TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Batwoman Season 2 Premiere!

Batwoman had a strong first season in the eyes of many, and one of the reasons for this was because of Ruby Rose’s portrayal of beloved comics character Kate Kane. However, with her shocking dropping out after 1 season (something that’s never happened on this scale in the Arrowverse), the showrunners had to choose between recasting Kate Kane (which many actresses volunteer for) and bringing in a new Batwoman. As you all know, they did the latter option, and the show had to rush to make things meet up…and it absolutely shows.

The biggest question here was that of, “How would they make Kate Kane disappear?” Because many behind the scenes said that this would be a “mystery” in regards to what happened to Kate and that they wouldn’t just kill her off. And yet, the opening of the episode is that of a planet Kate happens to be on crashing…and no one can find her. Right off the bat, pun intended, that’s insulting. Because part of the “illusion” of superheroes is that they’re immune to such things, else every non-invulnerable character would die this way. And yet, not only do they do a plane crash, that crash just so happened to also feature the arrival of Ryan Wilder, and lo and behold…she finds the Batsuit in the plane wreckage.

If you think the “how convenient” phrase going through your head right now is going to stop, it’s not.

Because as we would learn, Ryan Wilder is a down on her luck Gothamite who was betrayed by the system, lost her adoptive mother in an attack, is seeking justice, and the person who she’s after for killing said mother…is Alice. Because of course it is.

To be clear, I have nothing against actress Javicia Leslie, but this episode did her zero favors in terms of showing her as a “worthy successor” to Kate Kane. We’ve seen activist-style superheroes on the CW before like with Thunder in Black Lightning, and they gave her the depth to show why she was that way. For Ryan Wilder, they just beat the viewer over the head with her backstory and “by the number” (literally figuratively) mentality and personality and try and force viewers to care for her. It just made me annoyed.

Especially when she goes from the roller coaster of throwing up after saving someone and witnessing a plane, to feeling that she’s the only one who can wear the batsuit and get justice for her adoptive mother, to suddenly realizing how wrong she was about everything, to putting back on the suit to take down Tommy Elliot…and then giving it up and being very “philosophical” about her role in life. That’s all in one episode. Not building a lot of confidence.

Speaking of Tommy, they BLEW through his storyline in one episode. That is clearly them rushing to get it out the door so they can focus on Ryan…and that is just another reason why they should’ve just recast Kate. Because they had everything setup, and they’re now just tearing it down in a hurry to hope no one notices. We notice. Including that bit about the Kryptonite bullet NOT killing the person in the suit but just giving them poisoning, or how Tommy and not Luke knew that the Batmobile was in the Batcave (that should not be possible in any way) and so on and so forth.

At this point you might be wondering, “Was there anything good about this episode?” Yes, in terms of the RETURNING cast, they did well in showcasing how they would all deal with Kate’s “disappearance” and it was very solid all-around outside of a few things. I loved how they showed Luke and Mary reacting to it, Mary being a voice of reason for both Luke and her dad, Alice revealing how SHE wanted to have Kate killed (and that was honestly a great plan), and then revealing the truth to Jacob to break him, and more. Luke blaming himself was a little dumb, and using Kate’s letter to basically break up her and Julia was bad as well, but these were honestly small things compared to the whole.

Of course, more than likely, Kate WILL return, especially as new villain Sailiyah all but stated that she “killed” Kate Kane “for Alice”. But that just makes it all the more maddening.

I won’t lie, I was totally in the camp of them recasting Kate Kane to keep everything going, and especially after what happened in 2020 as a whole to the Arrowverse, that should’ve happened. They’re trying to force too much on the audience, and while the show may go on, it’s not going to go on the same way. I’m still going to give it a chance, but they need to PROVE that Ryan Wilder is worthy of being Kate’s replacements…and to start…they’re not doing a good job.