It’s time to take a look at
Batman the Animated Series Episode 28 Dreams in Darkness. In this episode, the
Scarecrow returns to plague Gotham, as he tries to filter his fear toxin into
the water supply under Arkham Asylum. Meanwhile Batman gets a dose of the gas
and suffers from his own hallucinations, while having to stop the Scarecrow’s
twisted scheme to cause an entire city to be gripped in paralyzing fear and
hallucinations. Batman the Animated Series Dreams in Darkness episode 28 Dreams
in Darkness aired on November 3rd 1992 on FOX.
Batman
the Animated Series Episode 28 Dreams in Darkness
This episode right off the bat
starts off with Batman in a straightjacket in Arkham Asylum. Okay, that got my
attention. Has Batman finally lost his sanity by fighting the most insane
criminals of the city and is their fellow inmate? Or is something more sinister
afoot.
Batman tells the story, of his
sanity being unraveled due to a trial run of one of Scarecrow’s henchmen to drug
a health spa with fear toxin being unfoiled. Batman saves the day, but both the
Bat and the henchman had been poisoned. Batman can still take antidote but that
will leave him sedated for two full days. Obviously that’s unacceptable for
Batman, with Scarecrow on the loose.
Yes indeed, Scarecrow has escaped
Arkham…again. And he’s right under their nose quite literally. The
administration at Arkham Asylum where their inmates include the Joker,
Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Two Face, Poison Ivy, and other sadistic potential
killers really are the most incompetent.
Scarecrow’s plan in this episode,
with the drugging the Arkham Water supply, kind of a bit of a sneak peak to
Batman Begins in many ways, isn’t it?
Batman’s hallucinations are about
as messed up as messed up can be. When I watched this episode as a child, it
kind of freaked me out. Watching it as an adult, it’s still pretty powerful.
Him hallucinating running over Robin on the road, the various members of his
rogues gallery coming at him with him unable to fight himself, and naturally, a
giant version of the gun that killed his parents, dripping in a red liquid.
That obviously may as well be blood.
Messed up for sure in many ways.
Batman is able to fight through
everything, struggling as he descends further and further into potential
madness, as he escapes the Arkham Guides when they sedate him. He manages to
beat Scarecrow and his men, despite mass hallucinations. Scarecrow had back up
controls but despite Batman’s imagining of the cable being a poisonous snake,
he manages to pull it just in the nick of time, saving Gotham City from certain
doom.
And Scarecrow gets hoisted upon
his own petard, getting a dose of his own fear toxin. Batman manages to recover
in the Bat Cave and all is well.
A rather powerful and moody
episode, as seeing Batman locked up in Arkham Asylum is really something that
just grabs you by the throat. Give Batman the Animated Series Episode 28 Dreams
in Darkness a 9/10 rating. Watch Batman the Animated Series Episode 28 Dreams in
Darkness on Batman the Animated Series Volume 1 or Batman the Animated Series
the Complete Collection.
