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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Batwoman Season 3 Episode 10: Toxic

January 27th, 2022 by Todd Black Comments

One of the recurring issues with Batwoman this season is that the shortened season isn’t leaving a lot of room for growth in key areas, and “Toxic” was a great example of that. Because after last week’s episode, they teased a fully-powered Poison Ivy, and her teaming up with Mary to get things done…and it was literally all ‘wrapped up’ in a nearly perfect bow with some questionable decisions along the way.

Let’s get to the heart of the matter, Ivy and Mary teaming up at the beginning at first was honestly kind of cool, as Ivy helped Mary embrace her new side in regards to that insurance man. And her plan to take out the dam to not just fulfill what she felt was right, but avenge her brother and all the others that were hurt by the industry corruption felt both very real, and very Ivy.

But then on a dime she treated Mary as nothing more than a battery and left her for dead basically…only to admit that she needed her later on? It was very confusing because if Mary was the battery and she “drained her”, why was she still needing her later on? They implied it was because there was still some Ivy in Mary, but if that was the case, and she had no problems getting rid of other people in her way, why didn’t she just drain her that time on the dam and be done with it?

Just as bad/dumb though was that Ivy was alone, at the dam, with her powers…and despite there being a clearly large amount of time being spent after Mary got drained to when she returned…Ivy hadn’t taken out the dam yet. How is that possible? Even if it was just an hour (and I’m being gracious on that based on the daylight shown in key scenes), she had plenty of time to deal with the dam and be done with it all before Mary or Batwoman showed up.

Oh, but I’m not done, because another key flaw was in the final fight. Ivy still had her powers, and was able to kill a guard with a wave of her hand…but couldn’t take out Batwoman? And instead decided to do a whip fight…and got beaten because she fell? Lame.

Finally (for Ivy at least), her being sent to Corianna was just…no. Even if you buy the whole “Renee can change her” bit, she killed multiple people, attempted to kill many more and their plan is to just…ship her off to an island to be happy with her girlfriend? And Renee’s “option” of Poison Ivy jumping out the plane…really? That was really bad. And remember, I LIKED this relationship (and still do despite how it ended for both of them), but that ending was just wrong for various reasons, and yet they played a love song as if this was the ONLY way for it to end…when that wasn’t true at all.

As for Renee, I did appreciate her coming around (remember, she’s always been a good person and cop in the comics and beyond) to stopping Ivy, and yet, Batwoman continuing to say that her whole thing with the trophies was a “scam” was wrong. Yes, she admitted she hoped to see Pam again, but that was no guarantee as she had no idea where Batman buried her, nor that the vine wouldn’t be caught before Pam was found. And as proven in the first half of the season, those items WERE dangerous, so Renee was right to bend arms to get things done. So…how was it all a scam?

Just as rushed sadly was Luke’s “return to form”. So all it took was him to say, “there is no voice”? After all of that fighting with Mary, saying “I’m not hero” and denouncing his father basically…that’s all it took for him to be 100%? How does that make sense? I wanted him to suit up again, but after all that buildup and talk about his trauma…he got rid of it in record time and that is kind of an insult.

Adding to matters was the Jada Jett situation, which I’m very confused about. Not the least of which is because a few episodes ago if you recall, Batwoman called Jada and told her she had Marcus…and…she just kept him? Why? And if that was all she planned to do, why did she call Jada in the first place? She didn’t owe her any explanation of where he was. Not helping things was her “deadline” and Ryan not even trying to negotiate despite…you know…POISON IVY BEING ON THE LOOSE?!?! Why didn’t she fight to give her more time? 12 hours more wouldn’t have made a difference, and it made the sting of what Jada did less impactful because we KNEW it was coming, we just didn’t know how. One more thing, why didn’t she use her voice modulator for Jada like she did when she called her? Jada’s talked to Ryan enough to know her voice so…how did she not pick up on that?

Oh, and Marcus waking up because of the dam being damaged? …so lame.

So were good parts of the episode? Yes, yes there was. Alice for the most part, she’s the MVP of the season, bar none. And we got to see multiple layers to her once again in this episode and I look forward to seeing how she acts with her “tenuous freedom” as well as how her “best sister ever” relationship goes now that Mary is “back to normal”.

Speaking of which, Mary’s arc going forward will also be interesting, especially because of how she knows she killed a man, and how she hurt the others in her “Poison Mary” form. I do kind of wish that not all of Poison Mary was gone because of how she was right about various things in that “form” but perhaps it won’t all be gone, we’ll see.

In the end, “Toxic” did tie things up, and there were some cool things that happened, but it felt like a rushed ending to arguably the best storyline of the season. And next episode it’s about Marcus again…and that doesn’t excite me at all.

3/5

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!