TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Batwoman Season 2 Episode 13: I’ll Give You A Clue

I’ve been very blunt about my feelings on Batwoman Season 2 for many episodes, and “I’ll Give You A Clue” sadly cemented them in a big way. Because while the arrival of Cluemaster and Stephanie Brown was great, the crux of the episode was about Ryan’s distrust of Sophie for the sole reason she’s a Crow and it was SO ANNOYING!!!!

Yes, Sophie locked her up in the past. Yes, when she was accused of that one robbery Sophie didn’t believe in her innocence. All fair reasons to hate her…in the beginning. But then Sophie went out of her way not once but twice to save Angelique, even putting her own life on the line multiple times to get an in with the False Face Society. And then, last episode, she risked everything to save Batwoman’s identity (which Luke and Mary forgot to mention…?) and yet Ryan STILL hates her and doesn’t want to trust her because she’s a Crow. L.A.M.E!!!!

Seriously, at this point, Ryan is one-dimensional in her hate (and that was proven last week with Alice) that she honestly doesn’t deserve to wear the cowl. Sophie deserves it more than her. And in fact, Sophie would make a great Batwoman in my opinion.

This was further proven when Sophie admitted she knew Ryan was Batwoman, and what did Ryan do? Blame Mary! She blamed Mary for tipping off Sophie and stating that Sophie only came over to get her drunk and admit that Ryan was Batwoman. How contrived was that? Exactly. And then she admitted that she wished that Mary would talk with her “if she needed someone to talk to” as if Mary can only have one friend? Well, aren’t you controlling?

And the saddest part about all of this was that this contrived hate and plotline obscured a rather fun villain and future hero arrive with Cluemaster and Spoiler!

Cluemaster has always been a lesser villain Batman lore and basically a slightly altered version of Riddler (which they acknowledged in the show ironically enough), and yet they played up the “game show” version of him (very similar to the underrated series The Batman where he had a somewhat similar origin) and it made him a really fun villain to watch.

Stephanie Brown’s arrival wasn’t flawless (why did they rush right into hooking her up with Luke?) but her story with her father was great. Her being the one to expose him, refusing to join him, fearing her future, protecting Luke (by bashing his skull in…) and more was great. But then they…rushed into him killing himself which was…dark…and kind of unneeded.

But given that they gave more time to Sophie and Ryan’s “story” they probably had to think of a quick out and this was that.

Meanwhile, Alice was once again at delight and in top form as she figured out the truth behind not just Black Mask, but “Circe”. How this goes down will be fun to see. As well as Jacob’s potential OD.

In the end, “I’ll Give You A Clue” was strong in some areas and weak in others, a running theme for Season 2 of Batwoman. Next week is promising a big “social justice” episode, which if they play it right could be HUGE (not unlike certain episodes of Black Lightning), but if they play it like this one…? It’ll do more harm than good, and no one wants that.