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Batman Beyond episode

"Meltdown"
Airdate:	February 14, 1999 (USA)
Production Number:	07
Airdate Order:	5
Animation Services by:	Koko/Dong Yang
Written by:	Hilary J. Bader Alan Burnett
Directed by:	Curt Geda
Episode images (7)

"Meltdown" is the fifth episode of Batman Beyond. It depicts the return of Mr. Freeze. Tired of having to use a suit of plastic skin that can crack at any time, Derek Powers decides to try having a healthy body cloned from his original damaged one. However, the procedure is first tested on Mr. Freeze. At first, it seems that the procedure has worked and Victor Fries tries to lead a normal, peaceful life. Unfortunately, Victor Fries soon discovers that the procedure is a failure and the people he once trusted have betrayed him. Seeking revenge, the evil personality of Mr. Freeze is born again.

Plot Edit

Out at the Gotham Docks, Batman tests the water and discovers that it’s ripe with radiation. The reason soon arrives and a bunch of men in lead suits arrive to unload canisters of radioactive waste into a barge. Batman takes on his stealth mode and starts attacking the crew. Being able to move virtually undetected, he easily defeats the crew and stops the evidence from being removed. Batman then goes after the group’s leader, and using the man’s cell phone, he discovers Derek Powers' involvement.

Derek, at this time, is trying to buy out a company and using the underhanded tactic of using a late hour negotiation. Unfortunately for him, when he hears from Batman, who informs him that his men are going to be caught by the coast guard, his skin starts to crack and he has to give up the negotiation for the time being.

Back in his laboratory, Powers complains about the fact that the skin hardly lasts any more but there is nothing his doctors can do. However, a new doctor, Dr. Stephanie Lake approaches Powers and tells him that she can clone him a new body and transfer his mind into it. This body would be healthy, since she would screen out the mutation. Powers is intrigued, but Dr. Lake says that she wants to test the procedure on someone else. Namely, Mr. Freeze whose disembodied but immortal head has been kept in a Wayne-Powers vault for the last fifty years.

The procedure is performed on Mr. Freeze and he soon finds himself in a new, healthy body—one that, miraculously, is able to feel heat and cold like a normal person. Things seem okay, but Bruce is suspicious of both Fries and Powers and tells Terry to tail Fries. Terry does as told, but sees that Fries is a decent enough man and is unneeded until a sniper tries to kill him. Batman stops the attack, but the sniper cries that "the monster’s gotta die". Mr. Freeze had previously killed this sniper’s family and he now seeks revenge. Fries decides that he's done enough damage to the sniper, and sets him free, vowing to make amends.

Later, Fries announces that he's starting an organization called the Nora Fries Foundation so that he can help the people he once hurt. He promises to fund this with his legitimate holdings, which now comes to significant sum in this time. Watching this, Bruce cynically comments that this is blood money. Terry, on the other hand, agrees with his mother's sentiment that Fries is trying to change. After the announcement, Fries starts to notice that he's feeling hot. He leaves the studio and feels even more uncomfortable from the heat. However, it soon starts snowing, and he immediately feels better, proving that he’s starting to revert to his previous condition.

Fries returns to Dr. Lake and she informs Powers of the incident. She guesses that there is a mnemonic agent within his DNA that caused him to revert.

Powers wishes to biopsy Fries' organs, and without warning, Dr. Lake seals Victor inside a cell and turns up the heat to knock him out, but he escapes.

Bruce tells Terry to keep an eye on Wayne-Powers because he believes that Mr. Freeze will be back. Terry, after having met Freeze in the park, is skeptical at first, but Bruce does not yield, claiming that Freeze lives for revenge, even against those who have never done him harm. His prediction proves to be true, and the building is soon covered in ice. Mr. Freeze arrives in a suit more powerful than any he had built before, with improved protection against bullets and freeze guns built into the gauntlets. Freeze corners Powers and Dr. Lake, and freezes them both in icy coffins, then goes out and fights off some guards, making his way towards the main power generators.

Unknown to him, back in the hallway, Powers unleashes the full heat of his body's radioactivity, shedding both his icy prison and his artificial skin.

In the generator's control room, Mr. Freeze sets the systems on overload. Batman appears, pleading with Freeze to stop, as he will only cause more suffering. Freeze refuses, saying that he plans to end his own life by going up with the building—no matter how many others are killed in the explosion. Batman tries to stop him, but Freeze attacks and captures him. Then Powers appears in his alter ego, and bombards Freeze with radiation, hot enough to be felt through the suit.

Batman frees himself from his icy prison and attacks Powers, who identifies himself as "Blight". As the two fight, Bruce warns Terry that suit won't be able to protect him indefinitely from such high levels of radiation.

As the fight continues, Blight manages to get Batman down and is about to kill him when Mr. Freeze intervenes and hits Blight with a supercharged freeze gun blast, sending him rocketing out of the building. Batman manages to stop the system overload, but the room starts to collapse from the weight of all the ice generated. Freeze has been horribly wounded by the radiation burn, but tells Batman to stay back. Batman wants to save him, but Freeze blocks his way with a wall of ice, forcing him to exit the complex before it explodes, taking Freeze with it.

Powers's doctors retrieve him from the pond where he landed. To his annoyance, they also brought him some blankets in case he was cold.

Later, Terry mourns the apparent death of Freeze and decides that Bruce was right about Freeze being evil. However, Bruce admits that Terry was also right about Fries being a good man.

Continuity Edit

This is the first appearance of Derek Powers as Blight (not including the first look at his glowing skeletal form in "Rebirth, Part II"). Terry does not connect Powers with Blight until several episodes later, in "Ascension".

Background information Edit

Home video releases Edit

Production notes Edit

When the laboratory starts the explode, the resulting explosion is reused footage from the scene of Superman: The Animated Series episode "World's Finest, Part III" in which two Wayne/Lex T-7 droids blow up after Batman electrocutes them. Later on, when the entire facility explodes, it features footage from that same episode when one Wayne/Lex T-7 blows up another droid.

Production inconsistencies Edit

It's strange that Dr. Lake would try to kill Victor Fries in order to perform a biopsy, as a biopsy requires living organs. As it is not mentioned that she actually meant to kill him, it can be assumed that she merely intended the heat to knock him unconscious.
After Freeze escapes, Dr. Lake says confidently that he won't last long, since Gotham is experiencing a heat wave. This statement contrasts with several visual cues showing winter weather: the snow that saves Freeze when he leaves the studio, and escapes from Lake's trap; and the frozen pond that Powers crashes through after being blasted out of the building.
Terry does not connect Powers as Blight despite Powers' clothes being the same while he's Blight.

Trivia Edit

Mr. Freeze last appeared in the episode "Cold Comfort" of The New Batman Adventures. The series never explained how his head came to be in the possession of Wayne-Powers. However, Freeze re-appeared in the DCAU-based comic books Batman: Gotham Adventures #5 and Batman Adventures #15. In the latter issue, Freeze's head is retrieved by Warren Powers (Derek's father), head of Powers Technology, who keeps it in the belief that it will lead him to the secret of immortality.
Tress MacNeille replaces Mari Devon as the voice of Miss Winston.
When Mr. Freeze's damaged head is first shown (before going through the transfer procedure) the art style and shadows make him look an awful lot like Herman Von Klempt, a character from Hellboy who Mr. Freeze's design was greatly based on. Mike Mignola, who designed the original Mr. Freeze design for Batman: The Animated Series, was the creator the Hellboy comics and characters.
This episode marks both Mr. Freeze's final chronological and production-wise appearances in the DC Animated Universe. Suggestively, he finally succeeded in dying.
First appearance of one of Batman's original enemies. Subsequent ones included Bane, Ra's al Ghul and the Joker.

Cast Edit

Actor	Role
Will Friedle	Terry McGinnis / Batman
Kevin Conroy	Bruce Wayne
Lauren Tom	Dana Tan
Sherman Howard	Derek Powers / Blight
Tress MacNeille	Miss Winston
Corey Burton	Barge Captain
Michael Ansara	Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze
Linda Hamilton	Dr. Stephanie Lake
Stuart Pankin	Key Negotiator
John Rubinow	Doctor #1
Joe Spano	Sniper

Quotes Edit

Mr. Freeze: Take a good look, Doctor. I've been like this for nearly fifty years, and I haven't aged one day. I have become what many men have dreamed of: an immortal. And yet, there hasn't been a day, an hour, a minute, I haven't thought about death. It obsesses me. Even now.

Stephanie: (before transferring Freeze's mind) Remember, there may be some momentary discomfort.

Batman: Just because he ran off doesn't mean he'll come back.
Bruce: He'll be back. Count on it. He lives for revenge.
Batman: Not the Victor Fries I met.
Bruce: What you met was a ghost.

Mr. Freeze: Remember, there may be some momentary discomfort. (freezes and kills Dr. Lake)

Blight: And behold, I shall be a blight upon the land, and everything I touch shall wither and die!

Blight: Batman.
Batman: And who are you, Sunshine?
Blight: "Blight" will do.

Bruce: Terry, there's something hot in that room!
Batman: (While fighting Blight) No kidding! This guy, he's like a walking meltdown!
Bruce: Keep your distance. The suit will give you sun protection, but it's not designed for such high levels of radiation.

Blight: You only got a tan that time, Batman. Here comes the real burn.

Batman: You've got to get out of here, Freeze! The whole place is gonna go!
Mr. Freeze: (last words) Believe me, you're the only one who cares.

Terry: I guess you were right about Freeze all along.
Bruce: We both were.

Previously produced episode: "Dead Man's Hand"	Episodes of Batman Beyond	Next produced episode: "Heroes"
Previously aired episode: "Golem"	Episodes of Batman Beyond	Next aired episode: "Heroes"