Spoilers for “Batman: Caped Crusader” Season 2 Episode 7, “Her Dark Reflection.”

“Batman: Caped Crusader” makes a point of not depicting classic Batman villains in the ways most fans would expect. Series developer Bruce Timm, most famous as co-creator of the beloved “Batman: The Animated Series,” has made it clear he didn’t just want to revive that show, but do something unique.

Hence, last season on “Caped Crusader,” we had a Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Deidrich Bader) who actually became a better person after getting acid thrown in his face. “Caped Crusader” Season 2 brings in many more of the Gotham City rogues gallery A-list, and the revamping doesn’t stop.

The most baffling change is, unfortunately, also the villain who gets the most screen time: Eddie Nygma/The Riddler (Ronan Raftery). Here, he’s not a genius obsessed with puzzles, riddles, and proving himself smarter than Batman; he’s a Tommy gun-wielding gangster. (The nickname seems to refer to how he “riddles” his victims with bullets, which … not the most intuitive label.) The “Caped Crusader” Riddler is genuinely despicable, but at least he gets his comeuppance in “Her Dark Reflection.”

The “Caped Crusader” Season 2 trailer showed a red-haired woman dressed in green who fights with a whip. Most Bat-fans, yours truly included, rushed to the conclusion this was Poison Ivy. “Batman: The Animated Series” featured Ivy (Diane Pershing) heavily and has shaped future portrayals, and depicting her as a glamorous, film noir femme fatale feels like the kind of reinvention that’d fit in “Caped Crusader.”

But we were wrong. The villainess is actually a much more obscure plant-themed DC character: Rose and Thorn, named for her contrasting dual personalities. To underline how under the radar Rose and Thorn are, this is their first appearance in animation.

Rose and Thorn in the comics have little to no ties to Batman — but there’s creative overlap between her and Poison Ivy. The original version, Rose Canton, was created as a villain for the Flash in 1947 by John Broome and Carmine Infantino. A new version, named Rose Forrest, debuted in 1970’s “Superman’s Girlfriend: Lois Lane” #105, created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru. 

Infantino and Kanigher, alongside Sheldon Moldoff, are also the co-creators of Poison Ivy, who debuted in 1966 after the Adam West “Batman” TV show created demand for more female villains. Rose and Thorn shows Infantino had created a plant-themed villainess two decades before Poison Ivy, while Poison Ivy might have in turn inspired Kanigher’s reintroduction of Rose and Thorn.

In “Caped Crusader,” Rose Forrest (Fryda Wolff) is the daughter of a flower shop owner murdered by the Riddler. Thorn seemingly wakes up through the cracks of Rose’s broken heart and devises her vengeance. She puts together a moll persona (including a dark red wig that pointedly conceals half her face), seduces the Riddler, and even helps him take on Batman. Once Eddie’s trust in her is cemented, Thorn lures Riddler to his death, riddling him with bullets like so many of his victims.

Rose and Thorn hadn’t been completely forgotten by DC Comics before “Caped Crusader.” In 2004, writer Gail Simone penned an eponymous Rose and Thorn comic miniseries. But anecdotally, Rose and Thorn is still obscure enough that I, a card-carrying DC expert, didn’t recognize her at first in “Caped Crusader.” Featuring a character no other Batman cartoon has, though, was a much more refreshing choice than what I’d first feared: a Poison Ivy watered down into the Riddler’s sidekick.

“Batman: Caped Crusader” is streaming on Prime Video.