Batwoman Episode 02/18 - "Power"

[Dr.]

Scheduled airdate: June 27, 2021

Synopsis:

SEASON FINALE - In the Batwoman season finale, Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie) questions her place as the city's hero as she, Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson), Mary Hamilton (Nicole Kang) and Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy) must join forces when Black Mask (guest star Peter Outerbridge) instigates chaos in the Gotham streets. Meanwhile, Alice's attempt to rescue her sister means another encounter with Circe (guest star Wallis Day). In an epic standoff, unexpected alliances and transformations will upend Gotham as we know it. Directed by Holly Dale; written by Caroline Dries.

Promo:

 

[Primal Slayer]

The Flash has made all tapped out on pep talks and motivational speeches. These shows always have to go over the top, no Batsignal? Everyone in Gotham miraculously has bat lanterns ready to draw attention to their houses and inspire Ryan that she is Batwoman even without the suit.

If they want to suit up Luke, cool, fine, but his "I drew what a black Batman would look like" come on show, that felt so forced when it's essentially the batman beyond beyond and in general its just a superpowered suit with a transformers mask.

The finale was ok but it didnt feel very finale-ish. Kate is back in control and just gives up the mantle willy nilly, and now she has to find her cousin.


Kates story was a waste.

The batsuit gets chopped up and but back together as if it never was cut to shreds.

We end the season with "mom is still alive!" and probably a bad guy.

I just hope that S3 they put more effort into Gotham.

 

[Dr.]

Practically and “politically” speaking, the plot resolutions were as expected. Ryan had to remain as Batwoman. And there couldn’t be two Batwomen. Kate couldn’t be killed off (no “bury your gays” trope); therefore, she had to exit the narrative under a more-or-less happy ending pretext.

Kinda, sorta works... But you can still fault the show (and I do!) for painting themselves into this corner in the first place.

 

[Sithborg]

The editing on this episode was just bizarre. Just a weird way scenes are intercut together. I think they needed a month break like the two Super shows, since I think covid protocols rushed the finale for the deadline.

Some good stuff. I'm not gonna lie, I did love the big pillow muscle suit they put Taverov in. It was so stupid and cheesy. I blame Gotham for my love of that stupid ****.

As someone how loves Ryan Wilder, I am fine with the outcome. Plus, leaves some room for fun drama later. Though, consider me wary of this biological mother storyline. **** special bloodlines, the big thing about Ryan is that she is not a privelaged person.

 

[Holy Slapper]

I liked it. Though I kinda wanted Kate to visit Beth in Arkham instead of Ryan, or with her. It did feel like Covid interfered again. Curious where this will go next season. Will Wallis Day be in a recurring role as Kate? How will Alice get out of Arkham, the most well guarded asylum...no I can't say that with a straight face.

 

[Dark Raven]

Finished the season finale. It was okay as a finale and better than last year's one. I prefer Alice as an anti hero than the main villain.

How did the Snake Bite restore Kate Kane's memories?

How come the GCPD left Kate there on the river bank while arresting Alice? Shouldn't they have arrested Ryan as well for being a supposed drug dealer? And brought back Circe to her father?

Is Black Mask's mask stuck permanently on his face in the comics?

I knew Kate would have to leave so that Ryan could continue as Batwoman. But they could've kept Kate working for Team Bat as a mentor. Or if she had been crippled she could've been like Batgirl Barbara Gordon in a wheel chair working behind the scenes in the Batcave.

So Wallis Day was never going to be permanent? I wish they kept her around so we got to know her actually as Kate, because by the end of the season she still felt more like Circe pretending to be Kate than genuine Kate. We needed more time with her.

Also don't the former Crows know that Ryan is Batwoman now? Won't they reveal that? What happened to them? They didn't die with her secret.

 

[Dr.]

Here’s a dubious conclusion:

The Arrowverse Is Finally Fixing Its Batman Mystery Mistake



According to the article…

“…the Batwoman season 2 finale may be the first step in fixing the Arrowverse's Batman problem.”

And…

“Instead of dancing around the topic of "where's Batman?", the series is actively tackling it, even if it's off-screen.”


Well, if it’s off-screen I don’t see how this “actively” addresses anything.

 

[Dark Raven]

They should probably just say Batman is dead. After all, Bruce Wayne did appear in Luke Fox's dream hallucination when he had been shot. That could imply that Bruce is already dead.

Also Kate says she had done everything she could to help Alice become Beth again. But had she really? She knows nothing of the developments that have happened while she's been missing. She doesn't know that Alice had certain emotions and memories restored and that she had become more of an anti-hero since Kate last saw her. Alice seemed to have established more of a relationship with her father too. If both Kate and her father were able to continue to be positive forces for good in Alice's life and show her love, then Alice could've been restored.

But Kate didn't even think of any of that. And did she even go to Arkham to visit Alice?

Also I would've liked to have seen Kate Kane in the Batsuit as a hero one last time as the original Batwoman with the red hair. Wallis Day never got to wear the suit like that.

For now it seems Kate Kane has been written out of the story.

 

[Dr.]

For now it seems Kate Kane has been written out of the story.

According to showrunner Dries, Kate is done: "...never say never because you never know, but for now, that was our farewell to Kate."

And according to Wallis Day:

 

[Thome216]

Saw this today and, shockingly, I think this was the best episode of the entire season. (of the ones I saw.) It had good action, it didn't seem to loiter too much, and had good emotional moments, esp from Skarsten. That woman is a delight!
Was it a 10? No. It was a good 7. I would have enjoyed it more if Ryan said to Kate, 'you take the Batsuit, I found my own power now,' and we finally got Kate Kane back as Batwoman. But since I knew that wasn't going to happen...
Anyway, this Gotham being ripped apart was the visage of Gotham that we should have been seeing throughout the first and second season. Maybe toned down a little, but this sort of anarchy was something we were promised at the start and was barely delivered on.
Lucas finding the suit his father made for him, and based on his childish drawings, was done very well. I was suddenly all for him putting it on.
Them using Snake-bite to jar Kate's memories was good too. It's supposed to make you relive happy memories with better outcomes, and that was a good way to draw her out. Both Kate and Alice going over the bridge was a neat return to the original accident, and I'm glad that Alice got to say goodbye to Ocean, at least in some way. And then she was so happy when Kate called her Beth...
And then the show just shat all over it by having her arrested right after. Um, we are outside of city limits, a city that is being torn apart by riots and the police have the man-power to send some people out to check out a fight on a deserted bridge..? Okay...
Once again, Beth gets the shortest end of the stick.
Recognizing that we were not going to get Kate back as Batwoman, what I would have preferred was she and Beth leaving the city together. Let Kate recover, and get Beth away from everything that required her to be 'Alice.' That would have been a good, final end for the Kane sisters, to just ride off into the night together.
But no. After seeing Beth once by the river, Kate doesn't mention her again and does not go to see her before she leaves. Heck, I would have been fine if a final scene had Kate breaking Beth out of Arkham, but we got nothing from the yin and yang of the first season.
And now Alice knows (somehow) that Ryder's mother might still be alive... Where's that headbanging emoji? Oh, there it is!
The entire season (from the episodes I saw) was a mishmash that shouldn't have happened. I can blame RR for leaving, but the real reason it just felt off the rails from the start was Dries and whoever else decided that just recasting Kate Kane would somehow be the harder course to take. Dries described that as being too much like a 'soap opera,' and yet the entire season just felt like that. Like they were scrambling to shoe-horn in an entirely new actress into an entirely new character while also taking the heart of it, Kate Kane, out of it.
Ho hum, grumble grumble grumble, and all that! The first season was a good ride, the second a waste of time, for me anyway, and the third, maybe I'll catch it in reruns.

And who knows. Give it a year or two and maybe someone can reboot the entire thing on another network. HBO Max, you listening..? Netflix? Peacock..?