An infamous work of ‘art’ by Jack Napier may hold the key to locating Kate, and Commander Kane and Agent Moore reach out to Batwoman for her assistance in obtaining it. but Team Bat and the Crows aren’t the only ones looking. Alice continues her search for Ocean.

I’ve been pretty hard on the show so far this season for its insistence on not letting new lead Javicia Leslie just get on with it and constantly feeling like it’s moping after its departed Season 1 lead, but in fairness, I’m starting to suspect that choices being made are deliberate. After all, Kate had worked hard to become the Batwoman – however talented or charismatic Ryan Wilder may be, I guess there’s an element of her needing to ‘earn’ her right to the mantle.

And this episode really allows her to start asserting herself on that score. Ryan has no love for the Crows and when their commander reaches out (reluctantly) for her help in grabbing Jack Napier’s infamous piece of ‘art’ from some secret criminal art fraternity, Ryan is sceptical for a long list of completely understandable reasons. She even finally gets an honest to goodness bonding scene with Luke as they share the roots of their respective reasons for disliking authority generally and the Crows specifically.

But it isn’t until things go very wrong in a very specific way that Ryan really lets rip, in the first scene where we get to see Leslie really, honestly assert herself. It’s a powerful moment, once again feeling as much as if the star is asserting herself to the audience as the character is to her comrades. I can see this leading to a much stronger Team Bat 2.0 moving forwards.

Meanwhile, Alice is continuing her search for Ocean and that leads to some interesting places. It certainly gives us an opportunity to see an altogether different (and unexpected) side to the character, which is both welcome and deeply intriguing.

Rounding things out, we get a fabulous new side character I hope we see more of as the show progresses, and a bit more specific background on exactly why Ryan ran in with the law in the first place – spoiler alert, she was innocent. Between that and her ongoing antagonistic relationship with Sophie as Batwoman, it’s clear that the show intends mining a lot of rich, socially relevant themes as it goes on.

Verdict: Subverting a lot of the perceptions I’d had for the season so far, this is promising big things moving forward. 9/10

Greg D. Smith