Rats
Episode #22 - Rats
Original Airdate - November 20th, 1999
Batman must protect Dana from a dangerous secret admirer - a teenage
outcast who lives underground with mutated rats as his only companions.
Media by Bird Boy
Review by J.Chen, aka The Overseer |
Credits:
Written by Rich Fogel
Directed by Curt Geda
Music by Shirley Walker
Animation by Dong yang/Koko
Animation by Koko / Dong Yang
Voices:
Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne
Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis / Batman
Lauren Tom as Dana Tan
Taran Noah Smith as Patrick
Henry Rollins as Mad Stan
Cree Summer as Max
Yvette Lowenthal as Chelsea
Ryan O'Donahue as Matt McGinnis
Clyde Kusatsu as Mr. Tan
Sean Donellan as Virtual Anchor
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Review
I'd say the new season's been off to a good start, with some great
episodes (Lost Soul, Hidden Agenda) and the rest, which are still very
watchable. Unfortunately, streak of quality couldn't last forever, and
"Rats" is the one to break it.
This one's another teen-trouble sort of episode, starting with Dana,
Chelsea, and Max having one of their little chats together. As they
talk, a news report comes on, exposing the "hidden shame" of Gotham -
Giant Mutant Rats! (Does this sound ridiculous to you? It did to me.)
Anyway, Terry makes his way onto the scene, only to receive a cold
reception from Dana because he missed their last date. Terry's "Mr.
Wayne" reasons don't fly with her. She storms off, and Max expresses her
sympathy for Terry's situation. Dana walks to her car, but then notices
a white rose in her seat. Along with it is a note, which reads "I'll be
there".
Terry comes home that night and receives a phone call from Dana, during
which his little brother Matt does his now-annoying "Dana and Terry"
routine. "Flowers can really change a girl's mind", she tells him, and
Terry agrees to meet her at Rhino's Famous Chili. She puts on a very
nice dress and heads off to the door. We see Mr. Tan for the first time
on the show. He's the protective type, and expresses some concern over
her being with Terry.
While on his way to the restaurant, Terry receives a call from Bruce to
go fight Mad Stan. Stan's a new character who simply comes out of
nowhere in this episode. From what I can tell, he's some type of
psychotic anti-technology person, but that's about it. His origins
aren't explored one bit in this episode, although it does make for a
pretty good fight scene (which is about the only good one).
Meanwhile Dana is sick of waiting for Terry at the restaurant; she
storms off. Another white rose catches her eye, and she walks over to
pick it up. Suddenly she's surrounded by - guess what - giant mutant
rats! She tries to run, but trips over some debris on the ground and is
knocked unconscious. When Dana awakens, she finds herself on a bed of
roses and in the company of some short guy that looks like a cross
between a bat and a beaver...which I guess is supposed to mean he's like
a rat. His name's Patrick, and he's been stalking Dana for quite some
time now from his subterranean home. He sees how unappreciated she is
above and wants her to stay in the sewers with him. Dana's not too
receptive to this idea, though. Patrick goes on to show her some hybrid
plants he developed that don't need sunlight. Dana does ask him for some
food, and Patrick heads off to Rhino's Chili to get some.
In between here and then end, we see a sequence with Mr. Tan going off
on Terry about how Dana never came home last night. Dana also makes an
attempt to escape the sewers, but only ends up hurting herself. However,
we do see tons of radioactive waste dumped in the sewers, giving off an
eerie green glow.
Terry sees giant rats attacking the chili restaurant and manages to
follow Patrick back into his sewer home as Dana fails to escape
confinement. Patrick sees that she is unwilling to stay, and gets
extremely angry. We learn Dana isn't his first victim, and she asks of
their fate.
"What happened to the others?"
"They don't make fun of me anymore."
He sics his rat army on her, but Terry manages to grab her just in time.
Dana sets some objects on fire and joins Batman in fighting off the
creatures. As they fly off, she drops the torch she's made into the
toxic waste. The resulting explosions totally obliterate Patrick's world
and his mutant rat friends. As fires shoot from below ground in a nice
visual sequence, Terry flies Dana to safety. Later, as rescue workers
put out the blaze, Terry approaches Dana near the ambulance. Dana ends
up much more appreciative of Terry.
Enough of the summary...why the rating? Giant mutant rats...ugh. I would
have vastly preferred the story concentrate more on simply the outcast
stalker, rather than throwing in the rodents.
I don't see how they improved the episode in any way. Quite a few eps
lately have been dealing with teen issues (Splicers, Earth Mover, Hidden
Agenda, Once Burned). Enough is enough. And Mad Stan...the action was
nice, but that's about all he was good for. And Patrick...so he was ugly
and looked like a giant rat. We never learn much about his past or about
his amazing plant hybrids. We probably never will either, since he
apparently died in the explosions.
This ep was NOT worth getting out of bed for, and poised to become the
"Heroes" of season 2.
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