Poison Ivy Could Never Reform | House and Garden | Batman the Animated Series

In this video I take a look at another villain reform episode from The Adventures of Batman and Robin, House and Garden. Poison Ivy appears to have reformed, settled down, and acts as the happy little homemaker. However, things are not as they seem.

This episode perfectly demonstrates how Poison Ivy would never really be able to reform due to her obsessive fanaticism.

#batman #batmantheanimatedseries #poisonivy

Chapters:
0:00 Poison Ivy's Early Days
1:30 The Adventures of Batman and Robin Rebranding
2:44 Poison Ivy and Family
5:36 Poison Ivy's Scheme
7:11 Ivy could Never Reform
8:32 The Evolution of Her Mission

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[Marsh]

“I meant it when I said I wanted a family, I just wanted it on my terms”. People forget the second part of that quote to make Pam more sympathetic. She’s a control freak, it has to be her way or the highway. Also with Eternal Youth she is more focused on punishing people than helping the environment. She attacks people, not companies. Also seeing how she was fine with Alfred and Maggie, it doesn’t even seem to matter WHO suffers just as long as someone slightly connected to the destruction of plant life does. Can you imagine someone trying to kill you because you were friends with someone who works at a car dealership (as a sales clerk no less) because “cars harm the environment”? That is something Ivy would do!

[micmen]

As someone who had worked in a hospital full of divorced-dad doctors, the idea that Dr. Carlyle would just never see his kids again after marrying Ivy is 100% believable because it sadly happens a LOT. But I do agree that there still many holes in her plan.

[alexlemonds]

I think something people overlook in Pretty Poison is that, there were other potential methods for her to administer the rose poison to Harvey Dent, but she chose lipstick because Ivy does get a twisted elation from playing the part of a femme fatale. It's a turn on. Also, she could've simply told them about the rose, had it relocated and preserved somewhere else, before construction of Stonegate ever began. Pam went the route she did because it was an excuse to hurt who she saw as monsters, when ironically she's the one breeding a man eating flytrap in her greenhouse.
Practically everything she does plays into her desire to use, lie to and harm others.

[oraclemirai]

Looking back, this is up there in the most up thing a Gotham villain has done. It's telling that she bolts leaving behind a clone before even she knows she'd be having a life sentence in actual prison. But it's this episode that really does it for in why I couldn't even like Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn as a couple. She's equally monstrous to the Joker, only she hides her awfulness through sweet sounding words and a pretty face. She's actually just as abusive as the Joker to Harley in the tie-in comics. While the episode wants her to be sympathetic, it rings somewhat hollow in a tragic way. She can't change...and some villains are just like that.

[WarhawkBeyond]

Out of all of the Poison Ivy episodes, House & Garden remains a special favourite for me because it was the first time that we ever saw a villain try to go straight. You really believed that she wanted to change, settle down, have a family and be happy but in the end, we truly saw just how messed up Ivy really was. One of the best ones from BTAS

[hordakprime]

One of the things I miss is this version of Ivy. Now people try to say she's just complex or something like that. Another reason I hate Harley for making people think Ivy's redeemable. I feel like a good take on Ivy's relationship with Harley is that it's just another example of Ivy having someone to control.

[jacktoma]

It was funny to hear Jim Cummings as the voice of the Shocker in the Spiderman 90s cartoon. He’s trying his best to sound intimidating, but just ends up sounding like an evil version of Tigger.

[cheezemonkeyeater]

I really liked this particular episode for Poison Ivy. I find the idea of it interesting for what it says about Poison Ivy. It shows a side of her that we don't otherwise see, a side that wants to actually be motherly and caring, but also shows how she's so warped in her perspective that she can't just do that on its own. It has to be through some weird scheme involving plants that look like people because, at heart, she actually hates people.
And, you know what? Even as deranged as it sounds, I personally could have given it to her. If it means she stops being an eco-terrorist, gets out of crime, sure, let her have her weird little bush babies. If that makes her happy enough that she stops hurting other people, more power to her.
But she just couldn't leave it at that. She had to base her scheme around a kidnapping so she could use that person as a source of DNA for her experiments. She has so little regard for the lives of other people that she never once considered asking consent. She went ahead and did it her way without a thought for the effects it had on the lives of others.
And the final shot of her escaping on a plane is a perfect capstone. She's miserable because something she wanted, something that actually made her happy, was lost and she lost it because of her own actions.

[stevenmattrell]

This episode terrified me as a kid. Our babysitter at the time introduced me and my brother to BTAS and this was one of the few episodes we couldn't get through as the reveal of Ivy creating the plant-babies was pure nightmare fuel for me as a child.

[PristineMess]

I really enjoy Ivy as a character, mostly because I related to her anger quite a lot, probably too much in fact. I worked on a LOT of stuff about myself since then however, so while that anger is still there, I'm managing it better and have become more rational in terms of how I want to make the world a better place. This episode is one of my favorites bc I interpreted it as Ivy taking a tiny step in her journey towards redemption, she had a very very long way to go, but that last scene of her crying in the plane oof it really gets to me, and I couldn't help but hope she got the help she needed like I did

[randontimberwolf]

I came across this episode last month, and it amazes me how everyone swipt this under the rug. I knew Gotham was corrupt, but I didn't think other villains would let would let this slide.

[GhostPlanetFilms]

In the Batman graphic novel _No Man's Land_ Gotham is hit with a nasty earthquake and is reduced to gangland territory, where all the villains fight for control of the area.

Poison Ivy plays a very interesting part in this story.
She takes over a park and looks after the orphaned children that have fled there.
Every time I think of this episode of BTAS, I'm reminded of her role in NML.

[pepito]

She’s far from Joker levels of irredeemability

However Poison Ivy seems to be the type to be stuck to her ways in her extremist actions

[mattbaines]

This is a fantastic episode that creeped me out and thrilled me as a child. I always thought though that the chilling implication was that Ivy had mulched the doctor's children along with him, when she replaced them with her plant clones... Is that not right? I know now that explicitly depicting child endangerment would not fly at the time, but perhaps the subtle insinuation could slip under the radar?

[ggbetz]

I always liked pam as a smart villainess. Shes certainly controlling as others have said, i don't mind the sympathetic backstory bc it doesnt excuse her actions. I like her as a voice of reason to harley, i liked her wrist mounted crossbow, but man she gets the most sexualized of batman characters. Not a prude, it just gets too distracting. I also like that like mr freeze, she can be complex and work with heroes if its FOR SCIENCE and of course there'll be an inevitable betrayal, comes with the territory. Not something you can do with joker. I think its good writing that she might never be rehabilitated (personally, I dont think shes insane, just fanatical), but she's obviously mostly rational, has feelings and friendships, wants a family, and has a memory book. She also has different responses to different batfamily members

I liked house and garden a lot as an episode. It was definitely her best one. Great plot and body horror.

[tylerbertram]

It's my personal headcanon that after the events of Return of the Joker that Ivy eventually did reform, married Harley, left Gotham to live a normal life, adopted kids with Harley, and after the events of Batman Beyond died in Harleys arms.

[comicfan]

Wow! Who could’ve guessed an Eco terrorist, who is perfectly fine with letting massive quantities of innocent bystanders die just to save a few blades of grass wouldn’t reform so easily?

Jokes aside, it is always tragic to see a villain try to redeem themselves only to fail and just prove why they are a villain

[rainbowtoyfunrandomess]

Even though Poison Ivy can hardly reform, you can't help but relate to her because she's protecting the environment including her precious rose plants plus her relationship with Harley Quinn is very sweet. Her actions don't really excuse this, but you can't help but feel bad for Poison Ivy.🌹🥀

[WhiteFangofWar]

Jim Cummings has great yet distinctive range. Pete, Darkwing Duck/Negaduck, Shocker in Spider-Man, Fat Cat in Rescue Rangers, Tomator in The Lost Vikings... For a long time he was Disney's go-to for a sinister raspy villain voice. If his voice on these plant creatures sounds derpy, it's because he was instructed to make them like that.

A human criminal leader reforming is difficult enough. Someone who has mutated themselves into a plant hybrid is going to have an even more difficult time being 'normal'. It might be possible for her to live in a jungle like most other plants are content to do, perhaps as a kind of guardian, but that would never be enough for Ivy. She's still too full of the human traits of ambition and vindictiveness.

[squeethemog]

As a fan of body horror I loved this episode. Thanks for covering it 🙏😃