Justice League(-TV Series) - Tabula Rasa (Episode) • An Part 002

"**Tabula Rasa**" is the twenty-ninth and thirtieth episodes of Template:Jl. While dying, Lex Luthor seeks medical help from ***a former employee*** but finds an android which may be able to destroy the Justice League.

## Plot

Despite the android's superior abilities, Superman continues the fight against Amazo until Batman intervenes. Amazo scoffs at Batman having no superpowers for the android to replicate. Then the Dark Knight pulls out a piece of Kryptonite that surprises and weakens Amazo. Batman deduced that he has gained the Leaguers' strengths, but also their weaknesses. Defeated for the first time, a confused Amazo flees into the sewers and heads back to Ivo's home.
Meanwhile, Mercy pays Luthor a visit at Ivo's house and warns him of the Justice League closing in on him. Luthor and Mercy flee to an abandoned garage somewhere outside Metropolis, where Amazo eventually manages to find them. Amazo, however, begins to question Luthor's motives and why he wants the League gone. Luthor plays the ill, innocent fool and tricks Amazo once again. After the android departs once again to do Luthor's bidding, Mercy warns Luthor about conning such a powerful creature. Luthor blows off her concerns and reveals to Mercy that should Amazo learn the truth and turn against him, he has a triumph card: A detonator for a bomb implanted inside Amazo's head.
J'onn, still pondering the reason he defends humanity when they are so selfish and dishonest, runs across a group of people searching for a missing girl. Scanning their minds, he finds that many of them do not even know the child or her family, but are searching for her anyway out of a sense of empathy and community. Inspired by their nobility, J'onn locates the girl telepathically and brings her to the search party, to their genuine gratitude. Wonder Woman finds J'onn and updates him on the situation.
Amazo locates the League and battles them once again, even overcoming and pulverizing Batman's Kryptonite after having evolved and adapted to the attack. In his repaired battlesuit, Luthor joins the fight. Luthor and Amazo take down the entire League until J'onn arrives. Using a different approach, J'onn does not engage in battle, choosing to stand still and voluntarily allow Amazo to look at him and gain all of his abilities. J'onn then encourages Amazo to use his newfound telepathy, prompting the android to read Luthor's mind and thus, discover Luthor's dishonesty. Luthor activates the detonator and blows Amazo's head off, but Amazo uses J'onn's shapeshifting ability to regrow it. The scorned android tears into Luthor, reducing his armor to scrap and preparing to kill him. Luthor begs for mercy at the last moment, and Amazo, observing Luthor and the League, decides the Earth has nothing left to offer him anymore. Amazo turns his eyes to the stars, evolves into a gold version of himself, and flies off to explore the universe. Luthor is returned to prison.
The following day at LexCorp, Mercy receives an angry call from Luthor, demanding the best lawyers and doctors. Mercy has finally had enough and hangs up on Luthor in mid-rant.

## Continuity

* ***Mercy Graves*** calling Lex Luthor out on considering her a "dog" is a reference to her explanation to Superman in the Template:Stas episode "Ghost in the Machine" where Luthor took Mercy in like a stray.
* ***Batman***'s habit of carrying a piece of ***Kryptonite*** around as "insurance" is further confirmed in the Template:Jlu episode "***The Doomsday Sanction***" and the Template:Bb episode "***The Call***". Presumably, after learning of Kryptonite's harmful effects on humans in the Template:Stas episode "World's Finest" as well as seeing Luthor's fate in "Injustice For All", Batman knew enough to keep it in a lead-shielded container.
* Ever the street-smart mad scientist, Luthor loves having failsafe measures against his own allies:
	+ In this episode, Luthor was able to convince Amazo to be on his side, and his killswitch didn't work against Amazo but it wasn't for lack of trying.
	+ In the Template:Jlu episode "Divided We Fall", Luthor is able convince Brainiac to be on his side as well.
	+ In the Template:Jlu episode "***The Great Brain Robbery***", ***Dr. Polaris*** tried to usurp Luthor as leader of the ***Legion of Doom***. But Lex, ready for any of the Legionnaires by using his own scientific genius to install fail-safes that prevented any from using their new powers against him, turned Polaris' magnetic powers back to neutralize his insurrection.
	+ In the Template:Jlu finale "***Alive!***", Lex also used his fail-safe measures to take out ***Goldface***, ***Tala*** and ***Grodd*** during a Legion civil war that saw Luthor's followers battle Grodd's loyalists.
* ***Amazo*** eventually returns to Earth to settle the score and vengeance with Lex in the Template:Jlu episode "***The Return***".
* Lex gives ***Ivo*** some posthumous respect in the Template:Jlu episode "Panic in the Sky".

## Background information

### Production inconsistencies

* As Batman lands on the rooftop beside Amazo, some of the rubble created by Amazo's impact is hovering in mid-air.
* Mercy Graves' pantyhose disappear and reappear between shots.
* When Wonder Woman finds J'onn J'onzz in the woods and hugs him, J'onn's belt buckle has vanished.

### Home video releases

* Template:Jldvd2
* Justice League - Season Two (Blu-ray)
* Justice League - The Complete Series (DVD)
* DC Comics Super-Villains: Justice League Masterminds of Crime (DVD)

### Trivia

 File:WrongLex.png
* While searching for Lex Luthor, Amazo comes across a bald man talking on a phone who resembles (and is voiced by) ***Michael Rosenbaum*** (the actor that played Lex on *Smallville*).
* J'onn's mental breakdown is similar to a concept used in the comics miniseries *Kingdom Come*, taking place several years in the future, after the Justice League has disbanded. J'onn appears briefly in his "John Jones" guise, having suffered a near-complete breakdown after trying to open his mind to everyone on Earth.
* Though the League finds Ivo's blueprints labeled "Amazo", it was never revealed what these letters stood for in DCAU continuity. In the comics, the name "Amazo" was not an acronym.
* Having deduced that Amazo has gained the League's powers as well as their weaknesses, Batman uses Kryptonite, which only temporarily stops him. The tactic worked more effectively against the Parasite in the Template:Stas episode "Feeding Time".
* As an in-joke J'onn telling Superman "he (Luthor) must be stopped", is a reference to an unpopular quote spoken by the latter in the first season episode "The Enemy Below", where he said "Orm must be stopped".

## Episode concept

### Tabula rasa

The episodes name is based on the epistemological idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.

"**Tabula rasa**" is a Latin phrase often translated as "**blank slate**" in English and originates from the Roman *tabula* or wax tablet used for notes, which was blanked by heating the wax and then smoothing it..

In the eleventh century, the theory of *tabula rasa* was extended more clearly by the Persian philosopher Ibn Sina (known as "Avicenna" in the Western world). He argued that the "...human intellect at birth resembled a *tabula rasa*, a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know," and that knowledge is attained through "...empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts," which develops through a "...syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead to propositional statements, which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts." He further argued that the intellect itself "...possesses levels of development from the material intellect (*al-‘aql al-hayulani*), that potentiality can acquire knowledge to the active intellect (*al-‘aql al-fa‘il*), the state of the human intellect at conjunction with the perfect source of knowledge."

### A.M.A.Z.O.

In the comic version, the android is actually called Amazo and has a different appearance. The contrast emphasizes the concept of "tabula rasa" in the character design of the animated version, where its appearance is totally rational and functional, in terms of design, with a simple and minimalist aesthetic.

The innocence of the android is later corrupted by Lex's reasons, reinforcing the concept of Tabula Rasa.

## Quotes

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Template:DC Animated Universe

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Tabula rasa", Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia