘the most important day of her life.’

 

The Brotherhood attempt to steal a fighter jet from an Airforce base, Rogue draining the pilot to learn how to fly it. Their theft is interrupted by Carol Danvers aka Ms. Marvel, who quickly takes out Blob and the others as Rogue takes off. As Ms. Marvel chases Rogue in the jet, Mystique says evilly that her daughter has a surprise for Ms. Marvel. Ms. Marvel catches Rogue and breaks into the plane. She tries to land the plane, but Mystique via an earpiece tells Rogue to grab her and not let go. Rogue does so, draining and holding onto Ms. Marvel despite how weird it feels. Ms. Marvel flies out of the plane to try to get away from Rogue but she won’t let go. Ms. Marvel crashes to the ground on top of Rogue, the latter making a deep dent in the ground.

 

Rogue asks Mystique why she made her hang onto Ms. Marvel like that, asking why her love wasn’t enough for Mystique. Rogue continues to narrate her memories, saying that hanging onto Ms. Marvel so long let Rogue steal her powers permanently, giving her Ms. Marvel’s super strength and flight. But not her energy blasts, how odd. Rogue reveals that she also had Ms. Marvel’s mind trapped in her own, and she started seeing visions of Ms. Marvel accusing her of stealing Ms. Marvel’s life. Rogue pretends to be fine when the first vision made her crash, but the next time she had a vision she decided to run away. While flying away, Charles called out to her telepathically, saying he could help. He said he couldn’t return Ms. Marvel to her own body, but she could ‘quiet’ her, for both her and Rogue’s sake.

 

In the present, Mystique says that’s how she lost Rogue to Xavier and that she’d sworn to get her back one day. She hugs Rogue, but Rogue’s smarter than that. She knows now that Mystique was just using her as a weapon. She shapeshifts into Ms. Marvel uncontrollably. Mystique says that her power will fade soon, but until then Rogue will keep shifting since she never learned to control it. Carol’s mind in Rogue exerts control, forcing her to shapeshift into her costumed form, announcing that she’s taking this body, and that Ms. Marvel is reborn. The X-Men arrive and see Rogue shift between forms. Ms. Marvel takes control again, grabs Mystique and flies off, Storm in pursuit. Storm can’t keep up, but Jean reveals she’s monitoring the situation with Cerebro.

 

Jean reaches out into Rogue’s mind and sees her and Ms. Marvel battling in Rogue’s subconscious.  Ms. Marvel keeps shifting between her normal form and a green monster form as they fight. Ms. Marvel believes that if she can beat Rogue in the mind, she’ll be able to seize control of the body and get her life back. Jean tells her that it doesn’t work like that and if Rogue dies, they both do. Ms. Marvel says it’s better to end it then than live like this. She keeps accusing Rogue of taking everything from her, Rogue apologizes profusely as she truly didn’t know this would happen. She says that this ends now, but Jean grabs her and captures her in a box. Rogue seals her up, crying as she does so and saying she’s sorry. Jean reassures her that there was no other way. Rogue returns to normal and puts Mystique down. Mystique tries to get Rogue to come back with her, but Rogue knows she just used her before and will do so again. She’s an X-Man now and isn’t looking back.

 

Later, we see Rogue in casual clothes. Gambit is impressed and asks if she’d dress up like that for him. She says she might, but today she’s going to spend time with an old friend.  She heads to Ms. Marvel’s hospital room, telling the Nurse that their Jane Doe is in fact Carol Danvers. She says they were close as she brushes Carol’s hair. There’s a mental ping as she does so that no one notices.  She leaves with the nurse. When alone, Carol’s brainwaves start picking up and she seems to force a smile.

 

This sort of episode is a good news, bad news sort of one. On the one hand, it’s interesting and fun to see things like Rogue’s past explored. This is the origin of her flight and superstrength in the comics as well, she started as a Brotherhood Mutant and adopted daughter of Mystique, who was told to hold on and not let go of Ms. Marvel until she absorbed her powers permanently.  The only problem is that continuity errors this creates with the first season. Now, this is true in comics as well. When a medium reaches hundreds, perhaps thousands of writers over multiple decades, you’re bound to have some wires crossed, things get confused, and errors happen. The problem is that that’s normally for stories decades old, not one season old. They do the same thing later when the writers decide the X-Men have been a thing for a while before the first season and that it was the OG 5-man team back in the day, even though no one recognized Warren (Angel/Archangel) in his previous appearances. Probably wasn’t an issue in the 90s where a lot of these episode get jumbled up so maybe they did show episode 22 before episode 9 or something, but in the age of streaming it’s a bit odd is all I’m saying. I do like the whole plot though; Rogue being haunted by the ghost in her mind and Mystique trying to bring her back into the fold is a neat concept. As a late 90s kid, this is how I learned that Rogue and Mystique have a history together and I was shocked. Granted, lots of things shocked me in 1998, I was 7 for most of it but it was still a big deal. The only other thing that really disappoints me about this episode is that it’s a one and done. To my knowledge, they never bring up Ms. Marvel again or show her waking from her coma. I know, they had a lot of stuff to cover, but it would have been nice to see her wake up and make amends with Rogue is all I’m saying. So yeah, fine episode. Next time is a Wolverine and Beast episode. One gets mad and one acts smart and it’s not the ones you think. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: Batman: Caped Crusader ep 10

 It's the noble cops vs the corrupt cops, who'll win?

Last time on Batman: Caped Crusader, Harvey Dent had an extremely rough night. Harvey Dent, his face horribly scarred after acid was thrown on it and is dealing with a lot of anger. Bruce arrives and takes Harvey out to eat. He claims it’s to get him out of his apartment, but Batman’s goal is to grill him a little on what happened. Harvey has a paranoid breakdown, feeling like everyone is mocking him for his melted face, rips the bandages off and shows his damaged face to everyone. He runs off and decides to get payback after burying the thoughts that considered he might have done a few things to deserve being attacked. He cuts a bloody swathe through Gotham, beating up gangsters, shooting muggers, and paying off girlfriends to find the man that threw the acid, Tony Zeto. Batman is trailing him the whole time but arrives too late at each pitstop to stop Harvey. He catches up to Harvey just after killing Zeto in an apartment fire, but Harvey loses him in the chase. Batman finally corners him as Harvey attempts to murder Rupert Thorne. They struggle for a bit, but Batman is able to get through to the better half of Harvey, ironically represented by his scarred face, who sobs over what he’d done and turned himself in. After, he’s introduced to his lawyer, Barbara Gordon. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Ep 10: Savage Night

 

The episode begins at GCPD and Harvey refusing to have Barbara represent him. The refusal is about half stubborn pride, not wanting to be represented by someone he’s butted heads with so often, and half self-pity, that he doesn’t deserve to be helped by anyone. Barbara being her father’s daughter, refuses to just walk away and pulls out a coin, saying heads she’s his lawyer, tails she leaves. She flips it and gets heads. Immediately she tells Harvey that she’s going to get him transferred to Arkham for a psyche evaluation and that he shouldn’t talk to anyone without her until then. She tosses him the coin, as it was his that she got from lockup, and it’s revealed to be his two headed coin.

 

We shift to Rupert Thorne speaking to Flass over the phone. He wants an update on where Dent’s at. Flass says he’s being moved around tonight to Arkham for the evaluation and then to court. Thorne orders him to take care of Dent, as the man is dangerous to his business and the business of other powerful men in Gotham. Turns out that Dent has been cutting deals for a while and knows where a lot of metaphorical and probably a few literal bodies are buried.

 

At Arkham we see an inmate start screaming as Barbara gets checked in. He only stops when Harvey brings him the pig stuffed toy he dropped. Barbara goes to speak with Harvey. She asks how he’s doing, he says not well but he’s better off than some other inmates. Barbara says that he won’t be there long, as the evaluation will be tomorrow and the court case the day after. She thinks she can get him some lenience and then into a private hospital for treatment. Harvey is much less optimistic, believing his murder spree guarantees he’ll be sent to prison forever. Barbara suggests that they might get some leniency if he squeals on some of the corruption he’d dealt with as Gotham’s DA for the last decade, but Harvey asks if a man that knew about that stuff but did nothing deserve help. Barbara pleads with him to give her anything to work with. Harvey’s anger gets the better of him and he starts screaming at her about how he’s a spineless coward. He pulls back and apologizes for screaming. She says it just surprised her, and he apologized again, saying surprise is his favorite trick. His other side doesn’t get a nickname like Two-Face or Big Bad Harvey like in Batman: The Animated Series, but that seems to be who he’s talking about.

 

Later, Barbara reviews Harvey’s case in her office when Batman slips in. He asks about Dent, and Barbara says, “not much.” She wants to help but she can’t get him to help her. Batman suggests that while Harvey tipped the scale a little as DA, he cares about justice and that she should put pressure on that part of him to get his help. She’s not certain he’ll listen to her. Batman goes to leave, and Barbara asks for some means to contact him, rather than have her wait for him to break into her office again. He gives her his private number before slipping away.

 

Batman visits Harvey as Bruce Wayne. Guess he figured he could reach Harvey. He apologizes for taking Harvey out earlier, as he thought that pretending everything was normal would make Harvey feel better. Harvey bitterly calls Bruce the ‘great pretender’ but then apologizes, saying he’s just angry sometimes. He says it’s not Bruce’s fault this happened, and Bruce points out that it’s not his fault either. He begs Harvey to let his lawyer help him cut a deal, but Harvey points out that anyone else in his position couldn’t cut a deal. Bruce shifts to Batman a little and tells Harvey to not waste time and grow a conscience now. He tries the “Harvey Dent never gives up” line but Harvey says that was just a campaign slogan. Alfred drives Bruce home and asks him what he’s going to do now, but he’s not sure.

 

Later, Barbara escorts Harvey to a prison van to take him to his hearing. When they open the door, someone throws a tear gas grenade at them. They take out the guards and drag Dent away. Barbara is able to cover her mouth in time and then follows them, seeing them take Harvey away in a car. She gets in her own car and follows. It’s revealed that his kidnappers are Flass and Bullock. He wonders what this rescue will cost him, but the two corrupt cops say they’re not saving him but executing him. Barbara follows them, pulling out her gun. Harvey tries to play the sympathy card with Flass and Bullock, saying that he thought they were friends, but they tell him that he should have kept his head down and played it safe. A man doesn’t get his face melted off for now reason, after all. Flass directs Bullock on where to go and reminds him to just drop Dent off with Thorne’s men and go. Harvey, sensing weakness, says he’s surprised that Flass is the one calling the shots. And that it’s so brilliant of him to use Bullock as the guy doing the actual dirty work to keep his hands clean. Flass tells him to shut up. But Dent keeps talking, rightly guessing how their partnership has operated to now, with Flass giving orders and Bullock doing the crimes. Flass turns around to shut him up, but Dent dodges the grab, kicks Bullock in the back of the neck and causes him to crash.

 

Harvey pulls himself from the wreck and Barbara arrives to get him out of his cuffs. She says she’s going to get him to the cops, but Dent rightly points out that it’s not like he’s safe with them either. Case in point the two cops that were going to hand him over to the mob. She says she’ll take him to her dad. Dent says that he’s going to do things his way and pay Thorne a visit. But Barbara isn’t having that and handcuffs them together to get him to comply. Harvey’s annoyed by this but can’t really do anything about it so they drive off. Flass and Bullock wake up and get out of the wreck. Bullock thinks they’re cooked but Flass points out they’re near Thorne’s men already, so they’ll find them.

 

Barbara stops them to use a payphone to call her dad. She tells him that Dent was kidnapped and needs help. As she’s talking, Thorne’s men pass and clock thee back of Two-Face’s head. She makes a plan to meet with her dad and then she calls the… other number. Batman’s phone starts ringing, and Alfred picks up, transferring her to Batman a moment later.

 

Harvey and Barbara arrive at Gotham Docks and Harvey mocks Barbara for believing that there’s a happy ending for him tonight. Flass, Bullock, and Thorne’s men arrive, Flass orders them to not take chances and to shoot Dent on sight. Bullock points out that that’s Barbara’s car. Flass says that he must have seen them with Dent, so she can’t leave here either. When he asks if Bullock gets what he’s saying, Bullock rather annoyedly says that ‘it’s time to do the dirty work.” Looks like Harvey got under Harvey’s skin. Sorry, Dent got under Bullock’s skin, had to.

 

We shift to Montoya and Jim waiting for Barbara and Harvey. The fog is thick tonight so that’s definitely going to complicate tonight. Batman arrives, telling them that 15 men are on the docks tonight, and two of them are theirs. Jim guesses he means the gruesome twosome and Montoya says they thought they’d be involved. Barbara and Harvey arrive, and Batman leads them to the south exit as it’s open for now. Dent is still pessimistic about their plan, realizing that it’s just to keep him alive long enough to testify against half of city hall and then that’ll somehow change things. Jim Gordon thinks so, but Dent laughs at him. He says that one hundred other monsters will replace anyone they take down. Batman, angry, grabs Harvey by the collar and tells him that you don’t bend with the world when it goes bad, you push back. Jim adds that he knows the system is stacked against them but he will get Harvey in front of a judge. Batman batarangs one of the goons as he walks up, telling the others to run while he handles them.

 

Batman takes out three other goons in quick succession. While they run, Harvey grabs Barbara and pulls her aside. He tells her to let him go, as Thorne is only after him. He’ll lead them away and the others can live. Barbara refuses. Their talk is interrupted by a goon, who they close line with the handcuff chain and then Harvey stomps repeatedly. Barbara gets him to stop but he begs her to let him go. She pulls her gun and starts shooting more goons. Montoya and Jim take out a few more goons and only then notice Barbara and Harvey are gone. Flass and Bullock are still standing, Bullock pointing out that other cops will be here soon due to the gunfire. Flass tells him to just let Flass handle the talking if it comes to that.

 

Batman takes out a few more goons, tricking two into shooting each other before fist fighting and throwing a third into the water. He’s almost shot by a shot gun, but Jim and Montoya arrive and take him out. Batman learns that Harvey and Barbara got separated from them and so grappling hooks away to find them. Harvey and Barbara get spotted thanks to an angry dog and Harvey gets winged in a firefight. He begs Barbara to just leave him, as someone like her shouldn’t die for him. Barbara says she’s not dying tonight, and then notices they ended up near her car and tries to drag Harvey to it. Batman, Flass, and Bullock all start to converge on Barbara and Harvey. Harvey tells her that she’s wasting her time with him, but she refuses to leave him. Bullock gets a bead on them, but Jim pulls his gun on him and makes him back off. Barbara and Harvey make it to her car, and she starts to undo the cuffs when Flass arrives and shoots at them. Dent gets in the way of the shot and saves Barbara.

 

Batman rushes over and knocks the gun from Flass’s hand. He grabs it and threatens Flass with it. Flass tries to talk his way out of it, saying that was a righteous shoot. He gets angrier as Batman points the gun at him, saying that he’s a damn police officer and Batman’s just a lousy vigilante. We hear several gun shots, only for it to be revealed that Batman shot around Flass’s head. He knocks Flass out and then throws the gun into the harbor. Dude, evidence! Barbara asks Harvey why he did that and with his dying breath he says, “damned if I know, Barbara.” Jim tells Batman that if he’s still around when the cops arrive, he’ll have to take him in, and Batman grappling hooks away.

 

Later, Batman is in the cave looking at one of Harvey’s mayor buttons. Alfred comes in and Batman tells him that he saw some of himself in Harvey after he snapped. Alfred tells him that while there probably is some of him in Harvey when he lost it, at the end of the day, Harvey lost himself in that dark place while Bruce Wayne did not. He says that he’s seeing more and more of Bruce in Batman every day, and that he’s even made friends, in a manner of speaking. Batman points out that it’s four on an endless tied. They’re terrible odds but he’ll take them. He heads to the Batmobile to go on patrol, beings to thank Alfred by calling him Pennyworth, but stops and thanks Alfred. He drives off. At Thorne’s mansion, he tells his men to tell Bullock and Flass to just keep their mouth shut and his lawyers will handle it. He says a bullet in the back is what Dent deserved. He suddenly gets cut by a Batarang being thrown through his window and we see Batman in the distance.

 

We then cut to a shack in the middle of nowhere. We hear a man laughing hysterically before we’re shown a line of corpses laid out and strapped to chairs. The laughing man dies of the giggles, and we see a man standing before him with a syringe. We get a close up look of a pale white face as he says “perfect.” Oh, something wicked this way comes next season.

 

I think this was a fairly solid way to end the first season of Batman: Caped Crusader. While I’m a little sorry to see Harvey Dent go so quickly, I do like the implied message here that the final boss of season one isn’t Harvey Two-face, but the corruption of Gotham itself in the shape of Arnold Flass. Flass has been the face of the GCPD’s corruption to the audience for a while now. He moves Bullock, he comes up with most of the plans, and he executes them with efficiency. I like that this was only the second time that he attempted to get his hands dirty and this was the time that ruined him, if only for a little while. I have relatively little doubt that somehow Flass and Bullock will be on the force again by the time season 2 rolls out. The whole scene on the dock is intense, with the fog making it hard for us to see who is coming next. It works to Batman’s advantage because he’s a ninja, but that advantage is lost when he’s worrying about other people. You know who he could have used tonight? A sidekick. Or a partner. Maybe a young acrobat with a lot of skills and training or a street tough. No? No Robin for Batman? Fine. Deidrich Bader was great in this last performance as Harvey Dent. He did a good job showing off how conflicted Harvey was at having all these people working hard to save him and now much anger he’s repressing. I’d have liked to see more of him progress, but his presence really would wrap up the Gotham corruption a bit too quickly and, again, that’s one of the main villains of this series. It was nice that they gave him the noble sacrifice to go out on. This Dent was far from the white knight of Gotham, but he did deserve more than he got. The tease about Joker was nice. Though I have to say we seem to be in a trend of starting out Joker free and then teasing him in the following installments. The Chris Nolan Batman films, Batman v Superman, the Matt Reeves Batman films, all promise the Joker later on. All I’m saying. I’m curious to see how he’ll fit into this noir setting and if/how he’ll interact with Harley Quinn. But we’ll have to wait and see for that one. Have a good night, everyone. 

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Viewer Log: Batman: Caped Crusader ep 9

Harvey breaks, and Gotham's criminals pays. 

Last time on Batman: Caped Crusader, the carnival came to town. And kids started disappearing. A pale girl in Black named Natalia Night was kidnapping orphans that look suspiciously like Robins and sucking the life out of them as an energy vampire. Her older brother Anton tried to stop her after she grabbed the third child in less than 24 hours, but she batted him aside and broke his back with her inhuman strength. Batman catches wind of this as he’s good friends with the director of the orphanage, Dr. Leslie Thompkins and was in the area as part of a fundraising event for Harvey’s campaign. He finds Anton just before he dies, the carnie telling Batman that his sister is just a child with a severe health condition. He warns Batman to get her out of the sun before succumbing to his wounds. Batman catches Natalia just before she nabs her 4^th Robin look-alike, but the girl with super strength is a bit much for him. Her intended victim, Carrie, hits her in the face with a rock via a slingshot, distracting her long enough for Batman to tell her Anton is dead. She breaks down upon hearing this and tries to die via sunlight, but Batman saves her and sees she’s taken to a hospital for treatment. At the same time, Harvey Dent has a meeting with Rupert Thorne to get another large cash infusion. Thorne gives him the money, saying that this plus some bad press about Jessop should put Harvey over the top. But in exchange, he expects Harvey to drop the city’s case against Matthew Milligan, a swindler that duped thousands out of their life savings. Harvey takes the money but ultimately chooses to keep the case against Milligan, believing his goal of rooting out corruption in Gotham is too important to let go of for even one case. And for his trouble gets acid thrown in his face by Thorne’s goon Tony. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Ep 9: The Killer Inside Me

 

We open the episode with a Harvey Dent dream. He’s dreaming that he won the election and is giving his victory speech. In the crowd we see all the series regulars, Bruce, the Gordons, Thorne, Flass and Bullock, etc. The mood suddenly shifts as we hear people muttering about his face. He wakes up in his apartment. He survived the acid attack, but it caused horrible scarring on the right side of his face. That’s a bit odd. In case you never noticed basically all other versions of Harvey Dent have the left side of their face damage when they transition to Two-Face. Anyway, his face is damaged and bandaged and he learns he lost the mayoral election due to his injuries. He watches a news report where Mayor Jessop is not so subtly gloating about his win and that he ‘feels sorry’ for Dent. He reveals that he’s already replaced Dent with Peter Mitchell as District Attorney. Harvey resigned, ya know, because of his face. Harvey starts off acting like he’s happy for Pete before denouncing him as a backstabbing snake and that he’s going to make them all pay. He punches and breaks his TV, so you know he means business.

 

We cut to GCPD. We learn through Jim Gordon that it’s been two weeks since Harvey was attacked and that they don’t have any leads. Apparently, Harvey either doesn’t remember who attacked him or is keeping it quite so know one knows who he pissed off enough to attack him. Flass and Bullock aren’t getting anywhere with their contacts and Montoya seems to think that Harvey might have been dirty. An argument almost breaks out, but Gordon makes them focus. He admits to not liking Dent much either, but a city official was attacked, and they need to find out by whom. It also doesn’t help that Jessop is breathing down his neck to solve the case. When Flass points out that you’d think Jessop would be happy with the attack, Gordon says the fact Harvey was taken out just before the election doesn’t sit well with the press, so they need to get on it.

 

We returned to Harvey’s place. He’s throwing up pretty hard, either from the pain or from his meds, as someone knocks at his door. He tells them to scram, but the knocker keeps knocking. He answers the door to find it’s Bruce. Bruce tells him to get dressed as he wants to take Harvey out to Utterson’s, the big restaurant in town. He notes that Harvey has been cooped up too long and needs to get out. Harvey doesn’t want to go but Bruce insists.

 

At dinner, Bruce tries to entertain Harvey with old stories, but he’s not eating or talking. He tells Bruce that he feels people staring at him. Bruce says that he brought him here to remind Harvey that these folks are his friends, and they care about him. An acquaintance comes up to Harvey and says that it’s good to see him up and about. As soon as he leaves, Harvey says he’s a jealous little worm and is probably loving this. He looks shocked after speaking and says that that thought just came out. Bruce tries to get Harvey to talk about the attack, but Harvey is interrupted by another passerby wanting to give him support. Harvey calls him a smug bastard and says that he should carve his face up. Bruce tries to get him to focus but the paranoia and bad thoughts are piling up in Harvey’s head as he imagines everyone is talking about his face. When a server comes over and asks if everything is okay, Harvey freaks out and shows the scared half of his face. The acid seems to have bleached his hair gray and left multiple holes and scars in his cheeks and forehead. It also cost him several teeth. He grabs the waitress and starts screaming at her, Bruce stops him, and he takes a swing at Bruce. But he catches the punch due to Batman reflexes. Harvey calms down and funs off.

 

At the manor, Batman is investigating what happened to Harvey. He tells Alfred that Dent is hiding something, and Alfred asks him if learning that was worth humiliating his friend and making a scene in public. Batman tells him that he was just using Harvey’s own tactics, squeezing a little fish to get to a bigger fish above him. Alfred warns Bruce to remember the man he’s dealing with, and whatever Harvey was, he’s not sure Harvey is that man anymore.

 

We find Harvey walking the streets and muttering to himself. The show writers and animators continue their inversion of Harvey’s traits, with the focus being on his unscarred left side when he’s dealing with the angry thoughts, the self-loathing and violent outburst, and shifting to the scarred right side when he’s being honest with himself. He admits to himself that he did things that may have made him deserve to be attacked but asks himself if he hasn’t paid for his sins. He decides that Rupert Thorne and his boys need to suffer for what they did to him. He comes across a mugging. He leaps on the mugger and pummels him. He grab the muggers gun and asks the muggy if  they should leave the mugger for the cops so they can give him a slap on the wrist… or not. He says maybe they should flip a coin on it. The muggy says that he’s not going to risk a man’s life on a coin flip. Dent agrees but says the mugger needs to pay and shoots him. We cut to Montoya and Jim interviewing the mugger, turns out Harvey shot him in the knee. The mugger is trying to convince them he was just minding his own business when a man with a melting face attacked him. Montoya lets the EMTs take him away. Montoya offers to check in on Harvey, just in case. Jim says that’s a good idea but to keep things quiet for now in case it really is Dent. Batman watches them from above, so we know he’s in the loop about this too. Montoya checks Harvey’s apartment to find it empty.

 

Harvey heads into a bar to talk with Emile Potter, one of Thorne’s men. He tells Emile that he’s looking for Thorne’s right-hand man, Tony Zeto, dropping a photo and sliding it over to him. Emile recognizes Harvey as the DA that tried to send him to prison. Harvey shows him the scarred side of his face to scare him before screaming that the only reason he couldn’t was because Thorne made his key witness ‘skip town.’ He knocks Emile to the floor and breaks off a chair leg. He threatens Emile with the jagged end of the leg and Emile shrieks that he does know where Zeto is. Or, at least, he knows Zeto is seeing this girl named Maggie Cain and he knows where she is. He almost lets Emile go, but when he hears Emile call him a freak, he sighs, turns around and we hear him beating the shit out Emile from outside the bar.

 

We shift to the Thorne Estate where Rupert is watching baseball with his son Matthew. One of his goons calls him out. The goon explains what happens, but Thorne isn’t concerned, asking him why this rated interrupting quality time with his son. The goon, Jerry, says that they can’t have a lunatic with a score to settle running around town. Thorne says that Dent couldn’t get to him with the full Gotham Legal system behind him and he’s got guards out the wazoo protecting his house. He returns to his son, saying they’ve got money on this game.

 

In the Batmobile, Alfred calls Bruce via the shortwave radio, saying that he’s been monitoring police radio broadcasts and that he thinks he’s found Harvey. A man matching his rather unique description was sighted attacking assaulting Potter. Batman knows Potter works for Thorne, and Alfred points out that Harvey attacked Potter only an hour after their ‘dinner.’ Batman insists that he needed answers, to which Alfred says “yes, so you said,” with a very judgy voice. Batman, for the first time I can remember in his Batman guise, gets notably angry with Alfred at this remark, saying the situation is escalating and he’s wasting Batman’s time.

 

Harvey arrives at Cain’s apartment and says he wants to see Tony. She says he’s not there and tries to close the door on him. Harvey busts the door down and demands to know where Tony is. Cain says that he’s really not there and that he must have screwed up bad this time as Thorne has him in a safehouse. He asks politely if she knows where it is, she hints she might and asks why she should help, and Harvey in an extremely sinister manner says that he can think of a few reasons.

 

Batman breaks into Potter’s hospital room. Looks like Harvey busted up his ribs, right arm, nose and neck before leaving. He wants to know what Harvey wanted.

 

We find Harvey entering the Ivory Hotel where Tony is hold up in. He’s playing cards with his guards and is on a winning streak. He says that the city should have thrown him a tickertape parade for putting that loudmouth Dent in his place, right before he realizes the hotel is on fire. One of hiss guards opens the door and Harvey shoots both men. Tony tries to hide but Harvey sees him and greets him with a pistol in his face.

 

Batman reaches Cain’s apartment just as she’s about to skip town. He deduces he’s not her first visitor tonight and asks her if Dent was looking for her boyfriend. She says Tony’s her ex, as Dent gave her enough money to leave Gotham for good. I guess he was just being creepy when he said he could think of reasons to make her talk. He asks her where he went.

 

In the Ivory Hotel, Harvey has Tony tied to a chair and begging for his life. Harvey says that he believes that Tony is sorry for what he did, but he’s learned that Tony and Thorne and men like them aren’t ‘people,’ they’re cancer. And you don’t give cancer a second chance, you cut it out. He throws a glass of whiskey at Tony’s feet and then draws a line of it away from the man. Tony says that he can pay Harvey, but he says his money is no good here. No money he has could cover the pain and suffering Harvey is dealing with. Tony says that it was boss Thorne that made him do it. Harvey admits that he knows, but Tony still did it. He says that the ‘other guy’ aka his scarred half, doesn’t want to kill him, but he sure wants to before lighting the match. Batman arrives and hears Tony screaming. He sees Dent drive off in his car and leaps onto it. Harvey tries to knock him off by driving through some scaffolding. Batman holds on, but then Harvey swerves and throws him into a truck before driving off. Batman passes out.

 

Thorne gets a call from Harvey Bullock. He’s giving Thorne a friendly heads up that Dent has lost it, killed Tony Zeto and his guards and is coming after him.

 

Batman somehow made it back to the cave and got patched up by Alfred. Alfred warns him that he probably has a concussion and should rest. Batman refuses, admitting that if he’s the one that set Harvey off then he needs to stop him. He drives off.

 

Jerry assigns guards throughout Thorne’s mansion. Thorne himself reassures his son that they probably won’t see any action as Dent isn’t crazy enough to try anything. He has his son taken aside as Jerry says their reinforcements are arriving. The car doesn’t stop, though, and crashes into the house. He orders his son protected and opens the door to the car. A corpse falls out. The guards inside are all dead and Harvey seemed to get the car driving by jamming the gas. The power cuts out and Harvey starts sniping Thorne’s men from the balcony. Harvey says that he’s here to get justice. It’s all he’s got left. He’s here as the judge, jury, and executioner. To prove the point, he throws a corpse from the balcony and breaks a statue. Thorne says this is more like revenge and Harvey admits it’s that too. Matthew Thorne gets in the way, saying he has to go through Matthew to get to Rupert. Harvey says he’s brave… but he can’t resist a two for one special. Batman bursts in and tries to stop him. Harvey says that Batman should be thanking him, as he’s done more for the city tonight than Batman ever has. Batman tries to talk Harvey down as they grapple, but Harvey parrots what Bruce said to him at the restaurant, that Harvey Dent never quits, it’s not in his nature. He hits Batman with some rubble and then sees the Thornes escaped. Harvey drops to his knees, his better nature reasserting himself. He starts sobbing as he thinks about the people he killed and begs Batman to lock him up. In lockup, Harvey meets his lawyer. Barbara has taken up his case. Oh my.

 

As I stated above, the show did something rather interesting by inverting Harvey’s trademark affliction but keeping the personalities. So, rather than the scarred half of his face representing his repressed evil released, his violent tendencies and crueler nature, it’s the half of him that’s been laid bare, that can’t hide behind his pretty smile and bravado. The unscarred side is his public face, the mask he wears to hide his self-loathing, and the anger he’s embracing in order to ‘do what must be done.’ I like that Alfred recognizes that Bruce did wrong by pushing Harvey and that while Bruce insists it was necessary that he does admit that he’s the one that set Harvey off tonight. It’s a shame too, as ya just know on some level Bruce knew that he probably could have gotten to Harvey if he just talked to him one on one, built up their trust a little more, but that that would have taken too long. He got sloppy trying to get to Thorne and because of it, Harvey lost himself for a while. His rampage is also impressive. He blew through mobsters in just a few hours and was within a hairs breadth from taking out Thorne himself. That’s skill. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see him do a signature coin flip, but I think they wanted to imply that while he’s conflicted the darker side of himself was much more in control in this iteration than in others. Overall, a solid penultimate episode for season 1. We’ll see if they can stick the landing tomorrow. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: Batman: Caped Crusader ep 8

Something shady going on at a carnival? Color me shocked. 

Last time on Batman: Caped Crusader, a hit was put out on Gordon. After a failed assassination attempt by local hitman Floyd Lawton (aka Deadshot), Jim Gordon is convinced by Barbara, Montoya, and Corrigan to go into protective custody for a bit. Batman does some investigating and learns the hit came out of Black Gate Prison. He lets Barbara know where the hit is coming from and that it’s an open contract, meaning that anyone can claim the money if they can prove they did the deed. He heads into the prison to learn who did it, and after interrogating the middleman learns it came from a fella named Muller. He also learned from the middleman that Muller upped the bounty, and we learn a professional assassin crew led by Onomatopoeia have arrived to do the deed. Batman ‘convinces’ Muller to retract the hit but needs to stop Onomatopoeia and his gang. The Gordons and their escort are attacked by one of the gang members and nearly driven off the road. They escape, though their Driver, Marcus Driver, is injured in the firefight. They head into a Wayne Industries suburb development and hide in its prefab model home. Batman finds them just as Onomatopoeia and crew do. The two face off and while Onomatopoeia is a skilled fighter, Batman takes him out with a literal Pow to the face. He tells Jim that the hit has been retracted, but it was never on Jim Gordon, but Barbara. Detective Corrigan makes an attempt on Barbara’s life as the money is too insane to pass up, but she holds his off long enough for her dad to shoot the gun out of his hand. In the final minutes, Barbara visits Muller in prison and learns that he wanted her killed because he thinks she didn’t do a good enough job defending him. He insists he doesn’t belong in prison, but Barbara disagrees as she leaves him. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Ep 8: Nocturne

 

We open on a pair of suspiciously familiar looking orphan boys sneaking out of their orphanage to check out a carnival. “Dickie” (Carter Rockwood) insists on having a look around while “Jace” (Henry Witchter) is a bit of a worrywart about it. They meet a pale girl (McKenna Grace) that eggs Dickie on to have a closer look and lures him to a wagon deeper into the carnival. She pulls him inside and the screen fades to black. Nothing eerie about that.

 

We cut to the following evening where the Carnival is now in full swing. Bruce is there on a date with a woman named Julie/as part of a fundraiser for Harvey Dent. He intentionally fails to ring the bell on one of those hammer games (no way Bruce Wayne actually fails at ringing the bell) but is a good sport about it. Lois Lane… I’m sorry, a reporter that looks suspiciously like the Fleisher era Lois Lane asks if he really thinks Dent can win as he’s down in the polls still, but Bruce has confidence in him. A bus full of orphans arrive and Bruce calls out to their guardian, a woman named Dr. Leslie Thompkins (Donna Lynne Champlin). He tells the reporters they should write a piece on her as she’s a big part of the childhood welfare scene in Gotham. She whispers her thanks to Bruce for helping her out, and says she knows that he hates all this attention (indicating she probably knows him better than most) but Bruce says it’s a necessary evil. Harvey joins them and he and Thompkins shake hands, her thanking him for inviting the children to his event. Harvey is surprised to learn that Bruce and Thompkins know each other. Thompkins says that Bruce is the orphanage’s most generous donor. Bruce tries to play it off as it’s for the tax write-off but he’s not fooling Thompkins. He also says that she worked with his father, which makes sense. Harvey gets a quick photo with the kids and then sends them off, telling them to tell everyone to vote for Dent. Bruce and Julie got to check out the carnival.

 

They head into a show by “Dr. Anton Night,” (Haley Joel Osment) a mad scientist looking fella that says he and his traveling lab have been trying for years to tap into the potential of humankind. He asks for a volunteer from the audience and chooses a big man in the front row. He has the man try to life a heavy weight, but he’s unable to lift it more than a few inches off the ground. He then calls on another volunteer, the pale girl from earlier. She’s introduced as Natalia. He asks her to just try to lift the weight, and obviously a child less than a third the big man’s size can’t lift it either. He then has her enter his machine and then he flips a switch. There’s a dazzling light show as electricity sparks from the device. After, she’s able to lift the weight over her head. She then drops it, and it causes the ground to tremble a bit, suggesting it is actually, factually heavy. Both Bruce and the orphan Jace seem suspicious of this feat.

 

After the show, Jace chases Natalia down and asks her where Dickie is. He says that he waited for them last night, but Dickie never came back, and he missed school that day, so Jace is getting worried. She tells him that she just saw Dickie sneaking into a trailer and offers to show him which one.

 

We cut over to Harvey who is doing a dunk tank bit. He’s dunked by a child and then Julie. He’s a bit distracted, though, when he sees Rupert Thorne and his goon watching.

 

Natalia shows Jace in the trailer and it looks spooky inside. He asks if she thinks if this is the mad scientist trailer and she says it could be. She tells him to check the backroom. He does and finds Dickie passed out and weak on the floor. He asks Natalia what’s wrong with Dickie, but she grabs him by the throat, lifts him up and sucks energy out of his open mouth. Anton arrives and stops her, saying that she swore Dickie would be ‘the only one’ tonight. She says the show took a lot out of her, so she needed another. Anton tells her that half of Gotham is here tonight, so they need to lay low. She says she can’t throw him back now after draining him, whatever she did clearly exhausts her victim. Anton says he’s worried Natalia is coming undone and revealing that she’s his little sister. She says he worries too much. He insists that this be the last one and storms off. A weakened Jace asks her not to leave him and she menaces over to him.

 

Dr. Thompkins, looking anxious, sees Harvey Dent and calls over to him. She says one of her kids, Stephie (Amari McCoy) is missing. Harvey, clearly distracted and anxious himself, blows her off by saying that kids run around at Carnivals and he’s sure she’ll turn up. Bruce comes over and asks what’s happening. Thompkins tells him Stephie Brown is missing and gives her a description. Bruce has Julie stay with Dr. Thompkins and goes to find her. Harvey runs into Thorne and says that he thought they agreed to keep a low profile. Thorne says that everyone loves a Carnival and that this makes an excellent place to give him another campaign contribution. He can just mix it in with the legit funds he raised. When Harvey isn’t confident in the plan, Thorne’s goon Tony suggests maybe Harvey is stupid enough to think he can win on his own. Thorne disagrees and tells Harvey to meet him in the parking lot when he’s done shaking hands and kissing babies to get the money.

 

Bruce sees Natalia with Stephie. Obviously, the pale girl isn’t sticking to her promise to her brother. She leads Stephie into the hall of mirrors and Bruce chases after them. He calls out to Stephie but can’t find them in the maze of mirrors. He hears her scream and kicks through a mirror and wall to get out. The Carnival’s side show performs see him do this and get the wrong idea when he says he’s looking for two little girls. The performers, including Waylon Jones aka Killer Croc, kick his ass and throw him into a ditch. An over reaction indeed, but I can’t necessarily blame them.

 

Bruce wakes up sometime later when he hears the Carnival’s closing alert on the PA. He dusts himself off and heads for his car. Alfred is inside and reading “Alias The Grey Ghost” by Max Grantwell but is very concerned when he sees Bruce all beaten up. He says not to worry, though, as he gets his suit out. Alfred tells him he sent Julie home in a taxi about an hour ago and wonders if Thorne is behind why Bruce is beaten up. Bruce says Rupert Thorne is the least of his worries tonight.  

 

Anton returns to his trailer and catches Natalia draining Stephie. He’s freaking out at this point as people are looking for Stephie and they’re saying they might not let the carnival leave until she’s found. And he’s worried that when they wake up, they’ll tell everyone what happened, and they’ll be done for. Natalia rather coldly says they’ll just have to stop them from waking up. Anton says he won’t do it. Natalia says that he just wants her to suffer, he tells her to grow up and she throws him across the room and into a cabinet that falls onto him. He says he can’t feel his legs, and when he asks her to go for help, she asks him who’s being a baby now.

 

We see that Dr. Thompkins and the children are looking for all three of the missing kids now. Batman watches them from above when a little girl reveals another kid, Carrie (Juliet Donenfield), has gone missing too. Batman heads out to investigate. He finds Waylon Jones first and grabs him by the throat, he asks where the plant from Dr. Night’s act is. Waylon tries to play dumb out of loyalty to the carnival, but Batman tells him “try again” and it’s implied he kicked his ass.

 

Meanwhile, Harvey meets with Thorne and gets a briefcase full of money. Thorne tells Harvey that this money and some bad press he’s planting about Mayor Jessop should push him over the top. As Harvey goes to leave, Rupert stops him and tells him that he’s going to drop the charges on a case he has tomorrow against Matt Milligan, an associate of Thorne’s. Harvey says he can’t do that. Thorne tells him to just say the cops lost evidence as that’ll be true soon enough. Harvey is adamant that he won’t as Milligan duped thousands of Gothamites out of their life savings. Rupert isn’t budging. Harvey says he wants to be mayor to reform the city, but Rupert tells him that if he wants to do that he needs to play ball now. And insists that this is a good deal for him. Harvey hands the money to his aide and then notices the bus full of kids still waiting. Inside, Thompkins is looking after the children she has. Harvey asks what’s going on and a very stressed-out Thompkins says she’s got kids missing and it seems like his aides won’t call the cops for fear of a scandal. Harvey apologizes for blowing her off earlier and says he’ll call the cops himself. She says to also look out for Bruce Wayne as he’s missing too.

 

Batman finds the trailer and the three kids passed out inside. All three look pale as sheets. He then finds Anton, who is still pinned under the chest. He tells Batman that Natalia did it, but the kids will recover with time. She’s got a ‘rare condition’ of some kind but he found a treatment for her that involves draining the vitality out of others. He says that it makes her stronger, too, but she’s lost control. He asks Batman to forgive her as she’s just a child, he tells her to get her inside before sunrise or she’ll die before he dies himself.

 

We cut to the forest outside the carnival. Carrie is shooting cans with a slingshot. Natalia arrives and asks why she’s by herself. Carrie says that she’s waiting for the kidnapper, to use herself as bait and then hit them with her slingshot. Natalia asks to try it but says she can’t see the cans so well and maybe they can try shooting at the gallery. Carrie says the Carnival is closed but Natalia insists it isn’t for her. Carrie hears Dr. Thompkins calling out for her and wants to go back but Natalia won’t let her go. Carrie grabs her sling shot and Natalia grabs her and starts draining. Carrie punches her in the stomach and runs. In frustration, Natalia knocks over a tree and draws Batman’s attention.

 

Carrie runs deep into the woods and hides behind a log. Natalia chases her and lifts the log to freak her out. Batman arrives and stops her, pulling her away from Carrie. Natalia plays up being a child to draw Batman in and throws him.  She notes that he has so much energy with a hungry look in her eyes. Batman says he doesn’t want to hurt her, and she says he won’t. Natalia is stronger and faster than Batman right now, slamming him into a tree and beating him senseless. He says that he wants to save her as he promised Anton. Natalia says that Anton will forgive her, he always does. She starts to drain Batman, but Carrie hits her in the mouth with her slingshot. While distracted Batman tells her that Anton is dead. She starts crying as she realized she murdered her brother. The sun comes up and it causes Natalia’s skin to burn. Batman tries to shield her but she pushes him away and says to leave her. Batman says he can’t but Carrie points out they could. When he gives her a flat look, she points out that Natalia is a monster. Batman covers Natalia in his cape and he and the two girls head for the carnival, Carrie grabbing Batman’s cape as they go.

 

Later at the hospital, Carrie describes her exploits to Dickie, Jace, and Stephie. When she describes hitting Natalia in the face with a slingshot shot, Jace doesn’t believe it, but Dr. Thompkins confirms it. Bruce who’d been standing with her marvels at the resilience of children. He asks how Natalia is doing, and Thompkins says she’s in the secure wing and they’re studying her condition. Thompkins thanks him for his help but Bruce insists he’d just been beaten up by the bearded lady.

 

At the courthouse, the judge asks Harvey if he wishes to drop the charges against Milligan. Harvey, looking concerned, says that no, he will not, and that he wants the defendant held without bail. Milligan is taken away, shouting that Dent is going to pay for this. As Harvey heads to the men’s room, reporters follow him and asks if he really thinks he can pull a head with just one day to go. Harvey insists it’s still anyone’s race. He washes his hands in the bathroom before being attacked by Thorne’s man Tony, who throws acid in his face saying this is what happens to double crossers.  

 

Imagine the bad luck of being a kidnapper in Gotham that grabs not one, not two, not three, but four Robins. Okay, so they’re more than likely just homages but yeah, all four of Natalia’s victims are nods to four Robins. Dickie is obviously Richard “Dick” Grayson, the OG Robin; Jace is Jason Todd, the Second Robin and current Red Hood; Stephie is Stephanie Brown, the fourth Robin and third Batgirl; and Carrie is Carrie Kelley, the future Robin from Frank Millers award wining Dark Knight Returns graphic novels. If you’re wondering why they skipped over the third Robin, Tim Drake, as far as I’m aware they used the excuse that he’s actually the only Robin that isn’t an orphan. From what I’ve read, show runner Bruce Timm isn’t interested in bringing any Robin into the story anytime soon (which is so odd when Robin was working with Batman during the entire Golden Age of Comics where this series draws inspiration), so I don’t expect to see any of them again anytime soon. Still, it was nice to see the nod. And it’s funny to me to think that if this episode is any indicator, the Robin they’d go with based on their action here is Carrie. She’s the only one of Natalia’s victims to put up a fight and she directly saved Batman here. Like… I don’t think it’s wrong to give one of the lesser adapted Robins a chance to shine… but Richard Grayson is right there and he is THE Robin. It was also nice to see the show draw attention to Bruce’s philanthropy in Gotham and how funding the orphanage is one of the more important causes to him. Natalia was an interesting villain choice. From what I’ve read, Bruce Timm has wanted to do a story centered on her since the original Batman: The Animated Series back in 1993 but Fox vetoed any attempt at using the character. Timm had wanted to do a version of her that is more or less a vampire and Fox was extremely against it. Which is so odd considering their attempt at censoring Spider-Man’s vampire Michael Morbius was honestly more horrifying than just letting him suck blood with his fangs. If you know, you know. I liked this version of her though. Does she come across as an emotionless monster for most of it? yes. But at the end of the day she’s really just a bratty child, high on her power and not thinking about the consequences of her actions. And it seems she does legit need to take in the vitality of others to survive, it’s just she’s overindulging to get her strength up. Her breaking down and sobbing when she realizes she killed her brother was a nice touch, it humanized someone they’d made quite monstrous at this point. Sad that her brother died, but it’s good she’s getting treated. I was not expecting them to start the Two-Face story here. I was sure Harvey would get disfigured in the finale and Harvey Two-Face would be a major villain for season two. That said, I did like that, while this version of Harvey is less of a white knight than in other versions, that even he still has limits as to what can slide. Would he take a criminal’s money to get elected? Yes. But he wouldn’t let a truly awful man like Milligan get away with his crimes to do it. Shame about his face though. Oh and Croc’s cameo and the Gray Ghost nod was nice too. For those that don’t recognize the name, the Gray Ghost is an in-universe fictional superhero that young Bruce is a fan of. He’s also a nod to the Shadow, one of the original superheroes of our world and an inspiration for Batman. No joke, Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger said as much, Finger going on to say that the original Batman story “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” was based on a Shadow story “Partners in Peril.” Next time, we see the fallout from the acid spray. See you then. 

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