Part 2 of “Heart of Steel” opens up with a bang!
The Batman is under attack from his own machine in the Batcave. Luckily, Batman is able to slip through in enough time to free himself and survive. Meanwhile, at Cybertron Industries Karl Rossum realizes that he has given H.A.R.D.A.C. too much free will and power and decides it is time to scale his machine back. Before Rossum is able to pull the plug on his creation, Rossum is immobilized by a beam that is shot from H.A.R.D.A.C.
Barbara Gordon (who was introduced in Part 1 of this episode)is sure that someone, or something, is impersonating her father. So she decides to enlist the help of “The World’s Greatest Detective” by activating the Batsignal.
Fearing for her father’s well being, Barbara pleads with The Caped Crusader to help her figure out what has happened to her “real” father. Suddenly, Detective Bullock comes to the rooftop of the Gotham City Police Department and before Batman is able to leave, Bullock begins to fight with The Dark Knight. Bullock and Batman brawl for a few moments, and Bullock falls into and destroys the Batsignal. With his skin burned off, it is revealed that Bullock has been impersonated by a cybernetic organism and Batman quickly destroys this robotic monster.
After the disaster that occurred on top of the GCPD roof, Bruce Wayne meets with Mayor Hill at the Gotham Club where he is offered to be a part of a “new exclusive” club in Gotham City. However, something is strange with all these new members -- they all have glowing red eyes. Suddenly, Randa appears and tries to use a taser on Bruce, but he’s able to escape and destroy the robots.
Barbara Gordon then breaks into Cybertron Industries looking for answers, but she quickly picked up by Randa. Batman sneaks into Cybertron as well and H.A.R.D.A.C. is ready and waiting for The Dark Knight. H.A.R.D.A.C. explains that because humans make so many mistakes, he must replace all humans with robots, because robots never make mistakes. H.A.R.D.A.C. reveals a holding tank that has the real Rossum, Bullock, Mayor Hill and Barbara’s father, Jim Gordon.
With the help of Barbara, Batman is able to rescue these distinguished gentleman of Gotham City. With those men out of harms way, Barbara goes back into the burning inferno and saves The Caped Crusader.
“Heart of Steel, Part 2” ties up all the loose ends from the previous episode as expected.
The writing, direction, and voice work is really top notch here -- and the score of this episode by Shirley Walker and Carl Johnson really puts the cherry on top of this wonderful episode. Everyone involved with this two-parter was really on top of their game here.
What a great way to introduce Babs Gordon to the B:TAS universe!
