Batwoman, season 3, episode 6: "How Does Your Garden Grow?"

[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]

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“General”:

My highlights from this episode (without particular order):

1 – Poison Mary! Well, it wasn’t a big surprise that Mary now was revealed as (a) Poison Ivy. Many signs pointed towards that in the last episodes. I liked Mary turning into a villainess! But I don’t think she will be evil for long, as I think that the real Poison Ivy is just using her to get free….in my opinion. We know that Bridget Regan was cast as Poison Ivy and she will show up in one of the next episodes.

2 – Mary “comes out”! – That scene was hilarious²! Mary was mumbling, Luke was worried that Mary would say she is gay, and Alice was bored. In the end, Mary revealed that she now thought that she was turning into Poison Ivy whenever she is triggered by something. She had no clue what the trigger was….but smart Alice had already figured that out as we see later on 😉

3 – Ryan VS Sophie! – Yeah, the two didn’t connect at all in this episode. Ryan keeps it a secret that her brother is a potentially very dangerous sociopath and thereby Sophie doesn’t know why Ryan is defending her mother and her connection to the Black Glove Society who kidnapped Sophie’s sister. I fully understand Sophie in this situation as she wants her sister back, at the same time I don’t really get Ryan as she is seemingly trying to handle her brother on her own, which is quite dangerous. I think the others should know what is going on so they could help her.

4 – Batwing + Batwoman! After very little screentime in the last two episodes, Batwoman has a lot more to do in this one. Batwing is also back in action and I enjoyed how the two fought against Poison Mary, even it was a very unbalanced fight as these two were on the receiving end ;-). The action scenes were well done and showed how much potential Mary has as a villainess, and I think the real Poison Ivy will be even stronger.

5 – Easter eggs and references! Poison Mary had a similar haircut as Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy in “Batman & Robin”, even it was a different color and shorter, but both had these “horns”, a great reference to that role. Also, it was great how she exited the scenes as she practically disappeared backwards into the plants, which reminded me immediately of Homer Simpson how disappeared like that into a hedgerow.

6 – Alice plotting and scheming! Poison Ivy isn’t the only one that influences Mary big time. Alice points out to Mary that she thinks that she turns into Poison Ivy and Mary then realizes that Alice is right about that and makes her confession to the team. Alice wants Mary to be Poison Mary, the question is to what end? I think Alice’s main goal is to escape Gotham and be free. Maybe she thinks Poison Mary can help her to get rid of these Nanobots? Will be interesting to see what Alice’s plan is! And again Alice had some very funny moments including calling Mary’s clinic “Jumanji” 😆

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Aspects I didn’t like in this episode:

>>> While some CGI effects were pretty good, some others looked rather bad. As Batwoman was wrapped in these vines for example and Renee smashed an ax into it and the vines dropped to the ground immediately. That was quite weird as Renee could easily have hurt Batwoman (even with the suit) as the vines weren’t that thick, and it looked pretty bad.

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More interesting aspects for me:

— The guy wrapped in honeycombs and vines was a pretty “cool”, slightly creepy, and unusual sight. Poison Mary was really not nice to him….

— As Sophie was frustrated with how things were going with Ryan she pretty quickly found a new woman to fool around with. They knew each other already and as they met in the bar they both could use some fun as it seemed 😉 . But well, why not? Right now both are single women…

— Poison Mary also did a job on the bad guy from the Black Glove Society! Planting him in the ground like that was quite a move. It was interesting that Alice pointed out to Batwoman/Ryan that she (Ryan) should have worried about Mary as she didn’t realize what was going on with her. Yeah, Ryan and Luke should have paid much more attention to Mary….

— I think it was pretty drastic how Sophie tortured the bad guy. I mean burning his face like that as a first move? Wow, Sophie really showed an evil side of her. Perhaps she would have gotten more info from him if she would have played it a little less drastic. And also she shouldn’t have called Batwoman “Ryan”. They were still pretty close to the bad guy and she was rather loud. She should call her Batwoman as long she isn’t 100% sure that no one would listen.

— The scene with Poison Mary and Batwing was intense! Batwing was really in a bad situation, stretched out like that by these vines. Then Mary unmasked him (that shouldn’t be that easy) and revealed that she stole the AI from his suit to use it herself. After Mary “snitched” on Luke….now that! Luke should be pretty angry at Mary right now.

— The talk with Mary and Batwoman was really needed as Ryan finally realized that she was a “crappy friend” as she said herself. Yeah, Mary had some good points as Ryan and Luke should have cared much more about her.

— As the team scientist is now missing, it will be interesting how Ryan will work together with her mom, not only to find a way to heal Mary but also take care of Marcus, so he isn’t a danger to anyone. And the team has no team doctor as well right now. And Luke looks like he can’t be Batwing with that injury and without the AI. That will be a challenge for the team!

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>>> Rating “General:” <<<

4 out of 5 – A good episode with an interesting and unusual villainess, Mary rocked this episode!

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“Mask”:

Batwoman screen time: 08:00 (long cut)

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“Mask action” (blue colored if yes): – attempted unmasking – forced unmaskings (incl. a witness) – self unmaskings (without witness) – self unmaskings (with a witness) – unmaskings – mask damage – “mask talk” (incl. “secret identity talk”) – additional masked women – close calls with opportunities to unmask Batwoman

Who knows her secret identity by now (Batwoman 2.0)?:

For sure: 8 – Alive and not in prison: 6 – Enemies and a possible thread right now: 1-2

Mary (ally)

Luke (ally)

Sophie (ally)

Alice

Susan (parole officer, fan)

Renee Montoya (unclear if she is a thread to Batwoman right now)

~~Circe~~ Kate (not in Gotham)

Safiyah (fate unclear)

Roman Sionis/Black Mask (in prison?)

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