Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 20 - O, Mouse!

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

Jacob Kane forms an uneasy alliance with Batwoman to catch an Arkham Asylum escapee on a rampage. Meanwhile, things come to a head between Alice, Mouse and Hush, as Alice attempts to put her house in order while plotting how to best bring Batwoman down. 

Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka & J.H. Williams and the Heart of Hush storyline.

Goofs

It beggars belief that a big guy like Tim "The Titan" Teslow can walk around Gotham City in an orange jumpsuit wielding twin machetes and go unnoticed, particularly since he's making no attempt to stay hidden.

Perhaps the most ludicrous conceit of the episode is that he manages to get into Gotham University's stadium undetected, despite it being surrounded by The Crows, and that he shuts down the power before taking down several men in body armor.

Why don't The Crows shoot at Teslow while he is charging Batwoman on the field? Why do they wait until after Batwoman spends a minute talking him down, apart from it making it clear just how evil The Crows are? Most annoyingly, why don't they try shooting her uncovered face rather than her well-armored chest?

Performances

Rachel Skarsten absolutely nails Alice's monologue as Mouse dies.

Artistry

The opening action sequence on the train is one of the best in the show's history.

Bat Trivia

It is confirmed in this episode that Batman was given a piece of Kryptonite by Superman in case it was ever necessary to end his life. Superman also did this in the comics.

The episode ends with Alice having given Hush the face of Bruce Wayne. The same thing happened in the comics, in the storyline Heart of Hush.

Technobabble

The Crows release an app to the general public that can be used to summon them in the event of an emergency relating to Alice or the other Arkham escapees. 

Kryptonite is described as a mineral with a natural green luminescence and strong covalent bonds.

Kryptonite is nonreactive to acetic, hydrochloric and sulfuric acid. 

Mary says that Tim Teslow's Dorsal Posterior Insular (the part of the brain that regulates pain) shriveled down to next to nothing after years of traumatic head injuries. This explains why he felt nothing when he fought Kate.

A trauma-bond exercise is a psychological event where you destroy something that connects you to your pain as a way of moving on. In this case, Alice suggests destroying her copy of Alice in Wonderland with Mouse so they can move on to a new life.

Luke was finally able to destroy the Kryptonite using a hydraulic press generating 40,000 pounds of compressive force.

Dialogue Triumphs

Mary: You told me that The Crows wanted to make over their image. Why not start by allying yourself with someone the city actually roots for?

Jacob: You did this?
Mary: I knew I'm one of the only people who could get through to you! (sighs) I believe in her Dad!

Jacob: Mary - I said anyone affiliated with her will be brought to justice.
Mary: Then arrest me! Arrest me for believing in someone who saves lives and who stops criminals and who inspires hope without charging a penny for it! I'm your daughter and if I don't believe in what you're doing , how can you expect a city of strangers to?!

(Alice and Mouse are burning their copy of Alice In Wonderland.)

Mouse: What happened to us should never happen to anyone. But there's no one in the world I would rather have gone through it with than you.
Alice: (sniffling) Nor I without you. And I mean this - with all of my heart. (pauses) I still want to join you in the beautiful garden, and smell the seasons in bright flower beds, and make a wish in cool fountains. I want to meet a man with many hats and smile back at the Cheshire Cat. And run... with you forever.... through our Wonderland.

(Mouse reaches up to his nose. Blood has begun to run from it.)

Mouse: Alice? 

(Alice shakes her head, holding back the sobs and trying to avoid Mouse's gaze.)

Mouse: What did you do?!
Alice: (suddenly bitter, intense) You made me choose. 

Mouse: You poisoned me?!  Why did you do that?!
Alice: (softly, stammering) Be-Because I couldn't let you leave me! Not you too!

Mouse: This...this wasn't even real?

(Mouse moans and pitches forward. Alice takes his head into her lap and begins stroking his hair. She begins crying freely.)
Alice: If only pain could turn to ash, with the strike of a match. (intensely, hissing the words) But my pain is a part of me, the way my family is a part of me.And you could never understand why I need to enact my revenge. Because you have never experienced true betrayal. (sadly) At least not until now.

(Alice bursts out crying again.)

Alice: Goodbye, my sweet Mouse. My brother. My everything.  I'll see you again in Wonderland.

Continuity

Kate saves Jacob from a psychotic man on the subway, in her civilian identity. The man beheads another man before making his escape.

Vesper Fairchild identifies the psychotic man as former college football star Tim "The Titan" Teslow.

Tim Teslow was a Tight-End for the Gotham Goliaths before he was committed. He was the best in the team's history, scoring at least one touchdown in every game he played, making 100 catches and rushing 1000 yards each season.

Mouse wants to leave Gotham and start a new life with Alice somewhere else.

Alice is insistent she needs to kill Kate before she can leave Gotham, which means finding the Kryptonite mentioned in Lucius Fox's journal.

Hush insists that Alice keep up her end of the bargain and get him a new face, which she promised in exchange for Lucius Fox's journal and help translating it.

Luke says that the shard of Kryptonite Superman left in Bruce Wayne's possession is the only Kryptonite left on Earth. We know this isn't true, however, as Kate acquired a piece of it from the Bruce Wayne of Earth-99 during 109.

.

Luke sets about trying to figure out how to destroy the Kryptonite.

Kate does not follow sports at all.

Mary knows a shocking amount about football and the career of Tim Teslow, largely because Tim Teslow's brother Apollo was dating her friend Selu Corova.

Apollo Teslow is the Goliaths' Running Back. 

Tim Teslow used to be the kind of man who would walk the neighborhood kids to school to make sure they felt save.

Tim Teslow was committed after he killed a referee on the field after a referee made a call against him. After that, it came out that he was abusing steroids.

Mary warns Kate against getting involved as Batwoman, but Kate insists she knows how to work around her father.  

Mary recalls that Kate, as a teenager, stole a Crow's SUV and was arrested for joy-riding in it.

Mary also recalls that Kate threw a party in Jacob's penthouse without asking and Jacob let the police land a helicopter on the roof to arrest Kate.

Kate wants to come clean to her father about being Batwoman.

Alice approaches Professor Darby, the head of the geology department at Gotham University, regarding Kryptonite, as his name was mentioned in Lucius Fox's journal.

Alice kills Professor Darby after learning that he sent the Kryptonite sample he was given to analyze back to Wayne Enterprises.

Apollo Teslow testified against his brother at his trial.

Apollo blames years of untreated head injuries coupled with steroid abuse for turning his brother into a psychotic maniac. 

Tim Teslow shows up at the stadium where Apollo is training and gets past Batwoman to stab him in the back, paralyzing him permanently. 

Kate suffers a couple of cracked ribs and a dislocated shoulder during her fight with Tim Teslow.

Luke determines that the man Tim Teslow killed on the subway was an administrator at Gotham University, who was fired from the college's neuro clinic for falsifying the brains scans of student athletes. This caused the players to keep playing even when it wasn't safe and likely aggravated Tim Teslow's condition. 

Wayne Tower is 45 stories high.

Mouse asks why Alice is making Hush a face whens he promised him they would kill him, before he threatens to leave Gotham without Alice. 

Mouse is still bitter that Alice didn't visit him for the 5 years he was trapped in Arkham Asylum.

Alice finally agrees to leave Gotham City with Mouse, but says they have to throw a party first.

Coach Kurt Donahue of GU's football team took early retirement just before the scandal with the college manipulating the players' brain scan records broke. While nothing could be proven legally, there was no way he could be ignorant of what was being done to keep his players on the field.

Mary lights the Bat-Signal and is taken into custody by The Crows. This leads her to approach Jacob with an offer to work with Batwoman to bring in Tim Teslow. 

Jacob agrees to the truce.

Coach Donahue gives a press conference, asking to meet Tim Teslow on the field at Gotham University's stadium so he can apologize to him in person for putting the game before his health.

Alice poisons Mouse to prevent him from leaving her.

Sophie and Julia are not informed about the partnership between The Crows and Batwoman. This leads them to conclude that Jacob is setting a trap for Batwoman, since Jacob knew they had contact with her before.

The Crows gun down Tim Teslow after Batwoman has talked him down.

Batwoman escapes after The Crows try to shoot her.

Sophie criticizes Jacob for putting her in charge of managing the Crows App, suggesting he did so to keep her out of the way while he went after Batwoman. 

Julia confesses to Sophie that she was involved with a woman named Safiyah who put a price on her head. She shows Sophie pictures of them together, which were left at her hotel room - a sign that the are being watched and that Sophie is now a target as well.

Kate admits that Mary was right about her not being able to come out as Batwoman to Jacob.

Luke successfully destroys the Kryptonite Bruce had.

Kate reveals the existence of the Kryptonite she got during Crisis on Infinite Earths to Luke and Mary.

Kate declares there should be no more secrets between the three of them. 

The Crows recover some of the expended bullets that failed to penetrate the Bat-Suit. This leads Jacob to declare they need to find something stronger than a Desert Eagle.

Alice is revealed to have given Hush the face of Bruce Wayne. He asks him to walk into Wayne Enterprises and get the Kryptonite from Kate.

The Killing Jokes

The Crows and Batwoman look horribly incompetent in this episode, given they have trouble taking down a single psychotic ex-athlete with brain damage. 

The Bottom Line

Had this been a regular episode, it might have been okay. As a season finale, it's a bitter disappointment, due to a villain who has to be made into something far bigger than he should be to justify the conflict with The Crows and Batwoman. As per usual, the best bits of the episode involve Alice and even with her killing Mouse its increasingly difficult not to see her as the least of all evils out of all the characters in this show. Still, the cliffhanger is an awesome one and a great lead into Season 2.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 19 - A Secret Kept From All the Rest

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

With Lucius Fox's journal recovered, yet utterly unreadable thanks to a unique code, Alice and Tommy Elliot (dubbed Hush by Gotham's media) begin kidnapping code-breakers from all around Gotham City, eventually grabbing Luke Fox and Julia Pennyworth. Yet as Kate goes into a battle to save half of her allies, she finds herself wondering who she can really trust in the faet of a stunning revelation..

Influences

Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee and Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka & J.H. Williams.

Artistry

The chase scene where Batwoman moves to save Parker Torres from Hush is amazing.

The fight scene with Kate taking on the inmates in Arkham is a good one.

Bat Trivia

This episode gives the Arrowverse version of Tommy Elliot his supervillain codename; Hush. In the episode, this is because of the one word he is heard to say while abducting a professor from a library. In the original comics, Hush's codename was a reference to the nursery rhyme, "Hush, Little Baby" about a baby that is promised various gifts if it will stop crying but is never satisfied.

Batwoman saves Parker Torres near the Williams Viaduct. This is likely a nod to artist J.H. Williams, who co-created the modern version of Kate Kane.

The translated page of Lucius Fox's journal we briefly see when Alice is viewing it through the translator glasses contains a number of references to the 2007-2008 "Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" storyline. Apart from confirming that Batman had dealings with Ra's Al Ghul and Talia Al Ghul in the Post-Crisis Arrowverse timeline, the blurb also makes mention of the vigilante Azrael and the Order of St. Dumas and Order of the Pure that created him.

The journal also makes reference to the Suit of Sorrows - an armored costume which was created for Azrael and apparently briefly worn by Batman before he fell victim to a curse on the suit that caused whoever wore it who was impure of heart to go berserk.

Technobabble

Hush uses two .45 caliber pistols.

The code Lucius Fox used to write his journal is a poly-alphabetic cipher, using hundreds of characters in multiple languages and alphabets. 

A corresponds with Heth, which is the first letter of the Aramaic alphabet, which is the first alphabet alphabetically out of all the languages Luke recognizes in his father's journal.

B corresponds with the Babylonian alphabet, but it isn't the second letter. 

There's an interval variance each time the code changes alphabets. Luke eventually figures out that it is based on his social security number.

Parker asks if Mary can bypass the data throttle on the Bat Computer.

Mary discovers a pair of Lucius Fox's old glasses in a drawer in the Batcave. These turn out to be a pair of smart glasses that are programmed to auto-translate Lucius Fox's journals when the person wearing the glasses looks at his code.

The Bat-Suit is equipped with a sonic scanner that, in addition to picking up radio signals like the police band, allows Kate to find the distinctive sound of an electrical current running in a large building.

Dialogue Triumphs

(Kate grills Julia on why she secretly went after Reagan without telling her.)
Kate: Why didn't you just use your name? Tell her you're with The Crows?

Julia: I see. Reagan can't be trusted and now no one can be trusted.
Kate: Not no one. Just people who have lied to me in the past and last time I checked that included you. 

(Luke says he doesn't think Julia is hiding anything from them, despite Kate's suspicions.)

Kate: Do you believe her over me?
Luke: Am I not allowed to disagree with you now?
Kate: Not when we're both being lied to.

Luke: I trust her, Kate!
Kate: Then I can't trust your judgement.

Luke: Says the girl who went home with the bartender and left the key to destroying Gotham on the nightstand.
Mary: Damn!
Kate: If you don't like how I do things, no one is forcing you to be here. 
Luke: You know what? You are absolutely right. 

(As Alice kills the second code-breaker in as many days.)

Hush: They need more than 90 minutes to figure it out! Alice, you keep killing them!

Alice: Well, they keep disappointing me!

(Kate and Mary have just hit on the idea of trying to track Hush by using Professor Carr's pacemaker.)

Mary: So we trace it back to where it transmitted its last signal. And then we'll know where he died and then we'll find Hush. That's genius!
Kate: Mmm-hmm.
Mary: Right.

Kate:  Let's do it.
Mary: Ok. 

Kate: Yeah.
Mary: Yeah.
Kate: Right.
(There is a long pause as they both look at each other expectantly.)
Mary: Sooo.... trace it!
Kate: Uh... How?
Mary: You don't know?!

Kate: (quietly) Kind of a Luke thing.

(Kate and Parker exit the elevator down to the Batcave.)
Parker: OMG! Full disclosure; I thought Batcave was a metaphor. Are there, like- AAH!
(Parker screams as a swarm of bats fly past her on the walkway. Kate doesn't even blink.)
Kate: Yep. Not a metaphor. 

Continuity

Tommy Elliot, his face still bandaged, kills 3 people with silenced pistols before abducting a professor from Gotham University Library. He is dubbed "Hush" after the one word he was heard to say by any witnesses.

Kate tracks down Reagan and learns of her relationship to Magpie.

Reagan tells Kate that Magpie's real name is Margot.

Reagan tells Kate that she told all this to a blonde woman with a British accent who knew Kate. Kate realizes immediately this is a reference to Julia Pennyworth. 

The professor Hush abducted is identified as Professor Carr.

Carr identifies characters in Lucius Fox's journal that are Aramaic, Babylonian and Mayan.

Mouse asks why Alice doesn't simply kill Kate when she's not in her bat costume. Alice insists there must be a reckoning and Kate must know it was her who arranged her death, which is also why she doesn't just have Hush kill her.

Professor Carr's area of expertise is numerical analysis rather than linguistics. 

Alice electrocutes Professor Carr to death.

Alice wants to abduct Luke Fox. Mouse is against this, as that will surely get Batwoman's attention.

Alice agrees to let Mouse and Hush try and kidnap two more experts before she goes after Luke Fox.

Kate confronts Julia over her going after Reagan in secret.

Tony Kim, a Crow's client, was abducted. He is 45, works undercover for the NSA as a code-breaker. 

Professor Carr's body was dumped in the same vicinity as where Tony Kim was abducted.

Luke has know Julia since they were kids and he considers her trustworthy.

Mary knows who Professor Carr was, saying he taught Cryptography I and II at Gotham University. This, coupled with the news Hush just kidnapped an NSA agent, leads her and Kate to conclude that Hush must have the journal and is trying to get someone to translate it.

Alice kills Tony Kim; again by electrocution using a shock therapy device.

Alice sends Hush to kidnap Parker "Terrier" Torres from 110.

Mary remembers that Professor Carr had heart troubles. This leads Kate to wonder if he has a pacemaker that can be tracked. Unfortunately, neither she nor Mary have any idea how to track a pacemaker on-line.

Parker has a girlfriend named Gina now.

Gina calls Kate's landline for Gotham Pride Real Estate and tells her the last place Parker was on FindMyFriends.com was in Somerset and that someone grabbed her while they were chatting on FaceTime.

Batwoman is able to save Parker from Hush, though he is able to escape.

After failing to catch Parker, Alice insists that now they go after Luke Fox, like she wanted to in the first place.

Luke did some digging on Julia and confirmed that the SRR let her go for freelancing. He confronts her on this fact at Crow's Headquarters.

Crow's HQ is based in Wilson Plaza.

Kate brings Parker to the Batcave.

Julia says there are things about Kate Luke doesn't know and can't know, which relate to who she is freelancing for.

Mouse mimics Kate's voice in a phone call to find out where Luke is so they can kidnap him. 

Alice threatens to kill Julia if Luke can't crack the code on his father's journal. 

Luke says that his father was a Mensa member with a 163 IQ.

Sophie shows up at Kate's office to ask her if she had seen Julia.

Sophie offers to break things off with Julia if that's a problem for Kate. Kate says she can do whatever makes her happy.

Sophie tells Kate that Luke was with Julia before she went radio silent.

Alice plans to kill Hush once he stops being useful and tells Mouse this in private.

Luke is able to crack the sequence his father created for his journal. 

Luke's social security number starts with 535.

Parker is able to use the Bat Computer to track Professor Car's pacemaker. This leads her to discover he died in Arkham Asylum. Kate then makes the leap, based on the burn marks on Carr's body, that Alice is electrocuting her victims.

Mary discovers a power of Lucius Fox's old glasses is a pair of smart-glasses coded to auto-translate his journals. 

Luke translates part of his father's journal, but refuses to tell Alice what it says, saying his father died for this secret and so will he.

The journal Alice has doesn't contain weapon designs: it describes how to break the Bat-Suit.

Kate offers to trade the glasses for Luke and Julia's lives. Alice agrees.

Alice arranges a mass jail-break at Arkham Asylum to cover her escape and distract the Crows, who show up to arrest Batwoman.

Jacob Kane blames Batwoman for the break-out after the fact.

Luke tells Kate that she screwed up trying to trade his life for information that could hurt her.

Kate tells Luke that there is no Batwoman without him.

Parker tells Kate she should fight harder for Sophie.

Julia is confirmed to have nerve damage in her arm and a numbness in her left hand.

Sophie and Julia kiss after Julia is looked over by the medic.

Julia tells Kate that she tracked down The Rifle after he tried to kill her in 107 and she made a deal with his boss to save her life. Julia was going to exchange the journal for Batwoman's life. Julia made the deal before she knew the journal explained how to kill Batwoman and, knowing that, the deal is now off.

Julia says the woman she was working for is Safiyah Sohail - the woman who was first mentioned in 107 as having a grudge against Alice.

Kate claims to have never heard of Safiyah Sohail.

Jacob Kane lights the Bat-Signal to tell Batwoman that if he sees her again it will mean war.

Alice finishes reading the journal and determines that the element needed to destroy the Bat-Suit is Kryptonite.

The Bottom Line

A solid episode which does more to make Hush seem threatening than 90% of his comic book stories, even as an underling of Alice, even as it lays the groundwork for Season 2 and Safiyah Sohail's arrival in Gotham. This episode doesn't really feel like the penultimate episode of the season, however, so it will be interesting to see how everything is tied up in a week.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 18 - If You Believe in Me, I'll Believe in You

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

Kate recruits Luke and Julia for an undercover mission to recover one of the most important items in her cousin's arsenal, but Mary also wants to prove herself to her step-sister. Kate also reunites with an old flame, as Jacob visits Alice in Arkham to ask for a favor, not knowing that Alice has begun taking steps to turn Arkham into her own personal Wonderland. 

Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka & J.H. Williams.

Performances

As Mary proves her worth to the Bat-Team, so too does Nicole Kang dominate this episode and prove her place as the ensemble's VIP this week.

Artistry

The opening action sequence in which Batwoman rescues seven human trafficking victims is fantastic.

The Magpie Vs. Batwoman fight is pretty awesome too.

Bat Trivia

Mary suggests that Kate consider something in her cowl that electrocute anyone who touches her hair. While she dismisses the idea, it should be noted that both the Batmobile and Utility Belt have had similar defenses in the Batman comics.

Mention is made of a comic book heroine called Kitty Delgado, who is apparently some kind of master cat-burglar. Based on her white hair, low-cut costume and impossible figure, she seems to be a parody of Marvel Comics' Black Cat, who was a fairly shameless rip-off of DC Comics' Catwoman.

Technobabble

Mary suggests they could solve Kate's problems with her wig by running an electrical charge through her cowl so anyone who touches her hair gets electrocuted. Kate dismisses the idea, but Luke seems to consider it.

Dialogue Triumphs

(Kate and Luke enter Kate's office. Mary is there, holding two champagne flutes.)
Mary: Congratulations! On behalf of the medical profession both licensed and unlicensed, I'd like to offer my sincerest whatup on shutting down that chop shop.
(Mary winces and looks to where the bottle of champagne is on ice.)

Mary: (apologetic)  I wasn't sure how you guys celebrated. 

Kate: Usually by icing my knuckles. 
(Kate walks past Mary to the table, removes the bottle and plants her fist into the ice.)

(Mary is trying to talk Kate into letting her come on the mission.)
Kate: You're not going, Mary. 

Mary: What? 

Kate: I'm sorry. It's too dangerous. 

Mary: Dangerous? I have been poisoned, stabbed, and nearly exsanguinated, and the fact that I have lived to use that word as a verb is proof that I can look out for myself.

(Johnny Sabatino just told Tommy Elliot he's keeping Lucius Fox's journal over the phone.)

Tommy: That son of a bitch was like a brother to me! 

Alice: Clearly, you are an only child. Otherwise, you would know that our dear siblings are the ones most predisposed to betray us. 

Tommy: Why aren't you more upset, considering you won't be getting the journal you so desperately want? 

Alice: You should be more careful who you trust. 

Tommy: If you can't trust your money launderer, who can you trust? 

Alice: Hmm. No one. I only trust in the fact that people can't be trusted. 

Tommy: So you knew that Johnny was gonna betray me? 

Alice: No. I just didn't trust him not to.

Jacob: Tommy Elliot just hanged himself, or that's what it was meant to look like. Do you know anything about that? 

Alice: (sighs) What do I know? I know I don't give two hoots about Tommy Elliot! I know I don't have any motivation to help you! And I know it is impossible for one to heal from the trauma of being locked in a cage when one is still locked in a cage! 

Jacob: How many times did you tell me that Beth was never coming back? This is me admitting that you were right. 

Alice: (softer) Do you know what they do to patients in here? They put electrodes on our heads and blast us with so much electricity that we seize. And I don't know the exact science, but... after about 10 jolts, let me tell you, you start convincing everyone around you that it worked. 

Jacob: I'm sorry that it ended up this way. 

Alice: (sobbing)If you mean that, then get me out of here.

Jacob: I can't. I have to protect the daughters that I have left. 

Alice: (coldly) The thing they don't tell you about ECT is that once it's over all that's left is clarity. Ha! I see everything now. How this came to be. How it will end. And I promise you, Daddy, what I have in store for you is so much worse than a cage or electrodes or insanity. I guess you could say it's... worse than being me. But you'll see.

(Magpie is walking across the roof of The Lookout. Suddenly, Batwoman grapples up before her and lands on the roof ledge.)
Batwoman: Seriously? 

Magpie: Early bird gets the worm. 

Batwoman: You're a long way from Arkham. 

Magpie: I told you I wasn't a jailbird.

(Magpie reveals her talons and the fight begins in earnest.) 

Kate: Okay. So which one do you want to hear first -"Thanks for saving my ass" or "Sorry for always shutting you out"? 

Mary: Uh... you pick. 

Kate: I'm sorry for always keeping you at arm's length, but it's not because I don't trust you or think that you can't handle yourself, which obviously you can. It's because I've already lost one sister, and the thought of losing you, too, I... I can't, Mary. But thank you for not listening to me and risking your life to save mine. I guess I just have to get used to the fact that you are... a total badass. 

Mary: Badass enough to be one of your real estate assistants? 

Kate: I believe they prefer to be called associates. 

Continuity

Kate saves seven people from a human trafficker who is selling them to a man for their organs. Unfortunately, the trafficker escapes.

Kate has issues with her wig during the fight. Luke suggests she try braiding her wig in the future, but Kate dismisses the idea.

Julia and Sophie search a warehouse full of property seized from Tommy Elliot looking for Lucius Fox's journal.

Tommy Elliot was a comic book collector and had a nude oil painting of himself. 

According to Luke, Tommy Elliot owned 40 buildings in Gotham City alone.

Kate visits Tommy Elliot in Arkham Asylum to try and provoke him into telling her where the diary of Lucius Fox is.

According to Kate, Wayne R&D is the world leader in defense technology.

Dr. Butler (i.e. Mouse) had Tommy Elliot declared competent to stand trial for Lucius Fox's murder.

Tommy Elliot tells Mouse and Alice that Bruce Wayne is Batman. He also tells them that he wanted Lucius Fox's journal because it held the secret on how to destroy the Batsuit, in case it ever fell into the wrong hands.

Alice offers to make Tommy Elliot look like a new man in exchange for the diary. 

Luke determines that after Kate visited Tommy in Arkham, he made a call to a night-club called The Lookout, considered by some to be the hottest night spot in Gotham City.

The Lookout is run by a man named Johnny Sabatino, who has been rumored to be laundering money for Tommy Elliot for years, as Tommy Elliot owned the building The Lookout was located in.

Kate suggests they sneak into the club as patrons.

Mary helps Kate find a stylish outfit that can conceal her Batwoman costume and again signals her desire to do something more to help her.

Kate finds out that Sophie outed herself to her mother and that Julia and Sophie now have a thing together.

Julia uses the call-sign Tuxedo One.

Kate uses the call-sign Red One.

Reagan, the bartender last seen in 104 whom Kate briefly dated, works at The Lookout.

According to Reagan, Kate has been buying up a lot of property around Bennett Park and lowering the rent. 

Julia is captured after she cuts the power to the club.

Batwoman is knocked out by a booby-trap in Johnny Sabatino's office.

Tommy Elliot is reported as dead when Sophie goes to take him into custody, apparently having hung himself in his cell. In truth he's alive, but Alice removed his face and put it onto another body.

Mary offers to go into The Lookout to try and rescue Julia and Batwoman. She says that she knows Johnny Sabatino's cousin, Aria, having pumped her stomach after she overdosed. 

Johnny Sabatino betrays Tommy Elliot, deciding to auction off Lucius Fox's journal himself along with Batwoman. 

Alice sends Magpie to steal the journal from Johnny Sabatino.

The bidding on Batwoman starts at 2 million.

Mary forces her way into the auction and bids 10 million, claiming she wants the secrets of Batwoman's armor for Hamilton Dynamics.

Sabatino's men contact the SRR after Julia claims to be an agent in their employ. It is revealed that she was actually fired from the SRR six months earlier, after betraying them. 

Jacob Kane visits Alice in Arkham and asks her for information on Tommy Elliot's death. She refuses to help him and says her revenge on him will be worse than he can imagine.

Mary only has 2.5 million in cash, but Johnny Sabatino agrees to sell her the Bat-Suit for that much... once it is pealed off of Batwoman's body.

The trafficker from earlier in the episode wins the auction. 

Mary's briefcase contains a flash-bang. In the confusion, she uses another Bat-gadget to cut the chains holding Batwoman down.

Magpie steals the journal from Johnny Sabatino's office as the auction is going on.

Julia frees herself after an alarm goes off when Batwoman escapes.

Batwoman recovers the journal but Magpie escapes.

Kate and Reagan hook-up again and go to Kate's place.

Mary sees the Batcave for the first time and takes a selfie. Luke immediately erases the photo.

Luke accidentally tells Mary that Bruce Wayne is Batman.

When Kate wakes up, Reagan has gone... and the journal is missing.

Reagan is revealed to be Magpie's sister and to have worked for her as an advance scout, but she swears she is done helping her since this cost her a great girlfriend.

Julia takes a phone call from her real employer, promising them the journal of Lucius Fox. 

Alice removes the tracking chip from Magpie.

Mouse discovers that Lucius Fox's journal was written in code.

The Bottom Line

A solid episode that expands Mary's role on the team and throws in some wicked 11th-hour twists. It's also clear they're starting to set Tommy Elliot up to become Hush (who I can take or leave) but the entire ensemble is firing on all six cylinders this week.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 17 - A Narrow Escape

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

Kate encounters a new challenge when an old villain - a mad bombber called The Detonator - seems to come out of retirement. Meanwhile, Alice, now locked in Arkham Asylum, faces her own trial by fire and her own set of challenges.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka & J.H. Williams.

Performances

Nicole Kang once again steals the show as Mary, showing the steel the character is capable of throughout the episode.

Artistry

The opening scene and how it fades from Alice's dream to her nightmarish reality is well-executed.

It has to be said that the show does a brilliant job portraying Kate's PTSD and it's nice that a superhero show isn't shying away from showing the consequences of a person dealing with the trauma of taking a life. It's a little touch that does much to establish Batwoman as Arrow's spiritual predecessor. 

Bat Trivia

There are two previous DC Comics villains who used the codename The Detonator. The first was a Green Arrow villain who armed himself with a special explosion-causing super-suit and attempted to blackmail his employer. The second was a master assassin and explosives expert who was part of the Seven Men of Death; a squad that was itself part of the League of Assassins. The Seven Men of Death fought Batman during Grant Morrison's run on the main Batman title.

The Arrowverse Detonator is an entirely original creation, who uses a gimmick similar to The Joker's final plan in The Dark Knight, where he tested a ferry full of criminals and a ferry full of civilians to see which one would blow up the other one first. In this case, the Detonator abducted local heroes and put them in explosive vests primed to cause buildings full of innocent people to explode if they chose to save themselves.

Mention is made of Rucka Avenue. This is a nod to writer Greg Rucka, who co-created the modern Batwoman character. 

Technobabble

Kate identifies DD-214.as the code used in military paperwork for dishonorable discharge from a military academy. 

The Bat-Suit's nano-tech is designed to withstand detonation over-pressures of 10 PSI. This effectively makes Kate bomb-proof in her costume. Luke warns her that it's not effective against radiation, so if she sees any bombs with a nuclear component she should get away from them.

Lucius Fox designed a fail-safe into Wayne Tower which allowed it to be sealed-up to protect against internal and external bomb threats. Every window in the building is fitted with a bomb-proof shutter to prevent an internal explosion from going outside. Every exit in the building has a similar shutter which will contain any bomb blast to within one room and one room only.  This will contain the bomb in the parking garage so that it does not destroy the whole building.

Dialogue Triumphs

Mary: So, insider tip? My scissors should not be able to cut through your super-suit. Why are you pretending to be Batwoman?

Batwoman Impersonator: Because the real one is MIA and the city still has PTSD from when Batman left. I thought that maybe if people saw me and believed that she was still around that-
(The Impersonator gasps as Mary pushes on her lower torso.)

Batwoman Impersonator: I know. I'm an idiot.

Mary: Your heart is in the right place. Your ribs, however, are not.

(Kate decides to confront George Adler as herself rather than Batwoman.)

Luke: Ok, uh, look. The Bat-Team doesn't have an HR Department, so as your co-worker and partner and pretty much only person you see on a regular basis, shouldn't I know what the hell is going on with you?
Kate: If I told you the truth, you would not want me to suit up either. 

(Kate helps Mary pull the rubble off of the Batwoman Impersonator. She blinks as she sees the costume.)
Kate: Who is this?
Mary: (pointedly) Isn't it obvious? She's Batwoman.

Mary: Do you want to know why people like her exist? And why they keep on showing up to spread hope? It's because you inspired them and now they feel abandoned! 

Kate: What - what are you talking about?

Mary: Please. I know you're Batwoman.

(Kate looks up at Mary, stunned, but she doesn't try to deny it.)

Mary: I just can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner...  But of course. Batwoman's the same girl who hunted down Derrick Peters and locked him in a urinal after he ditched me at Homecoming. And of course the maniac on the Batbike is the same maniac who taught me how to drive without actually having her licence, and totally charmed her way out of a ticket after my ass got us pulled over. It couldn't be more obvious. Batwoman is the same person I've looked up to my whole life. And now this city needs you as much as I do! 

Kate: It's not that simple.
Mary: (scoffs) It never is. But Batwoman doesn't get a sick day.

Kate: I'm not a hero, Mary!

Mary: I'm not asking you to be a hero. I'm just asking you to keep going. 

Continuity

The episode opens with a scene where Alice dreams that she and Kate are normal sisters, hanging out, drinking wine and playing video games. This gives way to the reality that she's trying to escape into a happy place while being tortured with electric shock "therapy" by Dr. Butler in Arkham Asylum.

Kate stops a jewel thief but agrees to let him go with a warning after he drops the loot. The thief tries to attack her only for Kate to accidentally knock him down a staircase fighting back. This triggers a PTSD flashback of Cartwright's death from 115.

Kate barely escapes before the Crows show up.

Luke notes that Kate's heart-rate is through the roof following her anxiety attack.

Officer Wilcox is a respected hero cop and the first apparent target of the returned Detonator, who tests him with a bomb vest that will either kill him or blow up a building full of innocents nearby.

The building in question turns out to be Gotham International Bank, which is blown up after Officer Wilcox chooses to save himself rather than die to save others. 

According to Vesper Fairchild, The Detonator hasn't been heard from in seven years. His gimmick was proving that there are no heroes by kidnapping acclaimed heroes (usually police officers, doctors and fire-fighters)  and outfitting them with bomb vests, offering them a choice between dying to save others or saving themselves while triggering an explosion elsewhere. 

One of the people brought into Mry's clinic is a Batwoman cosplayer, who was caught in the collapsing rubble of the bank trying to help dig people out.

According to Mary, she's the second woman dressed like Batwoman who has come to her in the past week after being injured trying to help people.

It's been one week since Batwoman was last seen publicly.

Julia created a foul-tasting hangover cure, which she calls The Chimney Sweep.

Julia knows that Kate killed Cartwright.

One dozen people were killed in the bombing of Gotham International Bank.

Mouse and Alice are in group therapy along with Tommy Elliot (last seen in 103) and Magpie (last seen in 105).

According to Tommy Elliot, Bruce Wayne could speak 40 languages. 

Therapy has turned Tommy Elliot's disdain for Bruce Wayne into an obsessive admiration.

The assassin killed by Jacob Kane in 116 is identified as Michael Fisher, though that's likely an alias.

Julia and Sophie determine that Fisher was wired $100,000 from an account at Gotham International Bank.  With the bank having been blown up, there's no way to access the servers and trace who made the payment.

Julia likes her hamburgers with extra pickles.

Luke has taken up boxing using the gym in the Batcave, to work off his anger at someone killing Reggie Harris after he was granted a new trial.

Kate still hasn't told Luke the truth about Cartwright and has been ignoring his texts.

Bruce Wayne was never able to figure out who The Detonator was. 

All of The Detonator's bombs had the number 214 stamped into the ground plate. This information was never released to the public, suggesting that the new bomb (which had the same number) was also made by The Detonator. 

The Detonator set off 15 bombs over the course of his career. 

Kate identifies 214 as part of the code used in military paperwork for dishonorable discharge from a military academy. The full code is DD-214.

George Adler was a private black-ops contractor, fired for taking selfies with enemy corpses. He was also dishonorably discharged from military school.

Kate is now having PTSD attacks whenever she looks at the Bat-Suit.  Because of this, she decides to confront George Adler as herself.

Alice is stabbed by Tommy Elliot in the hallway in Arkham.

George Adler confesses that his father, George Adler Sr., was The Detonator.

George Adler Sr. died seven years earlier so he can't be the person using The Detonator's gimmicks this time.

Bobby Reeves, the defender who got Reggie Harris a new trial, becomes The Detonator's next target.

Tommy Elliot is said to be in solitary confinement after his attack on Alice.

Alice reveals to Mouse that she planned the attack with Tommy Elliot so that she could get her hands on an improvised shiv and surgical thread, from when the staff nurse treated her wound. 

The Crows clear the area one mile around Bobby Reeves' car. 

Jacob Kane refuses to call in a bomb squad to try and save Reeves, saying it's pointless given how The Detonator wires his victims and that they need to focus on evacuating people and trying to find the secondary bomb.

The closest intersection to where Bobby Reeves is parked is Wiget and Brighton. This is close to Mary's clinic.

The Batwoman impersonator stays behind to help Mary protect the patients she can't move.

The secondary bomb is ultimately revealed to be in the same building as Mary's clinic. 

Both Kate and Mary are inside the building when the secondary bomb is triggered. 

Kate has another panic attack when she sees the Batwoman costume of the Impersonator. 

Mary reveals to Kate that she figured out her secret identity.

Mouse kills Dr. Butler with the shiv Alice gave him, during one of his EST sessions.

"Michael Fisher" lived at 2420 Maple Street. This is the address of the second bombing attack by the new Detonator.

Julia and Sophie guess that The Detonator hired "Fisher" to kill Reggie Harris and cover his tracks.  Luke says that's not possible because The Detonator is dead.

Julia determines that Miguel Robles was one of the police officers investigating The Detonator seven years ago.

Miguel Robles is currently the head of the Crows Security Homicide Division. 

Robles was the Crows agent who convinced Jacob Kane it wasn't worth investigating 

Robles was also the first officer on the scene of the crime of Lucius Fox's murder.

Jacob Kane is jumped and taken captive by Miguel Robles, who is confirmed to the Detonator copycat.

Kate suits up and goes chasing after Robles, who is trying to escape Gotham via the bridge near the 1200 block of Rucka Avenue.

Kate has another PTDS attack chasing Robles, but powers through it to catch him. 

Robles confesses that the secondary bomb for the one attached to Jacob Kane is in a parking garage under Wayne Tower. He planted the bomb there to kill Luke Fox, because he knew Luke was looking into the truth behind his father's murder.

Kate takes Robles to the parking garage to force him to tell her how to disarm the bomb. 

Julia and Sophie try to help Jacob disarm his bomb, but he tells them to evacuate Wayne Tower first.

Sophie finds out that Julia knows Batwoman as well.

Luke threatens Robles with a gun and demands to know why he killed Lucius Fox.  

Robles says that Lucius' death was an accident and that his gun discharged after Lucius charged him, after Robles threatened to go after his family. 

Robles confesses he was originally hired by Tommy Elliot to acquire Lucius Fox's journal by roughing him up. He was paid $10,000 to do this.

Everything Robles did, from framing Reggie Harris to hiring the sniper and impersonating The Detonator was done to cover-up his original crime.

Kate stops Luke from killing an unconscious Robles.

Kate confesses to Luke that she killed Cartwright and that's why she stopped searching for him.

Sophie is reinstated to The Crows and made co-head of a new strike-force.

Julia Pennyworth reveals she was just hired to be the other co-head of the strike-force.

Luke says that his father's journal contained all of his designs for everything he ever built for Wayne Enterprises and Batman.

Luke tells Kate that even Bruce couldn't live up to his "No killing" rule and implies that Batman killed The Joker, saying that The Joker is not in Arkham (which the public apparently believes) and there's a reason he hasn't been seen in five years.

Mary reveals that she knows Kate's secret identity to Luke.

Alice is revealed to have made a flesh mask of Dr. Butler, whom Mouse is now impersonating. 

Alice has come to agree with Mouse that they are safer in Arkham, which they can now use as a base of operations as they gather their forces and strength.

The Bottom Line

A solid episode, though it drags a bit since Alice doesn't have much to do. Still, at least they finally ended the "how long will Mary hide what she knows?" subplot and the storyline involving why Lucius Fox died. Not that these subplots were dull, really, but because they paled in comparison to the much bigger questions around Alice and what shes' planning to do next. It's the classic problem - the Bat-heroes are never as interesting as their villains and that's especially true here.  Still, the episode promises big things are coming now that the inmates are running the asylum.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 16 - Through The Looking Glass

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

Dr. August Cartwright is dead, but the nightmare for the Kane family is far from over. As Kate struggles with having broken her vow to never kill, she wonders if she really is all that different from Alice, agreeing to help her sister break into Arkham Asylum as part of her plan to free Mouse. Meanwhile, as the man convicted of  killing his father is set free pending a retrial, Luke struggles to keep it together when he uncovers evidence of a conspiracy around Lucius Fox's death.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.


Goofs

How does Mouse find the home of Nurse Tammy in a drugged stupor?


Performances

The interplay between Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten in this episode is fantastic.


Artistry

The fights in the halls of Arkham are well-shot and well choreographed.


Bat Trivia

Alice is anxious to leave Gotham because of a "friend from Coryana." This is probably Safiyah Sohail - a former lover of Kate Kane's from her days traveling the Earth in the comics, who ruled the pirate nation of Coryana - who was name dropped in an earlier episode by The Rifle. It is believed that she may wind up being the chief villain of Batwoman Season 2.


Technobabble

Protocol at Arkham Asylum demands that high-risk escapees be confined to the basement, away from the other inmates. Access to these cells requires two keys; one is held by the head of security for Arkham Asylum and the other is held by Dr. Butler. 


Dialogue Triumphs

(Alice and Kate watch as Jacob continues filling in the grave they dug for Cartwright.)
Alice: (wistful) So the monster who ripped this family apart all those years ago has brought us all back together. (sighs) Ah, Irony! You are one sick bitch!

Kate: Let me guess - you need help finding the guy who put Dad in jail and killed Catherine?
Alice: Both done at my request.
Kate: Didn't he also try to kill you?
Alice: And yet I still forgive him, choosing to see the best in him. Ever try that?
Kate: All the time. Never works out.

(Alice promises to leave Gotham forever if Kate helps her find Mouse.)
Kate: Fine. But on one condition. We do it my way.
(Alice sighs as she thinks about this.)
Alice: (quietly) Considering your way involves strangling a man until he choked to death on his own blood... (suddenly manic) I would love absolutely nothing more!

Kate: Have to draw the line somewhere.
Alice: Yeah, but who arbitrarily decides when and where those lines are drawn? You?
Kate: Mouse is in custody. If I were to help you break him out of there, then how am I any better?
Alice: Don't you get it by now? You're not!
Kate: I'm not a criminal.
Alice: (laughs) And they say I'm the delusional one.

(Kate and Alice are lying on the bar floor, looking at the ceiling, catching their breath.)
Kate:"Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster."
Alice: I'm afraid that passage wasn't in the one book I was allowed to read.
Kate: Someone once said that to me.
Alice: How did that work out?
Kate: I became a monster.
(There's a long pause. Alice turns her head and looks at Kate.)
Alice: (softly, almost sobbing) I know I've made light of things, but I owe you a thank you. Thank you for killing the man who destroyed my life. Destroyed our family. (firmly) Do not feel guilty for what you did.
Kate: I... I don't. The only thing I feel guilty about.... is I don't feel guilty.
Alice: (looking to the ceiling) So now you're scared you're becoming me.
Kate: (turning her head to look at Alice) Isn't that what you wanted?
Alice: (turning her head to look at Kate) Would that really be so awful?
(There is another long pause as the sisters stare at each other. Finally, Kate begins to sit up.)
Kate: I'll do it.  I'll do it.  I'll reunite you with Mouse.
(Alice sits up and regards Kate seriously.)
Kate: But I... I need to be able to trust you.
Alice: (nodding) Ok.
Kate: Say it.
Alice: You can trust me Kate.
Kate: (firmly) No one dies in the process.
Alice: (sighing and rolls her eyes) Kate... have I ever lied to you?
Kate: Literally dozens of times.
(Alice thinks on this.)
Alice: Yeah, okay.  (sighs) I promise. (hesitating with each word) No. One. Will die. (smiling softly) You can trust me.
(Alice gets up, leaving Kate along with her thoughts. She returns seconds alter and drops a White Rabbit mask into Kate's lap.)
Kate: What's this?
Alice: Well, we're breaking a killer out of Arkham. So you can't exactly go in dressed as a flying rodent.

(Alice is trying to undo all the restraints on Mouse's chair.)
Alice: Why are there so many straps? Kate? Help me.
(There is a loud metallic clank from behind her. A look of terror passes over Alice's face as she looks up and confirms that Kate has indeed locked her in the cell with Mouse.)
Alice: What are you doing?! Open the door! (softer) Open the door.
Kate: I can't do that, Alice.
(Alice puts her hand on the glass. Kate mirrors the gesture.)
Alice: (sadly) You... you promised.
Kate: I promised to reunite you with Mouse. You wanted to be with your brother. Now you are.
Mouse: (weakly) Why did you trust her?
(Jacob Kane enters the cell block from behind Kate.)
Jacob: It's over Alice. You can't hurt anyone anymore.
Alice: (incredulous) Me?! You are no better than me! (looking to Kate) And you? You and I are the same person! We are no different!
Jacob: Let's get out of here.
(Jacob turns around and leaves as Alice begins to say the word "no" over and over. Kate stands there and watches for a moment as Alice turns her attention to her.
Alice: No!  Kate, don't leave me!  Don't leave me! No, Kate! No! No! No!
(Kate takes the keys and leaves Alice behind, as Alice screams for her father and sister and pounds on the glass door, like a girl trapped in a mirror, her worst nightmare come true again.)


Continuity

Kate, Jacob and Alice bury Dr. Cartwright under a bridge.

Alice steals Jacob's gun and goes off to look for Mouse on her own.

Kate nearly loses control as Batwoman and nearly chokes a criminal to death and has a panic attack afterward.

Kate lies to Luke about not having any idea where Dr. Cartwright is.

Reggie Harris' reconsideration trial was bumped up. Luke leaves Kate to her own devices to attend the trial.

Reggie Harris was found on the scene of Lucius Fox's murder holding the murder weapon and soaked in his blood. Luke is certain there's no way he'll earn a retrial.

Alice returns to her base to find that her henchmen are all dead. The only clue to who is responsible is a note, written in blood, which reads "DO YOU THINK I WOULD FORGET? YOUR FRIEND FROM CORYANA" This is likely a reference to Safiyah, who was first mentioned in 108.

Jacob asks Sophie to investigate the rest of the Crows and see if someone was taking bribes in relation to Lucius Fox's murder.

Alia Nazari was the Slip N' Dash owner paid $50,000 for damages. Jacob thinks Nazari might have been paid to lose the security footage of Fox's death.

Kate seems to be having PTSD flashbacks of her killing Dr. Cartwright.

Alice says she plans to leave Gotham forever once she finds Mouse.

Alice says she wronged someone in the past who killed The Wonderland Gang and she wants to get out of Gotham.

Kate agrees to help Alice find Mouse but only if they conduct the search on her terms.

Jacob tells Kate that Mouse attacked a nurse outside Arkham Asylum the night before.

According to Alice, Dr. Butler, the current head of Arkham Asylum, used Mouse as a test subject to gauge the effects of Scarecrow's fear toxin as part of an experiment to see if it might be used to control the more unmanageable inmates.He tortured mouse for hours before a nurse brought him out of his fear fugue state.

Alice and Kate go to the home of Tammy, a retired Arkham nurse, claiming to be Crows Agents who suspect Mouse may be coming after her.

Mary attends Reggie Harris' trial and sits with Luke to offer him moral support.

Judge Wellington is the judge presiding over the Reggie Harris trial.

Sophie goes to interview Alia Nazari at her apartment and discovers her dead body. She is almost killed by a sniper, but Julia Pennyworth saves her.

Julia tells Sophie that there is a bounty on her head and that she's also Kate Kane's ex.

Mouse, as Alice predicted, shows up at Nurse Tammy's house.

The Crows capture Mouse after Nurse Tammy calls them, having guessed Alice and Kate were not real Crows agents. They just barely escape before Jacob leads a team into the house.

Alice tells Kate that her worst fear is being locked up in a cell and abandoned by Kate.

When Mouse escaped from Arkham Asylum, he showed Alice every way in and out of the facility.

Alice tells Kate that she could have easily killed Cartwright but she left him for Kate so that she'd hear her story and do it for her, proving they aren't that different.

Reggie Fields is released, pending a new trial, thanks to the revelation that his confession was coerced and the judge on his trial was on the take - revelations that came to light in 106.

Kate agrees to reunite Alice and Mouse.

Alice uses a dummy bomb strapped to a laundry truck to distract the guards at Arkham while she and Kate sneak into the building through a service tunnel.

Sophie takes Julia to Mary's clinic and tends to her bullet wound there.

Mary recognizes Julia as one of Kate's assistants from 107. Julia tells her that she also used to date Kate.

Luke confronts Reggie Fields as he's walking home with his grandmother after doing some grocery shopping.

Reggie recognizes Luke and says Lucius was bragging on him to anyone who would listen the night he died.

Reggie claims to be innocent, saying that someone figured he'd be an ideal patsy as an ex-con with dreadlocks and tatoos.

Reggie is shot by a sniper. Luke tries to perform CPR on him, but can't get him to wake up.

Alice goes after Dr. Butler.

Kate goes after the head security guard at Arkham.

Kate is as good as using a butterfly knife as Alice.

Kate locks Alice in the cell with Mouse, saying she only promised to reunite them - not let them escape.

Alice is placed in isolation with a 24-hour watch.

Jacob took care of moving Dr. Cartwright's body while Kate kept Alice distracted, so there would be no way Alice could use that against them.

Luke goes to Mary, still soaked in Reggie's blood. He says the GCPD think it was a professional hit.

Mary tells Luke that Alia Nazari was killed under similar circumstances. She also thinks Reggie Harris might be innocent.

Luke isn't sure what to believe, but given everything that's happened, he admits it is a possibility that Reggie was innocent.

Julia sets Sophie up in a safe hotel room.

Lucius Fox was Julia Pennyworth's godfather.

The sniper tries to kill Jacob. He is able to wound the sniper, who dies of his wounds before Jacob can ask who hired him.

Julia and Kate wind up making out on the balcony of Kate's office.

Alice declares in her cell that she doesn't want to be a prisoner - she wants to be a queen.


The Bottom Line

A powerful episode but at this point I'm rooting for Alice over Kate and hoping the show takes the daring step of killing off Jacob next, in defiance of the comic book continuity. While I can believe that Kate would trick Alice into Arkham, I cannot believe that she would not act on the information that the head doctor was conducting experiments with fear gas on Mouse or that she wouldn't get Alice into any facility other than Arkham. Kate has lost all the moral high ground she had, but that has nothing to do with her killing Dr. Cartwright. Then again, Kate doing questionable things for her father's approval is part and parcel of the comics, so I can't say this is horribly out of character. That still doesn't mean I find Alice to be the lesser of two evils compared to her sister or father.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 15 - Off With Her Head

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

Alice leaves Dr. Cartwright trussed up for Kate, along with a note reading "Ask about Mommy Dearest." What follows is a horrifying recounting of how Cartwright's mother, "The Queen of Hearts," came to live with him and Mouse and how Beth Kane truly became Alice, which will forever change Kate, Jacob and Alice.


Influences

Mommie Dearest (Mable Cartwright seems to be modeled on an aging Joan Crawford, as is the abuse she inflicts on a young Beth Kane modeled on what Crawford did to her daughter. )


Performances

Debra Mooney is a wonderfully nightmarish Queen of Hearts.

Nicole Kang has a nice comedic moment as Mary is secretly searching Kate's office for the Bat Cave entrance without Luke knowing.

The scene in which Kate loses control and realizes what she's done may be Ruby Rose's best moment yet as Kate Kane. Those who thinks Rose is a bad actress who can't emote rather than an actress playing a character who hides her emotion would do well to watch this scene and learn.

Again, Rachel Skarsten gives a powerhouse performance during Alice's breakdowns, all without saying a word.


Artistry

Alice's nightmare sequences are tensely directed, with amazing Elfmaneqsue music suggesting a world gone mad. The blue lighting and zombie make-up on Mable Cartwright are nice touches as well.


Bat Trivia

Dr. Cartwright makes reference to "an old colleague" named Dr. Jonathan Crane who created a chemical that made Mouse quite easily to manipulate. Kate identifies this as fear toxin - the preferred weapon of The Scarecrow - the criminal identity of Dr. Jonathan Crane.

The address of the old Cartwright house is said to be 614 Williams Street. This is likely a nod to Batwoman artist J.H. Williams III.


Technobabble

Unless a person is given a shot of adrenaline soon after being exposed to a massive quantity of Scarecrow's fear toxin, they will become incurably insane.

The carotid artery pulses steadily, unlike other arteries contained within the human neck.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Gabi has just given Kate and Beth matching garnet necklaces.)
Gabi Kane: Red is a very symbolic color. It's the color of love, but also the color of passion, courage, war. At one point or another you're going to have to wrestle with all of these emotions and what defines your character is how you balance them. So keep me close to your heart, because I'll be thinking of you when I wear mine. (pulling aside her hair to reveal her matching earrings)

(A thug is following after some woman, cat-calling her and refusing to leave her alone.)
Thug: Come on! I'm friendly!
(Batwoman drops between the thug and the woman.)
Batwoman: I'm not.

(As Kate and Jacob argue about what to do with Cartwright, he starts coughing as he wakes up.)
Jacob: Rise and shine, you son of a bitch!
Cartwright: (confused) I was expecting Alice.
Jacob: Well you got one meaner. (grabbing the back of Cartwright's head) Do you want me to start with your nose or your knee-caps?

(Cartwright has been describing the abuse Alice suffered at his mother's hands to Jacob and Kate.)
Cartwright: I imagine... now,in the throes of Alice's madness, my mother is once again calling for her tea.
Kate: You threw Beth in a cellar and taught her how to carve up faces, but mommy is the bad guy? Nice try.

Kate: Is that why Alice told me to ask about Mommy Dearest? Because your mom was the one who broke her?
Cartwright: She wanted you to hear her story. And get you to kill me. She wanted to break you too.
Kate: You're wrong. She knows I would never kill anyone.
Cartwright: Because... you're so different?
Kate: We are different.
Cartwright: Then be merciful. Give me water. I'll tell you where she is.

(Mary is advising Kate on how to treat a neck wound over the phone.)
Mary: Okay. It's not the carotid artery, but you still need to close the wound. Do you have a needle and thread?
Kate: Uh... I have a staple gun?
Mary: (wincing) Wouldn't be my first choice.

Kate: I'm offering you a free pass out of here.
Cartwright: And the second I tell you where she is, what's to stop you from killing me?
Kate: Me. Because I'm not a killer.
Cartwright: Yet.
Kate: You don't know me. So let me tell you who I am. I am everything you stripped away from my sister. Hope. Honor. Integrity. I'm what she would have been if not for you. And I'm giving you an out. Tell me where she is.

Alice: Where's Kate? Waiting outside with her hand on the door?
Jacob: She's with Cartwright. She was the one who got him to tell us where you were.
Alice: And you came running?  Why?
Jacob: Because I care. And to keep you hanging on to whatever sense of sanity you have left.
Alice: (smiling slightly) Touching. Well, I take it if Cartwright's still alive he hasn't gotten to the part of the story about Mommy Dearest.
Jacob: Oh, he told us everything. His mother sounded like a treat.
Alice: (confused) His mother? (smiling weakly) Is that what you think this is about?

Kate: Did you shoot a woman in a motel parking lot who you believed to be Alice?
Cartwright: She... looked just like her. The face... The eyes.
Kate: Of course you did! (sweeping the glasses off a table)  Of course it was you!
Cartwright: I thought it was her. Even wore a necklace that matched those damned earrings.
Kate: (quietly) What did you just say? What necklace matched what earrings?
Cartwright: The ones my mother so coveted that caused all the problems.

Kate (Voice Over): I thought I'd found the balance, Bruce. But I was wrong. I crossed the line. And now I'm the very thing I've been fighting against.


Continuity

Gabi Kane had a set of garnet earrings which matched the necklaces her daughters were given for their bat mitzvah.

Alice leaves Dr. Cartwright tied up by the Bat-Signal for Kate, along with a note reading "Ask about Mommy Dearest."

Kate takes Dr. Cartwright to her bar and contacts Jacob.

Kate tells Jacob that Alice is still alive. She does not try to explain the alternate universe Beth to him, saying that it doesn't matter if she was a Skin Pirate impostor or whatever Jacob tells himself to understand it.

Alice finds Mouse in the basement of the old Cartwright house - the one that used to belong to "The Queen of Hearts.".

"The Queen of Hearts" was the nickname Alice and Mouse gave to Mouse's grandmother, Mable Cartwright, who came to live with them after she proved unable to care for herself anymore and required an oxygen tank to live.

By this point in time, Dr. Cartwright was addressing Beth as Alice and Beth was repressing all memory of her old life, saying she couldn't remember where she'd gotten her bat mitzvah necklace from when questioned about it by Mable Cartwright.

Kate reveals to Jacob that Dr. Cartwright was posing as Dr. Campbell.

Jacob says they can't go to the police because their story sounds insane and the only person who can collaborate any of it is Alice, who everyone thinks is dead.

There's bad blood between Jacob and the GCPD Police Commissioner ever since Jacob was freed from jail based on Dr. Campbell's testimony.

Cartwright confesses he spent the last six years posing as Dr. Campbell.

Kate asks Cartwright about the phrase "Mommy Dearest" and Cartwright begins to tell Jacob and Kate about what happened when his mother came to live with him, Alice and Mouse.

Mouse has become unbalanced from the fear gas exposure and hates Alice now, having bought into his father's lies about her being dead and trying to destroy their family. He claims that Alice was ultimately the thing he was most afraid of.

Mouse leaves Alice tied up and exposes her to the fear gas as he makes his escape.

Alice begins to hallucinate Mable Cartwright when first exposed to the fear gas.

Luke goes to Mary's clinic for the first time, after Mary contacts him, saying she thinks she has a lead on Beth's killer.

Mary's lead is a man named Mad Dog who saw her flyer, who came into the clinic for a flu shot. He claims to have seen a car matching the description of the one Luke saw with the same plate numbers in a junk yard at 30 and Green.

Dr. Cartwright tries to bargain for his freedom in exchange for Alice's location. Both Kate and Jacob refuse the bargain, even as Cartwright points out that Alice could become even more dangerous if she isn't found soon.

Alice's flashback visions reveal that she was a slave to Mable Cartwright for years and was made to call her "Your Majesty."

Mable Cartwright claimed she was beautiful when she was young, but she got married to a man who didn't really love her.

Mable Cartwright was physically abusive to Alice, throwing things at her or striking her if her tea was too sweat and burning her hands if her tea was too hot. She also forced Alice to go out in the cold without a coat to a pantry in the same building as Cartwright's workshop to get certain foods she wanted. She also made Alice keep her hair cut short because she was too pretty with long hair.

There was one refrigerator in Cartwright's workshop he kept locked and told Alice not to go near.

Cartwright tells Kate and Jacob about how his mother abused Alice, downplaying his own role in abusing her.

Kate gives Jacob Cartwright's cell-phone and suggests he use it to track where Cartwright had been. Jacob leaves to do that.

Cartwright asks for a glass of water. He manages to get a hand free and breaks the glass, attempting to cut his own throat with it.

Mary and Luke find the car Mad Dog told them about in the junk yard. Inside the trunk, they find a rifle with a bullet of the same caliber that killed Beth.still in the chamber.

Kate calls Mary using an unlisted number and identifies herself as Batwoman, asking her for advice on how to treat a slit throat.

Alice hallucinates Kate coming to rescue her as Batwoman but being stopped by Jacob. The two fight with Jacob finally convincing Batwoman that Alice isn't worth saving.

Alice's real worst fear is being abandoned by her family and left alone forever.

Kate offers to let Cartwright go if he tells her where Alice is. Cartwright doesn't believe her, saying there is nothing to stop her from killing him once he tells her what she wants to know. Kate says there is - her honor, which is what she believes separates her from Alice now.

Kate calls Jacob and tells him Alice is at 614 Williams Street.

Mary tries to search for the Bat Cave entrance while Luke tracks the license plate number they found.

Luke matches the plate of the car to Mable Cartwright, after checking inactive license plate entries.

Alice breaks a window and is in the verge of slitting her throat when Jacob finds her and gives her an adrenaline shot.

Alice tells Jacob that when she wrote the note about "Mommy Dearest" she didn't mean Mable Cartwright; she was referring to her own mother, Gabi Kane.

Luke and Mary tell Kate that Mable Cartwright's car was used by the man who killed Beth and that the murder weapon was in the trunk of the car.

Kate grills Cartwright on whether or not he killed a woman he thought was Alice. Cartwright confesses to the killing, saying that the woman he shot looked like Alice and even had a necklace which matched the earrings his mother wanted that caused all the problems.

It is revealed that the incident which finally turned Beth Kane into Alice came one day when Mable Cartwright was showing off a fancy set of garnet earrings, which she said were a gift from her son. Alice recognized them as Gabi Kane's earrings that matched her daughters' necklaces and finally remembered where her necklace came from.

Alice opened the forbidden fridge and found Gabi Kane's severed head, being preserved.

Alice tells Jacob the same story Catwright tells Kate; about him keeping Gabi Kane's severed head in a fridge.

Cartwright admitted he was using the head as leverage to keep his mother pacified, promising that someday he would give her a beautiful, young woman's face again. He said he couldn't use actually Gabi Kane's face, however, because she was too well known as a Gotham City socialite, but he did finally give his mother Gabi's earrings.

Mable Cartwright was Alice's first kill.  Alice killed her by turning Mable's oxygen tank into an improvised flamethrower.

Kate loses her temper and strangles Catwright after he says that Gabi Kane was a beautiful woman and it would be a shame for her face to go to waste.

Mary and Luke look up the fate of Mable Cartwright and confirm that she seemingly died in a house fire 7 years earlier - just before her son disappeared and replaced Dr. Campbell.

Kate sends Sophie a text, saying she needs someone to talk to.

The episodes ends with Kate, Alice and Jacob preparing to dispose of Cartwright's body.


The Bottom Line

A deeply disturbing ride from beginning to end that manages to convey more true horror than many horror movies and series. Brilliant on all levels and powerfully acted by the entire ensemble. Perhaps the best episode of the series so far.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 14 - Grinning from Ear to Ear

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

A new masked villain begins attacking Gotham City's social media influencers, cutting up their faces before vanishing into the night. As Kate begins tracking this new menace while trying to figure out where she stands with Sophie, Mary tries to figure out how to tell Kate that she's learned her secret identity and Alice seeks out help in confronting Dr. Cartwright.


Influences

The New 52 Catwoman comics (Character of Joker's Daughter) and Batwoman: Elegy 


Goofs

How are The Crows able to track Batwoman so quickly when she went to investigate Veronica May's wrecked truck?

For that matter, how was Sophie able to beat all of them to Batwoman while listening to their radio?

Aren't The Crows going to be somewhat suspicious that Sophie is working with Batwoman when they find Sophie's car (with the lights still on) abandoned next to Veronica May's van?


Artistry

The opening scene with Duela and the mirror is truly unsettling.


Bat Trivia

Duela Dent first appeared in Batman Family #6 (August 1976) and was originally a foil for Robin. Having discovered Dick Grayson's secret identity, Duela taunted the Boy Wonder to do the same while posing as a number of supervillains' daughters, including The Joker, The Riddler and The Penguin. Eventually Robin determined she was the estranged daughter of Harvey Dent. It turned out Duela was trying to find a way to make up for the crimes of her infamous father and went after Robin as an audition for the Teen Titans. Robin was impressed and Duela was a part of the team, under the name Harlequin, until the New Teen Titans era.

In the post-Crisis era, Duela was revealed to be the daughter of The Jokester and Three-Face - the heroic counterparts of The Joker and Two-Face on Earth-3, where all the heroes were villains and vice-versa. She was also the stepdaughter of that world's Riddler, which was how she learned how to replicate the gimmicks and weapons of those villains so well. Sadly, Duela was killed by the Monitors for being a reality deviant who traveled between worlds and threatened the continuity of the new multiverse by existing on Earth-1.

Duela Dent was rebooted in the New 52 era as a spoiled rich girl in Gotham City who was born crazy, loving things that were ugly and hating things seen as traditionally beautiful. She ran away from home and lived in the sewers, where she happened to find the severed face of The Joker, who had removed his own face as part of one of his schemes. Wearing the skin as a mask, Duela went on a rampage, taking over the society of sewer dwellers and setting out to prove herself a worthy heir to The Joker.

The Arrowverse version of Duela Dent is closest to the New 52 version, but given a more solid motivation for her psychosis than just being crazy. This version of Duela Dent grew sick of the shallow subculture her perfection-obsessed mother forced her into as a child (her bedroom is full of beauty pageant trophies) and began targeting her classmates who made themselves "hideous" with plastic surgery while encouraging other women to reach for an ideal that was impossible for the non-rich elites of Gotham City.

The Arrowverse version of Duela Dent is said to be the niece of a popular assistant district attorney. This is almost certainly a reference to Harvey Dent and it suggests that, in the Arrowverse, Harvey Dent has yet to become Two-Face.

Dr. Cartwright exposes Mouse to a tank full of what is labeled Fear Gas. This is presumably the same fear gas utilized by the Scarecrow.


Technobabble

Luke upgrades Kate's cowl so that when she presses the red button on the left gauntlet of the batsuit it activates a cowl-cam that allows him to see what she sees.  He uses this to scan Duela Dent's defaced yearbook remotely.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Kate is grilling Mary for details on people in her circle who might be potential victims of The Slasher. Mary is trying (and failing) to subtly let Kate know she knows she is Batwoman.)
Mary: Actually, if you're... looking into this because you own a real estate firm and these women are most likely future property buyers...
Kate: (deadpan) Exactly.
Mary: I'm around if you need a side... person.

(Kate has a lead on the vehicle of Duela Dent's next victim.)
Batwoman: We need to find that cosmetics truck!
Luke: I appreciate that. But a truck in Gotham? Kind of a needle in a haystack.
Batwoman: The needle is hot pink.
(There is a pause as Luke considers this.)
Luke: That narrows it down.

Batwoman: How do you see this playing out? Dinner? Movie? I take you back to my cave?
Sophie: You live in a cave?!
(Batwoman says nothing in response.)
Sophie: I don't know. I guess I haven't really thought about it.
Batwoman: If I were to tell you who I am right now, would you want to know?
Sophie: (confused) What?
Batwoman: Because once that happens I'm no longer a secret. I'm a face. A person. A woman. And I... I bring all the complications that come with that. So do you want to be in a real relationship? Or do you want to be with someone you can keep secret? Because we can never be more than this. And that shouldn't be enough.
(There is a long pause as Sophie considers this. She sighs sadly.)
Sophie: You're right. As long as I'm with a woman who wears a mask, I'll always be wearing one myself.

(Duela Dent has snuck into Dr. Campbell's office after hours. They are really Dr. Cartwright and Alice wearing flesh masks.)
Dr. Cartwright: You shouldn't be here, Duela.
"Duela":  Sorry. You got the wrong girl.
("Duela" pulls off her face and wig to reveal she's Alice. Cartwright is horrified.)
Dr. Cartwright: No!  You're dead!  I- I shot you!
Alice: Again! You got the wrong girl. (grinning wickedly) You like taking things from children, don't you?  Well... (Alice holds up her flesh mask of Duela and moves the lips like a puppet.) We're all grown up now. And here for a little payback.


Continuity

Mary runs into Sophie while getting coffee. 

Mary knows Sophie was suspended by the Crows.

Sophie tells Mary that she made out with Batwoman.

Mary figures out that Sophie doesn't know Kate is Batwoman.

Luke tells Kate he's upgrading her cowl. He says he's not giving her X-Ray vision or echolocation abilities, though he admits that last one would be a good idea.

Kate tells Luke about her kissing Sophie as Batwoman. Luke says trying to forge a romance as Batwoman is a bad idea, as it will make Sophie a target and that Bruce didn't seek romance for that reason.

Alice was held captive by Dr. Cartwright for 11 years.

One of the Wonderland gang members gets Alice a photo of Dr. Campbell. He doesn't look like Dr. Cartwright, but Alice recognizes him because he still smokes the same pipe.

Jacob meets with Bobby Reeves: the lawyer representing Reggie Harris. He says Harris has won a retrial thanks to the allegations that came forth thanks to The Executioner in 106.

The new judge overseeing Harris' case is David Wellington.

Reeves asks Jacob to use his pull to get Harris' case moved up, as a payback for Harris saving him from Dodgson while in prison in 112.

Reeves tells Jacob that Harris has information from his time in prison about there being things The Crows would like kept secret. He implies that information will come out if Jacob doesn't play ball with them.

Kate meets Sophie at her apartment as Batwoman and tries to let her down easily. They wind up kissing again instead, but are interrupted by someone entering Sophie's apartment. It turns out to be Sophie's mom, who was surprising her with a visit.

A model named Kimberly Wright is attacked by a masked woman who slashes her face with a knife. She is apparently the second social media influencer to be attacked in this manner.

The slasher is described as a woman in her 20s, but all the other details were hidden because she wore a hoodie and a surgical mask.

Luke notes that the slasher is specifically attacking the women's faces, not hurting their bodies at all.

Mary knew Kimberly, but not well.

Mary notes that most of her social media followers left her thanks to the debacle with Jacob allegedly killing Catherine.

Mary suspects that most of the potential victims are all patients of Dr. Ethan Campbell, as they all had plastic surgery to copy one another's best features or those of other famous people.

Mary offers to warn Dr. Campbell, as he lectures at her medical school. Kate tells her not to bother.

Sophie's mother was called by Jacob, who suggested she might need her to come visit.

Sophie was the one who left her husband. She says she fell out of love with her husband.

Sophie's mom reads her the riot act over her not doing everything she can to rejoin The Crows. She openly disrespects Batwoman, saying she doesn't represent her values like Batman did. Sophie confirms this means being openly gay.

Sophie is 28 years old and has two degrees and owns her own condo.

Kate asks Sophie, as Batwoman, to interview Dr. Campbell.

The first victim of the slasher was a model named Mia Cortez.

Sophie suggests that maybe the Slasher isn't targeting people who got copycat surgeries but inflicting the injuries she suffered on other people.

Dr. Campbell recalls a patient from eight years earlier - a teenage girl who carved a smile onto her fact. She had a long psychiatric rap-sheet and cut her own face repeatedly. The girls's name was Duela Dent.

Duela's mother is Evelyn Dent. She was a typical stage mother who forced Duela to compete in beauty pageants as a child and teenager.

Duela was recently released from a mental institution.

Kate searches Duela's room and finds what seems to be a hit list and a defaced yearbook.

Kate asks Luke to look up the name Myrtis Dinker.  Luke finds nothing, but is able to scan the photo Kate sees and start trying to match the picture.

Kate confronts Duela, who takes her mother hostage and slashes her throat to escape.

Alice abducts a psychiatrist, Dr. Monroe, to seek his advice on why she's afraid to confront Dr. Cartwright. He suggests that because of her past trauma, she is regressing into the girl who was terrified of the man who held her captive. He suggests a third person who can act as a buffer between her and him - an emotional shield - might be the answer.

Alice has Dr. Monroe killed, lamenting that he truly was helpful but she can't exactly guarantee his silence.

Alice guesses that Duela Dent is the Slasher, based on the records of Dr. Campbell's patients she stole and the fact that Duela sued Dr. Campbell when she was 16, claiming the surgery he performed to restore her face was done without her permission.

Dr. Cartwright tells Mouse that Alice is dead and shows him the newspaper report of her death. He confesses that he shot her to save their family.

Jacob confronts the Crow who handled Harris' case about Reeves' allegations. He says the only thing he finds unusual about the case is that people are trying to set a killer free, blowing off Jacob's pointing out that, somehow, five hours worth of security footage around the time of the robbery where Lucius Fox was murdered.

Dr. Cartwright hooks Mouse up to an tank full of fear gas, which he took from a former colleague.

Mary identifies Myrtis Dinker as Veronica May - a model who runs her own make-up line. She says the reason the facial recognition software Batwoman uses didn't work is because her nose and chin have been changed since high school.

Veronica May has a custom cosmetics truck to promote her business that is hot pink, which Mary describes as the gaudiest thing on the road.

Sophie shows up to warn Batwoman that the Crows are coming for her after she finds Veronica May's van run off the road.

Luke guesses that Duela has taken Veronica May to a cosmetics factory down the road, which is where Veronica May's make-up line is manufactured.

Alice steals medical supplies from Mary's clinic.

Alice tells Mary about how she saved her life with a blood transfusion in 113.

Alice tells Mary that she knows who Batwoman really is and seems surprised Mary doesn't know.

Duela dangles Veronica over a vat of acidic chemicals.

Sophie fights Duela while Batwoman saves Veronica.

Sophie says she and Batwoman made a good team. Batwoman agrees, but says they can't be together unless Sophie is willing to hide every aspect of their life from the world. Sophie agrees, saying she can't be with a woman wearing a mask unless she wears one herself.

Batwoman says she'll call the GCPD and tell them where Duela is tied up.

Alice finds Duela and offers to give them both what they want.

It is revealed later that she cut Duela's face off, leaving her "perfect" and made her face into a flesh mask so she could ambush Dr. Cartwright while posing as Duela.

Jacob confronts his agent with a bank statement showing that The Crows paid the owner of the Sip N' Dash where Lucius Fox was murdered $50,000 dollars. The money came from a budget used to pay for damages caused during the apprehension of a suspect. He suggests the money was for more than damages but again the agent blows off his concerns.

Jacob calls Sophie and offers to reinstate her, saying he needs her integrity which he has never questioned, even if he questioned her decision making abilities.

Sophie outs herself to her mother, saying she never loved her husband and only married him because it was expected. She says the only time she was ever happy romantically was with Kate.

Sophie is disowned by her mother.

Mary tries to get Kate to open up to her again, but Kate doesn't take the hint.

Mary refers to the events of 101 and says she was never afraid of Kate revealing her secret clinic to anyone because she trusts her. She says she hopes one day Kate will trust her the same way.

Alice unmasks Dr. Cartwright and demands to know where Mouse is.

The final scene shows Mouse, tied up in the basement where we last saw him, screaming and having a spasm. It is revealed he is connected to a tank labeled Fear Gas.


The Bottom Line

A weak episode, largely due to the absence of Alice and the focus on Sophie. Duela is a forgettable villain-of-the-weak, despite being infinitely more interesting and better developed here than she was as the New 52 Joker's Daughter. Still, at least the Kate/Sophie romance seems to finally be dead and over. At least the bits with Mary trying to hint at Kate's secret are amusing and its good to see Alice get the jump on Dr. Cartwright. Ironically, this plastic surgery themed episode is far less than the sum of its parts.