Plot summary: Selina Kyle pleads with Batman to keep her safe after stealing from a cat-obsessed cult.
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: ‘Cult of the Cat’
Original Air Date: September 18th, 1998
Directed: Butch Lukic (3)
Written: Paul Dini (29) (story) & Stan Berkowitz (2)
Catwoman’s final appearance on the show.
Thomas Blake is the real name of comic villain Catman.
Despite relaxed censorship compared to Fox, Bruce’s costume getting shredded results in zero physical damage underneath.
Recap
Catwoman, cat statue in hand, flees from a group of… cat ninjas?… through a hedge maze. An enormous jaguar threatens her but she of course charms it and escapes. An insufferably wealthy man watches all this from his mansion balcony and orders more cat ninjas to capture the thief.
The guards continue chasing Selina through Gotham, so she seeks out Batman for protection, letting herself into the Batmobile while he’s dealing with some jewel thieves.
Bruce does some evasive driving, but uses the situation to strong-arm Catwoman, insisting she return everything she’s EVER stolen, going as far as to turn the engine off until she agrees.
Knowing exactly what gets women off, Bats does some research on Selina’s pursuers, a cult of cat worshippers that date back to ancient Egypt, currently led by Thomas Blake. The cultists trigger an explosion and take Selina hostage in the chaos.
Selina awakens chained to a ritual altar but despite some hostility from Blake’s right-hand woman, she’s able to trick the gullible leader into thinking she has interest in joining them.
Blake shows her to a lavish bedroom, giving her an hour to prepare for her initiation. She declines his advances and immediately begins filling a pillowcase with swag once he leaves.
Batman infiltrates the mansion and scolds her for the theft. She fakes remorse, including crocodile tears and even plants a kiss on him… and then knocks him out!
Blake catches her trying to drag him to safety, but she passes it off as disarming the would-be intruder. He congratulates her, telling her she no longer needs to pass any trials.
Instead, Batman awakens in some sort of underground fighting pit without his utility belt. Blake unleashes the cult’s prized creation: a sabretooth freakin’ tiger, which immediately starts mauling the Caped Crusader.
Selina voluntarily leaps in to help, able to charm the beast exactly as she did the jaguar. It licks her face and everything, and then attacks Blake and his men on her orders.
Bruce initially refuses to give Selina a leg-up out of the pit, suspecting she’ll scram and leave him behind, but as they have no other options, he boosts her anyway. His trust is rewarded in the form of a rope.
Blake and his unnamed ladyfriend attack, but both end up in the pit along with the tiger. The GCPD have the cat shipped off to Gotham Zoo and round everybody up… except Selina, who absconds to Paris with her stolen loot.
Best Performance
Let’s keep things straightforward and just say Adrienne Barbeau, shall we? It’s far from her best work, but she’s got no real competition as there’s a very small cast. Scott Cleverdon had promise as Thomas Blake but his grand villain monologue never really came. His henchwoman, Tasia Valenza, barely had any lines. Kevin Conroy is… fine, but again, doesn’t do a huge amount of talking and is far from his best when he does.
Barbeau can do Catwoman in her sleep at this point, and is the only person in this half-baked episode to make anything resembling an impact. Selina is generally always having fun, and Barbeau is great at manipulating all the dumb men that surround the character.
Ranking
File under boring, more than bad… which can sometimes be worse. It’s a perfectly fine idea executed in painfully generic fashion, which makes sense given Paul Dini has only a story credit, but the main script came from Stan Berkowitz. The idea of Selina Kyle getting tangled up with a cat cult and seeking protection from Batman is fertile ground for a juicy little Bat/Cat team-up full of sexy intrigue and double-crossing. To make the end result this dull seems like it would take a concerted effort.
They certainly hit the ground running, and I liked Bruce’s gambit to try and force Selina to make amends for her crimes, but basically everything that came after that was a snooze fest. The cult and their goals aren’t explored in a remotely meaningful manner (what was the deal with the statue?), everybody but Catwoman is written like a moron, and Batman vs a sabretooth tiger isn’t as fun as it should be, especially as Selina basically charms it and sets it on the villains who drop like flies, depriving of us of a satisfying final fight.
- The Laughing Fish
- Mask of the Phantasm
- Over the Edge
- Almost Got ‘im
- Heart of Ice
- Harlequinade
- The Trial
- Riddler’s Reform
- Double Talk
- Shadow of the Bat Part I
- I Am the Night
- Robin’s Reckoning Part I
- Baby-Doll
- Sins of the Father
- Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero
- The Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face Part I
- Torch Song
- You Scratch My Back
- Bane
- Batgirl Returns
- A Bullet For Bullock
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay Part II
- The Ultimate Thrill
- Catwalk
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- House & Garden
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Mean Seasons
- Growing Pains
- Holiday Knights
- Second Chance
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel Part II
- Appointment In Crime Alley
- Two-Face Part II
- Pretty Poison
- Deep Freeze
- Harley’s Holiday
- Lock-Up
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Feat of Clay Part I
- Cold Comfort
- His Silicon Soul
- Off Balance
- Vendetta
- Birds of a Feather
- Joker’s Millions
- Heart of Steel Part I
- Never Fear
- On Leather Wings
- Love is a Croc
- See No Evil
- The Clock King
- It’s Never Too Late
- Make ‘Em Laugh
- 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
- The Lion and the Unicorn
- Prophecy of Doom
- Cult of the Cat (NEW ENTRY)
- 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
- Time Out of Joint
- Sideshow
- The Under-Dwellers
- The Forgotten
- Showdown
- Critters
- The Terrible Trio
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch
Thomas Blake (Scott Cleverdon) (first appearance)
It’s literally like they forgot to finish writing this guy. Wealthy leader of a mysterious cult with an army of ninjas at his disposal, and a deadly female second-in-command is a heck of a start, but you’ve got to do SOMETHING with all of that.
Luckily for him, I dig the aesthetic of the foot soldiers, with their Wolverine claws and liberal use of firearms and motorbikes. But that’s really about it.
- The Joker
- Harley Quinn
- Mr. Freeze
- Poison Ivy
- The Ventriloquist
- Catwoman
- Two-Face
- Bane
- The Riddler
- The Phantasm
- Baby-Doll
- Mad Hatter
- Clayface
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Ra’s al Ghul
- Calendar Girl
- Roxy Rocket
- Killer Croc
- Firefly
- Penguin
- Scarecrow
- Lock-Up
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Rupert Thorne
- Count Vertigo
- Clock King
- Nivens
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Enrique el Gancho
- Josiah Wormwood
- Talia al Ghul
- Sid the Squid
- Queen Thoth Khepera
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus
- Kyodai Ken
- Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
- Farmer Brown (and Emmylou!)
- Grant Walker
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Thomas Blake (NEW ENTRY)
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Arkady Duvall
- 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.
My other recap column, Marvel Mondays, will have a review of the season finale of Loki this week.
There Will Be Movies continues its journey through the 90s on Wednesday with The Silence of the Lambs.
The Reel World 