Batwoman’s crusade against Snakebite and the False Faces is put on hold when a terrifying new enemy targets a cause that’s close to home for all of Team Bat. Jacob Kane finds himself starting down a deadly path. Alice reaches out in her search for help tracking down Enigma.

Lots going on in Gotham this week, and it’s mostly very well done. Team Bat is now wholly focused and one hundred per-cent behind Ryan, and that means that she’s kicking backside as she goes on a one woman crusade against the False Faces, intercepting shipment after shipment of Snakebite and causing real headaches for Black Mask. With all his product gone, Ocean in the wind and Angelique behind bars, he’s got no way of replacing his losses either. No straightforward way, at least…

In what turns out to be one of the stronger sub threads of the episode, Jacob Kane gets kidnapped (yes, again, stick with me) and finds himself placed in a deadly and inescapable dilemma. This is what I had hoped we would get the show to deal with, as Jacob has to face the darkest, deepest fears at his core. He’s lost another daughter, and he’s overwhelmed by the guilt of having abandoned his search for Beth all those years ago – that’s a weakness that his enemies can exploit and the way it’s done here is heartbreaking and also very well played by Dougray Scott. It just feels like it starts a little dumbly but then that’s only because the poor guy gets kidnapped at least once every other episode (how did he come to be the leader of the city’s leading security outfit again?).

Back with Team Bat, Mary and Ryan team up with Sophie’s sister as promised to open a new community centre to help get at risk kids off the streets. All seems well right until it isn’t, the building targeted by a terrifying new enemy in what turns out to be just the latest in a string of similar attacks. The way this thread gets developed is also very good, the viewer experiencing the same discoveries, assumptions and frustrations as our heroes as they seek to unravel the mystery behind the attacks. It’s also topical, once again affirming the commitment of the writers to use the show to address real world issues, and it’s done very well.

And as to Alice, she’s now hellbent on getting hold of Enigma to make use of the woman’s specific talents to help her forget things she’s rather not remember. This means she has to reach out to possibly one of the last people in the whole world who might have any interest in helping her, but given that they too could do to speak with Enigma for their own reasons, an alliance of sorts is formed. Trouble is, Enigma is very smart, and already very well hidden in absolute plain sight.

Just as things seem to be heading in a good direction for our hero towards the end of the episode, the script gets flipped, with a whole new trauma that promises to impact everything going forwards and make her crusade against Black Mask personal on a whole new level.

Verdict: A packed and well-executed episode. Long live the new Batwoman, finally! 8/10

Greg D. Smith