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 4th 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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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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