A savage double murder bears all the hallmarks of a classic Batman foe long since vanquished, leaving Batwoman to drag new ‘partner’ Alice along to solve the mystery and keep Montoya happy. Meanwhile Luke and Mary try to figure out what’s causing the issues with the Batwing suit, and Ryan has to confront an unpalatable truth about her past.

Never let it be said that the Batwoman writers’ room rests on their laurels. Having broken out of the gate running with the opening episode of Season 3, they waste no time in this follow up setting up a whole bunch of new angles, as well as making some unexpected but incredibly smart plays.

Two teenagers getting brutally murdered in a swimming pool may sound like the plot to oh so many 90s slasher flicks, but here it’s the hallmark of a deadly member of Batman’s established Foes Gallery. Only problem is, this particular foe died quite some time ago, which means this is either a copycat or something more sinister. The way this gets worked into the episode is one of those smart plays I mentioned. We get a villain who’s an awful lot more nuanced than they might otherwise have been, as well as an incidental insight into this universe’s version of Bruce Wayne, who he was, what he stood for and honestly why he might be the best live-action version of the character we’ve had in quite some time, despite being almost never on screen.

Thanks to their new enforced arrangement with Detective Montoya, Team Bat find themselves saddled with Alice as their help in tracking down this new deadly killer. Smart play number 2. See, the killer has now kidnapped a teenage girl and the clock is ticking to find her before awful things happen to her. Ringing any bells? It certainly does to Alice, who wastes no time in pointing out the parallels between this victim and her own tragic past. But the writers stay strong with the courage of their convictions on this one. Alice is never predictable at the best of times, and just because she understands and even empathises with a victim doesn’t mean that she’ll do the ‘right’ thing. Alice is bad, in a way that’s beyond redemption and the show pulls no punches in showing us that badness, as well as the damage which underlies it.

Back at base, Luke and Mary work together to try to find out what the hell is going on with the Batwing suit with its frequent shutdowns in the field. Mary has a theory which in all honesty seemed screamingly obvious from the opening scenes of the first episode, but fair play to Nicole Kang for selling it hard and then there’s…the other side of this interaction. Look, some of us have been shipping these two for a while, and it seems that maybe the writers are ready to start playing in that areas too – smart play number 3 is how they are approaching this and how well it fits the characters.

And underlying all this is the revelation the show gave us even as Ryan refused it last time out. A surprise visit to Wayne Tower by Jada Jet forces Sophie’s hand in revealing the truth to Ryan about her birth mother, which I had honestly assumed the writers would make into a thing that played throughout the season (smart play number 4). How Ryan deals with that revelation shows us just how far she’s come while simultaneously being stuck in place, and Leslie plays this to absolute perfection, the hard-faced exterior enough to fool perhaps anyone except Sophie herself (and oh my god, are we in line for a WilderMoore pair off in the future?).

When the episode’s final bombshell gets dropped, the credits roll before we get an opportunity to see the aftermath, leaving us on the edge of our seats waiting to see exactly how this will play out next time out. Smart play Number 5.

Verdict: Smart, bold and genuinely surprising. I’m here for it. 10/10

Greg D. Smith