Even with only 10 episodes in its first season, DC animation legend Bruce Timm‘s latest return to Gotham, Batman: Caped Crusader, delivers plenty of memorable installments in the Batman mythos. Executive produced by The Batman director Matt Reeves and featuring unique twists on some of Batman’s classic villains, the series balances familiar narrative territory with engaging action sequences and compelling side characters, rehashing Batman’s early days of crime-fighting while also building his classic relationships with city officials like Commissioner Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart). Timm’s newest animated Batman series isn’t afraid of embracing the dark side of Gotham either, however, with the deaths of recognizable rogues like Firefly (Tom Kenny) underscoring the show’s brutal tone, and nowhere does Caped Crusader‘s gut-wrenching atmosphere hit harder than in Episode 8, “Nocturne.”

What Is ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’s “Nocturne” Episode About?

An adaptation of a storyline originally banned for Batman: The Animated Series, “Nocturne” takes place in the final days of Harvey Dent’s (Diedrich Bader) doomed campaign in Batman: Caped Crusader and features some of the most unsettling visuals in the series so far. The plot unfolds with the arrival of a traveling carnival — which, in Gotham, is never a good sign — that the embattled mayoral candidate hopes to use to boost his poll numbers, featuring eccentric acts like Dr. Anton Knight’s traveling laboratory and a brief cameo by one of Batman’s most intimidating animated villains, Waylon Jones (Cedric Yarbrough). Harvey’s free press and shady dealings with crime boss Rupert Thorne are soon interrupted, however, by the news that several children have gone missing, setting up a search that culminates in one of Batman: Caped Crusader’s most devastating moments.

Even before the disappearances are reported, viewers are clued into the cause of the missing children early in Episode 8. Natalia Knight (Mckenna Grace), Anton’s sister and the antagonist Nocturna from DC Comics, is shown luring her victims away from prying eyes just before the carnival opens the previous night, draining the kids of part of their life force with an unnerving, unhinged jaw in order to sustain her own. Suffering from a rare affliction which gives her the same sensitivity to sunlight and hunger as a vampire, it doesn’t take long for Hamish Linklater‘s Batman to catch on in Batman: Caped Crusader, but the Dark Knight still isn’t able to track down the nocturnal culprit before she successfully drains three victims and hunts down an unlucky fourth. Even Anton, who grows uncomfortable with Natalia’s kidnappings, fails to stop her, as the vampiric girl knocks him against a wall of their trailer rather than live with unsatisfied hunger.

‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Episode 8 Is a Tribute to a Childhood Spent With Batman

Aside from how Natalia exploits her victims’ innocence, what makes Nocturna’s feedings so distressing to watch is how the kids’ appearances in “Nocturne” connect so closely to the nostalgia of Batman’s tragic TV legacy. Brought to the carnival as part of a trip by a local orphanage, the kids are initially supervised by Dr. Leslie Thompkins (Donna Lynne Champlin), an underrated member of the Bat-Family first introduced in Batman: The Animated Series as a maternal figure for a conflicted Bruce Wayne. As someone who has known Bruce since he was a child himself, Leslie’s appearance evokes all the trauma and tragedy of Bruce’s turbulent upbringing, giving audiences a subtle reminder of the dark persona he spent years cultivating after experiencing the horrors of Crime Alley.

The identities of Natalia’s victims in Episode 8 of Batman: Caped Crusader also introduce an element of fun to the episode, however, as each child is a tongue-in-cheek reference to one of DC’s various Robins introduced to Gotham over the years. As young, nicknamed versions of Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown, and Carrie Kelly, the presence of these DC Easter eggs pays homage to the history of Batman’s sidekicks over the years, capturing the adventurous spirit of Batman’s partners when Carrie Kelly bravely fends off Natalia’s attack with her classic slingshot. Yet, just as many of Batman’s partners were eventually forced to confront the harsh realities of Gotham’s underbelly, the children of “Nocturne” aren’t able to prevent their own upbringings from being interrupted by the dark emergence of Natalia’s soul-sucking appetite.

“Nocturne” Proves Children Are the True Heart of Batman’s Character

While the experiences of some of these later Robins, such as the infamous death of Jason Todd, solidify ruined adolescence as a popular theme in Batman stories, “Nocturne” masterfully captures how Batman’s true power is informed by his own experiences as a troubled orphan. After interrupting Natalia’s efforts to kidnap Carrie, he reveals that Natalia accidentally killed Anton instead of simply wounding him in their trailer, leading to the child vampire breaking down just as dawn breaks through the woods. Rather than following Carrie’s suggestion and allowing the girl to burn up in the sun though, the Batman of Matt Reeves and Bruce Timm’s reboot chooses to wrap his cape around her and carry Natalia to safety, demonstrating the hero’s deep empathy for children haunted by their own personal tragedies.

While Batman could easily have adopted the same logic Christian Bale‘s Batman used to justify allowing Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) to die without killing him in Christopher Nolan‘s Batman Begins, “Nocturne” allows Batman’s mercy to showcase the character’s tender side, offering fans a rare glimpse into the hero’s feelings through his special connection to troubled children. As someone who once blamed himself for his parents’ deaths, Batman can sympathize with a child who finds blood on their hands, and Dr. Thompkins’ appearance in “Nocturne” is a stark reminder that Batman knows what it’s like for a kid to suddenly have their childhood interrupted by grief. In fact, Batman’s reassuring scene with the distraught Natalia calls back to one of the most heartbreaking scenes of another Bruce Timm animated project, Justice League Unlimited, when Kevin Conroy‘s own crusader comforted Ace (Hynden Welch) in the girl’s final moments in one of the most iconic Batman episodes on television.

Beyond simply sympathizing with fellow traumatized children, however, Batman actively seeks to give back what was stolen in Episode 8 of Batman: Caped Crusader. While other installments in the series entertain audiences with villainish gimmicks or make refreshing changes to characters like Harvey Dent, “Nocturne” derives its power from depicting the theme of broken childhood at the heart of Batman’s story. Natalia’s accidental murder of her brother harkens back to Batman’s own history of childhood loss, cutting deeper into the darkness that makes the character than any other episode in Timm’s adaptation. At the same time, the scene of Batman reuniting the children safely at the episode’s end shows how the character still works to provide other kids with what he could never have, making this Batman episode a comfort for anyone ever forced to grow up too fast.

Batman: Caped Crusader is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.