It’s a new day in Gotham, but things aren’t going well for Gotham’s new defender. Between an infected wound, relationship troubles, and a team doing everything to prevent themselves from becoming a cohesive unit, it seems like there’s some room to grow for the new Batfam. Making matters worse is the search for Kate Kane, Coryana, and the miracle cure the island possesses. But many are on the trail! So don your cape, grab your adrenalin shot, and join us as we give you five thoughts on season 2, episode 6, “Do Not Resuscitate.”
1. Lies, so MANY lies
Lies are at the core of most superhero properties. It’s not necessarily a problem for a superhero story to rely on half-truths or out-and-out lies, but boy, does “Do Not Resuscitate” have a lot of them. The lies are there for varying reasons and some work, but it seems that the primary reason they are there is to add further barriers to creating a cohesive new team.
For the lies that work, they remind Ryan that she cannot save everyone, especially if they don’t want saving. This is true for Angelique, Ryan’s on and off again girlfriend who refuses to stop her life of crime. Ryan tries hard to give Angelique a new life, but Angelique wants nothing to do with it. The conflict arises when Sophie tells Ryan she has to bug Angelique’s phone or face the consequences. This is a lie to track down Ocean, which creates a rift between Ryan and her girlfriend. Angelique likes her life, and she feels powerful. In this way, the lies of their relationship are an important lesson for Ryan. She cant save everyone. The other lies, not so much.
Both Ryan and Luke still don’t like one another, causing them to tell lies to one another. Ryan about her injury, Luke about his brief partnership with Alice. These are here simply to prevent the new Batfamily from operating on a proper level. These lies are a continuing problem of the season overall. It’s the kind of stubborn and forced drama that sometimes makes these Arrowverse shows suffer as a whole. Lies have their place, but if it’s merely there to continue roadblocks, it can be a major source of frustration.
2. Hamilton Industries still looms large over Mary’s story
The antagonist of “Do Not Resuscitate” is Aaron, a patient at a medical institution trying to reverse engineer a cure from the bloodstream of those treated with the blood from the bat attack. Hamilton Industries only made a small amount of the treatment, and either has lost the ability to produce more or is not sharing the research with others. (The episode is not clear about this.)
Aaron will get a cure if he captures Mary to get the information for the treatment from her. Throughout the episode, Mary and Jacob learn that Aaron has had a very tragic life. Aaron has rage issues and has received a series of illegal experiments from Hamilton Industries to treat it. Rather than help, it further damaged the patient. This is an important development for Mary, as she continues to learn about her mother’s not-so-savory past. The legacy of her mother’s company looms large. While Mary tries to argue that her mother would never do anything like that, the realization throughout the episode is that, perhaps, her mother wasn’t a saint. The show hasn’t done too much since Catherine died, but maybe this will be the start of them coming into the fold as Mary tries to rehabilitate her mother’s company.
3. Respect earned from extraordinary circumstances
As the season has progressed, Ryan continues to deal with her kryptonite bullet wound’s slow infection. While there were moments last where the injury impeded her ability to be Batwoman, “Do Not Resuscitate” heightens it as Ryan’s condition becomes too much. There are moments throughout the episode that show how Ryan’s life as a poor citizen impacts her ability to get the medical attention that she needs, only making the injury worse. But it reaches a boiling point when she finally admits her injury to Luke. As she explains to him, he already didn’t trust her in the suit. An infected wound would only take away from his trust in her. It’s another in a long line of lies to prevent this team from coming together. This time, though, it works.
Continued belowLuke sees Ryan’s commitment to putting on the suit, even as it slowly kills her and finally admits she’s a hero. Perhaps THIS is when they can finally start acting like a team. It just feels a little hamfisted and condescending. I know that Luke’s character has been “getting Kate back” up until this point, but Ryan has proven herself. It is just a little disappointing that it took “almost dying” to get her the respect she deserves. Hopefully, this is the last time we’ll have to deal with this, but who knows, apparently distrust is good for drama.
4. The ups and downs of Jacob Kane
Jacob Kane has been through a lot. He’s lost two wives, two daughters, had to deal with one daughter coming back as a villain, and led a corrupt paramilitary group. It’s been a complicated couple of years. “Do Not Resuscitate” allows him to bond with his stepdaughter, but to mixed results, as he is captured with her and tortured for the map to find Coryana. The big thing about this episode is Jacob finding out about Mary’s secret clinic while simultaneously finding out he wasn’t a great father to Mary.
Jacob is a complex character, but Mary gives him a severe dressing down about how he was never there for her, and the one time he gets involved, he wants to take away her one legacy, her one piece of good in Gotham. It’s unclear what the particular part of this subplot means for Jacob’s character. Still, it works to continue Dougray Scott’s depiction of Jacob, a character who seems to want to do the right thing but has difficulty expressing the emotions effectively. The first half of the second season has been beating Jacob down. Hopefully, he will be rising soon.
5. Taking the war to Safiyah
Finally, Alice and Ocean continue their tense (and pretty sexually charged) tenuous alliance as they both try to gain information about the other and their perceived connection. Ocean is convinced that there is nothing more than the simple fact that he tried to steal a rose and was reprimanded for it, maybe even starting to convince himself that Alice is the one responsible for his fall from grace. Still, as she points out, it’s pretty telling that they remember aspects of the island, just not moments when they were together. Safiyah has sent Alice to kill Ocean for a reason, hoping that the two didn’t reconnect in any significant way. Or maybe she is hoping they will connect. Who knows? Safiyah is tricky like that. In any case, Ocean and Alice are after Safiyah, faking Ocean’s death and waiting for transport back to Coryana. It’ll be curious to see where this is leading, but it is the most intriguing storyline on the show.
So there we have it. Ryan is (hopefully) more accepted. Alice is heading to Coryana. The Crows are certainly part of it. What do you think? Sound off below!
