It’s a new day in Gotham City. After the shortened freshman season and Ruby Rose’s unexpected departure, there are some significant changes for Batwoman in 2021! But evil never sleeps, and Gotham needs someone to look out for the little guy. Who better to defend them than someone who’s lived it herself? So don your cap, grab your sticky bomb gun, and join us as we give you five thoughts on the season 2 premiere of Batwoman “What Happened to Kate Kane?”
1. The shadow of Kate Kane looms large for the Batfam.
“What Happened to Kate Kane?” starts with a literal bang with a plane explodes over Gotham city. The opening moments of season 2 are compelling, introducing a lot of information quickly and chaotically. Before the opening credits, we meet our new protagonist, learn how she reacts in crisis, and learn why Gotham’s protector isn’t helping. The cuts are quick, with a frantic pace to the dialogue as Luke and Mary determine why Kate isn’t answering her phone. Simultaneously, we see how Ryan, a woman living in a van by the river, handles stressful situations. As the tension grows, we learn that Kate is MIA because she was on the plane.
The premier has a lot of heavy lifting to do. It has to establish a new protagonist while showing how big their predecessor’s shadow is. The show does this by showing how those closest to Kate handle her death. Jacob is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Sophie looks for answers. Luke and Mary seem almost lost. Kate was important to all of them for different reasons, and the premier does a fine job showing it.
2. A defender of Gotham who has seen the true side of the city.
With Ruby Rose out as Kate Kane, Batwoman’s mantle falls on Ryan Wilder, played by Javicia Leslie. Throughout the episode, we learn about Wilder’s past through flashbacks and monologues and see the hardships life has thrown at her. Her mother died in childbirth. Her father wasn’t around. She was raised in the system and got into trouble. She was adopted and turning her life around before a gang killed her adopted mother. She has a record, has trouble finding work, can’t pay her court fees, and is homeless. She is a checklist of trauma.
It seems that they’re going for almost the flip side of what Kate was. Ryan is a genuine product of Gotham, a person who is a statistic, as she says to Luke and Mary. Leslie does a good job with material that is just ok. Hopefully, there will be more to her backstory than just going from traumatic life experience to traumatic life experience. You want to see her triumphs, her hopes, and dreams, the things that are making her continue to fight. Javivia Leslie is good. Let’s hope that she gets material to reflect that. In any case, it’s interesting to see a defender of Gotham who has lived amongst the people, not looked down on it from a penthouse.
3. The false hope of Bruce Wayne and the real chaos of Tommy Elliot
When all seems lost for Luke and Mary in their hunt for Kate, they get an unexpected visitor in Bruce Wayne. The problem is that this isn’t Bruce Wayne. It is Hush. Everyone accepts Bruce with no questions asked, which is frustrating and ultimately makes Luke look dumb. There’s a throwaway line about how Luke was blinded by hope because Bruce could help find Kate, but the dude didn’t know how to open the Bat Cave. That has got to be a red flag. In any case, Hush proves to be the first test for Ryan as he chases her down in the Batmobile for the suit. She pushes herself to the limit but ultimately stops short of killing him.
It’s hard to know what the original plan for this story was, but it’s safe to think it wasn’t going to wrap up this quickly, considering that it was the big season one twist. In any case, Warren Christie seemed to be having a lot of fun as an unhinged Bruce Wayne. He looked like a kid in a candy store as he played with the toys in the Batcave. Hopefully, we get to see more of Hush!Bruce in the future because it seems like there were bigger plans that had to be changed on the fly.
Continued below4. What’s Alice to do as a conspiracy unfolds around her?
The biggest question heading into the season was what to do about Alice. Alice and Kate are connected, their stories intermingled. Without Kate, what is there for Alice even to do? It seems that the answer to that is to become even more unhinged. The show gives Alice and Ryan a connection, so we will still see Alice and Batwoman play cat and mouse, but it seems that the more significant thing is that Alice no longer cares about Gotham’s fate. Instead, she wants revenge on Safiyah, the mysterious person taking credit for Kate’s death and tracking Julia and Sophie. It seems that a war is coming to Gotham and Alice is ready to jump in once the dust settles.
Rachel Skarsten continues to be delightfully unhinged as Alice, and it’s just fun watching her get to play so many facets of the character. She is always doing something interesting on the screen, so it’s nice to see her continue on the show. Alice was consistently on the best things about season one. If “What Happened to Kate Kane?” is any indication, it looks like she is planning on carrying that energy into season two.
5. Being a hero, in and out of the cowl.
The real conflict in “What Happened to Kate Kane?” is whether Ryan will take up the mantle of being a superhero. She initially plans on using the suit to get revenge on those who hurt her family and ruined her life, but Luke and Mary tell her that the suit should be more than that. It is a symbol of hope and should be in the hands of a good person. After some research, Ryan realizes that Kate was a hero in and out of the cape, advocating for LGBTQ+ issues, providing affordable housing, creating safe spaces, and it leaves her feeling like she is unworthy. At the end of the episode, she hasn’t answered the call.
While it’s good to set up the suit meaning something more, it’s interesting to see how they approach Ryan’s relationship to the suit. The show doesn’t exactly explore how Kate was able to do the things she did due to her immense privilege and how you shouldn’t need that privilege to be a hero. In any case, it sets up some conflict for at least the next couple of episodes. Will Ryan answer the call? Will she be the hero that Mary sees in her? I guess we’ll have to wait.
So there we have it, Batwoman is back! What did you think? Sound off in the comment below, and we will see you next time. Same review time, same review channel!
