In a dark parking lot, a smug prosecutor walks out to his Benz, only to be surprised by an axe-accessorized villain. This hooded weirdo levels a power line and chops a fire hydrant like it’s cake. The electrified water gushes towards the lawyer who’s only thought is to NOT go back inside, but rather try to climb over a fence. As most men do, he does a very poor job. He pays with his life.
Next at the Crow’s HQ, we see Kate and her Dad sharing notes and medical evidence to track down Beth’s abductor. Kate looks at a picture of a flattened skin mask that looks uncannily like Alec Baldwin, and keeps giving Jacob sass about him “giving up.”
Sophie alerts them of the recent murder, and that the Crow’s help isn’t wanted-but Batwoman’s is. Jacob has weird boomer beef with Batman/woman and orders his team to take care of it, while Sophie makes extremely obvious eyes at Kate (who looks like she’s trying to hold in a fart and then unceremoniously leaves).
For a show that so far as done an impeccable job with action scenes, their gore props are laughable. We see Alice hand-stitching a rubbery-ass flesh mask for Mouse, her Stockholm syndrome brother. Has anyone told these two-or the writers-that skin doesn’t frickin’ work this way? She slathers some bullshit glue to his SLIGHTLY scarred face, and slaps the mask on. He sits up with an entirely new face, played by a whole new actor. It’s embarrassing.
But remember, Mouse can do lifelike impressions, so now their ludicrous plot makes sense. He’s impersonating one of Catherine’s employees to get a super weapon. I hope it’s a weapon to make Kate butch up and stop wearing crop-top hoodies.
Downtown, the Executioner holds people hostage and demands that a certain negotiator be the one who comes inside. Turns out, the screaming voices are coming from a speaker, and the officer is gunned down. It was a ploy. Unfortunately, Sophie (who followed Batwoman inside) gets hit. Before she passes out, she calls Batwoman, “Kate,” who for some reason is actually surprised. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m living for this quick unmasking. You just can’t fool your ex.
Batwoman leaves Sophie at the underground clinic in the care of Mary, who goes hard as a good sister to stand up for Kate.
Mouse, with his new face, gets past the facial recognition at Hamilton Defense (despite having different teeth, eyes, and bone structure, but okay) and is congratulated by Catherine and other employees on his new Big Boi Gun, which is the only thing powerful enough to penetrate the Bat Suit. Somehow he takes the gun home with him to Alice without anyone noticing. Sheesh.
At the Bat Cave, Luke and Kate (whose mom-hair of the first episodes is now tousled, salt-spray excellence) deduce that the Executioner is using methods of capital punishment against law enforcement officials. They fail to stop him from getting poison for his next target, while the Crows arrest the wrong guy.
Batwoman sneaks into the home of the Executioner and see the poison jar just sitting on the table. With Luke in her ear, they banter back and forth about whether it’s a trap. “What’s the protocol, here? I can’t just stand here all night,” Kate says. While Luke stumbles over words, she just picks it up and discovers a USB inside. I want 100x more of this Batwoman 101 stuff, where we see her figure it out as she goes, and use her fiery attitude, brashness, and combat instincts as a guide.
The flash drive has a video of the Executioner saying how he discovered that the same three corrupt people were putting innocent black folks on the chopping block, making him a murderer of sorts, too. Kate supports this guy’s issues, but not methods. Luke thinks he’s a crackpot, and struggles to get on board, since Stanton (the prosecutor first killed) helped find justice for his dad, Lucius Fox. If Stanton is dirty, then Fox’s killer can go free.
While Luke comes to terms with all that, Batwoman intervenes at the courthouse and stops the final killing of a judge. Jacob shoots the executioner, triggering a fail-safe booby trap. The doors lock and toxic gas fills the room, suffocating them. Luke radios Kate to wait until the room is full and then ignite the gas. As the two are suffocating, Batwoman tries to keep Jacob engaged in dialog, and he tearfully confesses, “If I don’t blame the Bat Symbol, I have to blame myself.”
The two escape, and later as just father and daughter, hug it out and talk honestly about how to get Beth back. Sophie sees their embrace through the window and seems to rethink telling Jacob about Batwoman. I can’t wait until next week when Kate and Sophie duel out the fact that she knows (hopefully with their lips).
