Welcome back to the Arrowverse Couch Club, where we’re taking a look at the new adventures that went down this week on Batwoman, Black Lightning and Supergirl. Gotham got Fast and Furious as Ryan (both in and out of costume) and Sophie teamed up to stop Black Mask’s supply of Snakebite and rescue Angelique. In Freeland, Jefferson had to weather Tobias’ latest attempt to tear him down as Jen, now “JJ,” had her first day back at school with her new face. And in the Phantom Zone, Kara had to deal with new obstacles in her journey to escape and return to National City, where her team had to balance fighting the escaped Phantom with finding another way to bring Supergirl home.
Batwoman – “Arrive Alive”
Not only did Sophie discover that Ryan is Batwoman, but the Crows aren’t far behind now that they have Batwoman’s blood from her fight with Black Mask. Will Sophie be more likely to allow the Crows to figure out her identity and thus likely out her to the public, or will she step in to sabotage their efforts and keep Ryan’s secret a secret?
Now that Alice has her memories of Ocean back (and vice versa), could this ultimately be the catalyst for her redemption?
Black Lightning – “The Book of Ruin: Chapter Three”
One of this episode’s surprises was the appearance of both Khalil and Philky from the Painkiller episode last week. Would you like to see more of these characters from the backdoor pilot this season, or would you rather keep the focus squarely in Freeland with just five episodes left in the series?
Supergirl – “Lost Souls”
Despite coming close to finding an escape route for Kara out of the Phantom Zone, both Kara and Alex sacrificed ways for her to come home in order to help the greater good. Whose sacrifice did you think was more noble?
What was your favorite episode from this week?
Batwoman – “Arrive Alive”
Black Lightning – “The Book of Ruin: Chapter Three”
Even though she was pissed at Batwoman for unintentionally sabotaging her 1st attempt to track the fear toxin, I still think Sophie will likely do what she can to keep the Crows from figuring out Ryan’s identity, though it’s going to be quite the complicated situation. After going out on her own to find Angelique, Sophie could very well be looking at another suspension or worse. The fact that she’s almost certainly gonna be facing some sort of discipline for this will just make it even harder to protect Ryan’s identity, but if she goes through w/ it, I also think it could be the final step in fully breaking from the Crows. I really feel like her arc this season has been building toward her leaving anyway, and this really seems prime to be the last push she needs to do just that. After this latest move, she may already start to consider her days w/ the Crows numbered anyway, and when you combine that w/ her growing skepticism toward their mission and how they go about it, I think she may finally realize that she needs to go out on her own. And if she ultimately is willing to go directly against them to help Ryan, then there clearly won’t be enough loyalty left on her end to where she’d even want to stick around. Regardless of how it plays out specifically, I’m pretty secure in my feeling that the blood test they run from the crime scene will ultimately never be finished. Because the Crows finding out Batwoman’s identity means that they’ll tell all of Gotham, and I just don’t see there being any way that Ryan gets fully outed this soon into her vigilante career
I do think this could lead to about as close to a full redemption for Alice as possible. The show’s made it very clear just how important wiping her memories of Ocean were to making her into the psychopathic killer she became, and so it very much stands to reason that she’ll ultimately become more compassionate and caring w/ those memories fully restored instead of just getting flashes of them. But at the same time, fully restoring her time on Coryana doesn’t suddenly erase everything Alice has done and (hasn’t) felt since then. I could definitely see this being a situation where her more human side and her more murderous side are at odds, and perhaps she’ll have to find a twisted balance between the two. I doubt this move will suddenly turn her back to being Beth, especially since the trauma of being held captive for so many years is still very much in her mind, but we really could be looking at a different Alice here. Perhaps by the end of the season, she’ll establish herself as more of an anti-hero who’s still mostly doing her own thing, but runs into Team Bat every so often, be it in a helpful or hostile way
I also think it makes plenty of sense from Enigma’s perspective to have restored Alice’s memories in that moment. It had to have been clear to her that erasing Kate from her mind simply wasn’t going to work, and Ocean’s return just complicated things even more. Not only did restoring their memories give her a chance to escape, but w/ Alice’s returned memories will likely also bring some returned senses of actual love and compassion. Again, I don’t think she’s gonna completely return to the person she was during her 1st stint on Coryana, but those returning feelings still makes it less likely that Alice will still want to wipe Kate from her memory. So by doing this, Enigma may have just rid herself of Alice coming after her again, so I think it was a smart move on her part. Of course this doesn’t change the fact that Julia’s still out there w/ a twice-altered mind and a penchant for revenge when she again realizes what’s happened, or the fact that everyone associated w/ Team Bat will likely be after her once it’s revealed that she altered Kate’s mind as well. But for now, I’ll give her props for this move
This is another one I’m conflicted on. On the one hand, it doesn’t seem entirely necessary to bring in even more characters that we hadn’t seen at all this season before the Painkiller episode. The cast of main and supporting characters is already pretty full here, and so bringing even more people into the fold runs the risk of making things feel even more overcrowded. On the other hand, I’m still convinced that the spinoff isn’t gonna get picked up, and so I do relish the chance to see more of these characters. It’d probably be a different story if it had already been picked up, but w/ it still in a state of limbo, I’ll gladly take what I can get. Plus, integrating them into the main story makes the backdoor pilot not feel as jarring, since you now have to had watched it to fully understand what’s going on when TC is talking w/ Khalil and Philky. If those two and maybe Cousin Donald show up in a few more scenes that help advance the main story, I think I’d be pretty happy w/ that
Both Kara and Alex certainly made some pretty big sacrifices in this episode considering there still isn’t a clear way for Kara to escape the Phantom Zone, but if I had to give one of them the edge, I’d say it’s Kara. When you look at the general resources available to Kara in the PZ compared to the Super Friends in the Tower and National City in general, it stands to reason that the Super Friends are much more likely to find a way to get Kara out than she would where she is. They just have more people and more tech available to them, hence how they’re even able to time travel next week in the 1st place. W/ Alex, this feels more like a delay in finding a solution, whereas w/ Kara, this felt like her last opportunity to escape herself, though she has to know that everyone’s doing everything they can to get her out on the other side as well. Plus, there’s also the fact that in the midst of the building housing the mirror being destroyed, Kara not only tried to save Nyxly after her betrayal but also may have lost her father for good this time in the explosion. Obviously it remains to be seen if either of them managed to survive, but the risk of even more loss for Kara does seem to make this hit even harder for her
I figured it was only a matter of time before she figured out who Batwoman was. She was working with Ryan quite a bit lately, and when you get closer to people you can start to recognize things. Also, why did Ryan just leave Mary’s car out there for Sophie to find the Bat transmitter? It seems like she should have made to sure to grab everything out of the car that linked her to Batwoman so that no one else finds out. Who was to say someone did not try to steal the car since it was out on the streets of Gotham and then access this information? Hey I want to yell at Luke now too! Why didn’t he create better or any encryption on the device in the car? Seemed all Sophie had to do was connect it to her computer and she could access the information on it. Hey, why would they record their conversation anyways on the device? You would think helping out with Batman would have made him more paranoid and this seems like a large oversight. Whew…sorry, got on a rant there.
Getting back to the question, I do think Sophie will try to keep this from the Crows. I could see her doing something to the blood sample they collected, as I doubt they would let everyone know who she was. It might as well be like when Barry used to take his mask off around strangers…secret identity? What’s that? I am hoping this starts leading to Sophie being a member of the Bat team or at the very least assisting them. I worry she is not much longer for the Crows, but she could still be a good asset.
With the return of Alice’s memories, I do not see this necessarily leading to redemption for her. She is still a killer, and has spent too long being a criminal to change just based on love. I could see Ocean maybe being a good influence on her, as he seems less likely to kill, and maybe she will try to be better and not kill maybe just hurt people, but I do not see her reverting back to good Beth. PLus, she is much too interesting the way she is now.
It seemed to work for me. It was a nice little surprise tying it to the previous episode. It also makes sense TC would help them as he is the most technically advanced and can talk to computers so could [potentially search for a way to help Khalil. He can be the secret person off-screen helping the Painkiller team on their show. Or even better, TC could transfer to the other show as a regular. Assuming the show is picked up, which I had thought they had announced that it was (even before the pilot). I could be wrong though, I don’t know if the pilot caught my interest enough to watch more of but others may like it.
Also, with this being the final season of BL, it seems ok to bring back characters from the show’s run that maybe have not been on for a while. I liken it to Buffy when they were able to grab in Angel for the final season to help out as it made sense. I would feel better about including him if they had him play more of a role or advance the BL plotline.
I think she will sabotage. Or just show up at the Hold Up and yell at Ryan and Luke. Or both. Hopefully both. I think Sophie is on her way out of the Crows anyway. Welcome to Team Batwoman.
I’m struggling with this. Because I love Alice. Some redemption would be nice but I still want her to be Alice. But an Anti-hero role for her would be fun.
I’m confused on Alex’s sacrifice. And all of this effort to get her DNA. Why not go to her apartment and grab a toothbrush or hair brush. Or anything. Her DNA should be all over there. Why does it need to be from the Crystal or from overusing her powers. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
And because of that, I think Kara did. She sacrificed her only known exit (and her Father?) to save Earth. I knew something was up with Nyxlyl. But that was a fun turn.
Batwoman - Alice may turn out to be more of an anti-villain. Meaning, Alice will always be Alice, but just might do right for Team Bat at just the right time.
Well ranted. Crowphie is likely to confront Luke and/or Ryan, but will it be before or after changing or sabatoging the swab? My guess is she will change the swab, but I will let the confrontation play out. It would be pretty cool if they did a misdirect by saying she’s Batwoman and/or appear wearing the suit. Should she join the team, she could potentially become Bat-Wing. Nothing against Luke, but he is more ‘geek team’ and less ‘punching team’. Other than ‘geek team’, there was ‘sky team’ from Crisis. what would you call it?
Black Lightning - Khalil might help out later regardless of his show getting picked up. even if he doesn’t, and we see no more of Khalil and co., it worked for me.
Tobias’ campaign of Pierce destruction continues to unfold. I am curious about what info is going to undo Lynn as she leaves no stone unturned.
Supergirl - Kara’s sacrifice was greater because it included potentially losing her father as well as for good this time. 5th dimensional imps are at best mischievious, but given enough time to stew, especially without their magic, will always go for revenge. And now Supergirl is on Nxly’s list.
Yeah, not only are Ryan and Luke really gonna be kicking themselves next week, but Mary’s never gonna let them hear the end of it, as she shouldn’t. W/ Ryan, I think this could be chalked up to her not thinking completely clearly when it comes to Angelique, though I’m not really sure what Luke’s excuse could be. I’m sure this will lead him to take extra precautions going forward, though it won’t exactly help their current situation much
I assumed that the car was locked but Sophie had a key, and that the Crows’ technology was actually capable of breaching the Bat security. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have been more careful, but that’s how I saw those moments at least
That’d be so awesome to see! Assuming she does leave the Crows, I figure it’d still be a while before she’d be ready to make a move like that, but I could maybe see it happening next season. Of course Ryan would also have to cut “Crowphie” plenty of slack to accept her on the team, but I also think their arc is trending in that direction as well
If Ocean survives this season and doesn’t go off somewhere else at the end, I could possibly see him sticking around as Alice’s partner-in-crime who also helps keep her from going back down this darker path. Granted, I’m not sure if that’d be the best option, as it could be interpreted as the writers saying that Alice needs a man to keep her in line, but I do feel like it’s a real possibility regardless
I’d be all for TC being a regular/recurring character on Painkiller. It’d hopefully give them an opportunity to develop his character at least a little more, as I feel like his abilities are essentially used as a plot device too often
It’s still unknown if they’re gonna pick it up, frustratingly, though my gut is still telling me it won’t make the cut. Similar to Green Arrow & the Canaries, I just feel like if it was gonna get picked up, it would’ve happened by now
I’d love to see that happen, but something tells me that approach will either be really sparse or just not happen at all. I get the sense that the writers didn’t have much time to prepare for the show’s ending, as even the cast only found out about it when it was announced to everyone. They might be able to write a finale that does a decent job of wrapping things up, but the usual callbacks like that for a final season just don’t seem to be there this time around
Oh she’s definitely gonna confront Ryan about this, and I’m very much looking forward to that
On the one hand, I feel like much of the DNA that Kara would normally leave around her apartment, like saliva on a toothbrush, has probably dried up/evaporated/gone bad/etc. by now, and I don’t know if a regular hairbrush can even brush out Kryptonian hair. But on the other hand, bringing all of this up also begs the question of why Brainy and Nia don’t just go back to right after Kara left her apartment for the last time and grab some fresh DNA then. There are still some questions that need answering, but at the same time, seeing Midvale is always fun and Eliza Helm looks fantastic as a younger Cat Grant, so I can’t complain too much
I’m imagining a scenario where when Sophie goes to confront Ryan, she also warns her to get out of town since she’ll be outed soon. But Ryan, stubborn as always, will want to try whatever she can to keep her identity safe, leading to them coming up w/ a desperate plan
I was thinking that maybe it was his intention to have Lynn ultimately relapse through investigating Val, but since Gambi ultimately took the meta booster, maybe he did have something else in mind…
Kara’s been lucky that her 2 encounters w/ Mxy so far have been kept to him wanting to marry her and him wanting to actually help her fix things w/ Lena. Fifth-dimensional imps may be known more for their relatively harmless mischievousness more than anything else, but Kara clearly knew the incredible damage someone w/ that kind of power could unleash on the world if unhinged
I don’t know… I watch enough crime tv to know that DNA just doesn’t dry up or anything. I guess what I am confused about is, are they looking for DNA or life force? Because those are two separate things.
I just feel like, “We need Kara’s DNA, let’s go time travel” is a little too far-fetched to me. Even for a CW superhero show.
