Sophie and Batwoman have a breakdown in communication in their respective pursuits of Back Mask as they try to find Angelique, leading to Ryan needing to step up herself. Alice confronts Enigma but isn’t prepared for what she finds.

I’m in two minds about this week’s instalment of Batwoman. On the one hand, there’s some good character stuff here, as Ryan and Sophie butt heads almost as much as Sophie and Batwoman in their pursuit of Black Mask and the location of Angelique. On the other, well, there’s a few things which once again serve to gently but nevertheless firmly undermine Ryan’s ability as the Batwoman and honestly, that’s getting a little tiresome.

Last time out, we ended with the Crow convoy escorting Angelique being shot up and the girl herself taken, as Black Mask seeks to find someone who can make his drugs for him again so that they aren’t toxic. Here, we have Ryan desperate to find her ex and going to great lengths as Batwoman, but her policy of ‘never teaming with Sophie’ (or ‘Crowphie’ as she has taken to calling her) means that the two clash in the worst possible way, leaving Ryan as herself having to step up and do something dangerous in order to get a lead.

And that’s where the undermining comes in.  From a throwaway revelation by Luke with regards to her skills behind the wheel of the Batmobile to a series of convenient breadcrumbs which end up being left such that someone gets the biggest shock of their life as they put two and two together. Additionally, someone else now potentially also has information that will make her life a whole lot more difficult. This all seems faintly amateurish, as if we are being reminded by the writers (again) that Ryan is still the newbie in the suit, and it just doesn’t sit well for me.

Elsewhere, Alice tracks down Enigma with the intent of having her erase Kate from her memories altogether so that she can live a happier life. Honestly, this section isn’t as clever as it wants us to think it is. The cod-psychology bit on Alice/Beth and the nature of her obsession with her sister were already done to death when Kate Kane was still alive. Now that she’s gone, and we are eleven episodes in, this just feels old. Not to mention that the parallel bit of having Ocean be her long-lost love just completely fails to fit with a character who literally murdered her oldest and arguably only friend pretty much on a whim.

As to Jacob Kane – he’s shouty. That’s literally his contribution to an episode wherein it feels like Dougray Scott’s only note was ‘yell every line’. There’s the kernel of an intriguing plot that was seeded last week with regards to his Snakebite dependency but this episode essentially leaves that in favour of shouting.

All told, it’s a mixed bag. I can see there are some potentially interesting developments for certain characters moving forward, but others just feel like they’re being wasted and for the love of god, can they please just let Javicia Leslie be the new Batwoman without all the other nonsense?

Verdict: Feels like it wastes as many opportunities as it takes advantage of. 6/10

Greg D. Smith