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Batwoman showrunner warns Jacob's new [SPOILER] 'gets way bad'

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Sunday's Batwoman, titled "Time Off for Good Behavior."

Black Mask is truly wreaking havoc on the Kate family. Coming into Sunday's Batwoman, Peter Outerbridge's sadistic crime lord already had a disfigured Kate Kane in his possession, and in tonight's episode, he turned his attention toward Commander Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) and got him addicted to Snakebite as his vengeful plan continued apace.

At the top of the hour, a False Face Society goon ambushed Jacob in his car and injected him with Snakebite, an incredibly addictive drug that allows the user to relive regretful memories and change the outcome. Of course, he immediately started experiencing withdrawal after his first trip, so he turned to psychologist Dr. Evelyn Rhyme (Laura Mennell), a.k.a. Enigma in disguise. While the good doctor couldn't help with the withdrawal, she suggested he fix the emotional pain by making amends with Mary (Nicole Kang).

To push Jacob further to the edge, Roman Sionis, Black Mask's civilian persona, shows up at the Crows' base with a Snakebite-filled duffle bag he claims to have found in an employee's locker. At first, Jacob ignores the bag and instead takes Dr. Rhyme's advice by extending an olive branch to Mary and offering to fund her clinic and make it more legitimate. Unfortunately, Mary rejects his offer, which is the thing that finally pushes him over the edge and straight into a Snakebite addiction, as Black Mask hoped.

According to Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries, this is where the season has always been heading.

"We knew when we introduced Snakebite as sort of a motif of the season, one of our characters needed to become addicted to it to make it personal," Dries tells EW. "If you look at poor Jacob, everything he's gone through, especially at the start of this season, losing Kate. He lost her in a way that was almost identical to the way he lost Alice [Rachel Skarsten]. And it's unfathomable how he could possibly deal with all of that. And so he seemed the most likely to be prone to the addiction, and we just kind of see him at a real low point in [episode 10]. And then you have this outside force of Roman Sionis having this vendetta against Jacob and the Crows, and it's just this perfect storm, and so of course, Roman sets him up to become addicted. And the drug is just so powerful, and it preys on all the things Jacob wants, which is these memories that he gets to redo that, of course, he's going to become addicted to this drug."

Unfortunately, this isn't a habit that's easily kicked. "It gets bad. It gets way bad," says Dries.

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But how does Enigma fit into this scheme? She told Jacob he needed to fix his relationship with Mary, but we know she's working with Black Mask. Did Enigma know Mary would reject, and if so, how?

"In that moment, I would say Enigma as Evelyn Rhyme is just being a therapist," says Dries, explaining why she gave him actually good advice. "Enigma has her hand in all the cookie jars — and good for her but it's going to get her in trouble — but at the end of the day, she's a world renowned psychologist and psychoanalyst. So she knows what she's talking about, so I believe that was genuine therapy, that was genuine advice in that moment, and she didn't know the consequences of that."

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Even though Mary pushed Jacob away, she does understand he has a point about making the clinic slightly more legitimate and she will make some changes to how she runs the clinic going forward.

"I think a little bit of legitimacy can go a long way," says Kang. "So, she will work really hard and get the right certifications and help. I'm excited for Mary to be flanked by some doctor friends."

Watch the latest installment of On Set with Batwoman for a deep dive into Sunday's episode.

Batwoman airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on The CW.

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