BATWOMAN 2.14

 

RECAP - BATWOMAN  2.14:  "And Justice For All"  

Batwoman certainly has her hands full with Black Mask, his False Face Society goons, and now the addicts of Snake Bite out on the streets.  There's also trying to see how she can handle Sophie knowing her secret, Then there's Mary, who got the bad news that her dad is a Snake Bite addict.  She's got to find a way to get through to him.  Alice, on the other hand, has QUITE the conundrum on her hands:  she knows that this Sersi Sionis is really her sister Kate.  What she will do with that knowledge is going to be a story in and of itself.  So, let's peek into Gotham THIS week and see what transpired...

The new version of Snake Bite that's recently hit the streets has developed quite an interesting side effect:  It's gotten people SO hooked, they become hungry, and because of its chemical components, it's turned addicts into literal zombies.  After battling some False Facers, Batwoman trails a suited man into a cathedral that has been used by squatters as shelter.  What she witnesses is a scary sight:  people eating a man, looking like zombies. Later on, as she is having a fund raiser for the youth center with her new friend there, she's met up with Luke, who explains that more cannibal attacks have occurred.  She feels it should be a GCPD problem.  Just then, two white cops enter the bar, and accost Ryan for having music too loud in the bar.  She says she's having a fundraiser, and the cops ask for a permit, and she doesn't have one.  Luke tries to diffuse the situation, but to no avail. Both he and Ryan are arrested.  Not too long after, Sophie comes in to find out what happened, and she confronts the cops, who want her to just go away.  Her being a Crow didn't do much, as she got in the one of the cops' face, and she is eventually arrested.  There's a lot of bickering between the three, as they all did not diffuse the situation in the best manner.  Sophie explains to Ryan that she can't hide behind a mask...be someone else.  She's Sophie 24/7, and she can only do so much to change.  Soon, a long-haired white man is thrown in with them.  He's a car thief, but says he's glad he's in there, because of the zombies outside.

During this whole zombie ordeal, there's a man named Richard who had taken the new Snake Bite, and had been feeling the urge to feast upon people.  He sends a woman away in the alley he was in before he ate her.  He got so bad that he ended up in Mary's clinic, cuffing himself to one of the beds, to prevent himself from feasting.  Before HE busted in, Mary was taking care of her dad, as she was trying to get him to open up, and come to grips with the fact that he did all he could to save both Beth and Kate.  But in moping in his failures, he's pushing away the one daughter he has left.  She has had to learn to deal with those losses by doing the things she knows she can do.  She knows he wants a do-over, but he can't have one. Richard then breaks his cuffs as he begins to succumb to the Snake Bite, and Jacob orders him to leave.  Richard was another who had taken the lethal drug in order to be with his wife again, as she had died not too long ago.  

Armani, the head of the youth center and a lawyer, manages to get bail for Luke, Sophie, and Ryan, and they have to go and see if they can stop the zombies before they run over the town. Sophie rallies her team, but Agent Tavarov gets cocky and starts to get in Sophie's face, but she reminds him who's in charge.  She sends them out, and at the same time, Batwoman suits up, and Luke gives her a case that has a vaccine in it, but she has to deliver it person to person.  So, as she's out there fighting, she manages to start inoculating those in the church that had been effected, but is soon shot at by Agent Tavarov, who starts killing addicts left and right, against Sophie's orders.  But he tunes her out, and says for them to find the Snake Bite that's left over, and they bail.  Batwoman, who had managed to avoid getting shot, makes her way out of the church, and eventually inoculates Richard, as he was about to eat a cop.  

With the threat ended, Sophie and Ryan are back at the bar, and they talk about trying to change things.  Sophie says she's quitting the Crows, because she can't believe in them anymore.  She doesn't know what she'll do, but she knows it will be better without them.  She also let's Ryan know that there's that line she's going to have to draw when it comes to being Ryan Wilder and Batwoman...and that includes her budding relationship with Amari.  Ryan does end up having that talk with Amari, and lets her down gently, saying that all she can do is offer friendship at this point. 

Looking in on Alice, we see that she knows the woman with whom she's given a new face is her sister Kate.  She tries to get through to her, but Roman comes in to halt any further interrogation by Alice.  She says she can stick around to help with her face, and Roman says that he has a cosmetics company, so he orders her to leave...and warns her to keep her mouth shut.  But, that doesn't stop Alice, as he pays a visit to the good Dr. Rhyme, and wants to know how to get Kate's memory back.  Rhyme says that she needs a personal item of Kate's, something that Kate held dear.  Alice manages to rummage through some of her belongings, and finds a set of keys.  Before she goes though, she bumps into Ocean, who had been waiting for her.  She says she's got things to do, and tells him Kate is alive.  She needs to get Enigma to fix Kate's memories.  When they get back to Rhyme's office...and let her down...she says to Alice that if she can return the memories of Kate, it will also be whatever it was that Kate was feeling for her at the time.  Alice is okay with that.  When she presents the keys, it was to Kate's motorcycle...and how she loved riding it, and it meant freedom for her.  Enigma is okay with what Alice wants, but before they can do more, Enigma says that Alice has to know the password---the right word to trigger Kate's memories.  And before she can find out what it is....Ocean kills Enigma.  He tells Alice he loves her, and Kate doesn't.  All Kate has done is cause her misery.  It was Kate who chose a city over Alice, and it was Kate that had her locked up.  He doesn't want her to get Kate back.  He says what Kate offered wasn't love.  It makes Alice stop and ponder for a bit.

This episode ends on a terrible note, as Luke and Mary were discussing dinner, when he spots the guy he was in the cell with earlier trying to steal a car.  He stops the guy, but not before Agent Tavarov shows up with his Crows crew.  The thief then accuses Luke of stealing the car and assaulting him to save his own ass.  And when Luke when to reach for his phone, Tavarov shouts "GUN!", and Luke is shot three times, as he's on the phone with Mary. 

This episode hit some emotional beats, as well as some social ones ripped out of the actual headlines.  The dirty cops who illegally arrested Ryan, Luke, and Sophie were white, and they arrested 3 black people, and it showed just how dirty the police can be....as well as go out of their way to violate civil rights in order to "uphold the law".  It was blatant abuse of power in this episode, but I was glad to hear from Amari that those cops were under investigation.  But we also got to see MORE abuse of power, as Agent Tavarov has started taking a more arrogant and cocky tone with Sophie, and challenging her leadership of the Crows.  And when he went into direct violation of her orders, it was enough for her to quit...which has been LONG overdue. It's time to move Sophie onto The Bat Team, and with her and Ryan making some serous headway this episode, it was one step closer to getting the team we want.  On top of that, to have Sophie and Luke talk about how they were brought up, and how that---despite their upbringings---still had to fight to be equal, because regardless of their place on the social totem pole...they were still seen as outsiders.  

We got to focus on ONE addict in this episode---the man named Richard---who had lost his wife in a terrible accident, and wanted to escape into the hallucination the Snake Bite brought just so he could be with her again.  This was a great allegory for Jacob, who had been using to escape his life....so he could have a do-over with Beth and Kate...all the while ignoring the ONE daughter he still has:  Mary.  Mary giving him the parental lecture shows us why Mary is such an integral character...and not an airhead.  Jacob looks like he's sober, but how long he stays that way is anyone's guess.  But hopefully for HIM, it's his wake up call.  Especially since Agent Tavarov has been throwing his weight around, and we knew he was after Sophie's job..  And what will happen to Jacob when he loses Sophie, now that she's quit?  If Tavarov gets closer to leading the Crows, they'll be nothing more than a squad of brutes, enforcing their will on Gotham for so-called "safety and security".  And he already abused his power in a BIG way by shooting at the addicts in the church, when he was specifically told NOT to.  And then he shot Luke...or which he'll claim self defense.  

That's another thing...if they kill off Luke...that's like Flash killing off Cisco....you lose your tech guy and the dude that can build your arsenal.  But I'm hoping this will start putting an end to The Crows.  I've never liked them, and I hope they are destroyed and taken down by season's end.  I know what I'd like to see---since the Commissioner of Police of Gotham City had been killed earlier on...I'd like to see Sophie become the next Commissioner.  So, that her and Batwoman can fight side by side.  I'm wishful thinking. And what of Alice?  Has Ocean's words gotten to her, and will she leave her sister to her own devices, or will she continue to get Kate from Black Masks' brainwashing?  We've got some questions to answer in the next few episodes before the season ends.  So, lemme know YOUR thoughts, as you subscribe and leave a comment below.

Until next time....the Signal is OFF