His Silicon Soul

"His Silicon Soul" is the forty-third episode of Batman: The Animated Series.

Plot
Late one night, a group of criminals break into a warehouse owned by Cybertron where all the surviving items in the factory are kept. They hope to find some high technology they can sell. They come upon a large crate. Obviously not recognizing the HARDAC icon, they open it. From inside, Batman emerges.

Startled the criminals attack Batman with crowbars but he's more than a match for them. During the battle, however, one of them pulls out a gun and shoots Batman, exposing circuitry. The crook is surprised to find that Batman isn't human.

Although injured the fake Batman makes it to Wayne Manor and explores the estate. Alfred catches him and is fooled for a moment. However, when he sees the circuitry he realizes that what he's seeing is one of Karl Rossum's duplicants. Though the robot recognizes him and appears to be docile, Alfred is frightened.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Gordon has his officers pull the crooks down from a light pole. Batman arrives to find that he is supposedly the one that had captured these men but he's confused since it wasn't really him. Batman finds a microchip on one of the criminals and decides to investigate the mysterious occurrence.

Back at Wayne Manor, the duplicant pleads with Alfred for help. Alfred, believing the worst about this imposter exclaims that's he's a duplicant then retreats into the Batcave. The duplicant is confused as to what Alfred means and chases him into the Batcave. Alfred makes it to the bat computer and releases a knockout gas. The gas obviously doesn't affect the robot. The duplicant Batman catches up to Alfred and removes his air filter mask, causing him to succumb to the effects of the gas. He searches for information about the duplicants. After not receiving a definite answer regarding a Bruce Wayne or Batman duplicant, he requests a list of known duplicants: all of which have been destroyed. He then requests the location of Karl Rossum.

The real Batman arrives at Rossum's current residence: a farm outside of Gotham City. He asks about the possibility of a Batman duplicant. Rossum tells Batman what he knows... that the police confiscated everything from HARDAC that was not destroyed.

Not long after Batman leaves, the duplicant arrives in Rossum's Greenhouse and asks for help. The duplicate believes himself to be the real Batman somehow trapped in a robot's body. Rossum tells him that the circuits will fail soon and that he cannot fix it. The duplicant wants to be put in its "real body" or put into another robot. Rossum explains that the duplicant is not the real Batman in a robot's body, but simply a robot. The duplicant refuses to believe it, as he has all of the real Batman's knowledge. Rossum tries to talk some sense into him by revealing that he only has facts, not actual memories. Starting to realize he really is a robot the duplicant sees an image accidentally created by a robot drone cleaning the windows that resembles the HARDAC emblem. This causes the duplicant to demand the location of HARDAC. Rossum tells him that HARDAC was destroyed but the duplicant persists.

Fortunately Batman arrives and battles the duplicant. Though the duplicant is stronger than the real Batman, he's not as clever. Batman manages to fire water from a garden hose into the robot's circuits shorting it out. Rossum then prepares to destroy it but Batman stops him saying that the duplicant may be able to lead them to HARDAC. Unfortunately, the robot reactivates and fights with a renewed will. During the battle, the greenhouse is heavily damaged. It collapses and the duplicant, seeing Rossum in danger dives towards him and pushes him out of the way of falling debris and finally hurls him outside. After the greenhouse fully falls, the duplicant escapes.

The duplicant later arrives at a police warehouse and the sees a component, which the duplicant's scanning program identifies and instructs the duplicant to insert it into his skull. Once inside, HARDAC's command and memory files are loaded into the duplicant. HARDAC explains that it had made a Bruce Wayne duplicant but before it could activate, HARDAC was destroyed and the duplicant's memory systems were damaged. From there, it was taken to the custody warehouse. The machine is now programmed to resume HARDAC's directives: he will replace all humanity with duplicants.

Batman arrives at the warehouse and two battle with one another. However, the duplicant's full strength has been activated and it hurls Batman through the wall into the river below the duplicant believes Batman to be dead, then proceeds to the Batcave.

Upon arrival, he informs Alfred "there is only one Batman now." He removes the component from his skull and inserts it into the Bat computer. It begins a five-minute downloading process. He informs Alfred that humans would be coerced into constructing the components that HARDAC needs and that Alfred will continue his duties until his duplicant is prepared. Batman soon arrives and the battle continues. The duplicant is more than a match for Batman but Batman tries to awaken the humanity within the machine, realizing that the machine may have the same problem with taking a life that he does. He points out that it also risked it's own life to save Rossum's. Batman continues to point out evidence that the duplicant can't bring itself to kill.

The duplicant claims that it's not true as he only serves HARDAC. The duplicant tries to reason with Batman claiming that HARDAC's goals are the same as Batman's. However, Batman refuses to believe it forcing the duplicant to continue the fight.

The duplicant finally corners Batman at a cliff edge but it can't bring itself to push Batman over the edge. Batman claims that HARDAC did too good a job duplicating his personality. He is proven correct when he attacks and the duplicant hits him away. Though it tries to save him, Batman seemingly falls to his death. The duplicant realizes he has taken a life and is shocked by it. It returns to the bat computer and realizes that HARDAC will take the lives of millions. The duplicant, now in a state of desperation and partial insanity, destroys the Bat Computer before the upload is complete. The explosion knocks him into the Batmobile and the smoke sets off the fire suppression sprinklers. The water shorts out the duplicant and he is deactivated.

Alfred goes searching for Batman and discovers that he is still alive. Alfred helps him out of the abyss and Batman goes to his duplicant. Learning of what it had done he ponders whether the duplicant may have had a soul. "A soul of silicon, but a soul nonetheless."

Continuity

 * The creation of the Batman duplicant was first shown in "Heart of Steel".