Batwoman Season 2, Episode 10 recap: The Injustice System

In Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10, ‘Time Off for Good Behavior’, Batwoman goes up against systemic problems but gets a couple of personal wins. The Hamilton-Kane family, though, deal with some serious setbacks.

The CW show has been building up to a new villain reveal during the first half of the season. We see just how vicious the Roman Sionia/ Black Mask is in this episode. Sionis has got a plan and he doesn’t like things getting in the way of it. Even if it means taking out his own goons.

Batwoman has been fighting Black Mask’s False-Face Gang ever since she rescued Angelique from him. She’s successfully shut down Snakebite production for two weeks. But what she really wants is Black Mask’s identity—she announces as much on the city news channel.

Unfortunately, this is Gotham. Batwoman will have more than one villain to deal with this episode, on top of the systemic problems that Gotham has ignored for decades.

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10 – A Second Chance

Content warning: discussion of addiction

Jacob Kane is attacked by the False-Face Gang in his own car in Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10. In his unconscious mind, he imagines finding Beth when she’d first gone missing. If only that had happened. When he awakes, it’s to yet another nightmare. He’s been injected with something—Snakebite.

Because of the highly addictive properties of Snakebite, Jacob is unable to cope with the withdrawal symptoms on his own. The drug can make people hallucinate their worst moments and show them alternatives. That explains the dream Jacob had about Beth. He’s going to need the specialist’s help.

The only problem is that the specialist is Enigma, Safiyah’s associate, the person who removes memories and is currently working on Kate Kane. Jacob is in grave danger and doesn’t even know it.

As Enigma tries to ‘help’ Jacob with the Snakebite problem, she advises him to mend the relationship he has with his remaining daughter. That’s the only way to get through the withdrawal.

There are more problems for Jacob. Black Mask himself, in the guise of Roman Sionis, hands him Snakebite. Sionis wants Jacob out of the way and he’s succeeding.

Even though Sophie Moore gets a lead on Black Mask’s headquarters, it’s just Black Mask giving the Crows the run-around. He’s already abandoned the place, leaving nothing but dead bodies behind.

Jacob does take Enigma’s advice and goes to speak to Mary about her clinic. He wants her to open it up again and he’ll pay for it.

The plan doesn’t work though—Mary doesn’t want a legitimate clinic. People won’t be able to afford her services then. She’s still furious with him and she can’t forgive him for taking the one thing she had in her life.

Jacob takes it badly—he uses the Snakebite Sionis left for him.

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10 – An Unlikely Partnership

Meanwhile, Sophie and Julia Pennyworth are tracing Julia’s steps during her search for Kate Kane. The obvious answer is that Julia drank away her memory.

More problems for Julia arise in Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10—Alice summons Julia. Alice needs a new partner to find Enigma. That explains Julia’s memory loss.

Though Julia takes every opportunity to needle Alice, she realises they’re both hurting. Kate always chose someone else over them. She chose alt-Beth and Mary over Alice, and Sophie over Julia. But that’s not the hurt Alice is trying to forget—she wants to forget the person who caused all her pain.

Alice and Julia do make a breakthrough though—a doctor that Julia had visited could be the key to finding Julia’s memories. That doctor just happens to be Enigma.

But when Julia confronts Enigma, her plan backfires—Enigma injects her with something that makes her forget. Again. And this time Enigma convinces Julia to move to Berlin. How can Enigma be stopped?

Alice breaks into Enigma’s office and makes herself very comfortable. We love a petty villain! She does learn that Enigma went to meet Jacob and she listens to the recording of Jacob talking about not saving Beth.

But Alice isn’t as easily moved. She wants to forgive him, but she’d rather forget him instead. She even erases the recording. Jacob Kane effectively has no daughters left.

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10 – Killer Volt

Ryan is still keeping in touch with Angelique while she’s in prison in Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10. Ryan tries to convince Angelique to give up the False-Face Gang but Angelique’s not budging. She changes the topic, accusing Ryan of being with Batwoman. Ryan’s going to have to tell her the truth soon.

At the community center launched by Jordan Moore, Mary and Ryan, they find a new ally in Imani (Samantha Cole), a powerful voice who believes in the centre. When Horten Spence (Jaime M. Callica) from the Gazette gatecrashes, and lectures Jordan about not increasing security at the facilities, Imani tells him off.

Unfortunately, Spence turns out to be right—a new masked man, Killer Volt, destroys the center moments later with a lightning gun.

Batwoman confronts Spence about Killer Volt. Team-Batwoman suspect he is Killer Volt; he was suspiciously fired from his job at the Gazette six months ago. But Spence seems to suggest that the Gazette wanted him to stop looking into people like Killer Volt—that’s why they fired him.

To prove his point, Killer Volt himself lands up to take down Spence. Batwoman fights him and gets the gun, but Spence is hurt. Though Jacob and the Crows shut down Mary’s underground lab, that’s the only place where Spence can be treated.

Luke manages to get a partial print off the gun—Micky K, who’s been in prison for two years. Ryan goes to speak to him in prison. Micky K has a laceration from his fight with Batwoman, but he never left his cell. So, how did he do it?

It looks like the Edgewater prison itself is letting prisoners out to destroy community programmes. Private prisons profit off of at-risk children falling through the cracks.

Batwoman confronts the CEO of Edgewater, who pretty much confesses. But it’s a stalling tactic. Edgewater’s guards—goons, really—attack Batwoman with multiple lightning guns.

It looks bad for Batwoman until Luke arrives at the last minute with the lightning gun they’d got earlier and takes the goons by surprise. Batwoman successfully sends the CEO to prison, and Spence gets his job back writing about the breaking news.

Ryan goes back to Angelique to ask about prison breaks. Angelique may not know about Micky K but she does listen to Ryan’s reasoning this time. She finally talks and Sophie gets her a deal. Angelique has to be off the grid till Black Mask is caught though.

Black Mask is still one step ahead of them—as Angelique says her temporary goodbyes to Ryan, her Crows escort is ambushed. The False-Face Gang takes Angelique as Ryan listens on. Ryan’s absolute belief in doing the right thing has come to naught. Her soulmate is gone.

Final Thoughts – Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10 Continues its Social Discussion

What I’ve loved about Batwoman this season is how it’s consistently tackled social issues through the lens of the superhero genre. The episode narratives have woven in real-life injustices and shown viewers what superheroes should be doing with their voices, and not their fists.

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10 continues this trend and does so by calling out a systemic problem that often gets overlooked—the school-to-prison pipeline. One can hope that the community center that Jordan Moore has started will make a difference in Gotham.

It’ll be interesting to see how the subsequent episodes handle Angelique’s disappearance, and Kate’s eventual reappearance. The show seems to have found a possible love interest for Ryan in Imani. But will she be ready to move on?

And what of Julia? Is she really going to be tricked into going to Berlin? Or will Sophie and Team-Batwoman catch Enigma in time? We can’t wait to find out more!

What did you think of the Batwoman Season 2 Episode 10? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Batwoman Season 2 is airing weekly on The CW.