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 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 5 - A Lesson From Professor Pyg

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

Plot

Ryan asks Sophie to accompany her to a dinner at Jada's to determine just what her mother knows about Wayne Enterprises and their finances. The evening takes a turn for the worse, however, when an uninvited guest shows up, revealing a new side to Marquis and his mother. 

Influences

The comics of Grant Morrison (characters of Jada Jet, The Whip, The Flamingo and Professor Pyg)


Goofs

Why doesn't Luke go to DEFCON 1 the minute he loses touch with Sophie?


Performances

Nicole Kang has a great performance here playing the obviously off-kilter Mary.


Artistry

The costume for Professor Pyg is a high quality piece of make-up and costuming.

The horror movie style direction is solid.


Bat Trivia

Created by writer Grant Morrison and artist Andy Kubert, Professor Pyg first appeared in Batman #666 in July 2007. Born Lazlo Valentin, the man who became known as Professor Pyg was a brilliant scientist and surgeon employed by the secret United Nations organization Spyral, who was driven insane by a product he was testing. The formula made Lazlo paranoid and obsessed with perfection, performing surgery on himself to become the horrific pig-faced Professor Pyg. He continued to practice his depraved medicine to "make people better" fitting them with horrible new faces and drugging them into becoming his depraved servants.

The Arrowverse version of Professor Pyg is also named Lazlo Valentin, but was apparently a hitman for several years before going straight and becoming a gourmet chef. (His hitman past was mentioned in 213.) Unfortunately, he was fired by Jada Jet, who used her name to ruin his reputation and leave him unable to find work. This resulted in his wife leaving him, taking their children with her, pushing Lazlo to seek revenge on Jada Jet. 

Alice lists several Batman villains while going through Montoya's files, some of whom have previously appeared in Batwoman and in other Arrowverse series. These include Magpie (last seen in 120) and Talia Al Ghul (last seen at Oliver Queen's funeral in A810).

One of the villains on Montoya's list is said to be a woman named Shelley Gaynor, who is known as The Whip. She is said to be an animal rights advocate whose whip was made of faux leather. 

In the comics, Shelley Gaynor was a hero called The Whip, who was part of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. She was the granddaughter of a Golden Age hero, also called The Whip, who is primarily remembered for making his first appearance in Flash Comics #1 in January 1940 along with the Jay Garrick Flash and Hawkman. 

The background given for the Arrowverse Poison Ivy draws off of the origin Pamela Isley recived during the Bronze Age of Comics and her appearance in World's Finest #241 in July 1978. In this origin, Pamela was seduced by a man named Marc LeGrande into helping him steal an Egyptian artifact containing ancient herbs. He tried to poison her with the herbs, which were so rare as to be untraceable, but she survived the attempt and developed an immunity to all toxins and diseases. It was not until the post-Crisis era that Ivy's background was changed so that she became the victim of experiments by Jason Woodrue (aka The Floronic Man) which left her with an immunity to toxins, a toxic kiss and plant-control powers.

The Arrowverse version of Poison Ivy was said to have a rival in the PhD program named Marc LeGrande, who abducted her and used her as his guinea pig. He injected her with oleander, nightshade, water hemlock and other poisonous plants that changed her physiology and her mind, changing her from a compassionate and loving woman to a reckless maniac overnight.

Alice eventually determines that the murderer with the whip was a villain called The Flamingo, whom she describes as a "flamboyant, pink, Harley-straddling psycho."

In the comics, The Flamingo was a villain created by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert for Batman #666. Once an ordinary man named Eduardo Flamingo, he was brainwashed by the Gotham mob into becoming a contract killer and serial killer for hire, who ate the faces of his victims. He did wield a whip as a weapon and had a dandyish dress sense, with a pink leather jacket and matching Harley-Davidson motorcycle

Technobabble

Catwoman reportedly stole some of Batman's nanotechnlogy and wove it into her whip, making it indestructible.

Zoey's dissertation is on modern family dynamics particularly as it relates to Bowen's family theory paradigm as it relates to triangulation and the roles of rescuer, victim and persecutor.

Mary determines the murder victim had motorcycle grease under his fingernails and she found a similar, but not exactly the same viscous synthetic on the bullwhip.

Mary saved Jordan Moore's life by mimicking the antifreeze synthesis plants use to survive subzero temperatures.

The show introduces a new wrinkle that Poison Ivy can take control of other people and use them as host bodies. This is apparently what has happened to Mary Hamilton. 


Dialogue Triumphs

Alice: So you're Ryan's date? So saw that coming.

Sophie: It's not a date. It's recon.
Alice: But you're wearing a push-up bra, so it's a date.
Sophie: You know this is your fault, right? 

Alice: Ugh. Don't blame me for this repulsive love affair.
Sophie: If you'd never told Ryan that her biological mother was still alive, we wouldn't be in this mess!
Alice: (mock sincerity) Soph, the guilt I think I'm supposed to be feeling is seriously killing my hallucination-free vibes.


Continuity

As the movie opens, Alice and Sophie are seen watching a horror movie together, confirming that Alice is now Sophie's roommate. 

Both women hear a noise, which turns out to be Batwoman on the balcony.

Ryan came to retrieve Alice because of a murder victim Montoya thinks was killed with one of the Batman trophies, i.e. Catwoman's whip.

According to Luke, Catwoman and Batman had a romantic relationship. 

Alice determines that the whip the murder victim was bound with cut with a pocket knife, making it impossible for it to be Catwoman's whip.

Wayne Enterprises stock is down 53% in the three days since 304.

The entire Crisis Management team for Wayne Enterprises quit because of the stress from the accusations Ryan is facing.

Ryan was delivered a couriered letter inviting her to dinner at Jada Jet's house.

Mary points out that the only evidence they have tying Jeturian Technologies to the Black Glove Society came from Alice, who is hallucinating so badly they had to pull her out of an asylum.

Alice says she has not hallucinated since leaving Arkham Asylum. 

Sophie poses as Ryan's girlfriend at the dinner, to help her bug Jada Jet's home office.

Jada Jet's chef is revealed to be Professor Pyg.

Ryan and Sophie lie and say they met through friends on a Tuesday. They remember because it was taco night.

Jada tells Ryan that she knows something is going on between Ryan and Marquis.

Marquis shows up with a date - a woman named Zoey.

Sophie plants a bug and searches Jada's desk while pretending to go to the bathroom.

Sophie finds a picture on Jada's desk of herself with a man and a young Marquis, but the photo is folded so the man is no longer there.

The feed to the Batcave suddenly cuts out while Luke and Sophie are talking.

Jada tells Marquis that Jada knows something is up after she leaves the room.

Jada finds Sophie in her office. She lies badly and says she got lost.

Montoya asks Alice to figure out who besides Catwoman might tie a guy up with a bullwhip.

Alice dismisses Magpie, The Whip and Talia al Ghul as suspects.

Alice determines that Montoya is obsessed with Poison Ivy for some reason, based on the fact that her files on Ivy are very detailed but the other files are rather thin.

Ryan is once again confirmed to be a Vegan.

Zoey is said to be a graduate student who is writing her dissertation on modern family dynamics. 

Jada confronts Ryan about Sophie snooping around in her office.

Zoey goes to the bathroom and suddenly finds herself losing all sensation in her hands.

Jada, Marquis, Ryan and Sophie begin suffering the same symptoms. 

Professor Pyg reveals himself and explains that he drugged the wine. He discusses how he was fired by Jada years earlier and how his wife left him and took the kids when he couldn't find work.

Ryan goes to get Zoey but finds her dead in the bathroom.

After finding that their phones are dead and the front door is locked from the outside, Jada escorts everyone to a panic room on the top floor.

Jada does not own any guns.

Marquis starts spasming once they are in the panic room.

Montoya tells Alice that she knew Pamela Isley before she became Poison Ivy and that the two dated while they were students at Gotham University, where Pamela studied botany and she studied criminal law. 

Alice confirms that Poison Ivy was not in Arkham anymore, despite having a cell there with her name on it.

Montoya doesn't know what Batman did with Poison Ivy, but she guesses that he buried her somewhere away from water and sunlight.

Montoya helped Batman to lure Ivy into a trap.

Alice has another hallucination of a letter from her father.

Sophie says that without an adrenaline shot, Marquis is going to die because he drank far more of the wine than anyone else and is having a more extreme reaction to the paralytic. 

Jada says there are several EpiPens among the camping gear in her basement and that her husband carried them all the time because of his allergies.

They are able to see Professof Pyg building a bomb through the security monitors in the panic room.

Sophie tells Jada that she is Jordan Moore's sister and accuses her directly of being connected to Black Glove.

Professor Pyg gets to Ryan as she passes out while making a break for the basement.

Alice notices that Mary has a lot more plants in her clinic and that Mary has begin going on rants about plants being awesome.

Alice tells Mary her delusions are back.

Mary has developed a constant itch ever since being exposed to a certain vine. Alice identifies the vine as Poison Ivy.

Jada shows herself to Professor Pyg to save Ryan. This allows Ryan, who was playing possom, to inject herself with adrenaline and fight Professor Pyg.

Sophie saves Marquis' life, only for Marquis to go berserk and kills Professor Pyg.

Alice eventually identifies the killer as the Flamingo and the victim as a member of a rival gang.

Alice gives Montoya a cutting from the dead vine sample Mary took.

Montoya says that Ivy's vines don't die unless she's infected someone else.

Sophie once again tells Ryan that she's sure Jada is hiding something.

Ryan confronts Jada alone.

Jada found the bug Sophie left behind. She also found out who Sophie is and that she was a former member of Crow's Security.

Jada tells Ryan that Marquis is sick in the head and had been since he was a child. 

Marquis was one of the students on the bus full of children Joker had taken hostage in the flashback of the Batwoman pilot. The Joker shocked Marquis' head with his buzzer and the voltage made Marquis different and dark.

As a child, Marquis poisoned his dad with peanuts and laughed while he died.

Jada says she has spent millions trying to fix Marquis behind his back, seeing multiple specialists and psychologists. Her latest effort involved hiring the Black Glove Society to help her build a working treatment to safely freeze Marquis until she could find a cure and then revive him. She says she had no idea they were going to test the treatment on innocent people like Jordan Moore.

Jada claims she was pushing Ryan away because she was trying to protect her from Marquis.


The Bottom Line

A waste of a good villain, though the horror elements are competently executed. Unfortunately, everything involving Jada and the set-up of Marquis as a new Joker is nowhere near as interesting as everything involving Alice investigating Poison Ivy's connection to Montoya and the idea that Ivy is now taking over host bodies. While it seems oddly par for the course that Alice has become the best detective in the show, it is weird that she's the one doing most of the heroic work in this episode.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 4 - Antifreeze

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

Plot

When Ryan is named to Gotham City's "30 Under 30" list, Luke worries that Marquis Jet's efforts to form an alliance with Ryan will bring Jada Jet's wrath down on Wayne Enterprises. Meanwhile, Alice's hallucinations grow stronger, Mary feels unlike herself and Sophie's sister Jordan goes missing after an incident which suggests more of Mr. Freeze's technology is still on the street. 

Influences

The Batman comics of Grant Morrison (Black Glove Society)

Bat Trivia

Mention is made of a made-up Batman villain called Icarus who had "Zero-G" sneakers. This gimmick sounds like the Air-Walker shoes employed by The Trickster in the comics.

First appearing in Batman #667 in August 2007, the Black Glove Society were created by Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel. Apparently a secret society of wealthy elites who just throw wild parties, the true organization was made up of sinister people who staged a yearly contest to play out some epic battle of good and evil. In this case, they tried to manipulate Batman.

Interestingly, one of the members of the Black Glove Society was a woman named Jezebel Jet who was briefly a love interest of Bruce Wayne. It seems likely that Jada Jet is meant to be an Arrowverse adaptation of the character.


Technobabble

Mary says that the formula used to freeze Jordan is based on the catalytic mechanism of Victor Fries' research, but what used to happen inside a chamber is now happening inside Jordan's cells. The effect on organic tissue is like the process that petrifies wood.

The GCPD are said to have thermal cameras all around Gotham City. Luke uses this knowledge to find an unusually hot room for thawing out one of the other Black Glove victims.

Mary notes that plants evolved to survive winter by synthesizing a type of antifreeze in their vascular tissue to thaw from the inside outward. 

The Lucius Fox AI was not designed to run independent of the Batwing suit failsafe and has no purpose beyond acting in Like's best interest In this case, it determined Luke was not ready to wear the suit yet, which was why it shut down..
 

Dialogue Triumphs

(Alice is surrounded by Black Glove Society members, including the man in the suit.)
Alice: Just taking a shot here... are you make-believe?

Luke: So, what? So, even though nobody thinks that you'll win, you're just gonna... stay and fight?
Ryan: Have you met me? 


Continuity

In the opening scene, a man is shown conducting experiments on various figured frozen with Mr. Freeze's cryo-formula and thawed out. One of these subjects cracks when asked to leave the room. The man calls this experiment a failure and notes they have 24 hours until the client's deadline.

Mary is shown on a park bench with vines crawling over her.

Marquis got Ryan onto a prominent "30 Under 30" list.

Charlie Clarke is the head of Public Relations for Wayne Enterprises and has been there since Lucius Fox's day.

Sophie's sister Jordan is also on the 30 Under 30 list because of her work with the local community center.

Mary tries to tell Ryan and Luke about waking up on the bench, but they both blow her off.

Alice is still imagining spiders crawling inside her because of the nanite trackers.

Alice hallucinates more mail from her father and killing the orderly who brought the messages to her.

Charlie says that he had to bribe Bruce Wayne to get him to memorize his talking points.

Ryan remembers that Wanye Enterprises is set to make its biggest quarterly venue gains in six years.

Marquis makes a big deal about getting his picture with Ryan at the event.

Sophie tells Jordan that she had a dream about Ryan bringing her soul while she was in bed.

Sophie is 31 years old. She is also apparently still unemployed.

Jordan says that Sophie should ask Ryan out.

Jordan is abducted by the man from the opening scene.

Jada calls Vesper Fairchild to report a rumor.

Alice is dropped off at Mary's clinic.

Alice admits that she got Montoya to let her out of Arkham because she said she had a lead on the "Zero-G" sneakers of the Batman villain Icarus. Alice completely made this villain up.

Mary refers to Alice's faked cold from 303.

Sophie asks Ryan and Marquis to help her find Jordan, who has gone missing.

Luke is trying to reset the AI in his Batwing suit, but it hasn't worked since he shut down the fail safe.

Marquis gets a tip that Jordan was taken to Room 1620 of the hotel the 30 Under 30 event is at.

Ryan finds Jordan, frozen solid by Mr. Freeze's equipment without a cryochamber.

Ryan tells Sophie about how the last person they tried to reheat and how they aged at 4 times the normal rate. 

Alice recognized Jordan's kidnappers as The Black Glove Society - a group of rich elites that supposedly rule Gotham City from the shadows who are also looking into a way to live forever.

Sophie says that Jordan and her activist friends were working to expose the Black Glove Society and she was going to use her speech at the 30 Under 30 event to do that.

Mary says she can save Jordan if she can get a clean sample of Fries' formula.

Marquis becomes angry with Ryan after she questions how he knew what room she'd be in.

Vesper Fairchild reports that the CEO of Wayne Enterprises has been diverting millions of dollars into a secret personal account.

Charlie reports that Wayne Enterprises stock has gone down 47$ in the past hour and the CFO is conducting a full audit into the company's finances. 

Ryan offers to resign, but Charlie says this is the sort of thing that gets people arrested, not fired.

Luke determines that Jada didn't fake the numbers that were given to Vesper Fairchild - she somehow uncovered the secret budget used to pay for Batman's technology.

Alice hallucinates the orderly talking to her again while searching Jordan's apartment with Sophie.

Alice finds Jordan's hidden notes on the Black Glove Society, which connect them to Jeturian Industries.

Sophie and Alice get knocked out by the Black Glove Society thugs.

A sign once again show's that Mary's clinic is on Bennett Avenue.

Batwoman saves Sophie and Alice from being burned up along with Jordan's apartment.

Mary thaws Jordan out safely.

Alice tells the rest of the team about her hallucinations and how they are getting worse.

Mary says the quality of care at Arkham is so crappy that they could well be giving her medication that causes a psychotic break rather than actually helping Alice.

Sophie agrees to let Alice move in with her and Mary agrees to takeover making sure Alice is getting the proper medication. 

Charlie Clarke says he knows Ryan didn't steal from the company because she hasn't been CEO long enough to steal a stapler, let alone set up a fund to steal $30 million.

Clarke says that he was used to having to cover up similar scandals thanks to Bruce Wayne's public record of addiction, misbehaviors and mysterious disappearances.

Clarke comes up with a press release which says that the missing money was part of a top secret defense contract with ARGUS which Ryan mistakenly thought needed to be kept secret from the Board of Directors due to national security reasons.

Luke makes reference to an old friend at ARGUS who will help to sell the story that the misappropriated funds were part of a secret ARGUS contract. This is likely a reference to John Diggle, whom Luke befriended in 216.

Clarke suggests Ryan resign since the stock price is still falling because someone is manipulating the press against her. He fears they will lose control of Wayne Enterprises in a hostile takeover if Ryan stays.

Luke is fearful of losing the company after all his dad did to build it up.

Ryan reactivates the fail-safe and this reawakens the Lucius Fox AI.

The AI says that helping run Wayne Enterprises is beyond the scope of his programming.

Ryan reaches out to Marquis, but he shuts down any attempt to work with her against Jada.

Jada meets with the Black Glove society and it is confirmed that she had commissioned them to come up with a way to safely freeze and unfreeze a person using Victor Fries' science. 

Jada says that Marquis is about to take a leave of absence.


The Fridge Factor

Alice and Sophie get easily knocked out by the Black Glove Society thugs. As Sophie notes, this only happened because Alice thought they were a hallucination at first.


The Bottom Line

Oddly uninteresting. Too much of the episode shifts focus away from the established characters and their subplots to focus upon the high-finance, public drama of Ryan's ascension which seems rushed given that we just found out Ryan became CEO last week. Unfortunately, this isn't nearly as interesting as Luke's issues with his dad, Alice's hallucinations or even Sophie's relationship with her sister. It doesn't help matters that the show is utilizing the Black Glove Society which, while coming first, seems like a half-hearted rip-off of the similar and better-known Court of Owls.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 3 - Freeze

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

Plot

An unfortunate incident in downtown Gotham suggests that Mr. Freeze's signature technology has fallen into the wrong hands, placing Ryan in danger as tensions build between her, Ryan and Mary. Meanwhile, Ryan's confrontation with Jada Jet leads to an intriguing offer from her son, Marquis.

Influences

The Batman: The Animated Series episode Heart of Ice (background for Arrowverse version of Mr. Freeze)


Goofs

Granting that Gotham City is hell on Earth, it still seems odd that Nora Fries, a victim of some form of dementia after being cryogenically frozen for two decades, would be placed in the same asylum as the likes of Scarecrow and the Riddler, particularly when she had a sister working for the police who was willing to care for her.

The temperature regulator on the Bat-Suit needing to be activated remotely rather than kicking in automatically seems like a major design flaw.


Artistry

The fight scene among the pipes at Ace Chemicals is fantastic, well-shot and well-blocked.


Bat Trivia

Reference is made to the Loeb Bridge as a landmark. This is likely a nod to Jeph Loeb, the Batman writer who wrote The Long Halloween and Hush.

Mr. Freeze first appeared in Batman #121 (February 1959) using the alias Mr. Zero. His name was changed to Mr. Freeze when he was adapted for the 1966 Batman TV show, which also gave him the unlikely name of Dr. Art Schivel. This was retconned for the modern age in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice," which gave Mr. Freeze the name Dr. Victor Fries and a tragic backstory tied to his efforts to save the life of his beloved wife, Nora. This has been the definitive origin of Mr. Freeze in most adaptations since.

The Arrowverse version of Mr. Freeze has a similar background to the one in Heart of Ice, save that this version of Victor Fries died before he had the chance to save his wife.

Photos of Cassandra Jean Amell (who played Nora Fries in A709) are used to show Nora Fries as she looked before she was cryogenically frozen. She is the wife of Stephen Amell, who played Oliver Queen on Arrow.

The cryochamber fight takes place at Ace Chemicals. This is well known as the same chemical factory responsible for creating The Joker in most tellings of his origin story.

Mary's clinic is said to be on the corner of Rucka and Bennett. This is likely a nod to writers Greg Rucka and Marguerite Bennett. The former is the co-creator of the Kate Kane Batwoman. The latter had a lengthy run on the Batwoman comic.

Technobabble

According to Luke, the tanks Mr. Freeze used to hold his custom liquid nitrogen formula were compact, custom-built vacuum flasks that made the contents more concentrated and seemingly less dangerous than it truly was.

Luke says that WayneTech uses injectable nanobots in their research all the time.

Mary determines Alice is faking being sick based on her blood pressure, heart rate and glucose levels being normal.

A typical cryochamber can freeze a person but they'll die of hypothermia in about 10 minutes. 

Nora says her husband's formula can effectively stop time and keep a person from aging, but once they thaw out time catches up with them. This is why she looked 34 three years earlier and now appears to be in her late 70s/early 80s. By her best guess, she'll look 122 by Christmas.

The Bat-Suit has a temperature regulator but it froze up before Luke could access it.

Dialogue Triumphs

Nora: I am so sick of people sacrificing their lives for me... my husband, my sister, the research, the lost years, the desperation. For what? So I could be trapped all over again? 

Alice: So you want me to kill you? Could you be a worse hostage? 

Mary: I was being nice to you. 

Alice: Nice? You think I want... nice? You think I want this stupid arrangement with Batwoman, who I can't even stand, and little miss judgy two-shoes being nice? 
(Alice laughs madly and then sighs, depressed.)
Alice: It's no wonder I'm losing my freaking mind. 
(Alice leaves the room and slams the door.)
Mary: I am... so sorry about that. Um... believe it or not, she's my sister.
Nora: Heh. You certainly fight like it, but I've got to say I understand her.
Mary: You understand the woman who just had you at knifepoint?
Nora: I follow the news. She's been trapped her whole life, and now she wants her freedom.
Mary: Does your sister know that that's what you want?
Nora: Dee's wasted too many years of her life trying to fix me. I love her too much to tell her the truth.

Continuity

As the episode opens, a boy named Evan accidentally opens a tank of Mr. Freeze's special Liquid Nitrogen formula, freezing a city bus solid.

Evan says he found the tank under the Loeb Bridge.

Mr. Freeze is said to be dead on a news report.

Ryan has a meeting with Jada Jet to finish their conversation from the end of 302. However, Jada had no real interest in talking and agreed to meet with Ryan only to tell her that she doesn't care to have a relationship with her and will not hesitate to destroy her or Wayne Enterprises if Ryan doesn't stay out of her business and life.

Ryan bitterly says she just wanted to know who her birth mother was and now she knows Jada isn't worth her time.

The meeting is interrupted by Marquis Jet - the Executive VP of Jeturian Industries and Jada Jet's son.

Sophie didn't tell Ryan that Jada had another child because she thought it would only complicate things.

Alice confesses to telling Ryan about her biological mother still being alive, so Luke and Ryan now know that Jada is Ryan's biological mother.

Alice tries to call in sick, claiming she feels like spiders are crawling in her veins since getting injected with tracker nanites.

Luke says it's actually best Alice sit this mission out as the cannister was tagged by the GCPD at 10:07 am that morning and they probably don't want her going on a mission to burgle the police station.

Ryan breaks into the GCPD evidence locker, only to discover the Freeze tank was stolen.

The thief is an elderly woman, who takes the tank to Nora Fries - Mr. Freeze's wife. The thief says they can finish what Victor started.

Both women are abducted by a gang led by a woman.

Luke identifies the thief as Dee Smithy - a processing clerk for the GCPD who called in sick that morning for the first time in 20 years and who is Nora Fries' sister.

Luke says that Victor Fries had six doctorates, yet insisted on being called Mr. Freeze.

Luke makes reference to Captain Cold from The Flash, noting that he wasn't a real Captain.

Nora Fries suffered from McGregor's Syndrome, a lung disease that had no cure at the time of her diagnosis.  Other victims of McGregor's Syndrome in the Arrowverse have included the Clock King (A214) and Francine West (F204) Nora was cryogenically frozen by her husband until a cure could be found and kept her in stasis using a special cryochamber and his patented freezing formula.

Victor died before Nora thawed out, after his formula finally wore off.

Nora apparently thawed out several years earlier and was given the cure for McGregor's Syndrome. However, she was so confused and disoriented after being locked away from the world for 20 years that she was locked in Arkham Asylum. She escaped in 2018 and had not been seen since. (This coincides with Nora Fries' cameo in A709 during the Elseworlds event.)

Marquis comes by Ryan's office and tells her that he figured out figured out she is his sister. He figured it out because his nannies gossiped and his mother disappeared for several months.

Marquis guesses Jada had an affair and knew her husband wasn't the father.

Ryan is one year younger than Marquis.

Marcus wants to partner with Ryan at Wayne Enterprises and prove that he can make it on his own. He says he suspects Ryan wants to show up Jada as well.

Ryan goes to Dee Smithy's house and finds evidence of a struggle and that Nora Fries was living there but that her McGregor's syndrome hadn't been cured.

Luke guesses that whoever came after Dee and Nora wanted the tank, which means they need a cryochamber. This leads Ryan to Ace Chemicals.

Dee gives the woman holding her and Nora hostage Victor Fries' notes and the tank, but the woman insists they should get the cryo chamber working.

Nora protests that she has no idea how Victor's technology worked and that when she went to college they didn't even teach science to women.

Ryan told Mary about Alice faking the letters from Jacob Kane.

Alice claims she has only been delusional that one time.

Alice broke into Mary's filing cabinet and knows that Luke is showing symptoms of PTSD.

Alice tells Mary she should keep this quiet from Ryan and says it is her place on the team to be silent until she's needed, pointing out that neither Kate, Ryan nor Luke ever went to her for help unless they needed something.

The gang leader says her client wanted the Freeze tank because they thought it would make them immortal.

Batwoman shows up and gets Nora Fries to run to Mary's clinic on Rucka and Bennett. 

Batwoman tries to fight the gang leader and is knocked out and locked inside the cryochamber.

Dee is forced to activate the chamber with Ryan inside it.

Ryan tells Luke to suit up and rescue Dee and not to worry about her.

Nora gets to clinic, where Alice takes her hostage after Mary examines her.

Alice threatens to kill Nora if Mary doesn't get the nanites out of her.

Nora tells Alice to go ahead and kill her because she's sick of people sacrificing to try and save her life when she never really got the chance to live.

Sophie takes over the comms in the Batcave and tells Ryan she's mad at her for getting her to search for her mom but turning to the rest of the team to discuss her feelings.

Sophie complains that Ryan judged her without really knowing her.

Luke saves Ryan.

Chasing after the thugs who kidnapped Dee, Ryan tells Sophie that it was clever of her to try and make her angry so she'd stay awake.

Luke accuses Sophie and Ryan of flirting in the middle of a chase.

The thugs blow up the bridge to try and stop the Batmobile.

Luke uses the Freeze formula to make an ice bridge so Ryan can finish the chase.

Luke puts the tank back in Batman's trophy case, saying there's not much left in it.

Luke says he fixed the glitches in the Bat-Wing suit.

Mary tells Ryan truth about Luke's PTSD and how he disabled the fail-safes in the suit rather than fix it properly.

Luke denies having PTSD and Ryan ignores Mary's warning.

Ryan decides to put the team first, as much as she likes the idea of having a brother, because of the damage Jada Jett could do to her found family.

Mary gets Nora some help for her problems and Dee agrees to let Nora live her life, however long that might be.

Nora notes that the park where she meets Mary was the same one she and Victor went to on their first date.

As the episode ends, a vine grabs Mary and pulls her into the undergrowth.

The Fridge Factor

Ryan gets knocked out way too easy, to set up the rush to rescue her in the second half of the episode.


The Killing Jokes

It's unclear just how Ryan could be knocked out in the first place given how tough the Bat-Suit is.


The Bottom Line

This episode leaves me cold, pun very much intended, as this is a flat episode despite some impressive action sequences. There's no real heart to it, despite being based around one of Batman's most emotionally stirring villains and unsurprisingly the best parts of the episode are the ones that take advantage of that conflict. Alas, all the other drama - Alice's madness, Luke's lying to Ryan, and the situation with the Jets - seems muted compared to that.