EPISODE NUMBER: 14
Production Code: 514

PLOT SUMMARY:

The episode opens with a haunting melody being played against a snowy backdrop. As we pan back, we see a spinning ballerina within a snowglobe, and a haunting voice begins to speak to this inanimate figure. It quickly becomes apparent that this ballerina is someone very important to the speaker, and that the snowglobe was made so that he could always remember her, “forever young; forever beautiful.” However, the woman was taken from him, and he now plans to exact his revenge on the person responsible for this.

We leave the villain in favor of a news report from Summer Gleeson. Despite the heat wave in Gotham City, a number of crimes have been committed lately using ice as a weapon. A number of GothCorp factories have been burglarized and witnesses claim that a man wielding a freezing gun is responsible. According to GothCorp’s CEO Ferris Boyle, GothCorp has “always been known as the ‘people company,’” and that if someone has a problem with their company, “we’re willing to listen.” This newscast hasn’t gone unnoticed by Batman, who has accessed the police files to determine what objects were stolen from the factories. Separated, the different components don’t seem to mean anything, but when Batman uses his computer to put the pieces together, they form some sort of large weapon that’s capable of generating intense cold. However, there’s still a piece missing. Luckily, there’s only one GothCorp plant that makes that piece, so Batman has a pretty good idea of where the next target will be.

Sure enough, that evening an armored truck bursts through the gate of the GothCorp factory. As the guards look after the speeding truck, the Batmobile zooms by in pursuit. The driver of the truck gets a little spooked by the sudden appearance of the Batmobile, and is quickly reprimanded by our villain, the cold-hearted Mister Freeze. Freeze calmly opens up the back hatch of the truck and fires his freezing gun at the road. The Batmobile skids on the ice, and Batman struggles to maintain control. He presses a button to fire the Batmobile’s grappling hook around a pole, which swings the car around and through a loading bay door for the factory. Meanwhile, the armored truck pulls up in front of another bay door. The top hatch of the truck opens to allow Freeze to fire his gun at the door, freezing it instantly. The truck smashes through the ice and into a large warehouse. Freeze and his henchmen hop out and the henchmen get to work loading the canisters. Two guards arrive at the scene of the burglary, but Freeze . . . er, freezes, the door into the warehouse so that they can’t get in.

Freeze’s henchmen have finished loading the canisters, and it seems like the job went off without a hitch. Suddenly, Batman appears on top of the truck and grabs one of Freeze’s men. The other henchmen are quickly dispatched by Batman, who then orders Freeze to . . . um, “Freeze.” Holy irony, Batman! Anyway, the villain responds with, “That’s ‘Mister Freeze’ to you.” Batman gives up the witty banter and throws a Batarang at Freeze, who simply – you guessed it! – freezes it in mid-air. The Batarang shatters at Freeze’s feet. Freeze then warns Batman, “This is a personal vendetta. It doesn’t concern you.” When Batman disagrees, Freeze realizes he has no choice but to fight the Dark Knight. He fires repeatedly at Batman, freezing large areas of the warehouse as Batman dodges out of the way. One of these shots hits one of Freeze’s henchmen, freezing him up to the knees. Finally, Freeze fires at a catwalk that Batman is about to land on. When Batman lands, he falls through the catwalk and into a pile of canisters. Before Batman can recover, Freeze fires his weapon, covering Batman in ice. Freeze’s henchmen have gathered around the man Freeze inadvertently froze, but Freeze once again displays his cold nature by ordering them to leave him there. “He should have been more careful. Now he’s paid the price for his incompetence.”

No sooner has Freeze’s truck driven off than Batman breaks free of the ice trap. Batman is about to give chase when he sees the man that Freeze left behind. Batman returns to the Batcave with the wayward henchman and places him in a chemical heating tank to break the ice off him. Alfred comments on this, saying that Batman is showing an awful lot of compassion for a common thug. Batman doesn’t respond, but it seems the Caped Crusader is coming down with a cold. “With all the compartments on your belt, you’d think there’d be one for tissues,” Alfred quips. Batman doesn’t have time for a cold, however, since he has to drop the thug off to Gordon’s men, and then switch into his Bruce Wayne persona to meet with Ferris Boyle.

Bruce is curious as to why someone seems to have it out for GothCorp, but Boyle claims he has no idea what it’s about. However, when Bruce mentions that it might be an ex-employee, Boyle admits that there’s only one person with an insane hatred for GothCorp, but he believes that that employee is dead. According to Boyle, he was a scientist that was caught using company equipment for personal reasons. When the security team confronted him, there was an explosion and the scientist died. Boyle seems angrier that the scientist was wasting his money than about anything else. In another brilliant stroke of irony, Boyle mentions that he’s hosting a ceremony for Gotham’s Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year, and naturally he’s the winner of this award.

That night, Boyle has an interview with Summer Gleeson, and says that the attacks on GothCorp “have in no way changed our personal commitment to the community.” This doesn’t impress Mr. Freeze at all, who freezes his television, destroying it. “Humanity. Charity. Where were those pretty words when she needed to hear them?” he demands. His henchmen are busy putting the finishing touches on his freeze cannon; Freeze intends on attacking Boyle directly tonight.

Meanwhile, Batman has recalled a news article about an explosion at GothCorp from the previous year. The paper doesn’t say anything specific, so Batman plans on checking GothCorp’s classified files. “If you’re going to go sneaking around a crowded office building,” Alfred tells him, “you’ll need this.” He hands Batman a small canister from his jacket. Batman looks at it and asks, “Knockout gas?” Alfred shakes his head. “Chicken soup. The only way to fight a cold.”

At the Humanitarian ceremony, a bored guard watches a monitor of Gotham’s elite schmoozing it up at the party. Suddenly a hand grips his shoulder. The guard is startled, but discovers that it’s only another security guard, who tells him he’s there to fill in so he can enjoy the party. The first guard accepts this without question and strolls off. His replacement opens his uniform shirt to reveal Batman’s utility belt beneath. Batman pulls a security card reader from his belt and uses it to access the file room. He quickly finds a file marked “Top Secret” and flips through it, revealing several photographs of Nora Fries, a young woman who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. There’s also a diagram of some sort of freezing chamber. Finally, there is a video cassette in the folder. Batman inserts this into a nearby VCR and watches a video of Doctor Victor Fries as he talks about his experiment of the CC100. This is the cryogenic chamber Batman saw a diagram for, and it is also where Victor has placed his wife. He created this chamber “expressly for freezing subject stricken with inoperable ailments,” like his wife. The idea is to freeze people until a remedy for their illness has been found. However, Victor’s experiment is cut short by the arrival of Boyle and the security team. They burst in and Boyle demands the guards to shut everything down. “You can’t stop it now,” Fries yells. “My wife is in there!” Despite his protests, Boyle still seems intent on shutting the project down. In desperation, Fries grabs one of the guard’s guns and aims it at Boyle. Boyle instantly changes his tactics and convinces Fries to lower the gun. Once he does so, Boyle kicks him backwards into a table of beakers, setting off a chemical reaction in the laboratory. The security team and Boyle run off, leaving Fries to apparently freeze to death. This revelation does not please Batman at all. However, this little journey into the past has not been witnessed alone; Mister Freeze has entered the room, and fires his freezing gun at Batman.

Batman regains consciousness hanging upside down in Mister Freeze’s lair, stripped of his utility belt. Batman says that he’s sorry about what happened to Freeze’s wife, but the villain claims that he’s beyond emotions. He then confirms Batman’s guess that the suit Freeze wears is the result of the coolant he was exposed to in the laboratory. “I can no longer survive outside of a sub-zero environment,” he reveals. He also reveals his plan to take his revenge on Boyle tonight, even if it means killing everyone in the building. “Think of it, Batman,” Freeze mourns, “to never again walk on a summer’s day with a hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes. I’d kill for that.” Freeze and his henchmen leave. Batman quickly breaks out of his ice cuffs and then breaks an icicle loose from the cave ceiling to break loose of the ice holding his feet to the ceiling.

At the GothCorp building, a valet is helping people out of their cars when Freeze’s ice cannon shows up. Freeze orders his henchmen to seal the building, and they fire the cannon at the door, encasing it in a thick wall of ice. Meanwhile, Batman stumbles out into the alley, still trying to return feeling into his legs. He manages to roll close to the building before he’s cut off by the wall of ice. Inside the building, the Humanitarian ceremony is interrupted when a window bursts open, blowing cold air and snow into the room. At the freeze cannon, Freeze orders his men to double the power, but their efforts are cut short by the timely arrival of Batman. While dodging blasts from Freeze’s freeze gun, he reclaims his utility belt and subdues the last of Freeze’s henchmen. Freeze decides not to fight Batman at the moment, and runs over to a fire hydrant. He kicks off the top, sending a jet of water upward, and then uses his freeze gun to create an ice pillar, sending him up into the building.

Freeze bursts into the room with the humanitarians and turns his attentions on Boyle. After revealing his identity, he begins to freeze Boyle. Boyle begs for forgiveness, but this doesn’t impress Freeze. “In my nightmares, I see my Nora behind the glass begging to me with frozen eyes. How I’ve longed to see that look frozen on you.” Before Freeze can finish him off, Batman knocks the weapon out of Freeze’s hands and rushes forward to confront him. None of his kicks or punches has any effect, however, and Freeze tosses him aside. “The advanced circuitry that powers my suit also triples my strength,” he boasts. Batman attempts to kick at Freeze again, and Freeze grabs him by the throat. He begins to choke the life out of Batman, who reaches into his cape and pulls out Alfred’s thermos of chicken soup. He thwacks Freeze in the helmet with it, and the glass protecting Freeze bursts open. Freeze releases Batman and then collapses to the ground. “What was that stuff?” Summer Gleeson asks, and Batman replies, “The only way to fight a cold.” Freeze is dejected, and doesn’t want it to end this way, crying out again for vengeance. “No,” Batman says, “justice.” He reveals that Boyle killed Nora and attempted to kill Victor.

Later, at Arkham Asylum, Victor Fries sits in his sub-zero cell and begs forgiveness from his ballerina statue of Nora while Batman watches from a nearby rooftop.

WRITTEN BY: Paul Dini

DIRECTED BY: Bruce Timm

STORY BY: Sean Catherine Derek, Laren Bright

CAST:
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Alfred Pennyworth)
Kevin Conroy (Bruce Wayne / Batman)
Mari Devon (Summer Gleason)
John Mariano (Additional Voices)
Robert David Hall (Additional Voices)
Michael Bell (Additional Voices)
Michael Ansara (Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze)
Mark Hamill (Ferris Boyle)

QUOTES:
Mr. Freeze: I failed you. I wish there were another way for me to say it. I cannot. I can only beg your forgiveness and pray you hear me somehow... someplace. Someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.

INTERESTING NOTES:
- The Toon Disney airing of this episode has Freeze saying ""To never again walk upon a summer's day with a hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes", removing the part where he says "I'd kill for that." Also cut was Batman saying "My God" after watching the incriminating video of Mr. Freeze's "birth".

SCREEN GRABS: