BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER | S2E10: “The Laughing Death”

The Season 2 finale of BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER, “The Laughing Death,” delivers a brutal (and I mean BRUTAL), high-stakes conclusion that successfully blends the series’ hard-boiled pulp roots with some of the oldest and most important Batman comic book mythology. Hell, there’s even a little BATMAN 1960s TV series and Chris Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT thrown in!

Gotham descends into chaos when The Joker unleashes a multi-phase bioweapon that transforms citizens and police officers into homicidal, laughing maniacs. While Alfred races to develop antidote, Batman finally comes face-to-face with his elusive nemesis, or “Brother” if you believe The Joker, in a damn-near battle to the death in an unfinished Gotham skyscraper.

After spending much of the season in the shadows, Matthew Needham’s Joker finally steps into the spotlight, and the payoff is worth the wait. This isn’t a Joker motivated by money or revenge (THE DARK KNIGHT!). He’s a calculating force of destruction who believes Gotham needs to perish (ala Ra’s Al Ghul in BATMAN BEGINS!), while forcing Batman to confront what he believes are the similarities between them.

But ultimately, there are none.

What I liked the most about “The Laughing Death” — and this series’ version of The Joker — is how it’s very much influenced by the character’s 1940 debut in BATMAN #1 as well as other interpretations of The Joker in other Batman media. The result is a version of The Clown Prince of Crime that feels both classic and fresh.

The stakes of this episode and this entire series carry real weight. Gotham suffers lasting damage and if you die, you’re F’n dead. The climactic battle succeeds not only as an action sequence but as a psychological showdown, brother, culminating in a darkly ironic twist in which Batman’s own deflected Batarang indirectly (temporarily?) takes The Joker out before he disappears into the fog below.

Ultimately, “The Laughing Death” is a great finale…and perhaps a bittersweet one. It leaves us with a Dark Knight who is physically battered, psychologically shaken, but finally is starting to understand the value of allies…and friends. Alfred, Barbara, Gordon, and Montoya all prove to Bruce Wayne that protecting and saving Gotham isn’t a one man operation.

This episode leaves the door open for a third season, yet it also works as an ending in its own right. Batman survives his first encounter with The Joker, Gotham endures, and both emerge fundamentally changed.

Indeed, there are certainly more stories that can be told in the world BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER and I hope we get another season or two to see them. But if not, we can go the route once suggested by the great Chris Nolan and simply write what happens next in our fan minds. – Bill “Jett” Ramey

GRADE: A+