Batwoman investigates a rash of attacks on youth outreach programs while Julia tries to figure out why she's missing memories.
Tropes:
- Bad Boss: Sionis is seen executing people for the crime of apologizing to him for Snakebite production grinding to a halt. One mook wises up and tells him to his face that shooting them won't change the fact that it was his secrecy regarding the formula that led to the shortage, which placates him because it at least offers a solution by pointing out how they can get more.
- Big Damn Heroes: Luke shows up to rescue Ryan using the captured lightning gun.
- Boxed Crook: Mickey K. / Kilovolt and all the other goons O'Brien had assaulting community centers.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Mary does this to Jacob when the latter attempts to buy himself into her good graces by offering to legitimize her clinic. Mary retorts that going legit would defeat the purpose of her clinic, which offers help to people regardless of means and doesn't report them to the police. She doesn't want to support a system that excludes the most vulnerable people.
- Captain Obvious: A random False Face thug at the start told Batwoman something she really should have already grasped: they don't know who the boss is, because he's always wearing a mask!
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Jacob is forcibly given a dose of Snakebite to addict him to the substance. Then, after a few days, Roman Sionis shows up with another dose he supposedly confiscated from an employee, which he leaves with Jacob to be safely disposed of. Temptation gets the better of him and he uses it.
- Contrived Coincidence: Alice asks Julia for help finding Enigma, right as Julia is confronted with evidence that she has missing memories.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Ellis O'Brien has prisoners attack community centers in exchange for early parole, all so he can ensure a steady stream of inmates for his private prisons.
- Damsel in Distress: Angelique gets kidnapped by the False Face Society shortly after being released.
- Danger Takes a Backseat: A False Face Society member ambushes and drugs Jacob in his car.
- Dead Guy on Display: The bodies of the real killers are left hanging from the hooks in the gun range for the Crows to find.
- Enemy Mine: Alice and Julia learn that they have a common enemy in Enigma.
- Evil Is Petty: Alice takes a tissue from the box in Dr. Rhyme's office, wipes her nose, and puts it back.
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: If the conversation between Alice and Julia a moment before wasn't enough to establish Evelyn as a likely villain, her using this line on Jacob should definitely make it clear!
- He Knows Too Much: Black Mask has the people who killed the commissioner executed before the Crows can arrest them.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Julia takes a dig at Alice, who used to be Gotham's most feared criminal gang boss, but is now reduced to prank calling.
- Identical Stranger: Samantha Liana Cole, who plays Imani, the director of the community center’s tutoring program, also played Enchantress in Legends of Tomorrow.
- Incompetence, Inc.: How many times has Jacob been kidnapped or otherwise ambushed now? Not to mention the inability of the guards at the end to protect their passenger against assailants armed with simple pistols. No bulletproof glass in the vehicle, no body armor for the guards, no weapons at hand even though they knew their passenger was a target. Not a good look for a freaking security company!
- Intrepid Reporter: Horten Spence.
- Just Between You and Me: Ellis freely admits his scheme to Batwoman when she confronts him about it, but only as a distraction so his security can arrive and take her out.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Dr. Rhyme manages to get the drop on Julia when the latter tries to confront her and has her forget everything.
- Lightning Gun: Kilovolt has a gun that fires lightning. As it turns out, O'Brien's other goons have some as well. They were developed by the Russians before hitting the black market.
- My Greatest Failure: Jacob calls not saving Beth this.
- Mythology Gag: After noting that Black Mask has blamed both Kate and the Crows for his daughter's death, Luke sarcastically comments that he'll probably be blaming Aquaman next. (Of course, given that Atlantis has been name-checked several times on The Flash (2014), it's entirely possible Aquaman exists in the Arrowverse.)
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ryan convinces Angelique to give up the people who shot the commissioner, getting her out of prison. This allows the False Face Society to get to her for her knowledge of the Snakebite formula.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Because Black Mask insisted on keeping the Snakebite formula a secret, the only people who know how to make it are Ocean and Angelique, the former missing and the latter in prison.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Alice tells Julia this. Julia retorts that their only commonality is they miss the same person. Alice then fires back that they also have Kate always choosing somebody else over them in common.
- Point That Somewhere Else: Alice brandishes a butterfly knife at Julia. She casually brushes it aside and dismisses the very idea that Alice would actually want to kill her.
- Psycho Psychologist: Enigma, whose civilian identity is that of Dr. Evelyn Rhyme.
- Put on a Bus: Julia puts in a transfer to Berlin after being brainwashed by Enigma.
- Red Herring: Intrepid Reporter Horten Spence is initially hinted to be Kilovolt given his suspicious proximity and warning about the attack, but he in fact had already picked up on the pattern and was trying to obliquely warn them of what was coming.
- The Reveal: Snakebite helps users envision better ways they could have handled things they regret.
- Shout-Out: Vesper Fairchild compares Horten Spence to Lois Lane.
- Skewed Priorities: Luke's first complaint about Kilovolt is that 1,000 volts is off from the actual firepower (lightning power?) of his weapon by about a billion volts.
- Spotting the Thread: Luke realizes the prison tapes have been spliced when he goes over past footage and sees the prisoner who supposedly was locked up the entire time is playing precisely the same game of Solitaire in security footage two weeks apart.
- Strawman Political: The entire show runs on this trope, but this episode is particularly Egregious. The murderers of the police commissioner were people who run a shooting range (generally among the safest and most respectable of gun owners in real life) and the CEO of a private prison company turns out to be behind a nefarious and extremely expensive plot to drum up long-term business by targeting institutions that would decrease the rate at which troubled youths end up in prison.
- Sword Cane: Enigma carries a syringe in her stylized cane just in case she gets cornered and needs to do a quick memory wipe.
- Title Drop: Luke says those words when describing the quid pro quo given to the prisoners who participate in the attacks.
