Batwoman finally answers what it means to be a hero
The season 2 finale explores Ryan's struggle with power, Alice's allegiances, and Kate's mind
TV Reviews Batwoman
If there’s one thing a DC CW show loves, it’s someone taking over the airwaves in a time of crisis. After terrorizing the children of Gotham, Roman Sionis, a.k.a. Black Mask, signs off calling for a Purge-like night, saying “You know what they say about power: ‘Use it or lose it.’” Given that the episode’s also titled “Power,” it’s a little too on the nose, but the season-two finale does dedicate itself to an exploration of that subject.
From the jump, it was clear that Ryan (Javicia Leslie) had different intentions for the Batsuit than Kate Kane did when she first put it on. Their upbringings, financial backgrounds, and general hardships in life were completely different. They’d both experienced loss, but the suit didn’t just give Ryan a kind of power that she could wield with her fists. It also gave her family and a life that she didn’t expect when she was first introduced in the season-two premiere.
When Ryan stepped onto the scene this season and the chance to become Batwoman almost literally hit her on the head, she didn’t take it because it offered her a chance at glory or personal gain. She took on the mantle to find a way out of her situation but also to seek some sort of vengeance for her adoptive mother’s death. But Ryan quickly realized that a hero shouldn’t wear a symbol for those reasons and became Batwoman on her own admirable terms.
This makes Ryan’s revelation in the season-two finale all the more frustrating a development. She’s convinced that she’s nothing without the Batsuit since Circe/Kate (Wallis Day) stole it, and because she couldn’t stop Sionis from terrorizing Gotham. A lot of superheroes go through a moment like this, where they let their suit define them. Tony Stark’s “If you’re nothing without this suit, then you shouldn’t have it” exchange with Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming is one that comes to mind. The Batsuit famously has many bells and whistles, and Ryan is feeling inadequate without them while Circe is in control of Kate’s body and Roman Sionis is wreaking havoc. Interestingly enough, Ryan isn’t roused by her found family, Luke (Camrus Johnson) or Mary (Nicole Kang), but instead by Sophie (Meagan Tandy).
In the end, when Kate compares their two journeys and says Ryan wore the suit to “survive,” it not only puts into perspective how different the two Batwomen are, but how much Ryan embodies the hero. Not that Kate wasn’t a good Batwoman, but Kate’s point is that Ryan knows the plight of the most-wronged citizens in Gotham, those that have “no hope left.” She’s not just a hero helping her city by “giving back”—Ryan represents Gotham and its heart in a way Kate can’t.
With all that talk of “putting on a suit doesn’t make you a hero,” Luke Fox does don a suit, which isan interesting juxtaposition. For much of the second half of the season, Luke has been dealing with feeling left out and powerless in his own right. Ryan even called him a bystander at one point, which caused him to try and stop a carjacking, leading to some crooked Crows shooting him. This leads to him pulling a Buffy Summers and being unhappy he’s brought back to the land of the living. He feels useless, although he is a big help to the team.
But finding the Batsuit that his own father gave him doesn’t detract from Ryan’s arc of being a hero with or without a suit. Luke—and Mary for that matter—has already proven he’s a hero without his suit. The suit is more of a way to tie him to his father Lucius Fox, a connection Luke lost when he was kept from meeting his dad in the afterlife, which really took a toll on him. He needed that suit probably more than he realized. Plus, without it, Mary would have died.
While a lot of Kate’s issues with committing to being Batwoman or her problems with being Batwoman for the right reasons in season one stemmed from trying to save Beth from the confines of Alice’s (Rachel Skarsten) mind, it’s quite interesting how it’s resolved in a throwaway line in this finale. When Kate tells Luke and Mary that she’s leaving, she also notes that she can’t save Beth until Alice “wants” to be Kate’s twin again. It pains her, which is clear, and after the emotional turmoil both twins just went through this past season, Alice especially, it’s heartbreaking to see them separate again like this. But Kate finally realizing she needs to let Beth/Alice go is a relatively tiny development. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s clear that it’s because Kate’s leaving and probably won’t be dealing with this onscreen, at least for a while.
Alice’s story in season two is probably one of the best as audiences got to see a new side of her, one that was more grounded in reality, thanks to Ocean (Nathan Owens), her love interest. These last few episodes didn’t feature a lot of the “crazed” Alice that we saw in season one; instead, they showed an Alice that was still hardened, dark, and diabolical (at times) but who seemed to be a tiny bit saner. Just a bit.
And of course, the best moments in this episode involve the emotional depths of Alice and other characters. The first was Ryan and Alice’s fight in the parking lot, which has been a long time coming. Alice’s gang was, of course, responsible for Ryan’s adoptive mother’s death. And the other sees Alice saving Kate from the river. This was a full-circle moment from when they were teenagers, and Kate couldn’t save Beth. Now, as adults, Alice pulls Kate from the water in a striking scene, with Kate finally remembering her sister.
At the start of the season, I was pretty deadset on the fact that I didn’t want to see Kate Kane brought back. However, Batwoman did a great job incorporating this new “face swap” storyline while also honoring their new Batwoman. The final half of the season was solid, and it has a lot of promise and momentum for season three.
Stray observations
- Thank you for dropping back in for the finale! The posting schedule was different this season, but this season was no less interesting.
- Like I said before, the “face swap” storyline with a main character very much gives me Bolt vibes, however, it worked with Batwoman. And I’m genuinely glad it did.
- I really like how they tied up Coryana, Safiyah, and Sionis in this episode. Although… now that I think about it… with Alice taken away to Arkham, is Safiyah just laying on that beach still? Until some poor person finds her body, removes the knife, and realizes she’s not actually dead. Whoops.
- I think whenever civilians are brought into these Arrowverse shows, it makes it all the cornier when there are children involved. The “I’ll be damned” moment is a great example. But, cute concept with the masks!
- Can we give a BIG round of applause for Luke’s “Justice,” line and how very Batman it was? He’s done his homework.
- I really like the agency Ryan had in her parole hearing and I’m glad that’s over for her now.
- When Kate said she was heading to National City to see a friend! Will we get a Kara and Kate reunion?? It might not mean the same or be the same, but their friendship was the best. Fingers crossed?
- I wasn’t the biggest fan of Kate and Sophie, but Tandy and Day had so much chemistry in the short time they were together.
- I love Rachel Skarsten as Alice, but that reveal that she knows something about Ryan’s birth mom was a little too soap opera-y for me. It’s definitely something to look out for next season, but it was too much of a “Gasp!” moment.
- And HELLO!! Poison IVY! Is that the next Big Bad we’re getting? I am the biggest spokesperson for more live-action Poison Ivy, so if we can get Dr. Pamela Isley in the Arrowverse and then the DCEU and then beyond? Sign me UP!
65 Comments
I thiiiiink Alice said she dumped Safiyah in a junkyard, but I mightâve misheard the line.Having the Batwing suit be based on Lukeâs childhood drawings was chefâs kiss perfection.I really doubt weâre going to see Wallis Day pop up on Supergirl, and thatâs a shame. One of the things Covid, and Supergirlâs impending end, really took from us was a proper Worldâs Finest crossover with Kara and Kate.I thought on the whole the season had some insane headwinds pushing against it that it didnât entirely successfully navigate. Everything about Safiyah (and is it just me or was her motivation this whole season a really bad lesbian steroetype?) and Coryana sucked. But a lot of the other stuff worked fairly well, Ryanâs a fun character, and she let the show take some stands taht it wouldnât have been able to with kate. So all in all, it mostly worked? I dunno, bring on Poison Ivy.
It would be nice if Kateâs search for Bruce eventually ends up bringing her to Smallville to talk to Clark. Itâd be really cool to have even a handful of flashback scenes of Clark and Bruce hanging out even without the suits.
I am legitimately curious if the Arrowverse keeps their friendship. They did have one in Supergirl, but that was obviously Pre-Crisis, and Elseworlds established that Batman was an urban myth to the public, especially outside Gotham.Â
The history of the Arrowverse is clearly different from the comics in that different heroes have shown up separated by large swaths of time where theyâd all sort of emerged at the same time in the comics.Hell, Post-Crisis Arrowverse has Superman clearly operating well before Oliver showed up. Batman is also clearly more than an urban legend based sheerly on the fact that thereâs a Batwoman and people immediately associate her with Batman. Not to mention all the souvenirs that Bruce had stored in the Batcave…thereâs no way he was just an urban legend at that point. He may not have been a public figure in the sense of the Justice League given it was likely just him and Superman until Oliver showed up, but thereâs no way he wasnât a well-known figure in Gotham. It being just Clark and Bruce at the time, thereâs no way that they didnât investigate one another and itâs likely they would become friends/allies afterwards.Begs the question though…assuming they were friends…where do you go, dead or alive, where Superman wonât find you? Yeah, you can lead line shit, but thatâs also going to raise a red flag for Clark.
This is something I was talking to — over drinks, even! Yay vaccines! — with a friend over the weekend; in the post-Crisis continuity, Flash has been doing his thing almost as long as Clark, Ollie, and Bruce. That show should reflect that a bit better.
Well, Supes is only going to look for Bruce if the plot demands it. The thing about superhero stories is that you kinda have to ignore logic around the edges of the story, because otherwise, thereâs somebody out there with a power thatâs going to immediately make your plot completely unworkable. So sure, if Batman disappeared, realistically that would be a big crossover event, with everyone joining the search (if only because something that could make the Bat disappear, well…) and it would be over in, like, four episodes. But the writers just arenât going to do that.
This! I’m digging Warren Christie’s Bruce Wayne and love to see more of him.
I felt he really did a good job in portraying the idealized version of Bruce that Luke had in his head; that couldâve easily gone badly in the wrong hands. But I agree, Iâd really like to see Christie play off of Tyler Hoechlinâs Clark. (Or at least a flashback episode where Bruce hits on Bitsie Tullochâs Lois and completely biffs it.)
This…with Clark X-ray her to confirm her indentity.
Madelaine Petsch as new Poison Ivy!
Omg…I didnât know I needed this until I saw it. Damn.
Baby Luke Fox: *draws pics of Black Batman with usual cowlLucius Fox: *builds Batsuit that completely covers the occupantâs faceEr…
This season was so inconsistent. The storylines were kind of interesting, and the new Batwoman was okay, but more often than not it didnât work. It was trying to do too much. If they really lean into the âBatâ of it all, it might work better, and the last scene with the nods to Penguin and Mad Hatter, followed by the Ivy lead-in, was arguably the best thing the show has done this season.
Getting Zemoâd was a great way to end Black Maskâs arc this season.While the ending point to Ivy as a big bad, Iâm worried that randos finding the various villain weapons will serve as villains of the week next season. âWeâre only allowed so many actual comic villains per season, so hereâs some dude who found Mad Hatterâs hat.â
WB might consider Poison Ivy too important to let The CW use. Weâll probably meet The Gardener, Ferak, or Louie the Lilac instead.
Well, Jervis Tetch, Oswald Cobblepot, and Pamela Isley are all old and/or dead anyway, so whoever they bring in will be legacy picks regardless.
Ivy regrew from a stem in the comics recently, so I imagine thereâs no reason they couldnât de-age her in a similar manner from a vine. It could be chalked up to her being a new growth or the sample was from early in her career.Considering the direction theyâve tried to take Ivy in recent years, she may not actually be a full-blown villain either for that matter.
Why would they be too old? Weâve seen what Bruce Wayne looks like in this universe, and he doesnât look a day over 40.
That wasnât pointing to Ivy specifically, but to the trophy bag, I think. The growing vine just made the most dynamic final image. So yeah, randos with known villainsâ weapons, or maybe one rando Composite Villain?
Holy fuck what an over complicated mess of a season, and all because they couldnât just recast Kate in a normal manner.So like, I know that the showrunners were put into a rough spot between Covid cutting season 1 short and Ruby Rose quitting but surely there were better, easier ways of handling things. Because hereâs the problem, regardless of them having Ryan take up the mantle at the start of the season, this was still the Kate Kane show all the way through to the end.To be nice at the start Javicia Leslie is a way better actress then Ruby Rose and there parts of Ryanâs character that worked. But holy fuck this character felt like a weird after thought in her own show. She never had any reason to care about the main plot aside from almost dying to stupidity and sort of caring about Luke and Maryâs desire to have Kate back but besides that she had no investment in that plot. And the plot she did have an investment in, The Crows corruption, landed with a thud.Iâll give this show credit, I didnât think theyâd actually get rid of the Crows. I thought they would just âreformâ under Sophie and be âgoodâ. But what they did was still pretty weak and lame. Having Jacob decide to shutter them after Tarkarov tried to kill Luke? And also Sophie who spent all season insisting that the Crows were worth fighting for and she was a role model to children just quits after Tarkarov slaughters a church full of people. Okay I guess.My big problem with this was mostly with Sophie and Jacob this shows lack of accountability for their part as the leaders of the Crows. Jacob was running the Crows and Sophie was his second in command (Or something like that). This means that they were responsible for everything that happened under their command and if the Crows were as corrupt as they were portrayed and for as long as they were then none of what happened this season should have been news to them.Honestly I wasnât expecting them to hold Sophie accountable since sheâs the love interest and we canât go and point out some very ugly things about her character but I thought they might hold Jacob accountable since heâs been shown doing some awful stuff before but no, he just shuts the Crows down with no comments on him letting things get the way they were. Hell they even ended the season with him in jail anyway so it wouldnât have been all that far off to have him punished. But no, couldnât do that, so we had to have Tarkarov as the face of the corruption, a man who ended the season as Bane.Thereâs just so much more I can get into but this is already long. I did not enjoy this season and Iâm not coming back for season 3.
Yeah, I gave up on this season about halfway thru. I realized that even with Ruby Rose gone, the only acting that was actually decent was the woman who played Alice… which wasnât even a likeable character, ironically.
Of course, I gave up on Flash as well. I just get tired of all the CW shows being so heavily âidiot ballâ based. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotPlot
– Uh, what exactly is Black Maskâs goal with his knockoff Purge plan? Sure, heâs crippled the Bat-Family, but thereâs still two powerful Kryptonians, a scarlet speedster, ARGUS, and the fucking National Guard who would intervene either way. Is he trying to get a No Manâs Land scenario? Unless the rest of the country decides âNah, fuck Gotham,â there is no scenario where Roman comes out on top.- Actually listening to Black Maskâs plan, I thought last episode had the bad guys being stupid, but weâre already topping this and weâre not even at the first commercial break.- Wait, does the Batcave have its own generators? I would assume so, but they never showed the lights coming back on. And if not, what is powering Lukeâs light?- You would think after the backlash Black Lightning got that the Batwoman people would realize that lights on a superhero costume will always look tacky.- Iâm torn on Alice this season. On one hand, she is infinitely more interesting this season than last. On the other, I donât really think the character deserves to be redeemed this much this fast. – I get that all these shows are made in Canada, but do ANY of these writers have even the smallest understanding of how the American government works?- Bat Optimus, roll out!
– I can get behind Lukeâs suit giving him super strength, but enough to send Bane flying 20 feet in the air easily? Thatâs a bit much. Especially since Iâm betting the Ryanâs new suit wonât have super strength. – The final fight between Ryan and Kate was pretty good, though marred by the constant cutting. – I actually would not mind seeing legacy versions of Batmanâs rogues appearing next season. Though the one Iâd really like to appear is Nora Fries, just to explain how she ended up in Arkham instead of Victor.- Man, I have no idea how actors do those underwater stunts. As someone with mild aquaphobia, the thought of being underwater for that long sends chills down my spine. – How did Alice and Kate not float to the surface of the river? – Da fuck is the GCPD doing in a random forest instead of trying to stop the riots? – Wait, so a bunch of citizens made Bat symbols out of the black skulls and that ended the riots? Was Frost there rounding up all the escaped metas too?- Honestly surprised Luke only suited up for 5 minutes. Hopefully the suit gets a slimmer redesign next season. – So…. does the public know Kate is alive? And if so, what was the excuse given? – Hereâs an easy way to keep Kate on the show without fighting over who gets to be Batwoman: Make Kate be The Huntress instead. After all, Arrow already used up Helena. – I will be very, very curious if we actually see Kate again. – I literally rolled my eyes when Ryan and Kate kissed. Really? And I thought the Ryan/Sophie shiptease was bad.- The show probably wonât do it, but itâd be interesting if Ryanâs mom is only alive due to Crisis.- I guess Papa Kane really is gone for good too, huh? – So… Kate still has the human skin mask on, right? Didn’t Alice say that it needs to be refreshed every once in a while, from general wear and to prevent rot and all that? Are we just looking past that?
FYI – BatWingâs science-fiction batsuit in DC Comics is pretty much capable of anything. Overtime it has had flight, force fields, you name it. It basically is a writerâs plot tool to get BatWing out virtually any conceivable problem, way way beyond the Batmanâs utility belt. It was originally designed for David Zavimbe in Congo in 2011 with a jetpack. The second version of the BatWing suit designed by Lucas Fox didnât have actual flight, but gliding, but had so many things, invisibility, force fields, automatic medical treatment, etc., which went to Luke Fox as BatWing. So they can pretty much make up anything for the BatWing suit. Think of it like more the MCUâs Iron Man costume in that science-fiction series, rather than anything realistic.
Dougray Scott is confirmed not to be returning next season.
He is a good actor but I definitely agree that his character had run its course on the showÂ
He barely had any relevant stories when Kate Kane was a main cast member. This is one CW Father Figure Iâm not sad to see go away.
Also, I canât believe I forgot about this initially, but it seems disingenuous that the show completely glossed over anybody dying during the riots the previous night. Like, there is no way somebody wasnât trampled in a crowded nightclub and one can only imagine how many people died in hospitals.Â
Also, there was no visible evidence of people physically resisting the Maskers or teaming up to, say, fight them off from a store or from a home instead of doing the light-up gimmick.Â
Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy is a standard mayoral campaign strategy in Gotham.
I thought Tavaroff was supposed to be Menace, NOT Bane.
Does Sophieâs comment about Mr. Freeze in the Cluemaster episode mean Crisis put Nora Fries back in the refrigerator after Elseworlds?
I guess Iâm being controversial yet brave by saying this, but I really like this show and I really liked this season!
Thank you! Me too.
I really need to give credit to Day for delivering very solid âRuby Rose as Kate Kaneâ she clearly did her homework.
I spent some time this evening looking at Batwoman Twitter and was baffled by all the people kvelling over this episode, this season, and this show. While losing Rose and gaining Leslie was probably the best thing to happen to the show, itâs still pretty terrible; not Swamp Thing terrible, but few things are.The biggest problem was that, rather than starting fresh, the show insisted on keeping the mostly-annoying supporting cast and storylines for no good reason, shoehorning Ryanâs necessities into them. Iâm mostly glad we have Luke, but everyone else â especially Alice â needs to be jettisoned. A huge housecleaning would be the most beneficial thing for the show, but it might deprive it of the two requirements almost every Arrowverse show seems to require: a group of super-friends and one adult female who speaks in a little-girl voice. (The exception here is Superman and Lois, which â not surprisingly â is the best of the bunch.)I expect Iâll be back next season â if only to see how badly they botch the rogueâs gallery (only Gotham has pulled that off, and even then, only in its final bonkers seasons) â but without major changes, this show will continue to find new bottoms to its barrel.
For me, the fundamental hurdle with this season is that what exactly makes this show a Bat-Show? It is about a random person who found a Batsuit and decided to be a hero fighting random people with at best tangential connections to Bat-Mythos in a Gotham that is pretty generic. And while Black Mask is from the comics, even he felt like another guy they just put that name on. Now Iâm not claiming that it should make the show bad in itself, I have other issues with it, but for me personally it creates a disconnect as it is billing itself as a Bat-show while being weirdly unwilling to be that on any real level.The bigger issue here, though, is that while it is worthy of celebrating the introduction of diversity in to the show, and the Bat-mythos desperately needs that, it is really difficult to see Ryan being anything else than a relatively meaningless footnote in the larger Bat-mythos. Iâm not writing that to be dismissive of who she was, but rather that because there is nothing to connect her on a deeper level to the Bat-Clan so what meaning or excitement would bringing her to the comics have? I mean, the show did a lot with the adoptive angle, so Iâm certain they are going to introduce a link to the Wayne line with her, but even that is kind of meh this late with the character. And I actually do think thatâs tragic as Iâve thought that reintroducing the idea of Bruce Wayne potentially having an unknown daughter would carry weight and allow some neat dynamics in the comics.
As a sidenote, I donât think Iâve seen in a while this big of a divergence with the review and commentary reactions to a CW DC show as here. It also kind of highlights how difficult it has been to assess how well this season, or actually Batwoman in general.
I think that goes back to the fundamental popularity of the DC characters. Basically, Flash, Green Arrow, Black Lighting, are B-list characters in terms of popularity. Doom Patrol, although I loved the originals, were D-list characters for a niche audience like Challengers of the Unknown. The big three remain: Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman. The divergence is that many DC fans have completely ignored most of the rest of the B-List WBverse on CW. But Batman characters have a totally different fan base.
Iâd argue that itâs even a little bit more complicated than that. When they launched Flash, it was actually somewhat close at the start to the comic book character. Green Arrow never really had that clear identity, but they just wholesale stole from Batman on that show. And with Supergirl, while it was marketed as a Super-family show, it also was that and made efforts to forge an identity for the character that was connected with Superman.Batwoman is a show that markets it heavily on the Bat-symbol, yet it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual Bat-Mythos. It is something completely separated from it. And thatâs where the diversity becomes difficult for me, not because Iâm against it, but rather because it almost feels like a distraction at times. That they are doing a Bat-show that is not a Bat-show, but man is it progressive.
Iâd argue that itâs even a little bit more complicated than that. When they launched Flash, it was actually somewhat close at the start to the comic book character. Really?
Even though the actor playing the protagonistâs main rival looked 1000 times more like the comic book character than the actor actually playing Barry…? That felt like them hitting us over the head with how much it wasnât like the comic, to me.
I agree with you, but DC Comics does not. They have had alternate âBatmanâ figures outside of Wayne family for decades, which generally donât catch on much. The original Batwoman Kathy Kane of 1956 (Pre-Crisis) was NOT related to Bruce Wayne for 55 years. Apparently a lot of people donât know that. Denny OâNeill killed that Batwoman on Earth-1 in 1979. They reintroduced her on Earth-2, and I always thought it hokey in 2011 to make Earth-2 Kathy Kane ârelated toâ Bruce Wayne (just like Barbara Gordon Batgirl isnât related). In 2011, Earth-2, they made Kathy Kane as Bruce Wayneâs aunt. Then Morrison kills Kathy, and then resurrects her as a spy.Kate Kane isnât introduced until Post-Infinite Crisis 2006, as Bruce Wayneâs niece, but for context, consider that a Batwoman was not related to Bruce Wayne for 50 years.
âKate Kane isnât introduced until Post-Infinite Crisis 2006, as Bruce Wayneâs niece,âCousin, actually, same as the show.
Honestly, itâs just Batman-Lite because when they started the show they stripped away a lot of what made Batwoman Batwoman in favor of making a rather limp girl power statement and tying so much of the show to Batman. Honestly it feels like they wanted to do Batman and like every âBatmanâ show out there they were told no and just made it as close as possible.
I agree that Ryan and the show itself (even back when Kate when here) feels largely disconnected from the bat-verse and always has.
But I donât think they have to make Ryan related to Bruce to make that work. After all, I think Kate feels only slightly more connected to Bruce, and they ARE related. I just think itâs a question of tone and poor writing. Tim Drake wasnât a Wayne (at least back at the point when I gave up on DC, circa Flushpoint), and he felt like part of the universe just fine. Same with Dick, etc.They just need better writing and actors who can sell the characters. The one who plays Alice is clearly the best on the show and elevates an otherwise ridiculous character concept, but the rest are not keeping up.Â
So there is the WBverse and the DCverse, and for the most part while there are some similarities, really not a lot, and WB is going after a totally different customer base from DC Comics. If you put a protracted soap opera in DC Comics, DC would have closed down 81 years ago. But with a fundamental shortage of âactionâ related writing and books for television/film, WB has reached back to its DC Comics intellectual property to fill a massive gap. Once in a while it works. But WBverse is designed for action soap opera, so that it can reach a larger audience. I liked the idea of Ryan, and watched some episodes, but the mind-numbing (for me) soap opera simply became too dull to continue to slog through, and some have said there were less âactionâ scenes because of COVID-19. Maybe. But General Hospital with costumed heroes is really only going to appeal to a certain segment of an audience. I think the answer is for WB to find a streaming video service, not dependent on ratings and/or commercials for mass audiences. I would really like to see Ryan as Batwoman without all of the soap opera hand-wringing and dialogue. I think there is real possibility there. Donât think it will ever happen, however.Alice was a good villain for Kate Kane. Period. Otherwise, Yawn. Black Mask always was a Yawn villain. The only reason we suffered through the character in Batman was (a) it was Batman, (b) we knew Black Mask would soon be gone and another more interesting villain would be there. WBverse doesnât grasp these. Ryan could be challenging either more tradition villains, or at least some interesting rogue gallery of her own. WBverse villains generally put me to sleep. They are good for soap opera, but most donât turn to costumed hero shows for soap opera. Donât get me wrong, Black Mask would be outstanding on General Hospital or One Life to Live, but most of us arenât tuning into that.
In the WBverse, what WB writers have not gotten is the idea that villains need to be âinteresting.â Alice was successful only because Kate Kane was Batwoman. In Season 2, with Ryan, Alice is a gang-leader. Yawn. Of course, there is something that the gang killed Ryanâs adopted mother. Good for 2 episodes max, then MOVE on. WBverse doesnât understand Black Mask. Most of us disliked Black Mask in DC… not just because he was a villain, but because he was BORING. We suffered through Black Mask story arc for 2 reasons: (1) because it was Batman, (2) because we knew Black Mask story arc would be over soon and we would have an interesting threat for Batman. Black Mask is about as interesting as this dull as dust âMr. Worthâ thing that DC recently cooked up while marking time in place. OK, so it may be unrealistic to have Ryan fighting Riddler, Joker, etc…. (but then why is she Batwoman?), but still… if you are going to have rogues, at least make up some interesting villain characters. Donât get me wrong, Black Mask would be a great addition to General Hospital, One Life to Live, or Days of Our Lives soap operas. In that context, like GHâs Sonny Corinthos, he might be a plus. (Although, honestly I really think General Hospitalâs Sonny Corinthos was more interesting, and might be a good idea for Batwoman.) But most of us tuning into Batwoman werenât looking for General Hospital-style soap opera. The idea of the costumed hero soap opera is a hybrid that is going to work for a narrow set of viewers.
To me, the biggest thing this show had to pull off was not sinking under the crushing weight of COVID and losing the title characterâs actor. Tread water until season 3, survive, and then start something new with no baggage and no excuses.I think, on the whole, they pulled off more than just treading water. Javicia Leslie was a ton of fun as Batwoman and Ryan, so I actually cared about a character it would have been pretty easy not to care about. They brought back Kate, but in a way that didnât overshadow Ryan and allowed everyone to get their goodbyes in. We got Bruce Wayne in a way that didnât try to turn this into a Batman show. We got Batwing, which means weâre probably going to get more superhero action next season. I couldâve done without all of the Coryana/Ocean romance crap, but again, treading water.Next season, we get Ryan without all the baggage of Kate and really the whole Kane family, we get Poison Ivy (would kinda love to see Peyton List in this part again), and the writers have a real opportunity to do something fresh. They also have the opportunity to spend the whole season in a boring slog about finding Ryanâs birth mother, which I really hope they donât do. I guess time will tell.Also, if Wallis Day doesnât show up in the Supergirl finale, we riot!!
This season did a fairly decent job considering it came into a no-win scenario with COVID and losing Ruby Rose, but the writers need figure out what they want this show to be with Ryan Wilder firmly entrenched as the lead. Is it about systemic corruption in society or fancy warrior islands?
This show is such fucking garbage, it amazes me it got renewed… or that anyone here bothers to review it.
I guess the bar is pretty fucking low these days.
Thanks for coming back for the finale, Alani. I think that for all its production-related issues, this show did a good job of retooling on the fly â not just around Ryan as Batwoman but around the troika of Ryan, Luke, and Sophie as new focal points. For this genre of show it was remarkable to get three Black characters giving distinct viewpoints on police brutality.
The other unexpected strength, for me, was the re-emergence of Beth Kane â or at least, the evolution of the Alice identity and what that represents for her. Credit to Rachel Skarsten for getting to dig into both sides of that this season. Iâm looking forward to a surprisingly well-earned season for this show.
Lastly, and more importantly: SUPERBAT LIIIIIIIIIIVES!Â
What is with the giant helmet in that picture. The costume looks something like the Batman Beyond costume but the helmet makes it look like a Funko Pop.Â
Thatâs pesky reality getting in the way.If youâve got a teched up helmet, youâre gonna need some space for that tech. They get away with it with the cowls of most of the heroes, Batwoman included, but thatâs because all their tech can be handled entirely in post. That helmet by comparison actually opens up, so youâve got to have space for the hinges, lights, and stuff…not to mention a head.Plus, Batwing always skewed more in the direction of Iron Man than Batman anyhow. Yeah, Bats has a lot of gadgets, but heâs largely formidable without it all. Batwingâs default is basically a power armor by comparison.
I still kind of wish that they had just cast Rachel Skarsten as both twins from the beginning and then they wouldnât have been in this mess, but then we never would have gotten the wonderful Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, a character who sounded like a bad stereotype on paper but turned out to be so much more. This season was at its best when it focused on her, and I was impressed that the finale, unlike many episodes this season, didnât forget that. It isnât the first time a DCCW show has made the best out of a bad situation (see every time they killed off and then resurrected a Black Canary), but it may be the most impressive.
…but I did love the Wallis Day casting as Kate. It did give more of a twin vibe in this episode…
Yeah, but itâs super weird that Kate looks more related to Alice *after* having reconstructive surgery with the face of someone not related to either of them. And she still looks a lot like herself! Bizarre.
Kate grew a couple inches too.
I did like the âfriend in National Cityâ reference, but she could have actually said Supergirl. If someone knows Kate is Batwoman, it makes sense that Kate would know Supergirl. I also donât expect any actual crossovers. Supergirlâs finale will probably not have Superman, or the Flash. I hope that I am wrong.Â
My read on that was she was vague so as to a) keep Karaâs identity secret and b) guard her privacy around Sophie â even if they parted on (ahem) good terms, sheâs still an ex and didnât need to be let in on all that. Itâs just Kate rushing off to check in with her Totally Platonic Gal Pal, amirite?
Loved the moment when Luke/ Batwing saved Mary and she ended up on top of him in the alley and asked, what is happening right now? I donât know either, but I like it.And in general like the sense this season that Mary and Alice realize they are the only family each has left & that neither is at all happy about this, but it is making them at least sensitive to what the other is going throughÂ
Batwoman is a series I continue to watch because turning off my television after Legends Of Tomorrow is too hard.
While most of the season felt unhinged, the finale was pretty
predictable. They didnât even get shorted any episodes yet it was
underwhelming. I guess thatâs better than being an utter trainwreck. Now
the second season as a whole might be dumpster fireâŚ
Gothamites eagerly await the declaration of each yearâs Riot Night! Even
though this is an annual occurrence, the Batcave doesnât have a
generator?
Amidst all my complaints, it must be acknowledged that Black Mask is a highlight. His & Safiyahâs plan just doesnât add up.
Even Black Lightning struggled to incorporate real world issues with superheroics, & Iâd say it had better writers. So much of Batwoman feels slapdash.
The areas that the writers best convey are depressing racial injustice
& grody physical torture. If the quality of the surrounding writing
was better, this would feel less exploitative. It rarely has the gonzo
gusto of Gotham.
After all that trouble restoring her & finding an actress the fandom & cast clicks with better, the showrunner is officially kicking Kate Kane to the curb.
If Kate doesnât even exit on a triumphant note, why bother dragging her
through all this suffering? Why no dynamic Batwoman duo? They didnât
have to dishonor her to make way for her successor. Death wouldâve been
more dignified than being thrown under the bus & sent packing.
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2021/06/28/batwoman-season-2-bows-out/
Iâm real eager to see how next season plays out. Based on the EW interview, it sounds like itâll be a combination of legacy villains, people related to the villains somehow, and just randos who use the items they found. Itâs very Legends of Tomorrow how theyâre setting up the next season, and Iâm very excited for it.With Luke learning how to be out in the field more, do you think Sophie will be the new Man in the Chair?
I stopped watching after Season 1. I could have accepted a Kate Kane recast, but I wasnât going to reinvest my time in an entirely different Batwoman. Kate and her family drama was just as important to me as the batsuit.
âAt the start of the season, I was pretty deadset on the fact that I didnât want to see Kate Kane brought back. However, Batwoman did a great job incorporating this new âface swapâ storyline while also honoring their new Batwoman.âI feel the same. I was reluctant about the whole thing, but ultimately I canât think of any show that handled an actor change better.
This season did the best it could with Ruby Rose leaving, but they should have either (a) recast the role and not mention the different actor, or (b) kill Kate Kane and have her stay dead and move on with a new characterUnfortunately they tried to do both, which made this season a big mess. If you were going to cast another actor as Kate Kane and go through this long convoluted explanation as to why she looks and sounds different, then why not do that from the start and have this version of Kate continue to be Batwoman?Donât get me wrong, I like Ryanâs character, and the actress playing her. But this season really did her dirty by first saying âThis is the new Batwoman!â and the by mid-season bringing Kate back.Hopefully season 3 will ignore Kate completely and give Ryan a chance to *really* be Batwoman, which is what the character should have been doing this season.Also, had Dougray Scott already decided to leave the show when this episode was made? He got sent to prison (in another city!) a few episodes back and wasnât even mentioned (?) this episode. I know Mary was busy trying to save the city, but youâd think after she would say âOh, my father is in prison, I need to focus on getting him out of there.â Does the new Kate mention him when sheâs saying good-bye to Ryan? I think so but I canât remember – if she does itâs just an offhand thing – her primary focus should be on reconnecting with him and trying to get him out of prison, not trying to find Bruce.If I didnât know better Iâd say the show wanted to pretend Jacob no longer existed based on Ruby Roseâs comments about him on set. But those comments were made months after this episode aired, and the studioâs response was to defend him. So I donât know whatâs going on.