With Ryan making a ’30 under 30’ list as Wayne CEO and Luke unready to face the uncomfortable truth, Mary finds her problems must take a back seat, doubly so when Sophie’s sister’s life is threatened.

Grant Morrison may have had a point when they said that nobody pumps up the Batmobile’s tyres, but it can’t be denied that part of the fascination of modern comic book screen interpretations lies in how they get under the skin of how being a superhero might actually work. Whereas the title of this episode is Antifreeze, its themes are very much about why even the most talented, energetic and capable young woman might not manage to have it all if she wants to spend her nights as a costumed vigilante.

Having been put forward for a list of 30 CEOs under 30, Ryan finds herself once again doing a complicated dance with her newly discovered half-brother Marquis. Though she’s cautious, Ryan also finds herself charmed, one suspects mostly by the idea of an actual familial connection who wants to know her as opposed to her birth mother who doesn’t. But she’s also wary of how Jada might react; as it turns out rightly so.

Mary, having woken up on a bench in the park with no memory of being dragged into some bushes by sentient vinery, finds that her need to talk about this weird experience is subverted to the various issues of Team Bat, being Ryan’s above-mentioned complexities, Luke’s basic sulking at her for having tried to look out for him and Alice being, well, Alice. It seems that in spite of having graduated top of her class against the most trying circumstances and having saved Team Bat’s various members countless times, Mary not only can’t have it all but can barely have anything – no wonder Alice’s little barb about them only noticing her when they need her landed so hard.

Amidst all of this drama, Sophie’s sister manages to get into trouble of the very dangerous type, and as the team investigates in an effort to save her, they find themselves going down a whole new rabbit hole of villainy. Dangerous, shadowy enemies are out there, and they’re intent on maintaining their masks from society. Once again, it will be down to Mary to pull some proper magic out of nowhere to help, and once again you can’t help but feel the poor girl deserves more.

But this is where the crux of the episode lies – as the gang race to find answers, Ryan’s ‘real world’ persona takes a hit when Jada doesn’t take kindly to seeing her and Marquis photographed together. Jada has deep pockets and great sources, and exposes something about  Wayne Industries that has devastating consequences. Ryan can’t ignore the financial wellbeing of the company she’s been made the CEO of, but she also can’t neglect her duties to the city as Batwoman. And it turns out, in the deepest cut, that both those things mutually rely upon one another in more ways than the immediately obvious. Who pumps tyres might not be at issue, but how even a multi billionaire funds a life of crime-fighting and all the attendant gadgets very much is. Ryan is going to be faced with some tricky choices going forward.

As to Alice, she’s genuinely starting to lose her already tenuous grip on reality. It’s hard to see where this trajectory will ultimately end. Alice isn’t and has never been a fundamentally ‘good’ person but she’s also very much a product of her surroundings and upbringing. Could it be that in being forced to work with Ryan and the others may eventually have some positive effect on her? It’s always tempting to think so, but then with Alice one can never tell.

As the episode rounds out, we get a glimpse into just what sort of person Jada is, and it isn’t flattering. Is she really just a ruthless CEO who’s had to make hard decisions to get to the top of a cutthroat business world, or is there more behind that enigmatic smile?

Verdict: Manages to offset fantastical elements of storytelling with the tale as old as time of not being able to have it all, and does both brilliantly. 9/10

Greg D. Smith