An Arkham escapee known as Titan is targeting people who wronged him in the past, while Alice continues her search for Kryptonite.
Tropes:
- Answer Cut: Jacob and Kate wonder who the machete-wielding maniac they just encountered on the subway was. Cut to Vesper Fairchild telling us.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Mary is telling the story of the rise and fall of "The Titan".Mary: Turns out there's a not-so-secret secret to all of his success. Say it with me...Kate: Sexy cheerleaders!Mary: (simultaneously) Steroids!
- As You Know: A visual example. Tommy Elliot is obsessed with Bruce Wayne and has known him since childhood, so he would certainly know that he's wearing Bruce's face without Alice showing him the magazine cover.
- Alas, Poor Villain: While Mouse has done plenty of terrible things, his death is played very tragically.
- Audible Sharpness: Titan's machetes make soft metallic shing sounds when he swings them.
- Bat Signal: When someone turns on the Bat-Signal the Crows charge up there with guns drawn, ready to kill Batwoman on sight or arrest anyone calling on her for help. Instead they find Mary delivering a message from the vigilante, and Jacob is furious that Batwoman would put his daughter in danger from his own men.
- Blatant Lies: When Kate tells Mary she knows ways to get around her father, Mary promptly lists several past incidents where Daddy cracked down on Kate's attempts to do just that, and offers to provide more examples if Kate wants.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Mary calls out Jacob for his obsession with Batwoman. Sadly, it falls on deaf ears.
- Clark Kenting: Alice, probably the most wanted individual in Gotham, is able to walk around completely unnoticed by simply dressing like a college student in sunglasses and a pink hoodie. Though she's quickly recognised by the geology professor the moment she removes this disguise.
- Cruel Mercy: Titan spares his brother, but paralyzes him so he can see his future taken away from him.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Kate is severely outmatched against a man twice her size, who also doesn't feel any pain.
- Deadly Nosebleed: Mouse bleeds from the nose after being poisoned by Alice.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jacob publicly makes his contempt for Batwoman clear. Mary reminds Kate that their father has never tolerated his daughter's rule-breaking even to the point of having her arrested on several occasions. Kate worked with Jacob to lure Alice into Arkham by pretending to form an alliance of convenience in "Through The Looking Glass". Julia sends her a text warning that she's being Lured into a Trap. Kate still refuses to believe that her father is lying to her.Luke: Kate knows what she's doing.Mary: No. Kate thinks she knows what she's doing, which can be worse than most people not knowing what they're doing.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Kate's optimism and dashed hopes about "coming out" to her father as Batwoman bears no small resemblance to a teenager's concerns about revealing their sexual orientation.
- When Luke dumps the kryptonite dust on the table, Mary and Kate react as if he's dropped a pile of cocaine (without actually calling it that) before he clarifies what it is.
- Downer Ending: For both the episode and the season; Kate failed to prevent Titan's death and lost any hope of her father coming around on Batwoman, Jacob and the Crows are out to kill Batwoman, Alice kills Mouse and remains free to seek revenge on her family, with Hush now bearing Bruce Wayne's face to help her do it.
- Dramatic Irony: Kate is set up and betrayed by a family member she trusts, just like she did to Alice. Alice, who hates Kate for betraying her, betrays and kills her adopted brother. Jacob is so blinded by hatred he betrays and nearly kills his own daughter.
- Dramatic Shattering: When Mary hands Jacob a mobile phone he can use to contact Batwoman, he smashes it against the wall in a rage, forcing her to make a personal appearance.
- Dual Wielding: Titan uses a pair of machetes.
- Enemy Mine: Subverted. Jacob only teams up with Batwoman to get a drop on her after dealing with Titan.
- Evil Cripple: Titan walks with a noticeable limp.
- Failed a Spot Check: The subway passenger Titan kills is too engrossed in his phone and doesn't notice everyone else causing a commotion and fleeing until he's cornered.
- Feel No Pain: Years of trauma from football has damaged the part of the brain that allows Titan to feel pain. This proves problematic when Batwoman fights him, because he's twice her size and can simply power through everything she throws at him.
- He Knows Too Much: Alice kills Dr. Darby so that he can't tell anyone about her looking around for Kryptonite.
- Hotline
- Mouse tells Alice that Crow Security has released an app that any Gotham citizen, regardless of whether they are a client or not, can use to report sighting a wanted criminal.
- Kate has Mary deliver a mobile Bat Phone to her father, but he destroys it forcing her to make direct contact.
- Honor Before Reason: Kate decides against destroying the Kryptonite she took during Crisis (the one thing that can be used to pierce the Batsuit) despite having both Alice and Jacob gunning for her, because she promised Kara that she'd keep it safe and at least wants Kara's OK before she destroys it.
- Hypocrite: Despite Jacob's anger over the Crows' corruption in the past, here he's fine with using them as a hit squad to try and execute Batwoman on a personal vendetta.
- If I Can't Have You…: Alice kills Mouse for being willing to leave her if she won't give up her revenge.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Batwoman manages to get through to Titan, past the rage of what he's become. Then the Crows gun him down.
- I Lied: Jacob agrees to work with Batwoman to capture Titan, but it turns out to be a ruse to make her let her guard down.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Titan manages to chuck a machete at least five meters right into his brother's back, penetrating just far enough to paralyze his brother without killing him.
- In Medias Res: The episode starts with Tim "The Titan" Teslow in pursuit from Jacob as well as Kate, who Jacob told offscreen to "wait in the car."
- In the Back:
- Titan throws one of his machetes into his brother Apollo's back, non-fatally.
- The Crows shoot Titan in the back multiple times while Batwoman has him distracted.
- Internal Reveal:
- Kate shows Luke and Mary the Kryptonite shard she took from the alternate Bruce Wayne.
- Julia tells Sophie that Safiyah is after her.
- It's Personal: Jacob gets very pissed when Batwoman "uses" his daughter to get through to him, ignoring that Mary herself volunteered for this.
- Kick the Dog: Jacob ignores all pleading from both Mary and Sophie to betray Batwoman and try to kill her.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Alice ultimately kills Mouse, though it obviously pains her greatly to do so and she promises that they'll meet again in the afterlife.
- Let the Past Burn: Alice and Mouse burn their copy of "Alice in Wonderland", ostensibly as a means of putting their past behind them. Mouse then gets a Deadly Nosebleed as Alice explains that she can't burn away her desire for revenge as it's part of who she is.
- Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Kate hopes that by getting her father to work with and accept Batwoman, she can eventually reveal her Secret Identity to him. His betrayal cuts deeply and Mary finds her in tears, saying that her father hates her. Mary has to remind Kate that Jacob loves her and it's actually the vigilante Batwoman he hates.
- Literal Metaphor: Mary makes a show of blowing away the kryptonite dust, which she points out is literally "taking it off the table".
- Machete Mayhem: Titan uses two machetes.
- Mundane Solution: Luke tries a number of acids in an attempt to dissolve Kryptonite, which all end in failure. Mary suggests pounding it with a hammer, giving him the idea to stick it under a hydraulic press and crush it into fine powder.
- Mythology Gag:
- At the end of the episode, Hush is given a flesh mask that makes him look like Bruce Wayne. For a time in the comics following Batman's "death" in Final Crisis, Hush used Magic Plastic Surgery to make himself look like Bruce in order to steal his identity and ruin his legacy.
- Titan's murder of a referee on the field bears some resemblance to Michael Lane beating his football coach unconscious.
- Neck Snap: How Titan's killing spree started, he killed the referee of the game he lost this way.
- Never My Fault: When Mouse asks why Alice poisoned him, Alice tearfully replies "you made me choose", acting as though she had no choice but to poison her oldest friend.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Kate again unwittingly insults her stepsister by saying that Mary doesn't know her father like she does.
- Properly Paranoid: Sophie warns Batwoman to be careful when she teams up with the Crows. Her fear turns out to be well-founded, as Jacob breaks his word and tries to kill Batwoman.
- Rabid Cop: Jacob and the Crows open fire on Batwoman while she's surrounded, without giving her a chance to surrender, and when she hadn't made any threatening moves.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: This episode wasn't intended to be the season finale, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced production of the show to shut down early.
- The Reveal:
- Kryptonite's properties allow it to pierce the otherwise invulnerable Batsuit.
- We finally get to see what Bruce Wayne looks like, if only on a magazine cover and as Tommy Elliot made to look like him.
- Revenge Before Reason: Rather than give up her vengeance against her family and run away with Mouse to live a happy life elsewhere, Alice poisons him for making her "choose" between the two.Alice: But my pain is a part of me the way my family is a part of me, and you could never understand why I need to enact my revenge because you've never experienced true betrayal. At least not until now.
- Sanity Slippage: It’s clear by now Jacob has gone off the deep end, as he tried to kill Batwoman, and is now seeking to find something that can penetrate her suit.
- Shame If Something Happened: Julia shows Sophie surveillance photos of them together that were left at her hotel as an Implied Death Threat from Safiyah.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Mouse threatens to leave Alice if she won't give up her quest for vengeance, and when she scoffs at the idea that he could survive without her, points out that he survived for five years in Arkham where Alice never bothered to visit him even once.
- Stating the Simple Solution: After Luke tries using many different acids to melt the Kryptonite, Mary suggests smashing it with a hammer. In the end, he crushes it using a hydraulic press - which, as Mary points out, is basically a really big, expensive hammer.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Batwoman is able to get Titan to stop his rampage by talking to him. Unfortunately, while he's stalled, the Crows summarily execute him.
- Tragic Monster: The Titan became a monster due partially to steroid use, but also to repeated head trauma, which the university covered up.
Fridge Logic also follows that, as it's implied that the cover-up continued after his arrest, he was receiving the wrong treatment at Arkham, because the doctors there did not know about his brain damage. - Trailers Always Spoil: The promo shows Kate surrounded by the Crows at gunpoint, so Jacob’s betrayal comes as a surprise to nobody.
- Troubled Fetal Position: After Kate is nearly killed by her own father, she's shown sitting on a couch sideways with her legs up against her chest, clutching a drink and in tears.
- Unseen No More: We finally know what the Batman/Bruce Wayne of Earth-1/Earth-Prime looks like, and he's played by Warren Christie. That being said, the real deal still doesn't appear in the flesh.
- Villainous Underdog: All things considered, the plan of Tommy impersonating Bruce to fool Kate, Luke, and Mary and steal the Kryptonite is a huge long shot, given that they are all wise to the face-swapping antics (even if they think it's Mouse behind "Bruce"'s face rather than Tommy) by now and know that Alice is hell-bent on getting it. On the other hand Tommy does have the advantage of a long acquaintance and obsessive knowledge of the real Bruce.
- Wham Shot: Alice giving Tommy Elliot the face of Bruce Wayne.
- You Won't Feel a Thing!: Averted; Mary warns Kate that resetting her dislocated shoulder will hurt a lot.
