We’re baaaaaack! I hope you’re all rested and more hydrated than Pamela Isely, because we have one heck of an episode of Batwoman to recap this week. So let’s not waste any more time, allons y!
Right off the bat (heh), we’re thrown into a flashback from ten years earlier where a uniformed Renee Montoya approaches what appears to be the scene of a Poison Ivy attack. Montoya’s partner demands that Pam show herself, so she obliges; and from the midst of the trees like some kind of woodland Elsa, struts Pamela Isely wearing Bridget Regan’s face and it’s at this point I knew I wouldn’t survive this episode. I have loved Bridget Regan since she burst onto my screen as Dottie in Agent Carter, and since then my philosophy has been “if Bridget Regan’s in it, I’m watching it and I’m also assuming her character is queer thank you so much.” In all seriousness, it is an absolute joy and honor to get to write about such an incredible actress and I can’t think of anyone more perfect to portray the OG Pam than her.
Poison Pam is here!
Back to the flash, Montoya refuses to shoot her girlfriend and Pam attacks Renee’s partner with her vines before telling Renee that she’s doing this because someone has to care.
In the present, in a posh Metropolis hotel room surrounded by shopping bags and mountains of food, Mary gives Alice a green manicure while Alice tries desperately not to hurt Mary’s feelings with the truth that green isn’t exactly her color. They’re soon interrupted by hotel staff demanding they leave on account of all of Mary’s cards getting declined. After some quick green-eyed mind control, Mary convinces the staff to change their minds. Y’all, I have missed this duo so much! Alice’s little eye gesture to tell Mary to use her power! And Alice making sure the staff refer to her sister as “Doctor” and not “Ms.”! It’s just delightful.
Mary realizes that the “Bat bitches” (LOL) cut her off and goes on an almost Alice-esque rant about the fact that now that she’s gone, that’s when they decide to pay attention to her. I love that Nicole Kang uses some of the same mannerisms and line delivery patterns that we’ve come to expect from Alice; and Alice is clearly impressed by Mary’s villain progression. (Speaking of line delivery, Rachel’s “you kill them immediately” took me OUT.) Realizing that Mary is completely spinning out, Alice offers her some less than great advice: make the Bat Team hate her so much they have no choice but to give up on her.
“I almost regret influencing this one so much…”
Renee is at Mary’s clinic and seeing white flowers amid a sea of green and vines sparks a memory of Pam. In it, Pam apologizes for injuring Renee’s partner by bringing her girlfriend white tulips. (Queers really love their meaningful white flowers, huh? Lilies, moonflowers, tulips…) First of all, HEIGHT DIFFERENCE. Ahem. Okay second, Renee is still upset that she can’t do her job of upholding the law while Pam is out here breaking those laws left and right. Pam just wants Renee to have her back and see the impact climate change is having on the world around them. She asks Renee to go with her, but Renee won’t do it unless it’s with the “old Pam” she feel in love with. Look, I’m sorry Renee but Pam is out here making POINTS, and also… ACAB.
“Come on Renee, everyone knows when you give a queer white flowers, everything is magically better.”
Meanwhile, the Bat Team has set up shop down in the basement of City Hall, right outside Renee’s office. Luke’s desk is out here looking like my apartment before I got that pandemic WFH stipend. There are wires everywhere, the Internet is laughing in their faces, all while Sophie is trying to figure out if asbestos has a smell. Frankly, the whole thing is hilarious.
Enter: Renee Montoya, her sarcasm, and her guilt. Homegirl is Frustrated and takes it out on Ryan, saying that she allowed things like “family” and “friendship” get in the way of her decision-making when she let Mary go and wouldn’t send Marquis to Arkham. Renee keeps saying that she did what she had to, that Pam was out of control, that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few; but I think there’s a little part of her that wishes she was more like Ryan. That she waited just a little longer to appeal to the Pam she believed was still inside Poison Ivy.
“What dat bih just say to me??”
Sophie comes over and starts to agree with Renee about what to do about Mary, before Ryan immediately accuses Sophie of agreeing just because they slept together. And Sophie’s faaaace, y’all!! I love that Ryan refuses to leave this alone. My friend Monica joked that this should be a running bit where in random situations Ryan is just like “oh hey, remember that time you SLEPT WITH MONTOYA?!” and honestly, I’m here for it.
These are the faces of two people who will never hear the end of this hookup.
Renee explains that she understands where Ryan’s coming from and that she tried to see the best of Pam, but Renee chose Batman and the people of Gotham. Rather than relegate Pam to Arkham, Batman developed a serum that would desiccate (aka dehydrate) her, keeping her alive but inert and unable to harm anyone. The team figures if they can find Poison Ivy and siphon the serum from her, they can use it on Mary to stop her while they come up with a way to cure her. But Ryan still doesn’t want to do that to their friend; but unfortunately she’s outvoted on this one.
Step 1 in their plan is to figure out where Batman stashed Pam, and Luke figures Bruce probably wrote about it in his journals (because of course), but with Marquis’ increased security at Wayne Tower, they don’t know how they’ll get into the Batcave to get them. As this is happening, you can see Renee puzzling something out on her face, and she realizes that after all this time as a detective, she’s just learning that Bruce Wayne is Batman. I swear, this team is looser with secret identities than the Super Friends.
Meanwhile, Marquis video calls Ryan, and his sister pleads with him to get help. Ryan overhears one of Marquis’ assistants giving details about that night’s party, and she decides that’s their way into Wayne.
The party is a deck of cards themed masquerade and our team is looking FLY as all heck. In the first elevator scene of the night, Luke, Sophie, and Ryan go over their fake identities: Spencer Glad, Cecelia Langley, and Penelope Devereaux (who’s French by the way), respectively. Luke and Sophie are really into their identities, but Ryan is…decidedly not. At one point, Sophie says “my girl sounds hot” and in the moment I thought she meant Ryan, but on second watch, I realized she probably meant the girl she was pretending to be but you know, headcanon and all that. They mask up and enter the party because everyone knows partially obscuring the area around your eyes renders you unrecognizable to anyone who’s ever seen you before.
“I thought the mask went over the nose and mouth? This is so confusing…”
Marquis hits the stage and tells a story about his first meeting with the board where they decided he wasn’t right to lead the company so naturally, he fired them all. As he continues, Luke and Sophie tag team Marquis’ assistant to get the shot glass Marquis touched and to switch the SIM cards in the tablet for full access to the building’s security. (Their little handshake when they realize both of their tasks are done!!) Ryan’s job is to get close enough to Marquis for a full retinal scan.
They realize this is some kind of group job interview as Marquis pulls a card and the person with the matching card joins him onstage. All seems as normal as something like this can be until the “contestant” gets a question wrong and is immediately electrocuted. Ryan decides this is her chance to get up close and person to her brother so she takes the next card called and hits the stage. She and her blasé French accent manage to stall long enough for the scan to complete.
Fact: elevators are gay. They’re also hella awkward. Put those two things together and you’ll get this magical scene with Ryan, Sophie, and Renee heading up to Bruce’s office. Ryan side-eyes the heck out of Renee and Sophie tries to lighten the mood with a joke since you know, it’s kind of her fault there’s tension to begin with. Renee insists she’s just there to help because you see, she and Pam are soulmates and there’s a good chance she’ll understand what’s in the journals.
Everything about this is queer culture.
Ryan tells Sophie that just because she and Renee decided to make up, doesn’t mean Wildmoore is in the clear. She decides she’ll take Renee’s help, but only if Renee agrees to keep Ryan’s name out her mouth. But Renee won’t agree to that until they find Joker’s joy buzzer, which they need Alice to find and OH HEY REMEMBER WHEN ALICE WAS SOPHIE’S RESPONSIBILITY BUT INSTEAD SHE HOOKED UP WITH RENEE. LOL Oh Ry Ry, I get it, I really do, but you gotta talk to her. I know there’s a lot happening right now, what with your best friend and your brother turning into supervillains before your eyes, but I’m really going to need you to be real about your jealousy and for Sophie to reassure you that this thing with y’all is more than just a one night stand. Please. Y’all are queer. PROCESS THIS.
When they reach their destination, they’re greeted by Marquis’ cronies playing pool and watching basketball and when I tell you the way my heart stopped when those three queer women of color burst through the door??? Previous awkwardness almost forgotten, these three are all business and ready to kick some ass. And kick ass they did. This was some of the most gorgeous fight choreo I’ve ever seen, made even more beautiful by the color coordination of the wardrobe. 10/10 would watch a spinoff of The Cleaning Ladies. Once the cronies are taken care of, they take yet another elevator down to the Batcave.
This is what I see when I close my eyes at night.
Mary Hamilton has Arrived at the party looking FOINE, I might add. Luke radios this info down to Ryan as the ladies look through Bruce’s journals, and Ryan is so hopeful as she asks if Mary came home looking for them. It’s like she’s grasping for any bit of evidence that the real Mary is still there, to prove to her friends that maybe they don’t need to give her the Poison Pam treatment.
Someone give Ryan a hug!
Back at the party, Mary ignores Luke and heads directly to Marquis where the two verbally spar before Mary asks him to dance.
“Bow down, bitches.”
Ryan is getting frustrated that they haven’t found anything yet and suggests they look through the journals chronologically based on when Renee first contacted Bruce. Now, I’m not even sure what day it is today, but somehow Renee is able to remember this being early June 2011. They come across a drawing of the Gotham Dam which thrusts Renee into another memory.
Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to use this photo of Ryan’s face.
My dear friend Daphne co-wrote this episode, and as soon as I heard the first chords of the background song (“Feel” by Fletcher), I knew she planned to emotionally attack us with this scene. Pam is packing up to leave when Renee comes in, visibly exhausted and dejected, with a single tulip (that Pam informs her technically she just killed) and asks if her girlfriend knows anything about a break-in at the Gotham Dam. Pam knows the truth will cause an irreparable rift between them, and a lie wouldn’t be true to her cause. She knows what she wants, so she asks Renee to answer that same question. There’s a moment when Renee steps up to Pam to answer her where Pam looks almost surprised at Renee’s movement. Maybe it’s the height difference, maybe Pam thought she had the upper hand and didn’t expect Renee to push back when their love was at stake. Either way, Bridget Regan played it perfectly.
So Renee does what Pam did to her; she asks her to choose between her cause and her love. Even though Pam wants Renee more than anything, she also wants her to trust her. They kiss and as they pull away, Pam asks about the tulip. Renee says it’s for forgiveness and thrusts the serum into Pam’s chest.
No notes.
Not to be all “Thanos was right, his methods just sucked…”, but also, kind of. Pam’s desire to save the planet and bring attention to real issues like climate change isn’t wrong. Perhaps if there weren’t so many institutional blockades to her cause, she wouldn’t have had to resort to such extreme measures to get them to just pay attention. But that’s the thing about complex “villains”, right? They’re often pit against heroes who are supported by historically corrupt institutions (like the police and the government) in a way that almost makes us forget that we too are fighting against those very systems. It’s part of the reason I’ll always have a soft spot for Alice; she is a result of circumstances beyond her choosing. This whole “what makes a villain” conversation is much bigger than this recap, but one of my favorite things about this show is the fact that it blurs the line between traditional ideas of good and evil.
“Are people born wicked, or is wickedness thrust upon them?”
Where were we? Ah yes, the journals. Bruce wrote that he needed to bury Pam somewhere dark and dry but also accessible to him. The lightbulb above Ryan’s head goes off as she realizes Bruce buried Ivy right under their feet.
As Renee processes the information that Pam has been here this entire time, Sophie offers her and Ryan’s services if Renee can’t handle seeing Pam right now. Meanwhile, Ryan’s suited up and ready to hit the tunnels. She asks for total silence so she can use her bat sonar to listen for Pam’s heartbeat, but in a moment of pure comedy, Sophie’s phone goes off with a credit card fraud alert message, and y’all…if anyone ever looked at me the way Ryan looked at Sophie in that moment, I would die on the spot. Eventually she pinpoints her location and the trio heads into the tunnels.
Look, I’d make this face too if Ryan just stared at me like that.
Back at the party, Mary and Marquis do a lil villain dance and discuss how busy Ryan is trying to fix Mary at the moment. While locking eyes with Luke, Mary whispers something in Marquis’ ear that will help him get revenge on his sister. Have I mentioned how much I love these two playing off each other? Because whew chile, it is delicious.
Down in the tunnels, Sophie (still in white and somehow not dirty) spots the area where Bruce most likely buried Pam, so they chip away at the vines. Pam is completely desiccated, but she still has Bridget Regan’s face which means homegirl manages to look as flawless as a dehydrated person can look. After seeing what the serum did to Pam, Ryan can’t understand why they would want to do this to Mary, but she eventually relents and siphons the serum from Pam’s body. She leaves Sophie and Renee to make sure Pam doesn’t reanimate (because yes, that would just be AWFUL…), and heads to deal with Mary.
At the party, Marquis pulls Luke aside and reveals that he knows he’s Batwing. Oooohh Mary girl.. You told??? That’s cold.
Meanwhile, Sophie tries to reassure Renee that Pam would forgive her for what she did. I assume this is the first time they’ve spoken since they hooked up (did you know they hooked up?) because Renee takes half the blame for what went down with Alice. It’s then that Sophie realizes the fraud alert was someone ordering a cake to their hotel room and that all signs point to Alice. So she leaves Renee alone with Pam which is definitely 100% a great idea.
“Now can I trust you not to do anything crazy like crying on the love of your life?”
When Sophie gets to the hotel to confront Alice, she kicks in the room door. I repeat. A formally clad Sophie Moore KICKS OPEN THE DOOR to Alice’s hotel room. I swear, this show just gives and gives and gives. These two banter back and forth for a bit before Alice tells Sophie that Re Nay Nay is hiding something from them in her office. Also hey production team, release the bloopers from this scene because I KNOW they exist and are probably HYSTERICAL.
“Ugh, I really did miss her.”
Mary makes it to the roof of Wayne Tower and Ryan literally swoops in to head her off. Ryan shoves Mary against the ledge and holds the syringe to her friend’s neck. Mary uses her science knowledge to appeal to Ryan’s conscience about not knowing exactly what the serum will do to her. And Ryan hesitates just long enough to get distracted by Marquis showing up with Luke at gunpoint. Thanks to Mary, Marquis knows that his sister is Batwoman. Everything is crumbling right before Ryan’s eyes; her identity, her friendship with Mary, her desire to help her brother. She makes the move that will end up feeding two birds with one scone; she throws the syringe at Marquis, temporarily silencing him while also saving Luke.
This hurts my heart.
Mary manages to escape and once she’s back at the hotel, she’s not celebrating like someone who just bested a foe. Alice pops out of the bedroom after getting out of Sophie’s cuffs (pause – Sophie, no longer a member of law enforcement, just HAS handcuffs on her person? Girl, I see you) and accuses Mary of getting the “conscience tingles.” It’s not that though. Even though logically she knows injecting Marquis saved Luke and protected Ryan’s secret, in Mary’s mind, it was Ryan not choosing her yet again. Renee can say what she will about Ryan, but in that moment she did make the hard choice. The shit of it is that that choice alienated Mary even further, whether Ryan realizes it or not.
In a show of sweetness that surprised even me, Alice confided in Mary that ever since she’s been helping her she hasn’t had any delusions (no, I don’t want to talk about her walking in on Sophie in the shower, my gay ass heart can only take so much) and that in itself is an example of Mary’s power. I think these two are going to end up being good for each other. In a wild and chaotic way, of course.
They both just want to matter to the people they care about.
Back down in the tunnels, Renee apologizes to Pam for what she did all those years ago. Suddenly, a flower starts to bloom where only darkness and dry vines have existed for a decade. Renee takes this as a sign that Pam can hear her, so she arms herself with every “true love’s kiss” legend she knows, and kisses Pam right on the mouth. Shocking no one, Pam’s eyes pop wide open.
“Why do I feel like somebody’s watching meeeee?”
At the clinic, Luke and Ryan decide what to do with a now desiccated Marquis since the second he wakes up, he’ll tell the world who they are. Ryan decides to call Jada as Batwoman to tell her they have her son. Meanwhile, Sophie’s investigating Renee’s office and calls Luke to tell him and Ryan that Renee has been playing them this whole time; she has Joker’s buzzer and was seemingly only holding it over their heads until she got what she wanted: Pam.
“Try to contain that ‘I told you so’, Wilder.”
The episode closes with an empty tunnel so I can only assume Renee threw Pam into the nearest body of water to rehydrate like one of those “grow in water” toys.
Next week, people of color in the woods??? I don’t know about y’all, but I’m going to stop daring this show to get better because if they keep going at this rate, I’m not going to survive the season. Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments below!
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First of all I’m so happy Batwoman is back. Second of all Ryan Wilder was in her petty boots this episode. She kept bringing up Sophie and Renee sleeping together and I was living for that. I’m like you I hope it is a running gag for her to bring up to Soph each time. But I also want Sophie to say why does it matter who I sleep with so we can see Ryan’s face but anyway back to this episode. I did not see Ryan desiccating Marquis instead of Mary but it was the right call because he definitely would of made it worse for her. I feel for Mary because she should know Ryan cares and she will see once she starts working with eco-terrorist Pam.
My takeaways from the episode are:
– The writers rock I love what they’re doing with Ryan and Sophie
– Also please stop this angst with Ryan and Sophie either kiss or bring a love interest for Ryan this slow burn is painful
– Mary and Alice is actually fun to see and I hope to see more of them
– How does Alice know everything who is talking to her!
– Lastly, everyone looked great but Sophie in that white dress whew.
Also, I need to hear more about your villain theory. You’re right Thanos message was right his action was just wrong.
Queer people blind and stuborn, only caring of representation and not of the Quality of the show.
As long as she is gay, You all think this is the Best show ever.
This is not a story about the súper heroine batwoman, is the story about a gay icon.
Renee, I agree with everything in your comment except the request to end the slow burn.
I love a slow burn! Pain doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Especially when it’s clear the characters are queer and there’s gonna be queer hooking up (as opposed to the subtext-only storylines I used to be stuck with)
SOPHIE MOORE KICKING BUTT (and kicking down doors) IN THAT DRESS
this episode was soooo good!!!! i think all of us were super-excited to see Pamela Isley on Batwoman, and Bridget Regan did not disappoint. i loved all your notes about why Poison Ivy is such a ~~delicious~~ character, because in many ways we root for her. anyway, I’m glad that Renee awakened her and we get to see Poison Mary and Poison Ivy meet next week! i also just enjoyed the general pettiness everyone was feeling in this episode. Luke was so sarcastic, Ryan side-eyed SO many times. lmfao. what a truly entertaining episode. also, i’m totally here for Renee. the backstory of them being together for TEN years + another ten years of Pamela being desiccated. that’s 20 years of Renee’s life. no wonder girl was acting so shady.
I’ve missed Batwoman on my TV and Nic’s recaps so much!!! Huzzah for Bridget Regan FINALLY!!!!
Who among us can really blame Renee for essentially coercing Ryan and co into helping her find Pam? Renee’s clearly got trust issues (like most queers). She probably didn’t think they’d help her otherwise.
However, I did shout “EW!!!” when Renee kissed those dessicated lips! Nasty. That’s how you know it’s true love, I guess (?)
Now that they have the Joker’s buzzer, I’m guessing they can probably reverse-engineer whatever it did to Marcus. And boom, healthy Marcus! Easy.
Loved the recap!! Sure the show is great too!
Just here to say I *live* for your recaps. And Bridget Regan as Poison Ivy is almost too much to handle – absolute queer perfection. I can’t wait to see more of her scenes with Montoya (and her reaction when/if she finds out Montoya hooked up with Sophie?? Is this a queer love octagon at this point or…) and to see her interact with Mary. (Also, is it bad if I want some version of Poison Mary to continue and never be changed back?)
Don’t you love Bridget’s Poison Ivy costume and that hair?!?! When she first walked out of the bushes I think I let out an audible OKAY.
Absolutely – pretty sure I held my breath through that entire scene. The strut, the outfit, the hair, all of it. I would kill for her to pull an Alice re: redemption arc and be more of a recurring character, but alas.
So glad that Nic is back with the recaps (ok yes the show too).Renée Montoya is who I mark out for, but I don’t know how I’ll handle it if she gets all melty in love and stops being a typical New Yorker.
I might’ve missed an episode…. When did Alice walk in on Sophie in the shower?
I first discovered Bridget Regan when my bff forced me to watch Legend of the Seeker (circa 2013/2014) and thus was born a lifelong appreciation for Bridget and a serious love for tall redheads.
When Ryan did that little read of Sophie for taking Montoya’s side because they bumped nuggets, I was like oh homegirl is striving for those subtle Petty LaBelle whisper high notes and I too am here for it.
Also, the Lesbian Bible Chapter 4 states that when you have a massive crush or are in love with your friend and you don’t know how they feel about you, you don’t process your feelings about them with them until one or both of you are drunk or the feelings are revealed via third party. I don’t make the rules.
I first saw Bridget on LotS as well and was crushed when they canceled it. I didn’t know I was queer at the time, but I’ve been following her career ever since. I recently started rewatching it, and I see the scene with Bridget in the red leather Mord Sith outfit with a whole new perspective, lol.
I’m finally watching Agent Carter now that it’s on Disney+, and I’m going to have to watch Batwomam too. I needed a break from the CW superhero shows, but I think this is enough to draw me back in.
YES YES YES. here for batwoman’s return and for your recaps!!! on pins and needles to see what happens in 309
this ep was a miss for me, I don’t like that they’re trying to break up the core four like this. I mean I love poison Mary, she is serving lewks and I love it but it seems like she’s just mad to be mad. like she KNOWS what’s going on with Renee and Ryan and then Ryan’s family and then MARCUS, and then she saw Marcus hold Luke at gunpoint and was mad that Ryan didn’t want to fight her??
Like I definitely get her being upset about being ignored and pushed to the back but it’s not like Ryan’s doing it for funsies. I need Mary to come back home.
I’m finally all caught up on this show! I have two thoughts to share:
1. If my IRL wife was like I need to explode a dam, I would simply help her? Am I too much of a “wife guy”? It just seems very unrealistic that anyone would pick their cop job??? Over their wife???????
2. I love Ryan and Sophie slow burn!!! I love the DRAMA!!!!