As Mary throws herself into doing all she can to try to prove Jacob’s innocence and Alice celebrates her victory, Batwoman has a new nemesis to deal with in the form of an apparently unbeatable hacker threatening to divulge the secrets of every single person in Gotham if they don’t get paid.

Back from her duty as the Paragon of Courage saving the multiverse, Kate has more mundane (for her) problems to deal with. Mary still hasn’t forgiven her and doesn’t want to speak to her or accept her help. Alice is still being awful trying to get her attention, and Gotham has a newfound obsession with her love life after she gets photographed in the arms of a hunky policeman who shoves her out of the way of danger. Oh, and a mad hacker known as the Terrier is threatening to release the secrets of every Gothamite from the Mayor downwards unless they get paid $5million. Just another day in the life of a costumed vigilante.

What’s surprising (at least to me) is quite how dark the show is willing to go, even for a Berlanti-verse entry. Alice takes genuine, disturbing pleasure in repeatedly and openly desecrating Catherine’s grave, apparently as much to simply torment Mary as to try to attract Kate’s attention. Mary herself is unable to even speak to Kate., much less trust her and is apparently on the verge of a nervous breakdown from the stress of trying to do everything herself to try to prove her step-father’s innocence. Even what might have been a ‘fluffy’ plot strand wherein Batwoman is presumed to be romantically linked to a male cop is quite seriously dealt with, as Kate asks herself if she is really comfortable with the city incorrectly assuming she’s straight, however objectively helpful that might be in helping her maintain her secret identity.

Even the villain of the week plot really doesn’t end up going anywhere that you expect it to, even as it integrates perfectly into everything else that’s going on. It all ties together well, and builds up genuine emotion on a number of fronts – it feels like this is (hopefully) the lowest ebb that our heroine and her family and loved ones will have to face, that maybe there is hope on the horizon for them all, and then the show goes and pulls a very odd move in its final scene that tips all expectations all over the place once again.

Verdict: Tense, emotional and an absolute painful joy to watch. 9/10

Greg D. Smith