EPISODE NUMBER: 34, Production Code 308

PLOT SUMMARY:

Mayor Grange is taking a phone call when he is interrupted by an anonymous flower delivery. But one of the flowers comes to life, leaps onto his face, and renders him unconscious.

Later the mayor is speaking enthusiastic about protecting Gotham Park and announces his new “Green Up Gotham” campaign. Barbara goes to her father’s the mayor’s office to look for some cases and sees a flower delivery man dropping off the same strange pink flowers to her father, who is working on a case involving the Penguin and has her leave. Alfred is suffering from hay fever while Bruce tracks down the Penguin’s theft of silver iodide, a non-poisonous substance used for seeding clouds and causing rain.

At Gotham Park, the Penguin delivers the chemicals to the gazebo when Batman arrives, and the Penguin triggers a giant balloon then attacks. The penguin knocks Batman back into a flower bed then leaps aboard his balloon, and Batman goes after him. The two fight aboard the vehicle and the Penguin is knocked into the rotors, and the ship crashes. The Penguin is still alive but…reverts into a mass of vegetable matter. Batman grabs some samples and shows it to a surprisingly uninterested Commissioner, who arrests him…for killing the flowers.

Gordon announces that the city council passed a Vegetation Rights act then leaves. Batman breaks free and the policemen turn into plant clones and attack. Batman escapes and checks in with Alfred, who mentions they’ve received flowers from Mayor Grange. Alfred knocks them into the fireplace and Batman concludes Barbara may be in trouble. Barbara is at home when her father arrives with a gift – a flower, that he insists she smell. It attacks her but she dodges and sends him flying. “Gordon” turns into a plant and attacks, but Batman arrives and knocks it off the building. Batman sees the label on the plant and they go to the flower store to investigate.

An elderly shopkeeper greets them and Batman slugs her as she reverts into a plant. They go into the basement and find a giant plant with all of the originals sealed away being gassed into advocating the cause of…Poison Ivy. Batgirl tries to attack her but they are ensnared and Poison Ivy puts her special plants on them and seals them in to brainwash them. She then creates two plant clones of them while planning to cause the rain to help her seeds go throughout Gotham.

The real Batman and Batgirl arrive in the shared hallucinatory landscape with the others, but Batman’s utility belt sends out an automatic Batwave signal to the Batcave computer, which sends an electrical pulse to free him. He cuts himself free then frees first Batgirl and then her father. They have him free the others while Batman and Batgirl head to the park, where she’s sending the silver iodide up to unleash the rain.

The two plant clones fight their originals – Batman feeds his an explosive capsule while Batgirl uses a lawnmower versus hers. The balloon iodide-seeder moves up into the clouds and it begins to rain, causing the mind-controlling plants to quickly grow. The rest of the plant clones attack Batman and Robin, but Batman fires a missile to destroy the balloon and spread a weed killer to destroy the plants and the clones.

WRITTEN BY: David Slack

DIRECTED BY: Anthony Chun

CAST:
Rino Romano (Bruce Wayne / Batman)
Alastair Duncan (Alfred Pennyworth)
Mitch Pileggi (Commissioner Gordon)
Danielle Judovits (Barbara Gordon / Batgirl)
Piera Coppola (Poison Ivy)

QUOTES:
Batgirl: (to Batman) "Well, there's your evil twin, but where's mine?"
Plant Batgirl: "Over here, ugly!"

INTERESTING NOTES:
- "Fleurs du Mal" is French for "flowers of evil."

SCREEN GRABS: