1x18 Two-Face (2)

[7.5/10] The second part of this one isn[t quite as good as the first -- the descent is usually cooler than the aftermath -- but it’s still solid. Now that Two-Face is fully formed, ti’s nice to see a bit of him in action. HIs attacks on Thorne’s outfits, all of which have 2-based names of some kind, feels like an amusing throwback to the themed crimes of the original Batman comics and Batman 66 (which Two-Face didn’t appear in), while also mixing in some legitimate menace from this darker, more tortured take on the character.

What I appreciated about the episode is that even after his transformation, the show continued to explore the duality at the core of Harvey Dent. On the one hand, Two-Face has a pretty legitimate scheme to get back at Throne. The idea of embarrassing him by knocking off his gambling houses and fronts, and then exposing his file in the same way that Throne threatened to do to him, is frankly a pretty strong and poetic one. Two-Face is a monster created by Thorne, and now, months after his disgrace, he’s trying to show Thorne that this creation is beating him at his own game. At the same time, you understand Harbey’s concern by strong desire to reconnect with Grace. You have monster and man, rolled up into a single package, and the episode makes time to show both.

It also does a nice job of explaining and accounting for the coin-0flip thing. For one thing, we get to see it put into action in the early set piece, just to show how Two_Face’s new morality works. But we also get to hear his explanation for it, how he was some0ne who believed in laws and right, but who ended up having his life turned upside down by forces beyond his control. He attributes that to chance, and feels some manner of control by embracing that randomness rather than trying to fight it. It’s a great psychological rationale to put behind the character, one that later works would definitely pick up. (including Batman Forever, which picks up on the same silver dollar trick that Batman deploys here).

Last but not least, I really liked Bruce’s motivation here. The show makes it explicit in well-done nightmare sequence, but in large part, Batman is driven by guilt. Here, he feels like he failed his friend, like he could have prevented this, and didn't . It connects to the instigating guilt he feels over his own parents’ deaths, and adds an emotional depth to what could otherwise be a standard good guys/bad guys routine.

I’m still not crazy about Thorne himself, given that he and his crew only seem to exist to be the real bad guy while Two-Face gets to play tweener, but I suppose an episode like this, about someone switching sides between good and bad, requires that. (Though his fiancée is a bit of a dupe for falling for their scheme.) And artistically, this is another quality outing, with the show driving home the essential dichotomy within Harvey by showing him in profile often and depicting a neat division in lighting in his lair.

Overall, this episode feels much more standard compared to part 1, but it still works as an exploration of who Two-Face is, how he connects to friends old and new, and what his future could look like.

EDIT 09/01/2021: In hindsight, this episode was the first big triumph of “Batman: The Animated Series”’ pop psychology. It’s a Two-Face origin story, but it’s not simply about how the supervillain managed to end up with half of his visage scarred and mangled.

It’s about how even before the accident, Harvey Dent, the smiling golden boy D.A. of Gotham, had anger issues he’d buried since childhood that came out at inopportune times. It’s about how a chance misfortune with a mob boss he tried to put away led to his current disfigured state and fall from grace. And it’s about how perilous the line between justice and catastrophe is, how random fate’s hand can seem, to where there’s bitter comfort for Two-Face in reducing moral choices to the flip of a coin.

But it’s also about a friend. Batman’s more of a supporting character here, but his dynamic as a foe of Two-Face but a longtime friend to Harvey Dent makes his place here that much more compelling. In Two-Face’s unfortunate coming out party, Harvey’s descent, his alter ego’s rise, and the pathos and cruel misfortune of both, make the title character’s debut one of the show’s best.