Mudslide
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| Batman: The Animated Series episode | |
|---|---|
| |
| "Mudslide" | |
| Airdate: | September 15, 1993 |
| Production Number: | 52 |
| Airdate Order: | 63 |
| Teleplay by: | Steve Perry |
| Story by: | Alan Burnett |
| Directed by: | Eric Radomski |
"Mudslide" is the third episode of the second season of Batman: The Animated Series. It first aired on September 15, 1993. It marks the second (and last) appearance of Clayface on the series.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Clayface has returned to Gotham and is up to his old tricks again, albeit with a small problem: his clay body is finally giving up and falling apart. Fortunately though, an old friend and co-star of his, Dr. Stella Bates, knows a way to keep him together, although to acquire the necessary funding, Clayface is forced commit robberies, one of which at Tarnower Financial brings him into a conflict with Batman, who offers him help the legal way. Clayface angrily refuses, and tries to run away, but his body starts giving in and Batman catches up. Clayface collapses onto a bin when Stella arrives and rescues him in time.
Stella takes Clayface to her laboratory and uses a machine to put him in a plastic coating to keep him together, a procedure which knocks him out cold for a while, until he wakes up and lashes out at Stella for watching an old movie of his, claiming "that's not me anymore!" Clayface immediately apologises, and Stella shows him a way to increase his powers allowing him to take the form of Matt Hagen permanently: an isotope called Mp40, the only source of which is found at Wayne Biomedical Labs. Willing to risk his life, Clayface vows to remove the plastic coating and steal the Mp40 from Wayne.
Batman, meanwhile, takes a sample of Clayface's body back to the Batcave, and learns of Clayface's condition. Also remembering Stella from the Tarnower Heist, Batman tells Alfred to look through Hagen's career records for any sign of a relationship with a female doctor. Alfred searches the records, but finds nothing, and informs Bruce, who is at Wayne Biomedical. However, Bruce's own problems rise when an intruder breaks into the laboratory.
Bruce investigates as Batman, and finds Clayface, disguised as a woman, fleeing the building with a canister of Mp40. Enraged, Batman persues Clayface onto a train, where Clayface's body starts to give up again, and he "melts" back into his own form, scaring the passengers out. Batman and Clayfce then fight alone, until Batman sprays Clayface with a freezing gas to get the canister back, but Clayface jumps out of the train window and lands in a truck's cargo hold, breaking into pieces. Batman watches the truck leave, but Clayface thaws out and eyes the canister in his hand, laughing maniacally.
Batman returns to the Batcave, where he and Alfred finally learn the identity of the female doctor from Hagen's movie Dark Interlude (the movie Stella was watching), and Batman finds her location in the bank's records, tracking her to her laboratory by the ocean.
At the lab, Stella starts pumping the Mp40 into Clayface, who is once again inside the plastic coating and starting to turn back to human when Batman intervenes and coldly switches the machine off (the isotope wouldn't turn Clayface back to his original form, just increase his powers to the point where he could take any form permanently). Batman taunts Stella and Clayface for their carelessness, and an angry Stella lunges at Batman, only to smash headfirst into a pile of test tubes when Batman dodges. Clayface, losing control, breaks out of his coating and proceeds to absorb Batman, hoping to drown his enemy. But Batman uses his grappling gun to blast his way out of Clayface's body.
Batman and Clayface fight again, and take the battle outside. The rain weakens Clayface, giving Batman the upper hand, but Clayface, determined to kill Batman no matter what (ignoring Stella's warnings), pushes him off the cliff, but he falls as well. Batman holds on with a Batarang as Clayface holds onto Batman's leg, but the rain weakens Clayface even more, and when Batman tries to hold him, his arm breaks, sending him plunging into the ocean below, where he dissolves. Before that his last words were, "Curtains going down."
[edit] Background Information
[edit] Trivia
- This is the second appearance of Clayface.
- Stella's name, Dr. Bates, and past occupation is a homage to the Norman Bates character, played by Anthony Perkins in Psycho. Batman mentions she once owned a motel in the past, akin to the Bates Motel.
- Many fans have criticized the ending, in which Batman stops the treatment procedure, which would have made Clayface human again, without realizing in fact the procedure would have endowed Hagen with the Clayface powers permanently, making him a much more powerful villain (which happened eventually anyway).
- According to Bruce Timm, the reason they did not use Clayface much is because he was too expensive to animate, as well as come up with a good story for.
- Eric Radomski came up with the idea due to the fans demanding another Clayface episode, after the success of Feat of Clay.
- When he is placed in the support suit that gives him structure, Clayface looks similar to an Oscar statuette.
- Towards the end, Clayface yells "STELLA!" a la Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski in the film version of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.
- In the later episode Growing Pains, a flashback explains how Clayface survived.
- The laboratory is similar to that of Victor Frankenstein's.
- The movie Stella watches has the Warner Bros. sign in the background of the end.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Kevin Conroy | Bruce Wayne/Batman |
| Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. | Alfred Pennyworth |
| Rob Clotworthy | Billy |
| Pat Musick | Stella Bates |
| Ron Perlman | Clayface |
| Marcia Wallace | Fiancée |
[edit] Quotes
Alfred: Don't take this the wrong way Sir, but your goose is cooked. |
Batman: It seems that Clayface is losing his integrity. |
Batman: And that woman helping him-- What's her stake in this? |
Clayface: You cured more than my body. You cured my heart. |
Stella Bates: A new isotope... MP-40. An experimental mutagenic adaptogen. I believe it can restore, even increase your powers, perhaps permanently, you can become Matt Hagen again forever. |
Child: Look at that lady Mommy, she's got mud all over her. (Clayface's disguise fails) Eww. Mommy, she's melting! |
Clayface: That's it--Run. Run for your measly lives. Run from Clayface! |
Clayface: You've upstaged me for the last time Batman. Time to bring down the curtain. |
Clayface: Too late. Curtain's going... down! |
| Previously produced episode: "The Man Who Killed Batman" | Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series | Next produced episode: "Paging the Crime Doctor" |
| Previously aired episode: "Shadow of the Bat" | Next aired episode: "Paging the Crime Doctor" |
