Recap: BATWOMAN S1E13: “Drink Me”

The multiversal shenanigans are at an end, and it’s back to the status quo for Batwoman S1E13, “Drink Me.” In the episode directed by Dermott Downs and written by Jerry Shandy, it’s party time and Sophie asks Batwoman to make herself scarce when a new villain appears on the streets of Gotham.

This is a full recap of Batwoman S1E13: AKA beware of spoilers.

If haven’t already, make sure to read through our backlog of recaps and get caught up!

We open in a dark room on a risqué scene between two folks we haven’t yet seen. The woman we can quickly assume is this episode’s villain gives Gotham a new definition of the word bat when she bites her boytoy on the neck and, just a few minutes later, has his blood draining while she flips through her magazine.

Meanwhile, Kate (Ruby Rose) and Mary (Nicole Kang) and Luke (Camrus Johnson) (and me if we’re being honest) are still struggling with Beth’s fate last episode. None of them quite understand what went wrong, but they’re determined to find her killer, especially given that the entire city thinks Alice (Rachel Skarsten) is actually dead – so it’s on the Bat crew and a particularly angsty Batwoman to find her and stop her.

Oh hey look, Jacob (Dougray Scott) proved he was framed! On his way out of the court house, he’s questioned a bit about his next moves. He then heads over to the morgue, where he meets Sophie (Meagan Tandy) and finds out that this Alice is – not actually Alice. There’s no record of her whatsoever. Jacob can’t quite grasp it. Especially given that they can’t identify the bullet that killed her. Jacob calls it a side effect of making an entire city your enemy.

Speak of the devil, Alice is in a super weird mannequin factory, where her cronies tell her Mouse is missing from his hospital room (we know where he is though, of course).

Back at Wayne Tower, Luke gives Kate the bad news that there’s extremely little news in the case of Beth’s killer. Then he briefs her on this episode’s case: a literal vampire, AKA Nocturna. Luke makes the early 2000’s joke, then they try to figure out how to lure her into a trap. Also, Luke pretends to be up on the Gotham club scene. It’s very cute!

“I’ve always wanted to slay a vampire.”

Batwoman skulks the rooftops later that night when she hears a scream. A woman is bound up the same way the dude from the opening scene was – and Nocturna is there waiting for her. Nocturna sounds pretty psyched about meeting her, they brawl and, just as it looks like Kate has her, Nocturna gets a nibble in, knocking Kate unconscious.

Now, tied up herself, Nocturna is about to begin uhh harvesting, when the Crows arrive and Luke tells her she was hit with a paralytic. Sophie discovers Kate as her antidote is kicking in, untying her with a threat. If Sophie finds her like this again, she’s taking her back to headquarters instead of letting her fly back to the cave. Kate accepts that and makes herself scarce just as the Crows find Sophie, all by herself.

Back at the clinic, Kate pretends she’s got the flu, but Mary isn’t buying it. Hopefully it’s only a matter of time until Kate comes clean, but for now, Mary comes up with a cover story for her. She hypothesizes that it’s all psychological given Beth’s death. At least until she finds ketamine in Kate’s blood and suddenly becomes super suspicious.

Kate dodges the questions and heads over to see Luke, who is into the science, but not into Kate’s spicy retelling of how Nocturna drugged her with her fake teeth. Then, Kate comes up with the perfect plan to find her once again: “we’re having a party.”

Jacob is back in the driver’s seat and back to giving his speeches. He’s knocking on Batwoman and hoping that catching Nocturna will show the Crow’s “real authority” (yikes) and stop them from losing anymore clients. Afterwards, he chats with Sophie, seeing that Mary is planning the aforementioned banger. Since Nocturna’s known to make those her haunts, he asks Sophie to head over and make sure everything stays toothless.

Now, it’s costume time. Mary arrives at the party along with hundreds of other folks while Luke and Kate watch over on cams. They’re having business as usual until Luke sees the Crow herself and is – speechless. Kate heads down to the party so she doesn’t have to pick his jaw up off of the floor again. There, Mary tries to get Sophie to loosen up. They’re interrupted though and Mary leaves her flying solo with a wink. Kate, on the opposite side of the room, gets the intel from Luke that said woman is, you guessed it, Nocturna. 

Let the messy drama begin!

In Crow HQ, Jacob is briefed on the Nocturna situation. There’s some footage from the earlier encounter he has yet to see which, although we don’t see it, is definitely Sophie letting Batwoman go free.

Back to the party and Kate is trying to convince herself that there’s no way Sophie is actually flirting with Nocturna. Luke tries to push her into cutting in and, even though Kate’s flustered, she finally goes. Prepare for some more digs at the upper crust as Nocturna calls the Crows flashy and Sophie reveals a little too much about the intricacies of Batwoman’s suit. That’s when Kate arrives, just in time to serve up drinks. Nocturna has a hilariously cheesy reaction when Kate accidentally slices herself cutting a lime. Then Sophie dips as soon as she arrives as Jacob calls her back in.

Kate, back in the surveillance room, sees Alice waiting outside. She came here because she thinks Kate took Mouse hostage, but she leaves having had a tense convo about her sister eh, you know, choosing to let her die. Skarsten knocks it out of the park, as is expected, and the two leave on less than ideal terms.

Alice heads back to the mannequin factory where she starts talking to a dummy with a flesh face. As you can expect, Alice is only going downhill after Kate’s decision. Mouse tells her, or rather plastic Mouse tells her, to forget about Kate. Right before Nocturna sinks he teeth into her, that is.

“Why should I care if she doesn’t love me?”

Back in the temporary HQ, Luke and Kate are trying to ID Nocturna – but he’s got other plans. He wants to talk about the chat that just went down. He’s worried about how Alice might manipulate her. He’s going back over the footage when he finds the actual Notcuran, and discovers she’s stealing blood because of a disease she has that requires to constantly have fresh blood. Weird!

Nocturna’s got Alice tied up and ready to drain in the mannequin factory, trying to buy herself time with a diversion. She tells the vampire there’s a much better donor out there – and she listens.

Sophie’s arrived at Crow HQ and Jacob cuts right to the chase. He asks if there’s been any cooperation between the two, and Sophie says no. The next couple scenes are quick flashes as Batwoman finds Alice – and Nocturna finds Mary (who apparently has tasty influencer blood?).

Batwoman, still with Alice, begins investigating. She realizes that Nocturna is using church ropes to tie her victims up when she realizes that Alice was left without any of her blood drawn. She tries to get the answer out of Alice, but doesn’t do so well, saying:

“You should be dead.” 

Kate leaves her sister to go save her step sister at Gotham cathedral. They get to fighting fast and, out of nowhere, comes Alice to rescue. She offers to help Mary while Kate goes to catch Nocturna in an honestly, super unpredictable turn. We’ll see how long it lasts, but for now Batwoman is back in the battle. Nocturna monologues a bit about having a chance at life thanks to her crimes, but Kate is quick to subdue her.

Sophie’s phone rings in Crow HQ and Jacob orders her to answer it. On speaker phone,  Batwoman tells her Nocturna is ready to arrest, which is a definite nail in the coffin. She hangs up and tries to convince Jacob that Batwoman is an asset but, still raging, Jacob comes back with the show’s last ultimatum. He tells Sophie she needs to either work for the Crows or for Batwoman. With that, she’s suspended.

Kate heads over to see Mary, a patient in her own clinic. She’s trying to get those sugars restored and Kate wants to figure out why Nocturna was targeting her. Apparently, Alice spread the rumor that Mary’s blood had something with the desert rose. Mary ran tests herself, but they all turned up false. With that in mind, Kate realizes where Nocturna heard it. She heads out to see her sister, who is having an absolute blast toying with Kate’s guilt. It’s a knockout of a discussion, but here are the highlights:

“Stupid was thinking my sister was redeemable… Suptid was saving you from Gotham river.”

“But maybe I don’t want you to give up on me.” 

After Kate storms out, a Wonderland gangmember has some intel for Alice. There were only two people who saw Mouse while he was in the hospital – and one of them was Dr. Campbell. Who made a living dealing with facial reconstruction. Alice pieces his real identity together quickly, makes a vendetta and we head back to the clinic.

Vesper Fairchild (Rachel Maddow) mentions ketamine as a drug used by Nocturna and that’s the final piece Mary needs in her puzzle to say “Kate, you are totally Batwoman.” Hell yeah Mary!

Then, a rooftop meeting between Sophie and Batwoman. She confesses that Jacob knows about their collab. Sophie tells her how much her job means to her and is about to choose work over love again – until she changes her mind and Batwoman and Sophie kiss.

End.

 WOW what an episode. Batwoman S1E13 is a definite turning point for the series (now just over its halfway point). Time will tell if Kate and Alice’s harsh words hold up, but, more importantly, the time is finally coming to officially bring Mary onto the team. See how it all pans out right here, next time on Batwoman.