User blog comment:Rassilon of Old/Ep. 124 "Performance" discussion/@comment-4803933-20120408054544/@comment-4991912-20120409014523

my bet is on before the "mission" even started, because if some interpol guy can see a connection between a circus and criminal activty, you'd bet batman could figure it out too. He was probably even going to make it a mission (without robin probably; because he could end up re-living painful memories) but when robin went out on his own, he probably just thought it would be a good time to test their initiative and individual skills.