The Matt Signal – Episode 89: Double Talk

Plot summary: Arnold Wesker attempts to lead a normal life with help from Bruce Wayne, but quickly begins to hear and see Scarface wherever he goes.

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: ‘Double Talk’

Original Air Date: November 22^nd, 1997

Directed: Curt Geda (2)

Written: Robert Goodman (1)

Clark Kent and Lois Lane are laying on the grass in the background of the scene where Wesker strolls through the park.

The scene at the docks is reused from ‘Sins of the Father’, with Two-Face briefly visible. Likewise, the scene where Scarface blows up the little bridge was later re-used in an episode of Superman: The Animated Series.

First episode written by Robert Goodman who would write for a tonne of animated DC shows and movies (including The Dark Knight Returns) as well as Elementary and Warehouse 13.

Recap

Arnold Wesker experiences a trippy nightmare wherein no matter how fast he runs he can’t escape the trunk containing Scarface. A demonic version of Batman joins the fray, leading to a shootout with some goons, and ultimately Scarface himself breaks free. Intense.

Wesker expresses apprehension about leaving Arkham Asylum despite being declared rehabilitated six months ago. His doctor puts him straight and he moves into a halfway house before beginning a job at Wayne Enterprises.

Speaking of Wayne, he and Lucius oversee the addition of two million dollars to a vault with a voice-activation lock. Spotting Wesker sorting mail, Bruce introduces himself and makes nice.

Mugsy and Rhino (remember them?) accost Wesker on his way home from work, demanding to know when Scarface is coming back. Batman rescues Wesker, who is spooked by the scene’s similarity to his nightmare.

Sure enough, Wesker begins hearing Scarface’s voice in his head and seeing his face wherever he goes. Bruce notices his erratic behaviour and spies on him, overhearing a telephone call between the two. Crazier still, he sees Scarface sitting in a phone booth but before he can get to it, he vanishes!

Chasing a very much alive ‘Scarface’ through some alleys and into a museum, Batman is almost buried under some enormous statues and the dummy gets away.

Batgirl analyses a recording of the phone call at the Batcave and confirms that while it sounds like Scarface, it isn’t. Bruce one-ups her by producing a hidden speaker he found in Wesker’s apartment.

Speaking of poor Arnold, he returns home from work the next day, bolts the door and unplugs the phone, but finds Scarface sitting on his sofa and finally gives in to temptation.

Batman interrogates a little person by the name of… Hips McManus… who confesses to wearing a Scarface costume on orders of Rhino & Mugsy, seeking to restore their old operation.

And restore it they did, forcing a captive Lucius Fox to open the vault so they can steal the $2million in untraceable bearer bonds. The heroes try to intervene but Scarface forces them into the vault with a bomb by threatening Lucius’ life.

Bruce ties the bomb to his grapple gun and launches it into a grate while Babs hacks the door open. By the time they reach the roof, Scarface has already turned on his henchmen as punishment for trying to think for themselves.

Batman knocks Scarface out of Wesker’s hand and after a tense standoff, Wesker opts to fire his gun at the dummy rather than our hero, destroying it once again. Mugsy and Rhino are carted off to prison and Wesker resumes his attempt at a normal life.

Best Performance

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but George Dzundza is spectacular, both as the skittish Wesker slowly descending into paranoid delusions, and the brutish Scarface, who seemed even chattier this time than in ‘Read My Lips’. A natural evolution from his appearances in previous episodes, this is Dzundza’s finest work.

Beyond that, we have two re-castings in this episode, as Mel Winkler takes over from Brock Peters as Lucius Fox, and Townsend Coleman replaces Joe Piscopo as Mugsy. They’re both okay.

The pair of little people in the episode are actually voiced by little people, which is a nice touch. Every time they do something like this I’m surprised due to how these things usually go.

Ranking

There are only so many Ventriloquist stories you can tell before the character begins to lose its impact, and this is sort of the last one you can do, with Wesker attempting to leave Scarface behind him, but being haunted by his old demons. They absolutely nailed it though, employing a series of fun little narrative devices to sell Wesker’s declining mental state. Honestly, this is as psychologically interesting as an episode has ever been.

I’m a sucker for a good dream sequence, and the one at the start allowed the animation team to get really weird with the art style. It paired really nicely with the Batman vs Rhino & Mugsy fight, driving home how traumatising Wesker finds violence.

I know ventriloquism isn’t the same as impersonation, but I do feel they left a plot point on the table with the voice-activated vault. I assumed Wesker was going to end up doing a perfect Lucius Fox voice, or perhaps even Hips McManus, given he fools everyone with his Scarface impression. Neither happening makes me wonder why the bothered with the voice-lock gimmick at all. But that’s a minor quibble.

It’s also nice to see evidence of Bruce using his money to help the city in the way obnoxious people insist he should do instead of being Batman. It also potentially plays into the subtle idea that while he talks the talk about trying to rehabilitate his foes, operating a halfway house and securing a job for Wesker, he also can’t help but spy on him as Batman because he’s the most paranoid, pessimistic man in the world.

1. The Laughing Fish
2. Mask of the Phantasm
3. Almost Got ‘im
4. Heart of Ice
5. Harlequinade
6. The Trial
7. Riddler’s Reform
8. Double Talk (NEW ENTRY)
9. Shadow of the Bat Part I
10. I Am the Night
11. Robin’s Reckoning Part I
12. Baby-Doll
13. Sins of the Father
14. Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero
15. The Man Who Killed Batman
16. Perchance to Dream
17. Two-Face Part I
18. Bane
19. Batgirl Returns
20. A Bullet For Bullock
21. Joker’s Favor
22. Read My Lips
23. Feat of Clay Part II
24. Catwalk
25. The Demon’s Quest Part II
26. Harley and Ivy
27. Robin’s Reckoning Part II
28. House & Garden
29. Beware the Gray Ghost
30. Holiday Knights
31. Second Chance
32. Mad as a Hatter
33. Heart of Steel Part II
34. Appointment In Crime Alley
35. Two-Face Part II
36. Pretty Poison
37. Deep Freeze
38. Harley’s Holiday
39. Lock-Up
40. Shadow of the Bat Part II
41. Feat of Clay Part I
42. Cold Comfort
43. His Silicon Soul
44. Off Balance
45. Vendetta
46. Birds of a Feather
47. Heart of Steel Part I
48. On Leather Wings
49. See No Evil
50. The Clock King
51. It’s Never Too Late
52. Make ‘Em Laugh
53. Joker’s Wild
54. Eternal Youth
55. The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
56. The Cat and the Claw Part I
57. Zatanna
58. Day of the Samurai
59. Avatar
60. The Demon’s Quest Part I
61. The Mechanic
62. The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
63. Terror in the Sky
64. P.O.V.
65. Christmas with the Joker
66. Fear of Victory
67. Be a Clown
68. The Worry Men
69. What is Reality?
70. Fire From Olympus
71. Night of the Ninja
72. Mudslide
73. The Cat and the Claw Part II
74. Nothing to Fear
75. The Lion and the Unicorn
76. Prophecy of Doom
77. Tyger, Tyger
78. Blind as a Bat
79. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
80. Dreams In Darkness
81. The Last Laugh
82. Cat Scratch Fever
83. Moon of the Wolf
84. Paging the Crime Doctor
85. Time Out of Joint
86. Sideshow
87. The Under-Dwellers
88. The Forgotten
89. Showdown
90. The Terrible Trio
91. I’ve Got Batman in My Basement

Villain Watch

The Ventriloquist (George Dzundza) (fourth appearance)

Wesker has gone bald and his glasses are now transparent, while Scarface has had a full redesign. I don’t mind the latter, but I dug Wesker’s opaque glasses as they made him even harder to read. I assume that change was so we could see the full extent of his turmoil in this episode, but still.

The dynamic between Wesker and Scarface is sublime here, progressing from dreams to hallucinations and even a threat from Scarface to burst a blood vessel, acknowledging that Wesker DOES know it’s all in his head… but he still can’t resist. And that’s before we find out the whole thing is a frame-up, and Scarface ends up squaring the whole thing away by revealing he knew Mugsy & Rhino were behind the whole thing, and had simply been laying low, but felt a need to intervene as they’d gotten too big for their boots, which only makes him look better.

There seems to be a greater effort to show that Scarface is definitely just a puppet, with Wesker visibly manipulating his arm to throw a bomb near the end, and several shots of him sitting motionless while we hear his voice. That’s all fine, but it is charming when they find ways to blur the lines.

Regardless, this episode proves ‘Read My Lips’ wasn’t lightning in a bottle, along with Wesker’s little Arkham cameos here and there since his debut, and I’m moving him above Two-Face.

Rhino & Mugsy (Earl Boen/Townsend Coleman) (second appearance)

It was nice to see a return of the show’s best-executed henchmen, albeit with Ratso missing. Rhino is still the huge one who can give Batman more of a fight than 90% of his enemies, while Mugsy gets laid out twice without Bruce even looking when he does it. Yes. Yes to this.

I find it interesting that these two can’t make it work for themselves and go to insane lengths to gaslight their favourite former boss, but that it all blows up in their face and he almost murders them.

1. The Joker
2. Harley Quinn
3. Mr. Freeze
4. Poison Ivy
5. The Ventriloquist
6. Two-Face
7. Catwoman
8. The Riddler
9. The Phantasm
10. Baby-Doll
11. Bane
12. Mad Hatter
13. Penguin
14. HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
15. Clayface
16. Ra’s al Ghul
17. Lock-Up
18. Lloyd Ventrix
19. Killer Croc
20. Rupert Thorne
21. Count Vertigo
22. Clock King
23. Nivens
24. Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
25. Josiah Wormwood
26. Scarecrow
27. Talia al Ghul
28. Sid the Squid
29. Queen Thoth Khepera
30. Maxie Zeus
31. Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
32. Tony Zucco
33. Man-Bat
34. Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
35. Hugo Strange
36. Red Claw
37. Arnold Stromwell
38. Mad Bomber
39. Tygrus
40. Kyodai Ken
41. Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
42. Grant Walker
43. Gil Mason
44. Nostromos (and Lucas!)
45. Cameron Kaiser
46. Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
47. Mad Dog
48. Ubu
49. Professor Milo
50. Romulus
51. Arkady Duvall
52. Sewer King
53. Boss Biggis
54. Montague Kane
55. 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.

My other recap column, Marvel Mondays, just finished coverage of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. To fill the time before Loki begins, I’ll be going back to WandaVision, with two episodes per week. Injustice corrected!