User Reviews

The episodes of Batman the Animated Series to feature the wits-matching, superiority- complexed menace of The Riddler were few and far between indeed. The show's writers said it was because it was hard to write stories for him in the series, but there were probably other factors, like for one how he was a villain that was easily overshadowed by a lot of the more colourful members of the rogue's gallery. Despite Jim Carrey's rancid portrayal he doesn't prance around like a giggling maniac, he isn't any kind of heavy hand to hand combatant, he's just best used as an instigating manipulator who confidently sits back and plays his opponents like pawns while they stumble into his web of grandiose puzzling schemes and intricate death traps. So anyway this is my favourite appearance of him in the show, it's not as fun and entertaining as "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" or "What is Reality?", but I personally find it to be a more thoughtful grounded and satisfying use of him as a character, and the story of this one makes him somewhat sympathetic and adds a more twisted slant to his mind games. The plot is that after The Riddler is recently released he seems to have genuinely turned over a new leaf and Batman strives to prove that he can never truly stop himself from being a criminal at heart, and I love how it makes you wonder for a little while if Batman's just being over-harsh and unforgiving and even paranoid or not, or if the whole thing is just another complex act for The Riddler to get even with and prove his mental superiority over the Dark Knight. It's soon apparent that The Riddler is indeed carrying on his crooked deeds behind the scenes, and he decides that in order to truly move on from his life of crime he has to eliminate his greatest adversary once and for all by luring Batman to a bank that he has set up to seal any possible escape from and then detonate the powerful explosives inside. As Mr. Nygma is later putting away for costume for good, Batman appears before him alive and well and traps him in return by using one of his own toys to record him incriminating himself, and then he refuses to give the master schemer the answer as to how he escaped death in what was meant to be the perfect trap, which really starts to mentally unbalance him as he is taken away back to Arkham. It then ends with one of those fantastic epilogue scenes that were one of the things that made the series so great, with none of the other villains in the asylum being able to get a wink of sleep as Edward screams insanely to himself of his raging desire to know how Batman outwitted him again as he drives himself crazy at the frustration of a riddle that has an answer that not even he knows about... I like the way it gives a bit more insight into The Riddler's psychology, like the fact that in the story he's still committing petty bank robberies even when he stands to make an honest fortune from a deal with a toy company, raises the possibility that on some level a part of him may have a deeply rooted subconscious need to be caught and brought to justice by one who he can sense has the power to subdue and outsmart him at his own game. Good solid episode, I love this one.