Robin's Reckoning

Robin's Reckoning is a two part episode of the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series. The first part aired on February 7th, 1993 and was written by Randy Rogel and directed by Dick Sebast, earned the series an Emmy award and is considered to be one of the best episodes of the series. the second part aired a week later. The story tells through flashbacks, Robin's origin while, in the present time, he tracks his parents' killer, Tony Zucco.

Plot Summary

Part I

It depicts the return of a mobster named Tony Zucco, who killed Robin's parents. It is at this point that Batman refuses to allow Dick Grayson to use the persona of Robin to apprehend Zucco. Batman launches an investigation, searching for Zucco, which is paralleled by Robin's own investigation, unbenowest to the Dark Knight. As the search narrows to an abandoned theme park, a series of flashback tell Robins origin story......

As a young child, Dick Grayson was in an acrobat trio with his parents, "The Flying Graysons." While performing in Gotham, Dick overhears a young Tony Zucco threatens the ringmaster, telling him that if he didn't pay money for "protection" then people would die. The ringmaster refuses this, and in response, Zucco partialy saws through a trapeze rope to be used in the Graysons act. During a portion of the trapeze act, involving both his parents on the same trapeze, and Dick watching from a platform, waiting for his part in the act, the rope snaps and his parents, known for performing without a net, plummet to their deaths in front of his eyes. Bruce Wayne, who is in the audience, takes pity on the boy, as they are both the orphaned sons of parents murdered in their presence, and adopts young Dick. The general awkwardness of the situation, being left in a large mansion with Alfred as a primary caretaker, eventually gives way to dissatisfaction as Dick runs away to search for his parents killers.

Part II

Batman tracks Tony Zucco while, secretly, Robin seeks to find Zucco to avenge his parents' death. As the investigation narrows to an abandoned amusement park, a series of flashbacks finish Robin's origin story. After running away from Bruce Wayne's mansion, Dick tries to track his parents killer. While searching a run-down section of Gotham and avoiding Batman, who, unbeknowest to Dick, is also searching for Zucco, Dick rescues a waitress being mugged. Using his gymnastic skills he defeats the full-grown attackers, finishing by jumping to grab hold of a fire escape, avoiding the muggers charge and allowing them to rush head-on into a wall, knocking them unconscious. The waitress treats Dick to dinner in the diner where she works, and identifies Tony Zucco as the object of Dick's search, but cautions him to avoid Zucco. This warning goes unheeded as Dick soon after finds himself fighting several of Zucco's thugs, who throw him into the spillway. Batman rescues him before he can go over a waterfall and brings him back to the Batcave, revealing himself as Bruce Wayne and explaining that he was already searching for Zucco.

As the flashback ends, Robin voices a warning to Zucco, proclaiming he, Robin, was "trained by the best," a reference to his years of training under Batman, and he takes off on his motercycle to continue the search. He uses a phone tracer to obtain Zucco's address, but unfortunately the call, though silent, worries Zucco, and in a fit of paranoia, he fires a sub-machine gun repeatedly into the ceiling, worried about a noise. Unfortunately the noise was Batman, who, injured, falls through the weakened ceiling. In the chaos and surprise, Batman is able to limp from the room. Hiding in the park, he hardly has time to treat his wounds before being attacked by Zucco's pursuing henchmen. Though limping, he is able to pick off the thugs one-by-one through the heavy use of stealth, fighting several on the carousel. Unfortunately, he is unable to defeat Zucco in his weakened state. As he lies staring up at a gun-wielding Zucco, Robin, still riding a motorcycle, crashes through the fence, rides straight at Zucco and, grabbing him by the collar, drags him behind the cycle to the end of a pier where he holds Zucco over the edge, threatening him with death. Batman convinces him to show mercy rather than become a murderer to appease his desire for vengance. As police sirens are heard in the distance, Batman explains that he distanced Robin from the investigation because he didn't want Zucco to hurt him any more.

Cast

Actor	Role
Kevin Conroy	Batman
Bob Hastings	Commissioner Gordon
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	Alfred Pennyworth
Paul Eiding	Dolan
Loren Lester	Robin
Eugene Roche	Stromwell
Joey Simmrin	Robin-Age 10
Thomas F. Wilson	Zucco

Additional voices from Ed Gilbert, Diane Pershing, Brion James, Roger Rose

Trivia

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale have stated that this episode inspired a great part of their later successful comic Batman: Dark Victory.

The Grayson parents' deaths, according to producers, was originally a lot more shocking than what was shown in the episode. They would be shown swinging on the ropes, which would break, and they would fall to the ground in front of Dick, traumatized by what he had witnessed. Due to thoughts of scaring children, the scene was changed to show them leaping out of the frame, Dick staring in shock with horrified eyes, and the audience gasping as the music came to a climax.

Bruce Timm often said that the scene where Dick says goodbye to his circus friends before leaving for Wayne Manor made him cry several times.

Dick's design while in his circus costume is similar to Astro Boy, particularly his white-pupiled eyes.

Tony Zucco's voice is reminiscient of John Travolta's, quite possibly as a reference to the similarity in names between Zucco and Travolta's character in Grease, Danny Zuco.

External links