‘Batwoman’ Recap: Season 3, Episode 8 “Trust Destiny”

Julia
10 Min Read
Dean Buscher/The CW

In the Batwoman mid-season premiere, Pamela Isley finally makes her first appearance. Sophie, Luke, Ryan, and Renee work together to find a solution for Mary. Meanwhile, Marquis seems to have his own mysterious agenda. Read on to find out what happens in “Trust Destiny.”

Poison Ivy 1.0

batwoman season 3 episode 8
Dean Buscher/The CW

It’s 10 years ago, and Renee still works for GCPD. She and her partner search for Pamela Isley. Pamela appears, but Renee doesn’t shoot, giving Pamela the opportunity to impale Renee’s partner with a vine before disappearing again.

In the present, Renee visits Mary’s now plant overrun clinic. She spots a flower that sends her back into a flashback. In it, she confronts Pamela about what happened with her partner. He’s not dead, but Renee is angry. Pamela is relatively unphased. Renee wants the pre-Poison Ivy Pamela back, but she’s gone.

Finding a Lead

Mary and Alice have some self-care, sister bonding time in a fancy hotel room. The hotel manager arrives and tells them to leave, as Mary has racked up a major charge she can’t pay for. She uses her powers to compel the manager to let it slide. Mary vents about how Luke and Ryan cut her off, annoyed that now that she’s not vying for their attention, they won’t leave her alone. Alice says the best way to get them off her back is to make them hate her.

Meanwhile, Luke, Ryan, and Sophie have set up a new home base with Renee, who argues with Ryan about what happened with Mary and Marquis. Ryan tries to justify when Renee tells her what happened with Pam. Renee thinks they need a tougher approach, sharing how Batman helped create a serum that stopped Poison Ivy and dessicated (but didn’t kill) Pamela. If they can find the serum, they can help Mary. Ryan is reluctant, but Luke and Sophie are on board.

Luke shows them a map of how to find journals Bruce kept with the information they need. But since Marquis took over Wayne, security is iron clad. Right on cue, Marquis calls Ryan. Again, she tells him he needs help, but he doesn’t seem to care anymore. (He’s grown quite unhinged since we last saw him.) Someone interrupts and lets him know about a mask for a party. Then he thanks Ryan for what’s happened. After they hang up, Ryan tells the group she thinks Marquis is hosting a party at Wayne. And they’re going to crash it.

Party Crashers

batwoman season 3 episode 8
Dean Buscher/The CW

Luke, Ryan, and Sophie go over their cover stories in the elevator. Luke hands them their masks, and Ryan’s is equipped with a retinal scanner. They enter the party where they’re each handed a playing card. As they move through the crowd, Luke manages to get information from someone’s tablet, and Sophie gets a shot glass with Marquis’ fingerprints. Marquis begins to make a speech and the group realizes the party is some sort of interview. He calls out a card and questions the first person, who fails. Luke tells Ryan she needs to get closer to get a good scan. So, when Marquis calls the next card, Ryan sneakily swaps hers and heads up. She gets through the questioning and gets the scan without incident.

Sophie, Ryan, and now Renee head to the bat cave. While in the elevator, Ryan is annoyed that Renee is there, who reminds Ryan she just wants to help. Ryan accepts the help but isn’t happy about it and wants Batwoman’s named cleared after this. When they arrive to their floor, they take out the security guards and head down into the cave.

batwoman season 3 episode 8
Dean Buscher/The CW

Luke lets the trio know Mary is at the party. They’re not finding much from the journals until Ryan notes they’re chronological. She asks when Renee first asked Batman for help and it leads them to find an entry about the city dam. Renee flashes back. She remembers finding Pamela packing to leave. Renee wants to know what her plans with the dam are and that Pamela needs to choose between flooding the city or Renee. Pamela says Renee, but she won’t stop her plan and needs Renee’s support. Pamela notices a flower Renee brought. The two kiss just before Renee injects Pamela with the serum.

In the present, Sophie remarks Batman needed to keep Pamela somewhere hidden but with easy access. Ryan realizes exactly where that is. She turns her attention to the tangled mound of branches that sits in the center of the main part of the cave; Pamela has been in the bat cave somewhere.

The Heartbeat of Wayne

Sophie offers to let Renee out, but Renee declines; she wants to help. Batwoman begins scanning all of Wayne and isolates a specific sound: a heartbeat coming from the lowest part of the tunnels. The trio heads down and finds a particularly interesting cluster of branches. They break it open and find Pamela, still desiccated. Batwoman still struggles to wrap her head around doing the same to Mary, but Sophie and Renee remind her why they need to. Batwoman extracts the serum and heads back up, leaving Sophie and Renee to make sure Pamela doesn’t reanimate.

Sophie assures Renee that Pamela will forgive her. Renee then leans into Alice, saying that she’ll mess up and ping a traffic cam. This prompts Sophie to remember a fraud alert she received earlier. She checks the charge and sees that it leads back to a hotel. She leaves to go check it out. When she arrives, she realizes Alice lured her there. Alice tells Sophie that Renee has been lying to all of them, adding that Sophie will find what she needs in Renee’s office.

A Dance to Remember

Mary approaches Marquis. The two snark back and forth, and Mary tells him she’s there for him. They dance and Marquis wonders where Ryan is. Mary calls this and his general clinginess to Ryan out. She continues that he doesn’t need to worry about Ryan; she’s too busy trying to fix Mary. Then Mary tells Marquis that she wants revenge and he’s the one to help her. She whispers something to him that makes him stop in his tracks before she leaves.

Marquis confronts Luke and reveals he knows Luke is Batwing. A couple security guards surround him. Meanwhile, Batwoman finds Mary on the roof. Just as she’s about to inject Mary with the serum, Marquis arrives with Luke at gunpoint, revealing he also knows Ryan is Batwoman. He brings up the bus and Joker incident again. Just before he’s about to shoot Luke, Batwoman throws the serum injector at him. Mary gets away as Marquis begins to dessicate.

Truth Will Out

Back at the hotel, Mary tells Alice about what happened, and that Ryan seemed afraid of the serum. She’s upset that she was the least of Batwoman’s problem because she just wanted Batwoman to see her as powerful. Alice shares that since the Poison Mary era began she hasn’t experienced any delusions, and that’s powerful.

Sophie gets into Renee’s file cabinet and finds the joy buzzer. While she does, Luke and Batwoman bring Marquis to the clinic. Batwoman calls Jada to let her know she has Marquis. Sophie calls Luke and tells them about the joy buzzer and that Renee was only using them to get Pamela back. Speaking of, Renee talks to Pam when a flower blooms. Renee asks if Pam can hear her before kissing her. Pam wakes up and then they’re gone.

Batwoman airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on The CW, available the next day on The CW app and cwtv.com. Find our previous recaps and the rest of our coverage here.

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By Julia
Julia is a writer/editor/content assistant for Nerds who joined the team in 2019.
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