WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for "Gore on Canvas" the latest episode of Batwoman, which aired Sunday on The CW.
The Joker may be dead, but his legacy lives on in the Arrowverse. In "Gore on Canvas," the latest episode of Batwoman, Gotham's new Scarlet Knight found herself on a mission to retrieve a painting by none other than Jack Napier -- one of Joker's many names. However, she quickly realized she wasn't the only person looking for it, as she crossed paths with the Crows and a new villain called Wolf Spider.
Unbeknownst to Team Batwoman and the Crows, Wolf Spider is actually Evan Blake, an old friend of Kate Kane's. Blake used the alias to commit a number of harmless crimes around the city, including vandalizing public property like Gotham's own version of Banksy. Crow Commander Jacob Kane and Agent Sophie Moore inadvertently tipped them off about the significance of the painting when they invited them to Jacob's office to talk about it, with hopes Blake could help them locate it.
"Our theory is that if we find the item, it will lead us to her captor," Sophie explained. "Kate was looking for a canvas painted by Jack Napier, alias the Joker. You're aware of it, yes?"
"I know the legend," Blake confirmed. "Psychotic evildoer breaks into home, splashes homeowner's guts all over some old painting in the foyer and calls it modern art. It's a bit on-the-nose, if you ask me."
"Not to mention illegal to buy, sell or possess, since it was stolen from an active crime scene," she added.
When they realized they were being interrogated, Blake had had enough. They scoffed at the idea of being connected to a criminal group called the Collective and stormed out of Jacob's office without so much as a backwards glance. However, the meeting left an impression, and Blake sought to use their Wolf Spider alter ego to steal the painting back themself.
Blake met some resistance from Ryan Wilder, who also arrived on the scene to learn more about the Napier painting. Following a tip from one of Jacob's sources, Ryan showed up at a Collective art auction in plainclothes. She used some of Luke's gadgets to analyze the painting, revealing that the gore on top of the canvas hid a map to Coryana, Safiyah's hidden island. However, in order to properly locate Coryana, she needed to steal the painting and bring it back to the Batcave for further testing.
Unfortunately for Ryan, Blake beat her to the punch. In costume as Wolf Spider, Blake swooped in and hacked the painting out of its frame, hoping to use it to help find Kate. However, Ryan didn't know their intentions, so she set out to stop them. They came to blows, but Wolf Spider managed to slip away when the Kryptonite poisoning in her shoulder caused her to falter.
Wolf Spider's escape didn't last long. Thanks to a tentative partnership between Batwoman and the Crows, two agents pursued them and brought the chase to an abrupt stop by hitting Blake with their car. They snatched the painting and left Blake injured and unconscious at the scene, leading Ryan to swear she would never work with the Crows again.
For all that, the operation was a bust. As it turns out, the painting stolen by the Crows was a counterfeit. "It turns out nobody actually got the Napier painting," Mary later told Blake as she tended to their injuries. "It was a forgery... Batwoman took a sample of the organic compound that was painted over the original canvas, and it was pig's blood."
"Napier would have never used pig's blood," Blake sighed.
"Right. So the Crows ended up with a decoy copy, and the original is still out there somewhere, and so is Kate," Mary said.
Although the painting was a fake, the real one still ended up in familiar hands. Ocean -- the object of Alice's affections and murderous intent -- revealed he has the true copy as they fled from
While the Napier painting is still in play, it may be a while yet before anyone gets their hands on it. After all, Alice and Ocean are now on the run from , which means they will want to lay low for a while. Additionally, Alice wants Kate all to herself, for the sole purpose of killing her twin sister, so it is unlikely she will give up a map to Coryana to anyone else -- unless she has to.
Of course, the name "Jack Napier" will sound familiar to fans of Tim Burton's Batman movie. In the 1989 film, Napier is the name of a Gotham mobster who has a falling out with his boss. During the subsequent confrontation between the gangsters, Gotham Police and Batman, Napier fell into a vat of chemicals, which transformed him into the Joker -- permanent smile and all. Although Joker does not have a true origin in the comics, he has occasionally used "Jack Napier" as an alias, in homage to the '89 film.
Batwoman stars Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, Rachel Skarsten as Alice, Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore, Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox, Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane and Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton-Kane. New episodes air Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.