Welcome back to Gotham! Ryan and the Batfamily are finally starting to get something of a groove as they continue to track down the lost artifacts of Batman’s famous foes, but not everything is running smoothly. They have to deal with a deranged team member, family drama, and personal trauma, all while having the looming threat of Renee Montoya. The pressure is beginning to build, and the Batfamily is starting to feel some tension. So don your cape, grab your liquid nitrogen, and join us as we give you five thoughts on seasons 3, episode 3, “Freeze.”
1. A brother who loves to play things cool
While “Loose Tooth” created one small instance that perhaps Ryan and her mother would start having, if not a loving relationship, at least a solid partnership, “Freeze” immediately puts those thoughts to rest. Not only is Jada uninterested in pursuing a relationship with her estranged daughter, but she also wants nothing to do with her in general. She is, of course, impressed with Ryan’s achievements, but it’s clear she’s hiding something. Cue Nick Creegan as Ryan’s half-brother, Marquis Jet.
Initially, Creegan plays Marquis with all bravado and very little nuance. He’s a smooth-talking influencer with charisma to spare. Later in “Freeze,” though it seems that Marquis is putting on an act and is much more clever than Ryan initially thought. He sussed out Ryan’s familial bond, having paid attention to his nannies as a kid, observing how his mom acted with Ryan’s rags to riches story and generally staying alert to his surroundings. Marquis represents another opportunity, too, wanting to partner with Ryan. While Ryan is hesitant, he seems to desire to prove himself to his mom that he is more than a charmer in a vanity VP spot. While he may have other motives, at least for now, he’s giving Ryan to connect with her brother.
2. Nora’s guidance melts tension and provides comfort
While the previous two episodes have focused on creating new versions of legacy villains for Ryan and her team to fight, “Freeze” takes a different approach and investigates the impacts on a villain and their work. While Victor Freeze is alluded to throughout the episode, no one wears the goggles or builds a freeze gun, instead the crux of the episode is investigating the legacy of his greatest invention and failure, the cryotube. While Nora was healed of one ailment, the freezing had unintended side effects, namely rapid aging, and bodily deterioration. While “Freeze” does explore these aspects of Nora, Higgins plays the character with a certain degree of growing warmth throughout the episode. She has come to terms with her mortality and is comfortable with dying. However, she is sick of people trying to save her.
Nora brings a lot to “Freeze” to give it some impactful moments, namely her conversation with Mary and her sister Dee. To Mary, Nora provides perspective, an air of understanding as to why Alice ended up the way she did. Being the wife of Mr. Freeze gives you perspective, it seems, and she has sympathy for Mary’s rival. But the more powerful sequence is the final scene with her sister, as Nora encourages her to stop, slow down, and experience the world around her. Again, there is peace and comfort to the performance. To a certain degree, “Freeze” is about being ok with not entirely succeeding, something Nora has grown to accept, even if the rest of the characters have not. There is a lot to learn from Nora. It remains to be seen if the team will take note.
3. A chilling conflict for an unseen foe
Even though “Freeze” doesn’t feature a rehash of a classic villain, it doesn’t mean that the episode is without action. Most of the threat comes from a gang of mercenaries hired to take the tech and see if it still works. While the villains of this week’s episode aren’t necessarily memorable, it’s appreciated that they are not simply lame retoolings of classic villains. The mercenary leader played by Jennifer Cheon Garcia almost resents the theatrics of the job.
While it’s not necessarily clear who they’re working for, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that Jada, Marquis, or hell, both, are trying to get their hands on the tech. Unfortunately, “Freeze” doesn’t provide the audience with many details about who hired these mercenaries. By the episode’s end, there isn’t even an illusion to a group. It seems likely that they are setting up a more significant threat with a character already in play.
Continued below4. A frozen heart that’s ready to thaw
While Sophie is doing investigation work and sitting behind the chair, “Freeze” indicates that she feels a little left out of the team. As Ryan fights to stay awake about halfway through the episode, Sophie confronts Ryan about keeping her at arm’s length. While Ryan expected Sophie to do her dirty work and research her family, she’s not talking about her emotions. While Ryan eventually realizes that it was a ploy just to keep her alert and talk, it reveals actual vulnerability from Sophie. Sophie has been distant the past two seasons. Now she’s ready to open up, become a little looser, become part of the team.
The only problem with this is that, of course, “Freeze” decides to introduce some sexual tension between Ryan and Sophie. While it’s always been there to a certain degree, putting it into the forefront this way feels very akin to last week’s revelation about Luke and Mary. There are more interesting ways to create team tension than just throwing sexual tension into the mix, and it seems that’s all the Batwoman writers are interested in doing. Is it a good match? Perhaps, and it’s not like this has come out of nowhere, but it just feels like lazy tension building in some ways.
5. An icy meeting creates some strain
Alice is kept mainly on the sideline this week, “playing” sick and complaining that the nanomachines used to track her have a negative impact. This doesn’t mean that Alice is out of the picture. Instead, she gets to sew seeds of chaos amongst the Batfamily. In “Freeze,” Alice starts breaking down Mary’s confidence, implying that the team sees her as nothing more than support, that no one would genuinely care about her opinion. While Mary initially acts nonplussed, you can just tell it’s eating away at her.
In the last few moments of the episode, Mary asserts her role on the team by telling Ryan about Luke’s PTSD, perhaps risking her relationship with Luke. Unfortunately, it’s a no-win scenario for the team because while Mary was doing what she thought was right, a line was crossed. Even worse, no matter who Ryan chooses, the other feels neglected. Alice wasn’t in action but perhaps did more to shatter the team in one meeting than the entire mercenary crew.
So there you have it, tension is rising, teams are being strained, and the tools of villans are still out there. What did you think? Sound off below!
