Batman Beyond S01E04 Review: Bullied Kid

Batman Beyond, Season 1, Episode 4: Golem

An... interesting episode of Batman Beyond. It's one of the more school-centric ones, which tends to be an episode that I don't particularly care for, and I remembered not liking this episode at all as a kid, thinking of Willie Watt as a whiny, piece of shit. And he kind of is, but the subtleties of how far bullying and parental abuse can go to make a young kid's mind snap is lost on younger-me, so watching this episode as an adult, it's... it's a lot harder to see Willie slowly devolve into an actual psychopath. And I do like how the episode muddles things up a little by not showing Willie as a full victim. Terry and Dana try at multiple points to reach a hand to Willie, and he's shown to at least have vengeful and creepy tendencies of his own, so he's not quite a mild-mannered, tortured geek lashing out at an oppressive world.

Of course, when all he knew was showing off power through strength, with his distant father berating him for being such a weak-willed loser, and how his life in school consists of being pushed around by local bully Nelson and rejected and forgotten by local hottie Blade Summer -- and Blade only agrees to take Willie to the prom just to spite Nelson -- and it's hard not to feel sorry for him.

Of course, Willie ends up taking things into his own hands. His father is a construction foreman, and in 2039 apparently they use giant, telepathically-controlled robots called GoLeM's for heavy lifting, because that is so much more practical than a regular bulldozer. Regardless, Willie takes the whole "hit him where it hurts" mentality, steal the GoLeM, and use it to terrorize Nelson at a club.

In the midst of testing the stealth mode abilities of his Batsuit (it's kind of a new toy feature every episode, huh) Batman ends up rescuing Nelson and Blade from the rampaging Golem, but the resulting electrical shock from Batman shoving the Golem into a bunch of wiring cables apparently gets transferred through the wireless link and fries Willie's brain, later showing us that he can apparently control the Golem despite not wearing the equipment. It's a bit of bizarre sci-fi nonsense that is particularly inexplicable if you think about it too hard... but then again, this is the DC universe.

Willie goes on Blade to the prom, and Willie being kind of antisocial and fumbling things up ends up causing Blade to be willing to hook up with Nelson again... and Nelson just straight up throws Willie into the pier, which is pretty fucking brutal even for a bully, and Nelson goes full megalomaniacal, unleashing the Golem on the carnival. At this point, even if Willie was sympathetic, he's way too dangerous to be contained, refuses offers from Dana to take her home, and is just willing to murder both Nelson and his dad (who happened to be there because plot reasons). Eventually, the Golem is destroyed in combat, and Willie is arrested and thrown in jail, where he apparently still has his powers.

Also, we do get a couple of more... mature moments in Batman Beyond. The DCAU shows have always snuck in some risque jokes here and there, but between Blade's outfit, Willie straight-up being told off for groping Blade's hip in the prom, and Nelson none-too-subtly hinting that Blade go on a ride on something that's not on his car... it's honestly pretty neat to go and watch these new episodes and see the things I missed out when I was a lot more innocent and naive.

Ultimately, though, it's... it's a pretty damn complex episode, and I really do love just how this otherwise simple villain-of-the-week episode got me thinking real, real hard at the fact that everyone in this episode is honestly sort of a horrible person, but at the same time you can really understand what their intentions are. I'm surprised that I ended up really liking this episode, honestly.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Frank Watt gets thrown into a bunch of carnival dolls that look like a cross between Marvel villains MODOK and Arnim Zola.