A mission to foil Scarecrow's latest scheme goes horribly wrong, and ends in Batgirl's death — and Gordon discovering that Batgirl was Barbara. Maddened with grief, Gordon blames Batman and launches a ruthless manhunt.
Tropes:
- All Just a Dream: The episode was Batgirl's hallucination after she was hit with Scarecrow's fear toxin.
- Bad Future: We see just how far Commissioner Gordon would go for revenge if Barbara was ever killed in the line of Bat-duty. It is not pretty.
- Or at least it’s how far Barbara fears he'd go.
- Batman Gambit: Knowing Batman as well as he does, Gordon correctly anticipates a guilt-ridden Bruce will be present at Barbara's funeral despite knowing that it's too dangerous. He thus sets a trap, using SWAT officers to soften Bruce up and drive him right into the arms of someone who can take on the Batman one-on-one: Bane.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The otherwise kind and tolerant Jim Gordon goes ballistic after his daughter is killed.
- Breaking Bad News Gently: Barbara intends to tell her father the truth, and has him sit down before she starts. He cuts her off to maintain deniability, though, as it's implied he already knew.
- Car Cushion: Scarecrow bashes Batgirl over the head with his cane, causing her to plummet over the edge of a skyscraper and crash through the windshield of the police car her father is riding in. It’s only in Barbara’s nightmare, however: in reality, he simply gassed her with his fear gas and she passed out, falling into a deep sleep.
- Catapult Nightmare: Barbara wakes up as her dad and Batman fall to their deaths.
- Create Your Own Villain: Batgirl fears that this trope will be enacted if she became a casualty of the collateral damage from a super-battle: The Commissioner Gordon would become a Knight Templar Parent that will destroy the Bat-family. He would become a villain created by the death of heroine Batgirl.
- Darker and Edgier: With the possible exception of "Legacy," the darkest episode of the entire The New Batman/Superman Adventures run.
- Deal with the Devil: So maddened with grief is Gordon, and the fact he is about to be fired for The Reveal of his daughter being Batgirl, he makes a deal with Bane to capture Batman, knowing he will strike at his daughter's funeral.
- Deconstruction: This episode essentially shows why the Batman-Gordon relationship is so essential. If Batman got in his bad books, Gordon can shut down his operation within a week, seizing his assets, declaring him an outlaw and stripping him of any purpose and mission as a Vigilante superhero. It's all but implied in the end, that if Gordon is ignorant of Batman's identity it's more out of Plausible Deniability because he doesn't want to look deeper, or that he knows but doesn't want to upset the equation.
- Despair Event Horizon: For both Gordon and Batman. After being declared an outlaw by a man he has utmost respect for, Batman has lost everything: his home, his finances, his allies, his secrecy and his moral code. He has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and nothing to fight for but his own life. He tells Tim Drake to save himself since the writing is on the wall for him.
- Didn't Think This Through: Dick's misplaced, if arrogant confidence that the GCPD hadn't found his loft. Gordon had gone into Barbara's systems, so he knew Bruce's identity and the Bat Cave's location. Between that and how meticulous Barbara was with details and information, odds were high the loft's location had been compromised too. It can be justified in-story, as Dick being outed and captured was one of Barbara's fears coming to life.
- Downer Beginning: More like "WTF Beginning". The explanation—which only makes the situation worse—comes in flashback a few scenes later.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even Bane calls Batman a "killer of children", though he may have only said that to torment him further.
- Everybody Knew Already: Or at least if the post-nightmare Jim is to be believed, he figured out Barbara is Batgirl some time ago, and possibly even Batman and Robin's identities. He simply keeps it to himself for fear of making them worry.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Bane has no intention of bringing in Batman alive, and has no problem taking Gordon out with him.
Gordon: We had a deal!
Bane: Thought about it. Didn't work for me.
- Fake Shemp: Despite his status as the real main villain of this episode, Scarecrow has no dialogue, only producing a laugh provided by an uncredited Jeff Bennett instead of Jeffrey Combs.
- Fate Worse than Death: Gordon's intends to lock Bruce away in Arkham for the death of his daughter. Bane on the other hand...
- Faux Affably Evil: Here, Bane is much more tranquil and sarcastically cordial than in other appearances (possibly because Barbara had never encountered him to know what he's like.)
Bane: I'm pleased you remember me, Mr. Wayne.
- Foreshadowing: Scarface and the Ventriloquist's cameo during the villainous lawsuit sequence. A reformed Wesker had finally confronted and 'killed' the Scarface personality for good only a few episodes earlier (in "Double Talk"). So Wesker's presence here is a subtle clue that these aren't the real Arkham inmates (and by extension this isn't the 'real' Gotham). On first viewing, the clue can easily be dismissed as Wesker having relapsed in the interim.
- Foregone Conclusion: It's doubtful many fans didn't quickly realize that this was some horrible nightmare, given how much the established status quo would have been altered had it not been... and the Scarecrow is the villain that causes the whole thing. (Possibly, however, a few were in the dark about just who was having the nightmare, as it initially seems like Batman's darkest fears becoming real, and it helps that the original version of Barbara's fall never shows her being touched with any fear toxin.)
- Frivolous Lawsuit: Minor villains launch a billion-dollar lawsuit against Wayne Enterprises. The Johnnie Cochran lookalike from "Joker's Millions" pops in: "If the bat's on a spree, Wayne must pay the fee!"
- From Bad to Worse: Things eventually become worse than worse.
- Futile Hand Reach: Batman does one when Scarecrow knocks Batgirl off the building.
- Hidden Depths: Barbara's darkest fear is her dad learning her secret the hard way before she gets a chance to tell him herself. She reveals that she's had it for some time before this episode.
- Hope Spot: The brief moment where Batman offers Gordon his hand to pull him up, and Gordon actually accepts instead of turning away his help. That's when an exhausted Bane flings the Bat-Signal at them.
- How We Got Here: The episode opens with Commissioner Gordon and a police squad chasing Batman and Robin through the Batcave, shooting at them with machine guns, grenades, and a couple of rocket launchers. Once they reach safety, Batman brings Nightwing up to speed on how Scarecrow killed Batgirl/Barbara Gordon in front of her father, driving him to revenge on Batman.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The policemen are terrible shots, failing to hit Batman and his associates even at close range. Later, the snipers' shots missed Batman despite having the element of surprise.
- Ironic Hell: As stated under Fate Worse than Death, Gordon wants Bruce Wayne taken alive so he can rot away in Arkham while surrounded by the monsters he's created. Again, while Bane would rather just kill Batman here and now, even he acknowledges Gordon's planned fate for Wayne is poetic justice.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Because of a Scarecrow-induced nightmare, Batgirl actually dreams she gets killed during costumed adventuring. Commissioner Gordon discovers then that Batgirl was his daughter Barbara, and actually orders a manhunt on Batman. Things go downhill from there. Gordon goes so far as to enlist Bane to help him hunt Batman. A surprisingly dark episode, and probably one of the best of an already excellent series.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Barbara dies in her father's arms while she tries to tell him she's sorry she never told him the truth.
- Knight Templar Parent: Since Batman never told Gordon that Barbara was Batgirl, he goes all out in a bid to capture him.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Tim asks Bruce if they're going to break Alfred out of prison, Bruce sadly tells him to just turn himself in.
- Last Breath Bullet: In the last moments of Batgirl's Scarecrow-induced nightmare, Bane, having been fatally electrocuted by Batman, uses the last of his strength to toss the Bat-Signal into Batman and Jim Gordon, knocking the two off the roof to their deaths.
- Long Last Look: When Bruce Wayne has to flee from Wayne Manor, possibly forever. He looks at the painting of his parents and says "I'm sorry." He doesn't spare a second thought for any of his many possessions.
- The Lopsided Arm of the Law: James Gordon, grieving for his daughter's death, unleashes so much firepower and hyper-efficiency to curb-stomp Batman's entire operation that the city would be a whole lot less plagued with super-villains if he did the same to them.
- Misplaced Retribution: Gordon (as well as the police force) entirely places the blame of Barbara's death on Batman, with Bullock even calling him 'murderer', even though it's very clearly Scarecrow who killed her. However, this is never addressed and it doesn't really matter either way, because Batman blames himself anyway. It could be justified by the events being a fear toxin-induced fever dream, with Barbara imagining an absolute worst case scenario rather than a particularly realistic one.
- Murphy's Law: Practically every single thing that occurs is the worst-case scenario. Barbara gets knocked off the skyscraper, just happening to land on her father's hood to ensure her identity is discovered by the most emotionally involved party possible; Gordon and the rest of the GCPD blame Batman for her death by getting her involved in vigilantism even though Scarecrow was the one who killed her (and she forced herself into being Batman's sidekick against his original wishes); the Rogues Gallery is treated sympathetically enough that they actually have a billion-dollar suit against Bruce; and just when Gordon finally is ready to forgive him, Bane throws the Bat-Signal at them, killing them. Considering the whole episode is a fear toxin-induced nightmare, it's only natural that only the worst possible set of events play out.
- My Greatest Failure: Bruce tells his parents' portrait he's sorry for letting them down.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
Bruce: Jim, believe me. I know how you feel.
Gordon: You can't.
Bruce: You know how I lost my parents. The only way I could hold on to my sanity was to take matters into my own hands.
Gordon: [Beat] That makes us even.
- 1-Dimensional Thinking: The police have found the Batcave. Luckily, Batman has a giant penny on display, which is knocked out of its stand and rolled towards the cops. They all run directly away from it.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Applies to everyone in the episode, but especially Batman, Gordon, and the Gotham PD. Bullock instigates it by dropping his usual grumbling-but-tolerant act towards Batman and very clearly plans on shooting him dead once he learns Barbara's been killed.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The loss of his only daughter causes Commissioner Gordon to snap. Thank goodness it was all a hallucination...there's a reason it's said no parent should ever have to bury their child.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: It's strongly implied in the end that Commissioner Gordon already knew Barbara was Batgirl.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Scarecrow is the one that actually knocks Barbara off the skyscraper, but he never says a word beyond laughing maliciously before getting punched out by Batman. Also applies to the dream sequence reveal, as her getting sprayed is the catalyst for the nightmare.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: This episode shows what happens when the police in Gotham pull no punches. Also when Barbara's identity is revealed Gordon gets fired due to his past involvement with Batman, and now Batman is a fugitive.
- Likewise, when the Batman villains learn their arch-foe's true identity and that he's loaded, they immediately try to take advantage of it by pursuing a billion-dollar lawsuit for 'damages'. Episode writer Paul Dini even points out this trope as the inspiration for this scene on the DVD commentary.
- Symbolically Broken Object: The Bat-Signal gets broken during Batman's scuffle with Bane. As You Know, the Bat-Signal is Gordon's link to the Batman, the way he asks for his help. And it's Bane throwing the Bat-Signal at the two that does them both in, dead as a result of their shattered friendship.
- Take My Hand!: Batman offers his hand to Gordon while he's dangling from the edge of a building. Gordon actually takes it, surprisingly.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: During the initial raid on the Batcave, not only are the GCPD extremely willing to use lethal force on Batman and Robin (the latter, it should be remembered, is a minor) but come armed with rocket and grenade launchers.
- Taken Off the Case: After Commissioner Gordon leads a manhunt against Bruce Wayne following the death of his daughter, Barbara, while helping out as Batgirl, Mayor Hill takes him off the case citing Gordon's personal connections, and the D.A. is also asking him to step down due to his involvement with Batman. To avenge Barbara's death, Gordon hires Bane to go after Batman. In the end, it was All Just a Dream Barbara had after she got hit with Scarecrow's fear toxin.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: Averted, as Batman is more willing to use lethal force on Bane. Though justified, at least in Barbara's dream, since the loss of his "family" and what he views as his betrayal of Gordon has shattered his moral code as he has nothing left to lose.
Bane: You would fight to the death?
Batman: It makes no difference now.
Bane: Time to die.
Batman: You first.
- To Catch Heroes, Hire Villains: After Batgirl dies, Gordon releases Bane to bring in Batman because he blames him for his daughter's death.
- Took a Level in Badass: After a pretty unimpressive debut in "Bane", this episode depicts Bane as the vicious and cunning Implacable Man he should have been. Shame it's all just a dream...
- Undead Author: A variation. Barbara dies at the beginning of her own nightmare and can only watch the rest helplessly.
- Wham Line:
Gordon: Bruce Wayne! Stop where you are.
Bullock: That's as far as you go, murderer.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Centered on Barbara.
