This is the episode I’ve been dreading. When Batwoman writer Marc Andreyko introduced Nocturna in the comics, it became a pivotal arc for the character — and one that anyone who gave half a shit about the character wished never happened. It still astonishes me that the storyline was greenlit.
As a refresher, DC put the kibosh on letting Kate and Maggie get married. JH Williams III and W. Haden Blackman quit DC altogether in protest. Andreyko turns around and gives us a story where Kate is date raped and trapped in an abusive relationship with a character whose entire backstory and intent begins and ends with “sexy vampire.”
So I was nervous when I found out Nocturna would show up this season and was prepared to hate this episode, especially considering how much I loved last week’s. I didn’t think this crew could follow it up adequately, but boy howdy was I wrong.
In this Article:
Synopsis
For an episode where pretty much everything I wanted out of this TV show finally happened, it’s pretty easy to sum up. We open on Nocturna stringing up some gross hapless dude with plastic tubing and blood bags and drawing all the blood out of him, even though she has pointy teeth. She’s wearing a bad mask while she has sex??? Do straight guys think that’s what a kink is? Do better, straight guys.
Also, hanging people from the ceiling doesn’t seem to be an effective way to draw blood from a person???
Meanwhile, Jacob gets exonerated. We don’t know how or why. Whatever. But he’s ready to take charge of the Crows.
Alice makes some kind of mannequin factory her hideout. She realizes Mouse is missing and makes it her job to find him. She also for some reason has a slowly-decaying skin mask and slaps it on a mannequin and talks to it like it’s Mouse. Hurk.
More importantly, she’s truly hit rock bottom. She despises Kate and her only ally has vanished. Somehow, I miss Beth! She was only around for 2 episodes!
Kate preps for the opening of her bar. Turns out Nocturna has been luring club kids away from parties and draining their blood, using her teeth — which are false — to get them high on ketamine while she kills them. Kate knows this is the perfect trap for Nocturna. Mary shows up to help out with the opening. Sophie shows up in high femme finery to look for Nocturna.
This leads to the kind of harebrained comedy this show does best. Mary deftly deflects a patron’s advances, then acts as wingman for Sophie. Kate, monitoring the party on CCTV, decides the woman flirting with Sophie must be Nocturna. So things get…awkward. (Also, that woman had crazy eyes! The actress! Not the character! Why would you flirt with Crazy Eyes?!)
Nocturna attacks Alice. She must be pretty easy to track down, because Kate also shows up to tell her how much she hates her. Before Nocturna can deliver the fatal blow, Alice directs her to Mary, whose inoculation with the Desert Rose can heal the debilitating blood condition that has caused Nocturna to attack others.
I dunno, man, I hear dialysis sucks but it’s got to be easier?
This is where the writers turn things around from the comic: in this episode, Kate has almost no relationship whatsoever with Nocturna. Instead, Alice is her companion — from one baddie to another.
Anyways, Jacob finds out that Sophie has been helping Batwoman and gets royally pissed. The conflict between Kate and her dad makes more sense than in the comics. In the comics, Jacob is mad that Kate is a vigilante at all, even after he gave her special training. Here, Jacob is pissed that a single person is running circles around his entire organization — and, in his eyes, making the very serious pursuit of justice into some kind of reality show.
So he suspends Sophie, who in Disaster Gay fashion uses the Bat Signal to summon Batwoman. Then they kiss! See you next week!
Bat-Thoughts
- Kate can afford a better-tailored shirt! I understand this may be Ruby Rose’s spin on the character — making her androgynous rather than butch (I’d describe comics Kate as a sorta punk femme.) But it just looks like she’s swimming in the shirt.
- I was never rooting for Sophie and Kate. I kind of hate that they’re back together. But also — FINALLY. KATE KISSES SOME GIRLS.
- Mary figuring out that Kate is Batwoman was one of the funniest scenes this entire season — and there’s a lot of gleefully deranged moments on this show.
- One thing I left out of the synopsis is that Alice helps Kate capture Nocturna — to prove that she’s redeemable. Seems like a weird turn considering how gleefully sadistic she is, but now that she doesn’t have anyone else to turn to, I guess she realizes she needs to make amends. Doesn’t remind me of anyone I know in real life at all!
Well, as I said, this was the culmination of everything I wanted to see an didn’t know I wanted to see so this gets a 6 out of 6 sodas for me.
