EPISODE NUMBER: 25, Production Code 212

PLOT SUMMARY:

Yin returns to her apartment and orders a pizza, and is told she’ll get a 30-second delivery. When she answers the door she sees it’s the Joker and he busts in and knocks her unconscious.

At the Gotham opera house, Bruce is listening to the performance and meets with Professor Hugo Strange afterward. Batman congratulates Strange on his promotion to Chief of Psychiatry at Arkham, and mentions his project with Wayne Industries. The project will open up the criminal mind but before he can explain they’re interrupted by the Joker. Bruce makes a hasty entrance and the Batman returns, quickly knocking the Joker out. But the Joker warns that he has Yin hostage and Batman quickly goes to find her, but doesn’t get an answer. Yin wakes up to find herself dressed up as a clown, with an exploding jack-in-the-box in the next room. Batman listens in as the police interrogate Joker, who reveals Yin has eight hours and if they don’t let him free, she’ll die. Strange is present with Chief Rojas and suggests they use his newest project to tap directly into the Joker’s mind. Strange volunteers his service and Rojas reluctantly agrees.

At the Batcave, Bruce works with the prototype of Strange’s device and plans to jack into Arkham’s server and piggyback on the signal from remote. The experiment begins and Strange finds himself at the Joker’s mercy. Strange pursues a child-Joker trying to get at the roots of his insanity, while Bruce enters the mindscape as the Batman. The Joker quickly becomes aware of his presence and is unimpressed, launching a series of attacks.

Batman rescues a mother and her child, who are both the Joker, and Batman realizes he’ll need to ply the Joker’s subconscious mind for clues. Traveling to the Joker’s “ideal factory,” Batman enters and goes to the “Y” drawer, but finds the Joker’s original identity of Jack Napier, trapped deep within the Joker’s mind. Napier directs the Batman to where he needs to go (in “Current Schemes”) but the Joker “transforms” Napier into himself and gets there first, dropping the Batman into a mirror maze with Strange. Strange starts analyzing Batman but the Joker is offended at the lack of attention and knocks Strange into a forest. Batman departs and enters a theater where the Joker is performing, then taunts Batman with a puppet show of Yin being killed. The Batman finds himself in an audience of Jokers who are all laughing at him and his inability to rescue Yin. The Joker audience attacks and overwhelms him, driving the Batman into insane laughter.

Alfred reaches out to Bruce and manages to break through the Joker’s insanity – Batman gets a grip and frees himself. He confronts the “main” Joker who puts Batman into his mind. There Batman is confronted by an accusing Yin in an imaginary Arkham, but realizes it’s a two-way transmission. He pulls the Joker into his mind and the Joker is back in the lab where Yin is free. Strange points out that he was able to get the truth while the Joker was distracted by the Batman. The Joker reveals Yin was under the opera stage at which point Strange, Yin and the others reveal they’re all Batman – it was all an elaborate ruse. Bruce wakes up and goes to rescue Yin, disarming the bomb with two seconds to spare. The Joker is back at Arkham, crying at his failure, while Strange considers what he’s learned and what it may tell him about . .. The Batman.

WRITTEN BY: Greg Weisman

DIRECTED BY: Brandon Vietti

CAST:
Rino Romano (Bruce Wayne / Batman)
Alastair Duncan (Alfred Pennyworth)
Ming-Na (Detective Ellen Yin)
Jesse Corti (Chief Angel Rojas)
Kevin Michael Richardson (the Joker)

QUOTES:
Batman: Tell me where you're keeping Detective Yin!
Joker: No, not singing.
Batman: Then I'll make you sing even if I have to turn your mind inside-out!

INTERESTING NOTES:
- Fish with Joker grins can be seen flying through Joker's Gotham.

SCREEN GRABS: