When it comes to Batman’s gallery of rogues, Pamela Isley a.k.a. Poison Ivy remains one of the more bizarre and maniacal. This beautiful botanist turned mad eco-terrorist is now best known for being Harley Quinn’s greener half, yet Poison Ivy proved to be a worthy foe all on her own. Batman: The Animated Series alone well illustrated her twisted sense of environmentalism. And in the few instances where Ivy was shown working in a solo capacity, she had a habit of shocking and disgusting the Caped Crusader with her exploits.
Over the course of The Animated Series (later retitled The Adventures of Batman & Robin), Poison Ivy had only three individual outings — four if we count her pumpkin plot in “Almost Got ‘Im”. Her debut, “Pretty Poison”, established her cracked moral compass and utter disregard for humans. After the more intimate crime of poisoning Harvey Dent, Ivy went bigger and bolder in “Eternal Youth”; she targeted all those she accused of ecological malfeasance. Once again, Ivy’s plan hit close to home for Bruce Wayne/Batman when her special brand of green derangement nearly turned Alfred Pennyworth into a tree. It was then Batman realized he was not dealing with a common criminal anymore. No, Poison Ivy was, in Batman’s words, someone “with the convictions of a fanatic.”
Poison Ivy’s villany peaked in her final “true” appearance in the series (more on that later). In “House & Garden”, plant-related burglaries and poisonings have Batman suspecting Ivy is back to her old tricks. However, much to Batman’s surprise, Pamela has turned over a new leaf. Or so she says. Freed from Arkham, and now married to a professor and mother to his two sons from a previous marriage, the former Miss Isley has hung up her nom-de-crime and wristbow. A visit to hers and her family’s Rockwellian home suggests this is the truth. Of course, Batman can’t shake his bad feeling. Not necessarily because he wants Pamela to be guilty, but because he doesn’t want her to squander this second chance at life.
Pictured: In Pamela’s house, Batman and Commissioner Gordon meet the former Poison Ivy’s husband Steven and kids Chris and Kelly.
It is in this Paul Dini-penned and Boyd Kirkland-directed episode where Poison Ivy’s pathos is made loud and clear. As she explains to Batman and Commissioner Gordon, the tradeoff for her hyper immune system is infertility. A hard truth that came up once Pamela felt her maternal instinct kicking in. This admission of hers is a bracing moment of vulnerability which Batman never thought possible. Especially from a woman whose history is best characterized by her misanthropy.
Just when Batman is ready to leave things as they are, the abduction and ransom of his ward, Dick Grayson/Robin, signals another urgent investigation of Pamela. Her house vines doubling as an organic security system would suggest Ivy is up to no good, but again, she emphasizes to the Dark Knight she is, for the first time in her life, happy. Why would she risk that? Why indeed. Batman seems convinced until Robin later catches both his partner and the audience off guard; in a chilling rug-pull, Robin states the professor has two daughters, not two sons.
The remainder of “House & Garden” contains some of the most disturbing imagery and villain unmasking in Batman: The Animated Series. Poison Ivy’s wicked intent here involves an appalling degree of criminality that makes her previous outings look relatively sane. In her latest misuse of science, Ivy has created a family on her own terms. To be more specific, these plant-based, humanoid lifeforms were enhanced by the unwilling husband’s DNA. As if this revelation couldn’t be any more unsettling with its implications, the episode dishes out a visual sequence that makes even Batman sick to his stomach.
Horror was rare and infrequent but not unheard of in this iteration of Batman. More often than not, though, the horror was psychological. Both Clayface and Two-Face demonstrated the show’s penchant for manifesting emotional breakdowns; these villains’ mental collapses were visceral and heartbreaking. Yet for “House & Garden”, the show approached horror in a different way. This cartoon take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers finds Ivy’s “children” being born from plant pods and then hauntingly crying for their “mommy.” Batman’s reaction to the sight says it all. Fans continue to have a hard time scrubbing that scene from their brains.
Pictured: The Caped Crusaders learn the truth about Ivy’s “children.”
Parts of “House & Garden” are indeed ghastly, but the whole story is tragic. Poison Ivy is, with little argument, at her absolute worst here while still remaining rather sympathetic. She commits one violation of the human body after the other, and she possibly never pays for her wrongdoings. At least not in a legal sense. And as the real Poison Ivy makes her escape by plane in the episode’s conclusion, you see how the ordeal has affected her. Perhaps Batman was right in his closing statement: Ivy wasn’t lying about being happy for the first time in her life.
Fans may not realize this, but “House & Garden” was addressed in the tie-in comic series Batman Adventures (2003–2004). In a four-page story (“The Flower Girl”) found in Volume 2, Issue 16, the fate of Ivy was given in a belated epilogue. A scientist named Alec Holland — yes, that Alec Holland — is approached one night by a plant humanoid claiming to be Pamela Isley. Much to Alec’s horror, this creature perishes right before him. That is when the actual Pamela shows up to explain how their unexpected guest was another of her plant clones left behind to keep Batman busy and Harley Quinn company. This afterword is not confirmed as canon, yet the thought of Ivy living a normal, crime-free life should please her fans.
The Batman showrunners have since said the network was quite permissive and supportive during production; there was little to no resistance to the staff’s ideas most of the time. Even in an envelope-pushing, twist-after-twist story like “House & Garden”, Fox went with the flow. The results speak for themselves because fans still cite this as one of the most memorable episodes of the entire series.
Revisit “House & Garden” on Amazon Prime Video, and then after, watch the new animated series Batman: Caped Crusader.
Pictured: In Batman Adventures, it’s revealed all future appearances of Poison Ivy in the DCAU are owed to a plant clone.
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