Batwoman (2×12) Initiate Self-Destruct Review

For our review of the last episode of Batwoman, click here.

Synopsis: Ryan is faced with a difficult decision that could expose her as Batwoman, creating a rift in the Bat Team. Meanwhile, Black Mask’s plans for Kate Kane begin to unfold. Alice is reunited with someone from her past, and Sophie must decide where her loyalty lies. (TVGuide)

Batwoman introduces a new villain this week but doesn’t let us forget that she rides (literally) on the shoulders of Kate Kane. Who we used to know as Kate Kate has now been brainwashed into believing she is Circe Sionis (Wallis Day), the daughter of Black Mask/Roman Sionis. So, yes, while we moved on from Kate Kane, it felt like a ridiculously long-winded way to get here. They could have done this weeks ago, let me remind you that we are on episode 12 now.

The coolest thing we got out of this is the new mask Circe wears. And even that might be a stretch to compliment it. With the intro of Circe, we got to see a pretty epic fight go down. Batwoman and Alice teamed up to go against Circe–something that has been in the works over the last few episodes. However, it doesn’t end well for Alice because when push comes to shove, Ryan leaves her behind with Circe. wouldn’t you?

Circe is under complete control of her “father” who basically demands that she go out and kill Batwoman, and any other adversary in their way. It’ll be interesting to see if the series can make use of this strange plot twist. If Kate ever recalls her memories, she isn’t going to feel so hot about attacking the people she cares about, or innocent people, for that matter.

Now that Alice is with Circe/Kate, this is where we will start to see the cracks in her memory unfold. There’s no one better than Alice to bring back suppressed memories. Can you imagine the torture she’ll inflict on Circe? There will definitely be moments where it may even seem that Circe’s persona breaks and Kate seeps through.

This is a particularly frightening episode for Ryan, however. In the last episode, Sophie learned that Ryan is Batwoman. It wasn’t presumably as dramatic as it looked to be, but it did place Sophie in an interesting predicament in this week’s episode. The C.R.O.W.S. had Batwoman’s DNA and were going to put it through the system to see if anyone pops up. If Batwoman was ever arrested for anything, her identity would be revealed. Of course, Ryan has had plenty of run-ins with the law, so that was going to be problematic.

Luke and Mary step in to help Sophie interfere with the DNA results by giving a kill switch of sorts. The problem with that was that other criminals, who actually should be identified, would go free. That wasn’t a great option so Sophie takes matters into her own hands and manually deletes the DNA results before anyone on the C.R.O.W.S. can see it. Batwoman’s identity stays hidden for now!

Despite some rather interesting moments, this Batwoman episode just didn’t do it for me. But we know by now that I haven’t been too pleased with the series this season. Here’s to hoping (please?) that things get better.

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Ariba Bhuvad