TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Batwoman Season 2 Episode 17: Kane, Kate

And here we are at the penultimate episode of Season 2 and all I can say is…wow. To be fair, I wasn’t aware that this was the penultimate episode of this season but once I was made aware it became pretty clear what they’re trying to do and I’m…not a fan.

To recap, last week Kate’s mind got a “crack in the wall” that had the personas of Kate and Circe Sionis fighting for control and at the end of the episode Safaiyah offered to help Kate/Circe choose which side she wanted to be. Fast forward to now and she chose…poorly. Not that we SAW how she came to her decision, we’re just told that she did, which really takes a huge chunk out of the storyline.

Regardless, the Bat-team had “their girl back” and were desperate to reintegrate her into their lives. Which for the record…was fine for the most part. But once again, they made some serious faux pas in trying t get to the end result. For example, Mary going to Alice and refusing to ask for her help to ensure that Kate was Kate…was just plain sad. YES, I know, Alice took her mother and she’ll never forgive her for that, and that’s her right. And that’s a huge storyline they can play with for a long time. But she’s supposed to care about KATE, and getting her back mentally 100% should’ve been the top priority, but apparently, it wasn’t.

Furthermore, as everyone likey predicted, Ryan started her process of “I’m not Batwoman, she is”, which was badly handle for multiple reasons. And ironically, not fully because of Ryan (outside of her speech to the pot and a certain other thing). Rather, it’s because she was about to move out (and did move back to her van), and then suited up to go and get a laptop, and then two scenes later she’s arrested before anything meaningful can happen in her “last hoorah”. What’s more, the fact that ONE conversation about “Kate” saying she wanted to get “back into the suit” was enough to trip up Ryan? Wow.

Also, wasn’t part of Ryan’s “new rules” was to go and do work OUTSIDE of being Batwoman? That very fulfilling life still would’ve been there for her with the suit gone, just saying.

Another misstep was the continued muddled message with the GCPD and the Crowes. With Sionis HIRING all the fired Crowed to be his thugs, and then using the GCPD on his payroll to frame Ryan for Snakebite selling. Which makes Jacob’s sacrifice a few episodes back 100%…meaningless, and further rendering Luke’s “fight for justice”…meaningless.

Finally, when Circe did reveal herself and Sophie had a chance to stop her…she didn’t. Would you like me to list all the ways that was dumb? 1) She could’ve shot her in the foot and did minimal damage, as a cop, she would know where to hit someone to note cause much damage. 2) She could’ve held her up at arrowpoint and had the others tie her up. 3) If Sophie didn’t feel comfortable with that, she could’ve at the very least taken the bag that Circe had gotten for herself which we know they saw.

So, where were the bright spots? Well, one of them was Roman Sionis. His chat with Ryan was actually very compelling. Overall he’s been a solid villain in this back half and I’m curious what will happen in the season finale with him and his “powered-up goons”.

Also, Alice was a bright spot, because of course she was. At this point, she’s one of the most consistent and consistently well-written characters in the show. Her emotional goodbye to Ocean (how did she incinerate him, exactly?), as well as her showdown with Safaiyah was great, including pulling out a very familiar dagger. Of course, the cost of that was making Safaiyah look infinitely weak. She is supposed to be the Batwoman version of Ra’s Al Ghul but she’s been shown now multiple times to underestimate Alice and it’s cost her every single time. Not very “big boss” like, wouldn’t you say?

Oh, but the “items of the villains” thing in the Batcave? Yeah, that was cool.

In the end, “Kane, Kate” was good enough for a penultimate episode, but in its rush to get to the end result, it sacrificed a lot of key moments we needed. And with Batwing being born in next week’s season finale, one has to wonder how it’ll be handled.