Batman Beyond S02E07-09 Review: Love, Drugs and Rats

Batman Beyond, Season 2, Episode 7: Once Burned; Episode 8: Hooked Up; Episode 9: Rats

Episode 7: Once Burned
 Three episodes this time around. "Once Burned" is... an interesting one. It features the return of Melanie, or Ten of the Royal Flush Gang, attempting to steal money from a particularly high-stakes poker game called the Derby by a bunch of high-class criminals, and Batman ends up coming in-between both criminals to stop them from killing each other.

And the main conflict of this episode, of course, is the fact that Ten knows and trusts Terry McGinnis, but absolutely loathes his alter-ego of Batman. They are certainly trying to make Ten into Terry's Catwoman, huh? The difference, of course, is the odd juggling act between Terry and Melanie's relationship. Unlike Bruce Wayne, Terrry actually has a girlfriend that he's going out steadily with, so having a girl-of-the-week, as Max points out, isn't really feasible without making Terry look like an ass. On the other hand, they sure got a lot of mileage out of that scene where Melanie sneaks into Terry's room when no one's at home, huh? The episode definitely tries to imply something when the two kissed on the bed while Melanie's moving in pretty sensual positions. And the cutaway! Damn it Terry, you've got a girlfriend!

Melanie tells Terry that her family's been kidnapped by the Jokerz, and she needs to steal money from the Derby to secure their release. Since Bruce doesn't approve or trust Ten (although Bruce's one to talk) Terry ends up getting Max to help out in finding out more about the Derby. Batman stops Ten from stealing again, and manages to convince that he's going to help break her family out. While this is going on, Ten also gives Batman a note to pass on to Terry in case she doesn't make it.

Speaking of which... the Jokerz base here actually looks genuinely impressive. So far the series hasn't actually given us much to believe that the Jokerz are just a bunch of disorganized teenage punks around maybe twenty man strong or something, but them actually having an entire base with a whole lot of Jokerz (including a cameo from every single Jokerz gang member who's shown up in the show, other than Terminal) is actually a pretty impressive setpiece that makes it a lot more believable that they can take down another supervillain team.

Ten ends up betraying Batman and leaving him behind to fend off the Jokerz, while Ten goes back to rob the Derby successfully. Turns out that Ten's family held themselves ransom in order to force Ten to prove her loyalty and that the Jokerz were never involved. Ten is pretty understandably devastated and furious that her family thinks so little of her... but at this point, Batman has arrived (followed swiftly by the Derby gangsters and the police) to take them down. Unfortunately, Ten slinks away while everyone is fighting, not trusting Batman enough -- and, to be fair, Batman was looking pretty angry.

The end of the episode is a bit of a downer, too. Nevermind the very odd implication that Terry apparently kept some of the money from the loot that Ten stole (which might just me misreading the scene), but Terry just crumples and tosses away Ten's note. I dunno. This is an episode that has a lot of very memorable scenes, and a very solid story. It's just that the execution is a bit... wobbly. Easily still one of the stronger episodes in season two so far, which speaks to just how engaging Ten is as a character to me, but on the other hand they just never focus too much on any single aspect of Ten's characterization to really give us a truly great story. Yes, Ten argues with her parents for the needless and frankly insulting test, but that's just a short scene. Yes, there's the bit where Batman feels betrayed by Ten, but it's just glossed over. Yes, there's the bit where Terry seems to be seriously considering Melanie as a romantic partner, but it's sort of glossed over by his interactions as Batman. Yes, the worldbuilding with the Derby and the Jokerz are very cool, but that's also just kind of secondary in importance. I dunno. It's not a bad episode, but I feel like they could've done more to make it more solid.
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Episode 8: Hooked Up

This one is... all right? I feel like it's a bit of a less exciting episode than Max's first outing as a supporting character in the new Bat-family. The fact that there's so much heavy-handed speech on Spellbinder's virtual world and the pleasure it gives while going "it's addiction! But we're not talking about drugs, honest!" is a bit grating, too.

And there are certainly some great moments here. The actual depictions of the virtual worlds -- particularly for that of character-of-the-week Donny, who has a terrible home life; as well as the hints and exploration that Max comes from a family that essentially neglects her emotionally... those are pretty well-done. The idea of an episode that focuses on Max wanting to be more involved in superheroics is also an interesting one.

Ultimately, though... I really don't think that the episode paid off all that well. For all of Max's excitement and gung-ho attitude about being a new sidekick to Batman, she kind of... gets way over in her head multiple times, huh? Can't fault her for not being able to get into Donny's house, but her getting over her head despite Terry's warnings in the VR club is kind of eye-rolling. At least she gets to help Terry take out Spellbinder in the end with a little acrobatic swing, but... I dunno. I feel like they could've done it a bit better to make her feel so much better. I don't think that the episode was a great showcase for Max either proving her worth or showing her competence.

Speaking of competence... what about Spellbinder's plan in this episode, huh? He uses VR technology to overwhelm random kids that he kidnaps with good memories and gets them to live fantasies of their best lives, which puts them in his control so that he can... send them to panhandle or to steal wallets? It's not even strictly mind-control, just dependence and addiction, so there's not even anything to stop any given arrested kid from selling Spellbinder's operation out. For how spooky Spellbinder was in his original appearance, this is just actually kind of sad.
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Episode 9: Rats
And then there's this episode, which is just plain weird. The concept behind this episode is very solid, and it's one that Spider-Man comics have had a lot of mileage out of. Terry McGinnins, in addition to being Batman of the Future, is also a high-school student going on dates with his girlfriend. And as anyone who's dated in high school can tell you... you can't really expect to bail on dates all the time and keep your girlfriend (or boyfriend) happy. And when Terry, who's already red hot in relationship trouble, ends up getting called out to handle a crazy bomber called Mad Stan when he's about to show up for a make-up date with a very angry Dana? It's the sort of superhero story that I personally find to be very played out, but at the same time it's also a staple for a reason. Hell, in an ideal universe, this might even be the fallout of Dana suspecting Terry of cheating on her with Melanie or something as a way to tie this to "Once Burned". But even without that, it's still at least an interesting setup.

...except it doesn't really pay off on anything. While "Once Burned" and "Hooked Up" at least shows us a lot of what the writers wanted to convey with the episode, albeit in truncated versions, "Rats" ends up going off on a tangent where Dana gets stalked by a creepy sewer Morlock rat-boy, kidnapped and brought to his lair, and when Dana manages to trick Ratboy to going out and stealing some tacos or whatever for her, she goes off and Assassin's Creeds her way through the absurdly dangerous sewer, doing everything in her mini-dress.

Dana fails to escape, turns out Ratboy is a lunatic who fed any of his kidnapped girlfriends that doesn't like him to his rats, but Batman shows up and saves Dana. Ratboy seems to die in the exploding flames (???) and Dana... just forgives Terry, who shows up later? The audience knows Terry is Batman so in the audience's mind he redeems himself, but shouldn't it be that as far as Dana is concerned, Terry being super-late is arguably the reason she encountered Ratboy in the first place?

There are some good parts of this episode that still made it enjoyable, of course. Mad Stan's dialogue is so hilarious and off-kilter. The addition of Dana's dad, even if he isn't relevant to the episode, is neat. And the huge role for Dana, who's literally been eye candy for the past twenty episodes or so, is welcome. It's just such a shame that Dana's first real spotlight episode is a very lame X-Men Morlock ripoff story.