Ryan has to deal with the typical problems that plague her and Alice devises a new plan.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Biology: The writers apparently mistake a toxin for a disease in this episode. Not only would Mouse's corpse only be able to provide the bats with minuscule amount of toxin from their biting, but any toxin still potent enough despite that with which the bites would still be able to poison people would be more than strong enough to kill the bats themselves long before Alice's plan started.
- Batman Gambit: Alice engineered the plague and subsequent cure betting that Safiyah would recognize it as the Desert Rose and be furious enough about it being released to have Alice captured.
- Bat Out of Hell: Alice hides a signal generator at the pro-Batwoman rally to attract a swarm of bats that have been exposed to the same toxin she used to kill Mouse.
- Beneath the Mask: Mary deduces that, beneath Alice's cynicism and cruelty, she genuinely misses Kate. Alice doesn't challenge the claim.
- Blatant Lies:
- While being interrogated by the Crows, Luke denies knowing that Kate was Batwoman despite working closely with her all last year. Sophie is more plausible in her denials despite being a worse liar, given her estranged relationship with Kate.
- Ryan says she did "really great" the first time she wore the Batsuit.
- Bonding over Missing Parents: "Bonding" may be a bit strong a word, but Ryan softens up towards Mary when the latter details how Alice killed Catherine from last season. Ryan reasons they should help each other since Alice is to blame for both their mothers' deaths.
- Call-Back:
- To make an antidote for the Desert Rose toxin, Alice gives Mary a bag of Mary's blood, which Alice stole from Nocturna during "Drink Me", nine episodes prior.
- A protest rally is organised after Magical Security Camera footage is released of the Crows trying to kill Batwoman in "O'Mouse".
- Cape SwishMary: Straighten that back...now lose the hands on the hips, that's overkill. Now clench those fists...chin up! Now try and angle that cape so it (dramatic gesture) catches the wind!
- Casual High Drop: Ryan tries a Three-Point Landing doing this trope and ends up stumbling. Luke advises her to use the cape to break her fall (getting a Now You Tell Me response) but she later jumps off a twenty story building without a problem, showing she took his advice.
- Chest Burster: A bat erupts out of Mouse's corpse in this fashion, to the shock of Mary, Luke, and Ryan.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Lampshaded by both Alice and Luke; it's one thing to wear the Batsuit, but it's something else to live up to it.Alice: (after emptying Guns Akimbo to no effect) Well, the suit's for real...what about the girl inside?Ryan: Let's find out.
- Continuity Nod: When Sophie captures Alice, she specifically tells her to cuff herself behind her back. When Alice escaped from Crows custody in episode 1x11 (an event Sophie experienced firsthand), she had her hands cuffed in front of her.
- Conveniently Empty Building: Averted; when trying to get rid of the bats, Luke suggests an Abandoned Warehouse (too far away) and a derelict subway which Ryan also rejects because it's being used by the homeless. Even the Crows bus she uses is too near a homeless person whom she has to shield with her body from the explosion.
- The Cynic: Alice describes herself as "stay[ing] out of hope's way, [hope] stays out of mine".
- Danger Takes a Backseat: Alice waits for Julia in her car this way.
- Destruction Equals Off-Switch: Subverted. Luke suggests just smashing the signal generator attracting the bats, but Ryan points out that it would just get rid of the signal and the bats would scatter throughout the city, infecting people as they go. She instead uses it as a lure to bring the bats somewhere she can blow them all up at once.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Mary is annoyed that Hamilton Dynamics gave her no credit for the Desert Rose cure synthesized from her blood.
- Dynamic Akimbo: Mary thinks this trope is a bit much while Ryan is posing on a skyscraper, and advises her to go for a Cape Swish instead. Fortunately a Dramatic Wind blows up right at the moment, and sure enough someone in the crowd sees her.
- Emergency Impersonation: Luke reluctantly lets Ryan go out as Batwoman when Alice targets the pro-Batwoman rally, since they reason that she'll be far enough up that the masses won't be able to tell she isn't the original. He agrees to it on a more permanent basis when it's clear the attack is only the first step in a larger master plan.
- Enemy Mine: Alice proposes an alliance to Julia to take down Safiyah, but she refuses.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Alice claims to value Mary as a sister, especially in Kate's absence. Mary (who is understandably skeptical of Alice's claim to care about her) manages to deduce that, despite her claims to the contrary, Alice does actually miss Kate, which Alice doesn't deny.
- Evil Is Petty: In the flashback, the mugger is about to shoot Ryan simply out of annoyance because she doesn't have anything to steal and is snarking him over it. Then Batwoman does a Big Damn Heroes.
- Failed a Spot Check: Julia doesn't notice Alice lurking in her backseat until Alice speaks up.
- Fake Shemp: Ryan briefly sees Kate as Batwoman in a flashback. Kate is entirely concealed in shadows and has no spoken dialogue, making it obvious it's a stand-in.
- Flashback: To two months back, with Ryan getting saved by Kate from a mugging.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: On the bats or anyone infected by them.
- Guns Akimbo: Alice blazes away at Ryan with a couple of subnose revolvers, which she tosses aside when empty on realising Ryan's Batsuit is the real thing.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Ryan hijacks a Crows prison bus to trap the bats inside and blow it up.
- Hero with Bad Publicity:
- The Crows have it in for Ryan due to her prior criminal history. Ryan notes that she's seemingly been brought in more times on mistaken charges than Alice has for actual crimes.
- Ironically, after the footage of Jacob shooting Batwoman leaks, the Crows themselves are under a whole lot of bad publicity.
- Hope Spot: For Jacob; the sight of Ryan in the Batsuit briefly makes him believe that Kate has returned. He's furious to realize that the new Batwoman isn't Kate.
- I Am Not Him: When Alice turns up, Ryan says that unlike Kate she's willing to kill her, and when Luke points out that Batwoman doesn't kill, she reminds him that she's not Batwoman. However at the end of the episode on agreeing to take up the mantle on a temporary basis until Kate returns, she accepts the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule.
- If I Wanted You Dead...:
- Inverted. When Tatiana shows up at the end of the episode to threaten Alice, Alice dryly notes that if she were sent as an executioner, she'd have done it already.
- Alice gives the trope when holding a knife to Julia's throat.
- Internal Reveal:
- Ryan figures out Alice is Beth Kane on her own, partially because the Crows have continually failed to kill her and from Sophie's Saying Too Much slip.
- Luke and Mary learn that Alice killed Mouse.
- Alice tells Julia that Safiyah claimed responsibility for Kate's plane crash.
- Sophie has told Jacob about Kate's letter where she confessed to being Batwoman, confirming that Alice wasn't just messing with him.
- Interrogation Montage: Between Mary being interrogated by her stepfather and Luke being interrogated by Sophie.
- Irony:
- Ryan, the new Batwoman, hates bats. What no-one knows is Bruce Wayne didn't like them either, which is why he chose the Bat motif in the first place.
- Alice uses weaponized bats to attack a pro-Batwoman rally and—while she didn't plan it—Ryan as Batwoman. Luke acknowledges this is the case.
- Luke and Mary are able to convince Jacob and Sophie neither of them knew Kate was Batwoman...by pointing out how Jacob and Sophie also had no idea of Kate's other life.
- Sophie breaks up with Julia because Julia lied to her and she's still in love with Kate, just like Kate broke up with her because Julia lied to her and she was still in love with Sophie.
- Laser Sight: Sophie puts the red dot on Alice's chest. She says it's not her color.
- Magical Security Cam: The news report about the Crows firing on Batwoman uses the same footage of that event from the season 1 finale. In-universe, it's supposed to be from body cams worn by the agents.
- Mistaken for Racist: Ryan assumes that the Crows' failure to arrest Alice despite successfully bringing Ryan herself in repeatedly is due to racism. Accusing them of ulterior reasons without being specific causes Sophie to slip up and hint that Jacob has a personal relationship with Alice.
- Morality Chain: Luke realizes that, in a twisted way, Mouse was this for Alice, and so the fact that she killed him is really bad news.
- Mythology Gag:
- Julia gets stabbed in the torso, which is what happened during her initial introduction in the New 52.
- Alice's bat swarm attack and their method of disposal is a scaled down and reworked version of a similar event from Batwoman (Rebirth).note
- Ryan being saved from muggers by Batwoman is a blend of Kate's first encounter with Batman in the comics and the way that same scene was adapted for Batman: Bad Blood. Ryan helps fight off the muggers as Kate did by herself in the comics, but the direct intervention of Batwoman and the use of more than one mugger is closer to Bad Blood.
- The Nicknamer: Alice calls Julia "Pennywhistle", "Pennyroyal" and "Pennyloafer".
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Julia tracks down where Alice is hiding, Sophie goes alone to arrest her. She doesn't want to spook Alice by bringing the Crows, but she doesn't take Julia either because she no longer trusts her. This enables Tatiana to walk right up to Sophie and put a sword to her throat while all her attention is on Alice.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ryan intervening in a convenience store robbery gets her arrested by the Crows.
- Not Helping Your Case: The last time Batwoman was seen in public, she was being fired on by the Crows, making it look as if her disappearance is related to this.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Despite Jacob intending to break up the pro-Batwoman rally, Sophie points out that the crowd wants the same thing they do: for Kate to come back. The comparison gives Jacob considerable pause.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Those who get a clear look at Ryan in the Batwoman suit, such as Alice, Jacob and Sophie, are instantly able to tell that she isn't Kate because, as Luke plainly puts it, she's clearly a black woman.
- Poison and Cure Gambit: Alice infects the bats with the same lethal poison used to kill Mouse and Catherine, then shows up at Mary's clinic with a blood bag taken from Mary that can be used to synthesize a cure. Though she's suspicious of Alice's motives, Mary has no choice but to hope Alice hasn't tampered with it somehow. Ultimately, the gambit isn't meant for Mary, but Safiyah, who Alice knows will recognize the source of the cure and be furious enough about it being released to have Alice brought in alive.
- Police Are Useless:
- A Crows officer only manages to arrive at an attempted robbery right after the crooks flee due to Ryan's interference. Somehow, he missed them completely and instantly assumes Ryan, the unarmed woman, must be the sole suspect. That said, they do let her go once the security footage corroborates her story.
- Averted in the bat swarm attack. The one person who has the good sense to grab a shotgun and use it to thin the swarm of bats is Jacob Kane.
- Jacob orders his men to arrest Ryan on realising she's an imposter, but even though Ryan spends some time fighting Alice there's no sign of them.
- Pun: Vesper Fairchild calls the attack a "Battastrophy".
- Removing the Earpiece: Ryan cuts off Mission Control when Luke tells her she can't kill Alice.
- Revenge: Confronted with Alice, Ryan fully intends to kill her to avenge her mother. Mary is onboard with the idea, as Alice killed her mother as well. Ryan is willing, albeit reluctant, to let Alice go to save innocent people, though she's clearly not over the grudge.
- Saying Too Much: When Ryan accuses the Crows of going soft on Alice, Sophie says that any sympathy Jacob might have held for Alice is long gone. This confuses Ryan, who made the accusation based on race, not personal sympathy. From that slip, she deduces Alice is really Beth Kane.
- Spotting the Thread: After the Mistaken for Racist incident above, Ryan quickly connects the dots and deduces that Alice must be Beth Kane.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Alice is able to sneak into the Crows' parking garage, hide in Julia's car, stab her in the side after a chat, then walk out without so much as a single officer noticing.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Luke insists that Ryan, as Batwoman, adhere to the same no killing rule that Kate did.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Sophie is pissed at Julia for not telling her that Kate was Batwoman, since it's plainly obvious Kate would not have entrusted her with the location of her posthumous letter if she didn't also know what the contents were likely to be.
- During his interrogation, Luke gets in a barb over the Crows trying to kill Kate, even though Sophie had nothing to do with that.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ryan, ironically, is afraid of bats. This means Facing Your Fears when Alice's Evil Plan involves releasing a swarm of bats.
