For a brief moment, we finally see Helena as we've longed
to since the beginning of the series.
No, guys, not in a bat-bikini, though for some of us, it's
just as much of a tease. As part of an undercover assignment
for Reese, the daughter of two masked heroes dons a mask herself,
though it serves more to give the viewers a false element
of surprise than as a real plot point.
Actually, the appearance of Helena with the thieving "Animals" taunts fans in two ways. Their m.o. seems a lot like the old Black Mask gang, and for a bit we could imagine that this was a nod to a Batman foe, risen from the ashes of old Gotham.
But no, the gang eagerly takes off their masks as soon as they leave the scene of a crime, and they're rather sloppy about it. After one heist, it looks like they ripped off their masks before they even left the club. We can probably chalk that one up to poorly thought out direction.
Acknowledging her past, Helena takes the code-name of "Cat," so you might be able to guess the subtext of this episode. While Barbara frets that Dinah still grieves for her mother, the Black Canary (hey, hey, HEY! We never actually saw a body…), she completely ignores the signs of Helena recalling her own missing mother.
This element plays out with a little more subtlety than you might expect. We still get the final clocktower confessional scene (though shot a little differently), and it still sums up whatever emotional undercurrent has been running through the episode. But it's a step in the right direction that until the finale, nobody really stopped to point it out for slower viewers.
In Dinah's case, however, it remains hamhanded. Despite her protests of being okay, it's obvious that she's still in mourning because she looks ready to burst into tears in every scene. This conflict leads to a climactic declaration that she won't lose Helena like she lost her mom, and darned if she isn't right. Hey kids, Dinah can be trusted!
Once again trust rears its ugly head between Helena and Reese. The Huntress' dangerous fixation with not following the rules causes serious injury to Reese's partner, forcing the cutest couple in New Gotham take a step back.
Though Helena apologizes and begs for another chance, it isn't until they're both tied up that Reese can forgive her. If he'd managed to spit back, "you want my trust? YOU HAVEN'T EARNED IT!" the episode would have been fifty percent better as a potential drinking game.
Then again, Reese still hasn't proven he's that bright a cop. At the top of the episode, Helena refers to his signaling device as "the Batring." Cutesy dialogue, maybe, in which The Huntress specializes. But the ring actually has a bird of prey on it.
You'd think that a guy recently told about Batman might catch that little discrepancy, and if not actually put two and two together, at least write it on the chalkboard for later addition.
At least he bleeds well, definitely in the Captain Kirk tradition.
And on that digression, shouldn't all his partners start wearing red shirts? In six episodes, at least four have either died or been put into intensive care. Granted, one was a psychotic killer himself, but still.
High points of the episode include a gentle progression
for Barbara's relationship with Wade, though they both seemed
to have forgotten that his parents disapprove. Any time Dina
Meyer gets to smile winsomely at the camera is a good time.
Putting aside admiration for her physical appearance, Meyer
actually seems comfortable playing Barbara, and we buy both
the strength and vulnerability of the character in spite of
occasionally soap operatic dialogue.
And of course, Mia Sara continues convincingly as a Harley Quinn without red and white costume. The writers give her the line of the night as she coos over jewelry, "I could buy a lot of pretty things with this. Guns…bombs…shoes…" It's perfect Harley logic.
Only Ms. Sara gets away with the lack of costume, as her
madness keeps seeping through. On second thought, maybe the
normal appearance is the costume, and we just have
yet to see Harley's true face.
But for everyone else, let's stop talking about masked heroes
and villains and actually show some. Even next week, with
allegedly another protégé of Batman, looks curiously costume-free.
This show flirts so closely with comic books, it really should
just give in.
