History Recap / BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE7POV

* PoorCommunicationKills: All three officers would have been spared a lot of grief if Bullock had been more honest in his version of events. Gordon lampshades this, pointing out that the inconsistencies between their stories are likely the result of simple miscommunication.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: When the sting go wrong, the bait money is stolen, and Officer Montoya loses her gun in the ensuing chaos. This is treated as a ''deadly'' serious matter, with Montoya, Bullock, and Wilkes (a rookie) are each questioned about what happened by Internal Affairs both out of fear of competency and that one or more of the cops may be dirty. When the cops give different accounts, they are all ''immediately'' suspended and revoked of their badges and guns pending the decision of Internal Affairs. Furthermore, when Montoya goes out on her own, takes down the gangster, and recovers the money, she is ''further chided'' by Internal Affairs for acting while on suspension. Rather, it takes Gordon playing RulesLawyer to get the Internal Affairs to back off so he can reinstate them of his own accord[[note]]Since the money was recovered, the specific case Internal Affairs was called in to investigate is now closed, meaning Gordon is now in charge once more and can reinstate his officers whether they like it or not[[/note]].

* RookieMaleExperiencedFemale: Wilkes is a young officer who has never worked on a sting operation before. Montoya is an experienced cop. This shows in how they handle the incident and the InternalAffairs interrogation that follows. Wilkes is nervous and jittery as he and Montoya approach the warehouse and later exaggerates Batman's gadgets into full-blown supernatural abilities while telling his part of the story, due to having never encountered Batman before, and his view of him being colored by the urban legends he has heard about him. Montoya, by contrast, remains collected and aware of her surroundings during the incident, limits her story to truthful and important details (save for her mistaken belief that Batman was killed), and later puts together clues gleaned from the interrogation to track down the gang and bring them in.

* RashomonStyle: Bullock, Wilkes, and Montoya tell three different stories in voiceover, while the viewers see what really happened in each case. Bullock is trying to make himself look like a hero with Batman being the bungler, in contrast with what's actually shown. Wilkes is being honest in his retelling, but as a rookie who didn't really get a good look at what was happening and his only knowledge of Batman coming from exaggerated urban legends, he pictured the Caped Crusader as some kind of metahuman with magical abilities, when Batman was really using his normal tools and weapons. Montoya's account is truthful, albeit stripped down to only the most important details, and she erroneously believes Batman was killed.
* RookieMaleExperiencedFemale: Wilkes is a young officer who has never worked on a sting operation before. Montoya is an experienced cop. This shows in how they handle the incident and the InternalAffairs interrogation that follows. Wilkes is nervous and jittery as he and Montoya approach the warehouse and later exaggerates Batman's gadgets into full-blown supernatural abilities while telling his part of the story, due to his view of Batman being colored by the urban legends he has heard about him. Montoya, by contrast, remains collected and aware of her surroundings during the incident, limits her story to truthful and important details (save for her mistaken belief that Batman was killed), and later puts together clues gleaned from the interrogation to track down the gang and bring them in.

* RashomonStyle: Bullock, Wilkes, and Montoya tell three different stories in voiceover, while the viewers see what really happened in each case. Bullock is trying to make himself look like a hero with Batman being the bungler, in contrast with what's actually shown. Wilkes is being honest in his retelling, but as a rookie who didn't really get a good look at what was happening, he pictured Batman as some kind of metahuman with magical abilities, when Batman was really using his normal tools and weapons. Montoya's account is truthful, albeit stripped down to only the most important details, and she erroneously believes Batman was killed.
* RookieMaleExperiencedFemale: Wilkes is a young officer who has never worked on a sting operation before. Montoya is an experienced cop. This shows in how they handle the incident and the InternalAffairs interrogation that follows. Wilkes is nervous and jittery as he and Montoya approach the warehouse and later exaggerates Batman's gadgets into full-blown supernatural abilities while telling his part of the story, due to having never encountered Batman before. Montoya, by contrast, remains collected and aware of her surroundings during the incident, limits her story to truthful and important details (save for her mistaken belief that Batman was killed), and later puts together clues gleaned from the interrogation to track down the gang and bring them in.

* RookieMaleExperiencedFemale: Wilkes is a young officer who has never worked on a sting operation before. Montoya is an experienced cop. This shows in how they handle the incident and the InternalAffairs interrogation that follows. Wilkes is nervous and jittery as he and Montoya approach the warehouse and later exaggerates Batman's gadgets into full-blown supernatural abilities while telling his part of the story. Montoya, by contrast, remains collected and aware of her surroundings during the incident, limits her story to truthful and important details (save for her mistaken belief that Batman was killed), and later puts together clues gleaned from the interrogation to track down the gang and bring them in.

* DescriptionCut: When Montoya is explaining to Hackle that this sting "is going to be a hot one", they turn a corner and see their destination is ''on fire''.

* DirtyCop: When the planned police sting goes awry, with the intended target getting away and taking the bait money, the InternalAffairs investigator looking into the event suspects that the three officers involved are "on the take."

* FatherToHisMen: Commissioner Gordon lets Hackle have it when he continues to badger his fellow officers even after they clear their names by bringing the gang in.

** Hackle, the Internal Affairs guy.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Hackle isn't wrong when he points out that three cops telling two different stories means someone ''has'' to be lying. He's just wrong about why--Bullock is lying to hide the fact that he entered the warehouse early and accidentally ruined the sting, not that he's a DirtyCop.

* ADayInTheLimelight: This is pretty much the only episode where Montoya is the major focus of an episode.

* FatherToHisMen: Commissioner Gordon lets Hackle have it when he continued to badger his fellow officers even after they cleared their name.

* {{Jerkass}}: Hackle, the Internal Affairs guy.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Hackle's harshness on Bullock is justified, as Harvey's story is the most obviously falsified.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Hackle cares more about trying to finger Montoya, Bullock, and Wilkes as {{Dirty Cop}}s than about figuring out what really happened and how to get back the lost $2 million. After the criminals were apprehended, Hackle only came to tell Montoya she was suspended.
* RashomonStyle: Bullock, Wilkes, and Montoya tell three different stories in voiceover, while the viewers see what really happened in each case. Bullock is trying to make himself look like a hero with Batman being the bungler, contrasts with what we're actually shown. Wilkes is being honest in his retelling, but as a rookie who didn't really get a good look at what was happening, he pictured Batman as some kind of metahuman with magical abilities, when we're really seeing Batman using his tools and weapons. Montoya's account is pretty exact, except that she erroneously believes that Batman was killed.
* SelfServingMemory: Combined with RashomonStyle. Harvey Bullock's account of events paints him as a brave hero and Batman as a menace, while the animation shows him bumbling around and Batman doing most of the work (though Bullock does take on several thugs singlehandedly). In a slight twist to this, Wilkes, the rookie cop, unintentionally does the same, depicting Batman as some almost supernatural creature; for example, he claims Bats took down a fleeing crook just by pointing at him, apparently having missed the batarang in his hand (it was too dark to see it).
* SkewedPriorities: Hackle. Despite the fact Montoya helped Batman get the whole mob arrested and recovered the missing money, he had the gall to say it didn't count becaused he suspended her. Commissioner Gordon finally had it with the condescending prick and knocks him down, calling his "investigation" a farce before taking back the suspended officers' badges.

* TurnInYourBadge: Bullock, Wilkes and Montoya have to turn theirs in until the investigation is over.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: A mook opens fire with a tommy gun on Batman and Montoya, but uses up the entire clip seemingly just to shoot an outline around them! Which, of course, means only that RealityEnsues--he lost control of the bucking gun and literally overshot the mark. Full-auto fire is ''seriously'' inaccurate in real life, too.

* PapaWolf: Commissioner Gordon lets Hackle have it when he continued to badger his fellow officers even after they cleared their name.

* SelfServingMemory: Combined with RashomonStyle. Harvey Bullock's account of events paints him as a brave hero and Batman as a menace, while the animation shows him bumbling around and Batman doing most of the work (though Bullock does take on several thugs singlehandedly). In a slight twist to this, the rookie cop unintentionally does the same, depicting Batman as some almost supernatural creature; for example, he claims Bats took down a fleeing crook just by pointing at him, apparently having missed the batarang in his hand (it was too dark to see it).

* InterrogationFlashback: The story is told this way. After they botch the capture of a criminal, Lieutenant Hackle chews out three police officers, until [[LawfulGood Commissioner Gordon]] convinces Hackle to let the 3 tell their side of the story. And so, the experienced Renee Montoya, the new recruit Wilkes, and the {{Jerkass}} Harvey Bullock each tell of the frightful events that happened that night.