Recap / Batman: The Animated Series E65 "The Worry Men"

Veronica Vreeland returns from a safari toting a bag full of tiny "worry men" dolls she picked up in a village on her trip, and passes them out to Gotham's wealthy during a party, promising that the little figures will take all their cares away as they sleep. The next day, though, Bruce Wayne and many others at the party withdraw millions of dollars from personal and business accounts, then leave the cash lying around for a gang dressed as jungle tribesman to steal, with no memory of the act afterward.

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Tropes in this episode include:

• Agitated Item Stomping: Upon learning from his men that Batman thwarted the attempt to get Veronica's money, the Mad Hatter angrily stomps on his hat.
• Animation Bump: The animation for Tetch while he's expositing his plan to buy a private island is far more fluid than anything else in the episode.
• Creepy Doll: Upon tracking down the Mad Hatter, Batman gets attacked by these. First by a Penguin doll that's holding a trick umbrella with a blade, then a Riddler doll that's using a machine gun before nearly getting stabbed by a Harley Quinn marionette and finally a Joker in the box.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Batman chastises the Mad Hatter for squandering his genuine technological brilliance on petty theft.
• Dissonant Serenity: Thanks to the Hatter's Mind Control, Bruce is awfully sunny and casual while leaving a briefcase full of $20 million in cash on a window ledge.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • While berating his mooks for ensuring that Batman will find their hideout, the Mad Hatter realizes he can play to that and set up an ambush.
  • When explaining his scheme to Batman, the Mad Hatter says it all occurred to him when he heard about Veronica's rainforest trek.
• Falsely Reformed Villain: The Mad Hatter states he was recently released from Arkham. He immediately went about another scheme all so that he could retire to a private island.
• Hypocrite: The Mad Hatter derides his mooks for failing to handle Batman, the guy who always beats him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Once he's back in Arkham, the Hatter receives a Batman-shaped "worry doll" from the shaman he kidnapped.
• Mayincatec: The shaman and the Hatter's vaguely South American-themed costumes for his henchmen.
• Motive Decay: Batman actually brings this up himself with the Mad Hatter, who in his first appearance was a love-lorn geek who used his mind-controlling inventions to try and force a woman to love him. In this episode, he is just using his inventions for personal financial gain. Batman tells him that he has become nothing more than a petty thief.
  • Justified and deconstructed in this instance. As Tetch explains, his last 'stay' in Arkham finally convinced him to call it quits and leave Gotham and the Mad Hatter persona behind for good. But as his retirement plans needed financial capital (and with his tarnished reputation and criminal record), petty theft was ironically the best, fastest way to raise the cash (and justified this kind of swansong).
• Off with His Head!: The Hatter puts Batman in a guillotine and very nearly cuts his head off if it weren't for Batman stopping the blade with his feet and his no-longer brainwashed mooks stopping him.
• Oh, Crap!: Batman when the Hatter releases the blade to the guillotine that almost decapitates him.
• Pretentious Pronunciation: The Mad Hatter puts emphasis on the "ham" in "Arkham."
• Revenge Before Reason: After losing control of his mooks, the Mad Hatter pulls a gun and intends to flee, but not before trying to kill Batman (who he assumed was still incapacitated) once and for all. Batman had already gotten free by this point, so it's unlikely the Hatter would've gotten away if he had just made a run for it, but it still was short-sighted of him to focus on revenge instead of possible freedom.
• Rogues Gallery Showcase: Parodied with the Mad Hatter's stage-prop versions of the other major villains.
• Tropical Epilogue: The Mad Hatter admits that he's been thinking of retiring from crime, purchasing an island out in the middle of nowhere, and opening up a sun-bonnet shop.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By placing one of the worry men under Bruce's pillow, Alfred inadvertently made him a pawn in Mad Hatter's scheme.
• Unwitting Pawn: How the Mad Hatter describes Veronica's part in his scheme.
• Voodoo Doll: Subverted with the eponymous "worry men," mystical dolls that supposedly give you good dreams and take your worries away when you put them under your pillow while you sleep. Veronica Vreeland buys some of these "worry men" dolls on a trip to Central America, and distributes them among Gotham City's when she returns home. However, the worry men are actually infused with the Mad Hatter's mind control technology, which he uses to manipulate the wealthy Gothamites into robbing themselves. Batman wrecks the plan and captures the Mad Hatter, and as Bruce Wayne pays to fly the legitimate Hollywood Voodoo practitioner whom the Hatter forced to help him back to Central America. The practitioner sends the Mad Hatter a different type of worry man that gives him nightmares (modelled after Batman, of course).
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Seriously Subverted. The Hatter regrets calling his brainwashed henchmen "gutter trash" after the effect is broken and it becomes clear they took offense to it.

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