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| Pretty Poison | |
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| Season 1, Episode 9 | |
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| Air date | 14 September, 1992 |
| Directed by | Boyd Kirkland |
| Story by | Paul Dini Michael Reaves |
| Teleplay by | Tom Ruegger |
| Music by | Shirley Walker |
| Airdate Sequence | |
| Previous The Cat and the Claw Part II |
Next Nothing to Fear |
| Production Sequence | |
| Previous The Last Laugh |
Next The Underdwellers |
"Pretty Poison" is an episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. It introduces the iconic villain Poison Ivy to the series including her origin story. The episode is also the first appearance of the original character Renée Montoya.
"Pretty Poison" is the fifth episode produced and the ninth episode aired.
Synopsis[]
District Attorney Harvey Dent falls madly in love with Dr. Pamela Isley, a botanist whose affection hides a lethal rage for Dent. When her kiss sends Dent into a coma, Batman must visit the deadly gardens of Poison Ivy to find a cure.
Plot[]
On a strip of bare land, Mayor Hill announces the beginning of construction for a new, modern prison, Stonegate Penitentiary, which will go a long way toward making Gotham safe for its citizens. Hill commends District Attorney Harvey Dent as the driving force behind the prison's construction. He also thanks Bruce Wayne and the Wayne Foundation for funding the project. Together, Harvey and Bruce dig the first shovelful of dirt during the groundbreaking ceremony.
Before the first bulldozer starts excavating the land, a pair of hands belonging to an unseen person, carefully uproots a tall wild rose growing in the ground, and pots it.
Five years later, an inmate of the completed Stonegate prison escapes with the help of a helicopter-flying accomplice. Both are stunned when a tow cable is wrapped around the chopper's tail, causing it to crash, and both of them are apprehended by Batman.
Harvey and his new girlfriend, Pamela.
At the same time, Harvey Dent is seated at the Rose Cafe with his very beautiful girlfriend, Pamela Isley, waiting for the arrival of Bruce.
Batman delivers the escapees to the police, then calls Alfred to say he's running late for his dinner date. Alfred calmly reports that he's already warned Dent and Isley. Batman rushes home, hurriedly changes, and drives to meet his friend.
Later, as all three of them share a laugh over after-dinner coffee, Isley notices the time and says she has to run. Before leaving, she grabs Dent and plants a deep kiss on him. Dent, a little flushed, announces that he's proposed to her. Surprised, Bruce reminds him that they only met a week ago. Dent assures Bruce that Isley's the one... then he passes out and goes face-first into the dessert. Bruce laughs initially, but when Dent does not wake up, he realizes something is wrong.
Harvey is taken to the hospital
Dent is rushed to the hospital in a coma. The GCPD is notified and and they ruse down there too. The doctors report that he has been poisoned, and they cannot stop the process without the antidote. Commissioner Gordon places a guard outside his room and orders Harvey Bullock to find out who did this after Wayne tells him the name of the restaurant. Bullock grills the staff at the restaurant, but are unable to guess how Dent was poisoned.
Bruce lifts a sample of Dent's blood from the hospital and returns to the Batcave. An analysis reveals that the poison was extracted from a rare plant, the Wild Thorny Rose. Batman says they can use the same extract to create an antidote, but Alfred reports that the rose is extinct.
As Bruce watches over Dent in the hospital, Isley comes running to him. He offers some words of comfort, and she leans to kiss him which Bruce turns into a hug. Suddenly suspicious, Bruce remembers that huge kiss she planted on Harvey and sees her to her car. As he drives home, he contacts Alfred and asks him to check Isley's background.
Alfred reports that Pamela Isley holds a PhD in botany and is employed by a cosmetics company as a chemist working on the perfume Nightshade. She also offers a weekly lecture series at the university on rare and extinct plant species. Both he and Bruce reach the obvious conclusion.
Ivy kisses Batman
Batman goes to confront Isley at a greenhouse where she has a laboratory. When he enters, he is seized and held prisoner by a gigantic Venus Fly-trap, large enough to engulf him. Isley appears in a green costume and calling herself "Poison Ivy". She explains that Dent had to pay for his crime as a "murderer"—plowing up those wild plants to build his prison, which would have included the Thorny Rose, had she not saved it.
While the flytrap's branches hold Batman's head steady, Poison Ivy applies a coating of the poison to her lips, then gives him a kiss. He spits immediately, but is already feeling its effects while Ivy mockingly holds up a bottle of the antidote she developed.
Batman cuts himself free of the plant and attacks, while Ivy shoots at him with a crossbow attached to her wrist. In the struggle, an overhead lamp is broken and falls to the floor, beginning a fire.
Ivy opens a trapdoor, dumping Batman down into a pit of spiked plants; he hangs onto the edge dizzy from the poison. Ivy aims her crossbow at him, but he reveals the rose in his other hand. He offers the rose in exchange for the antidote.
Ivy locked in Stonegate
She surrenders it and, as soon as she has hold of the plant, forgets about everything else. Batman breaks them both out of the greenhouse before the fire destroys the rest of the foliage.
Dent awakes in the hospital to see Commissioner Gordon and Bruce standing over him. Bruce confesses that he doesn't think Isley is the one for him...
In her cell in Stonegate, Ivy huddles the rose protectively, vowing that "they can bury us deep, but we always grow back..".
Cast[]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Kevin Conroy | Batman Andre (uncredited) |
| Robert Costanzo | Harvey Bullock |
| Bob Hastings | James Gordon Rose Cafe chef (uncredited) |
| Richard Moll | Harvey Dent |
| Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. | Alfred Getaway Pilot (uncredited) |
| Diane Pershing | Poison Ivy |
| Lloyd Bochner | Mayor Hill |
| Ingrid Oliu | Renee Montoya |
| Melissa Manchester | Additional voices Model (uncredited) Nurse (uncredited) |
| Neil Ross | Additional voices Dishwasher (uncredited) Doctor (uncredited) |
- This article uses material from the Pretty Poison article at the DCAU Wiki and is licensed under the CC BY-SA License.