Gossip-show host Ian Peek (special guest
Michael McKean) has a remarkable knack for digging up sensational secrets. His secret is a device that lets him walk through walls, enabling him to sneak into supposedly secure areas. After Batman stops someone from killing Peek for exposing him as a witness against the
Tongs, Peek takes the opportunity to plant a camera in the Batmobile, which nets him one of the most sensational secrets of all—Bruce and Terry's identities as the past and present Batman.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question: After deducing Peek is the mysterious intangible man, Terry is quick to suggest that they should get the police to arrest him. Bruce simply asks him on what grounds could the police arrest Peek for, which stumps Terry.
- Artistic License – Law: It's claimed that Peek hasn't committed any crimes before the heroes discover that he stole the belt and might have committed murder, but in actuality he exposed a gangster who was about to turn evidence on the Tongs in exchange for a lighter sentence. This would almost certainly get him jailed for obstruction of justice and reckless endangerment in real life, at least.
- Asshole Victim: Peek. All of his actions are committed with a sleazy smile, an entitled attitude, and zero remorse for the people whose lives he exposes (nor for indirectly killing the inventor of his intangibility belt). While it's debatable whether he truly deserved the fate he got by the end, you can't deny you were waiting for him to die when he's close to exposing Bruce and Terry.
- Bathos: As Ian Peek loses control and falls through the building, we get a shot of one schlubby guy, sitting on the couch eating dinner in his bathrobe, and pausing mid-bite to see an intangible Peek falling through his floor and screaming for help. No one is gonna believe him.
- Bond One-Liner: After Ian falls to the center of the Earth, Bruce quips that he's gotten "about as inside as you can get."
- Book Ends: Terry's first encounter with Peek as the Intangible Man ends with him chasing Peek down through a building but is unable to catch up to him, or to stop him if he could. His last encounter with him and the episode's climax has him following Peek as Power Incontinence sets in and he falls through a building, unable to catch up in time to save him and probably unable to do anything about it even if he could.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: This is the better possible outcome for Ian Peek's final fate.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Subverted. Ian Peek found out about Tanaka's experimental device, stole it, and killed the inventor. His career then skyrockets. When Batman accuses Peek of being the Intangible Man who broke into City Hall, the latter says he'd be a very wealthy reporter if that were true. Batman points out that he is a very wealthy reporter.
- Death by Secret Identity: Peek plants a surveillance camera on the Batmobile and records footage of Bruce and Terry in the Batcave. Due to his actions of how he obtained the device finally catching up to him, by the end of the episode, he's in no position to tell anyone.
- Dented Iron: Bruce might have retained his fighting prowess well into his old age, but the series has made it very clear that his best crime-fighting days are behind him. When the untrained but much younger Peek grabs him from behind, he's able to overpower Bruce and drag him to the apartment balcony without the former Batman being able to tear free easily as he could in his prime.
- Disney Villain Death: Peek's final fate is basically the longest example of this possibly ever, though with the cravat that it's unclear if it'll actually kill him.
- Entitled Bastard: Peek begs Bruce for help when his powers start going out of control, and only thinks of offering to give up the footage of Bruce and Terry in the Batcave after Bruce brushes him off and he's getting desperate.
- Face Death with Despair: The last we see of Ian Peek is him screaming in horror as he begins to fall intangibly to the center of the Earth.
- Fate Worse than Death: Implied. Bruce speculates that with his permanent intangibility, Peek will fall all the way to the center of the Earth. And, presumably, still be alive.
- Faux Affably Evil: Peek. Best shown when Terry approaches him, trying to convince him to leave Bruce out of the exposure.
Terry: I don't care what you do to me. But he doesn't deserve this. He's done too much for this city to wind up in the middle of a media circus.
Peek: He means a lot to you, doesn't he?
Terry: Yeah, he does.
Peek: I believe you. I really do. That's the trouble with this business. You meet so many liars you forget what sincerity sounds like.
Want to say it all again while I've got the camera running? - Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Batman comes to save Bruce from Peek in the final scene, he knocks Peek over his desk, and as Peek's body slowly phases out, you can see Peek's butt sink into the floor. Peek is busy grabbing his gun, so for a moment, he doesn't notice that he's about to meet an incredibly dark fate.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted by Terry when he tries to bargain with Peek. He's willing to have his own identity exposed if it means protecting Bruce and his legacy.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: To say that Peek's frequent abuse of the intangibility belt eventually becomes his undoing would be a vast understatement.
- Hypocritical Humor: At the beginning of the episode, Terry's mom disapprovingly turns off Ian Peek's show. Later, she's eagerly awaiting the show's announced expose of Batman's secret identity. Terry even calls her on it.
- I Regret Nothing: Faced with the possibility of his identity being outed, Bruce is pretty subdued about it, confessing to Terry that he suspected that sooner or later, his identity would be exposed. His only real complaint is that it's at the hands of a sleazy tabloid reporter like Ian Peek.
Bruce: I always assumed I'd be found out sooner or later. It's just galling that a piece of garbage like Peek had to be the one.
- Ignored Confession: Just before Peek's expose is scheduled to air, Terry tries to tell his family that he's Batman rather than let them hear it from a sleazy gossipmonger. They laugh at him.
- Immoral Journalist: Ian Peek is an extremely sleazy gossip-monger who has no problem with his news risking people getting killed and murdered a scientist to get the technology to become an unstoppable sneak.
- Intangibility: Peek stole an experimental device that gives him this ability. He proceeds to abuse it for his own personal gain, until he starts becoming intangible without the belt, and everything falls apart for him.
- Irony:
- Terry watches The Inside Peek with apparent interest until his mother forbids him, saying that he wouldn't like it if he were on the receiving end of his "journalism". Sure enough, Peek finds out Terry's (and Bruce's) Secret Identity and planned on airing it to the world, with his family watching in great anticipation.
- Bruce points out to Terry after he tells him that Ian Peek is the mysterious Intangible Man, that they can't do anything to him, as Peek can claim he's just an Intrepid Reporter doing his job and (theoretically) hasn't committed any crimes. This is before he all but hears from Peek's own mouth that the device used for his exposés was stolen from an inventor in Bruce's payroll, a friend no less, who was killed — possibly murdered.
- It's All About Me: Peek only cares about himself and boosting his career. Displayed perfectly when he explains to Bruce why he stole the belt from Taka and set his lab on fire:
Peek: I had to have it. To him, it was just an experiment, but to me, it was power. A chance to kick my career in high-gear.
- Karmic Death: It turns out that Peek's sins go far beyond sleazy sensationalism; he admits to stealing the device and setting a fire (which killed the device's inventor) to cover his tracks. It's unclear if he'll actually die from it, but his abuse of the belt's intangibility eventually results in him becoming intangible all the time and the only force that can affect him anymore is the planet's gravity, resulting in him suffering the world's longest Disney Villain Death.
- Kirby Dots: As shown in the page image, Peek's intangible form character model incorporates and animates Kirby's signature effect.
- Laughing Mad: Ian Peek tries to invoke this after Terry's last attempt to save him fails, and he realizes he's doomed. He can't keep it up, and then starts screaming in terror again as he disappears for good.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Ian Peek makes a subtle jab at Paxton Commuting on a Bus.
- Made of Iron: Diminishing fighting skills and advanced age aside, Bruce proves he's still this. At the episode's ending, Peek blasts part of the ceiling down on him and Terry, burying them both in rubble, and whilst Terry takes the brunt of it, Bruce has no issues walking around afterwards in order to meet Terry at the bottom floor.
- Millionaire Playboy: A segment on Paxton Powers shows him at the pool using a towel to grab a swimsuit-clad woman; Peek's narration suggests that he's more interested in partying than in running Wayne-Powers.
- No Sympathy: Peek's losing his substance right in front of Bruce, but now that Bruce knows the truth of how Peek acquired the belt to begin with, Bruce refuses to show him any compassion whatsoever. That said, it wouldn't have done Peek much good, considering how far gone he was already.
- Not So Above It All: After initially being dead-set against Terry and Matt watching The Inside Peek, once a commercial airs revealing that Ian Peek has the Secret Identity of Batman, Mary McGinnis is swayed and joins Matt in waiting of the event. She also laughs at Terry when he admits to being Batman, and appears to be annoyed that the episode wouldn't be airing.
Terry: Weren't you the one who said that I wouldn't like it if I was on the receiving end?
Mary: Yeah, well, what do I know? [walks to the living room as she eats popcorn]
- Oh, Crap!: A boxing manager has this reaction when Peek exposes his affair with a client's girlfriend, then said client, a large man with a scar over his eye, silently steps into his office and it becomes This Is Gonna Suck.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Bruce decides to abandon Ian to his fate after learning Peek murdered the inventor of the belt and stole his research for profit.
- Paparazzi: Ian Peek is a particularly noxious example. With no concern whatsoever about putting people in danger, he blows the cover of a police witness, and would have exposed Bruce and Terry if his Power Incontinence hadn't done him in.
- Power Incontinence: Starting with his stomach, Peek's body starts becoming intangible even when he isn't using the device. The effect finally causes him to fall through the floor, and another, and another, until he helplessly falls beneath the Earth's crust, never to be seen again.
- Save the Villain: Terry doesn't quite have it in him to let Peek fall to his death (or worse), and tries to intervene by chasing him down every floor in the building and finally getting a hold on him in the basement, but Peek can't stay solid long enough and disappears. Bruce, by contrast, shows no interest whatsoever in saving him after discovering that he started the fire that killed Dr. Taka, an associate of his at Wayne-Powers, and calmly watches Peek succumb to his fate with cynical disinterest. It's implied that Bruce has realized that there's simply no time left for Peek to be properly treated before his condition passes the point of no return in a matter of minutes from his arrival, but beforehand he did imply he'd try if Peek could give him a good reason to spare him. Peek just didn't give him a good reason.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Ian Peek's use of the intangibility belt to get his stories is definitely immoral, but there's not really anything Batman can do about it, because he isn't aware of any actual crimes that Peek has committed. Even when Peek discovers that Terry is Batman (and Bruce was Batman) and says he's going to reveal it to the world, they can't really stop him, other than Terry pleading his case and trying to protect Bruce. Peek, however, abused the belt so much that his body starts turning intangible without the belt, and after a desperate attempt to blackmail Bruce for a cure fails, he ends up turning intangible for the final time and falls through the ground to the center of the Earth.
- Smug Snake: Ian Peek to a tee. He's overconfident, arrogant, and has a constant smirk on his face.
- Spit Take: At the beginning, the boxing coach has a combination of this and an Oh, Crap! when Peek exposes that the coach was seeing his prize fighter's girlfriend.
- Threat Backfire: Peek threatens to expose Bruce and Terry as Batman if he doesn't help him. Bruce dryly tells Peek he's losing his head (literally).
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Bruce's moral code seems to have weakened somewhat from his past. In the past, he would Save the Villain whenever possible, only tending to wane in the case of The Joker. But when he finds out that Peek stole the belt from Dr. Taka and set the fire that killed him, he blatantly refuses to help him and starts walking away. He does ask Peek to give him 'one good reason' he should try to save him, and Peek tries to bring up the Blackmail material he's got, upon which Bruce writes him off as a Dead Man Walking. It's feasible that Bruce has already picked up on the fact that Peek is simply too far gone to save now, but also, considering the events of Return of the Joker, it is understandable why he would be less willing to help the villains, especially those that harm people he knows. At the very least, he gets some satisfaction from taunting Peek about his worsening condition when his head turns intangible during his Villainous Breakdown.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Batman saves Peek from being nearly murdered by a police witness that Peek leaks the identity of. Peek repays him by infiltrating the Batmobile so that he can expose Terry and Bruce's identities on television.
- Villainous Breakdown: Peek has one when he starts to fade even without the belt. Peek has a bigger one when he realizes he's done for.
- Villains Out Shopping: One of Peek's exposés is about a wild party hosted by Paxton Powers.
- Villains Want Mercy: When he loses control of the belt, Peek calls in Bruce, begging for medical aid in exchange for the only unedited video footage of Bruce and Terry's secret. However, when Bruce discovers that Peek stole the belt from Dr. Taka, who was one of his associates at Wayne-Powers, and started the fire that killed him, he just walks away, fully prepared to leave Peek to his fate.
- Visual Pun:
