Welcome back to Gotham! The race is on to save Angelique as the grip of the False Face Society continues to tighten around the city, thanks to their designer drug Snake Bite. While that’s enough to occupy any vigilante, Ryan and the team have to deal with another problem. Her identity is in jeopardy. Some make difficult decisions, others form awkward alliances, and a new deadly player has entered the scene. What’s a bat to do? So don your cape, grab your grappling hook gun, and join us as we give you five thoughts on season 2, episode 12, “Initiate Self-Destruct.”
1. Sophie’s decision puts her in a difficult position
Another week, another step closer to Sophie entirely leaving the Crows, setting aside her belief in the rigid and uncompromising law and order that the Crows represent for the results of the team of vigilantes represented by Batwoman. “Initiate Self-Destruct” puts Sophie in a precarious position, having discovered Batwoman’s identity but also having the foresight to know that because of Ryan’s criminal past, agents like Tavaroff will stop at nothing to take her down. While she keeps her knowledge to herself from both sides, she agrees to help Ryan and the team keep Batwoman’s identity secret.
“Initiate Self-Destruct” does give Sophie more to do than in previous weeks of the episode, which is appreciated, but it still felt like ultimately something was missing. They do raise the stakes near the end of the episode where Sophie has to deal with the choice of protecting Batwoman or erase the DNA evidence of many other real offenders in the Crows database. The conflict feels forced. In any case, Sophie can find a creative alternative to her problem and keep her knowledge safe. Who knows if there is a larger plan at play from Sohpie keeping her team’s knowledge to herself. In any case, it’s beginning to feel quite a bit like Mary discovering Kate’s identity from season 1. It seems pretty obvious where it’s going, but the show chooses to spin its wheels instead.
2. Jacob’s growing addiction spells trouble for Team Bat
While the hunt for Batwoman begins to heat up in Crows HQ, Jacob Kane is growing increasingly isolated, cagey, and aggressive toward friends and foes alike. While Dougray Scott doesn’t have much to do in the episode overall, the few scenes he does have do make an impact in “Initiate Self-Destruct.” Every scene has a weird tension to it as his performance becomes increasingly unpredictable. Even scenes where he has full-blown meltdowns, Jacob’s mood swings are jarring. It also seems to be setting up an eventual loss of Crow’s command to younger agents like Tavaroff.
It is still pretty early to tell what the endgame of Jacob’s addiction story is, but it seems like any outcome will be bad news for Ryan and the team. As Jacob continues to search for a happy moment in his past, a chance to fix mistakes made and create his ideal family, who knows how he’ll handle the image of his daughter’s legacy. Many people are making dangerous decisions and going down dark paths. Jacob’s self-destruction could have the biggest waves.
3. Mutual enemies make for strange alliances
In the wild coincidence department, the two people who know how to manufacture Snake Bite also happen to be romantically involved with two mortal enemies. After Ocean’s capture at the start of “Initiate Self-Destruct,” Alice and Ryan need to team up to find the lair and save their loves. Their team-up is a blast. While Ryan is leaps and bounds more fun than Kate Kane, there must be something about the suit that turns you into a stick in the mud, but Alice is on the case to try and break through the Bats rough exterior.
Javicia Leslie and Rachel Skarsten play off of one another well, and it’s consistently engaging to see them trade barbs, blows, and the occasional tender scene. While Ryan is distrustful of Alice and harboring resentment for what she did to her mom, the two begin to see some common ground with one another. Both have experienced tragic losses, both feel spit up and chewed up by Gotham, and Alice expresses some actual vulnerability that seems to impact Ryan. Not enough to prevent Ryan from chaining up Alice when she goes to rescue Angelique, but hey, it’s a start! Any time Ryan and Alice are together is a highlight of “Initiate Self-Destruction,” and I hope it’s not the last time we see these two joining forces.
Continued below4. An old face with a new mind creates a credible threat
It’s time for Wallis Day to make her debut as Kate Kane, or rather, Circe Sionis, the dead daughter of Black Mask. Yes, after a few weeks of waiting, the big reveal of Roman Sionis’ plan is that Enigma has brainwashed Kate to be Roman’s dead daughter Circe. The show doesn’t give us much information about why this matters to him or why his daughter was important to his life. He almost immediately sends Kate to do some cleanup work and some killing. “Initiate Self-Destruction” pays off Kate’s big reveal by immediately putting her into a white mask and then sending her out with two scythes.
The thing is, Wallis Day knows how to make an impression with little dialogue and no control of her facial expression. Her movements have an unnatural flow and rhythm to them. The way she moves her head makes the mask appear almost monsterlike in a deeply unsettling but undeniably cool way. Plus, she kicks total ass. By the end of “Initiate Self-Destruction,” Kate captured Alice, hesitated at the order to kill her, but now is responsible for extracting information. It seems obvious what they’re setting up with Kate’s return, but Day is bringing a unique new energy to the character.
5. The importance of the choices we make.
By the end of “Initiate Self-Destruct,” every character is left in a pretty precarious position due largely to the decisions made in the fight against Black Mask. Alice is left with a mind-controlled and vulnerable Kate, that much closer to completing her goal of joining forces with her sister and starting a reign of terror. Sophie, Jacob, and the Crows seem to be in a management crisis, with Jacob’s growing addiction and Sohpie’s waning dedication to the cause. However, the one that stings the most is Ryan’s continued desire to try and make something real with Angelique. Ryan has put her life and identity on the line to save her oldest friend and love but keeps running into the roadblocks of being a hero. While it’s a frustrating cycle to see Ryan go through time and time again, Javicia Leslie does sell Ryan’s pain well.
It’s also important to look at Ryan’s decisions in the episode, choosing personal interests over the greater good. Ryan will sometimes make the selfish or wrong decision out of personal interest, making her that much more interesting. Ryan is attempting to make an actual life for herself while being routinely reminded that that isn’t possible for someone who wears the mask.
So there you have it. Black Mask’s power grows with a frightening new lieutenant, the Crows are in hard times, and the Bat team is trying to make it all work. What did you think of the episode? Sound off below!
