Directed by Nathan Hope
Written by Danny Cannon
A gang of bank robbers gains attention when one of them shows up to the robbery wearing a red hood. Meanwhile, Barbara Gordon recovers from the revelation Jim Gordon has moved on and attempts to educate her young wards in using their undeveloped wiles.
Tropes:
- Antagonist in Mourning: Penguin, who has every reason to think that Fish is dead, says that he misses her.
- Apple of Discord: The red hood. The gang starts falling apart when they fight over who gets to wear it.
- Artifact of Doom: The red hood itself. Whoever puts it on starts acting a little off, and a little more reckless... and a little more...
- Becoming the Mask: Literally! The Red Hood legend encourages the gang members who wear it to take on the persona of the character established by the first gang member.
- The End... Or Is It?: Gordon and Bullock stop the Red Hood gang by killing off the remaining three robbers. But the cops fail to pick up the red hood before an anonymous-looking teenager takes it and slips it on...
- Eye Scream: Fish is faced with the choice of death or having her eyes harvested. She gouges her own eye out with a spoon to thwart the Dollmaker's plans.
- Femme Fatale: What Barbara considers herself. Selena notes Barbara is currently mooning over her boyfriend moving on and she's not exactly one to be giving advice.
- Fille Fatale: What Barbara tries to turn Selena into (and which Ivy aspires to be but is too young to achieve).
- Foreshadowing:
- "The mask is a symbol..." Eventually, it gets to be worn in-canon by the future Joker (and later the second Robin).
- Both Catwoman and Poison Ivy are two of Batman's most famous Femme Fatales.
- Refuge in Audacity:
- What the hood conveys to the wearer. The robber wearing it comes to believe himself funny, lucky, protected by fate, and acts more reckless (and more powerful) because of it.
- Also, Fish's ploy. If your only value to your captors is as a living body, then you use that as leverage. If they want to use you for spare parts, destroy the parts. You might be surprised what you can live without.
- Even Butch manages to pull one off by having a couple of his goons pretend to be cops and confiscate Maroni's liquor.
- Wham Episode: Not only is a major element of the Batman mythos gets introduced with the Red Hood, but the Wayne Enterprises conspiracy plot moves forward as the final scene reveals the corrupt board members had hired Alfred's old SAS buddy Reggie to spy on Bruce and attempt to kill Alfred.
