BATWOMAN 2.17

 

RECAP - BATWOMAN  2.17:  "Kane, Kate"  

We've reached critical mass in Gotham City.  We've got a war about to erupt, and Black Mask is at the center of it.  He's amassing more people to take up the cause of "cleansing" Gotham.  Tavaroff is now loose on the streets, and he's got his own agenda.  Jacob Kane is in prison in Metropolis, far away from the happenings in his town.  And then there's Kate/Sersi---a war in the mind of Kate Kane for control, and we have no idea who's the dominant personality from one minute to the next.  Alice is not there for her sister, because she's mourning the loss of Ocean.  Safiyah is here working with Black Mask, and has her own agenda....and what of Ryan?  With Kate back...does she get to remain Batwoman?  Wheels within wheels as we head towards the season finale. So, let's examine the happenings in the penultimate episode of our Scarlet Knight.

Everything that the Bat Team thought was better....or looking up, for that matter....was actually falling apart in devious little pieces.  With Kate having flown the coop, Batwoman was on a quest to find her, knocking heads and kicking ass across town to find her.  Having no luck getting any answers, she returns to the Cave, and then Mary gets a call, saying there's a stranger at the bar saying that there's a woman who acts like she owns the joint giving everyone free drinks.  They head there and find Kate all passed out.  They get her back to the loft, and Ryan wonders what will happen when she wakes up, and afterwards.  Mary feels that the only person at this moment to help Kate is Alice.  She goes to find alice in the subway tunnel, and sees her over the fallen body of Ocean.  Alice wants Mary to fix him, and make him better, but she can't....he's long dead.  Mary let's her know that Kate is fine, and Alice wishes she had left with Ocean when she had the chance.  

Ryan feels like she's seeing the writing on the wall....with Kate back, and overseeing the security feed of Kate talking to Mary and Luke, looking forward to getting back into action again as Batwoman, Ryan feels that her time as the Caped Crusader is done.  She packs up from the loft, but runs into Sophie.  Sophie is dolled up to meet up with Kate, and Ryan says she's got to move on now that Kate is back.  Sophie says that she can't go...and that she IS Batwoman...she has made Batwoman her own. Besides, they know Safiyah is working with Black Mask, and that's a threat they'll have to deal with down the road.  Ryan says that her and Safiyah are on good terms, so she'll have to find out more.

Luke presents Kate with her old journals, in hopes that it would jog her memory, as well as the keys to her motorcycle.  She takes off, and heads to some run down abandoned warehouse, and goes inside one of the rooms, where Black Mask and Safiyah are---turns out, it's just been Sersi who's been in control, and played everyone for a fool.  She now has all of the secrets of the Batcave, and the Bat Team...and they intend to exploit it.  Roman later on meets up with a few of the Crows who got left in the cold when Jacob shut the organization down...including Tavaroff.  Roman promises them a chance to help "clean up" Gotham, without restrictions and legal parameters to hold them back.  Everyone's on board---except for Tavaroff.  He's not interested in being someone's stooge.  Black Mask makes him a better offer...by being the one in control.  This raises Tavaroff's interest. A chance to BE the mask...instead of hiding behind one.

Batwoman...in perhaps one of THE best scenes of the episode...invades Roman's company to get information that he doesn't want prying eyes to see.  So, she spooks the accountant working on his laptop by himself by throwing her voice out, keeping to the shadows, and turning off the lights to scare the man into being distracted enough to grab his laptop.  It's a great, classic Batman move, and she works it to perfection.  Later on, we see her in the back of her old van, contemplating what was, and leaving the Batsuit behind.  She then flips up the laptop to start gathering intel on Roman and his holdings, and following the money trail.  Unfortunately for her, the GCPD raids her van, and arrests her for possession of Snake Bite.  She's taken into custody by heavily armed cops.  Once at the GCPD, the cops leave the squad car, and Roman sits in there, trying to make Ryan and offer, and letting her know that he knows she's Batwoman.  Whatever he's offering, she isn't buying, so she knows she's going to die anyway.  When Mary and Luke find out, it's all hands on deck, and they look to Kate to suit up as Batwoman to save her.  At first, it looks like Kate is about to get ready, but then she turns around, and shoots Mary, Sophie, and Luke with tranquizlizer darts.  They finally find out that it's been Sersi in control all along.  And now with the keys to the kingdom, she starts romaing the cave, looking for certain things that both Black Mask and Safiyah wanted.  She comes across a room with some old weapons and artifacts, but totally skips what's underneath a dark sheet in the back.  In another room, she sees a cabinet that has biological weapons in it.  Among them are the deadly rose from the Joker, the Mad Hatter's hat, and a vial that contains a vine from one of Poison Ivy's plants.  Sersi grabs a few items and she's off to Black Mask to present him these gifts...which he plans to use to take down Batwoman and all of Gotham. 

Meanwhile, Alice has had Ocean creamated, and she's spreading his ashes into the ocean.  Safiyah comes to pay her respects, and says that her and Alice are even.  Since Alice took away the one thing Safiyah loved most---the Desert Rose---she took away Ocean.  Safiyah offers to take Alice away back to Coryana...to spare her from being locked into a cage from what's about to happen in Gotham.  She says that she'll have her island paradise again, thanks to the Poison Ivy weed she got from Sersi Sionis---which means that Alice hasn't gotten Kate back.  Alice is upset, and Safiyah says that she's the only one who loves her, and wants to spare her from what's about to happen.  She has no family, Safiyah says, as she hugs Alice.  But Alice says that's because Safiyah took them from her, and stabs her with the Desert Rose knife.  Alice says that she'll return to Safiyah and pull the dagger out once she gets her family back.  Alice says she knows she'd never kill Safiyah...that wouldn't be much fun.  But leaving her to suffer in this torture....that delights her, and she takes off.  

Ryan is in custody when her parole officer shows up, upset that Ryan got busted.  Ryan tries to reason with her, but her parole officer won't hear it.  Ryan says that she's going to die in the station, because of the armed guards outside.  She tells her parole officer she's Batwoman.  When the guards come in for Ryan, her parole officer tries to stall for time, but the cops whip out their guns, and Ryan attacks....taking out all six corrupt officers.  Her paorole officer believes her, and gives her the ID pass she has to help Ryan get out of the building.  Once Ryan is gone, she makes her way back to the Batcave, she sees that Mary, Sophie, and Luke are trapped in a cage, and that Sersi is on the prowl.  Sersi attacks Ryan with a crossbow, and Ryan ducks for cover.  Ryan eventually gets the crossbow out of Sersi's hands, and the two get into a fight...but Sersi is too strong, and beats Ryan.  She ends up taking off, saying that Ryan isn't good enough to take her on.  The trio escape and tend to Ryan.  Ryan is scared because now that Sersi has her suit and equipment...there's no stopping her.

We later see Sersi maniaclly tearing up the Batsuit...and we see her then deface the symbol with her knife as the episode ends.

This was an intense episode, with a couple of nice little twists.  Sersi playing everyone all along seemed like the route we were going, because from the previous installment, it looked like Sersi got control of Kate's mind.  Also, the fact that Black Mask has made Tavaroff an offer to be THE mask, and be the man who gets to take out all his enemies and those he feels are just for dying...with no rules to hold him back---is too tempting to for him to resist.  With Sersi gaining the Batsuit and equipment, all the secrets to the Batcave, as well as leverage to expose Ryan's ID as Batwoman...plus anything ELSE Bat related, she's going to enjoy tearing everything that Kate had cherished most.  And Kate cannot do anything about it, because she is unable to fight back right now. And among the afroementioned items that I listed above that Sersi had brought her father...Venom was another one---which was Bane's power of choice. 

Alice has finally learned about suffering and loss....and Mary expressed her condolences to her step-sister.  Mary said she'd never wish heartache on anyone...and even told Alice even SHE deserved love.  Her finally stabbing Safiyah with the Desert Rose knife...and leaving her lifeless on the beach in a comatose state---is just a small ounce of revenge on her for tearing apart her family.  Alice getting them back means that SHE will have to confront Sersi...and try to break through to get to Kate.  However it plays out, it will be interesting to see if the Kane women can reuinte.  

As for Ryan....she'd been worried about her own future.  With Kate returning, Ryan felt lost in the shuffle...but she exercised caution with the Team when it came to Kate's well being.  Once again, Ryan's instincts proved correct.  It was Sophie, of all people, to convince Ryan that SHE was Batwoman....that she had EARNED the right to be Batwoman, and made the hero her own.  And now with Sersi loose...it's going to take Ryan stepping up, and being Batwoman to take down her predecessor before she destroys the legacy of everything the Mantle of the Bat stood for.  This is going to be a great fight.

What did YOU all think of this episode?  Are you ready for an action packed season finale?  I sure am.  I've been jazzed about this season, and it FAR dwarfs Season 1 by leaps and bounds.  Where the future of Batwoman goes will be interesting after this next week.  What do YOU all have to say?  Subscribe and drop me a comment.

Until the Season Finale....The Signal is OFF!