"I Am the Night" Rewatch: "House & Garden" & "The Terrible Trio"

Batman The Animated Series

Imagine my surprise when the opening credits rolled for "The Terrible Trio" and they were completely different. I had completely blocked that from my mind. During the second season of B: TAS, Robin began being featured more and more so they changed the name to "The Adventures of Batman & Robin" and started using this new intro. It has footage of episodes featuring Robin spliced in and it's generally a large step down from the original. No thanks.

Robin: "Lady, you're nuts!"

Poison Ivy: "Well, that's your opinion. Probably the last one you'll ever have, too."

Wealthy men are being poisoned and robbed all over Gotham City. Batman believes the culprit is the obvious suspect: Pamela Isley aka Poison Ivy. Commissioner Gordon isn't convinced. It turns out that Ivy has turned over a new leaf. She's married one of her doctors from Arkham, Stephen Carlyle and is a doting stepmother to his two sons. Bruce Wayne is pulled in to the actions when Dick Grayson is kidnapped. At the ransom drop, Bruce meets a giant plant-man and learns from Dick that Carlyle's children are girls. Maybe Ivy's new leaf has already wilted.

A mother's love

Here we go again. Paul Dini killing the game. Seriously. How does he do it? B: TAS reinvigorated a lot of Batman's Rogues from Mr. Freeze to the Joker. It created new ones that would go on to become icons in their own right. Hello, Harley Quinn. For my money, the villain that benefited the most from these revamps is Poison Ivy and this episode is her best of the series.

We've seen this premise before. A bad guy seemingly goes good and we all know that they haven't. We are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's less a matter of if and more a matter of when. Dini doesn't reinvent the wheel here, but he does enough to keep you guessing. Ivy does seem genuinely happy with her new family. It's very convincing. Batman trails her for a day and doesn't find anything. 

All this build up makes the reveal that much better. There is some great sci-fi/horror stuff in this episode. The human children in plant pods? Their extreme progression is gross and really cool. The reveal that Ivy cloned herself and escaped is a nice swerve that I didn't see coming. 

The reason that this, for me, ranks as Ivy's best B: TAS episode is because you have empathy for her. She seems genuinely happy. Even Batman comments on that in the end. You believe that this is what she wants. Family. As twisted as it is. Ivy's always loved plants more than people so it's no surprise that she would try to create these plant/human hybrids. The show acknowledges that Ivy would still have these maternal drives but they put it through this really fucked up prism. It's all just so right.

Grade: A

Warren Lawford: " 'Thanks, Kevin.' Awfully chummy with the help, Bruce. Do you thank the garbage man for picking up your trash?"

Bruce Wayne: "If I happen to run into him."

The Fox, The Shark and The Vulture aka The Terrible Trio are committing robberies all over Gotham City. Batman and Robin try to stop them but they escape. Bruce Wayne is dealing with three obnoxious douchebags at his country club. Turns out the two problems are one and the same. Can the Dynamic Duo stop these jerk wads before they continue to be super annoying?

Who cares?

B: TAS has had a strong run of episodes and there hasn't been an outright disaster in a while. So, I guess it was time. I really disliked this. I understand why the show does this. They want to introduce new villains and not always rely on the same Rogues. I get it. I'm fine with them trying something new. I understand how this could seem like a good idea. What if three actually millionaire playboys ie what Bruce pretends to be actually got bored and decided to try their hands at crime. It's to a terrible idea, but the execution is here is pretty awful.


Take the Terrible Trio themselves. They have real names, but I didn't care to learn them and I don't think it really matters. They are such ridiculous caricatures that it's difficult to take them seriously at all or believe they are a credible threat to Batman. That's one of the biggest problems with introducing these civilian type villains and having them have a known relationship with Bruce Wayne. You want me to believe that the World's Greatest Detective didn't realize that these three were  his douchey acquaintances from his club? It stretches credibility too far.

They never feel like a real menace or a threat. The dialogue is laughable. The climax is lame. It's not a great episode and let's all be thankful we never see these three doofuses again.

Grade: D

Next up, Harley Quinn tries to go straight and the Clock King returns.

What did you guys think? Is that the best Ivy episode ever? Am I being too hard on the Trio? Let me know in the comments.