Birds of Prey Episode 5: Sins of the Mother

After all this talk of the Bird of Prey movie that at this point just seems to be a vehicle for Maggots instead of the story we deserve about the ACTUAL Birds of Prey, I just felt like watching something where even an alternate version of Harley Quinn is better than the mainstream garbage. 

Not pictured: Hollywood bimbos stinking up everything

So let's get into Episode 5 of Birds of Prey: Sins of the Mother.

Ahhh my CGI p0rn... how I have missed you.

Where was I? Oh right.. the inventively named New Gotham Station is our first stop, and also our first bad train pun on my behalf. But... who is this strange lady?

Well I'm guessing she's someone's mother from the title. I knew I should have gone to Detective School. Damn! A wasted opportunity!!!

Anyway, blonde lady glares at the city then puts on some dramatic sunglasses. After yelling "YEEEAAAAAH!" stalks off into the throng of unwashed masses wandering around the set. Immediately, a thug appears from stage right and makes a phone call. Like... was he just staring at her the whole time. He's not exactly inconspicuous. He makes a call from a bright sunny exterior into some musty, dusty, afternoon type lit room full of weapons and some dude in a suit.

Turns out our new lady friend has a price on her head. Musty Man (Fitz?) tries to tell some other guy about the new development but Sitting Down Clown only wants to instruct him on correct breathing techniques or something.

Pictured: My face when people try to get me into yoga

Spitz tells his boss (Hawke - huh huh huh bird name) that Black Canary is Back. I would have said Back Canary. Sometimes I get excited and jumble up my words. Also I had to look up G-D IMDB to find out what these guy's names were. Could you be any less clearer?

Canary delivers a smack down to the obvious thug while a handful of people juuust nearby pretend like they ain't heard nothing. This is New Gotham, but still. Good thing this woman followed into an alley by a dodgy sunnovabitch DIDN'T need any help.

Meanwhile back at the Clocktower Dojo (would love to see the building plans for this place) Helena and Dinah and playing fisticuffs. Oh, my nostalgia for outfits like Dinah's..

Dinah is making headway but isn't as fast as Helena would like. She tries a sloppy charge and gets completely pwned by Helena, so naturally she does what any teenager would. Instead of listening to how she can improve, she tunes out her mentor and uses her psychic powers to make some nunchaku fly across the room and reverse knee-cap Helena.


Then she plays dumb because that's absolutely foolproof. They're best buds again by the time they walk out and see that Barbara has brought a friend home.
It's actually low key amazing to see Barbara - the Mighty Oracle - not know something. I guess they did put a little backstory about how Dinah has no records etc but yeah. Hey look, it's a mother - daughter reunion scene!


It does not go well.
Fair enough, Dinah feels abandoned by her mother and mistreated by the Redman's who had no idea how to handle a metahuman, but they were confident in their ability to create a hostile home environment for a young girl. More like fostering animosity, amiright??

Dinah storms out, wanting nothing to do with... Carolyn? Who the heck is Carolyn? Where's Laurel??

Now remember our thuggy buddy? Well, he 'let' Black Canary beat him up and then escape... so I don't know why he went back to his boss after being told that if Canary got away, there would be a price on his own head? Anyway, he's quickly offed, which leads to this amazing scene of the NGCPD looking at a corpse on the street with an ornate, probably traceable dagger in his chest...

....and deadpanning their guesses that this was a drug deal gone wrong.

Reese seems to know something and tells his Buddy Cop ... whose name I have forgotten... *switches back to IMDB* Oh, it's McNally. There we go. Anyway, Reese tells him not to bother trying for witnesses or prints but can't tell him how he knows this. So... that's dramatic for TV but also very shitty cop behaviour. Can you imagine if they track the perp down but Reese can't say why he's the culprit and there's no forensics or even attempts for find evidence logged? Yeah, great work guys.

This gets even better later when Reese tells Huntress that he's a cop and has to do things in a certain way. Mmm-Hmm... You keep on telling yourself that.

Black Canary finds out that the Hawke family is involved - a family she's had an ongoing beef with for a while - and wants to get herself and Dinah out before a certain matter hits the fan. Dinah's like this sucks but goes to get packed and sneaks out. She looks a lot less like she knows where to go then she did when we first met her on the streets... so she ends up going to No Man's Land.

Gibson lets Oracle know Dinah's safe and Oracle convinces Huntress to let Carolyn handle it. I don't know why Huntress is running atop of buildings to find a clumsy teenage girl.. is it the vantage point or more that it looks more superhero-ey and cool and they can use the CGI leaping footage again?

Black Canary explains why she gave Dinah up - it has to do with C4 under a kids bed. Which explains moving and leaving her behind to save her life but Dinah's still upset which I get, I'm not being unsympathetic but she's all 'Why did you leave me behind? I needed you!' and Carolyn's like 'Mate - you were a nose picking kid that bad guys wanted to destroy just to get back at me so yeah, no. Just no.' It's an unfair situation whichever side you take but priorities, man!

Dinah again storms out and Carolyn chases her. Man, New Gotham is deserted and full of coloured steam. Guess nothing much changes there. Anyway now all the people come out but they're all thugs and butt heads that just park their massive black SUV's in the middle of the road.

Their headlights are cool chequerboards... but I'm still angry!

They surround Carolyn who just doesn't even seem to try? Yeah, there's heaps of guys there and they disable her Canary Cry pretty early on (Is she still Siu Jerk Jai in this timeline? I feel like a master martial artist should be able to sense a smelly thug behind her) but she doesn't even seem to put up a fight at all... Like, Magikarp's Struggle move held more power.

The struggle is reaaaaaal!!!

Back at the Clocktower, Oracle tells Dinah her mom's missing - which is pretty impressive because Dinah the Psychic didn't hear a damn thing and just kept walking from the scene. Then Dinah gets sad. Then angry. Then hopeful. Fearful.Then bargaining. Then accepting. Man, the poster child for the stages, hey?

Much like our poster child for Batman villain Hawke and his exasperatingly slow death trap. I think it's meant to be squeezing Canary's guts out but she just looks like she has cramps. Huntress arrives and instead of throwing something to cut the ropes, she starts witty banter and fights like every henchman there one on one. Heck, even Dinah is able to sneak up behind Hawke and knock his lights out straight away. Seeing as how Hawke broke the lever mechanism Dinah can't turn it off and starts to panic - attempting to fix the lever instead of... I don't know.. jamming it in the mechanical bits?

Dinah calls out for Huntress desperately, but she's busy flirting and making eyes with Reese, who's too busy making eyes and posing to do much else than take down one bad guy. Canary can talk pretty well for someone being constricted, but I might put that down to epic lung capacity/control rather than a flaw in the TV show.

Hawke gets up again and grabs Dinah because he's insensitive to dramatic moments and Dinah uses her powers to remove Canary's collar. Hawke's like damn, and throws away his human shield because he's.. an idiot? Canary uses her massive lung capacity to first take out Hawke, and by association everyone else in the room gets to comedically fall into and over things... apart from Dinah who is actually nearest to her.. THEN she eventually destroys the vice death trap thing.

What a champ. Dinah is able to haul her daughter's limp body up and run away despite what she's just been through. I can't remember if Dinah's powers weaken her but still, she only got a minor choke out. Weak!

Hawke starts shooting stuff even though it's an abandoned warehouse in New Gotham so there's obligatory cans of fuel spilling everywhere.

Dinah uses her Canary Cry again... which kinda reminds me of a dog whistle as opposed to like... a Sindel Scream.




I mean... the effects aren't bad and we sure as hell don't need any dank sound effects on TV but the Mortal Kombat lover of my childhood is a tiny bit disappointed. Especially when we see Huntress and Dinah run right into the blast and like, nothing happens to them but Hawke guy?

Hahahaha just kidding.

This happens... Hawke survives albeit wounded, millions of henchmen are unaccounted for and there's no sign of.. and no body of.. Black Canary.



Soo.... dead? Vaporised? Abandoned kid for safety? Had enough of New Gotham? Actually retired?
Who knows. I do like that both Helena and Barbara treat Dinah as more like family in this episode.

The dynamic is starting to work, the dialogue is not so forced, Huntress is learning to not work solo all the time, Dinah is putting effort into what she wants to do and Barbara is more like an older sister than a grumpy employer.

Speaking of relationships and bonds.. Huntress gives Reese a promise ring and Reese visit the perp Fawke in hospital.. who is also HIS DAD.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

Well this episode contained no Harley Quinn but I liked it all the same. The effects were kinda lame but that's to be expected. The dialogue was sooo much better in this episode than the others.

Barbara even had this epic line;

Carolyn: Can you tell me that you never regret it?
Barbara: What, because I'm in this chair? No. No, I don't regret it. I'm thankful for every moment I have. And I'm thankful for every moment I had before I got hurt. Not being able to walk doesn't affect why I do what I do. It only affects how I do it.

Like, how empowering is that without coming off as preachy? It's just great and exactly sums up Oracle.

Wotta Comedian!

Hawke: Find your centre. 
Spitz: *cracks his neck*
Hawke: Good. 

Carolyn: You know, I hope you're just a pick pocket. Otherwise I'd have to hurt you. 

Helena: You're the Black Canary's daughter?
Barbara: You have a daughter?
Dinah: You're the Black Canary?
Barbara: This could mean you have the Canary Cry as well.
Helena: Hold on. She has mind melding telekinesis and the Canary Cry?
Dinah: Wait, what Canary Cry?
Barbara: What telekinesis?
Carolyn: Okay, everybody stop!

Dinah: You're supposed to be some...big role model.. a-a-a trailblazer. One of the first women to put on a crime fighting cape! 

Carolyn: Ah, actually..I don't wear a cape. I - never mind. 

Helena: I always thought she'd be taller... being a legend and all.

Helena: We should go in and referee. 

Barbara: I don't think we should interfere. 

Helena: We interfere for a living. 

Thug: Please! Can I have a second chance??

Hawke: Not unless you believe in reincarnation. 

Reese: There won't be prints or witnesses.

McNally: How do you know?

Reese: I just know. 

McNally: Well, aren't we Mr. Negative?

Gibson: I trust you bring news of her (Huntress) burgeoning desire for the Gibson?

Dinah: Actually... I was just in the neighbourhood. 

Gibson: Right. 51,563 minutes of unrequited love. 

Huntress: Great idea, sic Big Bird on her!

Gibson: I remember my mother's womb. No doubt the root of my claustrophobia. 

Dinah: What was she like? My mother... not yours. 

Gibson: Magnificent. Powerful. Graceful. ..............Loud. 

Spitz: (being offered a collar) Ah, thanks boss, it's a little too eighties for me!

Huntress: Kinda egotistical to think you could take him on alone. 

Reese: Ooh, says the lone vigilante. 

Huntress: I know you think that was supposed to be an insult, so I'll just go ahead and be offended. 

Reese: And you call me egotistical. 

Huntress: I said egotistical. But I was thinking, idiotic. 

Hawke: I found my soul the day my father left this earth. 

Black Canary: Really? Sounds more like you found the self-help section in the book store. 

Reese: That's one thing I can say for you. You're always optimistic. 

Bonus Info!

The IMDB page refers to The No Man's Land sign being spelt 'Collectables' and not 'Collectibles.' 

Collectables, being the British version of the word - is spelt correctly... but I guess they ARE in America and to their weird standards it's spelt incorrectly. 

Dinah was meant to be a new version of Black Canary (hence the name) but this ticked off comic fans so they changed it. 

The map of New Gotham exactly matches the one used in the No Man's Land comic series and is the namesake of the metahuman bar Gibson runs. The other bar where Helena works is called the Dark Horse - another comic company and sometimes collaborator. 

Austin Powers Joke Time!

"This is why I didn't want to join a bird gang, Hawke!!"