- Title: Batman Beyond – Dead Man’s Hand
- wiki: link
Today’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to the future for another episode of Batman Beyond. During a break with Dana (Lauren Tom), Terry (Will Friedle) meets Melanie Walker (Olivia d’Abo), a new girl in town. The two make an instant connection and seem to understand what each is going through. At the same time a new Royal Flush Gang arrives in Gotham City led by a King (George Lazenby) with a grudge to settle against Batman for breaking up an earlier version of the family years before. The reason Melanie understands Terry so well is that she too spends nights in spandex under the gruff leadership of an older, driven man.
Although the break-up with Dana is pretty coincidental with Melanie’s arrival, the earlier episodes in the series offer plenty of reasons for Dana and Terry to put things on hold. Despite her role as a reluctant villain in the family’s business, Melanie fits easily into Terry’s life (so easily that he doesn’t give Dana a second thought after meeting Melanie). Because the episode predates the appearance of an earlier Royal Flush gang on Justice League, this marks the villains first (but hardly their last) appearance in the DC Animated Universe.
