Batman: The Animated Series: 10 Most Disturbing Episodes

Hailing from The New Batman Adventures, this episode sees Batman's new Robin, Tim Drake, run into an amnesiac girl whom he dubs Annie. Discovering that she is on the run from her father, Tim makes it his mission to help Annie, despite her insistence that he should stay away for his own safety.

However, this is where we get one of the greatest twists in the DCAU. You see, it turns out that Annie's "father" is actually Clayface and Annie is actually a part of his flesh that he had moulded into an individual entity and sent out as a scout while he recovered from previous injuries. A fact which Annie was tragically unaware of.

Despite this revelation, Tim fights to protect Annie until the end, still believing that she has the right to be her own person. But in the end it's actually Annie who saves Tim by charging at Clayface as he's about to kill him. Unfortunately though, by doing this she becomes stuck in his flesh and is reabsorbed back into his body in a scene that is positively traumatising to watch.

Not only is this scene incredibly grotesque, but if we do accept that Annie was a living person, as Tim does, then that means that Clayface actually murdered a child. That's a topic that most other children's programs wouldn't dare touch! Couple that with Tim's heartache over the loss of his new friend, and you have an incredibly dark story where there is no happy ending.