The grimly named “Epitaph” begins at an event for Harvey Dent’s mayoral campaign. After finishing his speech, Dent invites Bruce Wayne to say a few words. While Wayne is speaking, Batman appears in the crowd and slowly makes his way up to Wayne. He pulls out a gun and shoots Wayne who falls backwards and into water.
Six hours later, police divers have not found the body, but Alfred still believes that he is still alive. Suddenly, Katana gets a phone call. The caller ID says that it is Bruce Wayne.
Back at the Batcave, Katana and Alfred arrive just as a wounded Bruce Wayne collapses and goes into hypothermia. Alfred and Katana immediately rush to his aid.
Meanwhile, the impostor Batman has not finished. He shoots at some cops outside of a bodega and blows up their squad car.
Later, even in the absence of a body, a funeral is held for Bruce Wayne. While speaking to the press at the funeral, Harvey Dent and Commissioner Gordon are are fired upon by the impostor Batman with a machine gun in the back of a hearse. Fleeing the scene, the impostor Batman begins speeding through Gotham, not knowing the real Batman is waiting to chase him in the Batmobile. Despite Batman’ best efforts, the villainous Batman gets away.
Returning to the Batcave, Batman, Katana, and Alfred review the media reports about the funeral. They zoom in on the gun used. Batman recognizes it as the same one Humpty Dumpty used in “Broken.” Checking with the GCPD’s database, Alfred discovers that the confiscated weapon has not been recorded as missing. According to the database, it is still being held at the armory. Batman chooses to go to the armory alone to get answers.
The writers of this show have placed an emphasis on stories that have a deep mystery at the center of them. One of the benefits of these episodes is the lack of subplots that drag down the main story, which has been an issue with this series. This episode is no exception. The action is focused on the mystery of who the impostor Batman is. The previously mentioned problems with the characters of Harvey Dent and Barbara Gordon do not hinder this episode. Those problems are still subtly present, but they are not reinforced in “Epitaph.”
This episode was well focused and lacked any major problems to hold it back. Despite a relative amount of success at creating a quality episode, “Epitaph” lacked a significant plot detail, action sequence, dramatic moment, etc. that raised it to the level of a high-quality episode.
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