The finale of Bat-Fam focuses on the titular family's efforts to save Damian from the Joker's clutches, while also trying to stop the Clown Prince of Crime from turning Gotham into an uncontrolled hellscape by using the Anti-Shine against its citizens. The series primarily adopts an anthology format, with each episode telling a self-contained story that showcases the characters' development. However, an overarching narrative is introduced in the third episode, where we see the Mad Hatter and Bright break into a Wayne Industries warehouse to steal something valuable.
After being thwarted, Clayface and Killer Croc also attempt to rob Wayne Industries. But only after Bright reveals that she is actually Alicia and that she, like Batman's villains, is searching—albeit for different purposes—for something called the Anti-Shine. A scientist named Dr. Light had invented this device, which had the ability to absorb all light.
Creators: Mike Roth, Jase Ricci
Stars: Luke Wilson, Michael Benyaer, James Cromwell
After being confiscated by Batman, the Anti-Shine was moved from one warehouse to another so that the villains would never know its location. One of the workers accidentally activated it, and Dr. Light sacrificed himself to deactivate it. Although the Anti-Shine was stored away again, its existence was leaked, and Alicia, as Bright, wanted to get her hands on it before the villains could. To maintain secrecy, not even Bruce knew its location. So he teamed up with Alicia to find it, keeping it from Damian, as he thought the boy wasn't ready for the task. When Damian finally learned of Bruce, Alicia, and Alfred's secret mission, he ran away from them and fell straight into the Joker's trap, who used the Anti-Shine on Damian and turned him into his "son." Together, they intended to unleash the Anti-Shine on Gotham.
If you've seen The Bat-Family, you'll surely recognize all the characters in the series. For some reason, if you're reading this without having seen the show, here's a brief summary of the family in question. In addition to the main trio (Bruce, Damian, and Alfred), there's Alicia, Alfred's niece and an old friend of Bruce's; Ra's al Ghul (or his ghost), Damian's grandfather; Claire, formerly Volcana, who was adopted by Bruce after falling into Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pit and being transformed into a child; and Langstrom, also known as Batman.
Alicia ran a rehabilitation center for villains called E*Vil, and through this institution, King Tut, Killer Moth, Copperhead, Sad Hatter (daughter of the Mad Hatter), and Giganta became allies of Batman. The Joker, along with the Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Clayface, Livewire, and Solomon Grundy, sought to obtain the Anti-Shine and control Gotham. Since the Joker's team was captured by Batman and his team, the final battle essentially centered between Batman's family and the, shall we say, less-than-dynamic duo of the Joker and Damian.
The Joker's last-minute appearance wasn't all that shocking, since it's a Batman series; of course, the Joker is the main villain. What did surprise me was how the writers added complexity to the Joker's motivations by introducing a fairly significant change (at least to my knowledge) in his backstory. As a child, his father constantly played pranks on him. The last prank was promising that they would make fools of themselves in Gotham together and then abandoning him. This deeply affected the Joker, and I suppose he began to dream of playing a father-son prank on Gotham.
After the events of "Merry Little Batman," I think the Joker sensed that Batman was having trouble being a father to Damian, which implied that Damian was having issues with his father figure. Therefore, he waited for some kind of rift to open up between Batman and Damian, and as soon as that moment arrived, he pounced on Damian, used the Anti-Shine on him, and turned him into his "son." In doing so, the Joker not only fulfilled his childhood dream but also exacted revenge on Batman in one of the cruelest ways imaginable. He could have teamed up with any of Batman's villains—the most predictable being Harley Quinn—to carry out his prank spree in Gotham. But yes, choosing Damian was diabolical.
While Batman tried to track down the Joker and Damian so he could repair his son with Batman's Lightwave Blocker, Ra's al Ghul was convinced that Damian was faking his condition so he could defeat him at the opportune moment. But there was no time to verify Ra's's suspicions, as the Joker and Damian had already taken to the streets and begun provoking the citizens of Gotham. Batman knew that when the citizens' anger reached its peak, the Joker, along with Damian, would take to the skies and attack the city with the Anti-Glow, turning everyone into zombies. And since Damian was already nearly unconscious, he didn't want the rest of his family to be harmed.
Therefore, he locked them in the Batcave and went after the Joker alone. Of course, the Bat-family couldn't allow Bruce to face the Joker and a deranged Damian alone. So, with Alfred leading the way, Alicia, Ra's al Ghul, Batman, and Claire headed toward Batman. In a desperate attempt to save Damian, Batman fell right into the trap set for him in the television studio where the Joker was broadcasting updates on his prank marathon, and ended up imprisoned in a cage. Batman spotted Damian and used his Bat-Lightwave Blocker against him. Damian revealed he was wearing joke glasses, meaning the device hadn't undone the anti-glow spell, and he shattered the Bat-Lightwave Blocker. The Bat-family located Batman and stormed the television studio to help him.
However, the Joker and Damian joined forces to destroy them all. As the Joker announced his evil plan, Batman freed himself, as well as Bright, Claire, and Alfred. They thought the Joker was too distracted to notice everything, but the Clown Prince of Crime had anticipated this. He threw the entire Bat-family into a coliseum of his own making and unleashed the Mad Hatter, Livewire, Solomon Grundy, and Killer Croc against them. While Batman and his family dealt with all those men, the Joker sent his henchmen to fan the flames consuming Gotham. When he was certain the city was on the brink of chaos, he launched the rocket containing the Anti-Shine. As soon as it reached the right altitude, he would activate it and unleash the Anti-Shine's beams upon the inhabitants of Gotham.
Now that the remote control was in the Joker's hands, Batman saw no point in reasoning with him. Instead, he turned his attention to Damian and sincerely apologized for not entrusting him with the Anti-Shine mission. In response to Bruce's apology, Damian asked him directly if, given another chance, Bruce would trust him to complete the mission of destroying the Anti-Shine. Bruce replied that he would. Right after, when Damian asked the Joker for the remote control to activate the Anti-Shine, it seemed the boy was still loyal. But Damian betrayed the Joker, thwarting his plans, and detonated the rocket transporting the Anti-Shine. As the Anti-Shine plummeted to the ground, Damian used the Bat-Trope to propel himself into the air and hurled his Batarang at it, destroying it.
At the end of Bat-Fam, everyone asked Damian the most obvious question: was he ever under the Joker's Anti-Shine's spell? Damian replied no (Ra's al Ghul felt vindicated), and when he explained why, the Anti-Shine's machinations became a little clearer. Apparently, it worked much like the Super Soldier Serum; if you had truly malicious feelings, the Anti-Glow exacerbated them and turned you into a zombie, but if you were merely conflicted, it had no effect. There are two lessons to be learned here. First, emotional intelligence isn't always related to age. Both Bruce and the Joker underestimated Damian's maturity. In Bruce's defense, he was aware that even when Damian was forbidden from doing something, he would do it anyway. But that didn't justify keeping him out of it. He should have used his age and experience to find a way to tell Damian to stay away from the Anti-Glow case until his help was needed, and he might have listened. However, Bruce saw Damian as a small child and thought lying was the best option.
The same goes for the Joker; he mistook Damian's conflicting feelings toward his father for genuine hatred and tried to use it against Batman. This version of the Joker was able to unmask Batman's schemes because he always overestimated him. However, with Damian, he underestimated him, and that ended up being his biggest mistake. Secondly, the series subtly underscored that, although Batman believed Gotham had been rid of crime, delinquency hadn't completely disappeared. For some reason, the inhabitants of Gotham were furious. They didn't show it, but that didn't mean they weren't susceptible.
Now, I need to address two more things: Will there be a second season of Bat-Fam? Is Bat-Fam part of the DC Universe? At the time of writing, I haven't seen any news about a second season of the show. The first season doesn't hint at a possible second either. That said, they can make countless seasons focused on Batman's family, and I'll watch them. As for the DC Universe, I don't understand James Gunn's mindset. So, until he says something, I can't comment. However, if you look at the map of Gotham that was shown repeatedly during the season finale, you might notice some similarities to the official map of Gotham in the DC Universe.
When that image of DC Universe Gotham was released, fans were deeply saddened that this reveal had shattered their dreams of seeing Robert Pattinson and David Corenswet together on the big screen. We did get a glimpse of the DC Universe Batman in Creature Commandos. Casting for Andy Muschietti's The Brave and the Bold hasn't even begun yet. But what are the chances that we've been seeing the DC Universe's Batman, along with his family, in animated form all this time? To be honest, almost none. But personally, since I love these characters, I wouldn't mind seeing them in live-action as well. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the series finale.
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