Plot summary: Three bored frat boys decide to wear masks and commit crimes for the thrills. IT’S VERY BAD, GET OUT NOW!
Each Saturday and Sunday Matt Waters recaps an episode of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, building an overall ranking along the way. Plus best performances, the ever-popular Villain Watch and more!
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Notes
Episode Title: ‘The Terrible Trio’
Original Air Date: September 11th, 1995
Directed: Frank Paur (16)
Written: Alan Burnett (5) (story) & Michael Reaves (13)
Bruce Timm considers this the worst episode in the entire DC Animated Universe.
This is the only episode animated entirely by Hong Kong studio Jade Animation, who previously helped with ‘If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?’ and ‘Day of the Samurai’
Recap
A threesome of well-spoken thieves in animal masks rob a Gotham business. They toss the security guard a wad of cash, taking pity on how poorly he’s paid.
Batman & Robin arrive to chase them off, but they’re able to board a nearby speedboat and blow up the pier to prevent the Dynamic Duo from giving chase.
The next day, Bruce heads to Gotham Country Club for a spot of clay pigeon shooting and is told off by his three hoighty-toighty friends for talking to “the help” and engaging in charity work.
They comment on how little challenge there is left for them in the world and declare Bruce the dullest man in the city. Gee, I wonder if they’re the three men from the opening…
The Terrible Trio’s leader, Warren, writes a cheque for his girlfriend, Rebecca, who mostly mooches off her father…
But then they make him the target of the group’s next violent robbery in order to recoup the investment, hospitalising him in the process.
Batman chases the trio away from the scene, but Warren has them start throwing some of the stolen cash out the window. Naturally this draws the attention of bystanders, and Bruce has to swerve to avoid them, allowing the trio to get away.
Bruce visits Rebecca’s father in hospital, recognising the imprint of a class ring on his face. Consulting a database of members of the frat, he matches up the source of the family fortunes of the trio to the chosen masks of the criminals (land, sea and air.)
Warren convinces Rebecca to join him and his pals at their mountain lodge but accidentally drops a souvenir he claimed from her father, tipping her off. Warren decides she can’t be trusted, so chloroforms her.
The Trio mask up and try and dump her over a cliff face, but Batman & Robin are able to snatch her out of the air in the Batwing.
Batman ejects to engage them in combat, taking them out one at a time, with Warren naturally being last. There’s a brief snowmobile chase. It’s whatever.
Warren tries to bribe Batman with $1,000,000, but he of course refuses and Richie Rich gets tossed in prison with… a poor person!
Best Performance
As much as I don’t want to praise any aspect of The Terrible Trio, if we presume that Bill Mumy was tasked with sounding like an insufferable, morally reprehensible asshole, then he nailed it. You will definitely want to punch this character.
Hector Elizondo has about two lines as the rich father who gets robbed and assaulted and I considered rewarding him for just having a nice voice in general.
Ranking
Bruce Timm considers this the worst episode not only in the series, but the entire extended universe of shows, some of which were much worse than BTAS.
When you hinge the entirety of a story around a villain and they’re phenomenally underwhelming… there’s not really much to say. It’s a flop. A big one. There’s not much in the way of a moral lesson (bored rich people are bad and charity work is good). We don’t learn anything about Bruce, Dick or Gotham. You could delete this episode from history with zero consequences.
Perhaps the most concerning thing is that Bruce freakin’ Wayne would engage in some casual clay pigeon shooting, regardless of having to keep up playboy appearances. They made a similar mistakes in ‘The Underdwellers’ when he had a collection of antique firearms and that episode sucks too.
- The Laughing Fish
- Mask of the Phantasm
- Almost Got ‘Im
- Heart of Ice
- The Trial
- Shadow of the Bat Part I
- I Am the Night
- Robin’s Reckoning Part I
- The Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face Part I
- A Bullet For Bullock
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay Part II
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- House & Garden
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel Part II
- Appointment In Crime Alley
- Two-Face Part II
- Pretty Poison
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Feat of Clay Part I
- His Silicon Soul
- Off Balance
- Vendetta
- Birds of a Feather
- Heart of Steel Part I
- On Leather Wings
- See No Evil
- The Clock King
- It’s Never Too Late
- Joker’s Wild
- Eternal Youth
- The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- The Cat and the Claw Part I
- Zatanna
- Day of the Samurai
- Avatar
- The Demon’s Quest Part I
- The Mechanic
- The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- Terror in the Sky
- P.O.V.
- Christmas with the Joker
- Fear of Victory
- Be a Clown
- The Worry Men
- What is Reality?
- Fire From Olympus
- Night of the Ninja
- Mudslide
- The Cat and the Claw Part II
- Nothing to Fear
- Prophecy of Doom
- Tyger, Tyger
- Blind as a Bat
- If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- Dreams In Darkness
- The Last Laugh
- Cat Scratch Fever
- Moon of the Wolf
- Paging the Crime Doctor
- Sideshow
- The Under-Dwellers
- The Forgotten
- The Terrible Trio (NEW ENTRY)
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch
The Terrible Trio (Bill Mumy/David Joliffe/Peter Scolari) (first appearance)
Even if I rated them as three separate individuals they’d be tied for last place. At least Montague Kane was voiced by Michael York!
What we have are three bored rich boys who wear animal masks loosely themed around the source of their family fortunes (land, air and sea). Warren (The Fox) is the mouthpiece and potentially the worst person to ever be on a show that regularly features a Murder Clown. Army (The Vulture) is the only one not down with murdering a woman, but is still a bad, snobby person. Gunther (The Shark)… is there? I guess?
I can’t even bring myself to compliment them for coming up with characters that are unlikeable in a way that makes it satisfying when they’re caught. They aren’t interesting, compelling, scary or funny. They don’t have a fun design. They’re just awful.
- The Joker
- Poison Ivy
- Mr. Freeze
- Harley Quinn
- Two-Face
- The Ventriloquist
- The Phantasm
- Mad Hatter
- Penguin
- Catwoman
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Clayface
- Ra’s al Ghul
- The Riddler
- Clock King
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Count Vertigo
- Killer Croc
- Nivens
- Josiah Wormwood
- Scarecrow
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Rupert Thorne
- Talia al Ghul
- Sid the Squid
- Thoth Khepera
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- Kyodai Ken
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Sewer King
- Boss Biggis
- Montague Kane
- The Terrible Trio
Plugs
Eager for more long-form coverage of Batman? Why not check out my podcast with Mike Thomas, The Tape Crusaders, which reviewed every Batman movie and delved a tiny bit into the animated series.
The Reel World 