Weekly TV Reviews: Batwoman s2 ep13

 

The episode opens up with Sophie in her beginning days as a Rookie going against Clue Master before catching up to the present day where the same villain breaks out of prison. Batwoman is fighting against some run-of-the-mill Gotham bad guys and gives a talk to a couple of Crows while telling them that they suck at their jobs. Elsewhere, Alice is held captive by Black Mask and who she doesn't know is her sister. In a surprising twist, Alice doesn't give up Ryan's name even when she's facing torture. 

1.) Chasing Clues

Sophie is celebrating her five-year anniversary as a Crow and decides to drink with Mary which Ryan walks in on and eventually joins. The three then play a drinking game of Never Have I Ever which is a nice moment between them and we love seeing them in a moment where they're simply enjoying life. Shows set in Gotham are always so dark and gritty so moments like this are among our favorites and give them a chance to grow the characters. The fun and games are quickly over when there's a message to Sophie from Clue Master with the bottle of tequila. Sophie fills them in on the host of a quiz show that went on a murder spree and is now planning his revenge against her for having solved his puzzle. We're loving the three of them teaming up for a scavenger hunt and seeing Ryan pretend to be the opposite of Batwoman. The trio finds another clue and a woman trapped in a box who is revealed to be the Clue Master's daughter. 

The three of them bicker while trying to determine how to free the woman from the box before ultimately letting Sophie take out the targets that open the box. It doesn't stop there as she reveals a clue written on her skin. It's also revealed that she's the one that called Sophie for the answer to the clue back in the day and who Sophie has protected this whole time. They call Luke in for help to decipher the clue which leads to an interesting riddle off. Mary, Sophie, and Ryan go to the set of Quiz Bowl only to trigger a pressure plate. This has a fun trivia question with answer options that give call-outs to Joker, Poison Ivy, and Riddler. Fans will enjoy the references which round out a little more about Gotham with the three of them getting giddy about answering the questions. Luke and Clue Master's daughter work on the riddle, but when she figures out the answer, she knocks him unconscious. While Mary and Ryan stand on a pressure plate, Sophie blurts out that she knows about her being Batwoman and with no other choice, Ryan tells her how to get into the Batcave. 

Mary calls Ryan out on be blinded by her hatred of the Crows while Sophie gets her first look into the Batcave. Clue Master and his daughter meet up at her childhood home where she reveals that she solved the puzzle and had Sophie say it was her that figured it out. Luke comes to the rescue when Clue Master's final plan is revealed to be dying with his daughter in her car. Sophie returns just in time to save them and might have made the first notch in developing trust with Ryan. 

2.) Alice

She's a complex character that you can never quite place where her decisions will take her. It's a little surprising that she's keeping mum on the identity of Batwoman. Alice and Kate have a discussion with neither knowing who she really is. She makes an attempt at a deal with Black Mask by sharing about her skill of making faces and offers to give his daughter her face back. She gets to work on making a face which we feel is the key to giving Kate a face back and making it different from Ruby Rose. Alice reveals that she knows for a fact that Dead Mask's daughter is dead because she was there. When she places the face on Kate, she makes a startling realization about her real identity. 

Elsewhere in the episode, Jacob continues to spiral down with a moment that finds him taking a call from Alice who makes a desperate attempt at getting his help to trace the call. His answer was that she had the wrong number while he stares at two girls swinging in the park. The episode ends with Jacob being wheeled into Mary's clinic and was overdosing. 

Quotes:

"Put on the suit, you're not happy until Alice is behind bars." - Alice