It’s honestly getting harder and harder to enjoy Batwoman Season as things just get crazier and more forced and now, contradictory. Because the latest episode in “Do No Resuscitate” tried once again to make Ryan Wilder sympathetic by making all the other characters seem lesser than her.
Let’s start with the weirder element of the plot. There is apparently a secret medical/experimental section of Hamilton Dynamics that was doing human experiments and is so desperate to “change the face of medicine” that they’ll kill patients, take hostages and so on. Yes, this is Gotham, and we all know medical companies in the real world are scummy in their own ways…but this was pushing it.
Especially when you consider that we got the TV-version of Amygdala (yes, that is an actual Batman villain) and he was tasked with getting the Desert Rose antidote. Which is curious…because given his bursts of rage he likely would’ve been just as likely to destroy it in hilarious fashion than actually get the job done. So…why send him again? Having him kidnap Mary and Jacob? Totally understandable. The rest? Not so much. Especially when he said he “believed Mary” about there being no antidote and yet he expected her to make more.
And there’s Ryan, who finally went to the hospital for her injuries, and then got blown off by a doctor (who sees a glowing green wound and things antibiotics will do the job? Really?) and then when she was FINALLY forced to tell Luke about what happened, she made it seem like it was HIS fault she was dying because she “couldn’t tell him because he didn’t trust her”. Except, if Luke DIDN’T trust her…she wouldn’t be wearing the Batsuit, at all. He would let her go out and save people. Did he prefer Kate to her? Yes, no doubt. But he clearly trusted her and was concerned about her when (now in multiple episodes) she was showing signs of injury. And as I called last episode, there were files in the Batcave about Kryptonite being radioactive, and if she had TOLD HIM about this first time, he might have been able to help her before it became a “pulsating wound”.
Oh, and let’s not forget her blowing up about Alice even though he made it clear that it was the only way to get Kate back, and that VERY awkward storyline involving Sophie and her girlfriend. They’re trying every way imaginable to make Ryan the most sympathetic character around and that shouldn’t be the focus. The focus should be about how she is a worthy Batwoman and they’ve only done that a few times at best. And it’s frustrating when you consider that Julia Pennyworth is out there…somewhere…and definitely would fill the shoes of Batwoman easily and not have all these forced storylines thrown in to try and “connect” her with the audience.
Speaking of the girlfriend front, the Crows are apparently so bad at bugging phones that the phones don’t work properly when bugged? And the girlfriend KEPT THE PHONE despite KNOWING that it was bugged? How is that logical?
Don’t worry though, it wasn’t just Ryan who had the melodrama cranked up. Mary and Jacob getting put into that hostage situation had some great moments…until the end where Jacob shut down her clinic and she blew up at him even though both of them were right on the matter. Her line about liking it better “when he didn’t know she existed” was cringe times ten.
And yet, ironically once more, Alice had the best storyline as she and Ocean tried to figure out the truth about what Safaiyah did to them, and had some fun fight scenes and chats to help make it even more intriguing. I’m not sure how she pulled off the “body double”, but I’m invested to see what happens next.
Some final contradictory elements. If Sophie knew that the map couldn’t be lost, why did she keep it in the container and not just swap it out with something else? They didn’t know what the real map looked like, and there’s no reason to think that they would’ve looked in the container while they were there. Also, remember when Ryan said she would “never save a Crowe” last episode? And yet she saved Sophie…twice? Hmm…
In the end, “Do Not Resuscitate” failed to click on various levels and it’s sad because there IS potential there…but they’re just going about bringing it out in all the wrong ways.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
Nerd Comments