• Airdate: September 15, 1992
• Director: Boyd Kirkland
• Writers: Henry Gilroy, Sean Catherine Derek

     Robberies and vandalism have hit Gotham City, primarily targeting the university. After being ripped apart verbally by one Dr. Long, who knew Thomas Wayne, Bruce exits the charity event he is attending. From a helicopter, Scarecrow and his two henchmen break into a bank. Confronted by a security guard, Scarecrow uses his fear gas to make the man hallucinate spiders before telling his henchmen to only grab a handful of money and burn the rest. Batman arrives ready with a gasmask (because he's Batman), but, with the bank vault going up in flames, Scarecrow is able to hit him with a dart laced with the hallucinogen. Batman begins to see his father's image, with the man telling Bruce that he is a disgrace and disappointment. Scarecrow is able to escape as the police arrive, Bullock giving Batman an earful for the on goings.
     At his hideout, Johnathan 'Scarecrow' Crane explains his lifelong love of fear and how Dr. Long ruined his career as a professor. Batman, still feeling the effects of the fear drug, hears his father's words again as he looks at a photo of his mother and father. Bruce tells Alfred about what happened, who reassures him that Bruce's father would be proud of him, because he's proud of him.
     Gas spreads into the room of a fundraiser as Scarecrow and company arrive to steal the money and kidnap Dr. Long. Batman arrives, but the attendees, under the effect of the gas, team up to fight off the creature they see him as. Batman fights them off and is able to board the blimp the villains are using to escape. During a scuffle with a henchmen, the controls are shot and the blimp veers off into a building. The hallucinogen kicks in once more, while Batman is hanging off the blimp, with Thomas Wayne giant and looming over him. He calls Bruce a disgrace and disappointment once more, with Bruce retorting that he's anything but, sending the hallucination away. The Scarecrow escapes the blimp as Batman re-enters, grabbing Dr. Long and gets out himself. The blimp crashes and explodes (!).
     The Bat-computer is able to finalize data on evidence Batman had grabbed at the beginning of the episode, and he's able to cross chemical lab heists with former professors, learning of Crane. At Scarecrow's hideout, the fear gas goes off on an unsuspecting Johnathan Crane, who goes into a frenzy fighting off the bats he sees. Batman makes his presence known to him, turning into a giant monster-bat/gargoyle looking creature.
     Bullock and Commissioner Gordon arrive at Gordon's office, Bullock voicing his belief that Batman and Scarecrow are working together. Gordon says he doesn't believe it, since Johnathan Crane, in his Scarecrow outfit, is hanging from the fan in his office.

     The first outing of The Scarecrow is an episode that has a lot of enjoyable set-pieces and great character moments, with only one real misstep/awkward moment in the entirety of its runtime that feels really ill-conceived. With the interesting choices made, and how well these character exploring moments are written, the scene itself ends up really sticking out.
     The scene in question is the one involving Scarecrow and his henchmen once they have returned to their hideout after their initial robbery. It still has one funny line, from one of Scarecrow's henchmen, but the sudden exposition from Johnathan Crane that details his motivation/origins. There's nothing wrong with the backstory at all, but the choice to have Scarecrow be the one who lets us in on it makes for a clunky few minutes. It's always weird whenever people exposit their own backstories, especially villains without having the hero tied down James Bond style. It's a detail that would have been fine had Batman been explaining to Alfred in the Batcave, like he does with most situations like this, but they probably found it hard to have this usual back-and-forth given Batman/Bruce's state.

     When it comes to the episode as a whole, though, that's a minor quibble. The reason it sticks out as much is simply because the rest of the episode is made up of some great touches, with other character details explored well.
     Though the episode involves Scarecrow, it is almost entirely focused on Bruce Wayne himself. We delve into what makes him be the way he is. While his crime-fighting comes from a need to make sure that no one goes through what he did when he was a child, there is still the obvious lingering conflict within him about whether or not his parents would be proud of who he has become and what he is doing. I wrote about how well the writers of the series handled Bruce's inner turmoil in my Mask of the Phantasm piece earlier in the year, but it's great to see that they decided to explore it so early into the series lifespan.
     Bruce vocalizing what he is seeing under Scarecrow's fear toxins leads to a wonderful, heart-felt conversation between Alfred and himself, with Alfred telling him;
     "I know your father would be proud of you, because I'm proud of you."
     The fact that Bruce thanks Alfred for the kind words has always been a detail I loved. Yes, Bruce can be incredibly brooding, there's a reason that's everyone's go-to impersonation of the Dark Knight, but moments like these show that he is human. He is open to help in some form, and is appreciative of those around him. Bruce knows that Alfred is the only one there for him (well, besides Mr. Grayson), and he doesn't push the man away. Scenes like these are what made B:TAS stand out, with the way the let these character moments breath with the exceptional writing. The few seconds we see of Bruce at his parents' grave at the end of the episode are touching, even if there isn't any real sentimentality portrayed on screen. He doesn't cry or sit with them, but the emotion comes from the wonderfully built up 20 minutes prior.

     The Scarecrow is also presented well here, with Johnathan Crane being a man who exhibits class and intelligence with ease, making us believe that, yes, this man was probably a professor before deciding to run around wearing a burlap sack over his head. Even with a lot of the focus centered on Bruce Wayne's inner turmoil, Crane gets his fair share of time, especially in showing off just how effective his fear gas is. The scene where he uses it to turn a group of people at a fundraiser against Batman is a great touch, as is the decision to not let us see Batman as others would see him until the very end, with Crane being involved himself.

     There are a few small details I should point out as ones I really enjoyed besides those I already mentioned. Bullock referring to Batman as Zorro was a hilarious and sweet touch, considering the inspirations for the character originally. The episode also shows just how much violence they were allowed to get away with, as Batman tosses a batarang at one of Scarecrow's henchmen and it embeds itself into the man's hand. Ouch.
     There's a shot that makes me laugh every time here. After Batman rescues himself from falling off the blimp, shaking off the fear gas effects, he makes his way back inside and we see, for a split second, Scarecrow and a henchman just casually treating the fire inside with fire extinguishers. It's not supposed to be funny, but I find the suddenness of it always makes me giggle. And speaking of Scarecrow's henchmen, Batman makes absolutely no attempt, with both of them, to save them from falling off the blimp to the ground below. They're really lucky they landed safely on something that broke their fall…

     Finally, it should be noted that this is the episode that gave us what might be the most iconic and oft-quoted Batman line from the entire series. It works so well because it's not only iconic and badass coming from Batman, but it's just as equal parts Bruce as it is his 'real' self. If you're familiar with it, you already know what it is. It's simple but oh-so perfect, and Kevin Conroy delivers it magnificently. Of course, it's included down below.

Great Lines and Moments
* Boy howdy, Dr. Long sure rips into Bruce Wayne without a moment of hesitation. Rips into him hard.*
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* The police seem really lax about Batman just stumbling around when they arrive at the vault. "Hey, Batman! What happened?"*
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Alfred: "A man running around in a costume scaring people. What will they think of next?"
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* Scarecrow's getaway blimp is absolutely massive! How in the world did he think he could just easily disappear from a robbery with that thing?*
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Thomas Wayne Hallucination: "You are a disgrace."
Batman/Bruce Wayne: "You are not my father. I am not a disgrace. I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman!"