"Cold Hands, Cold Heart" is the thirty-first and final episode of Gotham Girls and the tenth and final episode of Season Three. It first aired on November 19th, 2002. The Commissioner, twitching in the Batsignal, explodes into a pile of gears and wheels and microchips: He's a Robot! Who is behind this robotic Commissioner? None other than the Commissioner's supposedly loyal assistant, Dora Smithy. Sister to Nora. Sister-in-law to Mr. Freeze. The Robotic Replacement was designed to crack down on the costumed villains - like Mr. Freeze - whom Dora blames for her sister's fate. In a final pitched battle in an old Mr. Freeze hideout, Dora falls into a vat of cryo-solution and is turned into a female version of Mr. Freeze. The very thing she hated.
Plot[]
Barbara Gordon looks over the railing following her imposter father's fall.
Batgirl pulls out two batarangs. Taking aim, she unleashes them at the imposter James Gordon. As the impact knocks her fake father over the railing, Barbara removes her trench coat to reveal that she's Batgirl. With Barbara now disguised in her cowl, Detective Montoya charges out the door to the Gotham Police Department roof, gun in hand. Aiming at Batgirl, the detective demands for her to stay back.
The robot commissioner has met his end.
Confronted by Montoya, Batgirl denies having harmed the Commissioner, and draws the detective's attention to the remains of a robot laying on a shattered Bat-signal. Taking it all in, Renee asks the vigilante how long she had been aware, but Batgirl tells her it wasn't until moments ago. As the two discuss theories regarding the switcheroo, a chip ejects itself from the robot's head.
To my sister Nora and her new beau Victor, Long Life. Long Love - D.
Examining the chip, Batgirl comes to the conclusion the robot was constructed with Mr. Freeze's technology. Renee points out that Freeze is still in jail and asks if the crime fighter thinks he has an accomplice in the affair. Not entirely convinced of the notion, Batgirl hands the detective a photo she had removed from Freeze's locker, confirming Dora is Nora Fries' sister and Freeze's sister-in-law.
Dora Smithy suits up.
In Dora's office, Batgirl and Detective Montoya investigate their hunch. They find an invoice dated for the same day the men re-appeared for a package taken to 333 Coldwater Road. That address turns out to be the location of the former Gotham Ice Cream Industries, now an all-but-abandoned ice cream factory. Inside, Dora Smithy oversees the cryogenically frozen body of Commissioner Gordon. Hearing an alarm go off, Dora dons a costume and freeze gun to prepare for the intruders as Montoya drives her squad car through the factory's loading gate.
Montoya demands Dora to put down her weapon and freeze, but noting the irony, Dora takes aim and encapsulates her car in ice, locking the detective inside. With the villain distracted, Batgirl sneaks behind Dora, restraining her with a splitting batarang. Turning to face her captor, Dora tries to find common ground with Batgirl, admitting she assumed the vigilante would agree with her desire to rid Gotham City of its costumed criminals. Uninterested, Batgirl demands the whereabouts of Commissioner Gordon. Dora assures the vigilante that Gordon is safe, and that she'd never hurt him. Taking the opportunity, she breaks free of her bonds, accidentally launching the attached batarang towards Gordon's cryogenic cell, and starting the revival process on his chamber.
Dora rants her motivations, blaming Victor Fries for tearing her sister, Nora, away from her. Reaching forward, she pulls the support beam out from underneath the platform Batgirl is standing on. Now on equal footing, Dora attempts to strike as she continues her diatribe. Bemoaning the fact that Victor wouldn't let her sister die in peace when she got sick, she knocks Batgirl to the floor, claiming Freeze deserves to be destroyed just like every other costumed villain.
James Gordon escapes his cryogenic chamber.
Lifting Batgirl by her collar, Dora is cut off by the recently-thawed James Gordon, who insists if it weren't for Mister Freeze, Nora would be dead. Caught off-guard, she drops Batgirl, who backs up the commissioner's statement. Unable to face reality, Dora's raving takes on a defensive tone, insisting people like Freeze need to be stopped. However, Gordon points out that in her obsessiveness, the only discernible difference between her and Freeze now are the costumes they wear. Faced with how much she resembles that which she hates, Dora shrinks back—and slips on the ice she created, falling into the vat of freezing solution herself.
The Gotham Girls turn themselves in.
At the Gotham Police Department, Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are being led into the building, making good on their earlier promise to Batgirl. Ivy voices reluctance, and Harley insists that they promised—but Catwoman points out that they never promised not to escape. Seeing that her partners are already free, Harley easily liberates herself from her own handcuffs.
Dora Smithy's breath breaks the glass.
On the department's roof, Batgirl meets with the real Commissioner Gordon, who notes that he doesn't think he'll ever feel warm again. Batgirl asks what will happen to Dora, and Gordon tells her that she won't be charged as she's been "punished enough". In Dora's cell at Arkham Asylum, she rests peacefully inside a cryo-chamber, but her eyes suddenly open, revealing them to be solid red. As she exhales, the warmth of her breath cracks the glass on her chamber's window...
Interactive Segment[]
WHO dunnit!?!?
The last bat icon allows the viewer to guess "who dunnit" from the nine primary suspects just before Batgirl reveals the culprit.
Continuity[]
- This would be the second time Barbara Gordon had to deal with an android duplicate of her father. The first time was in "Heart of Steel". However, this would technically be the first time for Batgirl. Similarly, Duplicate Gordon is disposed of in a similar fashion as Duplicate Bullock was in that episode.
Background information[]
Production inconsistencies[]
- On the picture of Nora, Dora and Victor, "beau" is misspelled "beaux", its plural form.
Trivia[]
Gotham Girl's dedication to Hilary J. Bader
- The episode opens with a tribute to Hilary J. Bader, who lived 1952-2002.
- The conclusion of this episode seems to set Dora up for further appearances, but nothing has materialized.
Cast[]
Uncredited appearances[]
Quotes[]
Detective Montoya: After the men reappeared, the Commissioner was different, hardline. Especially when it came to costume-types. |
Dora: (to Commissioner Gordon's frozen body, hearing an alarm go off) Friends of yours, Commissioner? |
Dora: I thought you would understand, Batgirl, that you would see how the costumed villains had to be destroyed. |
Dora: For years, it was just the two of us; Nora and Dora, Dora and Nora, sisters, inseparable ... until he came along, Victor Freeze. I tried to be happy for them, but when Nora got sick, Victor wouldn't let her die in peace. He should have been destroyed, as ... as every costumed menace should be destroyed! |
Closing lines: |