A shock crime shakes the city to its foundations, and Team Bat to its core when Ryan’s objectivity is questioned by Mary and Luke. A lethal new crime boss emerges from the shadows. Alice deals with the news of Kate’s death in her own inimitable way.

I was unkind to last week’s episode of Batwoman, though in fairness it felt as if it deserved it. This time out, I was worried we were in for more of the same as early on the show breezes past a hell of a lot – Ryan’s healing, why exactly the Desert Rose was growing in the plant gifted her by her mother, Kate’s funeral and so on. Then a ‘One Month Later’ banner flashed up on the screen and finally, the show feels like it starts to dig into Ryan Wilder as Batwoman.

Not that it makes it easy for her. When a high-profile murder shakes the Gotham population, a surprise witness (who just happens to be connected to our heroes because isn’t everyone?) brings unwelcome news to Ryan as to the identity of one of the people involved. This in turn causes the other members of Team Bat to question Ryan’s ability to be objective in her role and while it’s nice I guess to watch the show finally allow Ryan the ability to stamp her own authority on the role of Batwoman and demand some respect from her backup crew, it also feels a little overdue by now.

We also find out who exactly is behind the False Face Society (or at least we do if we are familiar with the comics or watched last year’s excellent Birds of Prey). The Black Mask is ruling the gang and looking to distribute Snakebite far and wide, for reasons of his own. It would also appear that the imprisoned Kate Kane is at his mercy, though what exactly he intends for her is unclear at this point.

Meanwhile, Kate’s family are dealing with her ‘loss’ in their own ways. For Jacob, that means tasking Julia with tracking down every last possible lead to try to ensure that his daughter’s plane crash really was an accident. It also means he’s largely absent from his role as head of The Crows, leaving Sophie to pick up the slack. For her part, Sophie seems capable enough but also is starting to question exactly what the organisation stands for and whether there might be anything she can do to change it.

As for Alice, she’s dealing with the reality of Kate’s death by not dealing with it. Trapped in a world of her own mind’s making, she works through her feelings and emotions at the news her sister is gone and vengeance has been denied her. Of all the elements to this week’s instalment, this is surprisingly the weakest, perhaps because there’s nothing really new for Alice to do here. We’ve trodden this path with her before and we always arrive at the same destination. Rachel Skarsten does her best with the material she has but it’s hard to escape the notion that the writers simply didn’t really know what to do with her character this week.

Verdict: A much better episode and finally Javicia Leslie gets the opportunity to be properly front and centre with a villain of her own to contend with. Still patchy in places but definite progress. 7/10

Greg D. Smith