Recap/Review: Gotham Girls "Cat -n- Mouse -n- Cat -n- Mouse -n-"

So, remember what I said at the beginning of "Hold That Tiger"? That Gotham Girls was finally taken off the Warner Bros. site this year? Well, after a nice commenter pointed out that the Wikipedia links still worked, I double checked. As it turns out, someone decided to archive Gotham Girls for posterity.

Whomever the person is who reached back in time and archived them, I thank you.

"You're quite welcome."

And so, my coverage of Gotham Girls can at last resume. So instead of having this the last episode I'd be covering, I can finish up the last six webisodes of Season 2, starting with today’s repetitively-titled webisode. Also misleadingly-titled. There are no mice to be found.

0/10 WORST EPISODE!

This time, the pre-load game is another round of playing Simon Says to feed a plant. Nothing to see here.

Although… I have to level with you all. I haven’t played this mini-game to completion. Or most of the other minigames. After all, I’m reviewing the webisodes themselves, not the cheaply-made time-waster before the webisode loads.

But lately, I’ve been trying to finish a bunch of old video games I never made it all the way through.

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.

Final Fantasy 9.

Final Fantasy Tactics.

LEGO Racers.

So… I guess, by my self-imposed rules, I kind of have to finish this minigame. No matter how long it takes.

Well, that wasted about 45 seconds of my life.

The webisode opens up on the Gotham Museum. I’m not exactly sure what it’s a museum of, but they’re advertising an exhibit called the “Glass Cat.” Because as ever, Gotham likes to make itself an obvious target for supervillains. I hear next week there’s a whole “Riddles Throughout the Ages” exhibit. I’m sure that won’t end badly.

To the surprise of no one, Catwoman starts slinking around. But before she can use her signature trick of slicing a hole in a window to get inside, it seems as though somebody else already beat her to it. When she enters, she finds a guard who has already been knocked out. She also finds a glass case that was already emptied of its loot.

Catwoman spots the other thief exiting through the skylight and gives chase. But the mysterious femme fatale seems to be a step ahead of her the whole time. After heading through most of the city, the mysterious figure taunts Catwoman, while having an eerily-familiar silhouette.

Killer Croc?

Catwoman whips her through a skylight into a weird laboratory. When Catwoman enters for herself, she finds her prize, the Glass Cat, smashed to pieces. She also finds a time machine. Like you do.

I'd throw around the name "Carter Nichols," but that'd just be showing off.

Catwoman: “You don’t think… nooo, it couldn’t.”

She barely thinks it over.

Catwoman: “Hey. Why not?”

This brings us to the interactive portion of the webisode. We can go back a billion years, forward a billion years, or back fifteen minutes.

Come on, mystery scientist, you couldn’t have built a readout like Doc Brown did?

A billion years ago: Catwoman poses with a Sabretooth cat.

Ka-Zar called; he wants his pet back.

 A thousand years from now: She poses with a robot cat and the bastion of technology known as a “cellular telephone.”

Sofa technology clearly hasn't advanced much.

The correct choice is “fifteen minutes,” which takes her back to before the museum was robbed in order to pre-empt her mysterious rival. The plan: steal the Glass Cat before that other thief even gets there.

Catwoman arrives and notices that there’s no hole in the window yet, so she makes one (reusing her glass-cutting animation from the first episode of this season). Once inside, she knocks out the guard and finds the case containing the Glass Cat. She steals it and makes a quick getaway through the skylight, followed by the other thief.

After a short chase, Catwoman stands in front of the moon and taunts the other thief. She gets whipped through a skylight for the trouble, which shatters the Glass Cat. From her hiding spot, Catwoman watches as the other thief, herself, formulates a plan to use the time machine to beat “the other thief” to the Glass Cat.

Catwoman: “I was right. She is good.”

After this other Catwoman goes back, Catwoman smashes the time machine, undoing the time loop and restoring the unbroken Glass Cat to its case.

Catwoman: “But there’s only room in this town for one of us.”

And with that, the episode ends.

Review
This was actually a really good episode. A simple story told well. And considering time travel was involved, that's kind of impressive. Actually, that time-loop made me half-expect to see Steven Moffat credited at the end.

All things considered, this is something that I could imagine being put into production as a pretty good DC Nation short. Of course, the only way to watch the DC Nation block these days is through time travel.

How fitting.

Next time, Batgirl sits in her apartment and eats ice cream while talking to her dad. I can only imagine it’s better than it sounds. See you then!