"Totally Schway" Re-Watch: "Once Burned" & "Hooked Up"

 Batman Beyond

Now that "Batman Beyond" has introduced some villains of its own that are unique to the show, they are starting to make second appearances. And that is what we have in these two episodes. Some returns. Check it out.

Batman: "And if I told you what I was gonna do, you wouldn't have let me.  You didn't trust her."

Bruce Wayne: "And rightfully so, it seems."

Batman: "Okay, I was wrong. The only thing I did right was stick a tracer on her."

Bruce Wayne: "Live and learn, kid."

Batman: "That's it? That's all you have to say to me?"

Bruce Wayne: "For the moment. Now, why don't you see if you can locate her frequency?"

Ten from the Royal Flush Gang returns to rob a card game of some of Neo-Gotham's most notorious gangsters. After being confronted by Batman, he learns that her family has been abducted by a gang of Jokerz and she needs the loot to buy back their freedom. While Batman is being tough with Ten, Terry is wondering if he should let her alter ego, Melanie, back into his life.

I think you're maybe dumb.

Remember when I talked last post about how the second season of "Batman Beyond" felt like the season of the Jokerz. Like how every episode had to feature them in some capacity? Well, I was kind of joking, but they are back in this episode playing a prominent role, for some reason. I'm probably beating a dead horse at this point (which is kind of what I do), but I think it's time to either find something interesting to do with the Jokerz or just forget about them for the most part. Let them be just colorful background in Neo-Gotham. But no, they keep pushing them into these stories and I just don't care about them.

It was a surprise when "Batman Beyond" brought the Royal Flush Gang into the future. And it is an even bigger surprise that they brought them back for a second episode so soon. My biggest issue with this return of the Royal Flush Gang is that it feels like a re-tread of their first appearance. The group is still trying to make Ten prove that she deserves to be part of this group. And what better way to do that than to manipulate her into thinking that they've been kidnapped. I will say it doesn't paint Ten as the smartest. Why wouldn't she think this was maybe a possibility? Why would she think that her. family, these master criminals were inept enough to be kidnapped by the Jokerz. I was kind of hoping that Ten was in on it, but she wasn't, so she just looks like an idiot.

The return on of Ten means it's the return of her civilian identity, Melanie. And that means we get this "romance" between her and Terry. It didn't work in the first episode that Melanie was in so that means it doubly doesn't work in this episode. There was zero chemistry between Melanie and Terry and their whole relationship felt rushed. So, they build on this non-existent relationship and make it the emotional centerpiece of the episode. Then they have the audacity to try to compare Terry falling for Melanie with Bruce falling with Selina Kyle aka Catwoman. I am going to tell you this "Batman Beyond" writers, Melanie and Terry are definitely not Bruce and Selina.

I'd like to talk about Terry's actual girlfriend, Dana. In his time as Batman, Terry has really treated Dana like shit. He lies to her constantly. He breaks dates with her. He doesn't have the credits to pay for their dates when he actually does keep the dates. I don't know how long Terry and Dana have been dating but it feels like it has been for a while and Terry basically like deciding if he's going to cheat on her is a bad look. It just makes Terry look like a douchebag. Do you want the new Batman to look like a douchebag? We are fine with Batman being a father but not a straight up d-bag. And then we are supposed to act like Terry throwing that note away makes him this awesome dude. Sorry, but no.

The action in this episode is fine, but it could be stronger. It's kind of a bummer because even in the times that "Batman Beyond" maybe falls behind its predecessor the action usually is on the same level using the environment to show us things we didn't see in "Batman: the Animated Series." This episode doesn't really do that. We almost get a kind of cool brawl when Batman is mobbed by Jokerz but it ends before it even gets started.

This isn't the worst episode of "Batman Beyond" I've seen but it's just not super compelling. I've spent worse 20 minutes.

Grade: C-

Terry McGinnis: "There's Donny. I'll feel better when I rip Spellbinder's location out of his face."

Bruce Wayne: "Or you could cool your jets and just tail him."

Terry McGinnis: "Oh, I guess that's a good idea, too."

Runaways in Neo Gotham are showing up in local hospitals overdosed on serotonin. One of Terry's classmates, Donny Grasso, leads Batman to the return of Spellbinder. Max is trying to get more involved with Terry's work as Batman, but Terry is trying to keep her away from it so he can keep her safe. We all know how well that worked with Bruce.

Don't fuck with Max.

I was extremely curious to find out if you could really like go into coma because you had too much serotonin. As someone who feels like they have a deficit of serotonin, I can't imagine having that much. I did an extremely cursory amount of Googling and found something called serotonin syndrome. It's caused usually by medications that cause serotonin to build up in your body and it can potentially cause death. So, I guess in the world of "Batman Beyond" Spellbinder's VR machine acts like that medication and floods the body with more serotonin that it can handle and then that is what puts them in the hospital. It's actually a kind of cool concept and it is what I want to see the villains of "Batman Beyond" doing.

I sometimes feel like maybe I'm a little too hard on "Batman Beyond." It's not "Batman: the Animated Series" and I do think that it is unfair to compare the new villains that they are creating for the series to the classic villains of the OG series. Batman has the best rogues gallery in all of comics. Period. It's difficult to create new characters that are going to be on that level. With the "Batman Beyond" rogues, I am looking to see if they make sense for this world, if they are being used to tell a compelling story and I think in this episode, they are absolutely doing those things.

I think Spellbinder's appearance in "Batman Beyond" is more compelling than his first one. In his first appearance, he was using his Scarecrow-like abilities to rob Gotham's wealthy. It was a cool episode and fun, but I think Spellbinder is much more insidious here. Spellbinder is preying on some of the most vulnerable people in the society of Neo-Gotham. These teenagers who are being abused or neglected sometimes by their parents. Why wouldn't they chase this program that gives them the feelings and love that they are missing in real life. That is an addiction that would be just as bad as drugs. It's definitely something that you'd chase if you were someone who was an abuse victim or if you were clinically depressed. It makes me really loathe Spellbinder in the way that you should loathe a Batman villain.

At the same time, Terry is dealing with something that Bruce dealt with many times and that is what to do when your sidekick wants to get more involved. I appreciate that Terry has his own Oracle and I do think Max is pretty cool. And I like Terry seeing that there are some things that are universal to the Batman experience. It's great to see Terry and Bruce not butting heads about this. They are on the same page. it doesn't shock anyone watching that even after getting addicted by Spellbinder an almost getting Batman killed that Max ends up even deeper with Terry's life with Batman than when the episode began.

This episode has some fun banter between Bruce and Terry. I really like when the two of them commiserate about things that really only the two of them can relate to. It's always fun when Bruce is being the voice of... not reason... but like the voice of restraint when it comes to Terry. At one point Batman is ready to beat information out of Donny, but Bruce says, hey maybe don't beat the up on the addict when you can follow him to the hideout instead. 

All in all, this was a solid episode that I think shows how Terry's new villains can be woven into the tapestry of the Batman mythos. I do think that Max's time with Spellbinder resolves itself a little too quickly and the reveal about her family is a little out of left field, but overall, more episodes like this.

Grade: B+

Next up, Dana is wooed by a secret admirer and Terry has visions of a young girl asking him for help.

What did you all think? Do you want more of Ten and the Royal Flush Gang? Did you enjoy Spellbinder's encore more than his premiere? Let me know in the comments.