Batwoman season 1, episode 19 review: A Secret Kept From All the Rest

After Batwoman and co. hit the club, they’re at the mercy of Hush and a secret kept from all.

Last Sunday on Batwoman, Kate, Julia, and Mary did some clubbing as a subterfuge to obtain Lucius Fox’s coded journal before Alice and Tommy Elliot do. Everything went disastrously awry and the gritty superhero and her tough secret-agent companion had to be bailed out of their Scooby scrape by Mary in one of those scenarios where one dubbed the least capable pulls through.

They still lose the book when one of Kate’s exes, Regan, turns on her to help a sister that we learn was Magpie all along. Things are definitively over between Kate and Regan and the show moves on from this payoff right away and Regan is barely mentioned after that. Rewrites probably killed that plot thread.

Dear Diary

Lucius’s journal amounts to nothing as well, sadly. It unquestionably is a useless MacGuffin. Never mind why it was written or in code. There should be no secret to killing Batwoman or Batman. Do you know how you do that? Besides getting lucky, talk to Bane or Ra’s al-Ghul or use Hush properly (but more on that later).

Software could decode the dumb thing and, as luck would have it, Lucius designed a pair of glasses which, like a piece of Stark tech, scans the text and does that very thing. Alice, instead of looking for that kind of thing, fries the brains of captive experts before kidnapping Parker Torres (the high-school hacker from this season’s tenth episode), in another callback, and Luke.

One thing: why does Alice need to decipher a code to kill Batwoman when she knows who she is and has had every opportunity to do it? Kate walked right into her hideout before and left unharmed. She could have stabbed or shot her anytime or set a trap.

A Mad MO

Then there are Alice’s motives that make no sense. Kate’s betrayed her and Alice is irate about it. But Kate has done that more than once already. The first time, Alice nearly died and would’ve had it not been for August Cartwright in happenstance taking out her Earth-2 double. She might be stuck in Arkham with Mouse but she’s still alive, and not to mention ruling the roost. Why is the betrayal that led to this the unforgivable one?

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Villainy this week breaks up the rhythm and overall serious tone to the rest of the episode, doing more to get in the way than anything. When not murder-y, all the bad guys do is throw tantrums during out-of-place antics.

Hush Up

Finally introducing Hush promised a return to Bat form; it didn’t quite go that way. Be it Tommy Elliot or Riddler, as in the Batman: HUSH animated movie, Hush was a foe who could bring the Dark Knight to his knees. In Batwoman, he comes across as the lackey equivalent of Jack Nicholson’s Joker or Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face.

He’s after the journal but acts as Alice’s henchman. In a testament to what a shallow shell of the comics he is and how tough he isn’t here, a tied-up Parker says, “I was kidnapped by worse,” from Hush’s backseat.

A battle with Batwoman on a freeway at night ensues and this is the show’s adrenaline. It’s better when they keep it simple with fight scenes, high-contrast lighting, darkness, and slinging of batarangs everywhere. That always works.

Batwoman’s season finale airs in a week, Sunday at 8 pm ET. Hopefully, the Arrowverse series goes out with a bang. Let us know in the comments if you’re looking forward to it.