Kate and Julia go undercover to steal Lucius Fox's secret journal from a mob-controlled nightclub.
Tropes:
- Action Fashionista: Mary eagerly selects an outfit for Kate that will conceal her bat-gadgets.Mary: Because we want to hide the goods but not hide the goods, you feel me?
- Action SurvivorKate: I'm sorry. It's too dangerous.
Mary: Dangerous? I have been poisoned, stabbed, and nearly exsanguinated, and the fact that I have lived to use that word as a verb is proof that I can look out for myself. - Ambiguously Evil: Julia is no longer part of the SRR, but still reports to somebody who apparently wants the book.
- Auction of Evil: After capturing Batwoman, Sabatino holds an informal and private auction for her gear and, ultimately, Batwoman herself.
- Bad Guy Bar: Or club in this case, with Sabatino's nightclub.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Alice and Mouse successful obtain Lucius's journal, though the fact that it's encoded sours the victory.
- Bait-and-Switch: When talking to Reagan after the incident at the club, it almost seems like Kate is going to reveal that she is Batwoman. Instead, she claims that Batwoman merely helped her get the journal.
- Bandaged Face: Elliot adopts this look post-skinning in lieu of a new face.
- Batman Cold Open: The episode starts with Batwoman saving some human trafficking victims who were sold for their organs. It's unrelated to the main plot aside from an implication that the traffickers will be recurring and the buyer showing up at the Auction of Evil to get revenge.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Aside from a thin line of blood from her mouth, Julia looks completely fine during her interrogation after getting punched at least 10 times. She has no bruising the next day.
- Beneath Suspicion: Kate admits to being completely blindsided by Reagan's betrayal, which doesn't ease Luke's anger very much. Worse, she still doesn't know that Julia is a Rogue Agent with her own agenda.
- Bound and Gagged: Batwoman is gagged and chained to a gurney for her auction.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Mary shows up at the club with one when she infiltrates the Auction of Evil under the pretense of buying Batwoman so Hamilton Dynamics can get access to the Batsuit. Sabatino accurately notes that the case is way too small to hold the $10 million Mary says she has. Mary explains that the suitcase only has a plausible $2.5 million, and that the rest will be wired to whatever account he wants upon delivery.
- Bullet Time: Kate does the Matrix-style backflip when someone fires her own Grappling-Hook Pistol at her.
- The Bus Came Back: Reagan returns after last showing up in episode 4.
- By the Hair: Unlike the comics, Kate's red wig is attached to her cowl, causing her to lose the trafficker boss when his minion grabs her hair. Mary suggests electrifying it.
- "Who could have predicted that 30,000 strands of "grab me" red hair would be like waving a flag in front of a bull?"
- Caught in a Snare: Played with. This is the basic form of the trap that captures Batwoman at Sabatino's club, but instead of just leaving her hanging upside-down, it violently yanks her into a set of shelves, leaving her KO'd on the floor.
- Combat Pragmatist: Once Magpie realizes that she is outmatched, she throws the journal off the building, forcing Kate to jump after it and giving her the chance to escape.
- Combat Stilettos: Averted; Kate's Batboots are both "functional and on trend", to quote Mary.
- Compensating for Something: A look through Tommy Elliot's seized possessions has Julia quip that it's all a monument to "his twig and berries".
- Comically Missing the Point: This exchange:Tommy: Have you heard from Bruce? Visiting hours are four days a week. He's a total no-show. Is that any way to treat your best friend?
Kate: It is... if you killed his actual best friend. Lucius Fox.
Tommy: That's an outrageous lie. Lucius was never Bruce's best friend. - Crocodile Tears: Alice tries to get sympathy from her father, but when she realizes he isn't going to help her, she immediately switches back to threats.
- Didn't Think This Through: Elliot apparently didn't consider that giving something valuable to a mobster for safekeeping might defeat the point of "safekeeping".
- Digging Yourself Deeper. A Running Gag in the episode is that Luke keeps letting slip various things about Bat-operations to Mary after she finds out. The end of the episode has Luke reveal that Bruce Wayne is Batman to Mary, to which he really regrets doing judging by his face.
- Dirty Coward: Sabatino's female underling who interrogates Julia acts all tough and smug as long as she is in control, but when Julia breaks free, she pathetically begs for her life (before being on the receiving end of a Neck Snap).
- Double Entendre: When Reagan refuses to help Magpie any further after betraying Kate, Magpie reminds her of her promise to "do anything" for her. Reagan quips that she just did.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Tommy mentions the journal contains plans for a "failsafe" in case the Batsuit falls into the wrong hands, something that episode 3 established was a railgun. While Alice is also aware of the effectiveness of railguns against the suit, she isn't aware that Bruce made one as the aforementioned failsafe, and thus doesn't pick up on what Tommy's referring to. Of course, knowing what the technology is and replicating it are two different things.
- Reagan quips that Batwoman seems to turn up every time they get together. This is not only because Kate is Batwoman, but because Reagan is the advance scout for Magpie, whom Batwoman was chasing in her introductory episode.
- Dutch Courage: Mary's drink order before infiltrating a mafia auction is "vodka, plenty of it." Reagan approves.
- Facial Horror: The audience is once again treated to the sight of a human face post-skinning, this time Tommy Elliot's.
- Faking the Dead: Tommy Elliot's suicide is staged using a random Arkham inmate and Tommy's face. The heroes clearly don't believe that he's dead, but they still have no means of finding him.
- Fanservice:
- We get another Kate/Reagan love scene, with the latter in lacy Black Bra and Panties.
- Mary in her short black clubbing dress with thigh-high boots.
- Foreshadowing: When Kate and Reagan are eagerly stripping off for sex, the journal is shown falling out of Kate's bag onto the floor. Kate wakes up in bed alone and finds the journal is missing.
- Gambit Pileup: Everybody wants Lucius Fox's journal: the Batfamily, Julia's unseen employer, and Alice all try various plans to get a hold of it, with victory ultimately going to Alice.
- Guile Hero: Kate anticipates that her visit to Tommy will rattle him enough to call whoever is in possession of the journal. She and Luke intercept the subsequent call and learn it's at Johnny Sabatino's club, The Lookout.
- He Knows Too Much: Julia kills the female mob interrogator for knowing that she's no longer part of the SRR.
- Hollywood Darkness: Julia shuts off the power to the nightclub, briefly turning it completely dark even to the audience. Subsequent shots are more visible as Batwoman uses her night vision, but still clear that the club is pitch black.
- Hollywood Law: As goes with the territory of Arkham being the quintessential Bedlam House, the experiments Alice describes being conducted on the inmates at Arkham would be very illegal in reality in this century. Also, it's illegal to commit someone to a mental institution against their will without a court order, which Jacob and Kate can't have gotten because they're keeping the fact Alice is related to them secret and she had no trial.
- Hypocritical Humor: Luke lectures Mary on how the Batcave is the biggest secret she'll ever know after Mary impulsively reaches for her smartphone to take pictures, only to accidentally out Bruce as Batman in the same lecture.
- Idiot Ball: Tying an special forces operative like Julia to a chair without securing her legs in any way is asking for trouble.
- In Love with the Mark: Reagan is not happy at manipulating and stealing from Kate, having developed real feelings for her. She promises an unsympathetic Magpie that this will be the last time she helps her.
- Insanity Defense: Tommy Elliot is using this, but Mouse as Dr. Butler has certified he's ready to stand trial to pressure him into doing their bidding.
- Internal Reveal:
- Alice, Mouse, and Mary learn Batman's identity.
- Kate learns that Sophie came out to her mom.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted; the first thing Kate does after returning home from a fight is to ice her knuckles. She also mentions that this is a regular occurrence.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Tommy flips out when Kate accuses him of murdering Bruce's true friend, Lucius Fox. According to him, that is an outrageous lie, because Lucius was never Bruce's friend!
- Jumped at the Call: Mary is extremely giddy to become a part of the Bat Family. Both Kate and Luke are initially against the idea, wanting to protect her.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Mary discovers that even though she's now a Secret-Keeper, the other members of Team Batwoman have no intention of letting her help out in the field, because she doesn't have the years of training and experience that they have. When Kate and Julia both get captured, Mary has to step in and rescue them over Luke's objections, because she's the one with the right looks and social connections to get inside.
- Lured into a Trap: Both Julia and Batwoman get captured by Sabatino's men.
- MacGuffin: Lucius Fox's journal, which supposedly contains a failsafe for the Batsuit.
- Meaningful Echo: Magpie repeats her "I'm not a jailbird" line from episode 4. After Alice removes the tracking device, she adds that she's not a homing pigeon either.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Alice manages to out fox everyone and get the journal...only to find that it's written in code.
- "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop: Magpie does one to steal the journal from the wall safe.
- Moral Myopia: Alice swears revenge on Kate and Jacob for tricking her and locking her in Arkham, after having spent the whole season manipulating her father and sister, as well as masterminding a scheme that saw Jacob incarcerated for crimes that (unlike Alice) he hadn't committed. She was revenge for Jacob giving up searching for her years ago.
- Motor Mouth: Mary's almost gets her in trouble when she lets it slip towards Aria that she knows Johnny has "mafia buddies".
- Mythology Gag:
- The goon pulling Batwoman's wig in the prologue is similar to something Alice herself did in Batwoman: Elegy, though there the wig cleanly detached.
- Kate's codename during the nightclub operation is Red One, which is the same one she used in Batwoman (Rebirth) on her global mission with Julia. Julia's codename, Tuxedo One, is also from that comic but has been used in the show prior to this.
- Batwoman fighting a woman on a rooftop for possession of a book is reminiscent of Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood #3, where Batwoman and The Question battled for the titular Crime Bible.
- Mary suggests electrifying Kate's cowl to deal with the problem of people trying to yank it off; Batman has used the same tactic in various mediums, most memorably in The Dark Knight.
- Tommy ends up with his head wrapped in bandages, just like the ones his comic counterpart uses as a disguise. Unlike the comic Hush, however, Tommy actually needs them for medical reasons, as his head has been completely skinned.
- Narcissist: Among Elliot's possessions that were seized by the Crows is a huge nude portrait of himself. Sophie and Julia's heads form a Scenery Censor of the naughty bits.
- Neck Snap: Julia kills her interrogator this way.
- Never My Fault: Alice complains that being locked up in Arkham is no way for her to recover from the trauma of being Cartwright's prisoner. Alice, of course, has never once expressed any desire to actually heal from her traumas, even convincing Mouse to abandon his own therapy in the previous episode.
- No Honour Among Thieves: Sabatino betrays Tommy after figuring out that the journal is worth far more than what he was told.
- Properly Paranoid:
- Alice lets Magpie out to steal the journal for her, correctly anticipating that his mob contact would realize its value and refuse to give it back to Tommy. To ensure Magpie doesn't do the same, she has a Tracking Chip with lethal electric properties that Alice only removes after the journal is in her hands.
- Lucius Fox wrote his journal in code, wary of the fact that anyone who managed to steal it would be able to use it against Batman.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Reagan only seems to be in it to help her sister and she wants out after bringing her the journal.
- The Reveal:
- Julia hasn't worked for the SRR for some time, and is instead working for an unknown party.
- Reagan is Magpie's sister and (reluctant) accomplice.
- Revenge:
- The human trafficker who gets beaten up by Kate at the beginning of the episode later wants to buy her for revenge.
- Alice promises revenge on both Jacob and Kate for her incarceration in Arkham.
- Rogues Gallery: Alice forms an alliance of convenience with both Tommy Elliot and Magpie for her schemes.
- Secret Identity Apathy: While it makes sense that Batwoman remains masked during the auction (no-one's going to pay for 'Kate Kane, real estate tycoon') it's odd that none of the mobsters holding her are curious enough to find out who's under the cowl.
- Secret-Keeper: By implication, Reagan and Magpie would have to know Batwoman and Kate are the same person to steal the journal back. Even if Alice didn't tell them, Reagan had more than enough evidence the first time she dated Kate.
- Serious Business: Luke is not amused when Mary tries to take photos from the Batcave.
- Schmuck Bait: Kate finds the journal sitting on the desk unprotected instead of in the wall safe. It turns out to be lying on a pressure sensor that activates a snare trap.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story:
- After Kate & Co. go through much trouble and extreme danger to recover Lucius's journal, Reagan simply steals it for Magpie after sleeping with Kate.
- Similarly, Alice and Mouse expend a lot of effort to get the journal, including releasing Magpie and faking Tommy's death, only for the journal to be written in an indecipherable code when they finally get it.
- Ship Tease: Julia has taken to calling Sophie "Soph", and Sophie has told her things about her personal life that she hasn't even shared with Kate. Kate notices all this with a degree of jealousy.
- Smug Snake: Julia's female interrogator is very assured when dealing with a bound and helpless victim, but quickly resorts to begging when Julia frees herself.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat
- Luke is unimpressed by Kate stopping to flirt with the hot bartender when she's supposed to be infiltrating the Lookout.Luke: Can you ask her to make you a What the Hell Are You Doing?Reagan: (seeing Kate's Obligatory Earpiece Touch) Is your ear okay?Kate: It's fine. Can you hear that annoying whining sound?Luke: Hilarious.
- After Julia and Kate are captured.Mary: What happened to your member of the Special Reconnaissance turns-out-I'm-not good-backup-at-all Regiment?Luke: I didn't call you down here for a yelp review, Mary.
- Luke is unimpressed by Kate stopping to flirt with the hot bartender when she's supposed to be infiltrating the Lookout.
- Spiteful Spit: Julia spits blood on the first mob interrogator.
- Take That!: Sophie and Julia make fun of Stripperiffic comic book costumes when they find Tommy's collection of the fictional Kitty Delgado series.Julia: There's no way a cat burglar's squeezing into those tight spaces with those jubblies.
- Time for Plan B: Magpie throws the journal off the building so Batwoman has to jump after it, giving her a chance to escape. She then has her sister seduce Kate and steal the journal back.
- Toplessness from the Back: Courtesy of Kate when she wakes up after sleeping with Reagan.
- Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: A short version with Julia and Kate discussing 'Soph'.
- Villain Ball: Sabatino not killing (or at least unmasking) Kate immediately but setting up an auction instead.
- Villain Has a Point: Alice's resentment for her imprisonment is pure Moral Myopia, but she's not wrong when she describes the horror of Arkham Asylum's "treatments", or when she points out that it's not a great place for her to recover.
- Villain Team-Up: While Alice and Mouse initially try to force Tommy to cooperate, he manages to press them into a more equal partnership due to knowing where Lucius Fox's journal is.
- Victory Sex: After escaping dismemberment and retrieving the journal, Kate is more than happy to renew her intimate acquaintance with the beautiful blonde bartender she dumped earlier in the season. In her excitement however Kate fails to secure the journal before they jump into bed together.
- Wham Line: On capture Julia says she's with the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, so they contact them so she can be ransomed back. A woman walks in and delivers this bombshell."I just got off the phone with our contact at the SRR. He says you haven't been under their employ for the past 6 months, something about going rogue and betraying the organization's trust. Now let's start fresh, shall we? Who are you really working for?"
- Who Are You?: While she's been showing off her Hidden Depths throughout the season, the moment Mary shows she has what it takes to be a member of Team Batwoman is when she walks into an Auction of Evil with a laser-cutter and a suitcase containing 2.5 million dollars and a hidden flash-bang and delivers this line.Mobster: Who are you?Mary: The heir to Hamilton Dynamics. And I've got money to spend.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Kate seems to snag a win by getting back together with Reagan, only to wake up alone and find that Reagan has stolen Lucius's diary.
- You Owe Me: Johnny Sabatino's cousin Aria owes Mary for saving her life after overdosing, which helps Mary get into the auction.
