For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.
Plot
As Luke's life hangs in the balance, the repercussions of his effort to stop a car thief only to be shot by a trigger-happy Crows Security agent lead to some life-changing decisions among the rest of Gotham City's protectors.
Influences
The entire episode is largely inspired by real-world stories of police corruption and unarmed Black men being presented to the media as criminals after being shot by racist police officers.
Goofs
As Luke is being taken into the ER, Ryan asks how many times "she" was shot. Luke has always identified himself with he/him pronouns.
Ryan makes reference to Agent Tavaroff disrupting her sting operation in 213, saying that it occurred two weeks ago. Based on the events of the episode and the previous episodes (per the scenes of Alice escaping from Black Mask and going after Enigma) it can't have been more than three days.
Why would Tavaroff and his associate flee from Batwoman after hitting her with a car? (Perhaps they arrogantly assumed that would be enough to kill her?)
Performances
It's impossible to single out any member of the ensemble here as they give it their all throughout the episode.
Bat Trivia
This episode confirms that Enigma was the daughter of the Arrowverse version of The Riddler and that he is still alive and active.
Technobabble
According to Mary, Luke was shot twice. The first bullet injured his kidney, spleen and colon. The second tore through a major vein and caused massive blood loss.
According to Sophie, all the bodycam metadata from the Crows' devices is sent to an air-gapped server and cleared every night at 3 AM.
Dialogue Triumphs
(Mary confronts Alice in Bruce Wayne's office.)
Mary: How are you still even here? Didn't False Face deal with you already?
Alice: Actually, that's what brings me. I was wondering if you had any unexpected run-ins with Black Mask's side chick? Goes by Circe.
Mary: Never heard of her.
Alice: Are you sure? She used to run around in a wooden hockey mask. Now she's a supermodel-esque assassin.
Mary: I'm sorry. Why am I supposed to care about this person?
(There's a long pause as Alice considers how much to say.)
Alice: You aren't, and turns out, she doesn't care about you either. Well, helpful as always. Toodles.
Mary: Uh-uh. There's always a reason with you. Who is she?
Alice: Turns out Black Mask is the only person who hates the Kane family more than I do, and as much as I'm unwilling to admit it, that includes you. Watch your back, steppy.
Mary: (disbelief) So you came here to warn me out of the... goodness of your empty chest cavity?
Alice: Enemy of my enemy and all that. Aren't you besties with Batty? Maybe it's worth keeping her within reach if you want to live.
(Alice turns around, and enters the elevator but Mary suddenly speaks.)
Mary: I know you're in love!
(Alice turns to look at Mary, her face betraying no emotion.)
Mary: And maybe if you'd seen it earlier in your life, you might not be the monster that you are today. As much as I hate you, Alice, everyone deserves love
(Alice just stares at Mary as the elevator doors close.)
(Batwoman saves Jacob Kane from being killed by his own men.)
Jacob: Thanks.
Batwoman: You know what I gave up to save your ass? Clearing Luke Fox's name. Your boys are trying to ruin his life.
Jacob: I... I didn't know it was this bad.
Batwoman: Yeah? Well, you should have. You want to do good, I get it. I bend the rules, too, but at least I have a code. What's yours? I gave you the match and the gas can, Commander. It's up to you to do the rest. Burn it down. Or you're just as bad as them.
Jacob Kane: I started the Crows because I wanted to protect Gotham from the kind of monsters who would highjack a school bus and run a family off the road like they were nothing, but somewhere along the way, the Crows began cutting corners to get results. While Agent Tavaroff is directly responsible for what happened to Mr. Fox, I am guilty of harboring these types of actions for years. I want to offer a direct apology to the Fox family for all the hurt that we have caused, but these are not isolated moments, and apologies mean nothing without actions. I have therefore come to the conclusion that there is only one way to make amends. As the founder and majority shareholder, I have decided to disband the Crows effective immediately.
Continuity
The episode opens with the closing scene of 214, showing how Luke Fox was shot by Agent Tavaroff.
Luke is confirmed to be 27 years old.
As Luke is taken into the ER, he is stable, but he's lost a liter of blood.
Agent Tavaroff's partner is Agent Miller.
Agvent Tavaroff lies at the inquiry into his shooting of Luke Fox, saying that he was carrying a gun and reaching for it when he shot him.
Jacob says that he knew Luke Fox from when he worked for his daughter and said he didn't seem the type to carry a gun.
While in a coma, Luke sees himself in Bruce Wane's office, with a blinding light coming from the window. He sees a figure looking out the window, whom he recognizes as his father. He is also met by a figure who looks like Bruce Wayne, who says that if Luke talks to his father, it will mean he's given up on living.
Mary says that she was on the phone with Luke before he confronted the car thief and that he identified the thief as Eli; the man he shared a cell with in 214.
Mary intends to give Luke the Desert Rose serum, as his condition is still touch-and-go despite being stable.
Ryan decides to go after Eli and find out the details of how Luke got shot, as it still hasn't been revealed that he was shot by The Crows.
Alice goes through Enigma's records and discovers files for Jacob Kane, Mary Hamilton and Kate Kane, with notes to give them to Roman Sionis.
Ocean confirms that Enigma is the daughter of The Riddler and suggests that hiding the evidence of her death is a good idea. This confirms that The Riddler is still alive and active.
Eli tells Ryan that The Crows shot Luke and they didn't even chase after him after he ran off once the gunplay started. He also claims to have never handled a gun in his life.
Eli is able to give Ryan the name of the cop who shot Luke: Tavaroff.
The news report on Luke's shooting mentions protests over the Crows using excessive firepower to contain the Snakebite Zombie epidemic in 214.
Ryan has no idea how to access the Internet on the Bat Computer.
Ryan identifies Agent Tavaroff as the Crow who led the massacre at the church in 214 and the one who crashed her effort to bring down a False Face operation in the opening scene of 213.
Alice shows up at Bruce Wayne's office and intentionally sets off an alarm. She tells Mary that Black Mask is gunning for the whole Kane family, including her, so she should be careful.
Mary tells Alice that, as much as she hates her, she is glad she found love with Ocean.
Ryan attacks Tavaroff as Batwoman, but he unrepentantly says Luke was a criminal who had been released from prison just hours before he tried shooting Tavaroff.
Tavaroff escapes after another Crows agent hits Ryan with a truck.
Alice seeks Ocean out in his subway car and confirms that she does want to be with him but she wants it all - him AND her sister back.
Ryan calls Sophie in to learn all she can about Tavaroff and his friends in the Crows.
Mary is unable to get in to give Luke the Desert Rose serum, as he's been guarded by two of Tavaroff's flunkies who are keeping everyone except hospital personnel away from him.
The Crows release altered body-cam footage of Luke which changes his phone into a gun. Their official statement is quick to note that Luke had been released from prisons hour before his confrontation with the Crows.
The gun Luke was allegedly carrying was previously tied to a armed robbery, meaning Luke will be charged with robbery and assault once he wakes up from his coma.
As Sophie and Ryan plan, it is 1:45 AM. This gives them a little over an hour before the original body-cam footage is cleared from the Crows' server at 3 AM.
Ryan makes reference to the two Crows who tried to run over Wolf Spider in 205, whom Sophie got fired.
Luke asks "Bruce" if his being there means that he is dead too, but "Bruce" won't answer him.
Sophie goes to Jacob Kane and tells him that Tavaroff is fixing data on the Luke Fox case.
Sophie mentions the cover-up around Lucius Fox's murder, which was exposed in 117.
After leaving Jacob's office, Sophie plants a hacking device on the back of a monitor in Crow's HQ.
Sophie helps Ryan plot an assault on the Crow's server from the Bat Cave.
Mary goes back to the hospital and distracts the Crows guarding Luke, as Wolf Spider enters Luke's room and injects him with the Desert Rose serum.
After Luke is injected with the serum, he begins to disappear from the spiritual office.
Bruce tells him that his body is healing and that if he doesn't make a choice soon, the choice will be made for him.
Jacob Kane speaks to Tavaroff and questions how an upstanding citizen like Luke Fox, who heads security for a major company, could suddenly be committing petty crimes like GTA and robbery.
Kane also questions Tavaroff's actions during "the Snakebite case"(i.e. 214) which he says happened two days ago.
Tavaroff makes reference to Jacob Kane's boobytrap for Batwoman in 120.
Jacob tries to suspend Tavariff pending an investigation into his recent behavior. Tavaroff responds by knocking Jacob out.
Ryan is able to hack into the Crows' server, but discovers that none of the body cam files are named based on the date and don't seem to be organized by date.
Sophie informs Ryan that Tavaroff and his team had Jacob Kane in his office and he appears to be unconscious
Tavaroff discovers the Snakebite kits in Kane's trash and outs him as an addict to his fellow agents, before suggesting they stage an overdose and give him a lethal dose while he's out..
Batwoman saves Jacob, but lets him know how unhappy she is about it because she had to give up a chance to clear Luke Fox's name to do it. She urges him to do something about the corruption in his own company.
Despite Luke's vitals stabilizing, he still hasn't woken up the next morning as Ryan and Mary are waiting with him.
Jacob Kane calls a press conference, confirms that Luke was innocent and that there was a conspiracy within Crows Security to frame him. He notes that Tavaroff and Miller are currently being held by the GCPD on charges of assault with intent to kill. He also announces that he is closing Crows' Security, effective immediately.
Mary specifically tells Luke that she needs him, hinting that she's romantically interested in him.
Luke decides to stay with his father, but is pulled back into the waking world before he can walk to him.
Sophie meets with Jackob as he's locking up Crows' HQ. He affirms she was his best agent.
Alice is waiting in Jacob's car when he is leaving Crows' HQ. She tells him that Kate is alive and being held in the thrall of Black Mask.
Untelevised Adventures
Sophie mentions a case from two years ago where evidence suddenly materialized that convicted a serial rapist she had captured.
The Killing Jokes
As Alice points out, the fact that she and the False Face society both had no trouble breaking into the parking garage of Crows' Security on multiple occasions indicates they weren't that good at their jobs.
The Bottom Line
Despite some wonky continuity issues in the dialogue, where the writers forgot that one episode does not equal one week, this is a powerful episode. That power comes more from the ensemble than the writing, however, but it is to the credit of the actors that they can make this work as well as it does.
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