Batman: The Animated Series - "The Underdwellers"

“It is I who care for you, I who provide for you, and it is only I who knows what’s good for you!”

Gotham falls under a plague of robbery-by-leprechaun, leading Batman into the sewers where he apprehends the silent Frog, a young boy who’s been living underground. While Alfred engages in a slapstick routine in housebreaking the child (who, shockingly, is not once considered as a protégé Robin), Batman uncovers the lair of the Sewer King and his imprisoned progeny.

I’ve never liked this episode. As a child, I had a fickle palate and preferred the episodes with big-name villains, and the Sewer King always struck me as a little lame when compared to surface-scorners like the Penguin or Killer Croc. In fact, I almost never watch this episode unless I’m doing a thorough rewatch, such as for occasions like this one. The truth of the matter is that this isn’t an objectively bad episode, though there is little of Batman: The Animated Series in it (put another way, nothing in this episode makes it an intrinsically Batman story, not even any detective work).

“The Underdwellers” is, however, unsettling on a very basic narrative level. For one, the episode revolves around a gang of children dwelling in the sewers in captivity at the hands of a deluded Fagin whose cruelty seems utterly purposeless. We don’t know under what circumstances the children came into the hands of the Sewer King – runaways, kidnappings, or something else altogether – nor do we know who the Sewer King is, what he wants, or what he does with the riches his pupils pilfer. We’re left either to imagine the worst or to wonder just what this is all about, anyway.

There’s probably a very good story to be told in here somewhere, maybe playing up the idea that the sewer people are society’s rejects (akin, perhaps, to Bruce Wayne’s own sense of alienation). One could also imagine a version of the Sewer King who’s more menacing than just a shouting dandy with an eyepatch. But what we get is rather feeble and thin, remarkable on a technical level for how little dialogue there is in the episode but narratively unspectacular.

The disappointing execution of the Sewer King is compounded by the physical comedy in which Alfred tries to teach Frog manners and personal hygiene. If we’re meant to take the Sewer King seriously, these scenes contrast starkly with the tone of the episode, but if there isn’t a conflict in tone then we’re meant to see the Sewer King as a paltry threat. Either way, it’s not a win for “The Underdwellers.”

This episode isn’t altogether irredeemable, though, for it includes a wonderful motif of Batman’s concern for the children, in which we see him angrier, darker, and more violent than we’ve heretofore witnessed in the series. Again, were this the primary focus of the episode it’d probably be a top-notch episode. Instead, it’s a motif reduced to highlights on Kevin Conroy’s demo reel as he growls his way through lines like, “I don’t pass sentence. That’s for the courts, but this time – this time... I am sorely tempted to do the job myself.” Alas, we can’t hang a whole episode on a snarling Batman who wrestles alligators.

As awesome as that sounds.

Original Air Date: October 21, 1992

Writer: Tom Ruegger, Jules Dennis, & Richard Mueller

Director: Frank Paur

Villain: The Sewer King (Michael Pataki)

Next episode: “P.O.V.,” in which Batman meets Akira Kurosawa.

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