As the city waits with bated breath for another glimpse of the Batman, Kate struggles with the responsibility she’s inadvertently brought on herself. A face from the past and another dance with Alice force her to make a choice.

By the end of this episode it’s clear that this opening trilogy of episodes has been intended as an extended origin story for the character of Batwoman. It’s a shame then that this feels like the weakest of the three.

Not that it’s bad – Ruby Rose continues to kick ass in the costume and out of it, but this week’s instalment can’t help but feel a little like it’s waiting for something, building with lots of incidental detail towards the outcome we’re really waiting for.

In another interesting choice we found out last week that Alice cottoned on almost immediately to the fact that it was Kate in the Batsuit, and we also know that Sophie at least has her suspicions. This week, turns out that Bruce’s secret may also not have been all that secure either, with a hint that not only implicates the villain here but also another old fave from the rogues gallery as having worked out the mystery of what Mister Wayne gets up to at night. I know that secret identities are a little passé in this new era of superhero movies and TV, but it feels a little like there won’t be many people in Gotham who don’t know who Kate and Bruce are by the end of this first season.

There’s still the extended game of cat and mouse between Kate and Alice to play out – the former determined against all evidence that the latter can still somehow be ‘saved’ – and there’s also the parallel storyline of Jacob and his belief that Alice can’t be who she says she is. Credit to Dougray Scott, an actor I’ve not thought of before as being that subtle, for the way he conveys the inner turmoil he’s feeling in this matter through facial expressions alone. It’s clear that, whatever he says to his other daughter and his new wife, Kane isn’t certain that Alice isn’t his lost daughter, and more importantly, it’s clear he doesn’t know quite what to do about any of it.

There’s more intrigue too, as Sophie ends up assigned to bodyguard duty, with her client being none too happy about things for a number of reasons. Not only is Sophie cramping her style, she’s getting in the way of some important stuff and also making life awkward as Sophie’s husband starts wondering out loud just why his wife never mentioned before that she was ‘friends’ with the boss’s daughter. I sense some big fights in this couple’s future.

It all plays out as a nice series of character moments wrapping around a central narrative that doesn’t really grab because it feels at once a little too similar to Kate’s own background in certain aspects and also just a little to on the nose to gel with everything else. If anything, it just feels like a distraction put in place to set up a big final act which was the bit we all really wanted to get to anyway.

Verdict: Excellent periphery around a central plot that’s a little weak by comparison. Hopefully now it’s got that final reveal out of the way, the show can crack on and be its own thing. 7/10

Greg D. Smith