The Batman Episode 4.09: Seconds

"Seconds" is the forty eighth episode of the television series The Batman. It was first aired on 25 January 2007 in the UK and on Saturday February 10 2007 in North America.

Plot synopsis
After a seemingly ordinary criminal continues to get the better of Batman and his partners it is discovered that he has the ability to travel back in time by up to twenty seconds. Batman is now faced with the seemingly impossible task of stopping a foe that knows his every move before even Batman himself does.

Plot summary
A thief, Francis Gray, breaks into a chemical lab and steals a canister, bungles the theft, and a guard captures him. Then he… resets time going back to where he messed up, and does it perfectly. The guard still notices him and gives pursuit, but the thief’s foreknowledge lets him take the man down.

The entire Bat team is at the manor, a few days before New Year’s Eve, when they get an alert of another theft at a chemical company. Batman confronts the thief and knocks him down, but the thief concentrates and “rewinds” time until he can anticipate Batman and get away.

Batman goes over the tapes while suspecting that the thief somehow knew everything that was going to happen. The thief meanwhile is working on some device and vows revenge on behalf of his wife and child. He thinks back to how he was a clock repairman in debt. To cover his bills, he stole a clock but set off the alarm. He bumped into a policeman, sent a nearby hot dog stand into the streets that caused a major car pileup, power outage, and a tanker truck to explode. Gray was put in jail and his wife left him. The Bat team figures out who Gray is and Batman realizes there’s a time discrepancy, and determine that Gray has put together the ingredients for a poison gas and needs one final component.

The team goes to the final chemical warehouse where Batman begins to realize things are repeating. They confront Francis and Batman figures out what Gray has been doing. Gray reveals that while in jail serving “time,” he learned how to see time unravel and then figured out how to reverse time, but only up to 20 seconds. The team comes after him but Gray is already ahead of them, having lost the battle dozens of time until he has everything memorized and can anticipate their every move. Gray escapes in his car and they give chase, but he still manages to reset time to anticipate them and get away.

Batman figures out where Gray’s son Matthew is, and that he’s going to release the poison at the center of the city when the clock strikes midnight. Batman sends Batgirl on a special mission while he and Robin confront Gray. The poison is in the New Year’s Ball and as it starts to descend with one minute to midnight, they go after him but he’s still able to rewind and anticipate everything. Batman tries to stop the ball and fails, but Robin goes after the ball while Batman holds Gray. Gray has rigged the ball with an electrical device while Batman tries to convince Gray to not endanger all the innocents. When that fails, Batman starts to anticipate Gray, having been through the rewinds enough to get a sense of what is coming. It’s not enough for Gray to knock out first him and then Batgirl when she first arrives. Bu Batgirl has succeeded at her mission: bringing Matthew to the rooftop.

At midnight the ball explodes, and everyone except Gray (who has a gas mask) dies, including Matthew. Gray concentrates and reverses time all the way back to when he stole the watch and set off everything. Gray decides not to steal the watch.

Back in the manor a few days before New Year’s Eve, the team is together again, but this time Gray is their clock repairman and works with his son, as their family is now happy together.

Characters

 * Bruce Wayne/Batman voiced by Rino Romano
 * Alfred Pennyworth voiced by Alastair Duncan
 * Barbara Gordon/Batgirl voiced by Danielle Judovits
 * Dick Grayson/Robin voiced by Evan Sabara
 * Francis Grey (First Appearance) voiced by Dave Foley

Production
This is the first Batman episode of any series to feature a "nightmare scenario" unfold in the real world, and still be undone through time travel (unlike The New Batman Adventures episode "'Over The Edge'", which was an actual nightmare), the tremendously dark episode sees Batman, Batgirl, Robin, and indeed all of Gotham City perish at the hands of either the chief antagonist or the nerve gas.

Cultural References
This episode references Batman: the Animated Series Twice. Robin jumps a bridge in a way similar to Robin's Reckoning. And Francis Grey attacks Gotham on New Year's Eve in a similar way as the Joker in Holiday Knights. The NBC series Heroes is referenced in two ways. During Francis' flashback of being in jail, he discovers that he can manipulate time and strains himself to control it, much like Hiro Nakamura from the series. Also, Grey works in a clock shop similar to the one Sylar worked in before he began stealing people's powers. It is also to note that Sylar's true surname is the same as Francis'.

Trivia

 * Francis Grey could be The Batman's version of Clock King.


 * Grey's own admission that his puns are quite cheap may be a reference to the first episodes of the series, which were rife with them.


 * During the car chase with Batman, when Grey rides through an alley on two wheels, can be referenced from the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.

Quotes

 * Alfred: Does anyone have any New Year's resolutions? Master Dick?&lt;br&gt;Dick: I resolve to kick more butt!&lt;br&gt;Barbara: I resolve to leave more butts unkicked. Got to leave some for Robin.


 * Batgirl: Why is it deadly chemicals are always green? Why can’t they be pink?


 * Alfred: I don't believe Master Dick has moved in the five days since you gave him his Christmas gift.&lt;br&gt;Barbara: I would have given him a book, but then he might have learned something.


 * Francis Grey: [after tripping to the alarm] Oh, stupid, stupid, stupid!&lt;br&gt;Cop: Hey, stop right there! [Francis slip from the bucket] Smooth move, Colonel Klutz!&lt;br&gt;Francis Grey: [to himself] An alarm in the cabinet, go right in the hall, the door is locked, and watch the bucket.&lt;br&gt;Cop: What are you talking about?


 * Francis Grey: Ah, the Batman. I knew it's a matter of time before you show up.&lt;br&gt;Batman: Then you know what's gonna happen next.&lt;br&gt;Francis Grey: You tried to stop me and fail. [punched by Batman and was taken down] Okay! Okay! Let's try this again. [rewinds to where before the fight begins] I knew it's a matter of time before you show up. You tried to stop me and fail. [Francis dodges Batman's punch but Batman kicks him] Oh, yeah, that hurts! [rewinds again before the fight] You tried to stop me and fail. [dodges Batman's pucn and kick] Oops! Miss me!


 * Francis Grey: [after running to a two-button switch] Aha! [Batman punches him and rewinds back again] Lights out. Huh?&lt;br&gt;[presses the red button. Instead of having Batman hit, he head police sirens] Ah, typical.&lt;br&gt;[rewinds again] Let's try this one.&lt;br&gt;[presses the green button that barrels falls onto Batman] It's been a barrel of laughs, Batman.&lt;br&gt;[to himself] Oh, that's terrible.&lt;br&gt;[rewinds on Batman's defeat] Better luck next time, Batman.