Recap / Batman: The Animated Series E19 "Prophecy of Doom"

A luxury cruise ship sinks two days into its voyage; unknown to its passengers, it's due to a planted bomb. One of the passengers turns out to be a friend of Bruce Wayne's, who says he should have seen the danger coming because of a prophet named Nostromos, who has predicted similar incidents in recent history. His daughter Lisa, however, is incredibly skeptical and makes her concerns known, even suggesting to Bruce that Nostromos might be directly involved in each incident. An investigation on the Bat-computer reveals that Nostromos is a fraud, but after foiling an attempt on his own life, Bruce Wayne pretends to join Nostromos' "Brotherhood" to investigate what he's planning. Lisa is fed up that even Bruce has fallen for Nostromos' charm and tries breaking in to the planetarium they meet at, only to end up kidnapped and used as a hostage. Batman ends up saving both her and her father from a planetary model death trap while catching Nostromos in its remains, and the episode ends at Wayne Manor, with the men remarking how they let the fear of the unknown get the best of them.

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Tropes:

• Agent Scully: Lisa knew from the start that Nostromos is a phony.
  Lisa: Call me crazy, but sometimes I think the reason his predictions come true is because he makes them happen.
• Apocalypse How: What Nostormos claims the "Great Fall" to be (a Class 0).
• Arbitrary Skepticism: What Bruce acts like upon seeing Nostromos. Hearing this, Nostromos predicts that misfortune will befall Bruce.
• Artistic License – Economics: Batman estimates that Nostromos has collected around $300 million from his followers under the pretense that the nest egg will be used to rebuild society post-economic collapse. Even setting aside the likelihood that fiat currency won't be worth anything in such a society, a mere $300 million wouldn't even come close to rebuilding a single city, much less all of America's infrastructure. Of course, since Nostromos' entire plan is built around scamming gullible rich people, it's fair to say that the numbers aren't supposed to make sense.
• Artistic License – Geography: This one is a little petty, since the drawing was meant to be shown in motion on a little 1990s' cathodic TV. However, if you watch the episode with newer technology, just don't look at the Earth globe in the planetarium for too long.
• Bald of Evil: Turns out Nostromos's long black hair is a wig.
• Berserk Button: Bruce being "fooled" into joining the Brotherhood is the last straw for Lisa, who already has to deal with her father falling for it, motivating her to take direct action against Nostromos.
• Bloodless Carnage: In one scene Batman throws a batarang that lodges itself into a criminal's leg. However, due to censorship, no blood was shown.
• Bound and Gagged: In the climax of the episode, it is revealed by Nostromos that Lisa is gagged and tied down to the planetarium's model of Mars, and will be crushed by being smashed into another planet, unless her father complies with his demands.
• Damsel in Distress: Lisa Clark, after getting caught by Nostromos' henchman Lucas.
• Elevator Escape: The prophet's henchman tries to kill Bruce Wayne by cutting the cable. It would have succeeded, too, had Bruce not been wearing his Batman costume under his suit and armed with a Batgrapple at the time.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Right before Bruce Wayne enters the sabotaged elevator, a guard walks by and mentions that a repairman just stopped by to do a check-up on it.
• Ghostly Glide: Nostromos' prediction that "The Great Fall" has begun is accompanied by him floating around and the images of violent crime on the walls, which an intruding Lisa sees is caused by invisible wiring and Lucas operating the planetarium's controls shortly before her capture.
• Hand Gagging: Happens to Lisa when she is caught by Lucas for snooping around
• Hollywood Acid: A small vial's worth is enough to dissolve the steel cables holding up an elevator car in less than a minute.
• Hypocritical Humor: Nostromos immediately switches from angrily ranting about how Bruce Wayne escaped from a sabotaged elevator to picking up the phone with a serene greeting of "Peace".
• Indy Escape: Nostromos flees down the planetarium's main aisle, so Batman cuts the orrery's giant hollow globe of the Earth loose to roll after him. It actually does hit him, but is hollow and fragile enough that it shatters, knocking him down just long enough to be caught.
• No Ontological Inertia: The planetary simulator starts falling apart during Batman's fight with Lucas on top of it, but doesn't completely shut down until Lisa is safe.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Lisa's father tells her to hush whenever she (rightfully) criticizes Nostromos' predictions.
• The Mole: Bruce himself joins the cult in order to investigate it. It unfortunately also fools Lisa, which spurns her to take action that results in her becoming a Damsel in Distress.
• Phony Psychic: Nostromos, f.k.a. Carl Fowler.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Lucas, fighting with Batman inside a giant model planet, boasts, "you're about to fall out of orbit, Batman!" before unleashing a devastating roundhouse kick - which misses completely.
• Scam Religion: Forming a cult to trick gullible people out of their money pretty much describes Nostromos' whole scheme.
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Bruce quotes Julius Caesar at the end of the episode.
  As the bard once said, the fault lies not in the stars, but in ourselves.^note The original quote: Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Bruce pretends to have realized Nostromos was right and begs forgiveness. Nostromos, who wanted Bruce to actually die in order to scare the rest of the "Brotherhood" into giving him more money, uses this to his advantage.
• Waxing Lyrical: Nostromos tells Ethan Clark he "sees a bad moon rising". This is a reference to the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Bad Moon Rising".

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