Episode 15, "Armed and Dangerous"

[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]
[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]
[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]

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“General”:
My highlights from this episode (without particular order):

1 – Jacob shuts down the Crows! Well, I didn't expect that to happen, a surprising development. But Batwoman and especially Sophie showed him how compromised his organization has become. Now the big question for me is how this will affect his role in the show! Well, for now, he has a new task but what will be his role in season 3 without the Crows? Will he even be in season 3? Right now I wouldn't be totally surprised if Jacob would leave the show with the end of this season. Perhaps he will heroically save his daughters in the big finale and get killed in the process? Just a small hunch for now....but perhaps..... ;-) . Will the Gotham PD now finally step forward to take control over policing matters in Gotham?

2 – Luke's visions! This will be in the list of things I didn't like as well....but more on that later on. It certainly was another surprise to have Bruce Wayne in this episode. And this time it was the "real" one, and not Tommy Elliot....even it was only a vision. I liked the idea of having Bruce as a sort of mentor here for Luke, and how he pointed out the options for Luke that will heavily influence him... His father was included as well, but well, he was only a figure in the background.

3 – Alice still on the trail of her sister! Alice won't give up on getting Kate back, despite Ocean's efforts to stop her. Also, as she was browsing through Enigma's files of the Kane family members we found out that she had files on all of them, even on Mary. Black Mask must really hate the Kane family! But what is his plan? He must have an elaborate revenge plot. But it's kind of problematic for him that Kate Kane and his daughter are now in the same body, even the Circe part is just "programming". He somehow had found out that Kate was Batwoman, but what is his plan for the other family members? So far, he had only targeted Jacob. But Mary will surely soon be in danger... Now, I'm looking forward to seeing how Alice and Jacob will work together to get Kate back! That will be an interesting pair for sure! :lol:

4 – Batwoman VS Tavaroff! Their first encounter in this episode was rather short but I enjoyed it a lot! It's time that Tavaroff gets what he deserves! He was lucky as he was saved quite spectacularly by one of his corrupt buddies. Reminded me how Batwoman got hit in season 1 by the executioner and his pickup. She was a bit lucky that they drove off instead of attacking her in her weakened state, still suffering from the impact of the car. But well, that's what most villains do in the movies/TV shows, they rather wanna escape than to take advantage of such a situation. He could have cuffed her and/or gone for her mask....
In their second encounter, he didn't have a buddy and a car to get rescued. I didn't like how they handled the "light" issue in this one but more on that in the fitting category later on. The fight with all the Crows was really well done! One of the best fight scenes in the show in my opinion. Batwoman did a good job as she handled all these Crows. Tavaroff strangling her with a cable from behind reminded me of Alice as she met Batwoman for the first time in the very first episode ;-) . She managed to defeat him really well. Wondering what will happen to him now....after all, he did try to kill his boss. But he will pop up again and now he is really angry about Batwoman! Looking forward to their next encounter! ....P.S.: Agent Tavaroff landed a backward headbutt onto Batwoman in the first encounter, Batwoman repaid that favor in the second scene ;-)

5 – Tavaroff manipulating the video material! Yeah, he won't stop at anything to "prove" his "innocence". I liked this aspect as well since this kind of manipulation is a big problem and will become an even bigger one with "deep fakes". The scene earlier as the Crows met and discussed if Tavaroff had done something wrong already showed that they would try everything to stick the blame to Luke.

6 - Mary+Ryan....and... Ryan+Sophie! The scenes with them in the Batcave and later on in the hospital were quite emotional. Loved how Ryan and Mary worked together to save Luke! Also how Ryan blamed her for attacking Luke earlier on as they were imprisoned in that cell.

 

Aspects I didn't like in this episode:

>>> The scene with Batwoman and the Crows had a great fight scene in my opinion (as I mentioned above), but it also had a major flaw. The lights are turned out and we are to believe that it is now really dark in the room. The problem is that the room is still pretty well illuminated from all the lights outside. I don't get why the Crows would have any problems with seeing Batwoman in this scene. Early in the scene the Crows basically see nothing and only react to Batwoman's attacks. But then they suddenly seem to see her pretty good, even the lights were still off. Ok, maybe that is supposed to show that they got used to the darkness, but it's still really weird. There was a similar scene in season 1 (ep5) where Batwoman attacked Alice's gang in the darkness. That was presented much better in my opinion as it was actually dark for the audience as well.

>>> The whole aspect of Luke making decisions in his vision to either die or return to the world of the living....was too esoteric(?) for me. Don't know if that's the right word, but the idea that his mind telling his body to live or die....doesn't work for me.

>>> A small thing, but a missed opportunity for me. Sophie walks into the Batcave (for the 2nd time ever) and sees an unmasked Batwoman for the first time....but shows no reaction at all about it. She never found out that Kate was under that cowl in season 1. Now she found out that Ryan is under that cowl. I would imagine her showing some reaction to see an unmasked Batwoman for the first time.

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More interesting aspects for me:

--- Not a minus point, but a confusing aspect for me: At the ending of episode 14 we see Tavroff shooting at Luke two times, then the camera moves onto Luke and we hear another shot. So, I clearly thought that meant that Tavaroff fired three shots. Now, at the beginning of this episode, we see and hear only 2 shots. Later in the episode, Mary said he was shot twice. So, does that mean the shot we heard but didn't see in episode 14 was somewhat of an echo? Quite....odd.

--- Mary used the Desert Rose to save Luke. I would have preferred he be alive without it, but ok. I hope that it won't be used now every time someone is about to die....that would be really bad as it would take away the severity of such scenes. But I guess and hope that this action will now finally lead Safiyah to Gotham ;-) . She surely wants her plant back!

--- The scene with Batwoman and the car thief was interesting as well as she found out the backstory of why and how Luke got shot. She put on some pressure on him, got the answers, and left him for the Gotham police.

--- Seeing Alice in the Wayne Tower was fun as always she appears there! Loved how Mary and she "battled" each other with one quip after the other :-) . As Mary and all the Bat team don't know yet that Kate is still alive...it will be interesting to see how they will get on that trail. Surely they know now that this Circe is an important figure as Alice asked for her.

--- For now, it seems that Ocean is really in love with Alice, but I don't trust that guy. I still think he has his own agenda and is influenced by Safiyah.

--- Wolf Spider is back! I was wondering if he would ever show up again, and it really happened. His scenes were short, but he played an important part in the episode! I wonder if he will show up again in this season....or in season 3?

--- The way Tavaroff treated Jacob once again showed how ruthless he actually is. Right now he surely is the most hated character in the show. And that was only the start.....

--- The question remains what Sophie will actually do in her next (day) job. With the Crows now gone, perhaps she will get a high position in the GCPD? Will she fight on Batwoman's side at night? Pretty sure she will get heavily involved from now on.

--- Two easter eggs were also really nice! The riddler one was very easy to spot even they didn't mention his name. I just saw a possible second one. The bar that Tavaroff leaves before Batwoman attacks him is called "Old Solomon's Tavern"...pretty sure that is a reference to Solomon Grundy ;-).


>>> Rating “General:” <<<
4 out of 5 - A good episode with some emotional scenes and some surprises as well!