Batwoman tracks Alice to Coryana, her last hope of finding Kate and curing herself.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: All the effort by Alice and the heroes to retrieve Kate from Coryana, and it turns out that she was never even there.
- And Then What?:
- Ryan asks Mary this in regards to getting Kate back, as she wonders where she will end up once Kate reclaims the mantle of Batwoman.
- Safiyah asks Alice what she'll do after killing Kate, since it will change nothing other than to make people hate her even more.
- Assassin Outclassin': Luke and Mary actually manage to knock out one of the Arms of Death that Safiyah sent. Julia later finishes the job.
- Bait-and-Switch: Safiyah calls Alice a fool while examining the fake Ocean's corpse, seemingly aware that Alice pulled a switch on her, only to then explain that they located Batwoman's tracker on her boot and she's a fool to allow herself to have been followed.
- Blood from the Mouth: Ryan coughs up blood as her condition worsens.
- Burn Baby Burn: Alice burns Safiyah's entire field of Desert Roses, much to the latter's horror.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: Double subverted. Julia shows up after Luke and Mary have managed to knock out Safiyah's assassin, who then pops up again and gets unceremoniously killed by a thrown knife to the chest by Julia.
- Chekhov's Gun: Ryan's cherished house plant turns out to be a Desert Rose, as revealed when one of Safiyah's assassins bleeds over it after her failed attack on Mary and Luke and causes it to bloom.
- EMP: Ryan is given small EMP generators that will disable the electronic handcuffs used by Safiyah's goons, allowing Sophie and Jacob to escape.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- For all of the cruelties Safiyah commits towards Alice, she makes it clear that she wouldn't have done so if the latter hadn't come looking for a fight. She's furious that Tatiana started a feud between them in the hopes of pushing her to get rid of Alice for good and deals out some Laser-Guided Karma on her for it.
- When Safiyah gave Batwoman the choice which to have between Kate Kane and a Desert Rose, the masked vigilante side-glances at Alice, who rolls her eyes while standing next to the Coryana ruler and feeling certain that Ryan will choose the former. So imagine her visible surprise (and look on Alice's face) when Batwoman nonchalantly selected the latter, trusting that the woman who used to be Beth Kane wouldn't actually have it in her to kill her own sister on account of the "Reason You Suck" Speech that Batwoman gave her nemesis earlier and just literally seconds before Safiyah came to visit her two prisoners. Clearly, Ryan - of all people - got through to Alice deeper than either of them would care to admit.
- Faking the Dead:
- The knife Alice uses to kill Ocean is treated with the Desert Rose so it immediately heals the wound and induces a death-like state until removed. Safiyah uses this to prove to Ocean that Alice will never care about him more than her sister, and thus he's better off being loyal to her. She then uses it on Tatiana to render her comatose until her anger at Tatiana's betrayal subsides.
- Julia brings news of body parts with Kate's DNA washing ashore in Blüdhaven, but Kate's still alive. How this happened is not revealed.
- Forced to Watch: Alice planned on making Jacob watch her kill Kate.
- Heel Realization: Alice of all people seems to have had one. Safiyah and Ryan both say that for all that Alice wants to present herself as a victim entitled to revenge she's really just a Psychopathic Womanchild who has spent so long wrapped up in her rage and pain that she doesn't actually know how to function outside of those feelings. Alice accepts that they're more right than she's willing to admit, enough to choose saving Kate over revenge.
- History Repeats: Body parts with Kate's DNA supposedly washed ashore in Blüdhaven, which has led Kate's loved ones to think she really did die in that plane crash. However, as the final scene shows, Kate's being held hostage underneath a barber shop in the city, similar to how Alice was held captive by Dr. Cartwright after her own disappearance.
- Hypocrite: Sophie brings this up with Jacob, noting that for all that his claims that the Crows have accountability and as such are superior to Batwoman the organization continually commits illegal acts to get their way and aren't actually held responsible for their abuses of power or violations of law.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: While Alice has no business calling anyone else a monster, she's perfectly right about the sheer level of sadism and cruelty that Safiyah has just committed on her.
- I Lied: Safiyah never had Kate, she just used Alice to get Ocean.
- Internal Reveal:
- Luke reveals Ryan's kryptonite poisoning to Sophie, though he doesn't specifically mention kryptonite being the cause, only that it can't be treated.
- Thanks to Ryan, Safiyah finds out that Ocean is still alive.
- The plant that Angelique gifted Ryan with is actually a domesticated Desert Rose in a pot. And since only people with ties to Coryana, if not with Safiyah herself, would have access to this curative flora it infers something even shadier in the works regarding Ryan's already shady ex-girlfriend.
- Irony: This episode reveals that the house plant given by Angelique to Ryan, which the latter affectionately keeps and tends to like it's an actual person, is in fact a Desert Rose stem — the very herb that Ryan needs to cure herself since Tommy Elliot infected her with Kryptonite poisoning. Basically, the cure for Ryan's extraterrestrial ailment had been right in front of her all along; and she pretty much went halfway across the world to the place where the rose is indigenous to when there was already an available sample of such in Gotham and unknowingly in her possession to boot, just waiting there and only needed to be watered in the blood of a female for the roses to bloom.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Safiyah forces Alice to kill Ocean to get to Kate (whom she doesn't actually have).
- Mythology Gag: Luke, urging Ryan to hurry up in making her HALO jump over Coryana, warns her that if she misses the window, she'll end up in the ocean — and there's no shark repellent on the utility belt. After all, that would be stupid!
- Not Me This Time: Safiyah really wasn't the one to shoot down Kate's plane, but she used it to her advantage.
- Pet the Dog: Safiyah offers Ryan something in return for telling her the truth about Ocean, either a Desert Rose or Kate. She chooses the former, due to hoping that Alice won't kill Kate.
- The Reveal:
- Safiyah never had Kate. She only acted like it because Alice was a useful tool in locating Ocean.
- Tatiana is the one that framed Safiyah for Kate's murder and for killing Alice's gang, in the hopes that Alice would be eliminated once she struck back.
- Kate is still alive, held captive by an unknown party.
- Revenge by Proxy: After realizing how much Safiyah screwed her over, Alice gets payback by setting the Desert Rose fields on fire, destroying the thing Safiyah loves most.
- Sadistic Choice:
- In return for exposing Alice's deception, Safiyah offers Ryan a choice between the Desert Rose or bringing back Kate alive. Ryan chooses the former, because she knows Alice doesn't have it in her to actually kill Kate.
- Similarly, Safiyah offers to honor her original deal with Alice if Alice kills Ocean, or she can let the two leave peacefully. Alice chooses Kate.
- Secretly Selfish: Alice proves to be a very warped case of this. While she claims that her motives are righteous fury over Kate's actions towards her, Safiyah presents the idea that Alice actually feels like The Unfavorite and her efforts at killing Kate are actually born of a twisted belief that doing so will give her the love that she thinks Kate has. Alice brushes it off, but her Heel Realization implies that it hit home far more than she let on.
- Skewed Priorities: Played with. Mary refuses to leave Ryan's plant behind, when Luke urges her to get away, since Safiyah's assassin is only temporarily knocked out. However, this plant has a very big emotional meaning for Ryan and it turns out to be a Desert Rose, on top of that.
- Stay with Me Until I Die: Ryan asks this of Sophie as she's dying. Luke calls Sophie to get her to bring Ryan home, as they have a Desert Rose to cure her.
- Stopping the Blame Game: During Ryan's talk with Alice, she notes that the latter's Never My Fault tendencies are born out of her being victimized by Cartwright but also points out that nothing forced her to be the person she is right now except herself, and killing Kate will cement that. Alice actually realizes that Ryan is right and decides to let go of her grudge with Kate and try to save her instead.
- Title Drop: Ryan writes that she survived much worse.
- Villainous Breakdown: Safiyah breaks down into tears when she sees her beloved flowers up in flames.
- Villain Respect: Tatiana gives hers to Ryan for choosing the Desert Rose over Kate, saying self-sacrifice is overrated. Ryan explains that she did it because Alice won't kill Kate, which prompts Tatiana to reveal that Kate isn't on the island.
- We Can Rule Together: Tatiana tells Sophie that Safiyah wants her to join them.
- Wham Episode: Kate is alive, badly scarred and wearing a Phantom of the Opera-like mask. Her team believes she's dead due to Julia finding a body part down the river in Blüdhaven that had "DNA proved to be Kate's."
- Wham Shot: The camera cuts back to Ryan’s plant which is shown to have the desert rose, which is what they need to save her.
- Worst Aid: Ryan is making a mixture of cortisone and adrenaline to gain a last bit of strength, something she saw in a Youtube video. While it does indeed give her a boost, Mary points out that this will actually accelerate her cell degeneration, leaving her with less than a day to live instead of three. However, Ryan still takes it due to having no other choice since Sophie and Jacob are captured by Safiyah.
- You Monster!: Alice calls Safiyah a monster, who just coldly retorts that she created her, asking Alice what that would make her.
