Batwoman: Season 3

I'm not loving the Poison Mary plotline.

There was one moment I liked. I liked Montoya learning that Bruce Wayne was Batman because it was an afterthought. It's something they shouldn't have told her but she just happened to be there and tip-toeing around it might have been a pain in the neck. I think part of her shock was due to how underwhelming the method of reveal was. It's a crazy seeming idea that the Bat-team takes as a matter of course. Which must mean it's true. I like that the matter-of-fact way it's discussed is the thing to give it credibility.

Still, I'm not a fan of this season so far. **1/2.

I think what I need to do with what I watch is to stop worrying about things that don't impress me and accept things that don't annoy me. I would be inclined to give that a so-so grade were I in a worse mood. I'm just not sure me being overly harsh or judgmental is a great thing to do for stuff that doesn't truly suck. It wasn't great. But it didn't suck either. I'll focus on that for this review. It's really not too much to ask.

I don't like that the show had Mary kill the guy though. Because that's not something you can walk back. I think the thing that bothers me is that I think the show WILL try to walk it back. Killing innocent people never seems to be a deal-breaker for protagonists on shows like this, no matter what Barry Allen or Kara Danvers whine about every week. Most shows like this treat killing a person like losing your virginity. I object to that because I do think the show expects to redeem Mary by the end of the season. Now that she killed a guy, accident or not, I'm not on board that unless she answers for it. And she probably won't have to, which means I won't be on board.

I hate Diggle's beard. Good to see him again though.

I double checked and one of the co-writers of the episode (Maya Houston) is black. It feels more authentic that a black writer cowrote an episode where the black characters point out they fare so poorly in horror films because white people write them. Flipping the script indeed.

I laughed that Ryan's secret desire is sleep. It's really a no-brainer, and Sophie engaging her in relationship drama while her nerves are frayed and she's exhausted isn't helping anything.

I'll give that a passing grade and keep my mouth shut about the fact that I didn't love it. I don't need to love it for it to be acceptable to me. That shouldn't ever be the bar, and I really need to check myself whenever I think differently. ***.

I didn't like the ending because it strikes me as very Berlanti (in a bad way). It reminds me unpleasantly of Titans, which is sadly where I think this show is going next. It sucks and there doesn't appear to be anything I can do about it.

The rest of the episode was solid-ish. It was an interesting place to bring back Mary, and I like the idea that Alice did all that because she cared about her. I wasn't too crazy about Poison Ivy and Montoya's happy ending, but just because I could have pictured a different and more logical ending for those characters, doesn't mean I can't also picture a much worse one. I'll take totally unsatisfying and like it.

Luke's stuff in the Batwing suit wasn't new but it was interesting.

I mostly liked it. But the ending sucked. ***1/2.

I thought it was good but not perfect. But demanding perfection from movies and television is unreasonable and it's why so many critics and fans miss the mark so often.

I agree with Alice that it WAS Mary's fault. The "It was the infection" thing doesn't fly because the show was very careful to show Ivy Mary with a clear moral code that Pamela did not share. The death was an accident. A homicide, but not a murder. So I am very glad Mary is feeling the proper level of shame and guilt she should. When she was dressed in the goofy green outfit she was an adult with her own agency who made her own choices. And that's how she should view it.

By the way, her going to the funeral is completely inappropriate. It wouldn't upset me so much except nobody on the show pointed out how appalling and disgusting it is. Which suggests the writers didn't know it was appalling and disgusting in the first place, which suggests they're stupid. Totally on-brand for the Arrowverse.

The Victor Zsasz stuff was great. That character was one of the only good things on the show Gotham, and this show's version is similarly cool. Simply because things matter to him. He's not entirely a sociopath.

Speaking of which, I think Alice trying to get the buzzer is misguided. Unlike Marcus, I don't think she's actually a sociopath. She doesn't need the buzzer. In fact, I'm thinking it could actually harm her. What Alice needs to do is put in the work. And she admits she's lazy and doesn't want to do that. But it means she ISN'T a sociopath and the buzzer will do the opposite thing to her that she wants it to do.

I was unhappy with Ryan and Sophie. And I'm not sure if the writers understood they were feeding into a negative trope, but since they didn't seem to understand that, the end makes me unhappy.

I thought Sophie was entirely too forward. She was putting entirely too much on Ryan and forcing her to think about a relationship that she might not want. She's forcing the issue and making her be the potential bad guy. This is not only something a lot of fictional males do to women on television. It's something men do to women in real life. And it's not okay. I suspect the writers didn't see it that way because they are both women, both are black, and their power dynamics aren't unequal. But it's still the same damn thing and Ryan rewarding Sophie's obnoxious behavior by falling into bed with her at the end of the episode is something fiction tells us a lot of women should be doing with pushy males. It's up to the woman to make up her mind and make the significant other feel comfortable with either their acceptance or rejection. Otherwise that woman is supposedly treating their potential suitor unfairly. And I guess women being mistreated is SO endemic to television, that writers of two lesbian characters don't actually understand that's what they are feeding into and normalizing. The episode was good. But when I said it wasn't perfect it's because of stuff like this.

Good, but imperfect. Which is fine. ***1/2.

I think my opinion was mostly favorable, but I had a strong negative reaction to both parts of the ending.

To be blunt, the Joker flashbacks on the bus were quite upsetting to me. Which is why they were effective. I hated that moment, and the show wanted me to, so I'm impressed with it.

The scene with Mary at the end giggling over Ryan and Sophie annoyed me. I like that Sophie tells Ryan that her defensiveness earlier made her second-guess things, as she's never been in an open relationship with another woman before. That may be so. But in MY opinion, Ryan was right the first time: It's not actually Luke OR Mary's business. There is a needle to thread between "I'm ashamed of being gay" and "My private life is private". Because the second thing is fine for straight people too. That specific mindset doesn't have to come from shame or embarrassment about your orientation. People who aren't totally embarrassing and tacky like Mary share that mindset too.

The other part of the ending I hated was Marquis in the Batcave. Like the Joker scene, it was created to upset me. Unlike that scene, I don't accept it, or think the show should have done it.

Rachel Skarsten delivered a HELL of a good performance. I guess she's always been this good as Alice. But she was put through the wringer SO much, and SO badly in this one episode, that I guess I noticed and appreciated her doing that for the first time.

For the record, Alice taking the blame for the guy's death is not the gift Mary is saying it is. Because Mary was never actually on the hook for it. All it did was give her an excuse to NOT take responsibility for it. That's not actually a good thing, or an actual favor.

I like that Mary initially blamed Alice for what happened. Frankly, based on what we saw earlier in the season, I think perhaps Mary is not owning up to her responsibility there. But that being said, Alice was the person responsible for letting loose the infection in Mary to begin with. I think everything Mary did as Poison Ivy is on Mary. But I also think it wouldn't have happened if Alice hadn't prevented her from getting that cure so early on. It's not a black and white issue to me about who deserves what blame.

I mean, I thought the quality of the episode was pretty darn good. But it certainly wasn't fun, much less easy to watch. ***1/2.

Batwoman has turned into a surprisingly solid show, and this was a surprising solid season finale. It could be argued it's its FIRST solid finale, but that doesn't stop it or the show from being solid.

I don't take Marquis' recovery at face value. I hope he's better, but he was / is a sociopath, and it's equally likely the buzzer didn't work, and he's just just faking sanity. In fact, I'm telling myself it's likelier than it isn't for when the show winds up doing this exact turn next year. I never had my hopes up.

I do however love and agree with Ryan that Alice didn't actually need the buzzer. She just needed to put in the work. And that's been my take all season.

I'm a little surprised Ryan was actually fooled by "I'm sorry," but TV heroes tend to be dumber than real-world heroes.

This show is a far cry from the highs of Superman & Lois. But I would argue it's the second-best Arrowverse show after that, current or otherwise. ****.