And they say cat people are crazy... Poison Ivy was always one of my favourite villains of this show, and the episodes that featured her always seemed to create such fun and memorable situations out of her insane plant schemes, and her series debut is no exception. It's a nice subtle introduction to the character that effectively utilises her trademark duplicitous nature and alluring body language. She is drawn to petite womanly perfection, and the sensuality put into the animation of her movements is fantastically captured. I find her much more intriguing in the role of the deadly seductress, rather than the ruthless eco-warrior. Her modus operandi was a little simpler when compared to some of others of the rogue's gallery, but to me she's got a little more personality because she's one of the villains who does what she does because she really believes she's doing the right thing. While not exactly pure evil, she's clearly a little psycho somewhere! It all starts with one suspiciously long kiss. I like a moment that's easy to miss that happens when Bruce first begins to grow suspicious of the innocent and utterly devastated "Pamela Isley" while escorting her to her car after visiting the mysteriously poisoned Harvey Dent in the hospital and she tries to kiss him, and thinking fast, he quickly moves aside and turns the motion into a hug instead. She's such a great liar! I love how she professes to care for Harvey, but then later reveals her inner mania when she coldly turns fake tears into cruel laughter at the thought of his impending death, and also the way she gets so worked-up about the 'murder' of plant life and then pulls herself together just as quickly. And it's so creepy when she wonders aloud what her monstrous pet fly trap has caught "this time." So the thing has actually eaten intruders before? Whoa! And another little thing that I noticed about the rather terrifying man-trap, if I may... The uh, the shape and curvature of the way that it's designed was rather suggestive of the urm... Well probably best that goes without saying.. Also if ya look real quick you'll see that Ivy lives at *69* Green Street! Batman gets the better of her by exploiting her weakness for plants, and threatening the one she holds most dear. He puts her in a very difficult spot. She could kill him, but it would also mean destroying the precious last ever remaining specimen of the Wild Thorny Rose. I find the final scene that sees Ivy in her cell plotting her future revenge with her beloved rose so moody and spooky. The eerily gentle music complements the moment perfectly, and her softly spoken, yet grimly indomitable words are beautifully phrased... It's one of my all-time favourite closing scenes of the series. She should really be in Arkham, but maybe it was a touch of poetic justice, to be imprisoned in the very place that started her on her life of crime as a plant fanatic. ::: Another interesting side to this episode is how it helps establish the character of Harvey Dent with one of his few appearances before the character's descent into dual-madness in the "Two-Face" episodes. He doesn't feature much, but it adds a nice touch to the episode. It's twice as ironic when he speaks about Bruce and says, "there's nothing we don't know about each other", as of course he knows nothing of the demons of Bruce Wayne, but as we'll discover soon enough, he has his own private ones... It's a very well animated episode, with the final act where Batman infiltrates the greenhouse lair looking pretty spectacular, the lab environment appearing very convincing and well-detailed, and the fly trap and the flames look especially fluid and impressive. Plotwise, it's a bit of a noticeably quaint episode, but at this point near-every offering of the show had a certain flair and effortless confidence that made even the weaker ones very entertaining and special, and it could do virtually nothing wrong. So overall it's a great, well-balanced episode that is well worth seeing. Kisses!
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