Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 13 - We Having Fun Yet?

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

Plot

The Bat-Team is left scrambling as Marquis launches an unlikely attack on Gotham City using both Batman and Joker's arsenals. Jada, Ryan, Mary, Luke and Sophie must bring all their respective skills into play, as a final battle between brother and sister looms, while Alice faces an entirely different battle against her own mind.


Influences

The 1989 Batman movie (Joker gassing people during a public spectacle with a balloon), Batman Returns (the Penguin's hypnosis umbrella) and the Batwoman comics. (Alice goes to a Swiss clinic to treat her mental illness.)


Goofs

When trying to move the Bat-Blimp where it will do the least damage, the digital map in the Batcave shows it moving in a north-westernly direction. However, the Bat-Team was trying to get it out to sea, which would be to the east of Gotham City, presuming it is located somewhere in New Jersey, as in the comics. (This would seem to be born out by the 40 degrees N, 73 degrees W coordinates Sophie gives, but conflicts with earlier suggestions that the Arrowverse Earth-Prime Gotham City is located off the shore of Lake Michigan, near Chicago.)

The show unintentionally establishes the disturbing idea that the hypnosis umbrellas caused untold numbers of parents to abandon their small children after Luke finds a lost boy in an alleyway after escaping the blimp.


Performances

Nicole Kang once again shows why she was this season's VIP. A year ago, it would have been unbelievable that Mary could forgive Alice for everything she has done, much less become her advocate. Kang's performance throughout the season has made this development believable and it culminates in her speech here where she calls out the rest of the Bat-Team on their blindspot regarding Alice. It's a shame that nothing comes of this moment due to Marquis' announcement, but it's a powerful speech and the highlight of the episode.


Artistry

The opening montage of Marquis' childhood encounter with the Joker as he breaks into the Joker's hidden armory is suitably spooky.


Bat Trivia

This episode was originally titled "Are We Having Fun Yet?"

Alice claims to have learned of Marquis' plans from a fellow Arkham inmate in the form of a riddle. This suggests that the Riddler might still be alive in the Arrowverse, post-Crisis.

The Weiße Kaninchen Sanatorium Alice goes to at the end of the episode has the same name as the facility that treated Beth Kane in the Batwoman comics.

Weiße Kaninchen Sanatorium translates to White Rabbits Sanatorium in German. This is another nod to Alice in Wonderland.

When listing the weapons in Batman's trophy collection, Ryan mentions the gun of Condiment King. This is the first confirmation that Condiment King exists in the Arrowverse. 

Condiment King was originally created for Batman: The Animated Series as a parody of the cheesy gimmick villains played by comedians who were created for the 1966 Batman television series. This version of Condiment King was a comedian, Buddy Standler, who was brainwashed by The Joker into believing he was a villain using stolen Mad Hatter tech. He was armed with high-power ketchup and mustard guns and made food-based puns.

Condiment King was later introduced into the comics in earnest with the unlikely name of Mitchell Mayo. While the authorities did not take him seriously, he was treated as a threat by the Tim Drake Robin, as his condiment-based weapons could cause anaphylactic shock.

In the final scene, some kind of monster kills reporter Dana DeWitt. A hulking figure is seen wandering off in front of the camera, but a claw is seen attacking the camera earlier. The prevailing theories among fans is that the monster is some variation of the villain Clayface. However, Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries teased that it was Solomon Grundy in interviews posted after the episode aired.

Coincidentally, the first Batwoman comic based around Ryan Wilder - due out several months after this episode aired - was announced to put Ryan against the Arrowverse version of Clayface.

Technobabble

The Batcave has the technology to hijack every phone, screen and livestream in Gotham City through the Batcave computer and Wayne Enterprises' satellite network.

Luke has never seen the controls of the Bat-Blimp, but speculates they may be vulnerable to hacking by an ISMI catcher.

While the Barcave armory could be accessed by anyone, Luke set the secret vault full of Batman trophies so that only Ryan could open it.

Sophie uses a tech-glove to trick the fingerprint reader on the Bat-Trophy storage room.


Dialogue Triumphs

Luke: Alice killed your mom, Mary.
Mary: Do you think I forgot? You think I don't know how badly Ryan wants her brother back or that the first time Alice ever met Sophie she threw her off a 30-story building? I know. It is not like this is some easy decision for me... or anyone, but I believe Alice is capable of change. She just needs a chance. Come on. Each one of you looked me in the eye a few weeks ago, apologized for sidelining me, and assured me I would have a voice on this team. This is it. This is me using my voice. This is... this is what I want. I need to save Alice's life

Ryan: Tell me why you deserve the Joy Buzzer.
Alice: Shouldn't you be out enjoying your last few hours of superhero anonymity?
Ryan: Yeah, I should. Instead, I'm here doing my best friend a solid while the person who actually needs it is out there threatening to destroy everything I've worked for.
Alice: Oh, you mean the brother you're scared is too good to be true? Face it, Ry-Ry, you can blame Mary all you want, but deep down in that little orphan heart, you need me to have that thing.
Ryan: Oh, wow. Mary was right. You did stop making sense.
Alice: Or... chances are you spent the last few months daydreaming about what it would be like to have a nuclear family. Thanksgiving dinners, family game nights, the comfort of a kidney should a new one become necessary.
Ryan: Your desperation's showing.
Alice: What if you zap Marquis and that good little boy buried beneath that tacky clown suit turns out to be doing just fine without his needy little sister? Do you really want to risk getting your hopes up only to have him leave you like everybody else? I'm your safe bet, Ryan. Psycho or sane, you don't need me to love you back


Continuity

The opening scene shows Marquis breaking into one of the Joker's old hideouts in the fun house of an abandoned amusement park. Apparently Joker told him about its location when he was a kid.

Mary visits Alice in Arkham Asylum and discovers her trying to shock herself with an improvised shock wand made from a socket wrench.

Mary tells Alice that she found a clinic in Switzerland near Geneva, Weisse Kaninchen Sanatorium, which specializes in childhood trauma and abuse victims.

Alice refuses to consider it, saying she is sick of cells and institutions.

When the Bat team assemble to discuss how to deal with Marquis, Alice suggests they use the buzzer on Alice. The rest of the team dismiss this idea, even as Mary points out that Alice honestly wants redemption and is just as much a victim as Marquis.

Marquis uses the Batcave tech to hijack every screen in Gotham City. He delivers a broadcast in which he encourages everyone to be outside in five hours for when he reveals Batwoman's secret identity to the world and that she is not the great hero everyone thinks she is.

Ryan goes to Arkham to confront Alice.

Jada shows up unannounced and asks if the rest of the Bat Team saw the broadcast.

When Luke says he doesn't have the tech to counter the Batcave or trace Marquis' signal, Jada says she can have her tech team pull a carrier-grade router off of Jeturian's server farm and get him whatever he needs.

According to Jada, Lucius Fox repeated himself when he was angry.

Jada gets Luke access to a secure access point to a quantum computer at Gotham University which she financed on his father's advice.

Alice says she doesn't deserve the joy buzzer, but she does have one bit of information Ryan needs. She reveals that she spoke to some of the Arkham lifers on the off chance Joker might have told any of them about his ultimate plan to destroy Gotham City after Batman captured him for the last time.

Alice also guesses that Marquis has a man-crush on Joker and is going to pull off his ultimate plan.

After tracing Marquis' signal to a slow-moving, airborne position, Luke figures out that he stole the Bat-Blimp.

Marquis' plan is to rain the Joker's acid bombs down on Gotham City from Batman's blimp, killing millions of people who are out in the streets waiting to hear Batwoman's secret identity.

Ryan asks Luke to try and steer the Bat-Blimp close to the roof of GCPD HQ, but refuses to tell the rest of the team her plan so they won't try to stop her.

Ryan asks Mary and Sophie to work on getting people back inside.

Sophie only has 300 followers on her social media.

Ryan asks Jada for help in retaking control of Wayne Enterprises.

Jada calls a press conference confessing to the public that she covered up her son murdering her husband. This leads to Ryan being renamed CEO of Wayne Enterprises and causes enough chaos in Wayne Tower that Mary and Sophie are able to sneak into the Batcave undetected.

Mary sets up the computer in the Batcave so that they can send their own broadcast to all the people in Gotham City.

Sophie gets the Penguin's hypnosis umbrella from the Bat-Trophy room.

Marquis figures out that the blimp's autopilot has been hacked and shoots the controls and the pilot before it is low enough for Ryan to jump onto it.

Ryan grapples up onto the underside of the Bat-Blimp.

Sophie knows how to disarm bombs and tries to talk Ryan through disabling Joker's bombs.

Sophie and Mary use the Penguin's umbrella and the Batcave's broadcast facilities to make all the people waiting in the streets of Gotham go inside.

Marquis confronts Ryan and pushes her out the window of the blimp.

Ryan latches onto Marquis and uses some kind of parachute to save them both.

Luke flies into the Blimp in his Batwing suit and uses the Lucius Fox AI to hack the controls to steer the Blimp towards the least populated part of Gotham City. Unfortunately, this requires him to sacrifice the AI.

Alice finds Ryan and helps her fight Marquis, distracting him so she can use the joy buzzer.

A flashback reveals that Ryan told Alice earlier that she was strong enough to change on her own and that she asked Alice for her help.

Sophie tells Luke to program the AI to take the blump to 40 degrees N, 73 degrees W. In the real world, this would be over the ocean just off the shore of New Jersey.

Luke escapes the blimp before it explodes and stumbles across a lost boy looking for his mother in an alley.

Marquis' vitals are stable but he's unconscious after Ryan takes him to Mary's clinic.

Jada says she can't make up for the past but wants Ryan to be part of her future.

Marquis wakes up and says its nice to meet Ryan for real.

Mary finds a note pinned to her desk with Alice's butterfly knife. The note reads "Off to find myself. See you on the flipside."

We briefly see Alice, her hair now brown and dressed in normal clothes, walking away from her sewer hideout, apparently off to the hospital in Switzerland. 

Ryan, Sophie, Mary and Luke take the night to work on cleaning up Ryan's office at Wayne Enterprises and the Batcave.

Reporter Dana DeWitt and her camera crew are killed by some kind of monster. 

The Fridge Factor

Dana DeWitt is killed to set up a cliffhanger for Season 4.


The Killing Jokes

Even by the notorious lacks standards of Arkham Asylum security, it seems odd that Alice could assemble a homemade shock wand in her cell and that she'd have an outlet to plug into.

The show completely glosses over how selfish Ryan is and that her efforts to save the city are born just as much from her seeking the approval of the mother that abandoned her and a desire to hurt Alice as they are any innate heroism.

By a handy coincidence, Luke thought to set the vault full of Batman's trophies so that only Ryan could access it, but didn't apply any of this DNA tech to any of the other Batcave armories. This enables them to get technology Marquis couldn't plan against later.


The Bottom Line

Dreck. Pure dreck, sadly in keeping with the season that led up to it. What little reputation Batwoman had as the most serious and realistic of the Arrowverse series is dead, thanks to a finale built around a hypnotic umbrella and a magic McGuffin. That's less of a sin, however, than the hero being far more selfish than most of the series' villains. This could be taken as a brilliant deconstruction of how the Batman comics are about the upper-class exploiting the mentally ill to their own benefit, but that would be giving it far too much credit. Here's hoping it won't make the cut for Season 4.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 12 - We're All Mad Here

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

Plot

Ryan, Sophie and Jada come together to put a stop to Marquis' plans, as Mary seeks out the family of the man she murdered to make amends. Meanwhile, Alice's instability grows stronger, as she begins to hallucinate Mouse and Ocean while seeking out the Joker's joy buzzer.


Influences

Alice's dream sequences feel partly inspired by David Lynch's movies.


Goofs

Ryan's working with Jada in this episode completely undercuts her telling off the mother who abandoned her in last week's episode and embracing the found family of friends she made as Batwoman.

Again, the show has to come up with some remarkably twisted logic on the part of the "heroes" to justify why Alice isn't the hero of this show when she does most of the work to stop the major villains, while the protagonists argue with each other and are far more selfish than Alice.


Performances

Rachel Skarsten does a fantastic job capturing Alice's torment. Unfortunately, it makes her far more sympathetic than Ryan, whose motivations basically come down to trying to win the approval of the mother who abandoned her.


Artistry

The opening fight scene with Alice is fantastic.

The dream imagery of Alice's hallucinations is well shot.


Bat Trivia

The episode title is a quote from Alice in Wonderland.

This episode hints at the death of Jason Todd, as Kiki Roulette makes reference to helping the Joker beat Robin to death with a crowbar. This raises the question of whether or not Red Hood exists in the post-Crisis Arrowverse and if so, where is he?

The episode also establishes that there is an Arrowverse version of James Gordon Jr. However, he apparently was drugged into a stupor by an experimental treatment when he was 15 and never became the dangerous serial killer he was in the comics.

In the closing title card, the Batarang has a Joker smile painted on it.


Dialogue Triumphs

Alice: The... the hallucinations are back but worse, and I... I just need a little edger until you can get me the Joy Buzzer.
Mary: But Kiki, she said that there was only one buzz left.
Alice: Exactly, so why are we still standing here?
Mary: Because Ryan needs it for her brother.
Alice: But you need it for you sister.
Mary: Except you're not my sister. Why didn't you stop me? A real sister would have stopped me before I killed someone.
Alice: You think this is my fault? That was all you... Poison Mary. I was there for you, making sure no one got in your way.
Mary: You weren't there for me. You took advantage of me. You needed me, so you encouraged me, and... and now a wife is without her husband and their two boys without their dad, and their life is ruined, and my life is ruined!
Alice: (sarcastic) Got it. I am so sorry that you gutted a man with a tree branch. My bad!

(Alice and Marquis are struggling over the joy buzzer.)
Marquis: Damn. I throw you a party, and this is how you thank me?
Alice: Give... it to me.
Marquis: Or... or... We rule Gotham together. You could be the Harley to my Joker.
Alice: (laughs) I think you have that backwards. Besides, we come from different schools of looney tune.


Continuity

The episode opens with a dream sequence in which Alice imagines that she fights her way into Wayne Enterprises, finds Joker's joy buzzer and uses it to shock herself sane. She later wakes up in Mary's clinic where she declares that she feels like Beth Kane again. She is later put on trial and cleared of all her past crimes. Ryan is bitterly disappointed and tells Alice that she doesn't care what the public or a court says - she still knows that Alice is evil. Beth gives her the joy buzzer and says maybe Luke can still use it to figure out a way to save Marquis.

Alice is snapped out of the dream when Ocean shows up and tells her that she doesn't deserve a happy ending.

Ryan goes after Marquis Jet's #2 at Wayne Enterprises as Batwoman.

Sophie wakes up in Ryan's apartment.

Jada shows up at Ryan's apartment with coffee and pastries.

Alice breaks into Mary's clinic and starts rifling through the medication looking for anti-psychotics.

Alice tells Mary the hallucinations are back and getting worse. She says she thinks the only thing that can save her is the Joker's joy buzzer.

Mary refuses to help Alice and blames her for her killing a man while she was Poison Mary.

Ryan tells Sophie that she contacted Jada so they would work on a plan together. She apologizes for not telling her beforehand.

Ryan got a hold of Marquis' schedule from his #2. He is booked solid from 9-6 every day for the next week, except for today.

Marquis sent an e-mail to his #2 asking him to find the home address of one Barbara Kean - an art gallery owner and Jim Gordon's ex-wife.

Barbara is said to have divorced Jim Gordon at some point after their son, James Jr. was found with body parts in his closet.

Jada says that she will give Ryan whatever resources she needs before leaving in a rush.

Sophie goes after Jada and overhears her calling someone named Mario about something that could be bad for all of them.

Sophie knows that Barbara Kean was part of the Black Glove Society, along with Jada, and asks why she won't tell Ryan about the connection.

Jada tells Sophie not to tell Ryan about the BGS before leaving in a car that turns out to belong to Marquis' henchmen.

Mary seeks out the wife of the man she killed as Poison Mary.

Alice seeks out Kiki Roulette in the Joker's old workshop. As she makes her approach, she hallucinates Mouse, who taunts her.

Luke notices that Sophie is wearing the same clothes she was a day before, due to her not changing after her night with Ryan.

Ryan lies and says that Sophie was out all night helping her track Marquis' assistant.

Luke is able to trace the car that took Jada to Wayne Enterprises.

Alice threatens Kiki and tells her to give her the joy buzzer or make her a new one. 

Kiki makes reference to the Jason Todd Robin, whom she helped the Joker kill with a crowbar. She also makes reference to Harley Quinn, saying Alice isn't the first crazy blonde woman to threaten to kill her.

Kiki claims to have worked for Joker since she was 16.

Marquis kills Kiki and gases Alice.

When Alice wakes up, she is in the Black Glove Society headquarters, along with five people who are tied-up and hooded.

The five people are revealed to be Barbara Kea, Burton Crowne, Mr. Jeremiah Arkham, crime boss Mario Falcone and Jada Jet - all Black Glove Society members.

According to Marquis, the Black Glove Society was founded in 1984 by Marla Elliot - the mother of Tommy "Hush" Elliot, due to his unfortunate obsession with his friend Bruce Wayne and wanting to be him.

James Gordon Jr. is said to have tied a labradoodle to a train track when he was 15. This was apparently the last straw for his mother.

Marquis subjects each of the Black Glove Society members to the same treatment they used on their children.

For Barbara Kean, this means 7 doses of the same untested drugs that left her son a drooling vegetable. Miraculously, she survives this.

Mary learns that Alice apparently confessed to the killing of the murder she committed and the wife of the man she killed presumed that was why she came to talk to her, given her own connection as a victim of Alice. Mary lies and says that was it.

Ryan apologies to Sophie for hiding the last night from Luke, saying she isn't ashamed but it isn't his business to know. She later admits that she's afraid to admit to anything good in her life publicly because she always seems to lose everything good.

Alice stops Marquis from using the Mr. Freeze coolant from freezing his mother after shocking her crazy with the joy buzzer.

Marquis tells Alice about how he came to be shocked by the Joker and how they were born on the same day, which is why he feels a connection to her.

Alice offers Marquis something that would make the Joker jealous of him in exchange for the joy buzzer. This is later revealed to be the secret of how to get into the Batcave.

Sophie approached Alice as she was leaving Marquis' hideout.

Ryan stops Alice from stealing Sophie's gun and shooting her. 

Ryan takes the buzzer from Alice, but is overpowered by Marquis.

Jada shoots the coolant tank to stop Marquis from using it on Ryan.

Marquis escapes in the confusion.

Ryan and Sophie agree to become a couple and live openly.

Ryan says she is not going to let Marquis rot in Arkham for the rest of his life and asks Sophie for 24 hours to try and save him before they go against him in full force.

Luke and Mary learn that Ryan and Sophie are involved.

Alice is committed to Arkham Asylum. 

Mary visits Alice in her cell, driving away the images of Ocean and Mouse as orderlies that were taunting her.

Alice tells Mary that she told Marquis how to get into the Batcave.

The episode ends with Marquis entering the Batcave and inspecting the arsenal. 


Untelevised Adventures

Alice called the GCPD off-camera and confessed to the murder that Poison Mary committed. 


The Fridge Factor

Sophie is easily beaten by Alice, purely to set up a chance for Ryan to save Sophie.

Ryan is overpowered by Marquis purely to give Jada a chance to turn against her son to save her daughter.


The Bottom Line

This may be the episode where the series jumps the shark completely. While Alice has always been an anti-hero and her motives here are purely selfish, she's still far more sympathetic than Ryan, whose motivations are equally selfish. The script twists to make various characters helpless as the plot demands it, even when they're facing an opponent who shouldn't be as capable in a fight as they are.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 11 - Broken Toys

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

Plot

With Marquis revived and Jada Jet out for blood, Ryan finds herself under fire on all fronts. As Gotham's worst villains unite and prepare for war, Sophie joins Luke on a mission, as Alice helps Mary work through her Poison Ivy possession. 


Influences

The Batman comics of Grant Morrison


Performances

Alex Morf steals the show as Zsasz. One wishes he had been set up as the main villain of the season, as he's far more interesting than Marquis and has a strong adversarial chemistry with Javicia Leslie.


Artistry

The fight scene between Ryan and Zsasz is great.


Bat Trivia

This episode marks the directorial debut of Camrus Johnson, who plays Luke Fox.

This episode confirmed that Harley Quinn was once Harleen Quinzel in the Arrowverse and that she existed in the post-Crisis Arrowverse.     

Marquis' costume pays tribute to the Joker, with a purple suit jacket, violet shirt and orange vest. His hair is dyed dark purple instead of green, however.


Technobabble

Joker's joy buzzer was designed so that, when applied to the head, the electrical impulses rendered the parts of the brain controlling empathy dormant. In theory, a zap to a psychotic brain would reopen those neural pathways. 


Dialogue Triumphs

Doctor: Mr. Jet, I appreciate your generous donation to Arkham, but I do have some concerns about your plans for a work release program.
Marquis: I see it as more of a compassionate non-confinement. 

Marquis: So it's true. You mark each of your kills with a scar.
Zsasz: Consider my body my resume.
Marquis: Well, from the look of it, you're probably already collecting your pension, huh?
Zsasz: Heh. There's always room for a few more.
Marquis: Ahh. I was hoping you'd say that. 

Mary: Does it ever get easier, living with the things you've done? And don't say it's not my fault.
Alice: Oh, that's what the Bat Team's been telling you?
Mary: Yeah.
Alice: That's probably because they think you're too emotionally fragile to handle the truth.
Mary: Which is?
Alice: It's totally your fault. That hunter didn't vine hurl himself into the tree, and dyeing your hair back to its natural color doesn't change that.
Mary: So... so what do I do now?
Alice: Easy. You take all of your feelings, and you bury them deep down inside, and you cover them up with a layer of "people die all the time", and then you sprinkle on some "he probably did bad stuff, too", and then you pack it down with a nice little bit of "he might have even deserved it", and then, poof, all those icky, no-good feelings go bye-bye! At least that's what I'd do.
Mary: (uncertain) But... I'm not a sociopath.

Zsasz: I'm actually glad that we ran into each other, Ryan, because I got to say you have done really well for yourself.
Ryan: (dryly) Much appreciated.
Zsasz: Uh, I meant to get you a congrats gift after you made Wayne CEO, but by the time I got around to it, you'd already been disgraced, and it just felt like it'd be bringing up a sore subject, but honestly, congrats and... sorry.

Jada: You know this man?
Ryan: In another life.
Zsasz: Life. Thank you. Man, I was really struggling for a segue there, and you totally bailed me out. Life, as in yours, Ms. Jet, is hanging in the balance here.
Jada: You got the evidence you came for.
Zsasz: Heh. I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that.
Jada: Then why don't I make it simple? Whatever you're being paid, I'll triple it.
Zsasz: Well... Considering your son hired me, killing you just lets him inherit more money that he can then give to me. So it's really just a waste of our time, yours especially.
Jada: Well, if it's me you're after, then you can let my daughter go.
Zsasz: Whoa. Daughter? Wait. I thought your mom was dead, right? Dead mom number one died in childbirth, blah, blah, blah, foster care, and then you were adopted by dead mom number two. So how does that make her soon-to-be dead mom number 3?
Ryan: She's not. She's my biological mother, who didn't die in childbirth.
Zsasz: So after years of separation, you two actually found each other and reconnected only to discover that despite being apart you both stormed the corporate CEO patriarchy to become powerful titans of business? Now that's what I call a happy ending. Heh. Except for the part where I have to do what childbirth didn't, but... uh-oh... twist! There is a chance for a last-minute rescue but only if Batwoman comes to save you.

Zsasz: The suspense might kill me before I have to kill you. Heh. So if you two have any last mother-daughter things you want to discuss... funeral arrangements, perhaps... now would be the time.

(Jada has just told Ryan the tragic truth about why she abandoned her.)
Zsasz: I just want to thank you both for letting me be a part of this special moment. Truly. Thank you. But... It seems Batwoman is a no-show, and I'm afraid a deadline is a deadline. It's a very violent word when you think about it, but entirely appropriate to this moment. Ryan... any last words for Ms. Jet
Ryan: Yeah. Mom... Duck.
(Ryan moves into action and takes Zsasz down.) 

Jada:mSo where do we go from here?
Ryan: Well... based on recent history, you call Dana DeWitt with your latest scoop outing me as Batwoman.
Jada: I wouldn't do that to you.
Ryan: You sure about that? Ever since we've met, all you've done is take away anything good in my life. You came after me as CEO of Wayne, and you came after me as Batwoman, and you think some sob story about how you tried to give me $2 million would make a damn difference. Did you ever wonder where I was, how I was doing? Did you ever even think about me?!
Jada: Of course I thought about you!
Ryan: Yeah. Just not enough to check up on me. You want to know what I would have wanted instead of $2 million? A mom who cared enough to make sure I was in good hands, that I had someone to walk me to school my first day of kindergarten, someone to make me cupcakes for my birthday, someone to yell at me for staying up too late watching TV, but I had to wait 14 years for any of that!
Jada: You're right. And look at you... the child I gave nothing to, and you achieved all of this. I gave Marquis everything... And look how he turned out. Maybe the greatest thing I ever did for you was staying out of your life.

Marquis: If I knew you were gonna be snooping, I'd have cleared my browser history. 

Mary: So everything you said your therapist told you about healing, doing all the hard work, those were all lies?
Kiki: Oh, no, no, no. That was all true. I just didn't want to do it. In my defense, though, my therapist was Harleen Quinzel, so, you know.


Continuity

As the episode opens, the water diverted from the Gotham Dam into the sewers taxed the city's cheap infrastructure, leading to flooded sewer lines which backed up into the streets and flooded the area around Mary's clinic.

Marquis left a clown doll behind in his bed after escaping Mary's clinic.

Mary blames herself for what has happened, due to her helping Poison Ivy recover her strength and telling Marquis Ryan's secret identity.  The rest of the team tell her that wasn't really her and not to worry about it.

Luke can't fix the Joker's joy-buzzer.

Luke suggests that maybe his father's AI might have some information on the joy buzzer that might help, but that they have no idea what happened to it.

Mary tells everyone she gave the AI to Marquis in 308.

Kiki Roulette was the name of the Joker's toymaker. She created his acid flower, nerve gas bombs and joy buzzer. Alice suggests that she might be able to repair the joy buzzer.

Kiki Roulette was said to have avoided capture and disappeared.

Mary decides to try and find Kiki after Luke tracks a woman named Kathleen Rogers with a similar eye-glasses prescription. Alice goes with her.

Ryan tells Sophie and Luke to lay low.

Ryan tells Sophie they can figure out their relationship later.

Marquis gives a speech at Arkham about the city failing the mentally ill and how he's starting a program to help them out while donating money to support the asylum.

Ryan recalls that Jada said that she had something on Marquis that protected her.

Marquis makes arrangements to release the worst criminals in Arkham, including serial murderers and rapists out to work for him. This includes Victor Zsasz.

Zsasz last appeared in 203.

Mary asks Alice for advice on coping with the killings she committed as Poison Mary.

Alice recognizes the lady running the halfway house as Kiki Roulette. 

Luke breaks into Wayne Tower, with Sophie coming along.

Sophie tells Luke about her kissing Ryan.

Sophie is the only person on the Bat Team with SWAT certification.

Ryan goes to Jada to beg her to release whatever evidence she has regarding Marquis because he is about to endanger the city.

Zsasz goes after Jada and recognizes Ryan from their earlier encounter.

Zsasz smashes Jada's tapes.

Zsasz says that he left a note on the Bat-Signal, so there's still a chance that Batwoman might save Jada and Ryan, as he had instructions to kill Jada in front of Batwoman and is under orders to wait from Marquis.

Jada reveals that she did not pay a doctor $2 million dollars to cover up her affair and pregnancy. She gave that money to her doctor to give to a young couple she had been told was desperate for a baby of their own. It was not until years later that Jada learned that Ryan had been abandoned at a fire station and the doctor had kept the money for himself. 

Jada realizes Ryan is Batwoman after watching her take down Zsasz and figures out that is why Batwoman didn't come to save her.

Alice and Mary take Kiki to The Joker's old workshop, where her tools were.

One of the items in the workshop is a Talkie Teddy doll, which Kiki combined with a fragmentation grenade. 2 adults and 3 children were killed by the deadly dolls, with another 12 suffering permanent injuries.

Kiki tells Alice and Mary that her therapist gave her some advice on how to cope with the guilt of being a killer and says there was no secret beyond learning to live with it and take responsibility for what you did.

Sophie admits that she was into Ryan before she knew she was Batwoman, after Luke jokes about her having a type.

Luke recovers the AI of his father but decides to use the opportunity to hack Marquis' laptop.

Ryan tells off Jada for abandoning her and thinking she can be easily forgiven.

Luke contacts Ryan and tells her they found out Marquis made contact with Kiki Roulette. 

Kiki repairs the joy buzzer but says it has only enough charge for one go.

Marquis's followers show up and capture Alice and Mary, having been called by Kiki.

Marquis and his followers ambush Luke and Sophie.

Kiki reveals that what she told Alice and Mary about her therapist was true, but that she didn't want to work past her guilt. She also notes that her therapist was Dr. Harleen Quinzel (aka Harley Quinn)

Everyone is able to escape from Marquis' cluthes.

Jada reveals that Ryan was named after Jada's father.

The Lucius Fox AI tells Luke that he is proud of him.

Marquis has plans for the joy buzzer and shocking one more person.

Mary looks for Alice in her old subway lair.

Mary made a bug-out bag for Alice to get her out of town.

Alice says she doesn't want to be Alice anymore and wants to get the joy buzzer to make herself sane.

Ryan kisses Sophie and they have sex.


The Killing Jokes

Luke, despite being a technical genius who is called upon to analyze alien technology by ARGUS, cannot fix the Joker's joy buzzer.


The Bottom Line

A surprisingly solid episode, with some great witty banter, which minimizes all the most aggravating aspects of the season to date.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 10 - Toxic

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

Plot

Batwoman's hands are full as she juggles Jada Jet's demands, Poison Mary's ever-increasing power and a new romantic entanglement. Loyalties are tested and motives come into question as Batwoman races against the clock to once again save Gotham City from a newly awakened Poison Ivy.


Influences

Various classic Batman comics with a villain trying to destroy a dam.


Performances

Bridget Regan is far better as Poison Ivy than this show deserves.


Artistry

The special effects work for Poison Ivy's plants is solid.

The sequence in which Ryan jumps onto a moving ambulance is fantastic.


Bat Trivia

This was the highest rated episode of Batwoman ever on IMDB, with a 7.8.


Technobabble

Gotham Dam provides power to half the industry in Gotham City and is responsible for the death of one species of fish.

Sporeling transference is the process by which Ivy was able to rejuvenate herself through Mary. Despite seemingly being a parasitic transfer of life energy, Montoya insists that Ivy really does care for Mary. This suggests a symbiotic bond, like when basil plants and tomato plants thrive together.

Renee Montoya developed a pheromone blocker that negated Poison Ivy's ability to control her. Giving this formula to Mary enables her to weaken Poison Ivy when she tries to tap Mary's energy.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ivy: That was epic. Did you rehearse that?
Mary: Ohh. I've been dealing with the horrors of the Gotham healthcare system for a while now, but I think that you just unlocked something.
Ivy: You found your calling, Doc.
Mary: I get it now. Justice, using this gift to level the playing field.
Ivy: Now the press is gonna label you a villain, they're gonna call you unhinged, use way too many puns, but if you just do what feels right, they can't stop you.
Mary: Yeah. Pam... Your nose. It's happening again.

Alice: (To Montoya) Let's cut to the chase. You are going to tell us what Pam did with Mary. Or this psycho killer is going to show you what she can do with a lemon zester.
(Alice smiles as she brandishes the tool.)
Alice: Trust me. I've done worse with less.

Batwoman: (over radio) I'm getting Mary back, but I'm gonna need help.
Sophie: Batwoman, I'm here. What do you need?
Batwoman: Tell Alice to stop drinking.
(Alice belches.)

(Alice and Ryan overhear Montoya telling Sophie it's obvious she has a crush on Ryan.)
Alice: She has a good point.
Ryan: Whatever.
Alice:"Whatever"? That's a big deal. Sophie likes you back.
Ryan: "Back"? Who said I liked Sophie?
Alice: Uh... all the girls on the playground. Come on. It's obvious. You're avoiding your feelings for Sophie, which is why you asked me to be your wheel woman and not her. You and I are the same, Batty. We pretend like we don't care, but it's only because when we get something good, we know we're gonna screw it up. 

Alice: You're a portable battery, Mary, and you're all out of charge, so listen to a Kelly Clarkson song and move on.
Mary: What are you doing here?
Ryan: Who do you think told us about Pam?
(Alice actually looks ashamed about this.)
Mary: Wow. You know... Guess you were right. Guess I am the crazy one. Says the Arkham inmate still pretending she's stuck in a children's fairy tale and a grown woman dressed like a flying rodent.
Luke: Okay. You made your point.
Mary: (gesturing at Luke and Sophie) You know what? Don't even get me started on daddy's little Robocop or the Queen of Unemployment.
Sophie: (defensive) I didn't say anything.
Mary: Yeah, but you're here, aren't you? Part of this friend-tervention or whatever this is? But if you were all actually my friends, then you'd respect my wish when I said to leave me alone! 

(Montoya has opened the cargo bay doors of the private plane she and Ivy are on.)
Ivy: What the hell am I supposed to do, jump?
Montoya: Why is that crazier than anything you've done before?
Ivy:  I'll 100% die.
Montoya: Then stay! I didn't sell you out, Pam. I negotiated a deal for your freedom. No running, no rules, but it means doing things my way for once. So what's it gonna be? 
Ivy: Close the damn door.
(Montoya does so.)
Ivy: Where are we going?
Montoya: Sophie Moore told me about an off-the-grid island where plants are worshipped and industry doesn't exist.
Ivy: Sounds like a fantasy.
Montoya: Close. It's called Coryana.

Continuity

As the episode opens, Ivy is training Mary in the use of her powers.

The man Ivy and Mary have taken captive is Harold Marlowe, CEO of Gotham United Healthcare.

Mary kills Harold, because his company denied the insurance claims of thousands of people to line his own pockets.

Ivy's nose begins dripping blood. Mary notes that it is doing it "again," suggesting this has happened at least once before. 

Ivy is able to heal herself by drawing off of Mary - a process that is painful to her but does not seem to be hurting her yet.

Alice tracks down the Bat-Team at the Hold Up and informs them that Ivy was able to reach out to Mary all the way in Metropolis.

Alice says their best chance of dealing with Ivy is to go after Renee Montoya.

Ryan asks why Alice came back to Gotham to tell them all this, since her immunity deal with Montoya is null and void, which makes her a wanted fugitive in Gotham City.

Ivy sympathizes with Mary's desire to go after the people who are ruining the health care system, revealing that her younger brother had severe asthma growing up and that he died when he was 12. Her interest in plants was fueled by her mother's search for herbal remedies since they didn't have the money to get him medicine.

Later, Ivy learned that her brother's asthma was caused by tainted water from the factory up the hill from their home.

Ryan catches Montoya as she's trying to skip town on an airplane.

Luke calls Sophie in to help. Ryan says this is fine, but she's clearly still upset at Sophie.

Luke reports that the Bat-Signal is lit.

Ryan investigates the signal and finds Jada Jet is there. 

Jada reveals that she has Joker's joy buzzer and demands that Batwoman hand over Marquis immediately.

Batwoman asks to get take the joy buzzer and get it repaired first. Jada agrees, but says she wants Marquis back by midnight or there will hell to pay.

Ivy asks Mary to help her with her plan to destroy Gotham Dam.

Mary says she would like to help and thinks she owes Ivy, but that she doesn't need the heat that comes with having destroyed half the city.

Ivy says she respects Mary's wishes and can go it alone without her... after draining her strength one more time.

Mary is found unconscious by some of the dam workers.

Sophie realizes that Ryan didn't tell Luke about her kissing her in 309.

Gotham Dam is revealed to be 18 miles east of the city.

Route 99 runs west to east from Gotham Dam to Gotham City.

Ryan takes Alice with her in the Batmobile instead of Sophie to help her stop the ambulance carrying Mary.

Ryan and Alice overhear Montoya and Sophie talking about their one night stand from 307.

Montoya says that it's clear that Sophie only slept with her because her first choice wasn't available and it's pretty clear Sophie has a crush on Ryan because Sophie spent most of their night together talking about Ryan.

Alice tells Ryan that it's clear she also has a thing for Sophie, because there's no other reason Ryan would ask Alice to come with her on a mission instead of Sophie unless there was something going on with Sophie she was trying to avoid dealing with right now.

Ryan jumps onto the ambulance to get them to stop.

Alice tells Ryan about the hunter that Mary killed in 309.

Montoya recognizes the symptoms Mary is undergoing, which include blood in her nose and ears.

Montoya tells the team that Ivy is going to destroy the Gotham Dam, which was her plan 10 years ago before Batman and Montoya stopped her.

Montoya says they will need Mary's cooperation to stop Ivy at this point.

Mary is told that she killed an innocent hunter, but she doesn't believe Ryan.

Mary still agrees to help stop Ivy because she doesn't want innocent people to get hurt.

Montoya comes up with a plan to use Mary as a Trojan Horse to weaken Poison Ivy. This will also likely break Ivy's control of Mary, assuming it doesn't kill her first.

Luke goes to the damn and uses the Batwing suit to take control of the dam's systems that Poison Ivy hacked. 

Ryan is able to beat Poison Ivy in a fight after Mary weakens her.

Mary is said to have brown eyes once Poison Ivy's control is broken.

Everyone on Team Bat apologizes for taking Mary for granted.

Mary feels guilty because she killed someone, but everyone insists that it was Poison Ivy who did it, not her.

Ryan tells Alice that she figured out that she came back to Gotham because she honestly cares about Mary.

Alice says she still isn't going to help Alice cut a deal for her freedom.

Alice reminds Ryan that she was so busy dealing with Poiosn Ivy that she missed Jada Jet's deadline.

Montoya negotiated a deal for Poison Ivy's freedom and takes her to the island of Coryana. 

Luke is said to be working on repairing the joy buzzer but Jada isn't answering her phone.

Ryan says that Sophie kissing her did not get her out of her head. It's just making her think about them kissing more.

Jada Jet is revealed to be on TV, calling a press conference revealing the existence of the Bat-Trophies to the public and blaming Batwoman for their release.

It is revealed that while Luke was able to stop the dam from breaking, there was still some mass flooding throughout the city, including the area where Mary's clinic was located.

The last shot of the episode shows water leaking into Mary's lab and dripping onto Marquis' body.


Location

A cargo plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.


The Killing Jokes

It should be noted that, once again, all the heroic action in the episode is facilitated by Alice and Montoya with Team Bat being stuck in a supporting role in what is nominally their show.

It should also be noted that Team Bat, after promising to take Mary more seriously, continue to treat her with kid gloves and insist that she's this pure-hearted innocent even as she tries to cope with the revelation that she killed at least one man. (Probably two if you include the insurance company CEO.)


The Bottom Line

One of the best episode's of the series to date, with some great effects and stunt sequences. Had this been the season finale and ended five minutes sooner, it would be perfect. Unfortunately, we have to get that twist about Jada Jet being the real big bad and Marquis escaping for more new Joker shenanigans. . 

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 9 - Meet Your Maker

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

Plot

With multiple signs pointing to the original Poison Ivy having awoken, Ryan, Luke and Sophie begin trying to track her down, while Montoya attempts to reach whatever remains of the woman she loved. Meanwhile, Mary's behavior begins to unnerve Alice, as Jada Jet seeks out an old friend's help in saving Marquis.


Influences

Every horror movie where the idiot protagonists are trapped in a cabin in the woods and A Quiet Place (trying to avoid triggering killer plants tracking sounds).


Performances

Again, Nicole Kang and Rachel Skarsten steal the show.


Artistry

The special effects for the killer plants are interesting.


Bat Trivia

The lake where Poison Ivy kills two fishermen is called Loeb Lake. This is likely in honor of legendary Batman writer Jeph Loeb, who wrote Hush and The Long Halloween.


Technobabble

Luke creates special darts for fighting Poison Ivy that combine a paralytic drug and a herbicide. He's certain this will slow her down without killing her until they can recreate Batman's desiccation formula.

All the psychologists Jada Jet consulted with believe a second jolt of the Joker's joy buzzer will reawaken Marquis' sense of empathy.

Natural networking is where plants communicate through acoustics in the ground.

Poison Ivy describes the cutting of her vine that Batman kept as a sporeling, which she created to recharge her, like a battery without a plug. She says that meeting Mary will restore her.

Luke describes Diggle's box as a transmatter cube and guesses it isn't from Earth. Diggle confirms this, but asks him to keep that quiet.


Dialogue Triumphs

Poison Ivy: What were you thinking would happen when you freed me?
Montoya: I wasn't. I got wrapped up in the moment, seeing you, the white tulip, the memories, the guilt.
Poison Ivy: Ah. I'm so sorry that you had to feel guilt, Renee, while I rotted for a decade with no water, no sunlight, no soul mate. Must have been really awful for you.
Montoya: I am sorry, Pam.
Poison Ivy: How am I supposed to believe that? I needed you... more than anything, and you're the one that put me there. 

(Mary is trying to go off on her own because of Ivy's efforts to reach her.)
Alice: Stop! I am supposed to be the crazy one!
Mary: You're not the one with a bitch of a migraine that only seems to stop bitching when I go... this way!
Alice: If you go that way, you'll probably die! The O.G.'s back? She's trying to draw you to her. Why?
Mary: Uh, do I look like the president of the Poison Ivy fan club?
Alice: I don't know, but I do know that a world with two of a kind never ends well. Why don't you ask poor, boring Beth Kane? Oh, that's right. You can't because she's dead! 
Mary: Okay. Then that's why I've been feeling this way? Clearly... w-w-we have some sort of bond, and she's calling out to me. Give me the keys.
Alice: Were you not listening to anything I said?
Mary: I'm going, Alice. This is the woman who unlocked my prowess and the reason why I'm finally happy. The least I can do is go and see what she wants. Please.
Alice: Fine. Let's go meet your maker. 

Mary: Why do we work, Alice? You killed my mom, I replaced you in our family, but... here we are on this crazy adventure together. Hmm? Why?
Alice: Probably because you made me drive out to "deliverance" country.
Mary: It's because despite all of our baggage, we both found the sister we always wanted. I see the girl who... just craves her freedom, and I love that you support me to do what I want... And this is what I want.
Alice: (sighs) Okay. 

Dialogue Disasters

(Sophie watches Luke working out, shirtless, in the middle of their new lair.)
Sophie: Pretty sure in the real world this would be an HR violation of appropriate workplace behavior. Luke: Good thing it's not the real world.


Continuity

In the opening scene, Poison Ivy attacks several fishermen at Loeb Lake, to Montoya's disappointment.

Poison Ivy declares that submerging herself in water is not restoring her strength, like she thought it would.

Ryan visits her adoptive mother's grave, which notes she died in 2015.

Cora Lewis worked three jobs and volunteered at her church while raising Ryan.

Sophie spars with Luke, who seems more determined than ever to get in shape and become a good fighter. She guesses this has something to do with his being man-handled by Marquis Jet in 308.

John Diggle appears for the first time since S612, though it is believed his last chronological appearance in the Arrowverse was in F716. In either case, he has started growing a beard since his last appearance.

John Diggle oversaw Jada Jet's personal security detail at some point when her husband was still alive and they remained friends after.

John Diggle is also implied to be an old flame of Jada Jet, as he tells her he got back together with his wife and had kids and she seems disappointed.

Sunlight is also not restoring Poison Ivy's strength.

Ryan is still angry at Sophie for sleeping with Montoya and refuses to talk to her directly.

Team Bat presume Poison Ivy is active again based on reports of the two dead fishermen at Loeb Lake, an unnatural hornet attack at a pesticide factory and an oil rig being tipped over. All of these attacks were within a two mile radius of a national park outside Gotham City.

Jada offers Diggle a job as head of her security detail. He turns it down, saying that he only agreed to meet with her because he just happened to be in Gotham City attending to other business. 

Diggle agrees to help Jada find Joker's joy buzzer, which she believes might be able to cure Marquis. He suggests, given all the other Batman villain weapons on the street, that all of them were part of a collection, which means the joy buzzer might be out on the street as well.

Diggle says his sources at ARGUS thought Renee Montoya, who works for the Mayor's Offices' Rogue Unit, would be worth consulting about the possibility of a Bat-villain weapons cache.

Poison Ivy reaches out through the plants to send a message to Mary, bringing them together.

Alice tries to talk Mary into leaving Gotham with her to go to Santorini.

Mary describes the sensation of being summoned by Ivy as feeling like brain-freeze when you eat something cold too quickly.

Ryan, Sophie and Luke's van is attacked by vines shortly after they get to the national park.

A random hunter dies after trying to warn Ryan, Sophie and Luke away. They hide in a cabin.

Luke blames himself for the team's current predicament and says it's clear his father didn't give him the Batwing suit because he isn't meant to be a hero.

Ryan says that real heroes screw up all the time and keep going, pointing out that Sophie allowed Alice and Poison Ivy to escape on her watch. Sophie sarcastically agrees, pointing out that for all of Ryan's alleged detective skills, she didn't realize Mary was possessed by Poison Ivy until it was too late.

Poison Ivy confronts Montoya on how Batwoman and her allies seemed to know how to find her. Montoya admits to working with them, but says Ryan is different from Batman. Ivy refuses to believe her and goes off to kill Batwoman.

Jada Jet knows how to pick locks and apparently learned the skill while living on the street in her youth.

Diggle and Jada find Montoya's list of the missing Bat Villain weapons.

Alice makes reference to the Beth Kane doppelganger from 112.

Alice agrees to help Mary find Poison Ivy, but Mary knocks her out so she can go on her own.

Sophie and Ryan continue to argue, but Ryan does thank Sophie for grabbing the Batsuit out of their van before it was destroyed.

Sophie asks Ryan why she's always held a grudge against her and says it goes beyond her treating Ryan badly when she was a convict.

Luke is able to kill the vines that come into the cabin with a mixture of salt and vinegar.

Ryan puts on her Batsuit and makes for a truck they saw earlier that had a bag of salt in the bed.

Diggle and Jada steal he booze out of Montoya's mini-fridge.

Jada has no idea how Ryan tracked her down.

Jada finds Joker's joy buzzer in Montoya's desk.

Montoya tries to kill Mary.

Luke saves a boy, whose father was the hunter killed by Ivy earlier in the episode.

Luke visits his father's grave. He also died in 2015.

Luke tells his father that he thinks he is ready to be a hero now.

John Diggle meets Luke as his father's grave and says he is sure his dad is proud of him.

Luke returns a box to Diggle and says he couldn't get it open. This is the box Diggle found in a smoking crater in A810.

Diggle says ARGUS couldn't get the box open either, but it opened for him once before.

Luke guesses that whatever makes the box open isn't based on science.

Diggle asks Luke for one more favor - passing on a message to Batwoman from Jada Jet, that she found her fix.

Alice finds Mary's phone and a man's corpse impaled on a tree.

Montoya built up an immunity to Poison Ivy's pheromones by poisoning herself a little each day.

Mary finds Ivy. The two hug and Ivy is rejuvenated.

Sophie kisses Ryan.


Location

A national park outside Gotham City.


The Killing Jokes

Granting that they're somewhat desperate, Team Bat going into a national park hunting a villain who manipulates nature with an untested weapon seems incredibly stupid, even for these heroes.


The Bottom Line

Painfully bad. The "heroes" continue to be as unsympathetic as they are idiotic and the only thing marking the villains as villains is random, unmotivated murders. Not even John Diggle and the promise of his Green Lantern storyline being resolved can make this episode worth watching more than once.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 8 - Trust Destiny

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

Plot

As Alice and Mary go on the lamb and begin to bond, Ryan, Sophie and Luke become more desperate to catch them. Unfortunately, their resources are limited having been locked out of the Batcave. Thankfully, Renee Montoya has an idea that may help end the threat of Poison Ivy and her control over Mary once and for all. Unfortunately, it requires they infiltrate a party Marquis Jett is throwing in Wayne Tower to celebrate his ascension. 


Influences

The Batman comics of Grant Morrison


Goofs

The writers seem to forget that Alice and Mary are established as being in Metropolis in their first scene, given how easily Mary gets back to Gotham and how quickly Sophie finds the hotel Alice is staying in. While Gotham and Metropolis are fairly close together in the comics universe, Gotham City in the Arrowverse was previously established as being closer to Chicago than New York City. (Then again, this point has been inconsistent, depending on the show, and Superman and Lois has Metropolis being in the same football league as Smallville, Kansas.)


Performances

Once again, the interaction between Nicole Kang and Rachel Skarsten is the high-point of the episode.

Bridget Regan gives a powerful performance as Poison Ivy.


Artistry

The card-themed background for Marquis' party is memorably eye-catching.

Bat Trivia

The original title of this episode was True Destiny.

As Poison Ivy notes, in the language of flowers, white tulips are given as an apology as they symbolize forgieness.

The acrobats at Marquis' party wear Harlequin masks. Coupled with the black and red card decorations, this seems to be a nod to Harley Quinn.

Marquis questions Luke as to whether or not his costume has a portal access point. In the comics, the Batwing suit does have such a function. 


Technobabble

Montoya explains that Batman created a desiccation serum that mimicked the process a plant undergoes when it is denied water and sunlight to disable Poison Ivy. He also created a special device to inject the serum, which is coded to it in such a way that it can also be used to extract the serum.

After Marquis Jet upgrades Wayne Tower's security, the executive elevators in Wayne Tower require a thumb scan to operate. Accessing the CEO's office in Wayne Tower requires a retina scan.

Luke outfits Ryan's mask for the party with ocular mesh scanners from the Batsuit.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Mary has just discovered her credit cards don't work.)
Mary: Did the Bat bitches cut me off?
Alice: All your fancy degrees, and you didn't see that coming?
Mary: I thought we were past this. I mean, one would think that nearly vine-squeezing the life out of your bestie and then crushing the only cure for you in existence was a pretty good indicator that it was time to move on from the friendship. Anyone else find it ironic that when I beg Ryan and Luke for their attention they're too busy with their own drama, but then when I finally step away for some much-needed me time, Mary Hamilton is the coveted Batmission of the week?
Alice: If this is a lecture on being Batwoman's most wanted, trust me, I already took the exam.

Ivy: Are you coming with me or not?
Montoya: Not if you go where I can't follow you. Stay here. Stay the... Quirky, brilliant scientist who loves reading and baseball that I fell in love with a decade ago.
Ivy: She's gone. She's blossomed into someone who can stand up for herself and, more importantly, for those things that can't. 

(Mary downs a flute of champenge. Alice emerges from the bedroom of their suite.)
Alice: I've been in the bedroom trying to finagle my way out of Sophie's handcuffs, and you've been in here drinking all the Dom?
Mary: (distant) Ryan had me beat. She was about to inject me with something, and then she hesitated. Whatever she was about to do to me scared her.
Alice: Don't tell you're getting the conscience tingles.
Mary: Before I even knew what was happening, she used the syringe on Marquis. I don't know if it was to save Luke or protect her secret. But all I know is in that moment, I was the least of her problems.
Alice: She still underestimates you.
Mary: I know it's silly, but a part of me just wanted her to see me as powerful.
Alice: Do you know all those looney tune delusions I've been having? Postcards from Dad, imaginary friends, walking in on Sophie in the shower?
Mary: That last one happened.
Alice: (blinks) Oh. Anyway, since your whole Poison Mary metamorphosis, I have yet to have a single delusional thought, which means baby-sitting you, my dear, has made me less of a crazy person, and if that's not powerful, I don't know what is.
(The two hug.)


Continuity

In 2011, Renee Montya was still a GCPD beat cop, whose partner was killed by Poison Ivy because she couldn't bring herself to shoot her.

Alice and Mary rack up an $8000 bill at a Metropolis hotel and are unable to pay for it, thanks to Luke cutting off Mary's credit cards. Thankfully, Mary's "Ivy" powers allow her to pacify the hotel manager.

Montoya recalls meeting with Pamela Isley and begging her to give up being Poison Ivy after her partner died. She refused, saying she was no longer the quirky scientist who liked reading and baseball that she fell for 10 years earlier.

Ryan identifies the rancid smell in the temporary Batcave as a dead rat in the wall.

Montoya says the only way she think of stopping Mary is to use the formula Batman developed to incapacitate Poison Ivy. She has the device Batman used to dispense the formula, but the only dose of it is still in Ivy. This means that, in order to replicate the formula, they have to find Poison Ivy's body.

Everybody except Ryan votes to go with Montoya's plan

Luke says their best bet to finding Ivy's resting place is consulting Bruce Wayne's Batman journals, which are located in the Batcave.

Montoya became a GCPD Detective in 2013.

Montoya did not know that Bruce Wayne was Batman.

Marquis calls Ryan to thank her for trying to freeze him instead of having him sent to Arkham. During the call, it is made apparent that he's planning a party. This leads Ryan to suggest crashing it as part of Montoya's plan.

Luke's cover identity for the party is Spencer Glad, a former Olympic athlete rumored to be the next owner of the Gotham Knights.

Sophie's cover identity for th party is Cecilia Langley, a world traveler and heiress to a whiskey fortune.

Ryan's cover identity is Penelope Devereaux, who runs a board game empire and is French.

All these cover identities are real people, whom Luke was able to uninvite from the party.

Each person attending Marquis' party is given a playing card as part of a game. Marquis calls each guest up by picking a card, and electrocutes everyone who gives the wrong answers to the questions he asks.

Luke swipes a SIM card from one of the workers' tablets and Sophie gets Marquis' thumbprint from a glass.  This leaves it to Ryan to meet him, face to face, to scan his retinal pattern with her mask.

Montoya confirms that all the Batman trophies, except for Joker's joy-buzzer, have been accounted for.

Montoya, Sophie and Ryan enter the Batcave while Luke stands watch.

Mary attends the party and flirts with Marquis.

Montoya first contacted Batman for help with Poison Ivy in early June 2011.

Montoya recalls how she met with Poison Ivy, pretending to want to join her, so that she could inject her with the desiccation solution. 

Ryan figures out, based on Bruce Wayne's journal where he discussed needing to bury Poison Ivy somewhere no one would look for her but where he could get to her if needed, that he must have buried her in the deepest part of the Batcave and that's why there's a tree in the middle of it.

Gotham City has rain 300 days out of the year.

Sophie gets a credit card fraud alert on her phone as they search for Poison Ivy. It does not occur to her until later that her card was stolen and she realizes it must have been taken by Alice.

Ryan recovers the Batsuit and uses it to track Poison Ivy's heartbeat.

Luke spots Mary at the part and tries to confront her.

Mary tells Marquis that Ryan is Batwoman and Luke is Batwing.

Once the serum is extracted, Ryan returns to the party to inject it into Mary.

Sophie leaves Montoya with Poison Ivy when she realizes that Alice has her credit card. 

Alice tells Sophie that she needed to get her alone and reveals that Montoya has been manipulating them all from the beginning. For proof, she tells her to check out Montoya's office and check the second drawer down in her left filing cabinet.

Ryan confronts Mary, but is forced to let her go after Marquis takes Luke hostage.

Ryan uses the desiccation weapon to take down Marquis as Mary makes her escape.

Montoya apologizes to Poison Ivy's body for betraying her. A white tulip blooms near her, revealing that she can hear Montoya on some level.

Sophie breaks into Montoya's office and searches the drawer Alice told her to look at. She discovers the Joker's joy-buzzer.

Luke and Ryan set Marquis up on life-support in Mary's clinic.

Ryan calls Jada Jet as Batwoman and tells her that she has her son, safe.

Sophie calls Ryan and tells her that Montoya manipulated them to find Poison Ivy's body so she could being her back.


Location.

A hotel in Metropolis
.
The flashbacks show Renee Montoya and Pamela Isley ten years earlier (i.e. 2011) 


Untelevised Adventures

Batman stopped Poison Ivy from destroying the Gotham City Dam in June 2011.


The Fridge Factor

Luke accidentally reveals Bruce Wayne's secret identity to Montoya by discussing his Batman journals in front of her.

Again, it must be noted that Sophie is not a very good detective and that she had no idea Alice stole her credit card until Alice intentionally used it to try and get Sophie's attention. She also left a handcuffed Alice unattended and somehow didn't guess that she'd try to escape or would be capable of escaping. 


The Bottom Line

An underwhelming episode that can't be bothered to keep track of what city half its cast are in. A bigger problem is that Marquis' status as "the new Joker" is completely unearned and distracts away from the far more interesting Poison Mary and the idea of Montoya as the true criminal mastermind of the season.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 7 - Pick Your Poison

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

Plot

As Ryan's family dynamic grows even more complicated, Alice hits the road with an unexpected new partner in crime - a Poison Ivy possessed Mary!

Influences

The Batman comics of Grant Morrison (Black Glove society)


Performances

Again, Nicole Kang and Rachel Skarsten playing off each other is the highlight of the episode.


Artistry

The Poison Ivy costume and make-up is respectable. 


Bat Trivia

While discussing the blood sample Ryan gave them, Jade Jett's scientist employee makes reference to Swamp Thing. This is the first indication that Swamp Thing exists on Earth-Prime in the Arrowverse following Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The only other reference to Swamp Thing in the pre-Crisis Arrowverse was an AR Easter egg tied to the show Constantine, where fans who called the number on John Constantine's business card would hear a voice mail greeting advising them to "try the bloody swamp" if they had called looking for Alec Holland.

Mary uses the name Daphne as an alias. In classic Greek mythology, Daphne was a nymph whom Apollo pursued against her wishes. Her father, a river god, transformed her into a laurel tree to protect her. Apollo made himself a crown of her leaves.


Technobabble

The Poison Ivy infection is said to double in strength every 12 hours.

The perimeter on Alice's tracker nanobots is 15 miles.

Alice's blood type is O negative. This makes her a universal donor, but she can only accept blood from another O negative person.

According to Luke, blood cells can live outside the body for up to 4-6 hours.

The tracker nanites die along with the blood cells they inhabit.


Dialogue Triumphs

Mary: Why are we in a motor home?
Alice: Oh. Because we wrecked our super-sexy sports car fleeing the GCPD.
Mary: Alice, what did you do?
Alice: Actually, it's not what I did but, uh, if you don't remember, it's probably for the best.

(Mary learns about how she hurt Ryan and Mary as Ivy.)
Mary: Oh god... I'm gonna be sick!
Alice: Oh. Well, you're in luck. Our new ride has a toilet!
(Mary is heard gagging from the bathroom.)
Alice: Trust me, sister. It's nicer than the one in Arkham.

(Alice offers to keep Mary safe in exchange for a blood transfusion.)
Mary: What's your type?
Alice: Tall, dark and brooding.
Mary: Your BLOOD type.

(Ryan is annoyed that Sophie slept with Montoya.)
Sophie: Didn't realize I needed your permission.
Ryan: To sleep with the woman blackmailing me, threatening me with prison? No. Of course not. I am so happy you two found each other. 

Batwoman: Luke, I need a direction. I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Luke: Uh, good news, bad news?
Batwoman: Bad news first.
Luke: OK. Mary hasn't used her credit cards and shockingly hasn't posted on Insta, so I don't have a bearing to give you, and we only have 42 minutes until sunrise.
Batwoman: OK. You better hit me with the good news.
Luke: 19 of our trackers are offline, so we're down to 4.
Batwoman: That's the good news?
Luke: I didn't say it was that good.

Alice: I hope this goes better than my last transfusion. Nocturna? You were there.
Mary: Right. You mean when you saved your own skin by siccing that off-brand vampire onto moi by luring her with the fact that I had Desert Rose in my blood, which was only there because you gave my mom the choice between her or me with only one cure between us? Yeah, I remember.
Alice: We've come a long way, haven't we?
Mary: Hmm. You know, for so long, all I wanted was for you to be out of my life. I should just stick an embolism in your IV and finally just be done with you.
Alice: (laughing nervously) Ahem. Heh heh. Or, uh, option "b," You could finish my oil change, and you will never have to see me again.
Mary: Actually, that's what I'm afraid of. Hard to believe, right?
Alice: You don't want to be alone. I know the feeling. But you won't be. I'm gonna stay with you through this whole Mary metamorphosis.
Mary: You'd be a lot easier to trust if you weren't a serial killer.
Alice: A serial killer who hasn't left you, doubted you, or ignored you. Do you really want to be alone right now, or do you want help from the only family you have left? 

Continuity

Ryan meets Marquis Jet for a secret meeting. However, this turns out to be a ruse to allow the Black Glove Society to capture Marquis while his guard is down.

Ryan set up Marquis in order to get a favor from Jada.

The favor turns out to be using Mary's blood sample to develop an antidote that will purge Poison Ivy's control spores from her system. 

Vesper Fairchild reports on the apparent return of Poison Ivy following Mary's attack on Batwing and Batwoman in 306.

Sophie wakes up in Rene Montoya's apartment.

Sophie learns that Mary has been taken over by Poison Ivy, but the possession only occurs during the day when Mary is in sunlight.

Luke's arm is still in a sling.

Sophie tells Luke and Ryan that she didn't go home the night before, so she has no idea what happened to Alice.

Mary wakes up next to Alice in a motor home.

Alice tells Mary that she fought the GCPD the day before  and their car got trashed, leading her to steal a motor home.

Mary, as Alice, threw her phone into the Gotham River on the way out of town.

Alice still has the AI module for the Batwing suit.

Alice offers to help protect Mary until she masters her new Poison Ivy powers in exchange for a blood transfusion to rid herself of the tracker nanites.  

I-15 runs through Gotham City.

Alice is able to throw off Batwoman's pursuit by using her blood to paint messages on various cars.

Mary and Alice begin flirting with various customers in a bar and doing blood tests trying to find O negative people to drain.

The bartender tries to kick Mary and Alice out, finding them creepy, but Mary subconsciously uses her Poison Ivy powers to make the bartender friendly.

Sophie tells Luke and Ryan about how the Mayor's Office is getting ready to go after Mary with full force.

Sophie also tells Luke and Ryan about her one night stand with Montoya.

Marquis escapes from the lab where his mother was going to have him cryogenically frozen.

Ryan and Sophie find Jada Jet after Marquis attacked her.

Marquis goes to Wayne Enterprises looking for Ryan and stabs a security guard to death with a pen that Luke Fox was given by his father.

The pen has an 18-Karat gold nib and a satin lacquer finish.

Marquis claimed that Lucius Fox used to come by his mother's house and they shot hoops in the driveway a few times.

Marquis easily beats up Luke, who only has one good arm.

Alice picks up a man named Jason who is a Gemini with no piercings or tattoos. He turns out to have O negative blood.

Dr. Tuva was the scientist working for Jada Jet who developed the Poison Ivy cure.

Marquis is waiting for Ryan and offers her the antidote in exchange for her resignation as CEO of Wayne Enterprises and all her stock options.

Sophie dresses Luke's wounds and admits her field dressings in the military academy were famously horrible.

Monotya's apartment is over a GC Jitters - apparently a local chain of the CC Jitters from The Flash.

Luke is able to track Mary by using her GC Jitters rewards card, which was used at a GC Jitters outside Metropolis 2 hours earlier. 

Alice makes reference to Nocturna from 113.

Marquis calls his mother and tells her to be watching TV at 9 am.

Mary and Alice escape from a police officer who identifies their vehicle as stolen. They hit him with the car, but he rolls under the vehicle and the tires do not go over him.

Ryan catches up with Mary and Alice and offers Mary the cure.

Mary says she doesn't want it.

Mary and Alice escape.

Ryan and Luke have their security clearances at Wayne Enterprises revoked, leaving them locked out of Wayne Tower and the Batcave. This leaves them with Ryan's costume and the Batmobile.

Marquis calls a press conference announcing that he's the new CEO of Wayne Enterprises.

Mary, now fully committed to being the new Poison Ivy, dons a green costume and watches the press conference with Alice, and they decide he looks like he might be fun.


Location

Brownsville Pub and a motel somewhere outside of Metropolis.


Untelevised Adventures

Mary and Alice had a violent encounter with the GCPD at some point between episodes, which trashed their electric sports car and led to Alice stealing a motor home.

Renee Montoya told Sophie Moore that the Mayor's Office is authorizing extreme measures to go after the new Poison Ivy during their night together.


The Bottom Line

A mixed bag, oddly enough. The parts involving Alice and Mary are magic, despite it making little sense that Mary should feel at all conciliatory to her mother's murderer. Yet Nicole Kang and Rachel Skarsten play off of each other so well that it seems quite natural and their bonding is far more interesting than Marquis' Joker act, which is far more predictable and, as a result, boring in comparison to the untouched territory of Ivy as a parasite.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 6 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

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

Plot

A frightening discovery in a Robinson Park garden shed sends Montoya rushing to Ryan to place the city on high alert, as she theorizes that Poison Ivy has returned in a new form. Meanwhile, Alice is suspiciously eager to help the Bat Team, as Sophie seeks vengeance for her sister's near death at the hands of the Black Glove society.

Influences

The Batman comics of Grant Morrison (Black Glove Society)


Goofs

The newspaper article with the headline "Batman Scratches The Poison Ivy Itch" is dated as having been published one month ago. However, Batman's last battle with Poison Ivy would have had to have taken place at least six years earlier, given when Bruce Wayne disappeared from Gotham City.


Performances

Rachel Skarsten steals the show.

That being said, Nicole Kang does a masterful job switching between Mary and Ivy and is pitch-perfect vamping it up as Ivy.


Artistry

The horror elements are well played, particularly the make-up for Chris Hayner, the living beehive.

The special effects for the killer vines are good.


Bat Trivia

The episode title comes from an old English nursey rhyme, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary." Alice quotes it to Mary near the end of the episode. The title is also a foreshadowing of the revelation that Mary has become a host to Poison Ivy's mind.

Mary's hairdo in this episode mimics the horned-hairdo worn by Uma Thurman during her final fight with Batgirl in the movie Batman and Robin.

Alice makes reference to Montoya having a "wall of weird." This is a reference to Smallville and the mural/database started by Chloe Sullivan of strange things happening around Smallville.

At one point, it is noted that the Arrowverse version of Renee Montoya was on track to become the next Police Commissioner. At the time this episode aired, Rene Montoya was the GCPD Commissioner in the monthly Batman comics.

Alice makes a reference to Harley Quinn when it is discovered Mary violated medical privacy laws while under Ivy's influence. This is the first mention of Harley Quinn existing in the Post-Crisis Arrowverse.


Technobabble

Luke checks Mary's credit card records and finds out she bought a flowering pot, fertilizer and a watering can that morning.  Her phone's geo data says that then she went to a vacant lot in the Burnside district.

Mary theorizes that Poison Ivy's pheromones allow her to communicate with nature while heightening the things she is passionate about.  This is why she overreacted to a rejection and bent the rules to see justice done to a Black Glove operative that couldn't be touched legally. 

Sunlight is the trigger for changing Mary into Poison Ivy. Her eyes turn green when Ivy has control.

Luke detects an abnormally high thermal presence in the plants Poison Ivy controls.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ryan: How did you get Poison Ivy's vine?
Alice: While you were slurping caviar off of Mummy's fine china, some of us were in the field protecting this city.
Ryan: Mm-hmm. You just so happened to stumble across a Batman trophy while you were taking a stroll through the park? 

Alice: (mock-earnest) The cherry blossoms are so gorgeous this time of year.

Alice: Ahem. I'm gonna go check on the vic's progress.
Ryan: (Because you care about a stranger's life all of a sudden?
Alice: You're right. I don't. Let's you and I go sit in the Batcave together and watch the computer tediously cycle through all the anti-encryption ciphers.
Ryan: (deadpan) Have fun with Mary.
Alice: Will do. 

(Ryan and Luke are slow in believing Mary's theory that she is Poison Ivy's host.)
Alice: I thought watching Kate come out was torture.

(Ryan and Luke finally believe Alice and Mary's story.)
Alice: And we're all on the same page. Well, that was an excruciating process.
Ryan: You knew Mary was infected by the vine. That's why you were being so coy in Montoya's office.
Alice: I just figured the last thing anyone needed was for Mary to end up on Renee's wall of weird.
(Ryan's cell phone vibrating. It's Montoya. She dismisses the call.)
Alice: (sarcastic) Oh. Muting the boss. I'm sure that's gonna end really well.
Ryan: Montoya doesn't need to know anything about this.
Alice: Okay. I see. It's fine when we throw Alice in Arkham, but, oh, poor, sweet, innocent Mary, yeah, we should protect her at all costs.
(Mary handcuffs herself to the rail.)
Ryan: What are you doing? 

Mary: What one does when they realize they can control mother freaking earth! I nearly killed someone, and I don't know why or when this infection is gonna make me transform again, and until we figure it out, I am a threat to everyone...
Alice: (mouths words) Not me. 

Ryan: Why didn't you say anything about Mary?
Alice: I was wondering how this would end up my fault.
Ryan: You obviously knew something was up. How'd you figure it out?
Alice: Uh, the question isn't how I figured it out. It's how the hell you didn't. You're her roommate, you have a billion dollars of Battech at your disposal, and your number two is a certifiable genius. One of you should have noticed. 

Mary: So... maybe the chemical pheromones from the Poison Ivy allow me to communicate with nature while heightening the things that I'm passionate about like justice?
Alice: Well, seeing as that M.O. tracks and, uh... ahem... I killed your mother, I'm really not looking forward to being turned into a cabbage. So we should find out exactly what turns Dr. Jekyll into Mrs. Hide my victims under a pot.

(Ivy, in Mary's body, knocks out Luke. She stretches in the sunbeam leaking into the Batcave.)
Alice: Good morning, sunshine. I was wondering when you'd come out to play.
Ivy: You figured out sunlight was my trigger. 

Alice: (starts undoing the handcuffs on Mary) Well, they don't call me a supervillain for nothing, but Batty will be home soon, so I hope you know what you're doing.
Ivy: Why are you helping me?
Alice: Well, why does anyone help anyone? To accrue favors owed. But until I redeem this one, I need you to be careful. Once you slither out of this Batcave, Renee Montoya's gonna be hunting you down like a gardener with a weed whacker.

Montoya: Where did you get infected? The park, the river? Where was the vine, Mary?
Ivy: It's not a homing pigeon for the brokenhearted, Ray-Ray. You don't whisper, "Pamela Isley", into the leaves and follow as it slithers its way to her secret burial site.
Montoya: You know about Pam?
Ivy: Enough to know that she doesn't want you to find her.
Montoya: Look. You need to come with me so I can get you help.
Ivy: Is that what I need? Did you use that soft, gentle tone to lure Poison Pam into captivity?
Montoya: No. She was out of control. You're not there yet. Let's keep it that way.
Ivy: What do you think she thinks about down there? I mean... besides freedom and water and how her veins scrape together like sandpaper? 

Montoya: Easy. Let's not make this ugly.
Ivy: She thinks about how much she hates you, Renee. 

(Ivy drowns Batwoman in vines.)
Ivy: You've been so wrapped up in your own drama, Ryan. It's time you got wrapped up in mine for once.

Alice: "Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" Quite well it seems from all the sirens I've been hearing around town. (gesturing to the car) It's fully electric, steppy.
Mary: Is that supposed to impress me?
Alice: Uh, yeah. Considering it was 10 times harder to hotwire. So you gonna tell me what you did to everyone's favorite cellar dweller at the Mayor's office or what? 

Mary: On the road. 

Alice: Aw. There's that patented Dr. Hamilton bedside manner... all warm and chatty.
Mary: (impatient) Get in. 


Dialogue Disasters

Cop: (To Montoya) Your ambiguous yet far-reaching power supersedes ours.


Continuity

A group of teenagers playing basketball in Robinson Park come across a man who seems to have been built into a bee-hive, who has bees come out of his mouth as he begs for help.

Montoya takes charge of the crime scene, to the annoyance of the GCPD officers on the scene.

Montoya has the man sent to Mary Hamilton's clinic on Bennett Street.

The man is identified as Chris Hayner, a Tricorner resident.

Monotya theorizes that Ivy has a new host, based on the dead vine Alice found in 305.

Montoya gives Hayner's phone to Ryan.

Alice goes to Mary's clinic to check on Hayner's progress.

Ryan finds Sophie in the Batcave, using the computer to find footage of her sister's attacker using the CCTV system. She says Alice spilled a cherry soda on her laptop.

Sophie is convinced Jada Jet is working with the Black Glove Society.

Ryan says that Jada had no idea people were going to get hurt and that she only contracted them for one job.

Sophie makes reference to her sister being frozen and three of her friends dying in 304.

Alice notes that Mary has even more plants in her clinic than she did in 305.

Alice confronts Mary with the idea that she is Poison Ivy's new host.

Chris Hayner wakes up and screams when he sees Mary, saying that she's the one who did this to him.

Mary tells Ryan and Luke that she thinks Alice is right about her being Poison Ivy's host. She says she can't remember where she was earlier in the day.

Ryan and Luke don't believe Mary or Alice until it is pointed out that the last three texts on Chris Hayner's phone were sent to Mary.

Alice says she didn't come forward with what she had figured out because she figured the Bat-Team wouldn't want Mary getting busted by Montoya.

At one time, Detective Montoya was on track to be the next GCPD commissioner.

Sophie confronts Montoya and asks for a favor, given that she agreed to take custody of Alice. She asks for all her data on Victor Fries and his preservation serum. Montoya says she doesn't have half of what Batwoman does. Sophie then asks for all the information Montoya has on the Black Glove Society. She says she knows nothing beyond the fact that people who know anything about the Black Glove Society end up dead.

Luke discovers that Mary had a profile on a dating website called Twinge and that was where she apparently met Chris Hayner. 

The Bat-Team's best guess is that Mary buried Chris Hayner in honey after he said she seemed sweet but rejected her

Alice and Batwoman go to the vacant lot and find a man buried up to his neck, The man is a Black Glove operative named Virgil Getty.

Mary was apparently able to track Virgil through the PO Box he was using to buy the cryogenic medical supplies he used on the Freeze Serum victims. She was able to do this by using her ability to access medical records to bypass the normal privacy laws.

Alice suggests they tell Sophie they have a Black Glove operative held under the Batcave, but Ryan says they have enough problems without Sophie looking for more.

Alice tells Luke and Mary that Renee Montoya and Pamela Isley dated in college and that is why Montoya is so obsessed with Poison Ivy. 

Alice makes reference to the new Mad Hatter from 301, the new Killer Croc from 302 and Nora Fries in 303.

Ryan meets with Montoya in her office at Wayne Enterprises and tells her that she knows they found a second Poison Ivy victim. She demands to talk to the victim, but Ryan says she will let her know once he's awake after she questions him.

Renee tells Ryan about her involvement with Poison Ivy.

Alice admits to telling Sophie about the Black Glove operative in their custody after Ryan told her not to.

Sophie questions Virgil and learns that the Black Glove Society had been employed to take care of various screwed up rich kids in secret since Marla Elliot hired them to try and treat her son, Tommy Elliot, before he became Hush. Before that, she formed a group of other rich parents with bad seed kids that swapped horror stories, discussed treatments and medications. This led to them spending millions on R&R to fix their kids brains.

Virgil is able to kill himself while Sophie's back is turned, as she confronts Ryan over Alice being more honest with her than she is.

Alice tells Luke and Mary that Ryan is rushing to stop Sophie from talking to Virgil because she's more concerned about Jada Jet's secrets than saving Mary and she wouldn't be surprised if Ryan handed Mary over to Montoya.

Ivy takes over Mary. Alice helps her to escape the Batcave.

Ivy calls in a tip to Rene Montoya's office, reporting an Ivy sighting at the Gotham Botanical Gardens.

Luke tracks Mary's phone to the Botanical Gardens and suits up to join Ryan as Batwing.

Yellow roses are left where Batwoman and batwing will find them. These are a symbol of friendship.

Ivy removed the fail-safe/Lucius Fox AI from the Batwing suit.

Ivy builds on Mary's resentment of Luke and Ryan neglecting her or ignoring her advice to turn her against the Bat-Team.

Luke tears his radiator cuff in the fight.

Montoya saves Ryan and Luke, but she is not happy that they didn't tell her about Mary being Ivy's new host.

Sophie is drinking at the Hold Up and is joined by Monotya. The two are later seen furiously making out.

Ryan calls Jada Jet and says that she needs a favor.

Alice meets with Ivy with a stolen electric car.


The Killing Jokes

Ryan and Luke are dumbed down considerably in their efforts to dismiss Mary's claims that she's the Poison Ivy host, purely because they don't want to believe Alice would be honest about something.


The Bottom Line

The strongest episode of the season so far.