So Renee does what Pam did to her; she asks her to choose between her cause and her love. Even though Pam wants Renee more than anything, she also wants her to trust her. They kiss and as they pull away, Pam asks about the tulip. Renee says it’s for forgiveness and thrusts the serum into Pam’s chest.

No notes.

Not to be all “Thanos was right, his methods just sucked…”, but also, kind of. Pam’s desire to save the planet and bring attention to real issues like climate change isn’t wrong. Perhaps if there weren’t so many institutional blockades to her cause, she wouldn’t have had to resort to such extreme measures to get them to just pay attention. But that’s the thing about complex “villains”, right? They’re often pit against heroes who are supported by historically corrupt institutions (like the police and the government) in a way that almost makes us forget that we too are fighting against those very systems. It’s part of the reason I’ll always have a soft spot for Alice; she is a result of circumstances beyond her choosing. This whole “what makes a villain” conversation is much bigger than this recap, but one of my favorite things about this show is the fact that it blurs the line between traditional ideas of good and evil.

“Are people born wicked, or is wickedness thrust upon them?”

Where were we? Ah yes, the journals. Bruce wrote that he needed to bury Pam somewhere dark and dry but also accessible to him. The lightbulb above Ryan’s head goes off as she realizes Bruce buried Ivy right under their feet.

As Renee processes the information that Pam has been here this entire time, Sophie offers her and Ryan’s services if Renee can’t handle seeing Pam right now. Meanwhile, Ryan’s suited up and ready to hit the tunnels. She asks for total silence so she can use her bat sonar to listen for Pam’s heartbeat, but in a moment of pure comedy, Sophie’s phone goes off with a credit card fraud alert message, and y’all…if anyone ever looked at me the way Ryan looked at Sophie in that moment, I would die on the spot. Eventually she pinpoints her location and the trio heads into the tunnels.

Look, I’d make this face too if Ryan just stared at me like that.

Back at the party, Mary and Marquis do a lil villain dance and discuss how busy Ryan is trying to fix Mary at the moment. While locking eyes with Luke, Mary whispers something in Marquis’ ear that will help him get revenge on his sister. Have I mentioned how much I love these two playing off each other? Because whew chile, it is delicious.

Down in the tunnels, Sophie (still in white and somehow not dirty) spots the area where Bruce most likely buried Pam, so they chip away at the vines. Pam is completely desiccated, but she still has Bridget Regan’s face which means homegirl manages to look as flawless as a dehydrated person can look. After seeing what the serum did to Pam, Ryan can’t understand why they would want to do this to Mary, but she eventually relents and siphons the serum from Pam’s body. She leaves Sophie and Renee to make sure Pam doesn’t reanimate (because yes, that would just be AWFUL…), and heads to deal with Mary.

At the party, Marquis pulls Luke aside and reveals that he knows he’s Batwing. Oooohh Mary girl.. You told??? That’s cold.

Meanwhile, Sophie tries to reassure Renee that Pam would forgive her for what she did. I assume this is the first time they’ve spoken since they hooked up (did you know they hooked up?) because Renee takes half the blame for what went down with Alice. It’s then that Sophie realizes the fraud alert was someone ordering a cake to their hotel room and that all signs point to Alice. So she leaves Renee alone with Pam which is definitely 100% a great idea.

“Now can I trust you not to do anything crazy like crying on the love of your life?”

When Sophie gets to the hotel to confront Alice, she kicks in the room door. I repeat. A formally clad Sophie Moore KICKS OPEN THE DOOR to Alice’s hotel room. I swear, this show just gives and gives and gives. These two banter back and forth for a bit before Alice tells Sophie that Re Nay Nay is hiding something from them in her office. Also hey production team, release the bloopers from this scene because I KNOW they exist and are probably HYSTERICAL.

“Ugh, I really did miss her.”

Mary makes it to the roof of Wayne Tower and Ryan literally swoops in to head her off. Ryan shoves Mary against the ledge and holds the syringe to her friend’s neck. Mary uses her science knowledge to appeal to Ryan’s conscience about not knowing exactly what the serum will do to her. And Ryan hesitates just long enough to get distracted by Marquis showing up with Luke at gunpoint. Thanks to Mary, Marquis knows that his sister is Batwoman. Everything is crumbling right before Ryan’s eyes; her identity, her friendship with Mary, her desire to help her brother. She makes the move that will end up feeding two birds with one scone; she throws the syringe at Marquis, temporarily silencing him while also saving Luke.

This hurts my heart.

Mary manages to escape and once she’s back at the hotel, she’s not celebrating like someone who just bested a foe. Alice pops out of the bedroom after getting out of Sophie’s cuffs (pause – Sophie, no longer a member of law enforcement, just HAS handcuffs on her person? Girl, I see you) and accuses Mary of getting the “conscience tingles.” It’s not that though. Even though logically she knows injecting Marquis saved Luke and protected Ryan’s secret, in Mary’s mind, it was Ryan not choosing her yet again. Renee can say what she will about Ryan, but in that moment she did make the hard choice. The shit of it is that that choice alienated Mary even further, whether Ryan realizes it or not.

In a show of sweetness that surprised even me, Alice confided in Mary that ever since she’s been helping her she hasn’t had any delusions (no, I don’t want to talk about her walking in on Sophie in the shower, my gay ass heart can only take so much) and that in itself is an example of Mary’s power. I think these two are going to end up being good for each other. In a wild and chaotic way, of course.

They both just want to matter to the people they care about.

Back down in the tunnels, Renee apologizes to Pam for what she did all those years ago. Suddenly, a flower starts to bloom where only darkness and dry vines have existed for a decade. Renee takes this as a sign that Pam can hear her, so she arms herself with every “true love’s kiss” legend she knows, and kisses Pam right on the mouth. Shocking no one, Pam’s eyes pop wide open.

“Why do I feel like somebody’s watching meeeee?”

At the clinic, Luke and Ryan decide what to do with a now desiccated Marquis since the second he wakes up, he’ll tell the world who they are. Ryan decides to call Jada as Batwoman to tell her they have her son. Meanwhile, Sophie’s investigating Renee’s office and calls Luke to tell him and Ryan that Renee has been playing them this whole time; she has Joker’s buzzer and was seemingly only holding it over their heads until she got what she wanted: Pam.

“Try to contain that ‘I told you so’, Wilder.”

The episode closes with an empty tunnel so I can only assume Renee threw Pam into the nearest body of water to rehydrate like one of those “grow in water” toys.

Next week, people of color in the woods??? I don’t know about y’all, but I’m going to stop daring this show to get better because if they keep going at this rate, I’m not going to survive the season. Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments below!

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