"Without Batman, crime has no punchline."
We begin with rain, with night-time darkness, with interesting camera angles giving a very noir feel, matching the '40s fashions and cars for which the Animated Series is known. And a small time crook, one Sidney Debris, face drawn in that slightly cartoonish way of which the Animated series can be fond, seems to have killed Batman, in circumstances which he relates to Rupert Thorne, and to us.
This is one op those episodes that are "Batman-lite", and are told from a specific perspective. Such episodes are often among the best, and this is certainly no exception.
Debris, except in his head, is a hopeless loser. Set up to take the fall, he accidentally seems to kill Batman, but the fame proves too much for this mouse of a man. Violence, suspicion, a dangerous encounter with a fascinating nuanced and unstable Joker (by this point the character of the Joker, and his rapport with Harley Quinn, is very interesting), all drives him to desperately seek help from Thorne.
And here we have the two clever twists that really make the episode: Thorne doesn't believe him, thinking him a dangerous rival and, less surprisingly, Batman is not in fact dead (interestingly, not only Montoya but also Bullock must presumably have been in on it) but using Debris as a reward to get to Thorne. It's all delightfully clever, and the ending- Debris finding respect as a big man in prison- is perfect.
As is, perhaps, the episode itself.
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