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Ace in the Hole

Episode #41 - Ace In The Hole
Original Airdate - Aug 19th, 2000 - Second Season Finale

Bruce recollects how he acquired Ace after he goes missing. Plus Terry discovers a horrifying 'underground' sporting event.

Media by Bird Boy, James Harvey
Review by J.Chen, aka The Overseer
Credits:
Written by Hilary J. Bader
Directed by James Tucker
Music by Kristopher Carter
Animation by Koko / Dong Yang

Voices:
Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis/Batman
Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne
Bill Smitrovich as Ronny Boxer
Jim Wise as Maddie
Sean Donnellan as Virtual Announcer
Pete Onorati as Ozzie
Chick Vennera as Chauffeur
Tasi Valenza as Female Cop

Screen Grabs
































Pans


Review

HIGHS: Pretty interesting plot considering a dog is the focus, a good check into the relation between Bruce and Ace.
LOWS: Seemingly childish premise might turn some people off, unoriginal end fight.
OVERALL: A decent episode to break the summer reruns.

Contrary to some statements I've seen online, this is NOT the start of the new season, just an unaired episode left from last year's batch. Anyway, being used to sleeping past air time for months now, I reluctantly dragged myself up to check this one out. I'll admit when I found out that the dog was the focus here I was ready to dismiss it as another one of the less mature and more "cartoony" eps from last season's end. Fortunately that's not entirely the case.

It starts with Bruce going to the chiropractor, and Terry is left outside to watch Ace. Suddenly the dog gives chase to an odd man nearby. Terry tries to restrain the beast, but the man pulls a gun and fires. Terry drops low to avoid the shots, and Ace chases the stranger all the way to his car, and then runs off. Bruce thinks Ace may have somehow recognized this man, and checks the computer files. The guy turns out to be a major dog fight gambler in Gotham...a Mr. Boxer. Terry has to go out to shut him down, while Ace is out wandering the streets. This sets up the main plot of the episode...now I'll comment on a few points.

• Terry goes undercover to find out about this dog fighting league. He wraps his arms with fake bandages and adopts a rough streets accent-classic Batman tactic. Good to see Terry use his brains here.

• This dog fighting organization is a cruel business. We see scenes of the proprietor deliberately provoking the animals to make them more aggressive. He shows no concern for the dogs, even when his assistants mention the dangers here he just shrugs it off and says there's plenty more where he came from. This isn't some kiddie theme...it's a real problem.

• We see how Bruce first met Ace. Trained by Boxer to be a fighting machine, Ace is about to risk death in the ring when the police raid the match. The dog escapes during the confusion into the snowy streets. Bruce is paying his annual visit to the site of his parents' death long ago. It can be assumed that he would keep doing so up until now, but it's still great to see confirmation that Bruce still remembers. As he lays flowers on that spot, Ace saves the old man from a Jokerz gang member. Cool origin story...my only complaint? The butler/chauffeur just looks kind of goofy. Oh well...Alfred was one of a kind.

My biggest gripe about this episode however, is the end battle. Terry tracks down the dog fighting mastermind, and must face...a giant dog? This aspect is corny and ruins the dark feeling set by earlier scenes. The creature is drawn rather poorly too...I wasn't scared by its appearance, rather the thing was laughable. This scene is almost exactly like the TNBA episode "Cult of the Cat"...which isn't exactly a compliment.

In my opinion, this was an alright ep, I found it satisfactory for injecting some freshness into the boring rerun season, and pretty good as an exploration into Bruce's companion. Personally I'd like to see more gritty and hard-hitting stories like from BB's early run, but I'll accept this one for now.

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