‘Batwoman 3×07: Pick Your Poison’ Review
Stars: Javicia Leslie, Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Nicole Kang, Camrus Johnson, Dougray Scott | Created by Caroline Dries
Batwoman’s mid-season finale is here and there are several questions that need to be answered, including if Mary is a full-blown villain, if Ryan can trust Marquis, and if Alice will ever return to Team Batwoman. Will the mid-season finale answer them? Let’s find out.
What Happened This Week?
A Family’s Love
Ryan’s love for her newly found brother, Marquis, causes her to betray him in order to help him with his psychotic breaks. Marquis thinks he is meeting with Ryan, in a creepy parking garage, in order to discuss working together to take down Jada’s company but it’s a setup as several vans with Jada’s associates arrive and take Marquis away to a secured facility. Jada thanks Ryan on doing the right thing and as a reward, she promises to help Ryan in creating a serum to cure Mary from the Poison Ivy drug.
Marquis is strapped to a surgical table at one of Jada’s research facility as her assistants attempt to cryogenically freeze him with Mr. Freeze’s formula. Jada kisses Marquis and whispers that when he wakes up, they will have a cure for his psychotic breaks, and he’ll be back to the loving son she raised. Marquis breaks out of his restraints and not only knocks out his mother but kills two scientists, one of them that was working on the serum to cure Mary. Marquis takes the serum and rushes off to Wayne Enterprises to strike a deal.
Road Trip
Mary, who is now in complete Jekyll and Hyde form, wakes up in the passenger seat of a stolen RV and is shocked to find Alice in the driver’s seat. Alice catches Mary up-to-date on everything she did to her friends, from separating Luke’s shoulder to squeezing the breath out of Batwoman to announcing she is the new Poison Ivy to Detective Montoya, leaving Mary sick to her stomach. Good thing the RV has a toilet!
Alice makes a deal with Mary that she will help teach her how to control the toxin and will keep her safe, but Mary has to remove the tracking nanobots in Alice’s body. Mary has no choice but to agree to the arrangement but in order to remove the nanobots, they need a full blood transfusion of “O” negative blood so off they go to the local bar for a victim.
Mary and Alice spend the majority of the episode bonding and resolving their many issues with each other at the local bar while they test all the patrons’ blood to find the right blood type. Eventually they find a customer with the right blood type, Jason (nice name!), and Mary uses her powers of hypnosis to convince Jason to participate in the transfusion, which is successful. Alice promises Mary that she won’t leave her and will help her navigate her new normal.
Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Ryan catches Sophie and Luke, who has his left arm in sling, up on the deal she struck with Jada, but Sophie and Luke are against working with Jada, no matter how desperate they are to find and cure Mary. Ryan insists Jada can be trusted, at least a little, and at this point, they only have 12 hours until the toxin in Mary’s system bonds to her permanently.
Batwoman and Sophie take the Batmobile out on their own road trip, attempting to find Mary and Alice by tracking Alice’s nanobots. Unfortunately for our heroes, Alice is smarter than most criminals and smeared her blood, and the nanobots, in the trunks of over a dozen vehicles, resulting in Batwoman and Sophie driving all over town looking for the correct vehicle. Ryan and Sophie stop by Jada’s research facility, only to see the destruction Marquis left in his wake. Jada warns Ryan that he has the serum and is on his way to Wayne Enterprises to find her. Ryan finds not only Marquis in her office at Wayne Enterprises but also Luke knocked unconscious and a security guard dead. Marquis threatens to destroy the serum unless Ryan signs over the CEO role to him along with all of her stock options. I’m not sure this is how business agreements work and I think Ryan could probably fight this in court but nonetheless, Ryan agrees to the deal and Marquis hands over the serum. At this point, I’m wondering why Ryan just didn’t jump Marquis, take him to Arkham and rip up the contract.
Later, Sophie is fixing Luke’s wounds in the Batcave, and Luke realizes the one way to track Mary is with her obsession to coffee. Using Mary’s rewards card for Jitters (coffee shop from the Flash!), they are able to track her to the bar that Alice and Mary are at where they are testing the patrons’ blood.
A police officer finds the parked RV suspicious and attempts to question our duo, resulting in Alice running over the officer. I love how every time Alice attempts to be kind-hearted and a good person, she ends up doing something drastic, like running someone over. Mary and Alice are eventually stopped by Batwoman as the Batmobile hooks the trailer of the RV, stopping it.
Batwoman offers to use the serum to cure Mary, but Mary has had enough and knows that she will be sent to Arkham or kept in the Batcave until they can “fix” her. Mary unleashes vines and plants onto Batwoman, trapping her in the middle of the street as Mary walks away with Alice, vowing never to return to Team Batwoman. I enjoyed the twist and appreciated that Batwoman is slowly gaining more rogues in the gallery this season.
Quick Notes
- Marquis holds a press conference and announces he is the new CEO of Wayne Enterprises and things are going to change in Gotham. With Marquis in charge, the Batcave is closed off and Sophie, Ryan and Luke only have the Batsuit and the Batmobile at their disposal.
- Mary, now in the green costume straight from the comic books, announces she is Poison Ivy and wants to have “fun”. Alice obliges and they agree to go find Marquis and see what trouble they can get into next.
Quote of the Week
- Marquis to Ryan: “If the Joker was so horrible, why was he the only one that looked like he was having fun in this damned city?”
Episode Grade: B- (Good)
The mid-season finale was light on action, but it did manage to sneak in a few twists, which is what we have come to expect on mid-season finales. The episode did a fantastic job setting up Marquis as a new version of the Joker as well as having Mary and Alice resolve their differences and realize working together could be fun. I applaud the writers as all season it looked like Jada was being groomed as the next major villain but after tonight, there seems to be good in her and she might actually be on Ryan’s side to get Wayne Enterprises back from Marquis.
Batwoman has done a good job this season weaving all the little things together and having them each serve a purpose. From Mr. Freeze’s cryogenic chamber to nanobots in Alice to Jada attempting to protect Ryan from Marquis, every plot device has contributed to the bigger storyline in Batwoman. With Marquis taking over Wayne Enterprises and slowly becoming the new Joker and with Alice and Poison Ivy teaming-up, the second-half of the season, which returns January 12, should be quite a ride!
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