Hello and welcome to another Batwoman recap! How are we all doing after last week’s Wildmoore kiss? I hope you’re moisturized and hydrated because we’ve got double the Ivys to talk about this week.
Previously on Batwoman, Jada vowed to fix what Joker did to Marquis, Renee freed Pam from her ashy prison, Mary killed a guy, Pam and Mary found each other, oh and Sophie kissed Ryan, nbd.
Our two Ivys waste no time getting back to dealing with Gotham corruption, and their first victim is the CEO of Gotham United Healthcare. They string him up with their vines as Pam uses this opportunity to give Mary some pointers on her villain monologuing; talk less, smile more…or…maybe that’s the other Hamilton. Either way, learning from Pam hasn’t completely erased the Mary we know and love, because even though she’s torturing a man, she makes sure to tell him and us that it’s to get justice for every person he’s denied claims.
“I don’t know if you know this, but Sophie and Renee had sex”
If you thought I was going to condemn Mary for torturing a white man, you are sorely mistaken. She realizes that maybe these powers could be used for Good; to level the playing field she used to watch from the sidelines. Before she can explore that further, Pam gets a nose bleed from helping with the torture, so Mary offers to give mommi (I’m so sorry) some of her sweet sweet energy.
At The Hold Up, Alice makes one Heck of an entrance and it’s just the first of many times Rachel Skarsten Showed Up in this episode. Whew! Alice gives Ryan and Luke the Sparknotes version of what went down with Pam and Mary, including the fact that Mary pheromoned Alice, resulting in the best sleep she’s had in ages.
“Y’all are not ready for the fire I bring this episode.”
As Alice snarks and makes herself a drink, she suggests the only way to take down two Ivys is by getting rid of the sun; and by “sun”, she means Renee Montoya. Ryan doesn’t quite buy that that’s all there is to it, and says as much, but Alice is trés offended by the idea that she could possess a deep feeling.
In the woods, Pam gives Mary her villain origin story. You see, her family didn’t have much money growing up, and they couldn’t afford her brother’s asthma medication, so their mom relied on mostly herbal remedies. At some point, one of the Gotham factories poisoned their drinking water, and her already immunocompromised brother died before his 13th birthday. By the time Pam finishes her story, they’ve reached their destination, but it’s not Renee’s car like Mary assumed.
And speaking of Renee, she’s heading to her car after picking up tickets for her and Pam to presumably get the heck out of dodge. As gets into her car, she’s leaving Pam a voicemail (when did Pam get a phone?!) and breaks the cardinal rule of getting into a car on a TV show. She doesn’t check the backseat!! If she had, she would have noticed Ryan and Alice waiting to remind Renee of their deal. Not the worst of backseat surprises, but come on, Renee!
“Yup, I fucked up.”
The Ivys arrive at Gotham Dam, where Pam reveals her evil plan to drown Gotham’s industry. Literally. Mary admittedly didn’t pay much attention on her school trips to the dam, so Pam enlightens her to the truth: the dam is responsible for eradicating fish species, eroding farmlands, and other really terrible environmental effects. The dam feeds into one of the factories responsible for Pam’s brother’s death, so in Pam’s eyes, destroying it will bring him justice.
“Behold! I am Pam and I have a Dam Plan!”
Back at The Hold Up, Alice and Ryan bring in Renee and handcuff her to the railing. A sentence that should be hot, but…you know what, yes, it’s still hot. Renee won’t betray Pam again by sharing where she took Mary but no worries, Sophie is here to save the day! And the look Ryan gives Luke when she realizes he’s the one who called her?? Whew, homegirl is in major Avoidance Mode. Meanwhile, Sophie is riding high on top energy and is ready to impress Ryan with her skills.
“Okay be real with me, was it good?”
For the first time in awhile, Alice doesn’t know all the Bat tea and assumes Sophie can help because I don’t know if you heard, but Renee and Sophie slept together. I can’t wait until Alice officially finds out that Wildmoore smooched. Unless I missed it, she wasn’t explicitly told in the episode, though she may have overheard Ryan and Sophie talking later on. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Luke tells Ryan that someone lit up the Batsignal and as she goes to leave, Sophie grabs both of her hands (!!) and reassures her that they’re going to save Mary. Javicia does this thing with her face when Ryan’s trying not to feel something; it’s sort of deer in the headlights, almost like she’s physically trying to force her feelings down. I mention this because later, the opposite happens.
“Turn it off, like a light switch.”
Apparently Ry Ry still has access to the roof of Wayne Tower, because she lands there flawlessly to see that Jada is the one who beckoned for her. Jada needs the buzzer fixed in order to give Marquis another jolt, but she won’t just turn it over to Batwoman without getting something in return. They make a deal that Jada will turn over the buzzer to Batwoman as long as she brings Marquis to her by midnight. So Batwoman “Yelena”s off the roof, presumably to find a way to fix the joy buzzer.
“Yelena Belova ain’t got nothin’ on me!”
Back at the dam, Mary (and I, frankly) isn’t so sure about Pam’s dam plan because if it works, it’ll wipe out half of Gotham, including innocent people. Pam tells Mary that she’s acting like Renee and Mary quite literally says, “not trying to be a Renee-sayer” and reader, I laughed and laughed and laughed. Pam is being all “needs of the many” about this, but Mary stands up for herself now that she’s finally figured out how to use her powers for good. Pam seemingly respects Mary’s decision and won’t make her do this (yay!), but she does need her power so she siphons almost all of it and leaves Mary in the middle of the road (boo!). Remember when I said it’s going to be hard to convince me that Pam is a villain. Well, it’s still complicated, but hurting Mary is another point in the villain column!
“Okay you got me. ‘Renee-sayer’ was real good.”
Meanwhile, Sophie is working on Renee, playing good cop? Bad cop? Sexy cop? One can never be sure, but before Sophie can get anything out of Renee, Alice sidles up next to her as if she’s helping even a little bit with the interrogation. For my D&D nerds, it’s like if Sophie is rolling an intimidation check and Alice tries to convince the DM that she’s “helping” so Sophie can get advantage. As Rachel Skarsten absolutely owns the scene, Sophie manages to ask Renee if Pam would do the same thing for her. I genuinely cannot articulate the beauty of Rachel, Meagan, and Victoria in this bit so please go back and watch it again.
“She said what she said.”
While this is going on, Luke is on the scanner listening for clues to Mary’s whereabouts. He asks Sophie what Ryan’s deal is, and Soph realizes that Ryan didn’t kiss and tell. Luke prods, but Sophie just walks away with a “doesn’t matter” and there’s this little giggle at the end of “matter” that is SO STINKIN’ CUTE! Ugh, Sophie is smitten and I’m here for it. That feeling doesn’t last though, because they hear on the scanner that some workers found Mary in the street and she’s being transported to the hospital via ambulance.
LOOK AT HER FACE
As Ryan speeds away in the Batmobile, she updates Luke and Sophie on the Jada situation and in turn, Luke tells Ryan about Mary. Ryan realizes that she can’t do both, so she decides to go after Mary. Sophie is ready to jump in and help (okay, maybe have a smidge more chill, girl), but Ryan asks for Alice’s help instead. Their faces, y’all!! Sophie is so eager to help Ryan, and Ryan looks like she’d rather do anything than face Sophie and thus, her feelings. I am positively GIDDY over this development if only because I’m hoping it will lead to a soft confession of feelings before the season is over.
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This recap perfectly captures how the show is filled with moments of comedic gold even when the dramatic stakes are at a 10. How did we get the heartbreaking moment of Mary finding out she killed someone and “not trying to be a Renee-sayer” in the same episode?? The Batwoman writers are magic
As always I love your recaps as you capture each moment perfectly. My favorite scene between Ryan and Sophie was them addressing the kiss hopefully they will express themselves more next week. Love the last comment that Sophie hair will be up next week lol always good to know.
This season just keeps on delivering and your recaps are perfect.
This episode was perfect and so was the recap. I may have squealed, “I already did!” at the recommendation that we rewatch the Sophie-Alice-Renee “interrogation” scene. I had to rewind and watch again as soon as it happened. Alice was being incredible as always and then the Sophie-Renee response was so good, too.
I hope the cast and crew are having as much fun making this as I am watching it.
Wait, so that’s it? No more Pamela?
This episode was absolutely incredible. I would like to personally congratulate Poison Pam and Poison Mary for inventing a new kind of lesbian sex – the forehead-clasp-and-writhe.
It’s not a lesbian ship unless they’re sweet angsty moments get interrupted …the drama of it all has me hooked
A jewel! Batwoman has surprised, the way she reinvents herself, but, let’s be honest, I see more chemistry between Sophie and Alice or Sophie and Renee than Sophie and Ryan. That kiss was so squashed that even being fortuitous looked awkward and weird…. I hope this gets better. I’m also sad that Renee will be gone.
I wasn’t sure I saw the chemistry between Sophie and Ryan until the end of the panic room episode. I feel like they’re at their most believable when Ryan pulls some top energy out of nowhere. Hoping to see more of that.