Junior Falls

Junior Falls is the first episode and season premiere of the third season of NBC's The Batman. It first aired on November 15, 2010. It is the twenty-seventh episode overall.

​Synopsis
Bruce has started dating reporter, Vicki Vale. Dick and Barbara are in their final year of high school, while the latter mourns her mother, who died while Barbara could not make it back in time. James Jr. gets ahold of a series of weapons to get his revenge on the Joker for murdering his mother. Two-Face plots his revenge on the Joker, while also plotting a way to find Harley in the Joker's custody. Harley is locked in the Joker's base with the infamous Bane guarding her. Allen and Sawyer have been on most of the cases to do with supervillains due to Bruce retiring and trying to live a normal life. Gordon is an alcoholic and has quit the GCPD. Falcone is being charged for tax evasion, theft, kidnapping, and the murder of three innocents. Maroni and the former team up to stop this and luckily get the Gotham judge who happens to be a supervillain terrorizing Gotham. Mayor Loeb is assassinated and Sarah gets the whole GCPD on it before she loses her job. Meanwhile, Clayface has once again infiltrated the GCPD in a different form.

​Plot
Citizens of Gotham go through their normal day and walk along the streets with cars driving past. Gas fills the skies and cars zoom away. Citizens run away but a woman is trapped and inhales the gas. She screams and pleads for it to stop. The gas is coming from the sky where new supervillain, Scarecrow, is releasing it from a plane. Officer Allen and Officer Sawyer run over with gas masks and save the woman. She tries to escape the officers but they knock her out. They run to a police car and are careful about opening the doors. They patrol the streets to find any others like the woman but everyone else is safe.

At the mansion, Bruce and reporter Vicki Vale get back from a fancy dinner. The news is on and they learn of Scarecrow's newest attack on the city. It has been eight months since Barbara and Renee were killed and the attacks on the city got worse. Man-Bat and Mad Hatter have been in Arkham for those eight months.

Gordon is at a bar where Allen meets with him. Allen tries to persuade Gordon to rejoin the GCPD but he refuses. At Gotham High, Dick and Barbara are in English class and the 4'o'clock bell rings. The students race out of the high school and Dick and Barbara walk off together. They talk about where the next best hiding spot is for the night. Dick brings her to a spot in the woods where there is an abandoned cabin. She searches through it and all of the stuff except for a bed has been cleared out. They put a lock on the cabin door and keep the key. They leave.

Harley is chained to a wall and watches Looney Tunes. The Joker enters and Harley tries her best to lunge at him but the chains keep her from doing this. The Joker tells her that he is not letting her be with Harvey Dent, of all people. She cries and begs him to let her go. She has been held here for the past eight months. The Joker leaves and Harley has stolen a pin needle from him. After he has left, Harley frees herself and runs out of the warehouse, to be found by Joker's bodyguard, Bane. She is scared but tries to run off. Bane gets her and throws her back in. Harley screams but Bane closes the doors.

The woman from the Scarecrow gas awakens in the hospital and realizes what has happened. Allen reassures her she was cleared of everything. Allen properly meets her and she reveals she is Silver St. Cloud, a new citizen in Gotham. Sawyer comes in and also meets her.

James Jr. runs through the woods as he has flashbacks. One of them is him as a three year old and stumbled upon a shed and found a series of guns in it but Barbara Kean found him and stopped him. He then remembers seeing then Joker shooting his mother. James finds the shed, opens it, and finds the same series of guns in their. He takes one and pretends to fire it and then targets a certain spot on a tree and hits it right in the middle of it. James smiles and walks off.

In a courthouse, Falcone is in chains and orders a proper lawyer. His lawyer is a skinny and easily startled man. The judge enters the courthouse and declares what Carmine Falcone is being charged for; tax evasion, theft, kidnapping, and the murder of three innocents. Maroni is there and orders that lawyer, Harvey Dent be brought in for Falcone. Judge Crane and the jury knows better and tells Maroni to keep his voice down.

In another part of Gotham, Mayor Gillian Loeb announces the addition to Arkham Asylum, a supervillain rehabilitation center. There they will try to reprogram the supervillains that are captured there. The first patient to try it out was Jervis Tetch and the status of his insanity has yet to be confirmed. A sniper is on the roof and aims at Loeb. He takes the shot and horrified screams are heard as Loeb is assassinated.

At the mansion, Bruce learns that Loeb was assassinated and Vicki decides to investigate as Bruce joins her. Sarah has the whole GCPD on the case as she will be promoted to mayor if no other person nominates their self. Sarah wants to be able to be the Commissioner when they find the assassinator and then be promoted. Vicki investigates and learns that Mayor Loeb's bodyguard was not at the scene of the crime until he run over to the body, out of breath. Vicki investigates the bodyguard, Victor Zsasz, and wonders about him.

Jervis sits at a desk, facing Warden, Amanda Spence. Spence got the job after Wilson Mental Hospital was merged with Arkham. Jervis is silent but Spence records all of his moves. Jervis asks to see a prisoner here, Man-Bat. Spence tells him that he doesn't get privileges just because he attends the rehabilitation center.

Vicki watches security footage and Bruce notices the angle of the bullet and realizes it was from the business building from across the street. Vicki times how long Zsasz took to get to the mayor and they match up from Zsasz being atop the building and running down to the mayor, also explaining why he was out of breath. Bruce and Vicki interrogate him but he gives no information. Vicki ransacks his apartment after he leaves and finds a gun. She tells Bruce that they can't prove that this gun isn't just to protect the mayor. Bruce takes the gun to the GCPD where they confirm the bullet from the assassination came from the gun. They show her their notes and the security footage. Zsasz is arrested.

Bruce decides to run for mayor and is up against Sarah. James finds Joker and shoots him in the head. The Joker falls and James is surprised and excited. He runs off. However, the Joker saw him trying to kill him and pretended to die.

Cameron is at a bar where Ivy visits him. Cameron tells her to leave but she insists that he help her. She needs to kill the Joker for his torture and abuse of Harley. Cameron tells her that he will help her if she also says she needs to kill him for killing Barbara. Ivy, half-heartedly, says it. He smiles and they leave.

At the GCPD, Sarah posts SARAH FOR MAYER signs everywhere. New officer, Officer Matt Basil asks Sarah if there is any other supervillain case. Sarah tells him that the supervillain crime has been dying down lately. Basil smiles and agrees and as he leaves her office he frowns and is revealed to be Clayface. Leslie settles into her new GCPD crime lab.

Bane is in the bushes of a neighborhood and watches a young girl and her mother on the swings. Bane vows to himself he will get her back. In the sewers, Killer Croc travels as he sees a young man through the sewer grate.

Harvey Dent enters a telephone booth and dials 9. The floor collapses and he travels underground until he reaches a new high-tech base. Penguin and Riddler are there and Harvey tells them he needs their help.

​Starring

 * Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman
 * Alexander Gould as Dick Grayson/Robin
 * Sarah Hyland as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl
 * Zen Gesner as James Gordon
 * Diana Muldaur as Leslie Thompkins
 * Nathan Gamble as James Gordon Jr.
 * Jared Leto as the Joker
 * Brian McManamon as Basil Karlo/Clayface
 * Tom Hardy as Victor Payne/Bane
 * Maggie Geha as Pamela Isely/Poison Ivy
 * Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin
 * Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma/Riddler
 * Zabryna Guevera as Sarah Essen
 * Floriana Lima as Maggie Sawyer
 * Andrew Stewart-Jones as Chris Allen
 * Benedict Samuel as Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter
 * Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow
 * Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc
 * John Doman as Carmine Falcone
 * Nicholas D'Agosto as Harvey Dent/Two-Face
 * Jamie Chung as Vicki Vale
 * David Zayas as Sal Maroni
 * Thomas Haden Church as Cameron van Cleer/Killer Moth
 * Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn

Guest Stars

 * Peter Scolari as Mayor Gillian Loeb
 * Anthony Carrigan as Victor Zsasz
 * Katie Holmes as Silver St. Cloud
 * Hannah Gunn as Victoria Payne

​Trivia

 * This episode achieved 12.45 million U.S. live viewers.
 * All main cast members appear in this episode.
 * This episode received generally negative reviews. It scored a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 35 out of 100 on Metacritic.
 * This episode marks the first appearance of series regulars, Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) and Bane (Tom Hardy), along with new series regular, Vicki Vale (Jamie Chung), who made guest appearances last season. This also marks the first appearance of Victor Zsasz, the Mayor's bodyguard, Silver St. Cloud, a citizen new to Gotham who rivals Vale for Bruce, and Victoria Payne, Bane's daughter and only weakness, who will all go on to be recurring guest stars this season.
 * This episode also marks the first episode to have been released a press release featuring the synopsis and which guest stars are credited for this episode.
 * This episode is rated TV-14 for D-L-V.