Batwoman 1x3 : Down, Down, Down review

 Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it. 

Batwoman's third ever episode begins with more flashbacks. This time of a young Beth who we see walking around. We then see Alice who is obviously dreaming what is happening as the dream progresses. It comes to an abrupt end when Beth picks up what looks to be a human face in water or something that really resembles it. Alice wakes up instantly and soon after continues her torment once again of Kate by first using the bat signal. Even going as far as to play shadow puppets with her hands to draw Kate to her. She succeeds and the sisters have a chat which includes Kate saying that she wants Alice to not kill for 24 to assess her and Alice agreeing before putting a bat to the bat signal. At Wayne Enterprises Kate walks into Bruce's office and is surprised to see none other than Tommy Elliot sitting in her cousin's chair. He turns around and greets Kate saying that Bruce is back in Gotham and so is Batman. In his hand he has an invitation for Bruce to attend a party at his house later that night. Below in the bat-cave Kate and Luke who have bee having so much more banter lately which is what I always wanted question Tommy Elliot's true intentions. At a Wayne R&D lab various weapons are stolen by someone. One weapon includes a Railgun that is extremely powerful and according to Luke is one of the strongest weapons Bruce ever had created. After having her life saved by Kate last week you'd think Mary would have an easier week this week but nope. Sophie ends up getting signed as Mary's bodyguard as she isn't safe in the city. Of course Sophie doesn't know about Mary's little hospital side gig and questions Mary about her lifestyle, her outings and even Kate. She asks Mary all of this but we later find out that Sophie never even told her husband about how she knew Kate which is quite telling of her feelings towards Kate still. 

With the hunt for the rail gun still on Kate eventually puts two and two together and realizes that it was Tommy who stole the rail gun and at his party she attracts a lot of attention. First off she ends up sharing an elevator ride with Mary and Sophie which was awkward to say the least. At the bar she gets talking to the bartender whose name is Regan. Immediately the two click which was interesting to see. Of course Sophie sees all of this unfold and her expression never changes not even once. Kate sees Tommy in the distance and confronts him saying that she knows what he's doing. Tommy replies and exactly like his story was in the comics explains how Bruce Wayne ruined his life by saving his parents from apparent death. Forcing Tommy to care for his mom for years he never got to inherit the Elliot franchise for many, many years later. Kate says Bruce is gone and he's not coming back but Tommy remains unconvinced touting that he found out that Bruce is Batman from someone who said basically spoke in riddles. This is of course a reference to Riddler but it was interesting how it seemed to fly right over Kate's head. She never mentions it again for the rest of the episode. With Tommy not backing down Kate retreats back to the cave and blames herself for the entire mess. She drew out Alice, The Wonderland Gang and even Tommy Elliot by putting on the Batman suit. She says it's her fault for putting what was essentially false hope back into Gotham city. If she is to become Batman or at least someone like him than she needs to be better. This leads to her suit that we've already seen from last year's crossover being made in the bat cave. 

The episode draws to a close with the Kate heading back to Tommy's party but this time she's something else..someone else. On top of the building she confronts Tommy once more who replies with ''You're not Batman'' Kate replies with ''That's the point'' and with Luke in her ear has to stall Tommy for 30 seconds as her gloves charge so that she can render the rail gun useless. Inside the building Tommy has everyone in the elevator's trapped and with his finger on the detonation button he and Kate battle it out. Eventually Kate does render the rail gun useless but Tommy still sets off the elevators. Luckily Sophie, her husband and Mary already escaped with little to no injuries. Kate remains on top of one of the elevator's and rides it down a little as her and Tommy again fight which leaves Kate literally holding on for her life in the elevator shaft. She is saved by Alice of all people who immediately notices the meaning behind Kate's outfit, wig and overall color. It's red just like their birthstone. As for Alice not killing anyone in 24 hours?? well that didn't end so well for a security guard. Kate says Alice leaves her no choice and she will stop at nothing to bring her and the Wonderland gang down. Vanishing into the night the final thing we see and hear is Kate standing on top of a building. A helicopter shines down on her as on the radio presenter Vesper Fairchild says that this isn't Batman. It's someone more curvy and sexier. What should people call her?? Batchick? Badlady?? we see Sophie in her car who says Batwoman and that's how the episode ended. Batwoman is officially born and this episodes is easily the best thus far this season. It had it's downs (pardon the pun on the title) but it also had a lot of highs. Kate finally becoming Batwoman was great and the inclusion of Tommy Elliot was pretty great too. I would not be against him returning in the future at all perhaps under his Hush persona?? anything is possible after the upcoming Crisis. Ruby Rose continues to be absolutely amazing in this role and as for Alice? I don't know what the plan or overall narrative for her going forward is but I'm interested to find out. 3 episodes in and while this show isn't perfect it's showing some real promise in my opinion. It will have it's doubters and haters but for now I'm really enjoying it. Roll on next week.

★★★★