So this episode sees Poison Ivy, the eco terrorist plant lady who regards plants as her children and who will stop at nothing to protect them, returns with a new alias and a twisted scheme to lure the older aged business owners and executives of Gotham that she holds responsible for crimes against nature, into a false luxury health spa where they are given special treatment that slowly petrifies them into creepy humanoid trees! I just love the voice that Diane Pershing gave to Ivy, it brings across just the right note of seductive, sly, and occasionally unbalanced. A lot of the other rogues like Hammil's Joker are very rightfully praised, but Pershing's wonderful interpretation of Ivy should never be underrated or counted out! It's kind of a silly plot when you really think about it but it does fit Ivy's character, it's definitely a crazy enough idea that only she could have possibly thought of it! The petrified elderly are to me the only real thing about this episode that jumps out at you though, it's mostly just not very engaging and kind of lame, there's not a lot of substance to this one at all, and it's over before you know it. Batman looks weird in the daylight, and there's too much focus on Alfred and his irritating kooky-voiced old lady friend, I found the scenes of those two to be just tiresome padding, Alfred feels a bit dumbed down here, and I don't need to know about his personal life thank you! Also Ivy barely does anything, her best scene is when she unveils her crazy garden of tree people to Batman and veeerrrrry dramatically says the word cardboard! And animation-wise I found the most striking moment by far to be when a gigantic tree bursts from the ground in moments after some powerful plant growth hormones are spilled, pretty spectacular stuff! So while it's always good to see a villainess as odd as Ivy in the show, she falls a bit short here, the femme fatale aspect of her personality that Pretty Poison hit on so well is how I think she works the best, that episode had actual suspense. Thankfully she had much better appearances to come. Good but not great! 🌱 x
