First of all, the starting was brilliant. You only see the villains' hands, but you instantly know who all of them are and you get a brief glimpse of their personalities. Two-Face, with two-pair, pours half-and-half into his coffee. Penguin prepares himself some fancy tea. And the Joker, of course, pulls an ace out of his sleeve.
The next point that got me really excited was the explanation of the giant penny in the Batcave. In most continuities, Batman has a giant penny (and sometimes a T-rex) in the cave for no reason. Until now. While having Batman use Two Face's suddenly jagged coin to escape is a little far-fetched, the main idea of flipping the penny with Batman on it was good.
This episode also boasts one of the funniest moments in the entire series. Killer Croc (really Batman in disguise) slams his fist on the table and demands to tell his story. He starts with a dramatic buildup, then abruptly and lamely ends with, "I threw a rock at him!" What makes this scene great is the few seconds of silence that follows then Poison Ivy trying to change the subject. Sheepishly, Croc adds, "It was a big rock." Pure gold. Unfortunately, I think this part was too funny because ever since this episode aired, Croc became incredibly stupid both in the cartoons and the comics. In Jeph Loeb's "Hush," which came out more than a decade later, Batman is surprised to see Croc carry out a sophisticated crime like kidnapping a child. This makes me sad because in Croc's first appearance in this show, "Vendetta," he is quite smart and carries out a very intelligent crime that frames Harvey Bullock. Of course, I can't blame this episode for any unintended negative repercussions that came from it.
Not only does this episode rock because it has so many wonderful bad guys, but their respective stories were very good despite their brevity. In fact, you could argue that some of these villains had their best moments from the entire show here in this episode — especially Penguin. Most Penguin episodes fall a little flat, but his story here was really good and true to his character. I only wish it was a little longer, but I understand why it wasn't.
Naturally though, the Joker's story tops them all. Pumping the studio audience with laughing gas was similar to Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" and I loved how even the other villains were disgusted by Joker's plan to turn Catwoman into cat food. Yes, this is a clean kids' show, but when you really think about it, that is a pretty gruesome idea.
And then there's the great heroic, surprising moment at the end, when Croc stands up and in Batman's voice says, "I don't think so." I get chills every time. Then he throws Joker over the table and in the swinging light Croc's silhouette becomes Batman's. It does not make one iota of logical sense, but it is so cool it doesn't matter.
The best Batman episode of all time is "Heart of Ice," but if I could only choose one Batman episode to watch, I'd pick "Almost Got 'Im." It has all the villains you'd ever want, it has great action, great humor and even a nice bit of romance at the end with Catwoman. You'd be very hard-pressed to find another 22-minute episode that contains this much stuff and handles it this well.
Final score: 10
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