Female Fury: Batwoman Episode 103, "Down Down Down"

The more Kate (RUBY ROSE) operates in the Bat-suit, the more Gotham City wants to see Batman fully reappear -- and that includes those who would like to see the Dark Knight dead.

Among those in that latter category are Tommy Elliott (GABRIEL MANN), who has the added advantage of knowing that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. Kate catches him in the Wayne executive board room, looking for Bruce, fully believing that Bruce has returned because Batman has returned. Later, when Luke Fox (CAMRUS JOHNSON) informs Kate that there's been a break-in of the Bat-arsenal, we learn that Bruce developed a weapon capable of penetrating the bulletproof Bat-suit -- a contingency plan in case someone ever got their hands on it. And, Bruce being Bruce, he had contingency plans for the contingency plan.

Kate knows Tommy has to be the thief, and drops a bug into his ear that the weapon had a tracker. Tommy takes the bait, but escapes by diverting Kate's attention to saving the innocents trapped in the elevators of his tower, rigged to fall at the press of a button. He'll drop them all, unless she gets word to her cousin Bruce to make Batman appear. This sets things up for us to finally get the signature red-accented Batwoman costume. It is also the third time in as many episodes that we see a Bat-device introduced in one half of the show that becomes an integral plot device in the latter half (and I'm not talking about the stolen weapon), officially making this a storytelling pattern.

Meanwhile, Alice (RACHEL SKARSTEN) continues to plot against the Kane family -- her father, Jacob Kane (DOUGRAY SCOTT) and his new wife, Catherine (ELIZABETH ANWEIS). Jacob gets more and more clues that Alice is actually his lost daughter -- and Kate's twin sister -- Beth, but Catherine insists that it's a mind game Alice is playing. We see some clues that it's very important for Catherine for Jacob to believe this, which makes yet another ancillary player with secrets to hide.

Adding to the relationship intrigue, Kate's former girlfriend, the now-married Sophie (MEAGAN TANDY) gets permission from Jacob to serve as a bodyguard detail to Kate's half-sister, Mary (NICOLE KANG). This puts a crimp in Mary's operating her illegal free clinic (as a second-year med school student, no less), and it seems to be nothing more than a ploy to stay close to Kate, whom she has told to move on. We learn that Sophie has never told her husband about having known Kate from her years in the military academy, and jealousy may rear its ugly head when Kate takes Sophie's advice to move on and... moves on -- to the blonde bartender with an uncanny ability to read people, Reagan (BRIANNE HOWEY).

The BATWOMAN ratings basement has been fodder for a number of comics-related outlets. The fact that the ratings are below that of a show like, say, SUPERGIRL, is, in our opinion, solely the fault of CW's marketing department, who should all be fired for this. The story that has unfolded so far is absolutely nothing like the clipped-together series previews that presented Kate Kane as a misanthropic militant feminist. What we see in BATWOMAN is a character, not a caricature, and her goal of stepping into the role of Batwoman is not a slap in the face to Bruce Wayne, but an intention to honor his commitment and carry it forward. If you haven't watched the series so far, we solidly recommend giving it a viewing and a fair shake.