Review: The first two acts of "Two-Face, Part II" from BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

[about_faces]

Part I reviewed here!

Two-Face, Part II is a decidedly different beast from the first episode, one that feels more complimentary than a proper continuation. And not to make it sound like I dislike the episode--because I don't, I love it--but nonetheless, it's largely inferior.

Part I was both a refreshingly psychological take on Harvey's descent

Comments

[anonymous]

This is one of the most astonishingly boring 30 minutes of TV I've ever seen. BTAS unfortunately produced a lot of these.

Love the interminably long scene of safety-conscious Batman putting on his bike helmet. Don't want to give kids the wrong idea! And why does he only ever use his Batcycle in awful weather? That makes no sense! And I never realised how beautiful those nightmare backgrounds were until seeing the screencaps here. Pity about the awful overall animation, though. Pretty sure I'm rambling at this point, but to sum up: this is a shitty, boring, obvious episode, and really punches holes in assertions that this show was "intelligent" and "adult".

[martin_l_gore]

Hey, if I had a helmet that snazzy I'd also ride my motorbike independent of the current weather.

[about_faces]

Hell, I'd leave it on while going about my day-to-day errands. Biker Batman is going to get groceries now!

[about_faces]

Well, we have to remember that they were for kids, and while they were very adult by the standards of most of all the other cartoons of the era (see the maturity of the previous episode as a great example), we have to give them some leeway. Personally, I really don't think the bike helmet bit took up so much time that I noticed it, especially since it quickly gave way to a good dialogue exchange between Bruce and Alfred. Also, did he ever ride the Batcycle without the helmet? I don't recall.

[psychopathicus]

I think the inference is that Harvey obtained and scratched up the coin after he became Two-Face, not before. While the gangsterish tossing of a coin was Big Bad Harv's trademark, I never got any particular indication that the coin itself was anything special - it was the action of the flipping, not the coin, that was important, indicating that Harv was in control. The symbolism of the coin itself would have had any relevance to Harv pre-accident, since as you noted, he at that point didn't have any obsession with duality. (Plus, we never got to see the coin in the first episode, which I think we would have had its two-sidedness been important at that point.) Anyway, he couldn't have taken that particular coin with him, since when he escaped out the hospital window, he was dressed only in a hospital outfit - if his "special coin" had been important, it would have still been in the jacket he was wearing when he was admitted, and we would have seen him go back for it, instead of just escaping

[about_faces]

Well, he couldn't have obtained the coin after the fact, since I think we're meant to assume that the coin is the same as the one he was seen flipping in On Leather Wings and Part I. Especially the later, since he kept it in his coat pocket, as if that's where it belonged. I'm fairly sure that it has to be special rather than just any coin, since as you'll see in the final part, the climax hinges on it being his own one and only coin. But that is a good point that it might not be the same coin, since he'd have to go back for his clothes. Unless his clothes were already in his hospital room, and he snatched it on his way out. I can see him doing that in his trauma, just to have something to hold onto emotionally and physically.

That he scratched it up himself after the fact, though, that would make sense, since that's what his comics counterpart did all the way up to Eye of the Beholder, where it was damaged by the acid itself (also like in The Dark Knight). Years later, Ty Templeton came up with a powerful explanation for the coin,

[psychopathicus]

What I meant was that I'm not sure the coin is supposed to be the same one as in episode one, though. You will note that at the beginning of this episode we get a nice clear close-up of it, something that we never got in the previous one - if it were a two-headed coin he was flipping there, I'm pretty sure that would have been focused on to show the roots of the duality obsession. Instead, it's been emphasized (in the episode novelization, anyway) that Big Bad Harv didn't have any sort of duality issues, that those came later, and that Harv was in fact subsumed into the duality-obsessed Two-Face. It made sense for the bullying Harv to idly flip around a coin, as that's a properly gangsterish, tough guy thing to do - it doesn't really make sense for said coin to be two-headed, since Harv couldn't care less about duality issues. My theory is that the coin-flipping obsession itself comes from Harv, but not the two-headedness or the scratches inflicted upon it - that coin was acquired and scratched up after the fact, it seems to me. (

[lego_joker]

I typed up a theory on Harvey's obsession with twos a while back, but I think that you shot it down as being "only suitable for the Silver Age" or somesuch

[about_faces]

Did I? That sounds mean of me. If you don't mind risking a second shoot-down, what was it again?

Thorne really does look all plump and roly-poly here, doesn't he? I never noticed just how fat they made him until this episode. Kinda like the Kingpin, except that the fat isn't muscle but actual fat.

Y'know, silliness aside, I actually really like Nothing to Fear, especially that Scarecrow. I like his voice and manner. He's melodramatic and enjoys his work. And yeah, you're right, the guilt there is a bit different than the guilt here, but oh my god, I'm so tired of Bruce Guilt in general that any guilt he has with his parents kinda blurs together.

Nuclear Iran, no opinions about either way.

Limbaugh is a fucking asshole.

DCAU Penguin is wonderful, but misused in all episodes save Birds of a Feather and Almost Got 'Im. I love the redesign, but Williams voice works much better for the DeVito design

[lego_joker]

I gotta get to bed. I'll dig up the post tomorrow.

And on the Penguin:

I agree on Almost Got 'im, but I would submit Joker's Millions over Birds of a Feather as the one other exception to the "misuse" rule.

My memories are hazy, but Birds of a Feather portrayed a Penguin that was sympathetic... without the "sym" part. I mean, Veronica's charade seemed crushingly, almost insultingly transparent (reformed or not, someone as smart as Ozzie should've seen through it way sooner), and I think that the writers really laid it on too thick with Penguin's "faults". Not to go all Lit Student on you, but it really had all the potential for a Great Gatsby-style theme - that the Penguin genuinely tries to imitate all the manners of "sane" high society as closely as he can, but they still reject him.

Joker's Millions... that was classic Penguin, the only man in Gotham who seems genuinely at-ease in the Joker's presence, who casually asks Joker how he plans to screw over Batman this time like it's normal for Joker to discuss plans with him.

[lego_joker]

Okay, found it:

On another note... I've been kicking around an idea concerning Harvey's "#2" fetish. Ready

[surrealname]

arthur is voiced by mickey dolenz?

[about_faces]

Indeed! Until season two or so, when he was replaced by Rob Paulsen. I love Paulsen's voice, because he's one of the great voices of our childhoods, but I always preferred Dolenz.

[surrealname]

can i have detective mini-skirt librarian for my birthday? ill take really good care of her, i promise.

[about_faces]

I figured you'd like that.