BATWOMAN - SEASON 1.18

REVIEW:  BATWOMAN - SEASON 1.18:  "If You Believe Me, I'll Believe You"


Things are certainly looking VERY interesting in Gotham City right now.  Batwoman is back in action, after Kate has seemingly managed to work through her PTSD in regards to killing Cartwright.  We found out that Bruce ended the Joker, Mary has FINALLY told Kate that she knows she's Batwoman, and Luke finally got the man who killed his father---ONLY to find out that the returning Tommy Elliot---locked away in Arkham, hired the man they caught to kill his father for a journal that Lucius had kept regarding WayneTech weapons.  Julia has joined the Crows, and is now going to be working VERY closely with Sophie...and all the while, Alice continues to work on plans of her own....

And now...the hunt for the journal of Lucius Fox begins.


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When last we left Gotham City...Kate had just helped take down the man who was hired by Tommy Elliott to kill Lucius Fox.  Luke informed Kate about his dad's journal, which contained VERY important WayneTech information.  So, the hunt is on for it, but only Tommy knows where it is.  So, Kate decides that she needs to pay Tommy a visit...after she had busted up an illegal organ donor ring.  Mary, who had wanted to celebrate that victory, also was hoping to be able to join Team Batwoman, and has dropped hints, but Kate refuses to let her in, feeling she needs to protect her.  Luke reminds Kate that all Mary wants to do is to be closer to her sister.

Kate goes and visits Tommy, and goads him about knowing he had Lucius Fox killed, and trying to get info about where the journal is.  He gets upset, and she takes off, having done what she wanted to get info out of him about the possible location.  Julia and Sophie are searching for it as well, but come up empty.  Turns out, they are not the only ones looking for it---so is Alice.  And she has an offer to make to Tommy once he's back to his cell.  But he isn't exactly going to just give up the goods quite so easily.  He wants something in return, and Alice says she can give him whatever he wants---once she gets the journal.  So he makes a call to his old gangster pal named Sabbatino, who has had the safe in his office since Tommy's been in Arkham.  However, Sabbatino decides that Tommy is in no position to use the journal since his assets are frozen, and Sabbatino wants a little something for it, so he decides he's going to keep it.  Tommy's pissed, but Alice expected the double-cross, and has made plans of her own.  She also has made sure that Tommy is going to be "fit for trial".  

Now, Tommy explained the reason WHY the journal was so important:  It contained information on how to kill Batman.  When Alice inquires about it, He ends up informing her that Bruce Wayne is Batman, which is a huge revelation to her. And mind you, this is NOT the first time this episode that Bruce's secret ID gets blown.  But Tommy's going through with the deal, even though Sabbatino double crossed him.  Alice cut his face off, and used it on another patient, and he was hung, to give the incoming Jacob and Sophie the impression that he had killed himself.  During this time, Jacob pays a visit to his daughter, and he says he did what he had to, and she, naturally, puts on the act about how horrible it was in there.  Jacob flat out says he has to protect the two other daughters he has.  That doesn't sit well with her, as she says that her plans for HIM are going to be quite painful.

Mary helps Kate get ready to infiltrate Sabbatino's nightclub to get the journal with Julia, and she lays it down for Mary---she's not going to the club, and she doesn't want her involved, because she wants to protect her.  Mary tells her that she's been stabbed, poisoned, and blown up...she can handle herself.  But Kate takes off with Julia, and they go to the club.  They split up, and Julia runs into trouble and gets made.  Kate runs into a familiar face:  Reagan.  They reconnect, but Kate then goes into Batwoman mode once Julia killed the power, and then got captured.  Batwoman makes it into Sabbatino's office, only to get captured herself when she picks up the journal, only to find out it was boobytrapped.  Sabbatino decides it's time to hold the auction, and Batwoman's on the block.  Julia is interrogated, and someone who is a Sabbatino employee on her former employer's payroll at the SRR says she went rogue some time ago.  But she gives nothing up

Mary knows that Kate is in trouble, and begs Luke to let her help.  She helped Sabbatino's daughter once, and feels that she can get in.  She does, and she ends up crashing the auction with the rest of the criminals there.  She says she has a 10 million dollar bid on Batwoman and her equipment, which they were auctioning off.  Sabbatino only sees 2 million, and says Mary can have the suit.  

Just when the organ donor guy Batwoman took out earlier won the right to kill her, Mary tells Luke to do it, and the case with the money explodes enough to cause a distraction, and allows Mary to free Batwoman, who goes on her ass kicking spree, taking Sabbatino and the other auctioneers down, while Julia gets Mary to safety.  However, there is another interesting element that enters the scene:  Magpie, whom Alice released from Arkham, and she's on the hunt for the journal.  She does grab it, but ends up fighting Batwoman over it.  Magpie chucks it off the roof, and Batwoman recovers it, but Magpie is gone.  After it's all over, Kate apologizes to Mary for shutting her out, and thanks her for saving her bacon.  She allows Mary to join the team and tells her she'll see her back at the Batcave.  Mary leaves all excited, and Reagan catches up to Kate, and they head back to her place, and sleep together.  Unfortunately for Kate, the next day, she wakes up and Reagan is gone---and so is the journal!

Luke introduces Mary to the Batcave, and she instantly is in awe, and wants to take pics, but Luke shuts that down and tells her that NO ONE can know about the Batcave.  Remember how I mentioned Batman's secret ID as Bruce Wayne was getting too freely bandied about?  Luke spills the beans to Mary.  Nicely done, bonehead.  To make matters worse, the next day, Kate tells Luke about how she got played by Reagan, and lost the journal.  Luke berates her, and tells her that they're now back at square one.

Speaking of Reagan, she meets Magpie at a secret location, and gives her the journal.  Reagan is pretty upset that she had to betray Kate, because she honestly likes her a lot.  But Margaret (Magpie's real name), says she knows the deal about a mark---never get personally involved.  But Reagan says she's out.  Margaret says she's supposed to do something nice for her sister...and Reagan says she just did.  So...we now have established that Reagan played Kate to get the journal for Magpie, to give to Alice.  Such a shame...there's great chemistry between Reagan and Kate...I like them together.  

Julia catches up with Sophie, and seeing if they wanna grab dinner, though Sophie's upset about the apparent "death" of Tommy Elliott.  But she'll meet Julia later.  Julia takes a call, and she says SHE has not gotten the journal yet, either.  But once she DOES, it'll be all theirs.  So...it seems that Julia herself is playing Sophie AND Kate, to get the journal for whomever...be it her former employer, or SOMEBODY.  Plus...we also know that Kate is a tad jealous over the fact that Julia and Sophie have gotten AWFULLY close.  But that also seems to be part of Julia's play.  Infiltrate the Crows, get close to Sophie to get to Kate, and get the journal.  But for WHOM?  

The end of the episode has us back at Arkham, where Mouse and Alice have the journal from Magpie, who takes off, because she ain't sticking around the nuthouse.  Alice tells Mouse that the journal holds the key to killing Batwoman...but Mouse gets upset, because he discovers that Lucius wrote all the WayneTech secrets in code! 


I'm telling you---this episode was GREAT!  First off:  the fighting scenes.  They have IMPROVED!  The cinematography is pretty cool, and it looks like they've gotten better with the fight coordinators, because the Batwoman fights were amazing, as well as Julia's fight with the guards.  This series has struggled a bit with making Batwoman look like a badass, but they accomplished that this episode.  Two:  It seems that you can't trust ANYBODY in this town!  I mean, we KNOW Alice is playing EVERYBODY, we find out that Sabbatino double crossed Tommy, Reagan played Kate, and we find out she's Magpie's sister, and that FAAAR too many people know that Bruce Wayne is Batman.  Three:  Mary is officially a member of the team, but SHE has got to dial back the excitement and get serious.  And no more selfies or pics on your webpages, girl!  You have a HUGE secret to uphold now...time to grow up.  We have seen elements of that...so, time to reserve that exuberance. 

Twists and turns, betrayals, and just what in the bloody hell is IN that journal besides all the Bat-secrets?  I guess we MIGHT get some resolution to that in next week's finale...or we may have to wait until the fall (depending on how LONG this COVID-19 stuff lasts, and the world continues to grind to a halt), to see Alice's master plan come to fruition.  But we DO know one thing....HUSH is coming!

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That's it for this installment.  Be sure to subscribe, bookmark the page, and leave a comment below, giving me YOUR thoughts on this episode.  

Until next time...The Signal is OFF!