With the Crisis over, it’s back to business as usual with Batwoman S1E10 “How Queer Everything is Today!” Prepare yourself for a super on the nose title, some meh plot, but top tier character beats. Jeff Hunt directed the episode written by Caroline Dries.

This is a full recap of Batwoman S1E10: AKA beware of spoilers.

If you’re not already, make sure to read through our backlog of recaps and get caught up!

“A bombshell caped crusader and a cop with Chris Evans vibes.”

We open up in the tunnels of Gotham for a classic supervillain move. A train’s brakes have been sabotaged and its heading for certain doom. Thankfully, Batwoman (Ruby Rose) has a new bike and Luke (Camrus Johnson) is in the chair, just like the pre-Crisis days. They share some familiar banter, Kate mentions her birthday is coming up, and she launches a grappling hook, stopping the train in its tracks. As the plot demands, though, it doesn’t hold. The hook goes flying straight for Batwoman’s head. A lame cop tackles Batwoman, right in the nick of time and the paparazzi speculates some hetero romance.

After the title card, Vesper Fairchild (Rachel Maddow) is all over that scoop and Kate is not psyched about it. Vesper also compares said cop to Chris Evans’ Captain America, which is extremely gracious. Anyway, in Wayne Tower, Luke and Kate chat about the gossip, Kate obviously pointing out how uncomfortable it makes her, given that she’s exclusively into ladies. Luke argues that it might be good; if Kate’s gay and Batwoman is straight, then Kate can’t be Batwoman – but, Kate being the woman she is doesn’t sit right with the deception.

In Gotham cemetery, Alice (Rachel Skartsen) and Mouse (Sam Littlefield) celebrate their most recent victory over Catherine Hamilton’s grave. Alice pours one out over her headstone, making a comment about wishing Kate were there, though Mouse is quick to ground her. He says Alice’s psychosis is falling apart; that Kate would never side with them as long as Alice is who she is. At that, Alice spits out her biscuit and we change scenes.

In her clinic, Mary (Nicole Kang) addresses her Insta followers, who are apparently up to some major trolling. With Jacob behind bars and Catherine’s sinister business operations out in the open, Mary is left taking the brunt of the city’s anger. Kate shows up and, as you might guess, Mary is still upset about how things went down. They chat about Jacob’s case (which Kate has been too busy to help with). Kate asks if there’s any way she can help and Mary tells her it’d be great if she could get Alice to stop defiling her mom’s grave. Big ouch.

“We all wear a mask, maybe it’s time you took yours off.”

So, Kate does what she does best. Her and Luke head over to the train wreck and try to figure out what went wrong. (Not gonna ask why no one is questioning their presence at a rime scene). Kate quickly finds some sort of jammer under the train bench, which Luke surmises was responsible for stopping the brakes. Just as that happens, a spooky Animoji appears on phones and TVs across the city, threatening more chaos if they don’t get $5 million.

On the news, the mayor assures people the GCPD are on the job and that they shouldn’t be alarmed. As he does, the hacker (AKA Terrier) hijacks the news, throwing the mayor’s credit card number across the screen. That’s the last straw for Luke, who shuts down the Batcave immediately. Kate tries to tell him everything will be fine (and throws in his face that he sends bat-emojis in every text), but Luke worries that Batwoman’s identity may be compromised if they keep the cave online. They meet in the middle and spend five more minutes trying to get a lead.

Meanwhile, in prison, Jacob (Dougray Scott) finds a razor in his meatloaf. Someone approaches him and tells us what we could’ve inferred: that every criminal he put away is now gunning for him. Mary calls and briefs him on the case; Jacob is more concerned with his step-daughter. He suggests that she talk to a therapist – but Mary is too concerned with the case.

Batwoman arrives at what she presumes is the hacker’s HQ, where she finds Sophie (Meagan Tandy) and the Crows already on the job! She’s interrogating a group of guys who are mostly just groveling for their lives as we discover that Post-Crisis Sophie is an absolute hardass. She puts a gun to a dude’s head, says “answer the damn question!” The whole nine yards. Batwoman stops her on the way out, letting Sophie vent. With the divorce, her sudden promotion and her boss being tried as a killer, it’s fair to say she’s got a lot going on. Kate tells her it’s time to figure out who she is and we get a nice dialogue about identity the masks that we all wear.

In a quick scene, Mary runs into one of her profs after class, trying to get him to be a witness for Jacob’s trial. He tells her she’s making it all up and dismisses her.

Back at the Cave, Kate and Luke chat about Batwoman’s identity. She calls back to her new mantle as a paragon of courage, telling Luke that hiding behind her mask is the opposite of what she’s supposed to be. Luke changes the subject, though, because he’s got a plan. If they blackout Gotham, the Hacker should be the first one back online. Some more sleuthing reveals the Terrier is a girl in the vicinity of Gotham Prep.

At Crow HQ, Mary tells Sophie about her failed attempt with her prof. Sophie tries to tell her to talk to Kate – when suddenly Mary sees Alice on campus. She follows, because she’s Mary.

Batwoman acts on her intel from the previous scene and – although the major beats of this scene are under DNR, I will reiterate the episode’s title and say I like where this is going thematically and also with regards to Kate’s character. In a heavy scene, she confronts the hacker and finds out their motivations.

“My inner mean girl never got to live out her high school experience!”

Cut to Alice, who’s found the hacker and Batwoman, who’s found Alice. They have a quick before Alice kidnaps the hacker, taking her to the shop classroom. Batwoman arrives again, just in time for this episode’s evil plot monologue. Seemingly realizing that Mouse was right about Kate being a different person, Alice tries to get Kate to give up the cape and cowl.

In the clinic, Mary packs up her equipment. Sophie walks in, telling Mary that the Crows ran a full sweep of Gotham U and that Alice was never there. Sophie tells her she migh’tve been seeing things and points out, again, that Mary should talk to someone.

Back in class, Alice is still trying to convince Kate out of her vigilante deal; it’s either take of the mask, or Alice saws the Terrier’s head off. Batwoman and the Terrier bond over a shared experience, but before they get too far, Alice lays out her plan. She threatens the hacker again, trying even harder to force Kate into retirement. Given Kate’s current disposition about truly living and being the paragon of truth, she shrugs and goes along with Alice’s plan. The hacker drops some hot gossip on every phone in Gotham, so Alice sets her free.

Alice tries to win Kate over, but uh, threatening to kill hundreds of innocents doesn’t fall under the “love me for who I am” umbrella for Kate. The Crows and Gotham PD arrive on the scene, along with Gotham’s Hot Cop. Unfortunately, Mouse is the one with the control. He puts their plan into motion before Hot Cop can escape and, in a turn of events, Batwoman saves him. Onlookers chant for them to kiss and Batwoman says nah.

The next day, the hacker shows up at Wayne Tower. Kate has personally assigned some community service. I was hoping there’d be a new member of the team, but – no dice. Though Kate does leave the door open for future chats.

In the Batcave, Luke commends Kate for how she handled last mission and wishes her a happy birthday! He’s got a Bat Cupcake for her and they share a nice moment. Kate transitions us out with a touching monologue. She heads over to the clinic, where her and Mary make up and hug. I promise I’m not crying.

The End (minus one scene I can’t talk about, but really want to).

Batwoman S1E10 is a great welcome back to the series following the Crisis event. The writing and character work merge together with the fallout from that surprisingly well and point to really interesting arcs not only for Kate, but also for Mary and – well – that last scene that I can’t discuss. I will say that I hope that’s not a one-off, because I’m very excited for its potential. We’ll find out next week! See ya then.