Robin's Reckoning

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Batman: The Animated Series episode
“Robin's Reckoning”
Image:Robin's Reckoning.jpg
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 32 and 37
Guest star(s) Thomas F. Wilson as Tony Zucco
Writer(s) Randy Rogel
Director Dick Sebast
Production no. 32 and 37
Original airdate February 7 and 14, 1993
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy" "The Laughing Fish"

"Robin's Reckoning" is a two part episode of the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series. The first part aired on February 7, 1993 and was written by Randy Rogel and directed by Dick Sebast, earned the series an Emmy award and is considered to be one of the best episodes of the series. The second part aired a week later. The story is based on the origin of Robin (Dick Grayson) from Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), which it shows through flashbacks, intercutting an unfolding mystery in the present with the more significant moments of Robin's life. It touches on Robin uncovering who killed his family and how he first met and joined forces with Bruce Wayne. Meanwhile, it also shows how Batman and Robin are slowly growing apart, and Robin's inevitable confrontation with the murderer in question.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

[edit] Part I

The episode starts with Batman and Robin busting a stake-out at a construction site to extort money from a wealthy architect. When Batman forces one of the perpetrators to reval him to whom he is working for, and it turns out to be somebody named "Billy Marrin"", he cuts Robin out of the operation. Robin is taken back to the Batcave, and Batman goes back to make further investigations alone. But once he's some time gone, Robin and Alfred Pennyworth use the Batcomputer's criminal database to determine the real identity of the crime mob boss. To his shock, Robin discovers that Marrin is really an alias for Tony Zucco, the mobster responsible of the murder of his parents. As the search narrows, a series of flashbacks tell Robins origin story and how he came to live with Bruce Wayne.

In a flashback, Robin is shown as Dick Grayson in his childhood, when he is part of "The Flying Graysons", a popular circus acrobat trio with his parents. After practicing for a Wayne Charity function in Gotham, Dick overhears Mr. Haley, the ringmaster, throwing out a young Tony Zucco, who is asking him to pay money for "protection" against "accidents" that might end people's lifes. In response to Haley's refusal, Zucco partially saws through a trapeze rope to be used in the Graysons act. Although Dick doesn't catch him in the act, he recognizes Zucco as he passes by, but ends up ignoring him and goes to his performance anyway. After his part of the act is done Dick watches from a platform the rope snaping and his parents, known for performing without a net, falling to their deaths in front of his eyes.

Bruce Upon hearing of Dick's telling of what he saw, Jim Gordon fears that he will have no place to go, as he is a material witness, but Bruce Wayne (also an orphaned son who saw his parents being murdered), who is in the audience at the incident, takes pity on the boy, steps in and adopts young Dick. The general awkwardness of the situation, being left in a large mansion with Alfred as a primary caretaker, makes Dick uncomfortable being there, while Bruce is investigating the crime as Batman.

Still in the flashback, Batman seeks Zucco at his uncle Arnold Stromwell's mansion, where he berates his nephew for his stupidity and rashness in murdering the Graysons. Their argument is interrupted when the guards are alerted to Batman being detected on the property. After a car chase, Zucco is able to slip out of Gotham, while Batman feels haunted for not catching the Graysons' killer. As he returns to the Batcave, Alfred reminds him that Dick is feeling unloved and scared, which prompts Bruce to realize he must spend more time with him. He later comforts the boy and tries to make him feel better, but Dick breaks down in tears and explains that he saw Zucco before the murder, thus making him responsible. Bruce points out he felt the same way when his parents died, but the pain will go away in time, at least for Dick.

After discovering the crook's identity and reliving the tragedy, Robin realizes that Batman left him out of this to keep him out of the way. Vowing vengeance on the man who murdered his parents, he sets out on his RedBird motorbike to find Zucco, while Alfred remains at a loss about what to do....

[edit] Part II

Batman tracks Tony Zucco while, secretly, Robin seeks to find Zucco to avenge his parents' death. As the investigation narrows to an abandoned amusement park, a series of flashbacks finish Robin's origin story....

Following a number of days, Bruce and Dick bond very well, engaging in a playful fencing match. Alfred then tells Bruce that Jim Gordon is very convinced that Zucco might strike there to get the boy, prompting Dick to take matters into his own hands. After running away from Wayne Manor, he tries to track his parents killer without very much success at first. While searching a run-down section of Gotham and avoiding Batman, who, unbeknowest to Dick, is also searching for Zucco, Dick rescues a waitress being mugged. Using his gymnastic skills he defeats the full-grown attackers, finishing by jumping to grab hold of a fire escape, avoiding the muggers charge and allowing them to rush head-on into a wall, knocking them unconscious. The waitress treats Dick to dinner in the diner where she works, and identifies Tony Zucco as the object of Dick's search, but cautions him to avoid Zucco. This warning goes unheeded as Dick soon after finds himself fighting several of Zucco's thugs, who throw him into the spillway. Batman rescues him before he can go over a waterfall and brings him back to the Batcave, revealing himself, with the help of Alfred, as Bruce Wayne and explaining that he was already searching for Zucco. He then suggests that Dick's "temporary" stay become indefinite and offers him a place as his crime partner, to which Dick eagerly accepts.

As the flashback ends, Robin voices a warning to Zucco, proclaiming he, Robin, was "trained by the best," a reference to his years of training under Batman, and he takes off on his motorcycle to continue the search. He uses a phone tracer to obtain Zucco's address, but unfortunately the call, though silent, worries Zucco, and in a fit of paranoia, he fires a sub-machine gun repeatedly into the ceiling, worried about a noise. Unfortunately the noise was Batman, who, injured, falls through the weakened ceiling. In the chaos and surprise, Batman is able to limp from the room. Hiding in the park, he hardly has time to treat his wounds before being attacked by Zucco's pursuing henchmen. Though limping, he is able to pick off the thugs one-by-one through the heavy use of stealth, fighting several on the carousel. Unfortunately, he is unable to defeat Zucco in his weakened state. As he lies staring up at a gun-wielding Zucco, Robin, still riding a motorcycle, crashes through the fence, rides straight at Zucco and, grabbing him by the collar, drags him behind the cycle to the end of a pier where he holds Zucco over the edge, threatening him with death. Batman convinces him to show mercy rather than become a murderer to appease his desire for vengeance. As police sirens are heard in the distance, Batman explains that he distanced Robin from the investigation because he didn't want Zucco to hurt him any more.

[edit] Cast

Part I
Actor Role
Kevin Conroy Batman
Bob Hastings Commissioner Gordon
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Alfred
Paul Eiding Dolan
Loren Lester Robin
Eugene Roche Stromwell
Joey Simmrin Robin-Age 10
Thomas Wilson Zucco
Ed Gilbert
Diane Pershing
Brion James
Roger Rose
Part I
Actor Role
Kevin Conroy Batman
Bob Hastings Commissioner Gordon
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Alfred
Rebecca Gilchrist Chi-Chi
Linda Gary Berty
Charles Howerton Lennie
Loren Lester Robin
Joey Simmrin Dick Grayson (Age 9)*
Lionel Mark Smith Bus Driver
Thomas Wilson Zucco

[edit] Trivia

  • The Grayson parents' deaths, according to producers, was originally a lot more shocking than what was shown in the episode. They would be shown swinging on the ropes, which would break, and they would fall to the ground as Dick watched from above, traumatized by what he had witnessed. Due to thoughts of scaring children, the scene was changed to show them leaping out of the frame, Dick staring in shock with horrified eyes, the frayed rope swinging back, and the audience gasping as the music came to a climax.
  • Bruce Timm often said that the scene where Dick says goodbye to his circus friends before leaving for Wayne Manor made him cry several times.
  • Dick's design while in his circus costume is similar to Astro Boy, particularly his white-pupiled eyes [citation needed].
  • Originally, the second part of the story arc would include a flashback involving Bruce make young Dick swear a candlelit oath to uphold the law if he would join him. There would also be a scene in which he appears in full Robin costume for the first time, but Timm and Paul Dini cut this for time constraints. Dini has often admitted that he wished they would have used more of "Young Robin" flashbacks to show his beginnings and growth into the teenage Robin of today.
  • Tony Zucco's voice is reminiscient of John Travolta's, quite possibly as a reference to the similarity in names between Zucco and Travolta's character in Grease, Danny Zuco.[citation needed]
  • During one of the flashbacks, Tony Zucco drives his car at Batman, stating, "Now I got you, you lousy stinkin' - ". Batman leaps onto the car itself. A similiar scene occurs at the beginning of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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