Two-Face (episode)
From the DCAU Wiki, working on 1,951 articles
| Batman: The Animated Series episode | |
|---|---|
| |
| "Two-Face" | |
| Airdate: | September 25, 1992 (Part I); September 28, 1992 (Part II) |
| Production Number: | 10 (Part I); 17 (Part II) |
| Airdate Order: | 17-18 |
| Animation Services by: | Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., LTD. (Part I); Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (Part II) |
| Teleplay by: | Randy Rogel |
| Story by: | Alan Burnett (Part I) |
| Directed by: | Kevin Altieri |
| Episode images (8) | |
- You may also be looking for the supervillain Two-Face.
"Two-Face" is a two-part episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. It depicts the transformation of Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent into the villain Two-Face.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Part I
Harvey Dent has a nightmare in which he is confronted by a mysterious doppelgänger, flipping a coin over and over again. Just before Harvey wakes up, the figure assures Harvey: "It's time, Harvey... it's time!"
Dent awakens in his office, aroused by a fellow secretary from the D.A.'s office, and heads out to meet with Commissioner Gordon for a raid on a derelict building being held by Rupert Thorne's gang, heavily defended with stolen weapons and supplies from Gotham's Army depots. With Batman's help, the gang is captured.
In front of news reporters, Dent publicly congratulates the police and thanks Gordon. But just then, one of the captured crooks taunts Dent with the assurance that he and his cohorts will soon be free, and kicks a puddle of mud, splattering it on Dent's suit. To the others' horror, Dent goes berserk with fury and attacks the handcuffed man, and has to be pulled off him. A second later, Dent inexplicably reverts back to his amiable, courteous self, with seemingly with no memory of the fit of rage.
Meanwhile, Thorne is gritting his teeth, as Dent's actions have crippled his interests in Gotham. He commands his moll Candace, to find something dirty about Dent's past, despite his apparently spotless record.
A short time later, Dent has another violent outburst in public when he is told that Thorne's men have been released for lack of evidence (obviously thanks to bribes paid by Thorne himself). Bruce Wayne is nearby and tries to calm him, but Dent shouts him away, and is only calmed by the intervention of his fiancé, Grace. Concerned, Bruce advises him to seek psychiatric help. Dent is reluctant to appear vulnerable during his reelection campaign, but agrees.
Under hypnosis with Dr. Nora Crest, while Candice eavesdrops, an alternate personality known as "Big Bad Harv" surfaces, who begins flipping a coin over and over again, and calls Dent "a wimp." Crest tries to reason with the violent personality, but it refuses to let "Mr. Goody-good" take over. After Dr. Crest is nearly thrown from the window, she snaps her fingers; Dent resurfaces, and shakily agrees to the continued (but secret) therapy sessions during the reelection campaign.
Later, Dent is giving a speech for his campaign, but afterwards receives a call from Thorne, who summons him to a meeting, or else his "secret" will be exposed. Noticing Dent's strange behavior, Bruce changes into Batman and follows him.
At an abandoned chemical plant, Thorne and his gang confront Dent, having found records from his childhood that show that after he fought back against a bully, who was later hospitalized (for appendicitis, in reality), Dent repressed his anger so completely that it has built up over the years, until it has become a whole other personality.
Thorne threatens to expose Dent unless he complies with Thorne's agenda. Oddly calm, Dent smiles and says: "You're talking to the wrong Harvey." Now it is Big Bad Harv who rises and attacks Thorne and his accomplices, wiping out the gang with the reluctant aid of Batman. Thorne grabs the psychiatric file and runs out of the office through the plant, and Dent runs after him. One of Thorne's thugs opens fire with a gun, and Batman knocks his aim off. A stray bullet hits an electrical switchboard, and a live cable falls into a vat of chemicals beneath the catwalk where Dent has fallen face-down. The ensuing explosion tears through the catwalk and nearly kills Dent.
Dent is rushed to a hospital. There, the doctor removes his bandages, confessing to Dent that there will be some scarring. But when the bandages are gone, both doctor and nurse back away in horror. Dent demands to see a mirror...
Grace walks down the hall to Harvey's room carrying flowers, then hears a horrible scream and sees Dent bolt from his room, clutching his face. He turns at the sound of her voice, and she sees one side of his body has been scarred by the chemicals, making him seem half-human, half-monster. She faints dead away. Dent, muttering a rueful farewell, disappears through the hospital's window.
[edit] Part II
Some weeks later, Dent, now calling himself "Two-Face," has recruited two henchmen, twin brothers Min and Max. Their car pulls up outside one of Thorne's bookies, and Two-Face flips a coin: both sides are stamped with a head, but one has been gouged with deep scratches. Two-Face flips the coin to determine whether they will hit the bookie. The coin lands "bad" heads up, and they raid the place. After clearing out the safe and the cash drawers, and taking a crate filled with silver dollars, one of the twins sees a diamond ring on a woman's finger, and starts to take it. Two-Face flips the coin again, saying jewelry wasn't part of the plan – the coin lands "good" heads up and to his henchman's bafflement, Two-Face orders him to leave the ring. Before leaving, Two-Face empties his gun into the walls and television screens, leaving a message for Thorne: he's going down.
Thorne, infuriated that his most fearsome enemy is now targeting him without the constraint of the law and hurting his pocket much more than he ever did as District Attorney, puts a two million dollar contract on Two-Face's head, one million for each face.
Bruce has his own nightmare, when both Dent and his parents demand why he failed to save them. Waking, he vows to save Dent, no matter the cost.
Candice, playing a more subtle game than Thorne's other thugs, visits Grace disguised as a police detective, saying that they want to help Dent. Candice leaves her a transmitter with instructions to activate it if Dent contacts her.
In their hideout, Two-Face starts sharing out the profits of the bookie raid. When he opens his own wallet, he freezes when he sees a picture of himself, whole and happy, with Grace at his side. Noticing this, Max offers to bring Grace to him if he misses her so much. Two-Face flips his coin, which lands bad side up, and says it can wait. He also says he's through with humiliating Thorne, and is ready to take him down once and for all.
Batman looks at Two-Face's list of targets – all of which, besides having some relation to the number two, are fronts for Thorne's activities – and predicts his next target.
At the office of Thorne's attorney (last name Doubleday), Two-Face and his men find a confidential file on Thorne with evidence galore of his criminal activities. Batman appears and tries to stop them, pleading with Two-Face to let him help. Two-Face is momentarily halted by the mention of Grace, but then Max attacks Batman, snapping Two-Face out of it. Two-Face escapes with the file, flooring Batman with a kick that sends him crashing into a janitor's cart, severely cracking his ribs.
As they are driving away, Two-Face sees an ad for a wedding shop, and hallucinates that the bride has Grace's face. Shouting at his men to stop the car, he takes out his coin and flips it...
He telephones Grace and asks to meet with her. She agrees and after she hangs up, hesitates briefly, then activates the transmitter.
Thorne rages that if the file finds its way to the police, he will be ruined. Then Candice receives the signal from Grace.
Grace is delivered to the derelict "Wild Deuce" club, where she enters a large room – half of it carefully groomed, half of it violently destroyed. Two-Face stands in the middle, his scarred half covered by a cloth. When Grace tries to reason with him, he starts talking about luck, saying how it controls everything, including whether a person is good or bad.
Grace fiercely refuses to accept this, saying that Dent has accomplished all the good things in his life – becoming District Attorney, winning her heart – through hard work and virtue. He can still be a good person, and reverse the harm he has done. She then pulls away the cloth and says that, despite everything he's become, she still loves him. Two-Face embraces her, his voice breaking... and then Thorne enters with his thugs, having knocked out Min and Max.
Candice gloatingly informs Two-Face that Grace is the one who led them to him, while Grace is horrified. Thorne demands the file and Two-Face refuses, but Throne breaks him by threatening Grace. Beaten, Two-Face pulls the file from under one of the disused roulette tables. Thorne confirms that the file is genuine, then orders his henchmen to kill both of them.
Just then, Batman arrives and attacks the thugs, though he is severely hampered by his cracked ribs. He and Two-Face take down Thorne's thugs, while Grace does her part by knocking Candice out. Thorne is left helpless under a fallen chandelier, pleading for his life as Two-Face aims a gun at him, while Batman is too weak to rise.
Grace pleads to let the law deal with Thorne, and Two-Face retorts that the only law is the law of averages. He flips his coin... and then Batman upsets the crate of silver dollars, mixing them in midair with Two-Face's coin and causing him to lose it.
Unable to decide without it, Two-Face collapses onto the club's floor.
The police arrive. Thorne and his gang are taken away. Two-Face is also, but with Grace by his side. Gordon wonders whether there's hope for Dent. Batman says wherever there is love, there is hope.
But alone, he flips a coin into a nearby fountain. As he turns away, the coin lands heads up.
[edit] Background Information
[edit] Production Inconsistencies
- During the scene where Harvey lies in the hospital, his hair, neckline, and hand are clearly undamaged and unscarred. However, when Grace faints after seeing him for the first time as Two-Face, his hair is discolored and his neck is scarred; at the beginning of Part II, his hand is also scarred.
[edit] Trivia
- Al Pacino was originally offered to voice Two-Face, but he turned it down. Richard Moll was then cast as D.A Harvey Dent.
- During the beginning of the robbery at the start of Part II, Two-Face tells everyone "For the next five minutes, I'm in control!" This line was spoken by Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon.
- The entire line, "Don't bother to adjust the picture..." is also similar to the introduction for the classic science fiction series The Outer Limits: "Do not attempt to adjust your television. We are controlling the transmission."
- Grace Lamont, Harvey Dent's fiancee, is played by Murphy Cross, who also played a lady friend of Richard Moll's character, Bull Shannon, on the TV series Night Court.
- Two other such actresses, Denny Dillon (who played Bull's klutzy girlfriend, Rhoda) and Jennifer Harris (who played the buxom but outwardly idiotic Mary Jo), appeared in "Cat Scratch Fever" and Superman: The Animated Series, "The Way of All Flesh," respectively.
- Paddi Edwards, who played Bull's mother, Henrietta "Hank" Shannon, appeared in "Eternal Youth."
- Grace's name is a modification of Gilda Grace Dent, Harvey's wife in the comics.
- Besides being a two-part episode, it is also on Disc Two of Volume One of the Batman: The Animated Series DVD collection. It is also the first episode with double digits.
- The scene where Harvey Dent first sees his new appearance in the hospital was intended to be similar to the scene in the live-action film Batman where gangster Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) first sees his new appearance as the Joker.
- This, the tenth episode of the series to be produced, marked the time when the writers felt the series really took an adult turn - and for the better.
- When Harvey Dent opens his wallet to give Min and Max their cut of the money stolen from the bookies, the # 666 on his credit card in his wallet is visible.
- During Harvey Dent's hypnotherapy session, after Dr. Crest says, "I would like to talk with Big Bad Harv." a lightning bolt flashes, and for about a quarter of a second, Harvey looks like Two-Face.
- The final shot, in which Two-Face's coin lands clean side up, was used in both the live-action movies Batman Forever and The Dark Knight, as Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart, respectively) fall to their deaths. As with the episode, the coin symbolizes that events have turned out for the better, and Two-Face's planned crimes have been foiled.
- The idea of Harvey Dent aka Two-Face wearing a half white, half black split-down-the-middle Armani suit has been copied by the comics since the episode.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Quotes
Candice: My, this guy is crazy. |
Thorne: The brighter the picture, the darker the negative. |
Nora Crest: Well, Harvey has special problems, when he was young he felt very guilty about his angry feelings, so guilty that he hid them deep inside until they became an illness. You - Big Bad Harv - represent these angry feelings. |
Doctor: A good plastic surgeon should be able to repair most of the physical scars. |
Thug: I thought we got rid of this guy. |
Batman: Harvey please, let me help you! |
Bruce: So what are you dreaming tonight, Harvey? Peaceful dreams? Nightmares? Mabye both at once. |
Two-Face: (entering a bookie's to rob it) Don't bother to adjust the picture. For the next five minutes, I'm in control. |
Two-Face: My name is Two-Face now. |
Two-Face: The law? Here's the only law, the law of averages. (holds up his coin) The great equalizer. (flips it) |
Commissioner Gordon: Poor Harvey. So filled with anger. Do you think there's any hope? |
- Part 1
| Previously produced episode: "Be A Clown" | Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series | Next produced episode: "It's Never Too Late" |
| Previously aired episode: "Eternal Youth" | Next aired episode: "Two-Face (Part II)" |
- Part 2
| Previously produced episode: "The Cat and the Claw (Part II)" | Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series | Next produced episode: "Beware the Gray Ghost" |
| Previously aired episode: "Two-Face (Part I)" | Next aired episode: "Fear of Victory" |
