‘Batwoman 3×10: Toxic’ Review
Stars: Javicia Leslie, Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Nicole Kang, Camrus Johnson, Dougray Scott | Created by Caroline Dries
This season Batwoman has harvested Batman’s Rogue Gallery to increase the threat to Gotham by having copycats of famous villains running amok in the city. With Renee following her heart more than her head, we now have two versions of Poison Ivy in Gotham, but can the original and new and improved version co-exist? Let’s find out.
What Happened This Week?
Two is Not Better Than One
Batwoman usually has several storylines in each episode, but this week’s episode revolved only around Pamela’s thirst for revenge and how Team Batwoman must stop her from opening a dam to unleash a tidal wave on Gotham. Before we get to that, let’s talk about Mary and how her allegiance changes based on who is paying attention to her that week. First, Mary is best friends with Luke until they get into an argument, so she then joins forces with Alice until they argue, and now Mary is best friends with Poison Ivy, aka Pamela Isley. Mary might have some commitment issues. Unfortunately for Mary, she doesn’t realize that Pamela is only friends with her to absorb her energy as Pamela is still not at full strength.
After the pair kidnap and string up the CEO of Gotham United Healthcare at a greenhouse, Pamela tells Mary that her master plan is to destroy the Gotham Dam, resulting in the city being flooded. Mary understands the dam hurts the environment but is unsure of flooding Gotham as thousands would die and more would be hurt. Pamela admits she only needs Mary for her energy, so she takes as much of it from her as she can, resulting in Mary passing out in the tunnels under the dam.
At Ryan’s bar, The Holdup, Team Batwoman has decided it’s a better headquarters than Renee’s weird office and set up shop in the upstairs area of the bar. After listening to a police scanner and hearing Mary is en route to a hospital after being found by two dam workers, Batwoman and Alice, yes, she came back to Gotham to help Mary, take off in the Batmobile to stop the ambulance before it gets to the hospital. That’s not a way to endear yourself to the first responders of the city.
After bringing Mary back to the Holdup and finding out what Pamela’s plan is, Renee admits she can stop her as she made a serum that is a “pheromone blocker” that can weaken Pamela. I thought Renee is a detective, not a biologist so how does she make all these serums? The issue is that Pamela must absorb the serum and one way to do that is for Mary to drink the serum and let Pamela absorb more of her energy. Ryan worries that may kill Mary, but Mary feels awful about killing a man (the hunter from last episode) and feels this is her chance to redeem herself.
Mary meets up with Pamela in the tunnels by the dam and offers her more energy as Pamela needs it to destroy the dam. I guess the vines aren’t that powerful huh? Pamela is happy Mary is seeing things her way and happily absorbs more energy from Mary. After absorbing Mary’s energy, and the serum, Pamela begins to stumble backwards and realizes it was a trick to siphon her powers, which is good for Batwoman as she arrives in the tunnels, ready to confront our villain.
After several episodes teasing us, Batwoman and the original Poison Ivy finally come face to face with the fate of Gotham in the balance. The fight scenes are usually strong in the series, just watch Sophie, Renee and Ryan beating up Marquis’ henchmen in episode 8, but this fight scene is just…bad. Batwoman, after dispatching some of Ivy’s vines with her Batarangs, confronts Ivy and they engage in hand-to-hand combat. Batwoman uses two batons to fight while Ivy uses vines shaped-liked swords. Needless to say, it does not come across as threatening and it doesn’t help that there was little contact between the characters. Overall, it looked like a gymnastics competition with all the backflips and handstands. Oh, Batwoman gets the best of Poison Ivy too.
What Batwoman does do right is the redemption of Luke, aka Batwing! Luke advises Ryan that she cannot take down Poison Ivy, save Mary and stop a dam from imploding so he volunteers to suit up and stop the vines from tearing apart the dam. Once Batwing enters the dam’s tunnels, he’s wrapped up by Ivy’s vines and starts to experience a panic attack, brought on by flashbacks from all the beatings, stabbings, and gunshots he’s experienced. Luke is able to calm himself by pushing all the voices out of his head except his own, resulting in him controlling the situation and destroying Poison Ivy’s vines. It’s a tremendous scene and after 1 ½ seasons, Luke gets the victory that he deserves.
Back at the bar, Team Batwoman tries to celebrate their victory, but the mood is still solemn as Mary is coming to terms that she murdered someone. Ryan tries to help Mary by stating it was the Poison Ivy serum that caused Mary to kill someone but I still have issues with that thought process. Mary still killed a man by impaling him with a stick!
Earlier in the episode, Jada Jett agrees to hand over the Joker’s joy buzzer in exchange for Batwoman releasing Marquis so Jada’s doctors can diagnosis and help him. Batwoman agrees but she only has 12 hours to comply, or else Jada will unleash information that Batwoman doesn’t want to be released. Well, Poison Ivy and a dam breaking occurred, so Batwoman forgets and misses the deadline.
In retaliation for Batwoman not releasing Marquis, Jada does an interview on the local news declaring Batwoman is the person responsible for all the copycat villains running around Gotham. Jada announces that Batman was able to keep the villains’ weapons locked up but once Batwoman took over, the weapons were lost, and criminals began to copy the famous Rogue Gallery. Jada ends the interview by demanding Batwoman turns herself into authorities. I’m not sure I’m a fan of Jada taking over the Jacob Kane role of proclaiming Batwoman a public nuisance but I’m willing to give it the benefit of doubt and see how it plays out.
Quick Notes
- After her defeat by Batwoman, Pamela is alive and well with Renee on a cargo plane headed to an unknown location. After teasing a break-up, Renee tells Pamela that she loves her and that is why she made a deal with Batwoman. Pamela and Renee are free from arrest if they stay exiled on a little-known island… Coriana! Yes, the island where plants are worshipped will be the new home to Poison Ivy and Renee. I like the twist and it’s a creative way to move away from Poison Ivy but still have the opportunity for the character to return.
- When actor Dougray Scott, aka Jacob Kane, left the series last year there was concern the series would suffer without the character keeping Team Batwoman on the right side of moral judgement. Also, Mr Scott is a strong actor and losing anyone like that in an ensemble series is unfortunate but to my surprise, the storylines are more focused this season and the series is just more fun to watch. Without having the Kane family drama as the prevalent storyline in Batwoman anymore, the series can focus on more interesting characters and has really strengthened Team Batwoman and given the secondary characters more opportunities to shine.
Episode Grade: C+ (Above Average)
Batwoman’s latest episode with all of Team Batwoman confronting two Poison Ivy characters had a lot of potential but it was never able to put it all together. While Pamela Isley is a great villain, she cannot make up for Team Batwoman easily forgiving Mary (she killed a man!) just because she was Poison Ivy, Jada declaring Batwoman a public nuisance (again!), and a lackluster fight scene that dragged the episode down. Overall, there were some highlights with Renee and Pamela moving to Coriana and Luke finally overcoming his fears as a hero, but it wasn’t enough to stop this episode from being the weakest since its return from the mid-season break.
______
