BATWOMAN 2.4

 

 RECAP - BATWOMAN 2.4:  "Fair Skin, Blue Eyes"  

We're definitely getting into some juicy stuff here on Batwoman.  While we're still trying to figure out just who Safiyah is, how long is her reach, and the way she's interwoven into Julia, Kate, and Alice's lives....we're not sure of her endgame, or what she's really up to, other than sending Alice on a mission that requires her to be free, much to Sophie's dismay, because she'd rather put Alice down for good.  However, without Alice, it seems that they won't get Kate back.  Meanwhile, we learned a few more dark secrets about Ryan Wilder's life growing up, including a criminal from her past that makes a return.  Jacob is now having to deal with the False Face Society and their plan to flood the streets of Gotham with this new deadly addictive drug called Snakebite.  We get the gory details on THIS drug courtesy of our disembodied voice, Vesper Fairchild.  

Ryan is having issues this episode, as she is still fighting the poisonous effects of the the Kryptonite that she was wounded with at the beginning of the season, and it nearly causes her to crash the Batmobile (which, I gotta say, I really dig).  The wound is getting worse, and she's hiding it from both Luke and Mary (and you'd think that she'd trust Mary, what with Mary being a doctor and all, but the LAST thing Ryan wants is to be taken OUT of the field with this injury).  She catches a member of the False Face Society, and sends him packing with a message to his bosses.  She then meets up with a little boy who his looking for his older brother, who has gone missing.  This eventually prompts Mary and Ryan digging through info about the boy once Luke takes off after another disagreement with Mary about Kate (more on that later).  This case then begins to spark Ryan's memories of when she was in foster care.  She met her girlfriend there, and they developed a mutual love of comic books.  Ryan was out looking for comics when she was approached by a middle aged woman, who lured her into her van with comics, sprayed her in the face with some sort of chemical, and then kidnapped her off the street.

We see throughout the episode Ryan's desperate attempt to find the boy, who apparently had been kidnapped by this "Candylady", who used jellybeans to count the days she had the kids locked away, telling them that no one would look for them.  She gave the kids 60 days to have someone come look for them, as she took one jellybean out of the jar.  Ryan recalls her own captivity, and how, at one point, people from her foster home had come looking for a girl, but she had brown hair, and blue eyes, light skin.  She also had a necklace with a red stone in it.  Mary and Ryan figure out that the girl THEY were looking for was Beth/Alice.  Ryan then remembered that her girlfriend ended up coming to her rescue, and she got away from the Candylady.  As her and Mary passed the comic book stand, Ryan remembered what happened to her, and put the pieces together.  She went to confront the Candywoman, but got captured once again.

As it turns out, the Candylady was using the kids as recruits for the False Face Society, and this boy Kevin that she's been looking for has been brainwashed as a new recruit.  She eventually breaks free, and takes down the Candylady, putting an end to her kidnapping spree....but not before she iformed Ryan about Kevin's whereabouts.

Which leads us to Jacob, because while he's still on the hunt for Kate...by having his team look into the location of the Jack Napier painting that was on Kate's phone, he's also dealing with this Snakebite drug.  He had a stoolie who fed him info on the next shipment, only to be stabbed in the back by this guy, and zapped by Kevin.  This guy then told Kevin his initiation into the False Face Society was to kill Jacob Kane.  Batwoman arrived in time to save him, and stop Kevin from making a mistake.  This was the true first meeting between Ryan and Jacob, and he didn't go off on her.  I think Jacob's coming around.  

Alice showed up at Sophie's, and she needed Sophie's help into trying to find a man simply known as Ocean.  Alice proposed an alliance of sorts, and Sophie wasn't sure about the whole idea.  On top of that, Luke decided that he'd work with Sophie on tracking Kate, since he and Mary were still at odds as to whether or not Kate was still alive.  When he arrived, he saw Alice, and then tried to help Sophie from her place as to locate Kate, but no luck.  Luke would then head back to the Batcave to try from his end since they had better equipment.  Sophie took off to go back to Crows HQ and work from there, while Alice hung out at her pad.  It was here that Alice had a memory of when she actually met Ocean, which will now set HER upon the search for this man.  One other thing that came out of this is the fact that Alice confessed as to WHY she wants Kate back to Sophie...to kill her.  This also allows Sophie to confess to Jacob that she met up with Alice, and that they need to find Kate before she does.  

Another bit of info we got this week, was during Luke and Sophie's search for Ocean, Sophie ran into a burglar, and she fought her a bit, but the burglar bailed.  Turns out, that burglar was Ryan's ex-girlfriend, with whom she'd tried to reconnect with, but apparently there's some issues there.  We also now established that Mary left her penthouse for the apartment above Kate's bar, and that she offered Ryan the other room, especially since Ryan works at the bar now.  It also allowed for some bonding between the two, which is helping to establish Ryan more in Mary's eyes...but Luke is the harder sell.  

I really enjoyed this episode, because we're slowly peeling back the layers of Ryan's life, and finding MORE interesting things about her, which is giving her a more well rounded character with depth, and helps establish HER motivation for donning the cowl at night.  The fact that she was abducted by this middle aged woman helped set up the story for this week, and gave her ways on how to defeat the Candylady, who---it turns out---is working with the False Face Society.  Interesting connection there, as we hear more about the gang, but haven't seen Black Mask...as yet.  Ocean is this new character that Safiyah apparently wants Alice to not only find....but kill.  Not sure WHY...but it may have a connection with the Desert Rose, it may not.  But this is the one job that Alice needs to complete to get Kate back.  And with Alice revealing her motivations to Sophie, it's now a race against time for Sophie and Jacob to find Kate before Alice does.  So we have a few plates spinning in the air, and it's making for some interesting television.

I can see Mary really attaching herself to Ryan, not just because Ryan has potential as Batwoman, but because she's looking to fill that void where Kate left.  She wants to have a sister, and Ryan seems to be the stand in.  Not sure if this idea will come to light in a "true confessions" moment between the two, but safe to say, the bond between them will grow.  Also helps that Mary is giving Ryan a chance to get back her life.  Luke is still iffy on Ryan, because he's the more cautious one.  He's also seeing Ryan as nothing more than a stand-in until Kate is found.  So, Ryan has to work overtime to impress him.  Julia was absent from this episode, and not sure how many she will be in, since her and Sophie are done.  

One of the other elements I've noticed is just how interwoven that Alice and Ryan seem to be---mostly by pure happenstance.  It was Alice's Wonderland Gang of thugs that killed Ryan's foster mother, but it was also during one of Ryan's memories of her captivity by the Candylady that the foster kids were looking for a light skinned, blue eyed girl with a red necklace....Beth.  So I'm very curious as to why the writers have given Alice and Ryan so much commonality.  I wonder if this will make THEIR final confrontation have some higher stakes.  And what of Ryan's ex?  Where does SHE fit into everything?  

We got more questions, but I'm liking the journey so far this season.  Interested in seeing where it goes.  What did YOU guys think?  Subscribe and leave a comment below.  Would LOVE to hear from you!

Until next time....The Signal is OFF!