SPOILERS ahead! Watch the episode before you read this!
SPOILERS ahead! Watch the episode before you read this!
My highlights from this episode (without particular order):
1 – Ryan has hallucinations! The Kryptonite really does affect her big time now. As we see right at the beginning the Kryptonite has now entered her brain! As her eyes were shortly flashing green I feared ...just for a second... that she might get superpowers now :lol: , which would be really bad in my opinion. I don't want a superpowered Batwoman, as I prefer the more "realistic" heroes without special powers. The scenes with the hallucinations were done really well. Especially the one where Ryan stabbed Alice! A creepy and dark atmosphere in that one. :-)
2 – Batwoman VS Angelique! Heavily affected by the Kryptonite Batwoman showed up at Angelique's apartment to get a lead on Ocean and thereby find Alice. As she calls her Angelique and even Angie, she gives away quite some information. I feared that Batwoman would then just say that Ryan is Batwoman. Luckily Angelique's new girlfriend showed up so that couldn't happen. I really like the stuntwork as Batwoman received a heavy hit and fall down on that car. Yeah, it wasn't her best idea to show up there in her condition, but it was totally understandable as she thought she would only have very little time left before the Kryptonite would kill her.
3 – More of Alice's backstory! We learned quite a lot in this episode about Alice and her past on the island. Ok, I think it would be more fitting to call her Beth at that time, but I will stick to Alice here so I don't have to switch back and forth the whole time. Alice falls in love with Ocean who wants to leave the island, stealing seeds from the Desert Rose. Safiyah can't let that happen and also knows by Tatiana that Alice and Ocean are in love, which Safiyah really upsets. Seemingly she has really strong feelings towards her herself. So we learn that Safiyah is punishing Alice by removing these memories. Also, that procedure is supposed to have strong side effects and is (seemingly) a major reason why Alice becomes Alice in the first place. She is already "damaged" due to her 11 years in that basement...but she still hasn't "transformed" from Beth to Alice before she received the "treatment" from that Enigma character.
4 – Safiyah is really a "big bad" of the season! As I wrote in point 3 above, Safiyah is seemingly the one who finally turned Beth into Alice. Looking forward for more reveals and also Alice going after her in the next episode(s)!
5 – Coryana origin story! That was quite interesting as well. Finally, we know more about what is so special about the island. Also, we do learn how the Desert Rose actually "works" and that she is fueled by blood.
6 - Alice and Tatiana! The scenes with them were both (often) very funny and revealing at the same time. As always Alice really manipulated her opponent very well. Some really funny lines in these dialogues! It was also revealed that Tatiana isn't "just" the right hand for Safiyah...she is also in love with her, even Safiyah might not know that and was much more interested in Alice anyway.
7 - Batwoman VS Alice! Batwoman was really desperate in her condition and quickly unmasked herself in front of Alice. Hard to say how that will affect the storyline in the future. I can fully understand why Batwoman did this, but again Alice learns Batwoman's secret identity way too easily. Even she doesn't know Ryan's name yet, but it won't be too difficult to get that after Batwoman gave the name of Ryan's foster mom away. The fight was done really good and as we get to know at the very end of the episode....Batwoman's struggle wasn't for nothing. Quite the opposite! With the tracker on Alice.....we should get to see some action on Coryana next week!
Aspects I didn't like in this episode:
>>> Pretty much combined in one scene! As much as I like scenes with Mary and Luke, especially the funny ones....I think the scene where they have to get away quickly from the police helicopter and then arguing about who would drive the Batmobile was misplaced as their funny discussion wasn't fitting to the scene. I mean, Batwoman is hurt badly and unconscious. For whatever reason, that helicopter is there and they just have to get away really quick. So, them discussing that...felt quite odd. Luckily Luke has this special license plate which can change the numbers ;-). Also, it was very dangerous for them, even with their hoods on, the helicopter may have gotten some footage of their faces as I think there should be a camera on such a helicopter. But ok, it's the Gotham PD...... I was already surprised they showed up at all, especially with a helicopter.
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More interesting aspects for me:
--- The scenes with Alice and Ocean training were interesting as their chemistry was working for me very well. Quite tragic that the first romance that Beth has after all these years in the basement leads to tragedy and the creation of Alice.
--- The scene with the Crows and the board members finally showed the Crows in action again. And it also showed how far is Safiyah willing to go to protect her island. The board members were "just" killed they were killed by the blood they were experimenting with. The whole hunt for the map was a dead end after all as it was burned.
--- The scene where Ryan convinced Mary to let her go after Alice was strong! I like how the writers let Ryan addressing the fact that Alice killed both of their moms and thereby convincing her that she would go after her with the intention of killing her. They have more things in common than you would think.
--- Seems that the Ocean+Alice storyline won't continue. At least that one in the present. By now she is way too "damaged"...and crazy.... for him, I think. But well, we will see.
--- More on the scene with Batwoman and Alice: Damn, it must be SO frustrating for Ryan that Alice doesn't even remember her (Ryans) mother. For her the day her mom died was a tragedy, for Alice it was just an ordinary day. But ok, after all, Alice didn't kill her mother personally. Her goons did, and maybe even not on explicit orders. It was clear that Batwoman wouldn't kill off Alice, as the storylines wouldn't "allow" it. I liked how Batwoman realized that she couldn't kill her. It was clever that they didn't show how she attached that tracker to Alice. That was a nice twist in the last moments of the episode! :-)
--- It was quite....sexy...to see Sophie in that tank top! She really is in good shape and I like how Meagan Tandy trains for it big time. It shows how much Sophie invests in her career as a Crow.
--- The scene at the end where Alice with .....some strange sunglasses....is waiting to get picked up by Tatiana at that bus stop was hilarious! Some really funny lines to find there.
--- The missing Julia is slowly but surely a big mystery! Where is she? No one is addressing that in the show. 5 episodes missing and counting.... I hope she returns soon!
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>>> Rating “General:” <<<
4 out of 5 – A lot of reveals on Coryana and Alice's past. Plus a desperate Batwoman in trouble! And an Alice in the best form.