SPOILERS ahead, watch the episode before you read this!
SPOILERS ahead, watch the episode before you read this!
“General”:
My highlights from this episode (without particular order):
1 – Sophie undercover! Sophie was pretty much in the spotlight in this one. Her new haircut was pretty cool and it worked for her undercover identity. It was pretty cool how Batwoman showed up and unmasked Sophie. A nice teaser of sorts as at the end of the episode the roles get switched. Sophie "unmasks" the Batwoman/Ryan....even it is (sadly) not in a physical way. But more on that later on...
2 – Alice VS Enigma! Especially the start of their scenes was great. I loved how Alice played to be Dr. Rhyme and was playing with that patient:...."that's very disturbing" :lol:. But as often with Alice, the fun turned quickly into horror. She just killed the guy as if he was an annoying fly... he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Enigma practically completely ignores the dead patient....guess that shows how villainous she is. The scenes with young Kate and Ocean in her mind were done really well and showed ....yet again... how crazy she is. I wonder how that treatment will affect Alice now?
3 – Larry! It was so fun when Ryan and Luke played that they wouldn't know each other in front of Sophie. I laughed really hard as Ryan called Luke "Larry"! It was a nice move to demonstrate that they are not familiar with each other, especially as Sophie already knew that Luke works with Batwoman. But ok....now Sophie knows a LOT more ;-) . Perhaps I will call Luke "Larry" now as well from now on :lol:
4 – Black Mask VS Sophie and Batwoman! Seems like Black Mask is much better in hand-to-hand combat than in the comics. At least the ones that I have read. But good, that makes him an even better, more threatening villain in the show! The short fight with Batwoman was nice, even it was too short for my taste. The question is if he really was any threat to Batwoman. Her suit is bulletproof and even if her lower face is unprotected....I don't know if it's really an "option" to shoot her there as they never addressed that weak spot. They always behaved like she couldn't be killed with a regular bullet/gun. I laughed as Black Mask used the "....you should bring a gun to a gunfight" version of one of the very famous action movie quotes. Sophie and Batwoman were so close to unmasking Black Mask...but it just couldn't happen at this point of the season....so it was no surprise that he got a way out of that bad situation.
5 – Ocean is back! And that will open up some new storylines. Ocean is now after Batwoman as she seemingly has the only Desert Rose left. Very weird that there wasn't a single plant left on Coryana, but ok, that was no surprise as it already seemed back in episode 8 that Alice destroyed all plants. Also, Black Mask is now after Ocean as he needs him to make more Snakebite. And what will happen between Ocean and Alice? I guess not much in the long run...as Alice is too crazy. But perhaps they will fight alongside for a while.
6 - Sophie finds out who Batwoman is!!!!!! That was quite a BIG surprise at the end. I thought about if Luke and Ryan could somehow convince Sophie that she is wrong about that....but no, I read an interview with Caroline Dries, where she confirms to Sophie now knows who Batwoman is. As I wrote above, this wasn't my favorite way in which Sophie would find out who's behind the cowl...but it was surely a great way to end the episode! And the more I think about it, the more I like the fact that she now knows her secret. Sophie never found out that Kate was Batwoman unless that fact was presented to her. Now we can have a fully new dynamic between Sophie and Ryan/Batwoman. And I think it will bring them closer together. It will be interesting to see how and when Sophie will tell Ryan or Batwoman that she....KNOWS!
7 - Agent Tavaroff! This new agent brings a new dynamic to the Crows and to the show. So far, Sophie, as second in command, was always the one with a cool head and a very positive influence on Jacob. She is the "good" one in this rather villainous organization. This new agent seems to be a real bad guy with questionable methods. And now he found Batwoman's blood! That would already be a problem....even if Ryan's DNA wasn't in the Crows database! But as she was arrested in the past...this DNA could directly link her to Batwoman and thereby exposing her secret identity! Pretty sure we will see Sophie in the next episode as she will have to deal with that DNA sample....after all, that would ruin Batwoman's crimefighter career! And that puts Sophie in a difficult position. She has to work against the Crows to protect Batwoman....
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Aspects I didn't like in this episode:
>>> As I wrote above...the fact that all plants except the one in the Batcave are now destroyed...is very hard to believe. But ok, not really that important.
>>> The whole super-advanced AI car technology was a little too much for me. I would have preferred that Ryan would just use normal skills that she picked up by driving the Batmobile. But ok, then the whole "Sophie discovers her secret identity" thing wouldn't have worked. Plus it was a little weird that Sophie could access that thing so easily and even could listen in to the conversation between Luke and Ryan. They shouldn't be stored at that thing, or at least be heavily encrypted. Ok, it was very unlucky that they forgot that thingy in the car and that Sophie found it.
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More interesting aspects for me:
--- No Mary, no Julia! I wasn't surprised that Julia wasn't in the episode as she is now in Berlin. Hope she won't be gone for long. Much more surprising was the fact that Mary wasn't in the episode as she is practically always there. Perhaps Nicole Kang wanted a time out, or they just didn't found a good way to include her into the storyline of this episode. She wouldn't be a help to Luke and there was no one to fix up in her clinic. But she will return in the next one...
--- In season 1 nearly all episode titles were a reference to "Alice in Wonderland" which was really cool. But I like how they handle the titles in this season as well. The title will always be quoted...or like in this case....you could find him on a sign for safe driving. I'm always waiting to find the episode title at some point in the episode.
--- Angelique is really in trouble again! But by now I really like her character as she did the right thing as she was willing to go into prison to protect Ryan from Black Mask. Even that plan didn't work out. I wonder how long she will be his prisoner? Will he lose interest in her once he has Ocean? But I guess he then would wanna kill her off.... So I guess Batwoman has to come to her rescue! Sophie could also be involved directly now....
--- Enigma is quite a good villainess! I like her sneaky ways and she is quite sexy as she is wearing always a dress and heels so far. I wonder how long she will stay on the show? Perhaps to the end of the season as she still has to "work" on Kate.
--- Jacob has really lost it now as he suffers from his Snakebite addiction. Will be interesting to see what he will do to get more of that drug...or how the others, can help him.
--- It was funny that "Crowphie" returned to the show. A really cool nickname.
--- The car chase with the Crows was nice, but could have been longer...but yeah, I know that such scenes are quite expensive to make.
--- "Mockingbird anew" was the password to re-activate Alice's and Ocean's memories of each other. I wonder if that has a special meaning and will be addressed again?
>>> Rating “General:” <<<
4,5 out of 5 - A good episode with a STRONG ending! Strong scenes with Sophie and Ryan and deep dive into Alice's twisted mind.
(Just before the end I was thinking it would be a 3,5 or 4. But with that ending, I have to give it a 4,5 ;-) )