Batman: Caped Crusader – Episode 6 “Night Ride” Recap & Review

Night Ride

Episode 6 of Batman: Caped Crusader starts with a strange ghostly figure on horseback showing and capsizing a van full of charity money. News of this hits the press, with Bruce checking over the story in the papers.

Bruce is convinced that this is just a lunatic in the mask but he’s not the only one checking the papers. Harvey Dent is too and he’s not happy about the current smear campaign against him, claiming that he’s buying out the election himself. With Dent slipping in the polls, Mr Thorne shows up and speaks to Harvey outside in his car, telling him to strike a deal if he wants to get “back in the game”.

Batman starts to investigate and tries to work out exactly why the masked ghost-rider is targeting specific areas. When he strikes again, Batman is back on the scene and chases the ghost through the streets of Gotham. He does notice a crest on the man’s bag, but beyond that, and disappearing into a wall, Batman doesn’t have a whole lot to go on here and ends up at something of a dead-end.

Batman refuses to believe this is a ghost, despite Alfred’s insistence, and decides to try and get some answers up at the ol’ Heritage Hill. Lucius shows while Bruce hits the library to do some digging. The Librarian there actually recognizes the coat of arms, as fate would have it. This apparently belongs to the Craddock family and they were one of Gotham’s founding families.

Their name was struck from the history books due to James Craddock’s actions during the revolution. He was a gambler and squandered the fortune, nearly losing Heritage Hill as a result. He blamed democracy for his woes and eventually was hung at the old town gallows after acting as a highwayman.

With the history lesson completed, Lucius finds himself confronted by Craddock, who is none other than the Gentleman Ghost. Batman and the ghost duel it out but unfortunately things don’t go to plan when Craddock dips out without so much as a single shot. He does freeze Batman’s hand though.

Batman concedes to Alfred’s idea of this being a cost and decided to go visit Linton Midnite, a man who could hold the key to stopping this apparition. Linton reveals that Batman needs to burn the claim to Heritage Hill and the blood of a nobleman too. This magic will be enough to fight back and stop Craddock. In exchange, he’s to fill a vial with something “when the time is right”.

With the deed grabbed, Bruce finds that Alfred actually has noble blood and can be used for this ritual. Alfred burns the bloody deed in the graveyard which does the trick… or does it? There’s still a little bit left and the ghostly apparition infects Alfred and the pair end up duelling it out.

Thankfully Batman burns the last bit of the deed, saves Alfred and hands over the dial to Linton, who now has Craddock’s essence stashed inside.

As the episode closes out, the incident on the train, which saw Dent hand over money to Craddock, sees him drop in the polls even further. With little other choice, Dent decides to ring Thorne after all and get the upper-hand.


The Episode Review

The overarching story involving Dent is intriguing and I’m sure we’ll see him turn to Two-Face sooner rather than later. As for Batman, he finds himself facing the Gentleman Ghost in an intriguing episode that plays back on that idea of things in Gotham not being as black and white as simple thieves playing dress-up. It also shows the depth of Batman’s rogue gallery, which has always been very impressive.

The show has done well to reinforce how endearing Batman’s character is, while the animation and story is back on form with this one. There’s a really nice ebb and flow to this series that makes for an enticing watch and it’ll be interesting to see which direction this one takes next!

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You can read our full season review for Batman: Caped Crusader here!

  • Episode Rating
    (3.5)
3.5

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