HamilWildMoore bring Stephanie back to the loft to examine the code on her body, and Ryan realizes that Stephanie is the one Sophie’s been protecting. She’s always been good at decoding his puzzles, but it’ll take her forever to decipher the code on her body by herself. Naturally, they bring in Luke to help! One of my favorite things to do is aggressively ship and support my friends’ relationships or situationships or flirtationships or whatever ships they may find themselves in, and watching Mary and Ryan excitedly cheer on Luke and Stephanie while they flirted was like looking in a dang mirror. THE SMILE ON RYAN’S FACE when she said “I think this is how nerds flirt” though! Anyway, the nerds figure out that the code on Stephanie’s body was a substitution cypher, so while they try to decode it, HamilWildMoore head to the old Quiz Bowl set to look for more clues.

Me @ my friends always

When they get to the set, Ryan and Mary step up to a podium that turns out to be a weight-sensitive pressure plate that’ll explode the moment they step off. All of a sudden, a video recording of Cluemaster starts playing and tells who he assumes is Sophie, that they can earn more time in the game by answering his questions correctly.

“I was hoping for Levar Burton!”

Meanwhile, Stephanie and Luke bond over cyphers and MIT. Stephanie shares that she earned her dad’s affection through puzzles, but stops her story short once she realizes Quiz Bowl was a decoy and figures out where Cluemaster actually is. I’m not entirely familiar with hetero mating rituals, but I’m pretty sure knocking your crush unconscious isn’t the way to their heart. /shrug.

Back at Quiz Bowl, the Terrific Trio is KILLING IT at Gotham villain trivia. Ryan and Mary have an adorable handshake and everything! They get every question right thanks to Ryan, including the last question about Batwoman 2.0’s very first takedown. Ryan gets that one correct before any of the other options show up and Sophie gives her some serious side-eye before suggesting they call Batwoman herself for help escaping. Ryan is aghast that Sophie uses the Batsignal any time she wants an audience with the Bat, and manages to dissuade her away from that option. Mary and Ryan suggest, in unison, that they call Luke for help instead. Too bad, homeboy is still passed out. Listen, there is nothing I could type in this recap that will adequately capture the sheer brilliance of these three women together so I implore you, please go watch this scene repeatedly like I did.

I LOVE THEM

At Sionis mansion, Black Mask demands that Alice give him Batwoman’s name otherwise he’ll shoot her. Alice then reveals that she knows he’s Roman Sionis and offers to sew Circe a brand new face, you know, in case you forgot that Alice sews LITERAL HUMAN FACES.

Meanwhile, Mary tries to get Ryan to tell Sophie that she’s Batwoman before Sophie comes back in to let them know Luke isn’t answering. They review the latest clue again and Sophie comes to the conclusion that the only way for her is death. She and Ryan flirt, I mean bicker, yet again, with Sophie practically begging Ryan to trust her. Sophie finally reveals that she knows Ryan is Batwoman, and Ryan tries to play it off before eventually relenting and giving Sophie instructions to get into the Batcave. I know I’ve given Sophie a hard time here and there, what with her working for a white supremacist organization and all, but over the last few episodes, she’s really started to prove that she wants to be on the right side of history. I do believe that her heart is in the right place, and I can only hope that becoming an official member of the Bat Team will be the first step in her taking down the Crows.

“They’re really just gonna…act like I didn’t just solve the Batwoman puzzle? Right in front of my…okay, then.”

While Sophie is gone, Mary and Ryan have some Real Talk. You see, Ryan assumes that Sophie hanging out with Mary was just part of an elaborate ruse to get Mary to spill the tea on Batwoman. But Mary isn’t having it. For one, Mary is a damn good time so of course Sophie would want to hang out with her, but perhaps more importantly, Mary accuses Ryan of being unable to see through her own Crow hatred that Sophie is actually a good person. This right here is why I need the show to follow through on Sophie taking down the Crows from within. I understand where Mary is coming from, but she’s getting dangerously close to “not all Crows”, and while that is true, an organization like the Crows thrives on the assumption that the “good ones” will stay quiet and in their place. The burden should not rest solely on Sophie’s shoulders, but if she manages to throw the proverbial first brick at the glass house the Crows built, then maybe there’s a chance to break down the systemic issues facing Gotham.

And speaking of Sophie, our girl is in the Batcave, looking around in awe and y’all, the camera lingered for an extra second on the Batsuit and the way my heart leapt when I thought she might try on the suit. COULD YOU IMAGINE?!

Meanwhile, Stephanie is in front of her childhood home when Cluemaster shows up and gives his villain speech. Stephanie tells him that she’s actually the one who put him in prison, so naturally, he gasses her and locks them both in his car. Back at the loft, Luke comes to, deciphers Stephanie’s notes, and gets to the house just in time to save her and quip that just because he didn’t go to MIT doesn’t mean he didn’t get in. TELL HER, LUKE.

Back at Quiz Bowl, Ryan tells Mary that she was right about her not trusting Crowphie. Turns out, she was jealous about the two of them hanging out without her. Mary reveals that Sophie thinks Jacob is on Snakebite, so she came over to make sure Mary was doing okay. Sophie gets back with the Bat grappling hook right on time, Ryan grabs Mary and they all fly out of there like Charlie’s Angels, right as the explosion goes off. AND THEN RYAN AND SOPHIE SHAKE HANDS.

“Can we go back to Coryana? This dude is wild’n”

Ahem. Back to the heteros that somehow I care deeply about. While Stephanie laments over the loss of her relationship with her father, Luke reminds her that she doesn’t owe him anything and that in time, she’ll find her people. Blood doesn’t necessarily make a family, and Luke has been lucky enough to find people of his own. Stephanie kisses Luke and he and I have the exact same grins on our faces.

At the clinic, Mary is leaving a voicemail for Snakebite Jake when one of her assistants wheels him in. He starts coding and foaming at the mouth, and Mary’s cries might be the thing that forces me to care about Bad Dad, dammit.

Meanwhile, The Hold Up is nearly empty save for two beautiful Black women on a date. Yeah, it’s a date. I said what I said. Sophie explains to Ryan how she figured out Batwoman’s identity, and it could have been my Wildmoore goggles, but Ryan looks slightly impressed. She isn’t completely on Sophie’s side yet because she knows up until a few days ago, Soph thought Ryan was an ex-con with no future. Sophie actually acknowledges she was wrong about that and apologizes to Ryan. RYAN TELLS SOPHIE TO PROVE THAT SHE’S SORRY, and Sophie explains that she already has. Y’all, these two are going to be the death of me, I SWEAR.

“So this is loooooveee…mmmhmmmmhmmmm”

We end again this week with Alice, but this time she’s sewing Circe’s mask despite knowing very well that the woman sitting in front of her is NOT Circe Sionis. It’s not until she holds the mask up to this woman’s blue eyes that she realizes the person sitting in front of her is her sister, Kate.

“Look with your special eyes.”

This episode was SO MUCH FUN to watch so I can’t imagine how much fun it was to film! What were some of your favorite moments?

It looks like next week is going to be a heavy BLM-themed episode, but I have a good feeling these writers are going to treat it with the utmost care. Until next week, friends!

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