Ryan, Sophie and Luke are on the trail of Montoya and Poison Ivy, but it turns out they aren’t the only ones looking for Dr Isley and finding her won’t exactly be the issue.

A bit of an unusual misfire this week for the Batwoman writers’ room, as we get an episode that really doesn’t do justice to a lot of the characters, even though its basically headed in the right direction overall.

Team Bat are on the trail of Montoya and her ex, Poison Ivy, after she broke her out of the Batcave, and the trail is pretty straightforward to follow given she’s out and up to her old tricks once again, leaving a wake of death and destruction behind her with a distinct flavour. As per usual though, life is not going to make things easy – once again there’s trouble in the team, this time between Ryan and Sophie.

The issue with this is that, obviously, we are heading towards a Ryan/Sophie romantic tie up, and for starters, I remain unclear as to why the writers decided to throw in the extra speed bump of Sophie jumping into bed with Montoya. Not only did it derail the obvious chemistry between two of our protagonists, but it also rather undermines the idea that Montoya is so in love with her ex, so driven by her guilt over betraying her, that she’s willing to do anything including breaking the law to get her back.

Anyway, yes, we have awkwardness and pettiness and general bitching, all of which feels like it’s leading inevitably in only one direction. To add to the drama, Luke decides to have a bit of a personal crisis of confidence – talk about timing. This would again be slightly more compelling if it wasn’t a) a rehash of stuff we’ve already covered off with Luke and b) so incredibly weakly done. The resolution is… well, it’s not satisfying given the subject matter.

Meanwhile, it’s not just our intrepid heroes following Ivy – Mary is feeling the pull of her ‘creator’ as well and that causes some interesting revelations between her and Alice. As odd couples go, they’re the absolute oddest, but again what slightly misfires here is the way the script forces it. We can see that Alice holds more affection for Mary than we are used to seeing from her for anyone. We know that Mary is enjoying being with someone who actually notices her for herself, even though that someone murdered her mother. We didn’t need a rushed, overly overt heart to heart between them in the middle of everything else to cement it.

Talking of rushed, there’s also a subplot with Jada and a cameoing Diggle which feels like the writers suddenly attempting to wrap a neat bow around one of the more interesting side-narratives in the show, and if I’m being honest if that does end up being the end of it then I will be disappointed to say the least. No amount of low key flirting between the two of them will make up for it.

All things considered it just feels… off. We get certain really good moments (including one long overdue one) and it’s broadly going in the right direction but there are so many weird choices and narrative missteps along the way that it can’t help but feel disappointing overall.

Verdict: Off kilter in a way this show seldom is – hopefully just a blip. 6/10

Greg D. Smith