Welcome back to Gotham! After Circe Sionis’ deception, Ryan and her team are at their lowest point yet. They have no suit, no gadgets, and literally, no power as Black Mask sets his final plan into motion, causing absolute chaos. It’s up to the Batfamily to stop the False Face Society and try to bring some peace back to Gotham, but with the deck stacked against them, they will need to form some unlikely alliances. The final fight is on, and Gotham could use a hero more than ever! So don your cape, grab the keys to the Batmobile, and join us as we give you five thoughts on season 2, episode 18, “Power.”
1. Creating chaos to save the day
Roman Sionis wanted one thing, chaos, and in “Power,” he sprung the trap to get his way. As Black Mask, Sionis unleashes his final plot, a chance to let Gotham take back their city from the corrupt bloat of the GCPD, City Hall, and Vigilantes. Organizations that work without any level of oversight or accountability and whose corruption has damaged Gotham. Because of this, the False Face Society distributed masks throughout the city, giving Gotham’s citizens a chance to cause some anarchy. The problem is that Sionis isn’t interested in allowing the citizens of Gotham to control themselves. Instead, he wants enough chaos to swoop in like a hero and take over as the leader of Gotham.
While this plot thread was established earlier in the season, “Power” is the first time it had come back in earnest, which in many ways is something of a detriment to the second season overall. It would have been more interesting to see Roman Sionis play both sides of the scheme, causing chaos at night only to smash cut to him lamenting the chaos of the city on the news the next day. The audience knows who Black Mask is, but watching him weasel his way into the role of guardian angel protector would have been more interesting. Instead, it’s a somewhat lame (and rather abrupt) knockoff of The Purge.. In the end, Alive unravels Sionis’ scheme after she sprays him with Joker toxin, fusing the Black Mask to the perfume magnate forever.
2. Luke Fox joins the fray
It’s been interesting watching Luke’s development in the second season. While certainly not perfect, the second season telegraphed his transformation from “guy in the chair” to an active member of the team, especially when his whole worldview of keeping your head down and being a meek, polite bystander comes crashing down around him. In “Power,” as he attempts to find a way to help, Luke makes a discovery, his father had taken his old drawing and turned them into his very own super suit.
For the record, this all comes very abruptly. It’s unclear if the suit was unauthorized by Bruce or why it’s been in hiding for so long, but the introduction of Batwing is pretty exciting. Batwing also allows Luke a chance to get some closure with agent Tavaroff, now injected with Bane venom and snakebite, who goes into a murderous rage when Mary removes the drug keeping him calm. Luke is not only able to save Mary but fight back against the hulking foe. With the introduction of Batwing, we are one step closer to getting something assembling the Batfamily from Tynion’s run on ‘Detective Comics,’ which is pretty exciting moving forward.
3. Alice’s uneasy alliance leads to a big sacrifice
Alice is back to help, and while the team isn’t necessarily thrilled about this, they don’t have much choice but to get help from their foe. Again, Javicia Leslie and Rachel Skarsten have excellent chemistry in “Power,” as the two trade barbs back and forth, traveling to help Kate. Again, much like Sionis playing both sides of the field, the scenes with Ryan and Alice make you wish they had gotten more to do with one another. The writers abandoned their fun cat and mouse dynamic for Alice’s somewhat redemption arc.
Yet, the two need to team up and save Kate after realizing that an aerosolized version of Snake Bite isn’t as addictive and can potentially bring Kate’s memory back. Heck, Alice is ultimately responsible for getting Sionis off the board by fusing the mask to his face. In any case, while Alice successfully saves her sister, she is captured to send her back to Arkham Asylum. By saving the day, she made a considerable sacrifice. Is Alice redeemed? Probably not, but if there’s one thing we all know, Arkham’s walls aren’t the best at keeping people like Alice inside.
Continued below4. Improving her city and her life
After the events of “Kane, Kate” Ryan once again doubts her role on the team and even goes so far as to retire from being Batwoman in “Power publicly.” But the thing is, Gotham doesn’t seem to be done with Ryan. While many take advantage of Black Mask’s petition for anarchy, it seemed as if most of the city didn’t instead put the masks in their windows to show that he doesn’t have power over them. Ryan’s time as Batwoman has made the city hopeful again, and hope is a hard thing to fight. In the end, Gotham proves to Ryan, and she has made an impact, one that she hopes to continue.
Ryan’s future is looking bright. The Parole Board lifted her restrictions, allowing her to explain that she was never the person they thought she was and that she’s proved it time and again, and her plans on building community centers are moving forward. Her time in the Batsuit has given Ryan a lot, confidence, power, and the belief that change is possible.
5. What’s next for Gotham?
So it looks like even though Kate has returned, Ryan is going to continue wearing the cowl after all. “Power” ends with Kate and Sophie having a tearful goodbye as Kate explains she needs to help her father and find Bruce. She has left too many family members abandoned and knows what it can do to them, so she has to be off. Hopefully, this isn’t the last we see of Wallis Day, who honestly has done a lot with her small-time on screen. I’m just glad that Ryan gets to stay at the helm.
But Kate is only one part of the equation. Batman’s trophy case of weapons has been cleared and are now out in the wild. Some of the things include Mad Hatter’s hat, Penguin’s umbrella, and some of Poison Ivy’s ivy, ivy which has gotten into Gotham’s wild. Does this mean that we’re going to see new versions of these rogues in the future? Who knows, but it seems like Ryan and her team will have their work cut out for them.
And so ends Batwoman’s second season, a real mixed bag of a season. What did you think? Let us know below, and see you next season!
