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The Pretty Piper — Description
Episode Summary:

A beautiful singer comes to Gotham and during one of her performances, Batman discovers Plague Rat has began to stalk her. Plague Rat attacking staff and producers, and the reason for all of this unclear, Bruce makes it his mission to find out why he is doing this and keep the singer safe.

At the beginning of the episode and throughout, it’s framed as ‘he’s a crazy stalker who’s probably just an obsessive fan of hers’. But then, at the end, it’s revealed that Plague Rat is actually the singer’s brother, who was coming to the shows in the rafters and backstage to avoid being arrested. Having attacked the staff because they were planning to trick her into a bad contract with some big shot producer also seen through the episode.

There are small hints at this being the case, though. During the first confrontation, Plague Rat escapes while yelling, “I can’t let her see me like this!” (This referencing the rat-like eyes, visible black veins, etc.)

At the very end of the episode, the singer, Madelyn, finally sees him without the mask. She recognizes him immediately, and he crumbles from her reaction alone (Horror, sadness, covering her mouth and crying, y’know?). The last scene being Madelyn watching the car drive off with him in it, while Batman attempts to reassure Madelyn, saying that Blake won’t be like that forever. To which Madelyn replies: “Thank you, but… you shouldn’t get a woman’s hopes up.”
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Y’know, just some basic heartbreaking stuff you’d find in that show.
I imagine this version of Plague Rat would be the one that introduces Plague Rat’s sister, as well as a few other things that are pretty important. Just like a lot of other characters that were revamped there.

I can’t replicate styles for shit, but hey, I tried-

The title, by the way, is a reference to the pied piper, since I thought it’d be a fun myth to callback to for an episode about a rat being lured in by a singer.