Batman a long time ago failed to save a petty thief. Victor Fries, while stealing diamonds, fell into a cryonic chamber. Batman grapples with his guilt while trying to stop the emerging villain, Mr. Freeze.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Accidental Murder: Mr. Freeze believes that Batman did this to him, since their fight knocked him into the cryonic chamber. Batman eventually says that while that may be true, Freeze is choosing to remain a criminal.
- Catch Your Death of Cold: Bruce briefly has a cough and a fever after Mr. Freeze encases him in ice.
- Containment Clothing: After emerging from the chamber, Freeze persuaded a cryogenics expert to create a suit for him to contain his new powers, and allow him to unleash them at will.
- Create Your Own Villain: Freeze was originally a small-time diamond thief, until an accident during a car chase with Batman led to him getting his powers.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Upon running into the homeless man who disrupted his escape so many years ago (thus setting off the chain of events leading to his immersion in the cryogenic chemicals), Freeze goes out of his way to flash-freeze the man.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The flashback that explains how Victor Fries became Mr. Freeze briefly shows pictures of him with someone he's romantically involved with.
- Everyone Has Standards: Batman feels extremely guilty for his part in turning an ordinary thief into a superpowered criminal.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Batman activates the Batmobile remotely towards Freeze, where it spins out and crashes into a wall. Freeze calls Batman out on it, only for Bruce to engage the car's afterburners, destroying Freeze's ice helmet and knocking him out.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: When fighting Mr. Freeze at the climax, Batman uses Flamethrowers Akimbo to counter Freeze's ice blasts.
- Freak Lab Accident: Fries' transformation was a result of being electrocuted at the same he got cryogenically frozen.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Victor Fries was once a small time thief, but after his accident in the cryogenics lab, he became one of the most dangerous supervillains in Gotham.
- Harmless Freezing: Zigzagged. The old man on the party boat gets frozen from head-to-toe, but there's no mention of suffocation. Everything else about being encased in ice on the other hand is handled realistically; the victims suffer severe hypothermia, Batman even briefly passing out from being frozen and only staying conscious afterward through sheer force of will, and it takes him more than a day to recover.
- It's Personal: During his rampage, Freeze encounters the hobo he had nearly ran into the day of his accident, which had lead to him ending up in the cryogenics lab. It's hinted that whatever he did to the guy wasn't pretty.
- Literally Shattered Lives: When robbing the boat, Freeze threatened to do this to one of his frozen victims unless the passengers handed over their jewels.
- Mythology Gag: When Batman has his fever-induced nightmare about his parents' murder, the killer transforms into Mr. Freeze, much like The Reveal of their killer as Jack Napier in the 1989 movie.
- Never My Fault: Freeze blames Batman for him becoming what he is, but he overlooks the fact that he never would’ve been electrocuted or cryogenically frozen if he didn’t go after the diamonds he stole.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Freeze really enjoys rubbing it in Batman's face that he helped him become what he now is.Freeze: Thank you for creating me.
- Nightmare Sequence: Bruce has a fever-induced one of reliving his parents' murder, only with Freeze pulling the trigger.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Alfred would love for Bruce to retire from Batman; when he hears the latter contemplating the issue while ill, however, he tells Bruce to wait until he's better to make a serious decision.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Before learning Freeze's identity, Batman truly believed that Victor Fries had been killed in his accident.
- Shout-Out: The boat Freeze robs is helmed by a portly guy referred to as "Skipper" and a skinny guy he calls "Little Buddy".
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Homeless Man in the flashback. When Victor Fries tries to avoid running over the homeless man in his car chase with Batman, it leads to him, crashing in to the cryogenics lab where Batman chased him, eventually causing him to become Mr. Freeze.
- This Is Reality: As Yin tells a frozen Batman, he may mean well, but vigilantism is still a crime. Thus, he has to be unmasked.
- Weather Dissonance: The episode starts with Gotham in the middle of a heat wave. Things quickly change when a boat comes across an iceberg in the harbour, courtesy of Mr Freeze.
- Working Through the Cold: Downplayed; Bruce's fever goes down after he has his nightmare.
