Recap / The Adventures of Batman & Robin E15 "Second Chance"

The episode begins with Harvey Dent/Two-Face being transported to the hospital to get surgery for his scars, as Batman and Robin watch from above. Harvey has managed to gain control over his bad side, and his therapist believes that by healing his scars he can erase his Two-Face persona. Upon learning that Bruce Wayne funded this, Harvey thinks back on their friendship.

Before the operation can begin, gunmen burst into the room and kidnap Harvey. Batman and Robin pursue the thugs, who take separate vehicles, but neither of them manage to save Harvey. (Batman reacts to Robin's failure rather coolly, to which Robin is a bit resentful.) Later they consider where the vehicles were going and who they were registered to, and conclude that either Rupert Thorne or the Penguin was behind the kidnapping. Robin goes after Thorne while Batman goes after Penguin.

Robin tries to sneak in on Thorne, but Thorne’s goons catch him. When Robin says Harvey has been kidnapped, Thorne scoffs that he wishes he did it and has his mooks take Robin to the bridge to throw him over. Luckily, Robin has a glasscutter in his glove; he breaks free from his bonds and defeats the thugs.

Meanwhile, at Stonegate Prison, Batman interrogates Penguin, who admits that though Two-Face stole from him some time ago, he did not kidnap Two-Face, as he would rather confront him directly. He then has his birds attack Batman.

Batman and Robin meet up at the hospital. Batman is now sure he knows who kidnapped Harvey. Examining the scene of the crime, he finds masonry dust on one of the kidnappers’ boot prints and deduces where Harvey is. Robin says he should go with him to help, but Batman refuses, saying he needs to do this alone.

Batman heads out to the abandoned building called the Half Moon Club to face Harvey's worst enemy… Two-Face himself. However, Two-Face’s thugs capture him and chain him to a crane connected to dynamite. Two-Face explains that he set himself up to be kidnapped because he would not let his other personality destroy him. As Two-Face flips his coin to decide whether to detonate the dynamite, it lands on edge. He tries again repeatedly, each time landing on edge, causing him to Freak Out Batman frees himself and takes out Two-Face’s thugs.

Two-Face’s coin rolls over to the edge of the building and he desperately reaches for it, nearly falling off until Batman catches him. Harvey cannot decide without the coin, but Batman reveals he switched it with a trick coin that always lands on edge – now Harvey has to make his own choice. The thugs try to attack, but Robin swoops in and stops them. Harvey decides to drop the coin and let Batman save him, but his other personality emerges and he punches Batman, causing Batman to lose his grip. Batman saves Harvey, using a grapple hook to escape both the fall and the dynamite.

Later, Two-Face is taken back to Arkham. The Harvey personality is happy to see Bruce is there for him. Bruce then tells Dick that he's glad that he's always there for him.

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Tropes in this episode include:

• Art Shift: Before the operation/kidnapping, Batman flashes back to the events of "Two-Face, Part I", specifically the moment when Harvey's face was burned, turning him into Two-Face. The animation noticeably becomes smoother, with more emphasis on shadows.
• Call-Back:
  • The nurse helping Harvey Dent recover from his Two-Face personality is the same therapist from Part 1 of the villain's debut episode.
  • Batman once again stonewalls Robin in a personal mission he wants to handle alone.
• Chekhov's Gun: The location of the final showdown is dropped early on, but seems to be inconsequential chatter at the time.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Penguin has done terrible things during his criminal career, but he admits that kidnapping "a fellow rogue" while they're in the hospital is going too far, and he seems disgusted both at being accused of doing so and the fact that someone went that far in the first place.
• Faked Kidnapping: A strange example in that that the person being kidnapped and doing the kidnapping are one and the same, but the Two-Face personality kidnaps the Harvey Dent one.
• Foreshadowing:
  • More cracks begin to appear in Batman and Robin's relationship, though they make up at the end, after Robin rescues Batman from a situation he had wanted to handle alone.
  • There are two red herring clues, not one.
• Heads, Tails, Edge: Batman switches Two-Face's coin with one that always lands on edge. The main result is not so much an inability to make a decision as the fact that the coin rolls away, and he freaks right out and has to chase after it. It’s so unnerving to Two-Face that, even when Batman breaks out of his bonds, all Two-Face can worry about is the coin. It takes Batman telling him it’s a trick coin before he lets it go.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Quoted almost word for word by Batman after the reveal that Harvey (or rather Two-Face) kidnapped himself.
• Honor Among Thieves: Cobblepot has such a policy, as he explains to Batman:
  Penguin: True, he cheated me out of jewel-encrusted statue of a two-headed roc... It was worth millions. But my dear Batman, I would never snatch a fellow rogue from his sickbed. It simply isn't done.
  Batman: Honor among thieves?
  Penguin: Precisely. If I wanted to attack Harvey, I'd do it face to face... to face, as it were.
• Hypocritical Humour: In-universe, Frankie "disposing" of Robin remarks how people have no respect for the environment, throwing garbage into the river so often.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Batman clearly thinks the Penguin is still a threat even when behind bars; while Cobblepot has nothing to do with the kidnapping, he never claims he couldn't have.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: The therapist Harvey sees for his other personality is now a nurse whose part of the operation that seeks to heal his scars and get rid of the Two-Face personality.
• Noodle Incident: Batman mentions that Two-Face and the Penguin have recently come to blows when bringing up suspects in Harvey's kidnapping. According to Cobblepot's comments during Batman's interrogation of him, it apparently revolved around the statue of a two-headed roc both of them wanted to steal.
• Not Me This Time: Two-Face is kidnapped from the hospital before an operation to heal his scars (and hopefully restore Harvey Dent completely) can be done. At first, there are two suspects, Rupert Thorne (whose enmity with Two-Face goes back a long time) and the Penguin (who Two-Face had recently come to blows with) but both criminals give pretty convincing arguments for having nothing to do with it. As it turned out, Two-Face himself, or rather Big Bad Harv, engineered his own kidnapping; as Batman tells him, "You're your own worst enemy, Harvey..."
• The Power of Friendship:
  • Bruce foots the bill for the operation and is there when Harvey is brought back to Arkham.
    Harvey: Good old Bruce. Always there. You never give up on me.
  • When Dick observes the above is exactly right, Bruce says it's like how the young ward is always there for him. Dick says that's what friends are for.
• Red Herring: A plot point. This, as Bruce realizes in hindsight, was the clue telling them all along who'd really orchestrated the kidnapping. Two-Face being Two-Face, he compulsively left two red herring clues behind rather than just one. Bruce admits he should've seen this right away (and likely would have if his objectivity hadn't been compromised by his old friendship with Harvey).
• Take a Third Option: Two-Face has to choose between letting Batman save him, but letting his coin drop in the progress, or falling to his death. He drops the coin and refuses Batman's help, causing him to fall, but Batman saves him at the last second.
• Villainous Valor: When Batman is accusing him of having Two-Face kidnapped, the Penguin declares that if he were ever going to mess with another villain, he'd do it the honorable way: face to face.

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