The Contaminated Cowl - That Darn Water Tower!

[ODBJBG]

So in celebration of getting the FTC Contaminated Cowl Batman figure, I decided to go back and watch these two episodes. A few observations and some questions for the crowd.

1. Mad Hatter annoys me. As a villain he's not particularly menacing, but I don't mind that. His distinctive way of talking though, can be really annoying at times. He has a few good lines in this two parter, but for the most part I don't find him as fun.

2. How complex is his plan? He goes through a lot of trouble to steal a fake ruby, only to try and steal a real one and replace it with the fake one. But he could have simply just stole the real one! I mean, the police are IMMEDIATELY aware that he stole the real one, so why even bother with the fake one to replace it? Sure it gave him the opportunity to spray Batman with the radioactive cowl dye, but couldn't he have just done that while stealing the real jewel?

3. How stupid is his plan? So he wants to steal Batman's cowl, and a ruby, but he has no plan to dispatch Batman at all. he lucks into a cliffhanger and then the next week when Batman shows up, he has no plan to fight him or escape. He simply runs up a water tower!?

And now, the biggest question of all... What the heck is up with that water tower? While the final fight sequence on the water tower is cool and it's great to have a new location with some added stunt peril, what is the significance of this water tower? It seems like every third scene in the two episodes is cutting to Mad Hatter's goons climbing up the water tower, but it never really comes into play. At first it almost sounds like Mad Hatter is using the water tower to hide his loot or to plant a trap for Batman, but in the conclusion we find out that he's done nothing of the sort. And it's just a regular water tower, which he runs up, to avoid Batman... Which of course, makes no sense because if you're going to retreat, why trap yourself up there?

Is there some gag here I don't get? Or was this just a case of sloppy/bizarre writing that they wanted us to know there was a water tower so to foreshadow the final showdown?

Just seems to me the whole water tower sequence could have been more effective had we not constantly been shown it over the course of two episodes as if to hint at something more, hmm, important?

[LonnieFisher]

I think you're putting too much thought into the plot of a fifty year old comedy show...

[ODBJBG]

I think you're putting too much thought into the plot of a fifty year old comedy show...

No, I'm just trying to have a discussion.

[Timothy2251]

I think the water tower just happened to be right next to the Mad Hatter's hideout. Panic from getting thrown in jail again probably had the Hatter and his gang not think straight, so the water tower probably provided an escape or something (maybe they had a hidden helicopter up there, which would explain why henchmen were popping in and out of it. I mean, hey, why not?).

Eh, it made tons of sense when I first watched these episodes as a kid. I just went with it, logic be damned.

[PNGwynne]

1. I love Wayne's Mad Hatter, he's so affected and twitchy. Y'know, "mad."

2. Good point. But he's crazy and obsessive and said he would know use hats to steal. He used his fez to help steal Hattie's headdress ruby and the (admittedly fake) ruby to deface the Buddha. She said, "It's nothing , a family heirloom." Fine. But how did the cops know of the ruby switch in the gallery? Hattie could have informed them of the inconsequential theft of a paste copy, but how did they associate that with the Buddha admidst the mourning? He would have been guilty of a much lesser theft from Hatfield.

3. The water tower is convenient--maybe too close to home-- but makes sense to me. First, it's a disposal site for B&R if they crash the Green Derby. The x-ray cabinets prove more expedient, but make the Hatter's culpability explicit. Then, the tracker is dumped there. When B&R reappear alive the original plan of a watery death continues.

I like this episode, but the writing s is loose, with many coincidences. Batman has an extra cowl and suits handy, really? This is definitely not on par with the first Hatter episode.