One night, Ace begins acting aggressively towards both Terry and Bruce, and they soon learn that all of the animals in Gotham are behaving strangely. The next day, people's speech becomes garbled and unintelligible, causing various accidents. It turns out that Shriek has returned and discovered a way to blast his sound wave technology across the entire city. He then delivers an ultimatum: he will stop his attacks if Batman surrenders and turns himself in by midnight.
Tropes:
- Badass Bystander: A nameless old lady saves a cop from being crushed by a falling structure when all of Gotham goes to hell. She tried to get his attention by calling out to him, but since he couldn't understand her, the old lady jumps into traffic and yanks him out of the way.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject:
- At the beginning of the episode, Bruce retells a story from his glory days when he was rescued by Robin. When Terry asks him what he would have done if Robin wasn't there, Bruce avoids the question and points out that they have a Batsuit to repair.
- At the end, when Bruce asks Terry whether he would have made the Heroic Sacrifice to save Gotham had he not figured out Shriek's plan in time, Terry uses the same excuse to change the subject.
- Curse of Babel: Shriek's messing with soundwaves prevents everyone in Gotham City from being able to communicate intelligibly.
- Disability Superpower: Shriek uses his deafness as an advantage during a fight against Batman, blasting a Brown Note that is extremely painful for Batman's ears but has no effect on himself. Then subverted when his deafness causes him to fail to notice the building collapsing behind him and he ends up buried in the rubble.
- Electric Instant Gratification: Shriek hires an assistant named Ollie who he pays by letting him use a "pleasure wand" that directly stimulates the brain's pleasure center.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Barbara tells Bruce and Terry that Shriek wants Batman, Bruce immediately volunteers himself. Unfortunately, Barbara tells him he's not the Batman Shriek wants.
- How Did You Know? I Didn't: Bruce tells Terry about an incident from his days as Batman:
Terry: How did you know Robin would get there in time to save you?
Bruce: I didn't.
Terry: Then for all you knew, you were walking into a trap with no way out.
Bruce: Sometimes you have to.
- It's Personal: Unlike his previous appearance where he was a Punch-Clock Villain working for Derek Powers, Shriek is now motivated by a desire for revenge against Batman for causing his deafness.
- Language Barrier: Shriek's latest scheme is to cause everyone in the city to speak in random languages, resulting in mass chaos. Terry and Bruce have to rely on text messaging in order to communicate with each other.
- Look Behind You: Batman warns Shriek that a building is about to fall on him. Since he's deaf, he doesn't hear the warning and gets crushed.
- Mythology Gag: Shriek's plot is identical to Ra's Al Ghul in JLA: Tower of Babel.
- Noodle Incident: The episode began with Terry just fresh off an encounter with Mad Stan, which led to his suit getting torn and Bruce having to fix it.
- No Time to Explain: Played with. When Terry realizes how Shriek is using the dual towers as a tuning fork, he immediately heads for the Batmobile. He does try to explain before flying off, just as Shriek turns on the interference again. However, it is heavily implied that Terry faked that the interference was on just so he could rush out faster.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Terry experiences a flashback to the death of his father. Throughout the flashback, Gregorian chant (the Pange Lingua
) is interspersed with the show's usual rock background music. - Papa Wolf: Bruce gets a moment of this towards Terry. Barbara relays Shriek's demands for Batman to give himself up, causing Terry to step forward in compliance. However, Bruce stops him and angrily rebuffs her suggestion to turn Terry into police custody.
- Sadistic Choice: Shriek forces Terry to choose between either sacrificing himself or allowing him to continue attacking Gotham, this time with a potentially fatal dose of his sound waves. Of course, Terry ends up tracking him down and taking him on in a fight instead.
- Sequel Episode: To Season One's "Shirek".
- Smart Ball: With Shriek's midnight deadline fast approaching and even Bruce with his Great Detective skills unable to figure out how he is transmitting his sound waves, Terry ends up having a "Eureka!" Moment and deduces that Shriek has been hiding in the city's tallest tower, using the building's dual structures as a giant tuning fork to amplify his signal.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Invoked during Bruce's story:
Terry: How did you know Robin would get there in time to save you?
Bruce: I didn't.Terry: Then for all you knew, you were walking into a trap with no way out.
Bruce: Sometimes you have to.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: After Shriek gives his ultimatum to Gotham, many citizens turn against Batman and begin opining that he should surrender himself, including people that Batman had just saved in that very episode and were initially singing his praises. Some even defend Shriek by saying "there are two sides to every story" and that he only wants "justice" for what was done to him, despite not even knowing the full story. Both Bruce and Max are disgusted and openly encourage Terry to simply let them suffer, urging that he not sacrifice himself for such ungrateful people. After Shriek's defeat, the citizens tried to help Batman from the collapsed building; however, Batman rejected their help walks away giving them the cold shoulder for what they did. Batman only stop Shriek because it's the right thing to do.
Bruce: This kid has done a lot for this city. It's about time this city did something for him!
- The Unintelligible: Everyone in Gotham becomes this to one another after Shriek's sound waves turn their speech into gibberish.
- What Is One Man's Life In Comparison?: Discussed between Terry and Max as he considers the sacrifice of his one life worth saving the city's many, and later the former with Bruce. Max points out that if Terry did decide to give himself up to save the city, that the fallout wouldn't just be limited to himself; his family (who are still recovering from Warren's death), his friends, and his girlfriend would all be affected by his loss. Not to mention Bruce himself would be hurt, especially since he's had more than a few tragedies regarding his proteges. When Bruce asks him if he would've answered Shriek's demands if he didn't find out where he is, Terry changes the subject.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Bruce is all for Terry to give up on the apathetic citizens, including people he had saved earlier, who insisted he give himself up to Shriek. Terry calls him out for this and rebukes him sharply:
Terry: I didn't do this for gratitude, and I have a feeling you didn't either.
- You're Insane!: In a phone conversation between Barbara and Shriek:
Barbara: You're out of your mind!
Shriek: Duh!
