"Armory"

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"Armory" is the 30th episode of Batman Beyond. It originally aired on March 11, 2000. The episode depicts the turn to crime of Jim Tate, stepfather of Terry McGinnis's school friend Jared, after he loses his job.

Plot[]

Terry, Dana, and Max attend Jared's birthday party. The crowning touch is his stepfather's present, a new car. Jared's mother, Lorraine, remarks on the extravagance, but Jim says that nothing is too good for his family.

A short time later, Jim is told he's being laid off; apparently, Paxton Powers is eliminating his division, light weapons manufacture, and merging it with another.

Jim tells his family not to worry: he's the best there is in the business. After several days of looking, however, he is still no closer to finding a new job. He is becoming desperate when he has coffee with an old acquaintance, Istivan Hegedesh, who mentions that his company has secret, in other words illegal, dealings with a certain foreign country which would be very interested in a prototype weapon Jim was working on, a sonic beam emitter capable of blasting through steel. Jim says he'd have to break into Wayne-Powers and steal the design specs. Istivan mentions a large payment for his work.

Drawing on his experience with Special Forces, Jim dons a combat suit and a mask and infiltrates Wayne-Powers to steal the specs. He is caught on the way out by both the police and Batman, but manages to evade both with an arsenal of sophisticated, but non-lethal, weapons. The media dub the thief "The Human Armory".

Jim receives a down payment from Istivan, and mentions that he needs to break into one more facility to get the parts for the completed weapon. Istivan notes Jim doesn’t seem happy. Jim states that it was like war and mentions running into Batman, and Istivan says he is fighting a war and that he might have to take Batman out as all wars must have casualties, if one side wants to win.

Jared mentions to Terry and Max that Jim has been withdrawn and preoccupied, spending hours on end in his workshop next to the house. Privately, Terry confides to Max his suspicions that Jim is Armory.

Jim commits his second robbery, and again confronts Batman and the police, managing to evade both with difficulty. Before he arrives home, Jared sneaks into his workshop, wanting to know what's going on. Hearing his stepfather coming, Jared hides as Jim returns and meets Istivan. Jim assembles the completed weapon and demands his final payment. But a spider accidentally gives Jared away, and confronts his stepfather. Hearing their raised voices, Lorraine also comes in, and learns her husband's secret. Jim pleads that he has only done it for them, and as a temporary measure, but they are having none of it.

Batman arrives outside. Istivan grabs the weapon and opens fire with it, tearing a hole in the workshop. He then runs outside to finish Batman off. Using the weapon to topple a large tower onto Batman, Istivan renders him helpless, and points the weapon—but is disabled by a shot from Jim's adhesive rifle. Jim says the war is over, and they have both lost. In rage, Istivan charges and knocks Jim to the ground, but Batman takes hold of Istivan, while Jim gratefully hugs his family.

At school, Jared tells Terry and Max that Jim cooperated fully with the authorities, and so received a reduced sentence for his crimes. He will be incarcerated for some time, and the family had to pay a stiff fine, but he's bearing up. Max, who had been feeling jealous of Jared's affluence, perks him up by flirting a little.

Continuity[]

• Jim Tate first appears in the first-season episode "Spellbound".
• The music at Jared's birthday party is used again in the opening club scene in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

Background information[]

Home video releases[]

• Batman Beyond - Season Two (DVD)
• Batman Beyond - The Complete Series (DVD)
• Batman Beyond - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)

Production inconsistencies[]

• While being pursued by Batman, Armory loses control of his vehicle and drives it into a roadside barrier, leaving it visibly damaged. However, once Armory has evaded Terry and returned to the vehicle, it appears to be completely unscathed.
• Batman coils a batarang with a line onto a street lamp, but unlike Terry's conventional batarangs this one looked like the ones used in The New Batman Adventures episodes. This can also be observed in "Payback", "Where's Terry?", and "Betrayal".
• Jim disappears for a frame right before Istivan Hegedesh hits him.
• Kevin Conroy is credited for playing Bruce Wayne, despite not appearing at all in this episode.

Trivia[]

• This is the third out of five episodes from which Bruce Wayne is absent — the others being "Hidden Agenda", "Final Cut", "Zeta", and "Inqueling".

Cast[]

Quotes[]