Review: The first two acts of "Two-Face, Part II" from BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES
Part I reviewed here!
Two-Face, Part II is a decidedly different beast from the first episode, one that feels more complimentary than a proper continuation. And not to make it sound like I dislike the episode--because I don't, I love it--but nonetheless, it's largely inferior.
Part I was both a refreshingly psychological take on Harvey's descent into madness, as well as a powerfully tragic horror story which focused far more on character and mood than action. Even in its attempts to be made "kid-understandable," it was a moody, mature episode with depth and details crammed into every frame and every second of soundtrack. Part II, on the other hand, is just a really good--but rather standard--Two-Face story.
Rather than building upon their original character arc, Randy Rogel (and possibly Alan Burnett as well) instead devote much of the episode to rehashing the original Two-Face story by way of the Bronze Age Two-Face of classics like Half an Evil. It's like they really wanted to include all the classic Two-Face gimmicks (Crimes based on the number two! Scarred coin used to decide good or evil! An obsession with luck!) without coming up with any explanation for HOW he got there. It's like, why does Two-Face flip the coin? The mentality seems to indicate the answer would be, "Because that's what Two-Face does, a-duh!" but that doesn't explain why THIS Two-Face would become so dependent on the coin that it could single-handedly lead to his meltdown.
At best, it feels like there's an entire third episode missing between the two parts, something to bridge the gap between Harvey getting scarred and becoming Two-Face. Because if you recall the end of the first part, he WASN'T Two-Face as we know him, he only looked that way. And even then, his whole body wasn't scarred yet, so maybe a middle episode could explain away what was almost certainly an animation mistake. Six months pass between Parts I and II, and there's a lot of character study that still needs to be addressed before the Two-Face of Part II can make sense as a logical continuation of the first.
Regardless, this is still a damn good Two-Face story, one that allows Harvey to have more emotional depth than almost every other episode of the entire series. Furthermore, it has one-up on most other episodes and comics by giving Two-Face an actual motivation! Gasp! Sadly, this motivation will soon be forgotten in favor of randomly turning Two-Face into just another mob boss, "Because that's what Two-Face does, a-duh!"
So let's examine Two-Face, Part II, and study the state of a Harvey Dent who is over the edge... but perhaps not as far gone as one might think.
The episode opens with a pair of shifty eyes peering out from behind a door to a seemingly nondescript building. We instantly know that there's something untoward going Because if the Simpsons have taught us anything, it's that anyone with shifty eyes is up to no good!
Of course, we're supposed to focus on the address, since savvy comics fans will instantly deduce that this is Harvey's target. Meanwhile, the more obsessive-compulsive among them will puzzle over the fact that it has THREE twos, what does it mean?!
Sure enough, the moment that the shifty-eyes close the slot, a similarly seemingly-nondescript car pulls up the curb. As the camera goes into side car, we are introduced to twin mobsters Min and Max. Heh heh, I get it, it's a play on opposites, that's... that's cute. If you think that's cheesy, then thank goodness this doesn't follow the novelization Dual to the Death's example of also including a pair of twin henchgirls named Hi and Lo. Oh comics, I love you even when you're not comics.
Min and Max seem to be a pair of evil Archie Andrews, a perception fueled by their freckles, buck teeth, and youthful voices provided by Monkees drummer (and future loyal sidekick) Micky Dolenz. Smiling and primed for action, Min (Max?) declares to someone in the backseat, "This is it: Rupert Thorne's bookie joint." While their passenger is in shadow, we all know his identity, just as we knew the identity of the Nightmare Man in Part I.
Like a boss.
In classic Two-Face style, we see the hand with the coin before we see the face. While Harvey's coin has been present literally from the beginning, we never saw what it actually LOOKED like until this shot. And here, we see three things: 1.) that it's got a head on both sides, 2.) that that one of the heads/sides is scratched, and 3.) that it's not a silver dollar, but is rather clearly a quarter.
While I know that it's nitpicky to complain about such things, these details are mildly annoying when you remember that we have (and will) never gotten any explanation as to what the hell was the coin's deal! As we saw in Part I, it was obviously important, somehow tied directly to the Big Bad Harv persona. The unusual detail that it wasn't a regular coin but a two-headed trick coin deserved some kind of mention! Why did BBH flip a two-headed coin? Was it always scarred on one side, or did Harvey do that himself after his own scarring? Or was it damaged in the accident itself, ala Eye of the Beholder and The Dark Knight?
When you get right down to it, the most important question is this: what the hell does the coin MEAN to him? Considering that he's worked his entire life around this tiny hunk of metal to the point that the episode's climax will hinge on this obsessive dependence, it's kind of hugely fuckin' vital to know what this coin means to him. But we never get that. Instead, he now just has a two-headed coin for no other reason other than, well, "Because that's what Two-Face does, a-duh!"
His line, "Good heads, we leave 'im alone. Bad heads... we hit 'em hard," is the first thing we hear Harvey say in his full-blown Two-Face persona, and unlike the voices of both Harvey and Big Bad Harv's, his voice here is a cold-burning snarl. And of course, the coin comes up scarred, because we've have no action otherwise.
We cut to the interior of the bookie joint, with the various men and women putting in their bets while TVs overhead play the races. As with most real-life crime, the show plays it at arms-length. How many kids watching even know what a bookie joint is? I mean, aside from my half-brother, who was taken to the track when he was ten by our uncle, who looked like Rodney Dangerfield by way of Harvey Bullock? Man, Uncle Jack. Remind me to tell you guys about the time he stole a golf cart.
The doorman peers out once more, only to be on the wrong end as Min and Max literally burst inside. Damn, those little twerps have got some strong legs!
The crowd reacts to the freckle-faced robbers with a stock sound effect gasp that I've heard in a million different things by now. Seriously, it's almost as overused as the Wilhelm Scream! And thus, flanked by Min and Max as his stormtroopers, Harvey makes his grand entrance like goddamn Darth Vader.
While we've already seen the scarring at the end of the previous episode, Harvey was still reeling from his trauma. But here, he's achieved full-blown assurance as Two-Face, standing upright in a position of authority and power, and decked out in a swanky new suit of pristine black and white. The suit is perhaps the single greatest innovation that B:TAS gave to the legacy of Two-Face as a character. What's more, it's an innovation likely born out of the need for simplicity, since it would have been a pain in the ass to animate his classic checkered outfit. Out of pragmatism came an outfit that was the first-ever time that the split-suit looked classy.
That said, the effect of Harvey's entrance is somewhat undone by his opening lines: "Don't bother to adjust the picture. For the next five minutes, I'm in control!" Paraphrasing an Outer Limits reference would work just fine if this scene were Harvey televising his crimes to the Gotham populace. Which, of course, he's not, and so it makes no sense in context. Don't bother to adjust what picture? The TVs playing the races? It's a half-baked line that we'd typically see in the comics of Jeph Loeb, with dialogue coasting on its pop culture value rather than any internal storytelling logic.
Is this a nitpick on my part? Probably, but considering that it occurs in a scene showing that Harvey is now all of a sudden a dapper-dressed, gun-wielding gangster with no transition from Part I whatsoever, it only helps to make this scene feel in keeping with your typical, standard Two-Face appearance from the Bronze Age comics, rather than the logical progression from the great first episode.
Behind the counter, Min/Max discovers an open crate filled with what "must be a couple of hundred in silver dollars," which raises two questions: 1.) So if they use silver dollars, why is Harvey's coin a quarter? And 2.) who the hell still uses silver dollars? Oh wait, this is B:TAS Gotham, a town that uses police zeppelins and gangsters all still use Tommy guns! God, I adore the fantasy noir universe in which B:TAS exists.
Without hesitation, Two-Face orders Min/Max to take the coins as part of their haul, and everything seems to go swimmingly until one of them tries to steal a diamond ring off one of the bookie's hands. "That wasn't part of the plan," he says, coolly. "We'll have to flip for it." It's only when Harvey takes out the coin that we hear his theme music played on recorder again. It seems that judgment is the core of Harvey's character.
I wish that Chintense, who made this great gif, had also made one in color so it wouldn't look weird and out-of-place here, but it's still awesome nonetheless. It also gives a nice look at Harvey's scarring without the blueness.
He catches the coin open-palmed rather than catching it closed and slapping the inverted side on the back of his opposite hand. Two-Face of all media has done it both ways, and personally, I greatly prefer the way he does it right here. It lets everyone see exactly how it lands, fair and square, and there's less chance of cheating from a guy who can probably feel which is the scarred side in his hand even before looking. Besides, it wouldn't be smart of him to use the back of the hand which is usually holding a gun, y'know?
So yes, as we see, the coin lands up good side, and he tells Min/Max to leave the ring. It's off-limits. Min/Max balks, and Harvey smacks him right there in the middle of the robbery.
He snarls, "I said, LEAVE IT!!!" This moment shows how the coin gives Harvey a code of ethics, of a sort. As we've all noticed, this is something that all Two-Face depictions should have in theory, but very few employ in practice. Once again, though, questions arise as to why Harvey would ever see something like random theft as something he could accept under any circumstances.
Turning around to address the crowd, Harvey brandishes his Tommy and says, "Before I go, I want you all to give Rupert Thorne a message for me." And then he proceeds to open fire, shooting out all the TV sets.
Wait, what? So the message Harvey wants the patrons to relay to Thorne is "Rat-a-tat-tat smash tinkle thud?" Well, I guess if Harvey is going to enter with a line that barely made sense, he might as well leave that way too. Either way, by destroying the TVs and stealing the funds, he's certainly made a dramatic impact on the untouchable Rupert Thorne. And as we learn, it's not the for the first time either, much to Thorne's frustration.
Before we check in with Thorne's predictable reaction, I'd like to talk a bit about the character himself. I find it interesting that the B:TAS writers made Rupert Thorne their crime kingpin rather than one of the established big mobsters like Lew Moxon or Vincent Moroni/Maroni. Not to mention Carmine Falcone, but as we've already noted, Batman: Year One wasn't an influence to B:TAS, especially not compared to the 70's Bronze Age comics written by the likes of Dennis O'Neil, Frank Robbins, Len Wein, and Steve Englehart. This was an era where Bruce moved out of Wayne Manor into a penthouse right in the middle of Gotham, armed with the express intent of combating a "new breed" a criminal, one who hides out in the open behind any number of legitimate fronts and perverts the law to their advantage.
In the best story produced from this era, Englehart and Marshall Rogers created Rupert Thorne to be (it always seemed to me) their own Boss Tweed of Gotham: a corrupt political mover and shaker with far more legitimacy, power, and influence than the mobsters of old. This real-life, everyday criminal proved a great contrast to the flamboyant, colorful costumed rogues, and it even made Hugo Strange look honorable by comparison.
Now, those kinds of characters are littered throughout B:TAS, usually serving to facilitate the origins of the costumed criminals. GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle begat Mr. Freeze, Pharmaceutical magnate Roland Daggett begat Clayface and pissed off Catwoman, and so on. But Thorne, the character whose influence can be felt in every one of these characters, was adapted into the Golden Age role of being an untouchable mob boss, and out-and-out criminal who is publicly acknowledged as such. I'm not sure if this is an upgrade or a downgrade. But even as a mobster, he shares the predominant trait of his spiritual descendants by fascilitating the transformation of a normal person into one of Batman's Rogues.
And for those who didn't get that, Candice spells it out:
In response to Frankie the Goon's "I thought we got rid of this guy," Candice purrs, "Are you kidding? We created him." She says it with such intrigue and satisfaction that I'm seriously amazed that she and Two-Face never ended up having ALL THE SEX. But again, that would have never happened considering what Candice does over the course of this episode.
Following her comment, Thorne puts a $2,000,000 bounty on Harvey and rages, "Six months of this is long enough!" Harvey's been waging a campaign of terror against Rupert Thorne for six goddamn months?! And Batman hasn't caught him yet? That has to be some kind of record for a villain to get away with it, much less Bruce's own wayward best friend, whose accident and subsequent crime spree weigh heavily enough on Bruce to cause his own nightmares.
It hadn't occurred to me that this nightmare was meant to parallel Harvey's nightmare from Part I until I read the novelization, Dual to the Death. In my defense, the two nightmare scenes are very different. Whereas Harvey's was a formless void of mist and darkness, Bruce's is a twisted cityscape, a living monster of all-consuming urban industry. While I adore the design, I can't help but feel like it takes what was before an inescapable unseen horror and instead turns it into something obvious.
While both nightmares feature a sweaty Harvey Dent fleeing from some unseen enemy, the animation quality in the second part (provided by the Korean Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD.) is seriously inferior to the first (provided by Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., LTD.), as if they traded expressive animation for a prettier background. Harvey here seems less terrified and more winded after a brief workout.
The animation is stiff and below the show's standard, and worst of all, Harvey's facial expressions and body languages are just boring and bland. The inferiority of this nightmare sequence becomes even more apparent as we see Harvey running, as he did in the first part. There, he fled in a desperate scramble, nearly tripping over his own feet in a futile attempt to flee for his life. Here, he's just kinda jogging.
And even when Harvey comes to a stop on a precarious suspension bridge hanging over presumed oblivion, he's drawn as just standing there. This time around, the animation of the characters are entirely secondary to the background nightmare design. But don't get me wrong, the design itself is still cool.
Of course, this is Bruce's dream version of Harvey, so maybe Bruce just didn't understand the full extent of Harvey's terror. Besides, this nightmare serves a different purpose for the dreamer than Harvey's, which was entirely about a man trying to run from the monster inside himself. For Bruce, his nightmare is entirely centered around GUILT.
"You! You saw what was happening. You knew that something was terribly wrong with me. I thought you were my friend! You should have been able to help me! But you didn't!"
"Now LOOK AT MEEEE!!!"
Okay, first of all, I didn't notice until this scene just how much Harvey's blue scarring (B:TAS' other unique interpretation for the character) seemed to match the blue suit he wore before he was scarred. The face blue is deeper than the suit's powder blue, but still, was that intentional? I feel like there's some potential for symbolism there, but at present, I lack the ability to bullshit one together. See if you can come up with anything!
Back to Bruce's guiltacular nightmare. Y'know, this scene would be powerful if Bruce HAD been more negligent in trying to help Harvey, if maybe Bruce's façade had prevented him from reaching out. Batman of the comics would easily have been more of a dick, the kind to judge Harvey as an unstable danger after the blow-ups and abandon his own ally. That would make Bruce entirely deserving of his guilt, and thus more poignancy would be added to his attempts to save Harvey if Harvey represented his first true failure. But that's not what's happening here.
Bruce's immediate reply to Dream!Harvey, "But I tried, Harvey!" indicates that Bruce logically knows that he actually DID try to help his friend, but that logical knowledge is no match for his irrational, deep-seated guilt issues. That's really what this is about here, as Bruce dreams of Harvey plummeting into the abyss, crying out "WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?" And in case the subtext was somehow still too sub for the audience, the scene takes the guilt to 11 with the laughingly overwrought cameo of Martha and Thomas, the latter of whom is also voiced by Moll.
"Why couldn't you SAVE us, son?"
Oh Jesus Christ, really? Look, I appreciate that the show didn't try to ignore the Waynes' murders, but they already addressed Bruce's guilt in a far more powerful, personal way in Nothing to Fear, which culminated is the legendary "I am vengeance! I am the night! I! AM. BATMAN!" That moment works because of how tied up it was in the emotions of Bruce's guilt, and how he was able to overcome those fears and save the day. Here, though, it's both redundant and wrong to tie those same issues up with Bruce's feelings about Harvey. It indicates that he's out to save Harvey due to his own issues rather than any interest in Harvey himself.
Considering that this scene is meant to highlight a parallel between Bruce and Harvey, it would have been better served if it showed how Bruce dealt with his OWN dark side (see also The Dark Knight Returns, Two-Face: Crime and Punishment, and Darwyn Cooke's Batman: Ego for examples of how this parallel was handled), and how he could have used that understanding to try and help his friend back to the other side. Considering how far into his own darkness Bruce will fall as the DCAU progresses, gradually going from Bronze Age Batman to hardened Post-Miller Batman on through to the scowling old man in Batman Beyond, I prefer to pretend that my version is canon.
Thankfully, the show makes it easy for me to do that since this motivation of "Harvey, I won't let you down... just like I let down MY DEAD, DEAD PARENTS!!!!" is never brought up again. All that matters is that, one way or another, it's established that Bruce is now determined to save Harvey from himself, as evidenced by the extensive reading list he has sprawled over the Batcomputer's console:
This moment is the episode's sole allusion to the very concept of mental illness, since it's only Bruce's usual detective work and quick-thinking which leads him to Harvey by the end. The previous episode was rooted in the psychological, even if it was only pop-psychology/pseudo-psychology/bullplop. While the rest of the episode does have its greatness, the lack of any attempt to make psychological sense only muddles Harvey's character and makes it that much easier to write him like his more simplistic comics counterpart.
But as I've mentioned before, the novelization Dual to the Death threw in some original content not seen in the episodes it adapted. The most important of these new scenes featured Batman meeting with Harvey's therapist, Dr. Crest, whom you'll note is entirely absent from this actual episode. The scene between her and Batman not only sheds some light on Harvey's mental state, and how Two-Face differs from both Harvey and Big Bad Harv, but it also is the only scene where Bruce brings himself to confront the parallels between himself and his friend. I know I've linked to this before, but I think it's worth properly posting here by this point.
I'm not knowledgeable about how mental illness works, but the theory about Two-Face being a combination (but not integreation) of Harvey and Big Bad Harv suddenly seems to make the question of his rehabilitation look much murkier than when he was just a guy dealing with his darker personality. Can this analysis be applied to any Two-Face from the comics as well? If so, Two-Face being the third personality right away throws a wrench into the idea of Harvey being a living dichotomy.
I also really love Batman asking if what happened to Harvey could happen (or already HAS happened) to him as well. By drawing that parallel, it raises the stakes for Batman that much higher. With this, Two-Face is no longer a lost friend and/or his first great failure. To Batman, Harvey is now a warning. Just as Harvey might be pulled back from the abyss, so too might Bruce be sucked into it headlong.
As such, keep the above pages in mind as we continue with this review, even if they aren't "canon." Because otherwise, scenes like the one of Bruce swearing to help Harvey will seem less powerful and more hammy and overwrought.
"So what are you dreaming tonight, Harvey? Peaceful dreams? Nightmares? Maybe both at once. Sleep well, my friend. Wherever you are, whatever you've become, I WILL save you. I swear."
I love Kevin Conroy, but there was no way he could deliver those lines in any way that wouldn't come close to Calculon levels of overblown. The fact that he's actually looking up to the sky (rather than down at the photo of Harvey in his hand) is just the brown sugar glaze on the ham and oh my god I'm hungry.
But to be far to this scene, it's notable for being the first time we actually see Bruce as himself, rather than the doofy playboy façade of Best Buddy Bruce, nor even the grim relentless vigilante Batman. Even with Bruce, there could be a question of a "third" personality that combines, if not integrates, the two. More than that, it shows that even beneath the façade, Bruce legitimately cares for Harvey as a friend. But again, this dedication could also be born out of guilt. Nothing could turn a fake friendship into a real cause in Bruce's mind like self-imposed guilt!
The scene shifts from Bruce swearing justice over a picture of Two-Face to Harvey's fiancee, Grace, crying over a portrait of a rather smug, cocky Harvey Dent:
How YOU doin'?
While I know that Grace is faithfully in the "Golden Age Gilda" mode and I absolutely appreciate the value that her character serves as Harvey's emotional compass, but even still, I can't help but think, geez, don't you have a life? We still have no idea what Grace is actually like, what she cares about, what she even does for a living. At least in Dual to the Death, we learn in this scene that she's actually a lawyer at the firm of Price, Fienstein, and Lamont, where she just made partner. So if we were to take that as canon (and I *think* that it's later reinforced in the DCAU comics?), she's actually a pretty damn accomplished person in her own right, but for the purposes of the show, she has no life outside of Harvey.
Of course, now I have to wonder what Harvey and Grace's relationship would be like. Two lawyers in the same household? My stepfather's a lawyer, and we have a saying about him: "Often incorrect, but never wrong." I have to imagine that the Dent relationship would largely consist of heated arguments and spirited debates, except that what little we've seen of their relationship thus far is blander than skim milk. Still, let's at least pretend that there was a lot more going on behind closed doors as we proceed with the tragedy.
Grace's misery is interupted by a knock at the door, behind which are a pair of "police officers" there to "help." Yes, that was an ironic "help," and the wink was implied.
Accompanied by Frankie in a cunning mustache-based cop disguise, Candice poses as "Detective Leopold," plotting to use Grace as a pawn against Two-Face. Just like the last time, Thorne is sitting on his butt doing nothing while Candice is the one doing all the legwork. And whatta pair of legworks too! *twirls novelty tie* Seriously: "It's okay, Miss Lamont, I am Detective Miniskirt Librarian, you can trust me."
Earning Grace's confidence, Candice gives her a homing beacon if/when Harvey ever tries to contact her, making her believe that the police will come rushing in to get Harvey the help he needs. Grace is conflicted, but after a bit of slightly shippy persuasion, Candice takes Grace's hand and gives her the transmitter.
"It's all in your hands," Candice tells Grace. Just like Harvey, she now has something to hold in her hands which can make her feel like she has some control over destiny. Instead, of course, she's being manipulated, with Candice using Grace's own best intentions against her and Harvey. For Grace as a character, this is both better and worse than Golden Age Gilda: better because she's given more to do that's relevant to themes and the plot than just being Harvey's beacon of hope, but worse because she's now also a mere pawn. Both aspects will come into play in the tug of war for Harvey's soul.
Safe back in their Villanmobile, Frankie pulls off the mustache and asks Candice why she's so sure that Two-Face will come back. Candice, in her best femme fatale manner, purrs, "He'll come back. They always come back." In other words, men are suckers. And sure enough, just as they pull away, another call pulls up to the curb outside of Grace's apartment. The window rolls down halfway, revealing one of the saddest Harvey Dent images I've ever seen.
Puppies and Puss In Boots have nothing on Two-Face there. And it's not even the saddest he looks in this episode, as his longing for Grace weighs on him heavily in the very next scene. Before we look at that, though, I have to include something awesome regarding this next scene: the original storyboards by animator Jim Smith, who also credits Bruce Timm for "help." Smith is most famous for being the co-founder of Spümcø, and thus also co-creator of Ren and Stimpy, so needless to say, he's pretty damn awesome all-around. Dig that original title card design! Man, I wish they'd gone with that for Part II rather than just repeating the first one.
As you might be able to tell, Harvey is divvying up the robbery funds like Edward G. Robinson in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Min (or Max) gets a bit too grabby with the cash, whereupon Two-Face doles out some vicious disciplinary action. This is the second time he's been violent with his help, and combined with his revelation that he once prosecuted them as D.A. (which itself might be a reference to this scene from the original Harvey Kent appearance), this indicates two things. First, that he still holds contempt for criminals even when he's become one. And second, that he nonetheless inspires so much loyalty and/or fear that criminals he once put away and now regularly beats will still serve him.
With the help properly reprimanded, Harvey whips out his wallet and proceeds to stash his share, but he freezes up when his eyes fall on the photograph inside.
Before we take in his genuinely tender moment, I would like to point out that, yes, he does have a credit card made out in Two-Face's name. I'd like to know which underworld bank lets super-criminals do that! If we can go by regular DCU, maybe it was an overseas account in the bank of Bialya, since Harvey has been known to vactation there in a split-trucks/speedo swimsuit while eating ice cream and I am not even joking. Okay, seriously, back to the tender moment.
Harvey sees the photo and closes in on it, and his veneer of sneering evilness melts away. What's this Two-Face episode has that very few others use is facial versatility. For the most part, Two-Face's good side is either frowning or scowling, which only serves to make Harvey seem like a one-note character. It's always more effective to make his good side expressive, since it'll always be paired off with the permanent snarl/grin of the scarred side. There's really no better way to display Harvey's constant internal conflict, especially in moments like this.
For the moment, all time seems to freeze in Harvey's head as he stares at the photo. Unfortunately, outside his head are Min and Max, who exchange a look as if they've been through this several times over the past six months. Dealing with an angry boss is one thing, but an angsty boss is another matter altogether.
Shuffling their feet and trying to sound helpful, Min and Max offer to pick Grace up and bring her to the hideout, a suggestion that Harvey meets first with another scowl, as if offended at the mere suggestion.
But then he softens again, his posture slumping as he turns back to the photo longingly once more.
As we saw in the end of the previous episode, Harvey said goodbye to Grace because it seems as if he believed that she was already lost to him. Taking that into account here, he's resisting his deep-seated desire for Grace because she might as well be a ghost to him at this point. The closest parallel I can think about is how Mr. Freeze longed for Nora, but there are fundamental differences there. Nora was taken from Freeze, but Harvey was the one who left Grace. Nora was presumed dead and thus lost, but Grace is still alive, praying for Harvey's return.
So why doesn't Harvey go back to her? Does he think that she'll reject his looks? It's implied, and that would fit Golden Age canon, but it's never once mentioned as a motivation. Maybe he just doesn't want to see the one person who might be able to talk him back to earth, especially now that he's so close to Thorne's ultimate destruction. And when the coin flip comes up tails, scarred heads up, that's exactly the desire which wins out.
All tenderness and warmth in his face vanishes, and all that's left is the cold-burning anger of Two-Face as he flips the wallet closed and says, "Forget it, we've got more important things to do." On one hand, this shows just how far Harvey has fallen, that the coin could give him the excuse to deny the person he loves in favor of the revenge he craves, and maybe the freedom to continue being Two-Face even after Thorne's imminent destruction. On the other, anybody who knows Two-Face stories knows that the coin's ruling is final... but as we'll soon see, he isn't that far gone yet. Even if he uses the coin to make decisions, he still has enough free will to be moved to the point that he'll flip for the same choice again.
Harvey decides that it's time to finish Thorne off once and for all in a manner similar to how Thorne finished off D.A. Harvey Dent. Meanwhile in the Batcave, Bruce finally starts catching up with Harvey after piecing together a certain pattern in Two-Face's crimes.
Yes, they're all two-themed, just like a classic Two-Face story from the comics. Which would be great, except for two problems:
1.) No one has ever come up with a good reason WHY Harvey would be obsessed with the number two. He just has that obsession because it's a fun gimmick that also makes it easy for Batman to figure out Two-Face's next target, but it's never made sense from a character perspective.
2.) The targets are all fronts for Rupert Thorne, a person for whom Harvey already HAS a motivation for wanting to destroy. So why throw two-themed names into the mix as well? What purpose does that serve, other than to be a throwback to the comics which didn't make sense in the first place? For that matter, it makes THORNE seem like the one with the obsession with twos! In sadly fitting fashion, the writers are trying to have it both ways here: combining the original story and character from Part I with recreating a classic Two-Face story, only to dilute both aspects. It's silly, and taking away time from the emotional conflict. Get back to that, story!
Deducing Harvey's next target (because, as we've established, the inexplicable theme of twos makes it easy for writing detective work), Bruce Alfred warns Bruce that "Harvey is no longer the fellow we knew." Bruce isn't ready to believe that yet, if ever.
"I still feel that somewhere inside that monster is my old friend," Bruce says. To which Alfred replies, That may make him even more dangerous." In two lines, the show perfectly touches upon why Two-Face is one of Batman's greatest foes. It's not his gimmick or his crimes. It's not the depth of his evil nor even his tragic origin. It's Batman's embattled belief that Harvey can still be saved, and the pity he feels towards his fallen ally. Every time Batman punches Harvey, he should feel that pain himself. Writers forget this dynamic at their peril, and they often have.
We cut to the site of Harvey's next break-in, the office of Rupert Thorne's attorney. Well good, at least this time we don't have to worry about some silly pun in the name!
Oh come on!
Y'know what might have worked? If they'd established all of Thorne's two-themed stuff from the start, making it Thorne's own personal theme. Not an obsession, but more like a quirk, a trademark. Imagine D.A. Harvey Dent's constant frustrations trying to shut down places like the Two's Cafe and Gemini Club, partially due to machinations of his courtroom nemesis: the corrupt mob lawyer E. Doubleday. Build that up in the right way, and then put him through his accident--which splits him into Thorne's favorite number while also exposing his hidden side--could then make a lot more sense. This, though? This is just gettin' silly.
Decked out in the gray coat and fedora from Part I, Harvey breaks into Doubleday's file cabinets and locates a single folder which contains enough suppressed evidence to put Thorne away for life.
Harvey's plan to "destroy Thorne with his file just as he destroyed me with mine" indicates that he doesn't want to kill Thorne, but that his ultimate revenge should be using the evidence to send Thorne to prison. Even as Two-Face, he still wants this done by the book, even if he has to break several laws to get there. Of course, this won't last, but it's amazing to see the ways in which he still isn't too far gone just yet.
Further proof of this is seen when Batman shows up to beat up Min and Max and try to talk reason to Harvey. Batman first tries appealing to Harvey's love for his friends, but Two-Face snarls "Harvey's friends are no friends of mine!" This goes back to Big Bad Harv's disdain for Bruce as a "rich twit," which seems to me like Harvey harbored resentment for Bruce on some level. But as with that same scene in Part I with BBH, it's Grace being brought to his attention that calms the storm within Harvey.
When he asks, "Grace...? What do you know about Grace?" his voice almost sounds like Harvey's again, but the rasp never vanishes entirely. It seems like his actual vocal cords were damaged in the accident. Or in his scream. Even still, with Two-Face claiming to be opposed to everything that Harvey Dent stood for, the love for Grace still shines through.
But playing the Grace card isn't enough to stop Two-Face, who fights off Batman and knocks him unconscious, but not before Batman tears off a piece of Harvey's coat.
When Batman comes to (after being awakened by a kindly old janitor, a moment that feels very Bronze Age, back when Batman would occasionally interact with normal citizens who saw him as a hero, not as a fearsome urban legend), Two-Face is long gone, but the piece of coat contains--jinkies!--a clue: a matchbook with the two of spades.
Meanwhile, Min and Max are driving the boss around town as they plot to attack Thorne, but Harvey becomes distracted when they pull up to a light right alongside a wedding boutique.
While I've been ragging on the two-puns throughout, I absolutely love the "And the two shall become one" over the bridge and groom. It's not just the mannequins which reminds Harvey of his fiancee yet again, but also those words--the combination of Harvey's love for Grace and his obsession with two--which is able to reach through his insanity, speaking to him in his own language.
It's powerful and subtle, and while it doesn't magically make Harvey choose for himself, it's enough to make him do the unthinkable: flip the coin for Grace a second time. And the instant he flips, the show smartly cuts straight to her phone rigging. Because we're dealing with plot rather than true chance, we know exactly how the coin was going to land the moment Harvey chose to flip for her again. It was, after all, predetermined.
When a very surprised Grace asks where Harvey is, the reply she receives is a very soft, very small, "I... I want to see you." Harvey sounds like a pitiful shadow of himself in any persona, filled with love, fear, and perhaps even shame for having left her at all. Grace's tearful, eager agreement to meet with Harvey is tempered by her realization that she still has "Detective Leopold's" homing beacon.
Hesitatingly, as if struggling with her own conscience, she says, "Harvey... you know that, no matter what... I love you." This is the closest that she can come to warning Harvey about what she's about to do, but Harvey misses it entirely. "I'll see you soon," he quietly says, and hangs up. With Min and Max waiting outside to escort her to Harvey, she decides to betray her beloved in order to save him. Even if the cops were real and truly coming to help Harvey, I have to wonder how he would have taken this betrayal. Would he have understood, or would it have been enough to turn Two-Face against her too, thus severing Harvey's last tether to sanity? You'll have to judge for yourself when you see their reunion play out.
So hey, I've discovered that there actually is such a thing as an LJ post size limit. Holy crap. I know that my fic posts have been longer than this, but I guess all the pics and gifs took their toll on my wimpy little free account. So let's save the final act for a separate post, and maybe in doing so, it'll be less jarring when I go off to talk about an episode of Night Court for a few paragraphs. Trust me, it's relevant. I think.
Note: the vast majority of the screencaps are by me. A couple others (postly the long pan shots) have been taken from Worlds Finest Online. Gifs are all by GhostOfCheney.
Two-Face, Part II is a decidedly different beast from the first episode, one that feels more complimentary than a proper continuation. And not to make it sound like I dislike the episode--because I don't, I love it--but nonetheless, it's largely inferior.
Part I was both a refreshingly psychological take on Harvey's descent into madness, as well as a powerfully tragic horror story which focused far more on character and mood than action. Even in its attempts to be made "kid-understandable," it was a moody, mature episode with depth and details crammed into every frame and every second of soundtrack. Part II, on the other hand, is just a really good--but rather standard--Two-Face story.
Rather than building upon their original character arc, Randy Rogel (and possibly Alan Burnett as well) instead devote much of the episode to rehashing the original Two-Face story by way of the Bronze Age Two-Face of classics like Half an Evil. It's like they really wanted to include all the classic Two-Face gimmicks (Crimes based on the number two! Scarred coin used to decide good or evil! An obsession with luck!) without coming up with any explanation for HOW he got there. It's like, why does Two-Face flip the coin? The mentality seems to indicate the answer would be, "Because that's what Two-Face does, a-duh!" but that doesn't explain why THIS Two-Face would become so dependent on the coin that it could single-handedly lead to his meltdown.
At best, it feels like there's an entire third episode missing between the two parts, something to bridge the gap between Harvey getting scarred and becoming Two-Face. Because if you recall the end of the first part, he WASN'T Two-Face as we know him, he only looked that way. And even then, his whole body wasn't scarred yet, so maybe a middle episode could explain away what was almost certainly an animation mistake. Six months pass between Parts I and II, and there's a lot of character study that still needs to be addressed before the Two-Face of Part II can make sense as a logical continuation of the first.
Regardless, this is still a damn good Two-Face story, one that allows Harvey to have more emotional depth than almost every other episode of the entire series. Furthermore, it has one-up on most other episodes and comics by giving Two-Face an actual motivation! Gasp! Sadly, this motivation will soon be forgotten in favor of randomly turning Two-Face into just another mob boss, "Because that's what Two-Face does, a-duh!"
So let's examine Two-Face, Part II, and study the state of a Harvey Dent who is over the edge... but perhaps not as far gone as one might think.
The episode opens with a pair of shifty eyes peering out from behind a door to a seemingly nondescript building. We instantly know that there's something untoward going Because if the Simpsons have taught us anything, it's that anyone with shifty eyes is up to no good!
Of course, we're supposed to focus on the address, since savvy comics fans will instantly deduce that this is Harvey's target. Meanwhile, the more obsessive-compulsive among them will puzzle over the fact that it has THREE twos, what does it mean?!
Sure enough, the moment that the shifty-eyes close the slot, a similarly seemingly-nondescript car pulls up the curb. As the camera goes into side car, we are introduced to twin mobsters Min and Max. Heh heh, I get it, it's a play on opposites, that's... that's cute. If you think that's cheesy, then thank goodness this doesn't follow the novelization Dual to the Death's example of also including a pair of twin henchgirls named Hi and Lo. Oh comics, I love you even when you're not comics.
Min and Max seem to be a pair of evil Archie Andrews, a perception fueled by their freckles, buck teeth, and youthful voices provided by Monkees drummer (and future loyal sidekick) Micky Dolenz. Smiling and primed for action, Min (Max?) declares to someone in the backseat, "This is it: Rupert Thorne's bookie joint." While their passenger is in shadow, we all know his identity, just as we knew the identity of the Nightmare Man in Part I.
Like a boss.
In classic Two-Face style, we see the hand with the coin before we see the face. While Harvey's coin has been present literally from the beginning, we never saw what it actually LOOKED like until this shot. And here, we see three things: 1.) that it's got a head on both sides, 2.) that that one of the heads/sides is scratched, and 3.) that it's not a silver dollar, but is rather clearly a quarter.
While I know that it's nitpicky to complain about such things, these details are mildly annoying when you remember that we have (and will) never gotten any explanation as to what the hell was the coin's deal! As we saw in Part I, it was obviously important, somehow tied directly to the Big Bad Harv persona. The unusual detail that it wasn't a regular coin but a two-headed trick coin deserved some kind of mention! Why did BBH flip a two-headed coin? Was it always scarred on one side, or did Harvey do that himself after his own scarring? Or was it damaged in the accident itself, ala Eye of the Beholder and The Dark Knight?
When you get right down to it, the most important question is this: what the hell does the coin MEAN to him? Considering that he's worked his entire life around this tiny hunk of metal to the point that the episode's climax will hinge on this obsessive dependence, it's kind of hugely fuckin' vital to know what this coin means to him. But we never get that. Instead, he now just has a two-headed coin for no other reason other than, well, "Because that's what Two-Face does, a-duh!"
His line, "Good heads, we leave 'im alone. Bad heads... we hit 'em hard," is the first thing we hear Harvey say in his full-blown Two-Face persona, and unlike the voices of both Harvey and Big Bad Harv's, his voice here is a cold-burning snarl. And of course, the coin comes up scarred, because we've have no action otherwise.
We cut to the interior of the bookie joint, with the various men and women putting in their bets while TVs overhead play the races. As with most real-life crime, the show plays it at arms-length. How many kids watching even know what a bookie joint is? I mean, aside from my half-brother, who was taken to the track when he was ten by our uncle, who looked like Rodney Dangerfield by way of Harvey Bullock? Man, Uncle Jack. Remind me to tell you guys about the time he stole a golf cart.
The doorman peers out once more, only to be on the wrong end as Min and Max literally burst inside. Damn, those little twerps have got some strong legs!
The crowd reacts to the freckle-faced robbers with a stock sound effect gasp that I've heard in a million different things by now. Seriously, it's almost as overused as the Wilhelm Scream! And thus, flanked by Min and Max as his stormtroopers, Harvey makes his grand entrance like goddamn Darth Vader.
While we've already seen the scarring at the end of the previous episode, Harvey was still reeling from his trauma. But here, he's achieved full-blown assurance as Two-Face, standing upright in a position of authority and power, and decked out in a swanky new suit of pristine black and white. The suit is perhaps the single greatest innovation that B:TAS gave to the legacy of Two-Face as a character. What's more, it's an innovation likely born out of the need for simplicity, since it would have been a pain in the ass to animate his classic checkered outfit. Out of pragmatism came an outfit that was the first-ever time that the split-suit looked classy.
That said, the effect of Harvey's entrance is somewhat undone by his opening lines: "Don't bother to adjust the picture. For the next five minutes, I'm in control!" Paraphrasing an Outer Limits reference would work just fine if this scene were Harvey televising his crimes to the Gotham populace. Which, of course, he's not, and so it makes no sense in context. Don't bother to adjust what picture? The TVs playing the races? It's a half-baked line that we'd typically see in the comics of Jeph Loeb, with dialogue coasting on its pop culture value rather than any internal storytelling logic.
Is this a nitpick on my part? Probably, but considering that it occurs in a scene showing that Harvey is now all of a sudden a dapper-dressed, gun-wielding gangster with no transition from Part I whatsoever, it only helps to make this scene feel in keeping with your typical, standard Two-Face appearance from the Bronze Age comics, rather than the logical progression from the great first episode.
Behind the counter, Min/Max discovers an open crate filled with what "must be a couple of hundred in silver dollars," which raises two questions: 1.) So if they use silver dollars, why is Harvey's coin a quarter? And 2.) who the hell still uses silver dollars? Oh wait, this is B:TAS Gotham, a town that uses police zeppelins and gangsters all still use Tommy guns! God, I adore the fantasy noir universe in which B:TAS exists.
Without hesitation, Two-Face orders Min/Max to take the coins as part of their haul, and everything seems to go swimmingly until one of them tries to steal a diamond ring off one of the bookie's hands. "That wasn't part of the plan," he says, coolly. "We'll have to flip for it." It's only when Harvey takes out the coin that we hear his theme music played on recorder again. It seems that judgment is the core of Harvey's character.
I wish that Chintense, who made this great gif, had also made one in color so it wouldn't look weird and out-of-place here, but it's still awesome nonetheless. It also gives a nice look at Harvey's scarring without the blueness.
He catches the coin open-palmed rather than catching it closed and slapping the inverted side on the back of his opposite hand. Two-Face of all media has done it both ways, and personally, I greatly prefer the way he does it right here. It lets everyone see exactly how it lands, fair and square, and there's less chance of cheating from a guy who can probably feel which is the scarred side in his hand even before looking. Besides, it wouldn't be smart of him to use the back of the hand which is usually holding a gun, y'know?
So yes, as we see, the coin lands up good side, and he tells Min/Max to leave the ring. It's off-limits. Min/Max balks, and Harvey smacks him right there in the middle of the robbery.
He snarls, "I said, LEAVE IT!!!" This moment shows how the coin gives Harvey a code of ethics, of a sort. As we've all noticed, this is something that all Two-Face depictions should have in theory, but very few employ in practice. Once again, though, questions arise as to why Harvey would ever see something like random theft as something he could accept under any circumstances.
Turning around to address the crowd, Harvey brandishes his Tommy and says, "Before I go, I want you all to give Rupert Thorne a message for me." And then he proceeds to open fire, shooting out all the TV sets.
Wait, what? So the message Harvey wants the patrons to relay to Thorne is "Rat-a-tat-tat smash tinkle thud?" Well, I guess if Harvey is going to enter with a line that barely made sense, he might as well leave that way too. Either way, by destroying the TVs and stealing the funds, he's certainly made a dramatic impact on the untouchable Rupert Thorne. And as we learn, it's not the for the first time either, much to Thorne's frustration.
Before we check in with Thorne's predictable reaction, I'd like to talk a bit about the character himself. I find it interesting that the B:TAS writers made Rupert Thorne their crime kingpin rather than one of the established big mobsters like Lew Moxon or Vincent Moroni/Maroni. Not to mention Carmine Falcone, but as we've already noted, Batman: Year One wasn't an influence to B:TAS, especially not compared to the 70's Bronze Age comics written by the likes of Dennis O'Neil, Frank Robbins, Len Wein, and Steve Englehart. This was an era where Bruce moved out of Wayne Manor into a penthouse right in the middle of Gotham, armed with the express intent of combating a "new breed" a criminal, one who hides out in the open behind any number of legitimate fronts and perverts the law to their advantage.
In the best story produced from this era, Englehart and Marshall Rogers created Rupert Thorne to be (it always seemed to me) their own Boss Tweed of Gotham: a corrupt political mover and shaker with far more legitimacy, power, and influence than the mobsters of old. This real-life, everyday criminal proved a great contrast to the flamboyant, colorful costumed rogues, and it even made Hugo Strange look honorable by comparison.
Now, those kinds of characters are littered throughout B:TAS, usually serving to facilitate the origins of the costumed criminals. GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle begat Mr. Freeze, Pharmaceutical magnate Roland Daggett begat Clayface and pissed off Catwoman, and so on. But Thorne, the character whose influence can be felt in every one of these characters, was adapted into the Golden Age role of being an untouchable mob boss, and out-and-out criminal who is publicly acknowledged as such. I'm not sure if this is an upgrade or a downgrade. But even as a mobster, he shares the predominant trait of his spiritual descendants by fascilitating the transformation of a normal person into one of Batman's Rogues.
And for those who didn't get that, Candice spells it out:
In response to Frankie the Goon's "I thought we got rid of this guy," Candice purrs, "Are you kidding? We created him." She says it with such intrigue and satisfaction that I'm seriously amazed that she and Two-Face never ended up having ALL THE SEX. But again, that would have never happened considering what Candice does over the course of this episode.
Following her comment, Thorne puts a $2,000,000 bounty on Harvey and rages, "Six months of this is long enough!" Harvey's been waging a campaign of terror against Rupert Thorne for six goddamn months?! And Batman hasn't caught him yet? That has to be some kind of record for a villain to get away with it, much less Bruce's own wayward best friend, whose accident and subsequent crime spree weigh heavily enough on Bruce to cause his own nightmares.
It hadn't occurred to me that this nightmare was meant to parallel Harvey's nightmare from Part I until I read the novelization, Dual to the Death. In my defense, the two nightmare scenes are very different. Whereas Harvey's was a formless void of mist and darkness, Bruce's is a twisted cityscape, a living monster of all-consuming urban industry. While I adore the design, I can't help but feel like it takes what was before an inescapable unseen horror and instead turns it into something obvious.
While both nightmares feature a sweaty Harvey Dent fleeing from some unseen enemy, the animation quality in the second part (provided by the Korean Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD.) is seriously inferior to the first (provided by Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., LTD.), as if they traded expressive animation for a prettier background. Harvey here seems less terrified and more winded after a brief workout.
The animation is stiff and below the show's standard, and worst of all, Harvey's facial expressions and body languages are just boring and bland. The inferiority of this nightmare sequence becomes even more apparent as we see Harvey running, as he did in the first part. There, he fled in a desperate scramble, nearly tripping over his own feet in a futile attempt to flee for his life. Here, he's just kinda jogging.
And even when Harvey comes to a stop on a precarious suspension bridge hanging over presumed oblivion, he's drawn as just standing there. This time around, the animation of the characters are entirely secondary to the background nightmare design. But don't get me wrong, the design itself is still cool.
Of course, this is Bruce's dream version of Harvey, so maybe Bruce just didn't understand the full extent of Harvey's terror. Besides, this nightmare serves a different purpose for the dreamer than Harvey's, which was entirely about a man trying to run from the monster inside himself. For Bruce, his nightmare is entirely centered around GUILT.
"You! You saw what was happening. You knew that something was terribly wrong with me. I thought you were my friend! You should have been able to help me! But you didn't!"
"Now LOOK AT MEEEE!!!"
Okay, first of all, I didn't notice until this scene just how much Harvey's blue scarring (B:TAS' other unique interpretation for the character) seemed to match the blue suit he wore before he was scarred. The face blue is deeper than the suit's powder blue, but still, was that intentional? I feel like there's some potential for symbolism there, but at present, I lack the ability to bullshit one together. See if you can come up with anything!
Back to Bruce's guiltacular nightmare. Y'know, this scene would be powerful if Bruce HAD been more negligent in trying to help Harvey, if maybe Bruce's façade had prevented him from reaching out. Batman of the comics would easily have been more of a dick, the kind to judge Harvey as an unstable danger after the blow-ups and abandon his own ally. That would make Bruce entirely deserving of his guilt, and thus more poignancy would be added to his attempts to save Harvey if Harvey represented his first true failure. But that's not what's happening here.
Bruce's immediate reply to Dream!Harvey, "But I tried, Harvey!" indicates that Bruce logically knows that he actually DID try to help his friend, but that logical knowledge is no match for his irrational, deep-seated guilt issues. That's really what this is about here, as Bruce dreams of Harvey plummeting into the abyss, crying out "WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?" And in case the subtext was somehow still too sub for the audience, the scene takes the guilt to 11 with the laughingly overwrought cameo of Martha and Thomas, the latter of whom is also voiced by Moll.
"Why couldn't you SAVE us, son?"
Oh Jesus Christ, really? Look, I appreciate that the show didn't try to ignore the Waynes' murders, but they already addressed Bruce's guilt in a far more powerful, personal way in Nothing to Fear, which culminated is the legendary "I am vengeance! I am the night! I! AM. BATMAN!" That moment works because of how tied up it was in the emotions of Bruce's guilt, and how he was able to overcome those fears and save the day. Here, though, it's both redundant and wrong to tie those same issues up with Bruce's feelings about Harvey. It indicates that he's out to save Harvey due to his own issues rather than any interest in Harvey himself.
Considering that this scene is meant to highlight a parallel between Bruce and Harvey, it would have been better served if it showed how Bruce dealt with his OWN dark side (see also The Dark Knight Returns, Two-Face: Crime and Punishment, and Darwyn Cooke's Batman: Ego for examples of how this parallel was handled), and how he could have used that understanding to try and help his friend back to the other side. Considering how far into his own darkness Bruce will fall as the DCAU progresses, gradually going from Bronze Age Batman to hardened Post-Miller Batman on through to the scowling old man in Batman Beyond, I prefer to pretend that my version is canon.
Thankfully, the show makes it easy for me to do that since this motivation of "Harvey, I won't let you down... just like I let down MY DEAD, DEAD PARENTS!!!!" is never brought up again. All that matters is that, one way or another, it's established that Bruce is now determined to save Harvey from himself, as evidenced by the extensive reading list he has sprawled over the Batcomputer's console:
This moment is the episode's sole allusion to the very concept of mental illness, since it's only Bruce's usual detective work and quick-thinking which leads him to Harvey by the end. The previous episode was rooted in the psychological, even if it was only pop-psychology/pseudo-psychology/bullplop. While the rest of the episode does have its greatness, the lack of any attempt to make psychological sense only muddles Harvey's character and makes it that much easier to write him like his more simplistic comics counterpart.
But as I've mentioned before, the novelization Dual to the Death threw in some original content not seen in the episodes it adapted. The most important of these new scenes featured Batman meeting with Harvey's therapist, Dr. Crest, whom you'll note is entirely absent from this actual episode. The scene between her and Batman not only sheds some light on Harvey's mental state, and how Two-Face differs from both Harvey and Big Bad Harv, but it also is the only scene where Bruce brings himself to confront the parallels between himself and his friend. I know I've linked to this before, but I think it's worth properly posting here by this point.
I'm not knowledgeable about how mental illness works, but the theory about Two-Face being a combination (but not integreation) of Harvey and Big Bad Harv suddenly seems to make the question of his rehabilitation look much murkier than when he was just a guy dealing with his darker personality. Can this analysis be applied to any Two-Face from the comics as well? If so, Two-Face being the third personality right away throws a wrench into the idea of Harvey being a living dichotomy.
I also really love Batman asking if what happened to Harvey could happen (or already HAS happened) to him as well. By drawing that parallel, it raises the stakes for Batman that much higher. With this, Two-Face is no longer a lost friend and/or his first great failure. To Batman, Harvey is now a warning. Just as Harvey might be pulled back from the abyss, so too might Bruce be sucked into it headlong.
As such, keep the above pages in mind as we continue with this review, even if they aren't "canon." Because otherwise, scenes like the one of Bruce swearing to help Harvey will seem less powerful and more hammy and overwrought.
"So what are you dreaming tonight, Harvey? Peaceful dreams? Nightmares? Maybe both at once. Sleep well, my friend. Wherever you are, whatever you've become, I WILL save you. I swear."
I love Kevin Conroy, but there was no way he could deliver those lines in any way that wouldn't come close to Calculon levels of overblown. The fact that he's actually looking up to the sky (rather than down at the photo of Harvey in his hand) is just the brown sugar glaze on the ham and oh my god I'm hungry.
But to be far to this scene, it's notable for being the first time we actually see Bruce as himself, rather than the doofy playboy façade of Best Buddy Bruce, nor even the grim relentless vigilante Batman. Even with Bruce, there could be a question of a "third" personality that combines, if not integrates, the two. More than that, it shows that even beneath the façade, Bruce legitimately cares for Harvey as a friend. But again, this dedication could also be born out of guilt. Nothing could turn a fake friendship into a real cause in Bruce's mind like self-imposed guilt!
The scene shifts from Bruce swearing justice over a picture of Two-Face to Harvey's fiancee, Grace, crying over a portrait of a rather smug, cocky Harvey Dent:
How YOU doin'?
While I know that Grace is faithfully in the "Golden Age Gilda" mode and I absolutely appreciate the value that her character serves as Harvey's emotional compass, but even still, I can't help but think, geez, don't you have a life? We still have no idea what Grace is actually like, what she cares about, what she even does for a living. At least in Dual to the Death, we learn in this scene that she's actually a lawyer at the firm of Price, Fienstein, and Lamont, where she just made partner. So if we were to take that as canon (and I *think* that it's later reinforced in the DCAU comics?), she's actually a pretty damn accomplished person in her own right, but for the purposes of the show, she has no life outside of Harvey.
Of course, now I have to wonder what Harvey and Grace's relationship would be like. Two lawyers in the same household? My stepfather's a lawyer, and we have a saying about him: "Often incorrect, but never wrong." I have to imagine that the Dent relationship would largely consist of heated arguments and spirited debates, except that what little we've seen of their relationship thus far is blander than skim milk. Still, let's at least pretend that there was a lot more going on behind closed doors as we proceed with the tragedy.
Grace's misery is interupted by a knock at the door, behind which are a pair of "police officers" there to "help." Yes, that was an ironic "help," and the wink was implied.
Accompanied by Frankie in a cunning mustache-based cop disguise, Candice poses as "Detective Leopold," plotting to use Grace as a pawn against Two-Face. Just like the last time, Thorne is sitting on his butt doing nothing while Candice is the one doing all the legwork. And whatta pair of legworks too! *twirls novelty tie* Seriously: "It's okay, Miss Lamont, I am Detective Miniskirt Librarian, you can trust me."
Earning Grace's confidence, Candice gives her a homing beacon if/when Harvey ever tries to contact her, making her believe that the police will come rushing in to get Harvey the help he needs. Grace is conflicted, but after a bit of slightly shippy persuasion, Candice takes Grace's hand and gives her the transmitter.
"It's all in your hands," Candice tells Grace. Just like Harvey, she now has something to hold in her hands which can make her feel like she has some control over destiny. Instead, of course, she's being manipulated, with Candice using Grace's own best intentions against her and Harvey. For Grace as a character, this is both better and worse than Golden Age Gilda: better because she's given more to do that's relevant to themes and the plot than just being Harvey's beacon of hope, but worse because she's now also a mere pawn. Both aspects will come into play in the tug of war for Harvey's soul.
Safe back in their Villanmobile, Frankie pulls off the mustache and asks Candice why she's so sure that Two-Face will come back. Candice, in her best femme fatale manner, purrs, "He'll come back. They always come back." In other words, men are suckers. And sure enough, just as they pull away, another call pulls up to the curb outside of Grace's apartment. The window rolls down halfway, revealing one of the saddest Harvey Dent images I've ever seen.
Puppies and Puss In Boots have nothing on Two-Face there. And it's not even the saddest he looks in this episode, as his longing for Grace weighs on him heavily in the very next scene. Before we look at that, though, I have to include something awesome regarding this next scene: the original storyboards by animator Jim Smith, who also credits Bruce Timm for "help." Smith is most famous for being the co-founder of Spümcø, and thus also co-creator of Ren and Stimpy, so needless to say, he's pretty damn awesome all-around. Dig that original title card design! Man, I wish they'd gone with that for Part II rather than just repeating the first one.
As you might be able to tell, Harvey is divvying up the robbery funds like Edward G. Robinson in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Min (or Max) gets a bit too grabby with the cash, whereupon Two-Face doles out some vicious disciplinary action. This is the second time he's been violent with his help, and combined with his revelation that he once prosecuted them as D.A. (which itself might be a reference to this scene from the original Harvey Kent appearance), this indicates two things. First, that he still holds contempt for criminals even when he's become one. And second, that he nonetheless inspires so much loyalty and/or fear that criminals he once put away and now regularly beats will still serve him.
With the help properly reprimanded, Harvey whips out his wallet and proceeds to stash his share, but he freezes up when his eyes fall on the photograph inside.
Before we take in his genuinely tender moment, I would like to point out that, yes, he does have a credit card made out in Two-Face's name. I'd like to know which underworld bank lets super-criminals do that! If we can go by regular DCU, maybe it was an overseas account in the bank of Bialya, since Harvey has been known to vactation there in a split-trucks/speedo swimsuit while eating ice cream and I am not even joking. Okay, seriously, back to the tender moment.
Harvey sees the photo and closes in on it, and his veneer of sneering evilness melts away. What's this Two-Face episode has that very few others use is facial versatility. For the most part, Two-Face's good side is either frowning or scowling, which only serves to make Harvey seem like a one-note character. It's always more effective to make his good side expressive, since it'll always be paired off with the permanent snarl/grin of the scarred side. There's really no better way to display Harvey's constant internal conflict, especially in moments like this.
For the moment, all time seems to freeze in Harvey's head as he stares at the photo. Unfortunately, outside his head are Min and Max, who exchange a look as if they've been through this several times over the past six months. Dealing with an angry boss is one thing, but an angsty boss is another matter altogether.
Shuffling their feet and trying to sound helpful, Min and Max offer to pick Grace up and bring her to the hideout, a suggestion that Harvey meets first with another scowl, as if offended at the mere suggestion.
But then he softens again, his posture slumping as he turns back to the photo longingly once more.
As we saw in the end of the previous episode, Harvey said goodbye to Grace because it seems as if he believed that she was already lost to him. Taking that into account here, he's resisting his deep-seated desire for Grace because she might as well be a ghost to him at this point. The closest parallel I can think about is how Mr. Freeze longed for Nora, but there are fundamental differences there. Nora was taken from Freeze, but Harvey was the one who left Grace. Nora was presumed dead and thus lost, but Grace is still alive, praying for Harvey's return.
So why doesn't Harvey go back to her? Does he think that she'll reject his looks? It's implied, and that would fit Golden Age canon, but it's never once mentioned as a motivation. Maybe he just doesn't want to see the one person who might be able to talk him back to earth, especially now that he's so close to Thorne's ultimate destruction. And when the coin flip comes up tails, scarred heads up, that's exactly the desire which wins out.
All tenderness and warmth in his face vanishes, and all that's left is the cold-burning anger of Two-Face as he flips the wallet closed and says, "Forget it, we've got more important things to do." On one hand, this shows just how far Harvey has fallen, that the coin could give him the excuse to deny the person he loves in favor of the revenge he craves, and maybe the freedom to continue being Two-Face even after Thorne's imminent destruction. On the other, anybody who knows Two-Face stories knows that the coin's ruling is final... but as we'll soon see, he isn't that far gone yet. Even if he uses the coin to make decisions, he still has enough free will to be moved to the point that he'll flip for the same choice again.
Harvey decides that it's time to finish Thorne off once and for all in a manner similar to how Thorne finished off D.A. Harvey Dent. Meanwhile in the Batcave, Bruce finally starts catching up with Harvey after piecing together a certain pattern in Two-Face's crimes.
Yes, they're all two-themed, just like a classic Two-Face story from the comics. Which would be great, except for two problems:
1.) No one has ever come up with a good reason WHY Harvey would be obsessed with the number two. He just has that obsession because it's a fun gimmick that also makes it easy for Batman to figure out Two-Face's next target, but it's never made sense from a character perspective.
2.) The targets are all fronts for Rupert Thorne, a person for whom Harvey already HAS a motivation for wanting to destroy. So why throw two-themed names into the mix as well? What purpose does that serve, other than to be a throwback to the comics which didn't make sense in the first place? For that matter, it makes THORNE seem like the one with the obsession with twos! In sadly fitting fashion, the writers are trying to have it both ways here: combining the original story and character from Part I with recreating a classic Two-Face story, only to dilute both aspects. It's silly, and taking away time from the emotional conflict. Get back to that, story!
Deducing Harvey's next target (because, as we've established, the inexplicable theme of twos makes it easy for writing detective work), Bruce Alfred warns Bruce that "Harvey is no longer the fellow we knew." Bruce isn't ready to believe that yet, if ever.
"I still feel that somewhere inside that monster is my old friend," Bruce says. To which Alfred replies, That may make him even more dangerous." In two lines, the show perfectly touches upon why Two-Face is one of Batman's greatest foes. It's not his gimmick or his crimes. It's not the depth of his evil nor even his tragic origin. It's Batman's embattled belief that Harvey can still be saved, and the pity he feels towards his fallen ally. Every time Batman punches Harvey, he should feel that pain himself. Writers forget this dynamic at their peril, and they often have.
We cut to the site of Harvey's next break-in, the office of Rupert Thorne's attorney. Well good, at least this time we don't have to worry about some silly pun in the name!
Oh come on!
Y'know what might have worked? If they'd established all of Thorne's two-themed stuff from the start, making it Thorne's own personal theme. Not an obsession, but more like a quirk, a trademark. Imagine D.A. Harvey Dent's constant frustrations trying to shut down places like the Two's Cafe and Gemini Club, partially due to machinations of his courtroom nemesis: the corrupt mob lawyer E. Doubleday. Build that up in the right way, and then put him through his accident--which splits him into Thorne's favorite number while also exposing his hidden side--could then make a lot more sense. This, though? This is just gettin' silly.
Decked out in the gray coat and fedora from Part I, Harvey breaks into Doubleday's file cabinets and locates a single folder which contains enough suppressed evidence to put Thorne away for life.
Harvey's plan to "destroy Thorne with his file just as he destroyed me with mine" indicates that he doesn't want to kill Thorne, but that his ultimate revenge should be using the evidence to send Thorne to prison. Even as Two-Face, he still wants this done by the book, even if he has to break several laws to get there. Of course, this won't last, but it's amazing to see the ways in which he still isn't too far gone just yet.
Further proof of this is seen when Batman shows up to beat up Min and Max and try to talk reason to Harvey. Batman first tries appealing to Harvey's love for his friends, but Two-Face snarls "Harvey's friends are no friends of mine!" This goes back to Big Bad Harv's disdain for Bruce as a "rich twit," which seems to me like Harvey harbored resentment for Bruce on some level. But as with that same scene in Part I with BBH, it's Grace being brought to his attention that calms the storm within Harvey.
When he asks, "Grace...? What do you know about Grace?" his voice almost sounds like Harvey's again, but the rasp never vanishes entirely. It seems like his actual vocal cords were damaged in the accident. Or in his scream. Even still, with Two-Face claiming to be opposed to everything that Harvey Dent stood for, the love for Grace still shines through.
But playing the Grace card isn't enough to stop Two-Face, who fights off Batman and knocks him unconscious, but not before Batman tears off a piece of Harvey's coat.
When Batman comes to (after being awakened by a kindly old janitor, a moment that feels very Bronze Age, back when Batman would occasionally interact with normal citizens who saw him as a hero, not as a fearsome urban legend), Two-Face is long gone, but the piece of coat contains--jinkies!--a clue: a matchbook with the two of spades.
Meanwhile, Min and Max are driving the boss around town as they plot to attack Thorne, but Harvey becomes distracted when they pull up to a light right alongside a wedding boutique.
While I've been ragging on the two-puns throughout, I absolutely love the "And the two shall become one" over the bridge and groom. It's not just the mannequins which reminds Harvey of his fiancee yet again, but also those words--the combination of Harvey's love for Grace and his obsession with two--which is able to reach through his insanity, speaking to him in his own language.
It's powerful and subtle, and while it doesn't magically make Harvey choose for himself, it's enough to make him do the unthinkable: flip the coin for Grace a second time. And the instant he flips, the show smartly cuts straight to her phone rigging. Because we're dealing with plot rather than true chance, we know exactly how the coin was going to land the moment Harvey chose to flip for her again. It was, after all, predetermined.
When a very surprised Grace asks where Harvey is, the reply she receives is a very soft, very small, "I... I want to see you." Harvey sounds like a pitiful shadow of himself in any persona, filled with love, fear, and perhaps even shame for having left her at all. Grace's tearful, eager agreement to meet with Harvey is tempered by her realization that she still has "Detective Leopold's" homing beacon.
Hesitatingly, as if struggling with her own conscience, she says, "Harvey... you know that, no matter what... I love you." This is the closest that she can come to warning Harvey about what she's about to do, but Harvey misses it entirely. "I'll see you soon," he quietly says, and hangs up. With Min and Max waiting outside to escort her to Harvey, she decides to betray her beloved in order to save him. Even if the cops were real and truly coming to help Harvey, I have to wonder how he would have taken this betrayal. Would he have understood, or would it have been enough to turn Two-Face against her too, thus severing Harvey's last tether to sanity? You'll have to judge for yourself when you see their reunion play out.
So hey, I've discovered that there actually is such a thing as an LJ post size limit. Holy crap. I know that my fic posts have been longer than this, but I guess all the pics and gifs took their toll on my wimpy little free account. So let's save the final act for a separate post, and maybe in doing so, it'll be less jarring when I go off to talk about an episode of Night Court for a few paragraphs. Trust me, it's relevant. I think.
Note: the vast majority of the screencaps are by me. A couple others (postly the long pan shots) have been taken from Worlds Finest Online. Gifs are all by GhostOfCheney.