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Two individuals around Gotham City - a washed-up TV personality named Ross Darren and a concert pianist named Herbert Ziegler - fall victim to bizarre kidnappings perpetrated by strange little men wearing bedsheets. After failing to stop Ziegler's kidnapping, Batman begins to analyze any connections

Quote1 Is this all you have to show for your life, Arthur? Bitterness and revenge? You could've done something positive with your talents, like Yelena did. Quote2
Batman


Q & A is an episode of season 1 of The Batman. It premiered on November 20, 2004.

Synopsis for "Q & A"

Two individuals around Gotham City - a washed-up TV personality named Ross Darren and a concert pianist named Herbert Ziegler - fall victim to bizarre kidnappings perpetrated by strange little men wearing bedsheets. After failing to stop Ziegler's kidnapping, Batman begins to analyze any connections between the two victims, and discovers that they had worked together on a game show called "Think, Thank, Thunk" in the 1970s; Ziegler was a producer of the show while Darren served as it's presenter. The most prominent news article on the show tells of a scandal involving contestant and child prodigy Arthur Brown, whose twelve-week winning streak was broken when he answered a question incorrectly. Arthur's mother sued the show's producers for supposedly rigging the question, but Ziegler's connections within Gotham City Hall led to the lawsuit being dropped; afterwards, the Browns vanished from public life.

From this information, Batman deduces that Arthur is behind the kidnappings, and that there will be a third victim: Yelena Klimanov, the contestant who had beaten Arthur in his thirteenth week. Though he is correct, he fails to stop Yelena's kidnapping, and Yelena is quickly taken to the basement of the Brown house. There, Arthur - now calling himself "Cluemaster" - reveals himself to her, Ziegler, and Darren, and demonstrates his revenge: a twisted parody of "Think, Thank, Thunk" where his captives will be dunked in acid if he answers three questions correctly.

While Darren and Ziegler fail to ask questions that stump Cluemaster, Yelena is able to stall him by asking him to recite the value of pi. This buys the captives enough time for Batman to arrive at the Brown house, defeat Cluemaster's henchmen, and confront Cluemaster. An amused Cluemaster presents Batman with a "bonus round": if he can ask a question to stump Cluemaster, all of the captives will be set free. After some consideration, Batman asks Cluemaster to answer an impossible problem: name the identity of the Batman. Enraged, Cluemaster violently attempts to unmask Batman, but is defeated, and the captives saved.

Appearing in "Q & A"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Cluemaster (First appearance) (Flashback and main story) (Origin)
    • Cluemaster's Midget companions (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Mrs. Brown (Single appearance) (Flashback and main story)
  • Herbert Ziegler (Single appearance)
  • Yelena Klimanov (Single appearance) (Flashback and main story)
  • Ross Darren (Single appearance) (Flashback and main story)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:



Notes

  • No notes.

Trivia

  • Moral: Winning isn't everything.


See Also

Recommended Media

  • None.


Links and References

  • None.

Footnotes

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