Welcome back to Gotham! Some of the tools of Batman’s worst foes are on the loose, making new versions of these fiendish rogues, and it’s up to Ryan to keep the streets safe by getting them back to the Batcave. Unfortunately, Ryan is s forced to team up with an old foe or face the same consequences of many Batman foes, Arkham Asylum. There’s a lot on her plate, but with her new team, she might have a chance. So Don your cape, grab your Bat Net creator, and join us as we give you five thoughts on season 3, episode 2, “Loose Tooth.”
1. Raising the stakes on an unlikely (and unwanted) alliance
At the end of “Mad as a Hatter,” Batwoman sets up an interesting alliance, pairing up Alice and Ryan to recover the weapons and artifacts of Batman’s greatest foes. While the different shows of the Arrowverse have had similar starting premises to varying degrees of impact, “Loose Tooth” more or less delivers on the promise while also setting up larger stakes of the season. Because Renee Montoya knows Ryan’s secret identity, she has the vigilante right where she wants her. Either Ryan works with Alice and keeps her in check, or she suffers the same fate as her new partner. It’s a simple yet effective threat. We know that Alice will try and do everything in her power to escape, and Ryan will do her best to keep her in line, a classic odd couple dynamic, good stuff.
Initially, though, it was concerning to see Alice effectively sidelined for the first chunk of the season, handcuffed to the railing of the Batcave, throwing the occasional quip or snarky remark. Yet, when “Loose Tooth” decided to make good on their promise of showing why Alice is a good pairing, it was honestly kind of exciting. While it’s a far cry from, say, Hannibal Lecter influencing a young FBI agent, watching Alice make Ryan think like a killer was well executed. Based on the episode ending, it’s doubtful that Alice will “change” Ryan, but it seems like, at the very least, the show is committed to Ryan beginning to see things from the other side.
2. Batwing learns more about the suit and its glitches
Luke is mainly on the sideline of “Loose Tooth,” spending most of the running time working with Mary to try and determine why the suit is occasionally going into safety mode and glitching out. Because the suit is controlled to a certain degree by artificial intelligence, it detects injures to try and perform first aid on the wearer. The problem, though, is that Luke is fine. (That is, at least physically.)
“Mad as a Hatter” implied that there was a certain degree of glitching when Luke experienced stress, and while “Loose Tooth” doesn’t precisely say Luke is suffering from panic attacks, it seems that he has retained a certain amount of mental trauma from being shot. The irony is, this is the very act that made him adopt the suit. It’s a good story to give to Luke, who largely uses his armor as a shield from the world but realizes that there is still work to be done even with a super-suit. If there is one gripe from this story, it’s establishing some sexual tension between Luke and Mary. Steph is still out there, Luke! Give her a call!
3. Unlikely family reunions lead to growing tension
While Ryan’s family wasn’t a big mystery of season 2 of Batwoman, season 3 has decided to devote some time to this story. While the end of “Mad As a Hatter” implies that Jet was keyed into some key information being mined from her company, “Loose Tooth” instead picks up with Jet, upset that corporate espionage was taking place. Jet confronts Wayne Enterprises acting CEO Ryan, but it’s clear that Ryan is well out of her league.
While there isn’t a lot of Jada in this episode, her shadow looms large. There are the usual platitudes about Ryan owing her nothing and that she was stronger without her, but Jada is impressive, and Ryan can’t seem to shake the thought about what her life would have been like had she not been given up for adoption. While “Loose Tooth” continues the themes of found family, it seems that Ryan’s actual family is making her reassess, even wanting to know who they were. It’s not entirely clear where this story is going, the episode ends with a tense stare from Jet, but it seems that Batwoman wants to put the Batfamily to the test.
Continued below4. A muddled presentation of a swampy savage
It seems that this season of Batwoman is mainly going to be rehashes of classic villains, with most of the original fights with Batman happening close to 20 years ago. As the title suggests, “Loose Tooth” is about a new Killer Croc, a college student who cut himself on the original Croc’s tooth and got infected. Although the episode goes to great lengths to discuss Batman’s sympathy to the original Killer Croc, with Bruce using his resources to try and find a cure, Batwoman’s take is a little less sympathetic and a little more all over the place.
While “Loose Tooth” still implies that it is the infection creating the savagery, it seemed at least for a minute that the show would be more sympathetic to the student turned monster. About halfway through the episode, we meet Croc’s father, who seems to be preparing food for his son as a way to entice him and capture him again. Again, at least for a minute or two, it seemed that the show was suggesting the father was more monstrous than Croc but quickly abandoned that line of thinking. Overall, it was difficult to determine what the show was trying to say about Croc, creating shifting sympathies as the episode went on and ultimately landing on Croc being a monster who needs to go to Arkham. At the very least, the presentation was sloppy and ultimately detracted from the episode.
5. Alice fights against her better impulses
While Alice spent the better part of “Loose Tooth” trying to escape from her ankle bracelet, there were moments throughout the episode where she showed genuine moments of vulnerability and suggestion of just who she is willing to defend. The central crux of the episode rests on finding a young woman kidnapped by Killer Croc. It’s in these moments that Alice appears genuine and vulnerable, defending those who were left behind.
It’s this vulnerability that ultimately gets her captured by the end of the episode. While she doesn’t precisely rescue the girl in “Loose Tooth,” her repeated attempts to get the girl to walk on her own and defend herself stall her enough that Luke catches up to her. Alice is not truly redeemed, nor does it seem that she’ll ever shake her compulsions for chaos, but she does have a code. She may never be a hero, but she’s not a villain either.
So there we have it. Another trophy down and a successful team-up of Ryan and Alice. What did you think? Sound off below, and see you next week!
