Artifacts

"**Artifacts**" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of *The Batman* and the forty-sixth episode overall.

## Synopsis

A thousand years into the possible future, the citizens of new Gotham must uncover the history of Batman to stop a new-and-improved Mr. Freeze.

## Plot

Two adventurers begin the story by searching through a deep dark cave. One of the adventurers comes to the conclusion that it is the long lost Batcave. The other adventurer logs his journey, saying the date is August 8th, 3027.

As more scientists enter the broken Batcave, the two adventures,named Moira and Gray, watch as a fellow scientist begins to hack into the Batcomputer. The hacker says that the computer's technology is so archaic, so it will be very difficult to crack. Gray comments that the hope of New Gotham is in that computer.

Moira, who is a big fan of the legendary Batman, stumbles upon the Batmobile. Moira is delighted and says it is exactly like her father explained it in his bedtime stories.

Time flashes back to 2027, Batman, now with a large scar across his eye, is talking to Oracle over the radio in the Batmobile. She tells him Freeze is at Gotham Airport.

Batman arrives at his destination: Mr. Freeze terrorising the citizens of Gotham. Fries, since he is now upgraded goes by the name *Freeze 2.0*. Batman leaps out of his vehicle and begins to fight the villain.

When Wayne is beaten into the ground, he is called by Oracle who says that all of the planes into Gotham have been rerouted except for one. It is freezing over and out of fuel. The pilot is requesting assistance.

Batman acknowledges the pilot's request and rushes to defeat Freeze. Batman shows his limitations in his old age when he struggles to pull Freeze 2.0 to the ground. The pilot loses control of his cargo plane and he prepares for a crash landing near Batman. The Dark Knight is out of time.

Back to 3027, the scientists manage to bring light into the dark Batcave. One of the men asks how the Batman was able to afford everything in the cave. Moira predicts that, since the mansion above it belonged to Thomas Wayne, he must be the Batman. Martha, his wife, must be the Batwoman. Last, their young son Bruce is probably the Red Robin.

Back to the battle with Batman and Freeze in 2027, Nightwing arrives in the Batwing to assist the Dark Knight. Nightwing jumps into the crashing plane and extracts the pilot. Grayson hops out of the plane and descends with the pilot.

On the ground, Freeze and Batman continue to fight as the plane crashes into the ground. Nightwing hits the ground with the pilot and immediately rushes to his mentor. Grayson, noticing that Batman is injured, tells him that it might be time to retire. Batman says that he'll never retire and the man continues after Freeze.

Both Batman and Nightwing arrive at the same time to Freeze. The villain picks up a diamond, the African Star, from the crash and states that his plan is to use it in his Cryo-Cannon. The weapon is designed so that the entire city will remain cold forever.

Both heroes charge toward Fries but are too late. The machine has started and the buildings begin to freeze solid. The villain shoots Nightwing with his freeze gun, and Grayson freezes solid. Seeing his partner in such a state, Batman cannot pull himself up. Freeze approaches the beaten and old Batman with a charged freeze ray.

Back to the future, Gray states that they can no longer look at the artifacts. They need to find the cure for Fries' Cryo-Cannon. It is revealed that, on that fateful day in 2027, Freeze 2.0 won, and the entire city was engulfed in snow.

Gray moves on to the scientists working on the Batcomputer, they say that they will completely hack into it in a couple of minutes. Moira notices an old wheel chair on its side next to the computer. She assumes it belongs to the old Alfred Pennyworth.

Time flashes back again. Moira's prediction is proven wrong again as Oracle is shown in the wheelchair. Alfred, very old at the time, walks over to Oracle with a cane. Barbara then receives a call from her father, asking how she is doing. Barbara responds that she is doing fine and not to worry.

At the battle scene, Fries freezes Batman where he stands. In his final stand, Batman remotely orders the Batwing via the Batwave to fire on his position. Batman lays frozen solid in ice, no longer being able to move.

Freeze, feeling victorious, walks away from the two frozen heroes. The Batwing approaches in the sky and shoots at Batman as ordered. The missiles fly and hit Freeze, Batman, and Nightwing. The heroes are freed from the ice.

As Freeze 2.0 struggles to get up, Batman takes the time to attack the villain. Wayne picks up the diamond from the rubble and uses it to crack Freeze 2.0's protective glass. The glass shatters, and Batman sticks Fries with an antifreeze needle. The villain swats the hero off of him and tries to get back up. Freeze 2.0 is too weak to get back up. The Batwing spirals towards Freeze to ultimately stop him.

The Batwing crashes into Freeze's location, and both Batman and Nightwing rush towards the crash site. Freeze is missing. The mission is not over.

At Freeze 2.0's lab, he stumbles not too far before crashing on the ground. Fries crawls to a bed and states that he will cryogenically freeze himself. Then, the people of the future will wake him, so that he may reawaken in a world without the Batman.

In the future, Gray talks to one of the scientists. They were unsuccessful in hacking into the Batcomputer. In frustration, Gray punches one of the walls and notices an imprint on his fist. It is binary code. Batman knew the people of the future wouldn't be able to hack into his computer so he wrote all the information in binary code on the walls! New Gotham might have a chance!

The scientists read the binary code to find a video made by Batman himself. The scientists watch the video for the information they need.

In the city, the real problem has been revealed. Freeze 2.0 has reawoken. He is terrorizing the city like he did 1,000 years ago. Freeze laughs about a world without Batman.

Suddenly, the Batman swoops down from one of the high buildings. Freeze screams with terror. The Batman couldn't have survived 1,000 years! The Dark Knight cracks the villain's glass yet again with the antifreeze solution. Freeze 2.0 falls to the ground, defeated.

Several more Batmen surround the first. The heroes are revealed to be the cops in disguise. They thank the Batman for his help and for never refusing to help Gotham.

The Batcave is soon transformed into a vigilante headquarters lead by the cops. The Batcave now has the most advanced technology and, in the back of the cave, lies a large statue dedicated to the original hero, the Batman.

## Cast/Characters

* Rino Romano as Bruce Wayne/The Batman
* Alastair Duncan as Alfred Pennyworth
* Mitch Pileggi as James Gordon
* Clancy Brown as Mr. Freeze
* Jerry O'Connell as Dick Grayson/Nightwing
* Danielle Judovits as Moira
* Kellie Martin as Barbara Gordon/Oracle
* Kurt Fuller as Superior
* Robert David Hall as Pilot
* Gray
* Ethan Bennett (mentioned)
* Ellen Yin (mentioned)
* Thomas and Martha Wayne (photo)

## Events

- Character debuts:

* Moira
* Gray

- The Batwing gets destroyed completely.

## Trivia

* This episode was formally titled "*TB-129".* TB possibly stands for *The Batman*, while 129 is its production code. It could also be a reference to the *Spongebob Squarepants* episode *SB-129*;both episodes had a dark futuristic setting.
* There is nothing that states whether the future here is definitive or a possible future. Due to the lack of crew confirmation,it is most likely the latter.
* This episode is partly inspired by Frank Miller's *The Dark Knight Returns* and by Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (play).
* This episode also (particularly the 3027 bits) was heavily inspired by Tom Stoppard's *Arcadia*.
* Batgirl becomes Oracle and Robin becomes Nightwing.
* Mr. Freeze's spider-like appearance is a homage to Mr. Freeze's appearance in *The New Batman Adventures* episode *Cold Comfort*.
* This was the first time Barbara Gordon's new identity, Oracle, appears in a Batman cartoon series. The character did, however, appear in live action on the short lived series, *Birds of Prey*.
* When Batman exits the Batmobile, revealing the 2027 Batsuit design, Mr. Freeze remarks, 'the Dark Knight returns.' This is, of course, a reference to the Frank Miller graphic novel of the same name.
* This episode takes place over a thousand years in the future, in the year 3027, with flashbacks to 2027. The Batman is drawn exactly as he was drawn in Frank Miller's graphic novel "The Dark Knight Returns" that takes place in the twilight of the Batman. Also the design of the future Batmobile is taken from the Dark Knight as well.
* Several times throughout the episode Robin is referred to as "Red Robin" In the comics Red Robin is the name taken by Tim Drake (3rd Robin) when he went independent after several years working alongside Batman.
* During one of the 2027 scenes when Nightwing saves the pilot, he glides away using wing-like fabric beneath his arms. He has a strong resemblance to Batman Beyond (Terry McGinnis) which also takes place in the future where most of Gotham's heroes are old and retired.
* Oracle mentions Commissioner Yin and Chief Bennett. This is a reference to Detectives Ellen Yin and Ethan Bennett, the Gotham City Police duo from Season 1. This is the first mention of Ellen Yin since Season 2 (whereafter, the series began to focus on classic Batman partnerships, Batgirl and Robin). This reference also implies that Ethan Bennett eventually overcame the psychological changes of becoming Clayface that led to his criminal behavior, and not only returned to the police force, but became a ranking leader of the GCPD.
* The snippets focusing on Batman take place 20 years into the future, 2027. This means season 4 takes place in 2007 (which is also the airing year for majority of the season 4 episodes). This would make Bruce 48 in this episode. This also proves *The Batman* takes place real time, which is supported by the fact that Bruce ages with each season. In 2004 (season 1), he was 26, 27 in 2005 (season 2), 28 in 2006 (season 3), 29 in 2007 (season 4), and 30 in 2008 (season 5).
* The future Batcave has a robotic dinosaur trophy,an iconic element in most Batcaves.
* Gray's voice is uncredited.
* The scenes in 3027 take place in August 8th.
* The title of the episode is spoken by Gray at the beginning.
* Barbara and Dick are the only ones who do not share the same voice with their younger versions.
* Dick has been Nighwing for a decade by 2027, meaning he started going by the alias in 2017 ,where Dick would have been 24. This makes him currently 34. Additionally, this would make Oracle currently 36.
* New Gotham has similarities to Neo Gotham from *Batman Beyond*.
* Moira thinks Martha was Batwoman, the alias of a superheroine in DC.
* This is one of the few instances where the word "die" is said in the series, as Alfred said "death".
* Freeze's obsession with diamonds from his origin in *The Big Chill* is briefly brought up.
* This was Greg Weisman's favorite episode from *The Batman* that he wrote.

## Errors

* After Moira opens the Batsuit chamber, the emblem is black instead of yellow. Also,shortly afterwards, the bat on the emblem is gone.
* When Batman throws Batarangs at Freeze, they do not make their typical whirring sounds.Emblem error.Logo error.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=9358
2. ↑ https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=9737