• Airdate: September 25, 1992
• Director: Kevin Altieri
• Writer: Randy Rogel

     Harvey Dent is confronted by a mysterious figure flipping a coin over and over and telling him that: “It’s time, Harvey. It’s time.” Dent awakens from his nightmare in his office and goes to meet Commissioner Gordon in time for a raid on a building housing some of Rupert Throne’s gang. Batman arrives and helps apprehend them. Interview by reporters, Dent thanks Gordon and the police before he is taunted by one of the criminals, causing Dent to lose his temper and go berserk, attacking the man viciously before Gordon intervenes. Elsewhere, Thorne is angrily debating what to do about Dent taking down his activities. He assigns his assistant, Candice, to find something, anything, they can use on the man.
        Dent ends up victim to another angry, violent outburst at a fundraiser for him at Wwayne Manor once he is told that Thorne’s men will walk due to a problem with the warrant. Bruce Wayne calms his friend, telling him in private he should seek some help. To Harvey’s embarrassment, Grace, his fiancé, tells Wayne he already is. His psychiatrist, Dr. Nora Crest, puts Harvey under hypnosis and brings about his other persona, Big Bad Harv. After speaking, Harv attack the doctor but she pulls him out of hypnosis just in time. When Grace tells him he should spend a few days in the hospital to be safe, Dent denies, as that would be re-election suicide, in his mind, with the public. Candice overhears this conversation and goes to tell Thorne.
        At a campaign party, where he is told he will win by a landslide, Dent is summoned by Thorne over phone to a meeting, mentioning Big Bad Harv. Dent leaves and Bruce, as Batman, follows. At a chemical plant, Dent confronts Thorne and his gang, who attempt to blackmail him. Eventually, Dent informs Thorne he’s speaking to Big Bad Harv and attacks, with the aid of Batman. As Harvey chases Thorne through the plant, a stray bullet from a henchman causes a stray wire to fall in a vat and explode, catching Harvey on his side and knocking him out. Batman attends to him and is shocked by the damage.
        In the hospital, a doctor removes Harvey’s bandages, insuring him that they will be able to fix his face through plastic surgery. Dent demands a mirror to see himself and, as Grace approaches through the hall, he screams and stumbles out of his room. He looks at a shocked Grace, his face horribly disfigured, and she faints. Dent says farewell and escapes through the window into the rainy night.

        I wrote in On Leather Wings that I had forgotten Harvey Dent had shown up immediately from the beginning. I remembered he was in episodes prior to this one, but not that early. The use of him in the first episode, along with the context, goes to show how much the creators had in mind from the beginning. Everyone knows that Harvey Dent turns into Two-Face so why not take the time to actually build Harvey as a character before becoming one of the most prominent individuals in Batman’s rogue gallery. Though we didn’t get as much deep character insight as we do here, the ways that he was used was still incredibly important and cleverly built. His first appearance in the initial episode already showed us his importance, being a part of the group in Mayor Hill’s office granting Harvey Bullock immunity in his quest to hunt down and capture The Batman. Even his appearance in Pretty Poison worked towards establishing his importance with how seriously everyone took his possible death.
        Because of this, we are familiar with how much he means to the city and how trusted he is. This episode builds on his connection with the people, how the everyday folk of Gotham City view the man and how much they respect him. It’s very obvious that he has a great rapport with the citizens and they absolutely adore him. You can’t blame them. The man is charismatic, intelligent and knows how to interact with everyone. He is a prime example of ‘a man of the people’, and the writing makes him likable to us.

        With the first part of Two-Face, the crew of Batman: The Animated Series hit their first masterpiece. The tale of Harvey Dent is masterfully told; his inner troubles rooted into his childhood, being brought out by the constant push back from those he is trying to put away with the law, the law that he is so deeply dedicated to. We see how hard and personal all of this is to him, and because of that we end up having more of an understanding for the way he does things in Part II.
        But the on-goings around Dent and his story cannot be forgotten when it comes to praising the episode. We are treated to some serious subject matter here to show just what it is Dent is fighting for, and how those he targets deal with him. We get the obvious crime, yes, but we also see just how corrupt things in Gotham are. Not just that, but we get to see what it means to be a personal problem to some heavy individuals in the city’s underground. Thorne’s toying and manipulation of Dent isn’t just a way to get Harvey Dent as a character from point A to point B, it’s also works as building these mobsters as serious threats in a very adult and real world way. Rupert Thorne may not be as three-dimensional as a lot of other individuals on the show that are given the time to grow, but he’s still a well-written character. Cold, cunning and dangerous in ways he knows would best suit certain situations, he is established as someone who is a serious threat to those around him. Just because he isn’t a supervillain of the kind that make up Batman’s rouge gallery doesn’t mean he can stand his own as a player in Gotham City.

        The relationships here are also touching and well built upon. We know how important Dent is to the police department, and his hands on involvement in the beginning adds to that. His friendship with Bruce, though only slight in the same way it was in Pretty Poison, is written in a way that still makes you believe that they are genuinely close, or at least as close as one can be to Bruce Wayne.
        The relationship of most importance here is, of course, the one between Harvey Dent and Grace. We will delve into it more in part 2, but the writers did a wonderful job in not only building her as her own person in such a short amount of time, they were also able to properly and believably build and show the real love these two feel for each other. It never comes off as forced which, considering Grace is first seen in this episode, is a victory in and of itself. It’s usually hard to pull off such a believable relationship in such a short period of time, yet they succeeded with ease here.

        In order of production, it almost feels like every piece of memorable set-piece and incredible use of imagery was all building to this. There are endless amounts of phenomenal moments in this episode that rightfully rank amongst some of the most iconic in the series, and there also seems to be a lot that are forgotten about. The entire runtime of the episode is filled with fantastic moments and animation, working together in what, again, feels like a culmination of everything they have tried before. Two-Face Part I feels like a cinematic experience, and it doesn’t waste a single moment, second, or frame. Just a few fantastic things;
        - The opening sequence immediately showcases the importance of Harvey’s coin without any exposition.
        - The fact that we don’t see any shots of Batman beating up the criminals in the apartment in a great touch, one that gives us a very nice ‘fun’ release before a very heavy and dramatic episode.
        - There is an absolutely amazing shot of Batman on top of the apartment after said raid sequence.
        - The simple use of colour whenever Harvey Dent loses his temper.
        - A fantastic establishing shot of Dent’s psychiatrist’s office, complete with thunder, lightning and rain. It’s beautiful.
        - Batman on the ledge overseeing Dent and Thorne/Thorne’s men as they converse, clad in darkness as he sneaks up to the proceedings.
        - Use of silhouette outside a window as Batman fights off gang members.
        - The design of Harvey Dent in his bandages on the hospital bed, again simple, is striking.
        - There’s a great moment where, reading about Dent’s predicament, Thorne throws the newspaper into his fireplace and it slowly burns away half of Harvey’s face on the photo used for the article.
        - The Batman 1989 reference with Harvey Dent asking for a mirror.
        - The horrific scream we hear him let out upon seeing himself.
        - The reveal in the hallway in front of Grace is magnificent. The stumble, the slow turn, the sounds of the storm, the shock of white from the lightening, it’s all absolutely masterful.

        Two-Face ranks as one of the greatest Batman: The Animated Series episodes on a lot of lists you will find, generally near the top, and it absolutely deserves its placement. This is the entire crew firing on all cylinders, finally getting a chance, it feels, to showcase just exactly what they wanted to accomplish with this series. It is heartfelt, dramatic, intense, tragic, and everything in between and so much more.
        Because of this, not only is it one of the best episodes of the series, but quite possibly the most important. Batman: The Animated Series as intended has arrived, and, if this episode was any indication, there was no way that it wouldn’t go down as one of the greatest animated series of all time.