Aaron Herbst, an Gotham Cryogenics employee infatuated with Inque, frees her after being fired. When she captures Terry, Bruce has to re-don the mantle to save him.
Tropes featured:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Inque makes it very, very clear that she did not enjoy being Aaron's "confidant" for all his boring and petty problems, does not return his obsession with her, and regards him at best as a useful idiot.
- And I Must Scream:
- Aaron only gets half the formula from Inque, becoming an immobile half-liquid blob who can barely communicate.
- Inque was also on the receiving end during her time in Gotham Cryogenics. As it turns out, she was fully conscious the whole time she was frozen, and did not appreciate the several months Aaron spent talking to her about his sad, empty life and petty troubles. There's a bit of subtext that implies that he may have done something worse.
- Armor-Piercing Question: While Terry is busy sealing the Batcave for Inque's possible return, Bruce stops him and shows a recording of her merging with a hostage's longcoat before Terry stopped her. He then asks why she doesn't just become a human to blend in. When Terry is unable to up with a conclusion, Bruce gives him one: she can't. This leads them to investigate a research center that can fix her problem.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: After Inque escapes into Gotham's storm drains:
Cop #1: Can we seal it off?
Cop #2: Well, there's only two entrances... on this street. Then you've got the one after that, and the one after that, and...
- Back in the Saddle: Bruce dons a Batsuit for the first time in decades.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Aaron wants to be like Inque, and in the end, he receives her ability to assume a liquid form...but with only half the formula, so he has no control over it whatsoever.
- Big "NO!": One from Batman when Inque punches Bruce across the room.
- Body Horror: Aaron embodies this when he only takes half the formula that gave Inque her powers. Not only is he a human blob who can barely move, it's implied he can't eat solid food. Yikes.
- Bond One-Liner: After Inque is washed away by the rain, Bruce quips with “Poor, diluted fool.”
- Book Ends: It opens up with Aaron confiding in an immobile Inque as he maintains her imprisonment. It ends with him in her position as a woman confides in him.
- Call-Back: Inque forcibly making out with Terry is reminiscent of all the many, many times that Bruce was made to kiss an attractive, vampy lady during his career.
- Chekhov's Gun: Bruce's experimental Powered Armor Batsuit.
- Converse with the Unconscious: Aaron has spent months talking to the frozen Inque as if she were his confidant; he's fired when it gets to the point of kissing her ice block. Inque, who was in fact conscious the whole time, is not happy about it after she gets out. He'd later be on the receiving end at the end of the episode so he gets to know what it feels like.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: At the start of the episode when Aaron is called to talk to his boss, he mistakenly thinks he is finally going to catch a break, and kisses the ice block holding Inque for luck. It turns out his boss had been filming his conversations with Inque, and this kiss was the last bit of unprofessionalism that gets him fired. This is played with when Inque reveals she was fully conscious while she was in the ice block and could hear and see everything Aaron said and did to her, which would include the kiss.
- Everyone Has Standards: Unknown to Aaron, his superiors had monitored him whenever he conversed with the frozen Inque. But what raised some flags happens to be when he kissed Inque's frozen form "for luck". Not long after, Aaron's boss expresses disgust at such unprofessional and creepy behavior, even towards a criminal and saboteur.
- Exact Words: Bruce implies that his heart condition is why he gave up being Batman, but Terry is skeptical that would have dissuaded him. Bruce is telling the truth, but leaves out why the heart condition led him to retire, so Terry's instincts are spot on.
- Fake-Out Make-Out: Inque and Aaron. Aaron likes it, as he is infatuated with Inque, but she just used it to get out of a sticky situation, and threatens him never to try it with her again under pain of her creativity. She...doesn't like him.
- The Farmer and the Viper: A somewhat villainous example. Aaron did everything in his power to serve Inque (in return for a "reward"). In the end, she rightly 'rewards' him. ...By only giving Aaron half the formula, rendering him a helpless humanoid blob.
- Forceful Kiss: After Inque tells Bruce over Terry's intercom where to find them, Terry tries to warn Bruce not to come, only for Inque to silence him by deeply kissing him on the lips.
- Forced Transformation: Aaron Herbst when Inque injects him with only half the formula that fixed her genetic structure. He becomes a blobmonster confined to the same cell that he used to watch over Inque before he was fired from Gotham Cryogenics.
- Forgotten Phlebotinum: Averted. Bruce gives Terry Mr. Freeze's ice gun "just in case," but it gets destroyed by Inque.
- Godzilla Threshold: Bruce has to go into battle using the experimental Batsuit (the use of which puts dangerous stress on his heart) to help Terry.
- Here We Go Again!: Aaron ends up in the same situation Inque was in, with a cryogenics worker chatting with him about her mundane life, all while being monitored.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Inque doesn't pull any punches when she describes how annoying she finds Aaron.
- I'm Melting!: Destroying the building's skylight exposes Inque to heavy rain, melting her before she gets a chance to kill Terry or Bruce.
- Improperly Paranoid: Following the events of "Black Out," Terry tries to seal up the Batcave in case Inque shows up again. Bruce points out how unlikely it is that she remembers where the Batcave is (pointing out factors such as how dark it was the night she first came there and how fast Terry drives making it hard for her to remember the route), and after doing some research about her escape, tells Terry she's not coming for them yet because she wants to fix her genetic structure and become human enough to blend in more.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Inque forces a deep kiss on Terry right after she threatens to kill him and while she is still crushing his neck with her tentacle arm.
- It Only Works Once: Batman brings Mr. Freeze's gun with him once word of Inque's escape got out, but she immediately destroys it in their first rematch. Bruce later creates a batarang that almost serves the same purpose, but Terry wasn't able to use it to defeat Inque either.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Aaron, who worked at Gotham Cryogenics, is infatuated with a frozen Inque and talks to her in her inert state about his sad, empty life and petty troubles. After he kisses the ice-block, he's caught on camera in the act and fired by his superiors, and who remind him that they have video evidence against him if he tries to argue to the review board. He then frees Inque and begs her to give him a similar mutation. She does, but only in half-state, leaving him barely able to move. After Inque's defeat, he ends up in Gotham Cryogenics in the same situation on the other end with a female caretaker, with the camera filming her grindingly dull conversations with him.
- Inque also suffers from this, from betraying Aaron. When she finally agrees to give him his promised "reward" by injecting him with the formula to give him the same powers as her, she purposely only gives him half the treatment. He's left as a formless blob with no control over his powers. He ends up interfering when she prepares to kill Bruce, telling her "You promised!" in a accusing tone. When she tries to knock him aside, he attacks her in retaliation, and their scuffle ends up inadvertently freeing Terry.
- Little "No": Terry's reaction when he sees that Bruce put on the exosuit to come after him, putting his life at risk regardless of the outcome of the fight with Inque.
- Mad Love: Aaron is obsessed with Inque, and Inque takes advantage of it, giving him only half the treatment after he's fulfilled his usefulness to her.
- Passing the Torch: While Bruce had given the mantle of Batman to Terry in the pilot, this marks the last time that Bruce ever dons any version of the Batsuit for the remainder of the DCAU. While later episodes will occasionally hearken back to some of Bruce's glory days, all future instances that he helps Terry are as Bruce Wayne.
- Shout-Out: Bruce's disguise before confronting Inque is a get-up identical to the look of The Shadow.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Inque stops Terry from warning Bruce by kissing him, something that comes out of nowhere since she never showed any interest in him outside of killing him.
- Sinister Suffocation: When Terry refuses to tell Bruce that Inque and Aaron are holding him at the Gotham Hills Arena, she turns her arm into a tentacle and wraps it around his neck, and starts choking him while growling at him to tell him. She eventually releases him after telling Bruce where they are herself, and forcing a kiss on Terry to stop him from warning Bruce not to come.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Inque stops Terry from warning Bruce not to come by deeply kissing him on the lips. There were plenty of other ways she could have gagged him to stop him from speaking, but it is clear she chose to go with forcing a kiss on him just to mess with him.
- The Tease: Inque acts rather flirty towards Terry and Aaron at different points, getting up close, caressing their faces and speaking in a sensual tone of voice.
- Triumphant Reprise: Bruce's Batman theme plays heroically in the background when he starts fighting Inque.
- The Unreveal: Bruce points that his rustiness is the reason why he retired being Batman, but Terry doesn't buy it, and plans to get to the bottom of it one day.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The police thought Batman's gone crazy when he attacked one of the freed hostages, with neither the cops nor even the hostage knowing the latter was actually hiding Inque. Batman's resulting altercation with the cops caused him to drop Mr. Freeze's gun, allowing Inque to destroy it.
- Villainous Face Hold: Inque holds Terry by the chin while holding him captive, once she realizes he is talking to "the old man" over his intercom. She holds him by the chin again — as she is choking him — while telling Bruce where they are and while kissing Terry to stop him from warning Bruce. Once she releases Terry from the kiss and pulls away, she brushes her hand against his chin in a teasing fashion.
- Working for a Body Upgrade: Inque is released and assisted by Aaron, who was supposed to be guarding her, to steal a chemical that can return her to human form. In return, he wants to be turned into a being like her. Inque, not being the world's most trustworthy person, agrees...but only gives him half the treatment, turning him into a formless blob with no ability to move.
