The episode after the big Crisis Crossover offers a cliffhanger de luxe and quite some changes to Batwoman's/Kate's world.
[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]
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 open another questions. 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 easy 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 haven't corrected that mistake. It is actually episode 10! Episode 9 was the one in the crossover.... Funnily it is labeled correct on other youtube channels. And I started to watch this episode without that "mideason 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 expecations!
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And a second aspect I wanna adress where I am a little disapointed.... 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 comparision 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 the wooden plank? Or on the backdoor of the train with that speed? That couldn't possible 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 highlight 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 afterwards 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 usefull 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 bring 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:” <<<
https://maskripper.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/3_5_logo-horz.jpg(3.5 out of 5 - interesting episode with some highlights and a big cliffhanger. I don't like how passiv Batwoman was in the big "force her to unmask" scene)
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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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So, folks....now it's....your turn! ;-)
