There’s often a cloud of futility surrounding the experiences that adventure developer Telltale Games delivers. You have control over some of the broad strokes, but each story hurtles inexorably towards a fixed, predestined conclusion. As a result, it’s easy to feel disillusioned by this particular type of gaming experience. And all too often, it’s easier still to predict what lies at the end. Batman: The Enemy Within has consistently bucked this trend, delivering several surprising diversions from what is generally accepted as canon. It’s done this to such a successful degree that I actually started wondering whether or not Telltale would actually commit wholesale to the direction that made its take on the Dark Knight so refreshing. Well, it’s no fluke. Episode 5 – Same Stitch is one of the wildest finales Telltale has ever pulled off; admirably completing its circuit and establishing Batman: The Enemy Within as one of the best games they’ve ever produced.

If there’s one element of Batman: The Enemy Within that feels somewhat locked in place by the threads of fate, it’s John Doe. He’s a treasure of a character, and through him, Telltale plays perhaps the cruelest game imaginable with our emotions. We’re shown without much ambiguity that this is a man who is, to paraphrase the late Roger Ebert’s description of classic villain Dr. Hannibal Lecter, "a good man to the degree that his nature allow[s] him to be." He’s intensely likable but emotionally volatile. Not so much overtly evil as deeply troubled. And he unquestionably, without a shadow of a doubt, absolutely adores both Bruce Wayne and his alter ego.

This is the most important plot in Batman: The Enemy Within, and it boils to a head in Episode 5 – Same Stitch. Though there’s some inevitability in the development of Doe’s relationship with Bruce, his development into the Joker is a bit more nuanced. I get the feeling that most players will experience it more or less how I did. His groupie/fanboy personality has been nurtured to such an extreme that he’s taken up the mantle of crime fighting – as with all things, in the service of pleasing his idol Bruce Wayne/Batman. However, his mental state and lack of scruples leads him to create conflicts that our hero wants to avoid. I didn’t quite buy his penultimate breakdown and consequent rampage, but man did I care about this guy.

Batman: The Enemy Within appears to have bitten off slightly more than it can chew, as not all of the story threads introduced over the course of the last four episodes amount to all that much. Agency head Amanda Waller’s underhanded, seemingly sinister actions regarding SANCTUS and Project LOTUS are left somewhat open, as I suppose they should. Less ambiguous, however, is her decision to weaponize the remainder of The Pact in her efforts to shut down Batman, arrest John Doe, and keep the truth covered up. While it provides the lion’s share of the action in Episode 5 – Same Stitch, I don’t really know where it was intended to take the story.

The primary conflict that drives Batman: The Enemy Within is resolved a solid half-hour before the credits roll. Without giving too much away, Telltale has crafted an unexpected but emotionally resonant denouement that test Bruce’s character as well as Batman’s. Some of the themes have been explored before (particularly in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight), but none of them have relied on player input to determine the integrity of our hero’s moral compass. One conversation in particular had me marveling at how often silence was the best option, while another threatened to make a hypocrite out of Batman. It’s riveting stuff.

There are issues with Batman: The Enemy Within: Episode 5 – Same Stitch. Issues that might have sunk a lesser experience. But because what came before is so strong and because this finale’s strengths are so powerful, they’re fairly easy to overlook. To make a long story short, the problems I have almost exclusively deal with story elements that are secondary at best. I honestly feel that most players will have the same reaction.

Let’s just say that the ending I saw left me curious about the future of this series – specifically, whether or not there is a future for it to begin with. Regardless of what’s in store, I’m not at all sorry I played through Batman: The Enemy Within, as it’s comfortably among the best Telltale games I’ve played.