The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped
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| Justice League Unlimited episode | |
|---|---|
| |
| "The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped" | |
| Airdate: | January 29, 2005 |
| Production Number: | 13 |
| Airdate Order: | 13 |
| Animation Services by: | D.R. Movie Co., LTD. |
| Written by: | Dwayne McDuffie |
| Directed by: | Joaquim dos Santos |
| Episode images (7) | |
"The Once and Future Thing Part Two" is the thirteenth episode of Justice League Unlimited. It first aired on January 29th, 2005.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Part Two: Time, Warped
The Jokerz have been "upgraded" with cybernetic weapons that are advanced even for that time, and the combined Leaguers have no choice but to retreat. Batman tries to open up a boom tube but his mother box is destroyed. Static creates a blinding light, followed by John Stewart creating a maze to distract the Jokerz.
They return to the ruins of Hamilton Hill High School, which serves as headquarters for what is left of the League - the three who have already appeared, plus the aged Bruce Wayne.
Warhawk introduces himself as Rex Stewart. Lantern asks who his mother was; he replies, "Kind of obvious, isn't it?".
They explain that Clinton has decided to emulate Manning, and made himself a warlord in his own time, now calling himself "Lord Chronos". In his previous time travels, he had been careful about not disrupting history. Now he has abandoned that restraint, poaching technology from the future and historical monuments from the past, all to transform Gotham into his personal kingdom. The Watchtower, and most of the Justice League, including Lantern and Shayera, was destroyed years ago.
Static figures that since old Bruce is still alive, then logically they would've already won as he already lived through it. Unfortunately, old Bruce doesn't remember his younger self go through time, meaning the timeline has become so polluted that history itself has become fluid. They then decide to compare notes.
Meanwhile, in the Titanic, Chronos is suspicious as to how the future Leaguers were able to intercept them. He brings his eyes on Chucko and then opens up a time window, showing Chucko accepting a bribe from Terry. He punishes Chucko by sending him back to before the dinosaurs went extinct. He then sends the rest of the Jokerz to search for his enemies. Enid then calmly tried to remind him of his restraint not to harm time by taking important things; he states that he can handle it. She then asks that he let her mother of the "the thing" like he promised; he considers it but doesn't like the fact that Enid and her mother said that he'd never amount to anything.
As a result of Chronos's recklessness, serious disruptions in the space-time continuum have begun. To Batman's horror, Diana fades away in mid-sentence just as she suggested that they could prevent everything from happening in the first place; now she never left Themyscira – or worse, was never even born. There are even signs that the universe itself is moving towards entropy. Batman is able to make a program to shut down Chronos' time belt, but they need to find him first. He figures that the old ways are best, despite Terry's warning that Gotham has changed. He asks his older self if all villains are still superstitious and cowardly; the answer is yes.
The combined League captures Ghoul and Batman interrogates him. Older Bruce is disgusted that he was "that green" and shows himself how to really interrogate someone. He says Chronos moves around each night, never staying in the same place – but he knows where his wife sleeps.
In the middle of their search, John Stewart phases out and is replaced by Hal Jordan, who says calmly, "I'm up to speed. Carry on." A short while later, Hal fades away and John comes back.
The League confronts Enid, staying in a pyramid (poached either from ancient Egypt or Las Vegas). She is as contemptuous of her husband as before, though now she is also afraid of him. She says that his moving around is a myth, he always stays in the same place. Ironically, that place is the Elkhorn town jail, which he has poached and planted in the middle of the Coliseum – apparently, it's the place where he feels safest.
Chronos wakes and summons the Jokerz; in the ensuing battle, Static is sucked into a suddenly-appearing time portal, and Terry is killed by Dee Dee. As the universe itself starts to collapse, Chronos disappears into another time portal. Lantern and Batman follow, and see he is now heading to the Beginning of Time, which will enable him to re-write the history of the entire universe and become a god. As they hurtle towards the source, they catch up with Chronos and Batman plugs in a program he's written to “de-bug” his time machine and its effects. They are still heading towards the source… when Batman and Lantern open their eyes they find themselves in the Watchtower cafeteria.
Wonder Woman joins them, having no memory of what they've done. Lantern and Batman are the only ones who remember what happened. Lantern sees Shayera, and remembers what Warhawk said about his parentage.
Lantern asks, what about Chronos. Batman, smiling, says he re-programmed the belt to ensure that Chronos would never come to exist...
In the future, Enid delivers the same scolding she did before; as before, David angrily activates his belt to get away from her – and jumps back in time to a few seconds ago, at the beginning of Enid's scolding, over and over again.
[edit] Continuity
- The Jokerz who appear in this episode first appeared in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Early in that movie, Bonk is killed by The Joker as an example to the others. However, this is one of many things that could have been changed by Chronos in his time-travels.
- This is Hal Jordan's only appearance in the DC Animated Universe. However, the animated version of Kyle Rayner that appeared in the episode "In Brightest Day..." of Superman: The Animated Series was modified to be similar to Jordan in several respects.
- John Stewart refers to the events of Static Shock's "A League of Their Own" and "Fallen Hero" when he says that Static was "too young to drive the last time he saw him".
[edit] Background Information
[edit] Production Inconsistencies
- The animators seem to have overlooked the fact that Terry needs to use his retractable wings to steer his flying.
- "Old Bruce" has black eyes in this episode, which is inconsistent with the Batman Beyond series and later on "Epilogue" where he is depicted as having blue eyes.
[edit] Trivia
- The title is a pun on The Once and Future King by T.H. White.
- The Jokerz's prosthetic enhancements resemble those of the April Moon Gang from the Batman Beyond episode, "April Moon."
- This story has a strong similarity to the 1994 DC Comics miniseries called "Zero Hour." There are also slight similarities to the 1986 maxieseries Crisis On Infinite Earths.
- Both episodes are thematically very similar to "The Savage Time", the finale of Justice League, Season One. In that episode, the League travels back in time to World War II, and finds history altered because of technology contributed from the future, and also finds itself assisted by a host of DC Comics heroes created for that era.
- Chucko's chief weapon is a double-bladed lightsaber identical to the one carried by Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I.
- The conclusion of this episode is similar to the original Star Trek episode "I, Mudd" when scoundrel Harry Mudd is punished by being surrounded by 500 android copies of his nagging wife.
- It is also similar to All in the Timing, a collection of one-act plays by David Ives, several of which are based on the humorous premise of time being re-wound over and over again by only a few seconds or minutes.
- The graphics on the Bruce's computer screen resembles a reversed Matrix digital rain seen in The Matrix series.
- The phrase "Fire at will" said by the Redcoats gains a double meaning when referring to Terry, as he is voiced by Will Friedle.
- Chucko's line "I'll be running this dump in a few years!" echoes the line said by Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) at the end of the film The One when he is tossed through a portal and stranded in a deserted place.
- The monuments stolen by Chronos seen during the episode are:
- Jupiter of Smyrna
- The Trojan Horse
- Two Moai Statues
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa
- The Titanic
- The Parthenon
- The Great Sphinx
- This episode was featured as a bonus episode on the 2-disc DVD of Green Lantern: First Flight.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Uncredited Appearances
[edit] Quotes
Terry: Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met? |
Static: Shayera was one cranky pregnant lady. Although to be fair, if I'd laid an egg that size... |
Chucko: You think I'm scared? I'll be running this dump in a few yea-! |
Chronos: Do you know what killed the dinosaurs? |
(Hal scans the jail with his ring.) |
Redcoat 1: It happened again! |
John Stewart: The Green Lanterns have a legend - no one can see the beginning of time. It's a universal law! |
| Previously produced episode: "The Once and Future Thing Part One: Weird Western Tales" | Episodes of Justice League Unlimited | Next produced episode: "The Cat and the Canary" |
| Previously aired episode: "The Once and Future Thing Part One: Weird Western Tales" | Next aired episode: "The Cat and the Canary" |
