Welcome back to Gotham! The city’s own paragon of courage Kate Kane defends her city as Batwoman, but her life has been difficult. Not only does she have to try and stop her evil twin, but she has to fight a VAMPIRE?!? So don your cape, grab your specially calibrated Bat blacklight, and join us as we give you five thoughts on Batwoman season 1, episode 13 “Drink Me.”
1. Jacob is back with a new score to settle
When last we left Jacob, he was in Gotham’s prison after being framed for the murder of his wife. It was your classic case of “cop in jail,” dealing with inmates that his private police force helped put away. But in “Drink Me” he’s suddenly out of jail, with little to no explanation for it. While I didn’t necessarily mind having him out, it does make you wonder if there was something bigger being planned there that was simply just aborted. He did have arrangements with that one inmate which might pay off later, but it would have been nice to get more explanation than a “walk-and-talk” with a reporter.
That being said, having Jacob back with the Crows adds an interesting new dynamic to the show which worked. Because Gotham is convinced that Alice is dead after her twin doppelganger from another dimension died, Jacob realizes that the Crows are no longer trusted. Of course, Batwoman is to blame. Let’s just ignore the recent police state and increased class stratification that they’ve caused, it’s clearly Batwoman’s fault. Having the Crows be a thorn in Kate’s side is smart, outside of the dynamic of having to hide her identity from her dad, it’s always interesting to see how vigilantes work when they have multiple deterrents to deal with.
2. A classic Batventure to help ease the pain
After an infinite Earth’s crisis and dealing with the emotional whiplash of getting a healthy well-balanced version of your twin, to then lose her, it’s easy to see that things have been pretty intense for Kate and Co. In fact, outside of the Crisis on Infinite Earths episodes, Kate has spent quite a lot of time out of the Batsuit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the character drama of the past two episodes felt worthy enough, but when you’re watching a show called Batwoman you do want to see that suit in action. This week, Kate gets that opportunity.
There have been mysterious disappearances around Gotham nightclubs where the victims get their blood drawn by a real-life vampire. After unsuccessfully stopping the Vampire (who the city is calling “Nocturna”) Kate and Luke decide to set up a trap for their nocturnal nemesis, a grand opening of Kate’s bar/club. “Drink Me” gives Kate the opportunity to do three things that makes Bats great. She gets to kick ass in the suit, she gets to live her successful double life as the owner and bartender of a trendy LGBTQ+ bar, and she gets to do some serious detective work, trying to identify Nocturna using Wayne enterprises super cameras. All of the Batwoman stuff in the episode worked well, especially trying to navigate the awkward situation of trying to question a suspect flirting with her ex. After all the intense family drama of the past couple of weeks, it was nice seeing Kate and Luke banter and have a bit of fun.
3. Nocturna, the Living (kinda sorta) Vampire
“Drink Me” might not feature an ACTUAL Vampire, but it gets pretty closer. Nocturna fits many of the tropes of the creatures of the night, she seduces people, injects them with ketamine (via bite no less,) and then drains their blood using IV drips, usually sucking them bone dry. As the episode progresses, Luke discovers that Nocturna is Natalia Night, a young woman who was adopted by the Janitor of Gotham Cathedral who has a rare condition where she can’t be in intense light and something about filtering blood? (Once again, the episode isn’t super forthcoming with this information.) After her father died, she started to find her own source of blood and started doing the Nocturna thing.
In this case, the lack of information is kinda fun. It lets your imagination run wild. Does she have a “fang rig?” Did her father steal blood for her? These are all just little thoughts I had during the episode. In any case, the final confrontation between Nocturna and Batwoman comes after Nocturna kidnaps Mary and takes her back to her lair at, get this, Gotham Cathedral. The set design of the final confrontation was great. Full of abandoned Gothic architecture and candelabras. It was cheesy and a little over the top, but it was the right level of superhero cheese. Kate is able to stop Nocturna, giving the arrest to Sophie. Everything surrounding Nocturna was honestly pretty weird, but the right kind of superhero weird.
Continued below4. Sophie continues to figure out her life and dynamic
Sophie has been dealing with a lot since the midseason finale. She lost her husband, was thrust into being the leader of the Crows, and is dealing with some complicated emotions regarding Batwoman. Combining this with her continued struggles with her identity makes Sophie an increasingly interesting character. In Jacob’s absence, she began to not necessarily rely on Batwoman but has helped her and taken her advice on different situations in Gotham. It doesn’t seem to sit well with her when Jacob returns with a newfound animosity to Gotham’s caped crusader.
This all reaches a head when Jacob forces her to make a difficult decision, continue working for the Crows and try to take down the Bat, or quit. In the episode’s final moments, Sophie bears her soul to Batwoman, explaining how much her job means to her and how much of her identity is connected to her work. But she has clearly developed feelings for Batwoman, kissing her on the rooftop. It seems like she will continue working for the Crows at least for the moment, but who knows going forward. Every week Sophie becomes a bit more of a wildcard, and that is interesting, to say the least.
5. A new dynamic between Kate and Alice
Alice is in a really low spot at the beginning of “Drink This.” Her twin was going to let her die, her friend and confidant Mouse is missing, and she learns that her tormentor, the man responsible for her becoming Alice is back. Oh and she’s also been captured by Nocturna and having her blood drained. Throughout the episode, we see Alice’s already pretty fragile grip on sanity slip as she talks to dummies and monologues to no one. But she is also prepared with schemes, convincing Nocturna to steals Mary’s magical blood and then being the only person who can save her with Kate.
Alice is clearly establishing a new dynamic with Kate, one that Kate calls vampiric in its own way. Manipulate Kate’s guilt, show Kate that she made the wrong choice. Be just helpful enough but still be the agent of chaos she’s been all along. Hopefully, the new dynamic will inject some new life into this rivalry.
[break]And there we have it. As the episode ends Mary seems to have pieced together Kate’s little secret, so who knows how that will play out! What did you think of the episode? What did you think of having a good old fashioned villain of the week? Sound off below!
