A new killer is in town, targeting members of the law enforcement system in Gotham, and Jacob Kane is determined that he and his Crows will catch them before Batwoman does. Meanwhile, Alice and Mouse continue their devious plans, and Kate has an issue with keeping her secret identity safe.

After an episode last week which focused right in on the Kate/Alice dynamic and left us with almost no Batwoman action at all, this week, things get a little more traditional as a new serial killer dubbed ‘The Executioner’ turns up in town and starts murdering prominent and successful members of the law enforcement community in elaborate ways. Of course, the city looks to Batwoman to protect it from this new menace, but Jacob Kane would much rather his own Crows deal with it than allow a new vigilante wearing the symbol he hates to steal their thunder. This leads to quite a bit of conflict and also some potentially catastrophic wrong decisions being taken along the way.

As if dealing with this wasn’t enough, Kate has the additional problem of someone guessing correctly that she’s the Batwoman and how best to stop this being passed on to people who she really wouldn’t want to know – such as her father. And then just to add a little more conflict management to the pile, when she digs deeper into who the Executioner is and what exactly he’s doing and why, it leaves her somewhat at loggerheads with Lucas. Whoever said it was easy being a superhero?

Meanwhile, Alice and Mouse continue their own little schemes, and having a little conflict of their own. Mouse isn’t ready to share his best friend in the world, and fears that her obsession with Batwoman might come between them.

Overall, it’s an episode that manages both a decent amount of action and some really strong character work for all concerned. It’s digging deep into the psychology of all its characters and it never shies away from the difficulties inherent in that, whether it’s the way Sophie basically abandoned the woman who loved her, Jacob Kane’s ongoing conflicted feelings about his daughters, or the complexities of Kate’s own life as she tries to juggle so many complications in her personal day to day life alongside the responsibilities she has taken on as Batwoman. Everyone is bringing their ‘A’ game here, and if some of the narrative elements are a little bit far-fetched it’s forgivable because the writing and especially the character work is so strong overall.

As an aside, there are two separate throwaway lines of dialogue referencing Batman villians which serve to connect the show not only to the wider Bat-Verse but also bring to mind specifically (to this viewer) the Burton duology of movies – I’m not sure this suggests (as some have said) that the show is canonically connected to those movies, but it certainly feels like a deliberate tip of the hat in their direction.

Verdict: A slightly hokey core conceit to the episode doesn’t detract from the excellent amount of character work that’s done around it. Riveting. 9/10

Greg D. Smith