“I don’t know who has been duplicating my old crimes, but I
can assure you, gentlemen, Poison Ivy is dead.”A familiar plant-based poison is found at the scene of several robberies, and Batman’s initial suspicion naturally falls on Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing). Commissioner Gordon insists, however, that she’s gone straight – turned over a new leaf, if you will – and settled down with the psychiatrist who successfully reformed her. With Ivy safely ensconced in domestic bliss with her new husband and his two sons, Batman is short on clues, especially when his ward Dick Grayson is abducted, and a ransom is extorted.
Paul Dini is rightly credited with his work on the Harley & Joker-centric episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, though he usually gets the short end of the shrub when it comes to Poison Ivy (excepting, of course, “Harley & Ivy”). But between “Pretty Poison” and “House & Garden,” Dini proves that he’s got a good handle on more Bat-villains than just the ones who wear clown makeup. Dini continues his portrayal of Ivy as a vamping narcissist who uses her seductive powers to advance her own goals and protect the plants, the only things about which she truly cares in this world. (Oh, spoilers? Poison Ivy totally doesn’t reform in this episode.) Dini does, however, paper on a layer of pathos when the episode begins to wonder just how real Ivy’s affection was for the family she created.
The revelation, casually heartbreaking for how quickly it’s dashed off, that Ivy can’t have children, takes on a few powerful layers as Dini explores Ivy’s connection to her ostensible step-children. Though Ivy loses much of what she never had in the first place, the mere fact that she created such a simulacrum in which to couch her alleged reform speaks volumes to the depths of her character. How much of her dedication to Mother Earth, we might ask, is a reaction to her own inability to become a mother? We could extend that question to her affection for Harley Quinn, too – though the show and its fandom have treated that relationship as anywhere from lightly flirtatious to full-on sexualized, I’ve always sensed a maternal note in her efforts to keep Harley away from The Joker. It’s to Dini’s credit, then, that he finds a deeper level of Poison Ivy than the creepy sexuality of “Eternal Youth.”
That’s not to say, though, that “House & Garden” is the cozy domesticity it pretends to be. There’s plenty of Cronenberg-esque horror in the basement; where we had a dreadful Penguin episode set in a home’s lower level, this episode might very well be called “I’ve Got Disturbing Plant Child Incubators in My Basement.” The stilted, jerky animation, coupled with Ivy’s monologue about how her plant children evolve to become the behemoths menacing Gotham, is patently unnerving, warping the innocence of childhood by presenting it as manufactured, replaceable, and emotionless. That Ivy appears to fall for her own simulation of a family is a fascinating ineffability.
All told, “House & Garden” is maybe not the greatest Dini episode, solely by dint of the other ones just being amazing storytelling, but it is as ever an engaging chapter in the ongoing Bat-saga. It’s also (fittingly) Ivy’s farewell from BTAS; though she gets a nice little punchline in “Harley’s Holiday,” “House & Garden” is largely her swan song, and it’s a fitting end of sorts for her character. Man, Dini’s got it.
Writer: Paul Dini
Director: Boyd Kirkland
Villains: Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing)
Next episode: “The Terrible Trio,” in which the rich get richer.
🦇For the full list of Batman: The Animated Series reviews, click here.🦇
No comments:
Post a Comment