—>>> back to: Batwoman, Season 1, Episodes 7 – 12 <<<—
[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]
[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]
[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]
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“General”:
The episode after the big Crisis Crossover offers a cliffhanger deluxe and quite some changes to Batwoman’s/Kate’s world.
My highlights from this episode:
1 – Batwoman is outing herself in the CatCo magazine! Even I would have loved to actually see that interview in some snippets at least… That magazine cover opens another question. More on that later…
2 – Batwoman gets forced to unmask herself in front of Alice and Parker! I loved the tension in that scene! There was so much at stake! Even Batwoman should have at least tried to disarm Alice with one of her gadgets or her martial arts skills. She gave up so easily and didn’t care so much about exposing her secret identity to the whole world! That would have ruined her crime-fighter career…. Ok, perhaps she trusted that Parker wouldn’t expose her secret ID to the world….but that was a risky move for sure! Also, I don’t like the fact that there are always cuts in the unmaskings. She reaches for her cowl…cut….she yanks the -already out of place cowl- off her head. Ok, I don’t know how Ruby can unmask in that kind of cowl….how it would look. And ok², the eye paint and neck protection needs to vanish magically before the unmasking.
3 – Alice has another tea party! Really a nice, and sinister scene to have a tea party with Mouse near Catherine’s grave! Really good lines and I liked how Mouse motivated Alice to unmask Batwoman and expose her secret to the public.
4 – The cliffhanger ending! Well, of course, that leaves a lot of questions 🙂 . Well, I guess that she is another Beth version from another planet that now shows up after the events of the Crossover. And I love how Kate grabbed into her face to see if she was wearing a mask!
5- The amount of Batwoman screentime! Batwoman had a LOT of scenes in this one! In the long Batwoman cut of the episode, it’s over 16 minutes with scenes with Batwoman. A new record for the show! And you folks know how much I love to see as much as possible from her in an episode! 😉
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Ok, one thing I have to write off my chest here. The trailer before this episode is/was labeled: Batwoman, Season 1, Episode 9 for a time period….now they added “midseason trailer” to that as well. Well, really weird that the CW still hasn’t corrected that mistake. It is actually episode 10! Episode 9 was the one in the crossover…. Funnily it is labeled correctly on other youtube channels. And I started to watch this episode without that “midseason trailer” info. I was really mad that I found out that the trailer is for several episodes…really uncool. Kind of a hoax. They should have labeled that correctly from the start as it fuels expectations!
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And a second aspect I wanna address where I am a little disappointed…. The new Batwoman cowl! On a set picture last month you could see Ruby wearing that cowl that is now shown on the cover of that CatCo magazine! Also, that cowl type is shown in the trailer mentioned above. Why the new cowl? Why was it changed before that cover shot in the episode? And why was it changed at all? That cowl has no chin strap anymore! It looks much less secure that way! Also, it shows more of her face that way. Not a good thing to protect her secret ID. Also, the neck protection was removed! I am hoping all that will be explained in the future at least…. On the good side, the mask looks somehow “smother” (?) now and it will be much easier to tape the unmasking process if she unmasks herself or gets unmasked by someone else.
Here the comparison between the 4 Batwoman cowls we have seen so far:
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The train scene was a little…..too much in my eyes. Ok, let’s say that cable could stop a fast-moving train….which I don’t think it could….. how is the cable supposed to hold on to the wooden plank? Or on the backdoor of the train with that speed? That couldn’t possibly hold….. But ok, it is a superhero show. I would have rather like to see Batwoman enter that thing to stop it somehow. In the end not a really big issue for me.
In addition to the highlighted number 2 from above: The hallway fight scene with Alice… Ok, she tries to save the hacker but gets beaten so easily by Alice, who has no (own) weapons and no big fighting skills. Batwoman should do better and easily beat the crap out of her in that scene. Also….why didn’t have Alice any of her goons with her? That would have made the “let’s force her to unmask” scene afterward also more plausible. …..unless of course, if it was her plan to get captured in the end.
What I really liked is how the Hacker (Parker Torres) was handled. With the cop story, it motivated Batwoman to out herself. And also as she learned her secret and is now somehow included in Batwoman’s life….she might become a very useful ally with these skills!
The Mary scenes were interesting as well! I like who she tried to free her dad and the scenes with Kate were pretty emotional. A first step to bringing them back together!
The scene with Batwoman and Sophie was very interesting as well. At first, it looked like a filler to get Sophie some screentime…but the dialogue between them was important (and funny in parts). It will be very interesting how Sophie will handle things in the next episodes!
What was kind of weird and interesting: Mary spotted the new Beth at that university. Sophie moves into a room where that Beth was heading …just to find a gamer kid. What was Beth up to? What happened in that room? It seems like she realised she had been following by Mary.
The scene with Luke and the Batwoman cupcake was funny! And their relationship developed quite a bit in this episode as she missed him as the voice in her ears.
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>>> Rating “General:” <<<
(3.5 out of 5 – An interesting episode with some highlights and a big cliffhanger. I don’t like how passive Batwoman was in the big “force her to unmask” scene)
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“Mask”:
Batwoman screen time: long cut: 16:30(!!!), medium cut: 13:39(!!)
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“Mask action” (highlighted if yes): – attempted unmasking (to check if there is a face mask) – forced unmaskings (incl. a witness) – self unmaskings (without witness) – self unmaskings (with a witness) – unmaskings (done by an enemy) – mask damage – “mask talk” (incl. “secret identity talk”) – additional masked women –
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Who knows her secret identity by now?:
For sure: 6 – 3 of these are villains
Luke Fox as her “tech guy” who equips her – (since ep1) – Ally
Julia Pennyworth (since ep7) – Ally
*NEW* Parker Torres (since ep10) – possible Ally
Sophie (doesn’t think that Kate is under Batwoman’s cowl anymore)
+ Alice (recognised her sister’s eyes under the Batwoman cowl) – (since ep2)
+ two of Alice’s crew: Mouse (since episode 6) + Chuck (mentions it in ep5)
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Sexy “mask-related” -scenes:
Batwoman gets forced to unmask! And a witness is present.
Also, Kate grabs into the face of the new Beth to check if she is wearing a face mask.
>>> Rating “Mask”: <<<
(4,5 out of 5 – A forced unmasking and over 16 minutes of Batwoman screentime!!! )
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Conclusion:
A good episode with an interesting storyline! But I do have some issues with the key scene.
I’m verrry thrilled how the cliffhanger will be solved….
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Pictures:
(click to enlarge)
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And here are my special Batwoman cuts from this episode:
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What are your thoughts on the episode?
Feel welcome to leave a comment below!
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Not forgetting the black eye makeup that magically disappears the moment the mask is removed ?
Yeah, I mentioned that, named it face paint in the article. 😉
Ok, I had to take this point by point, hopefully it remains in order. Hopefully, there isn’t a character limit.
1. I definitely want to get back to the CatCo mag cover, was excited to see Kara Danvers as the reporter, and think this could make a great batch of scenes for later.
2. What struck me about this scene, is that Kate is still adjusting to being a superhero, she doesn’t have a map, Bruce isn’t there to help her. She has very unsure moments, will make mistakes, and I hope we see all of her ethical challenges too, this is great character building. I LOVE Parker, did it scream ‘boi wonder’ to anyone else? Kate seems particularly sensitive to what her influence will look like, she has seen other superheroes, has survived life changing trauma, and is still pretty young herself. I think overall they are doing a great job with her story line.
3. I almost squealed out loud when I saw the tea party scene! Mouse is so unamused with Kate, he recognizes that Kate is the competition (he’s the real villain). Alice is just freaking amazing, in every second of what she does, full stop. Rachel is killing it.
4. I thought she was the Beth from the ‘bad’ Batman multiverse? I have to go back and look again, but there was a picture of Kate and Beth that Batman was talking to Kate about. Makes me wonder what they will do with ‘good’ Beth.
5. YES!!! Bring on the screen time. The scenes between Alice and Kate and Mary and Kate are my favorites. Both Alice and Mary feel like they are doing everything possible to remove the barriers to being loved by Kate as their sister. I’m hoping for more bar scenes later on with Kate and Mary.
6. The cowl – my thinking on this is the chin piece may inhibit talking? I don’t know, maybe it gaps weird when she’s talking? Maybe it irritates her skin? I tend to lean toward practical applications of changes like that. I don’t see costume or character evolution as a bad thing. Yeah, I think they should play with the edits, make them smoother, or figure out how to adjust to compensate for her body movement.
7. Train thing was a little over the top, but, like you, I’m like ‘eh’ superhero show is supposed to be a little over the top. Ok.
8. I kind of saw the hallway scene as Kate trying not to really hurt Alice, it pains her, their twins. I see the same behavior in my twins occasionally. Where one realizes she has an advantage over her sister and won’t play on it right away. It absolutely loses her the fight when she won’t commit.
9. Oh, I have soooo many thoughts about Parker. As a butch lesbian, you can see me coming from 100 feet away, for good or ill. That representation with Batwoman is important, and I’m glad the show recognizes that Kate needs to show young people watching her that it’s ok to be themselves. She was very aware of scrutiny by minors when she dropped down onto that dance floor. I want to see much more of Kate and Parker, and also with Parker and Luke. There should be some comedy gold in that.
10. Meh, not super interested in Sophie, they need to back off the love interest in the first season and let Kate adjust to being a Batling. They have her trying to do too many things at once. We know Kate is gay, she’s going to be gay tomorrow, next week, next year…it’s all good. It’s about her being herself, not who she is with.
Well, that is one of the very best comments in the history of this blog! Thanks a lot for taking the time 🙂
Let me reply to some of the points:
2. Yeah, she would make a good side-kick. Not in the field right now, but definately her skills could be of use to hunt down criminals.
Perhaps she could be teached some fighting skills and get in the field in some years.
3. As I mentioned I loved that scene too. You need to be really crazy to hold that tea party on a cemetary 😉
I think that Mouse does influence her, like in this case with the idea to unmask Batwoman and he is crazy too. But in the end Alice is the main villain and responsible for most of the killing so far.
4. Yeah, I too think that that Beth is from another earth. Alice will be furious when she finds out about her 😉
6. No, I don’t think costume or character evolution is a bad thing too! Her character is evolving great, the costume was the same the whole time (except the color of the emblem). Just her cowl was changed now again. I would like to know why. I hope that it will be explained in the show. Because this new version is a lot more risky to Batwoman as the old one. Perhaps it is somehow hold in place by something we can’t see, but from the looks of it it seems like it could be pulled off easily without that chin strap of last version.
8. Yes, they are twins, but Kate have realised by now that her twin is a murderous psycho. She must do everything now to bring her in!