“I’ll Be Judge, I’ll Be Jury” is episode six of season one of Batwoman.
The episode opens at night and a man is on his mobile talking to someone when an electricity pole falls down onto a car he’s walking towards A hooded man wielding an axe hits a near fire hydrant, spilling water onto the ground on which the power cables are lying. The man on the phone runs off and tries to climb a metal fence before the electrified water reaches him. A metal fence is not going to work. It doesn’t.
Kate and her father are looking at evidence and photos taken from the house where they had discovered Beth had been held in the previous episode, “Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale”. Kane is telling Kate that there isn’t much to go on. The deeds were in the name of Dr August Cartwright who has disappeared. He seems a better magician than he was a doctor. Kate says that Beth was being held in a cell by a guy who made human skin masks whilst she was playing soccer. They need to find her. They will, Kane reassures her. How, when they didn’t find her before? Kate is upset.
Sophie enters and tells them they need to see something. A news report about the man who was electrocuted, ADA Angus Stanton, seen by man as a hero of Gotham for getting justice for the victims of Gotham’s most notorious criminals, such as Jack Napier, better known as the Joker. Kane is told the channel has security footage of the attack and he asks what the killer is wearing. An old-fashioned executioner’s hood, according to Kate. She thinks the axe is a nice touch. Kane asks why every news outlet got this before they did, and why they didn’t get a heads-up from the GCPD. Because it’s technically outside district lines. And because the GCPD called someone else. Using the Bat Signal. Kate looks at the signal and Sophie looks at Kate. Kate goes and Sophie asks for a special assignment. Batwoman. Doesn’t the commander want to know who’s behind the mask?
Alice is working on a skin mask for Mouse, which she then puts on him, including a wig. She says it’s a perfect match for Dean Deveraux – and asks Deveraux if he agrees. Mouse wants Alice to kill Deveraux. No; her sister is watching like a hawk, waiting to bring the old Beth back. Mouse thinks Kate has already changed Alice. Alice tells him he’s the one who’s changed; he used to trust her. Mouse says he will do whatever she wants. What Alice wants is to steal the item Catherine refused to give her in “Who Are You?”.
Kate is at the Batcave and she thinks it’s a big deal; this is the first time the city has called on Batwoman for backup. She can’t mess it up. It’s personal for Luke as well; Stanton is the man who put away the person who killed Luke’s father on the night they were celebrating Luke’s graduation from high school and getting into MIT. Lucius Fox went out to get ice and was killed at a convenience store.
Kate wants to know the suspects for the Executioner. Excluding the law-abiding systems of Gotham? That leaves the other half. Kate thinks it can be narrowed down and Luke and the Crows do that, to a Chris ‘The Fist’ Medlock. Medlock shot and killed a bartender. He confessed, but later claimed it was coerced though the gun was found in his car. Recently released from prison due to overcrowding. As for an address, they might not need one. GCPD dispatch has called in that the Executioner has been seen in a building with several hostages. Kate heads there and the Crows do too.
The Executioner is demanding to see Detective Donnelly, who is outside strapping on a vest. Kate is already inside, as is Sophie. They see that the screams from the hostages are coming from a recording. It’s a trap, and when Donnelly enters, rifles gun him down. Sophie is also hit. Kate says she will get her help, and Sophie thanks her – calling her Kate. Help is Mary, who asks what Sophie was shot with. A bullet. Yes, but what kind of bullet? And why did Batwoman bring Sophie here, when she can afford a real hospital? Because Mary is closer. And Batwoman wants her kept there.
Mouse gets into Hamilton Technology and enters a room where there is what looks like a small rail gun. Catherine and others are there, and they congratulate him. Well, Deveraux. The gun is a coil accelerated gun – and it’s designed to penetrate the Batsuit.
Kate tells Luke about how Sophie called her by name. She will deal with that after dealing with the Executioner. Who has killed in two different ways. Which Luke realises are methods of execution, both used by Gotham. A third is the gas chamber, and Luke thinks the Executioner will use hydrogen cyanide like a gas chamber. There’s only one warehouse that stocks it.
At the warehouse, Batwoman gets hit on by the security guard but there have been no incidents. Then Chris the Fist is captured by the Crows. Far too easily for him to be the Executioner. Kate is still at the warehouse when she hears an engine. She’s standing in front of a roller shutter door when a vehicle crashes through it and knocks her flying. When you hear an engine moving rapidly towards the door you’re standing in front of, move. Kate grouses to Luke that with all the Bat-tech, his fix for the impact is frozen water. Luke thinks he can get details on the vehicle from the Batsuit’s sensors.
Sophie didn’t know Mary was running an illegal clinic. Mary tells her Batwoman doesn’t want her to leave, and she’s more scared of Batwoman than Sophie. She also later has a go at Sophie for wanting to betray Batwoman the same way she did Kate. Which hits home. Kate and Luke are still working out their rhythm; she asks for hold music at one point. Mouse and Alice clash a little over Kate. And Commander Kane still thinks Batwoman is a dangerous vigilante.