Batwoman is over a month into its debut season, and it has begun to it its stride in some interesting ways. This week’s episode put Kate Kane/Batwoman (Ruby Rose) against a unique Gotham City foe, in a conflict that combined social justice and some interesting backstory for a few of the show’s characters. Here’s what you need to know about this week’s episode, “I’ll Be Judge, I’ll Be Jury”.
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The episode opens with Gotham’s District Attorney, Angus Stanton, being violently electrocuted by a masked villain. Jacob, Kate, and The Crows find out about it, and Jacob gets unhappy that Batwoman was called to stop it instead of The Crows.
Luke tells Kate more about The Executioner, and reveals that Stanton was the man who put his father’s killer behind bars. Both they and The Crows separately investigate potential leads, and potentially find one in the form of a criminal named “The Fist”. They then are alerted to someone dressed as The Executioner holding people hostage. Both The Crows and Batwoman arrive, but find that the whole hostage situation was staged and rigged with automatic weapons. Sophie is among those who are hit, and she refers to Batwoman as Kate just before she passes out. Batwoman brings Sophie to Mary.
Back in the Batcave, she and Luke determine that The Executioner is killing people using different forms of capital punishment and that he’ll kill his next victim using a specific type of gas. Kate tracks down the one warehouse in Gotham that stores the gas, but deals with awkward flirting from one of the guards. Luke then finds “The Fist”, as he’s being chased down by The Crows. A car suddenly crashes through the facility, and The Executioner escapes with the gas. Back in the Batcave, Luke is able to track the license plate of the car using the imprint in the Batsuit. He identifies the person the car is registered to — Blackgate’s former executioner. Batwoman goes to his house and finds the gas just sitting on the coffee table. She grabs the gas and finds that it’s been emptied, with a flash drive sitting inside. They run the flash drive, and find a video manifesto from The Executioner, who argues that three corrupt city officials were making him execute innocent – and largely non-white – men.
The Crows attempt to bring in “The Fist”, but Batwoman arrives and rescues him. Batwoman sends The Executioner’s manifesto to Jacob, but he refuses to believe that it’s true. He argues to Kate that costumed vigilantes are what’s tearing the city apart. Batwoman tracks down the final corrupt politician and offers to send him to Blackgate, but he runs away. The Executioner then arrives, and he and Batwoman begin fighting. The Executioner is then shot by Jacob, who then begins fighting Kate. They then find a dead man switch rigged to The Executioner, which sets off the poisonous gas inside their locked room. Luke suggests that she burn the gas to make it disappear, but it needs to nearly fill the room first. She sets off an explosive Batarang, and it successfully disables the gas.
Luke revisits his father’s case file. Meanwhile, Kate begins to blame herself for not having saved Beth, and has a heart-to-heart with Jacob about it.
Other tidbits from the episode include:
- Sophie wakes up in Mary’s hospital, and learns more details about how she got there. She then tells Mary that she knows Batwoman’s true identity, which is why she isn’t able to leave. Sophie tries to escape on her own, and Mary accuses her of betraying Batwoman just how she betrayed Kate. She lets Sophie go. Batwoman later arrives, and ultimately thanks Mary for saving Sophie’s life.
- Alice prepares and applies Mouse’s new skin mask, which makes him look and sound like Dean, a man that they’re holding hostage. Alice asks Mouse to go undercover and steal a piece of Catherine’s technology. Mouse makes it into Hamilton’s facilities and finds Catherine with a group of people, who quickly embrace him as Dean. Catherine then congratulates him on making a projectile that can successfully penetrate the Batsuit.
- Alice gets a call from Kate about what Mouse is doing — but quickly learns that Mouse was faking the call. He argues that he was Alice’s real sibling, and is unhappy that he didn’t tell her that Kate was Batwoman. He then kills Dean. Alice later finds Mouse, and argues that she’s not trying to replace him with Kate. She claims that she wants Kate to be a part of their gang, but that they have the weapon as a back-up just in case she refuses.
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