Silent and Smug

Basil has a late night (one-sided) conversation with Ratigan's portrait. This takes place five years before the film starts. For quick context: Basil and Ratigan met at Oxford University and Ratigan was Basil's teacher and mentor (and secret lover for a while). It's thanks to him that Basil became even more clever, too bad the same skills the professor had taught Basil over the course of five years are being used against him now by the detective in a twist of tragic irony. More will be revealed about what happened between them as you read along. At the time this scene takes place, it would have been a total of ten years they knew each other, five years of being lovers and five years being enemies.