Batwoman 2x5 : Gore on Canvas review

 

        Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it.

After the season high of last week can Batwoman continue it's forward push towards consistently being a good show?? the episode begins as we see Jacob Kane talking to a guy in an alleyway. He hands over money in return for info on a group named The Collective but most importantly he is on the hunt for the Jack Napier painting. His meeting soon gets ended however as a paid assassin from Safiyah kills the man Jacob was talking to. Batwoman also appears within seconds and takes the guy into custody. Is there really a partnership brewing between Batwoman and The Crows?? not if Batwoman or Ryan Wilder for that matter has anything to truly say about it. At the end of last weeks episode Ryan and her ex-girlfriend Angelique had been re-introduced to one another. Well this week they are very much together after it's hinted that they spent a whole lot of time together (mainly in bed) Angelique tells Ryan to go and get her wound treated which Ryan does as she goes to see Mary who dresses it up. While Ryan is doing that back at Crows HQ Sophie and Jacob Kane have a new lead on the Jack Napier painting. An old friend of Kate Kane's named Ethan is present within The Collective and he basically gets interrogated but not before he talks about Kate and the impact she's had on his life. He threatens Jacob and Sophie with legal action if they continue and leaves in a huff. 

Towards the end of last weeks episode we saw that Alice was on the hunt for a person named 'Ocean' for Safiyah. Her past memories came to the forefront as she remembered her past. She knew this person back on the island of Coryana which Safiyah more or less rules over. Her end goal?? to find this Ocean person and kill them for Safiyah thus getting Kate Kane free. Her mission takes her to a dive bar where she scares off the local customers. But low and behold Ocean just happens to be attending the same bar drinking shots. Alice soon joins him and the two hit it off a bit. They both end up doing 5 shots each but it is Alice who blacks out and awakens in Oceans hotel room much to her dismay. In short the two end up getting attacked by more followers of Safiyah but do end up managing to escape but not before Oceans memories come back to him much like Alice's did last week. There's more to their story but let's save that for the end. Back to Ryan now and as a partnership with The Crows seems to be looming closer she is extremely hesitant to work with them. Why?? well it was 2 Crow members who busted her for drugs possession even though they weren't her drugs many years ago. The scene where she confesses this to Luke is actually a highlight of the episode as Luke too isn't exactly a big fan of The Crows after they killed his dad. Both him and Ryan bond in this scene for the first time this season which was nice. 

The episode draws to a close as a partnership between Batwoman and The Crows is brought into the limelight. Ryan is roped into it by the rest of the team but states that she will only work with Sophie on the mission to retrieve the Jack Napier art piece. But before that Batwoman must bring her prisoner (assassin from beginning of the episode) to a location where he can be interrogated by Jacob and Sophie. The guy is silent at first but soon lets slip that the paining and Coryana are linked. Is the painting a map of the island perhaps?? well they don't end up finding out as the guy begins to foam at the mouth leading to him flat lining in front of them. This leads to Ryan doing some proper detective work at a Collective party where she arrives in an absolutely stunning black dress. It doesn't look like she's going to get inside at first as Kate's friend from earlier Ethan refuses her entry but Angelique soon comes to the rescue and gets her girl inside. On the inside Ryan takes measurements and samples of the painting and sends them on to Luke who is back at the bat-cave. Ryan's time in her nice outfit is cut short as a masked, spandex wearing person named Wolfspider is soon on the prowl in the hangar and it is them who ends up taking the Jack Napier painting. Batwoman tries her hardest to fight against Wolfspider but her shoulder wound is proving to be a giant stumbling block as Wolfspider soon makes off with the painting running off at full speed. Soon stopped in their tracks by 2 Crow members who leave the masked thief for dead Batwoman is not far behind and takes the lifeless body back to Mary's clinic. Back at Mary's clinic and it turns out that Wolfspider is actually Ethan who if not for Batwoman would be dead as he got hit by The Crows car it ruptured one of his arteries. Ethan wakes up soon after and says that he only stole the painting to help Kate Kane. As for Kate her search goes on as Mary informs Ethan that the painting which The Crows took from him is in fact a decoy and the real one is still out in the wild. Ryan's detective work paid off in spades in that aspect. As for Batwoman she ends the partnership with Sophie as soon as it began. The episode ends with Alice and Ocean who are now in a car and seemingly on the run. Alice's memories again come back to her and this time it shows that her and Ocean might have been romantically involved?? dumbfounded Alice tells him to keep the eyes on the road as he asks for something in the backseat. Something in the backseat turns out to be the real Jack Napier painting which is now in possession of Alice and Ocean with everyone else completely in the dark. And that was the episode. Not as good as last week but there was a lot here to take in from Ryan's detective work to her and Luke finally connecting even if it was just a little bit. With Alice now in possession of the painting she surely has a way back to Coryana and who knows what is going to be in store going forward. This season is wide open right now and that's a good thing. 

★★★