TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Batwoman Season Episode 4: Fair Skin, Blue Eyes

Please believe me when I say that I really want Batwoman to turn around because I truly believe this show can be as good as it was in Season 1. But as we end season 2’s 4th episode, “Fair Skin, Blue Eyes”, I’m getting more and more skeptical that this will happen. Especially since the main character still doesn’t shine and the supporting cast and former major villain are carrying the show in various ways.

This latest episode honestly started out with a great premise of a young boy asking Batwoman for help finding his missing brother. This particular story I felt would really help push Ryan’s character forward, but instead, the writers’ just retread a lot of ground that we were already so familiar with.

Confused? A young girl kidnapped and mentally tortured by a person who wanted to make them think that no one was going to look for them, saved by an unlikely ally that they then forged a fierce bond with? It’s Alice’s storyline. Page for page, and yet they tried to paint it a bit differently because Ryan got out sooner. Yeah…didn’t work.

What’s more, they again tried to force the issue of race into the story by having them say that only “young kidnapped white girls get searched for”. Even though Ryan’s own story proved that wasn’t true because of Angelique. Black Lightning (which just came back recently) is much better about naturally weaving the social justice issue into the story, but here they’re forcing it to try and make Ryan more appealing and it’s just not working.

Plus, Ryan continues to make really dumb moves. Like going after a kid trafficker and not expecting her to put up a fight. And most infuriatingly, her not talking about her Kryptonite wound. The first episode after she gave up the suit? Yeah, ok. But now that she’s on team bat how does she NOT talk about it?

And don’t get me started on the “because I looked” line that she gave to Kane, that was just cringe.

So, yet again, the supporting cast were left to pick up the slack, and the new “partners” of Sophie and Alice were perfect as the new “Odd Couple”. They honestly do have a natural working chemistry together and the various twists and turns it took throughout the episode was fun. Though I do worry about that “flashback” Alice had, I do hope they’re not going to make her fall in love with a potential “watery man” to help drum up drama about her finding Kate.

Still, in the end, “Fair Skin, Blue Eyes” was carried more by the supporting cast than Ryan and the more this repeats, the more in danger this season becomes.