A much stronger episode this week as we have plenty of drama for Kate and her closest allies. Jacob Kane seeks to prove that Gotham doesn’t need Batwoman, whilst Kate is still trying to prove herself a hero. Sophie quickly works out who Batwoman is, and Mary still has no idea but continues to help her out anyway.
In this episode we have a villain known as Executioner, who turns out to be an actual executioner from Black Gate Prison. This antagonist is not necessarily a ‘bad’ guy, but more of a mislead character who seeks revenge upon those who used him to take the lives of innocent men, who were all framed and falsely sentenced, leading to them receiving the death penalties as the hands of a masked executioner. This antagonist used creative methods to carry out some of Gotham’s capital punishments such as electrocution, death by firing squad, and suffocation in a gas chamber. However, when the Crows tried to arrest the most obvious of suspects, Batwoman interferes in order to save the life of an innocent once again as well as to prove to the antagonist that there are people who will listen and fight for true justice.
There are some great name drops in this episode that reference famous Batman villains such as Joke and Penguin, but not with their villain names. On a news report seen on the television, the reporter claims that the first victim, an assistant district attorney who brought justice for many of the victims of Gotham’s most vicious criminals, was involved in bringing down big name criminals such Jack Napier, a.k.a The Joker. This name for The Joker was first created for the 1989 Batman film by Tim Burton, and has since been adapted into other iterations of the character in comics.
Later on, when Luke Fox and Kate are going through the capital punishments implemented in Gotham, he reads out “death by firing squad” which he claims was brought back under the reign of Mayor Cobblepot, who as fans, we all know is short for Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a The Penguin. Cobblepot. This is a reference to the 1992 film Batman Returns, as well as the New 52 run of comics in 2011, in which Penguin runs for, and later becomes Mayor or Gotham City. This idea has also been adapted in the television show Gotham, so could this idea connect the Arrowverse and Gotham together?
This episode had plenty of heart in it with lots of drama to pile on the emotion. We find out that Lucius Fox is actually deceased in this timeline, and so Luke Fox’s character is given a whole new perspective as to why he would want to help Batwoman, and why he has so much respect for Batman. We also find out that why Jacob Kane hates Batman (and therefore Batwoman) so much, as he reveals that Batman failed to save his family, but more than that, if he can’t blame Batman then he must face the truth and blame himself for letting his family die and become torn apart.
Overall this was a much stronger episode, and if the writing and execution of performances can continue like this, then the series has a hope of surviving. However, there should be a nice balance of action, which there didn’t seem to be much of in this episode. Other than that though, this has been a great episode in the series.
Media Mallrat 
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