Kate struggles to settle into her new role and successfully juggle it with her personal life. A new villain in town has a thing for shiny objects and is confounding the Crows and GCPD. Alice continues to apply pressure.

After a three episode buildup, Kate is finally in her own costume and assuming her own identity as Batwoman, rather than the stand-in for Batman that she’s effectively been up to now. That’s nice to see, but what’s also interesting is that the show is intent on slowly building her up rather than just have her take the mantle and instantly be the full package.

On a technical side, that means Lucas still having to play some catchup in modifying the various gadgets and tools of the trade for Kate which are all obviously calibrated for Bruce. This results in some nice banter between the two and some expensive mistakes. What’s clear is that whereas Lucas might not be anywhere near as physically intimidating as Kate, he’s no shrinking violet either, and the relationship between them is built in mutual respect, which includes both of them being able to apologise when they’re wrong.

On a personal side, it means Kate learning that she can’t have it all – if she’s going to be Gotham’s latest costumed vigilante, a normal personal life isn’t going to be possible. This might mean that we get the normal string of missed dates and awkward apologies between Kate and her love interest that we’ve seen before, but what’s interesting is the execution. Reagan is forward, confident and not willing to just wait around for whatever pieces of Kate are left, and Kate isn’t selfish enough to want her to either. Even leaving aside that this is a same-sex relationship which the show never blinks once about portraying, it’s nice to see a dynamic where instead of one hurting the other because they put their own priorities over those of their partner, they have a mutual respect that means they make better decisions. More of this please.

Kate’s distractions of course mean that she’s not quite fast enough in catching new villain Magpie, a jewel thief with her own penchant for theatre and tailored explosives. It’s a little disappointing that Magpie doesn’t get more time, and that the way in which Batwoman eventually deals with her is a little anticlimactic, but then again this is still Kate learning to fill the role she’s given herself, and arguably the most important stuff is the way she tries to protect everyone else first before going after the villain – that’s important, informing precisely the sort of hero Kate wants to be, as does a later decision she takes about what to do with herself professionally in the real world. This is a hero who is always thinking about the best ways to be the best she can be.

Mary also gets to be back to her usual ways after last week’s whole bodyguard Sophie angle just seems to get dropped. It’s nice to see, and she looks set to fulfil a vital role in Batwoman’s toolset.

Alice doesn’t get forgotten either, as she tries to blackmail Catherine into giving her what she wants. What’s nice here is that whereas the show has pretty much implied Catherine is flat out bad up to now, there’s a hint here that there may be more complexity to this than we’d previously thought. And god help me, I do love some complexity in my drama.

Verdict: Breakneck pace, lots of humour and humanity as well as lots of action. This is shaping up to be one hell of a series. 9/10

Greg D. Smith