Batwoman 2x17 : Kane, Kate review

 

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

The penultimate episode of Batwoman's second season has come and gone and with it we were given plenty of answers to various questions but once the credits began to roll only more questions did arrive. The episode begins as we see Batwoman searching for Kate Kane. She questions a member of Black Mask's security which doesn't exactly go so well. It's not long before Kate is found however and it is at the Hold Up bar where she is seen drinking and hanging out with a gang of other women. Everyone seems so happy to have Kate back but Ryan on the other hand slowly begins to feel less and less wanted / worthy of being Batwoman anymore. This co insides with Sophie showing up to her apartment dressed to the nines hoping to see Kate and Luke going to meet Kate so that he can give her a journal that she used to write various notes and personal messages in. Stuff like access to the bat-cave and the sort. Something that will come in handy a bit later on. 

At the end of last weeks episode we saw Ocean was murdered by a follower of Safiyah. Well this week we see Alice quite fittingly scatter the ashes of Ocean in the Ocean of Gotham shedding tears on the sand as her former lover and quite frankly soul mate is reduced to nothing but dust in the ocean. Safiyah shows up to pay her respects she says as Alice's anger only grows towards her. Safiyah blames Alice for destroying her island's greatest resource in the Desert Rose so killing Ocean was just a way to get even. Pretty ice cold stuff. Alice ends up stabbing Safiyah with a desert rose infused knife that doesn't kill her but will make her suffer until the knife is pulled back out of her. Back in Gotham and we see that Black Mask has begun recruiting various Crow members to his cause. Agent Tavaroff is present at the meeting but isn't satisfied with playing second fiddle to another top tier name in Black Mask much like he did with Jacob Kane. Black Mask says he has something else in mind for Tavaroff then. Something that we see at the very end of the episode.

The episode draws to a close as we see Ryan back where it all began for her this season. She is inside of her blue van once again seen talking to the pot of her mom's plant. No longer sprouting Desert Rose Ryan still talks to the pot given it's importance to her. Just as she finishes up talking her van gets surrounded by GCPD officers who arrest Ryan on the spot. Why? because they find various syringes of snakebite that were obviously placed there to frame her. And frame her is right as Ryan meets with Roman Sionis who not only knows she is Batwoman but really feels threatened by her almost. He wants her out of the pictures so that his plan can go along smoothly. Ryan knows she is in trouble here but with the help of her parole office whom she tells that she is Batwoman manages to escape and heads to the bat-cave. But what about Kate Kane then? well it turns out she is still very much Circe Sionis. Playing literally everyone on Team Batwoman she has not only the access to the bat-cave but also pretty much knows everything about the team. We see Kate inside of the cave as she traps Ryan. Sophie and Mary in the elevator. Ryan is also in the cave and a giant fight breaks out between the two Bat-women. Ryan and Circe (Kate) fight in an intense scene that is ended by Mary, Sophie and Luke who get to Ryan just in the nick of time. But before the fight even took place Circe had gotten into a secret room deep in the bat-cave which houses a number of villain weapons and tech that Bruce Wayne had been collecting throughout his years as Batman. We see Circe open a glass container and inside we see a number of villain items. Mud from Clayface, a big supply of Venom that once belonged to Bane and a plant from Poison Ivy that Safiyah will use to restore her Desert Rose on a bigger and better scale. When the team get to the room weapons are no longer in the room and as the episode ends we see that Roman Sionis plans on using the Venom on Agent Tavaroff which will lead into next weeks season finale. The episode ends right there and then and honestly this really didn't feel like a second last episode of a season. More like a mid season finale it was a fine episode just nothing special y'know? Ryan's battle with herself on her being worthy of being Batwoman was the highlight of the episode for me. The various villain references were nice too but really that's all they were references. All in all this episode was solid if a bit unconventional. Next week is the season finale which as far as the promo goes looks extremely promising indeed with a certain someone suiting up as Batwing..so let's hope it all goes well and this show goes out on a high this season eh? 

★★★