Of all the words you might use to describe The Huntress, motherly would not be one of them. So naturally we would find it ironic that she bonds to a baby she rescues and discovers a tender side that no one ever suspected. Despite the utter obviousness of that plot development, this week's episode plays out pretty well.
Part of that comes out of not compromising on a pretty twisted Harley Quinn scheme. The baby, named Guy by Dinah, turns out to be a genetically engineered assassin. With a life-cycle of only three days (and a "neural mesh" serving as deus ex machina to allow him to behave appropriately for his size), Guy is only the first in what Harley hopes to be an army.
The writers take advantage of Harley logic; she and her beloved Mr. J always wanted children, and such psychopaths would naturally want them to be killers. If the show can continue delivering schemes so perfectly in character, it will be a point in its favor.
Especially when there are such consequences. Despite Barbara's
initial search for a cure, the Birds cannot break Guy's genetic
programming. As a result, the baby ages in convenient special
effects-free spurts past adulthood into old age and death.
More ravaging for Helena, because Harley remotely triggers
his kill code, the process happens even faster than they had
thought. As a result, the episode ends on a genuinely poignant
note that no teen anthem can spoil - it even verges on the
literate.
Other nice touches abound. For the first time, we get to see Oracle actually fight, proving that the wheelchair does not make her physically helpless. As Dina Meyer totally rocks as Barbara anyway, it made for a nice moment. Dinah's power accidentally moves the plot along in a couple of places, which subtly (yes, subtly) brings up the point that she does need to learn to control it.
Slowly, Detective Reese may be developing, too. He gets the drop on Helena at one point, proving that he could be more than just a pretty cop. And he manages to go an entire episode without cowering in helpless indecision, a typical male "needing," as Helena derides, "to be rescued." Aside from Shemar Moore's meta ability to glimmer with sweat without moving, it's still not really clear what The Huntress sees in Reese.
We also mark the turning point where both sides in the crime-fighting chess game of New Gotham start to suspect they have specific enemies. Though they fail to recognize each other, Helena and Harley catch mutual fleeting glimpses at the scene of a Guy melee.
The Birds of Prey knew that someone was manipulating crimes, but Harley is furious to discover that a superhero may be back in town. As always, Mia Sara chews the scene with delight. And that's a good thing.
Where things could have been stronger was The Huntress' fight scenes. At first I thought I was imagining things, but one fight scene developed the following pattern for every major move: Helena leaps up, cut to slow-motion spin, then cut to realtime connect. When things become that obvious, it's time to switch directors.
Next week the real Black Canary comes to town, the sworn enemy of Helena's mother. Pop some corn for this one, because the WB promises a real catfight.
