TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Batwoman Season 2 Episode 15: Armed and Dangerous

So after a cliffhanger that was divisive to say the least, it was up to “Armed and Dangerous” to make us believe that they could turn this around in a meaningful way and…not so much. In fact, not unlike a certain recent episode of The Flash, they tripped over their own feet to try and make the plot “feel right” and it came off as hollow in the end.

To recap, Luke tried to stop a carjacking, was shot by a Crowe (the over-the-top villain Tamarov) and so the question was, “Would there be justice for Luke?” Yes, there would be, but only in the most comic-al (pun intended) and over-the-top ways ever.

Let’s start with the obvious one. When it came to a key piece of evidence via the body cam footage (which was deepfaked to make Luke seem like a shooter), they couldn’t get access to the raw file without risking Jacob Kane’s life (more on that later). But the problem with that is that this thread ONLY worked because Sophie quit literally 24 hours beforehand.

On that note, Sophie made her “grand return” to the Crowes to talk to Jacob about the situation and he openly admitted that she quit without a single word to him. Which makes NO SENSE because she had PLENTY of words tonight. Not to mention how she said “I always looked up to you” and yet apparently DIDN’T look up to him enough to personally turn in her badge to him? How does that work? This is why I hated both Joe West (Flash) and Sophie quitting their jobs. They WANTED to fix the system and yet the moment they leave the chance to help fix it is gone or is wasted. That’s just bad writing to force certain situations.

Which includes the Desert Rose which “miraculously” somehow had more than one flower on it to be used as a medicine to sav Luke? HUH?!?!! So the only reason he’s alive is because of a “miracle flower”…nice…

Adding to the plot holes of everything. Tamarov was not only insanely one-dimensional in how he handled things, he had “a posse” that only NOW got caught, and then when he personally had Batwoman dead to rights (remember, the Crowes were supposed to catch her on sight per Jacob’s orders) he lets her go! He could’ve unmasked her to the world, but instead…he lets her go. Why…?

And let’s not forget the whole, “Let’s kill our boss with EVERYONE in the room watching!” How does that work? Especially since (as proven by Sophie) they didn’t even try to hide their moving him on the security cameras? They could’ve injected him with Snakebite in his office and no one would’ve been the wiser. But no, they very publically and nonchalantly moved him to another office so that they could…kill him in a place where Batwoman could get to them? Wow.

Moving onto Luke for a second. His going into his “subconscious” to determine whether he lived or died had a LOT of potential. Especially with Bruce showing up to guide him. Not only was it short-lived though, but they also had “Bruce” say things that Luke wouldn’t have known about his situation. Like that line about how “many people would think you deserve it because you’re Black”. Does Luke know that in general? Yes. But he wouldn’t have known what the media said about him after the incident. Which in and of itself was over-the-top because they mentioned Luke’s arrest…but didn’t mention he was released without charges because he was arrested by DIRTY COPS!!!

Which (yes, I’m still going) brings us to the other major problem. The Crowes shutting down was a good move overall. It could’ve been handled a LOT better, but it was a big step for many characters. The problem though is that we saw JUST LAST EPISODE that the Crowes weren’t the only problem in Gotham. It was the GCPD who arrested Sophie, Luke, and Ryan. So this is basically saying, “we need change…but only for groups that aren’t the police, they’re fine”. When we saw LAST EPISODE they were not.

I wouldn’t even get to Ryan and her whole “Luke is in this mess because of me!” because that…was just bad.

Alice’s story wasn’t much better as she called out what I said in my last review about Ocean killing Enigma (daughter of Riddler…so many questions…) and much of the episode was her finding out the “truth” about Sionis grudge against the Kane’s and then teaming up with Jacob at the end (which honestly was nice).

In the end, “Armed and Dangerous” tried to deal with real-world issues in a comic-style way and it just came off as forced, ludicrous and over-the-top. And if the trailer for next week is to be believed (Tamaraov was seen walking free despite him almost KILLING his boss) it might not get any better outside of Kate finally coming back.