[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batman_tas_s01e23_the_forgotten_0001.png]]
Bruce Wayne goes undercover to investigate disappearances of homeless people. He gets kidnapped and ends up in a slave camp with amnesia.

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!!Tropes in this episode include:
* ADayInTheLimelight: After Bruce is kidnapped, Alfred's efforts to find him become the focus of the B plot, allowing him to show off some sleuthing skills of his own. Then he flies to Bruce's rescue in the Batwing.
* AmnesiaDanger: Bruce forgets that he's Batman, along with most of the skills that could allow him to easily escape the slave camp. While he handles himself just fine against a few of the guards, when he gets locked in a PunishmentBox, he doesn't escape until his memories return, at which point he marshals the strength to bust the box open.
* AmnesiacLiar: For much of the episode, Bruce thinks that he's just another homeless man who's been swept up in Boss Biggis's operation, since that's the persona he had adopted when he was kidnapped.
* BadBoss: Boss Biggis threatens to put his own men to work in the mines for allowing Bruce to escape.
* CartoonishSupervillainy: Boss Biggis and his lackeys are one-note stock villains without any personality or depth to them. They're just there to give a face to those who victimize the homeless that Batman can punch.
* CatScare: Bruce turns into a dark, foggy alley, ominous music plays...and a black cat pops out of a trash can, knocking the lid to the ground and prompting a relieved chuckle from Bruce. Then the kidnappers step out of the mist.
* CardboardPrison: The sweatbox Bruce and Riley were put in -- Bruce manages to break it open just by hitting it hard enough.
* CruelMercy: When Biggis accidentally sets fire to a pile of explosive-filled crates, Batman is quick to get him out of the mine, and then to drag him to shore when their escape lands them in a nearby lake. While Batman's [[ThouShaltNotKill moral code wouldn't have let him abandon the man to die anyway]], his words to Biggis in the aftermath imply there are some shades of this involved.
-->'''Biggis:''' Don't let me drown!\\
'''Batman:''' When you taste the prison food, you'll wish I had.
* DeadpanSnarker: Weirdly enough, the ''Batwing'': when Alfred has the plane's autopilot computer take him to the secret labor camp where Batman is being held prisoner, the plane locates Batman but can't find a safe place to land. Alfred demands that the "bucket of bolts" land them at once, to which the Batwing replies, "Your funeral." It even tells Alfred to "watch [his] step" getting out after the harrowing landing.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The scenes in the mines during the climax render the characters in black-and-white to signify the minimal lighting.
* DisposableVagrant: Batman involves himself in a city-wide kidnapping and forced labor plot because the police are too busy to bother with homeless people disappearing. Biggis likewise treats his enslaved workers horribly, subjecting them to long hours, unsafe working conditions, and throwing them into [[PunishmentBox tiny metal boxes left out under the desert sun]] for the slightest insubordination--or even just to make a point to his "new recruits."
* EasyAmnesia: Thanks to a TapOnTheHead, Bruce forgets everything about his life, and believes himself to be just another homeless man kidnapped and put to work. When Dan Riley mentions that he has family back in Gotham, thoughts of Bruce's parents unlock the rest of his memories and Batman immediately sets to work escaping, then liberating the other slaves.
* EurekaMoment: Bruce remembers his identity upon Dan angrily shouting that he lost his family due to his kidnapping, triggering Bruce's memory of losing his own family.
* FatBastard: One-Shot villain Boss Biggis. Morbidly obese (the voice-actor actually ate while recording his lines to give the proper feel for the character) and running an actual slave labor camp, naturally, so he doesn't have to do or pay for any work himself.
* FatSlob: Biggs has atrocious manners (as far as table manners and general cleanliness go), to say the least.
* FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit: Boss Biggis provides the trope image.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Boss Biggis, a FatBastard who runs a slave camp rather than do any honest work, complains about his slaves' productivity while sitting on his big fat ass and chowing down on a sandwich.
-->'''Boss Biggis:''' I've never seen such lazy scum.
* JabbaTableManners: Almost every line from villain Boss Biggis is grumbled through a mouthful of half-chewed food.
* KillThePoor: A slavery ring snatches homeless people off the streets of Gotham City and flies them to some stiflingly hot badlands far out west, where they are forced to mine gold under dangerous conditions and are locked in sweat boxes if they offer the least resistance. As one of the captives puts it: "I used to be one of Gotham's unemployed. Now I got a job -- [[SarcasmMode lucky me!]]"
* LetsGetDangerous: When Riley and Bruce are in the Box together, Riley despairs that he'll never see his son again. This sets off Bruce's memories of losing ''his'' family, whereupon the Batman wakes up and prepares to kick ass.
-->'''Batman''': Riley, you've got to pull it together. We're getting out of here!\\
'''Riley''': ''[laughs]'' Yeah, right! You're the one who's losing it!\\
'''Batman''': ''[kicks right through steel wall of box]''
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Gotham City's homeless population is made up mostly of adult men, with only a few woman and no children in sight. As it turns out, this was enforced by [[Trivia/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE8TheForgotten BS&P executives]], who forbade the writers from showing anyone other than men as homeless (although a few women slipped through).
* MistakenIdentity:
** Prior to the beginning of the episode, Dan Riley had a stable job and volunteered at the homeless shelter in his spare time. Biggis's men mistook him for one of the homeless people seeking refuge there and kidnapped him.
** Bruce invokes this, posing as a homeless man looking for a place to spend the night in the hope of attracting the attention of whoever is responsible for the disappearances. It works [[GoneHorriblyRight a little]] [[EasyAmnesia too well]].
* MookHorrorShow: Batman leads the villains into Biggis's mine and begins picking them off one by one in the dark.
* MouthCam: When the Boss eats a sandwich.
* NonActionBigBad: Justified; Boss Biggis's obese body would make him unlikely to last in a fight. So when he's run out of men to protect him from Batman, he panics.
* NoOSHACompliance: The chain-gang Bruce gets shanghaied into has workers in a mine without lights, helmets, or any sort of safety equipment. A cave-in nearly kills him soon after he arrives, and his fellow gang members remark that they happen all the time. [[JustifiedTrope The mine is being operated illegally and the operators do not care if their employees live or die]], since they are grabbing them off the street.
* NonSequiturThud: Alfred after landing the Batwing.
-->'''Alfred:''' [[ClaimingViaFlag I claim this land for]] ''[[ClaimingViaFlag Spain]]''!
* OhCrap: Biggis' eyes go pretty wide when he realizes Batman's found his operation, and he frantically grabs his shotgun right away.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Alfred's first clue that something has gone wrong is Bruce's failure to return by morning after heading out for his usual nightly escapades. As he puts it, "only vampires loathe daylight more than Batman."
* PluckyComicRelief: Salvo Smith keeps his spirits up in the slave mine through humor.
-->'''Dan Riley:''' Don't mind him. Every chain gang has a comedian.
* PunishmentBox: The main punishment for failure to work (or in one case, insulting Biggis) is being placed in a metal box, which sits out in the open under the desert sun.
* SingleTear: Bruce fells one in his dream, wherein he is trying to give money to the destitute citizens of Gotham, and discovers that he simply doesn't have enough money to hand out to all of them.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Biggis not only uses {{Disposable Vagrant}}s as slave labor, he treats said vagrants like garbage.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Gotham City is a steel-clad, faux-1940s metropolis, so you'd expect to hear overly dramatic classical music (which we do) or else jazz and/or showtunes (which we sometimes do). But in this episode the action shifts to some sort of arid, rocky landscape out west (could be South Dakota, or maybe Wyoming) so that Batman can capture some corrupt hicks who have kidnapped and enslaved homeless people in order to mine gold. The hicks' theme is as "frontier" as all-get-out, with rapidly-played harmonicas and a booming basso guitar straight out of a Western movie.
* TapOnTheHead: A kidnapper sneaks up behind Bruce with a cosh, leading to unconsciousness and EasyAmnesia. Just think; that guy will never know he just took down ''Batman.''
* {{Tuckerization}}: One of Biggis' men is named Paur, a reference to series writer/director Frank Paur.
* VerySpecialEpisode: This episode was written by Sean Catherine Derek, a story editor who made a shtick out of turning all the BTAS episodes she worked on into these. In this case, her social commentary of the day was on homelessness, a message that was undercut by the CartoonishSupervillainy of her antagonists and the higher-ups mandating that only men be shown as homeless.
* VillainOfTheWeek: Biggis never appeared again after this episode. Being an ordinary (if very unpleasant) man, it's likely he was sentenced and never caused any trouble again.
* VillainousGlutton: Boss Biggis is never seen without food in his hands.
* WholePlotReference: ''Film/CoolHandLuke'' except "Luke" is secretly ''Batman.''
* WithMyHandsTied: Bruce fights off two of Biggis's kidnappers without even taking his hands out of his pockets, mostly by [[NonchalantDodge Nonchalantly Dodging]] their clumsy blows so that they hurt their hands punching stuff behind him, with a bit of kicking and tripping thrown in. But then a third guy sneaks up behind him and knocks him out.
** Fighting like this has a degree of FridgeLogic behind it - it's a way to keep his fighting style distinct from Batman's. Bruce doesn't know who's been doing the kidnappings so has to take precautions in case it's someone he's dealt with in the past.
* WrongGenreSavvy: When trying to take out Batman in the mines, Boss Biggis orders his men to turn off the lights aside from their helmets, figuring that would give them the advantage. Batman, of course, has no trouble at all moving about in the dark and picking off men who have made targets out of themselves by placing the only light sources on their heads.
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->'''Smith''': Hit me, Riley.\\
'''Riley''': Hit you? Why?\\
'''Smith''': Maybe I'll lose my memory and wake up a millionaire too.
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