Tommy Elliot's exceedingly short visit reminds Gotham that Alice is not the only enemy, although Kate Kane struggles with the fact that she has ignited the quality of hope of an entire city, and she is not so confident that she can live up to it. Elsewhere, in a successful b-plot, Sophia searches for Mary on her husband for information and Alice terrorizes the home of Hamilton-Kane.
First of all: Hush. I could have avoided the rhetoric surrounding Tommy Elliot without the wall comparisons or "Making Gotham Safe Again," but other than those lines, he sounded like his own character rather than a Trump sendup. This episode probably had to take care of just as much "other business" as the previous one, leaving Tommy underexplored for such a great character (or even a week's run-of - the-mill villain) and the rest of the story feel cramped.
Gotham has always been a place of income inequality and dizzying public safety concerns, so leaning into a villain who is gentrification/gated communities personified, the unhinged 1%, feels right, even if we had too little time with him. Gabriel Mann was perfectly cast as the preening maniac and brought the role to life immediately. Considering there was no mention of his Hush persona, it seems likely that Arkham Asylum, Gotham’s least-secure mental health facility, will be but a temporary lodging for him.
Batwoman filtered whatever angst Kate and Sophie might be feeling toward each other through Tyler & Regan and Mary, respectively, for much more interesting results than if they had confronted one another directly. For one, Mary continues to be an absolutely highlight, and her sisterly insistence on playing hype-woman/protector/and-I-oop spectator in Kate’s favor (largely in her absence) was delightful to watch. Mary had some of the best lines of the evening, and will no doubt play a role in helping Sophie and Kate eventually realize where they stand.
It makes sense that Kate wouldn’t potentially out Sophie but would rather float a detective-like fact-finding answer to Sophie’s husband Tyler when he asked how the two know one another. Like most members of the Bat family, Kate isn’t powered but rather strong and incredibly clever, working her enemies like a case, which was on full display in this episode. Tyler’s ignorance of the Sophie/Kate backstory slows down the pace of the inevitable Kate/Sophie reunion while allowing Reagan an opening to show how hilarious it is that various straight people on the show like Tyler and Alice keep missing the memo on queer characters like Sophie and Kate.
