Batwoman S01 EP20 season finale spoiler review
The episode began with one of the Arkham escapees attacking and killing a man on a train before escaping when Jacob Kane and Kate who happened to be in the area intervened. That was the introduction of the villain for our new season finale and I overall don't think he really cut it in terms of a big finish. He was played as a former football player who sustained too much brain injury that was covered up by the team's medical checks over the years until he finally snapped and went mad. The episode saw him going after those who wronged him in this way until his final confrontation with Batwoman where with a single line reminding him about his past life seemed to bring him out of his madness. I'm going over all this fairly quickly here in the start because it was easily the least interesting part of the episode for me and I don't want to dwell on it too long. As far as my internet searching goes, it also seems like he is an original villain for the series which I'm never too big of a fan of the shows doing; I'd rather see adaptations of comic book villains (Like deep cuts such as the Detonator!).
Another big plot of the episode came around in that the explanation for why Kryptonite can kill Batman/Batwoman is because it is the only rock strong enough to pierce the armor. I'm not totally sold on this idea, as the episode really played up the idea that Kryptonite is Batwoman's only weakness and the only way to kill her, which sounds a bit ridiculous when you state it plainly like that. Alice is on the search for this rock, killing a rock expert just because he doesn't have it, while Luke works on destroying the only piece on the entire planet, eventually using Mary's suggestion of hitting it with a hammer to do the job. Albeit substituting a hammer for a hydraulic press. Kate ends up revealing that she has another piece of Kryptonite from the Crisis crossover which for some reason is a big deal and a sour note to Luke.
During this episode, Kate makes an attempt to enact a truce between herself and the Crows that doesn't go well at all. Mary activates the bat signal, bringing about the Crows until Jacob finds out it is her and orders the others to leave, agreeing to listen to Mary's idea about Batwoman and her teaming up. At first Jacob talks to Batwoman on a phone Mary gives to him, and on a side note I want to mention that while I could buy the characters not being able to recognize that its Kate in person since there's the whole idea about the disguise veil and masks always being surprisingly effective in comic book lore, characters also talk to Batwoman over the phone a lot and when its just the voice they're listening to, no suit to be distracted by, wouldn't they be able to focus on the voice and tell its Kate? Batwoman ends up coming in person too, and Jacob agrees to work together in order to stop the Arkham escapee from the beginning of the episode. A trap is set for the escapee to come to the football field; however, he somehow manages to take down all of the Crow security officers until Batwoman fights him and cures him of insanity like I mentioned earlier. Jacob and more of the Crows shoot him down though and then form a kill circle around Kate, firing upon her as well. This devastates Kate who now believes she can never reveal her identity to her father, finding solace in the friendship and acceptance she has with Mary and Luke. Meanwhile, Jacob finds out that all of the bullets they fired at her had no effect, and decides he will need something stronger. That's already what Alice is doing, with apparently Kryptonite being Batwoman's only weakness (I repeat, the show has established that Kryptonite is Batman and Batwoman's only weakness. This is something I cannot let pass), and no mention of aiming for her open mouthpiece being an option.
I do like when show's tease the upcoming big bad, and the bread crumbs for Safiyah have been fun, but this episode started to over do it I think. Last week has Julia explaining Safiyah's existence to Kate, and we got basically the same explanation this episode as well with Julia telling Sophie about it since someone appears to be stalking them. It just felt like the show was eager to talk about her again instead of it being a meaningful tease.
While all of this occurred, Alice had many scenes in the sewers of Gotham plotting out her next moves. Hush insisted that he would not wear the new face she made for him, then vanished for the episode, while Mouse basically begged Alice to give up her desire of revenge and just leave. Mouse just seemed like a normal person in this episode, no longer crazy in any way, and entirely logical and reasonable and I was basically rooting for him at this point. He just wanted to leave and live a normal life, and had to defend his self preservation skills when Alice insisted he couldn't survive without her. He decided that if she wasn't going to give up her silly revenge plot that has them living in the sewers, then he would leave without her and he was about to until she suggested having a goodbye party. She tore apart their Alice in Wonderland book, burning it, and I guess they drank or ate something because Mouse's nose began to bleed and it turned out that Alice poisoned him for trying to leave her. He then dies in her arms, and she insists that he is her brother and her everything. Alice's random killings in this episode only enforce the idea that she is a crazy murderer, and I really hope the show doesn't swerve as it usually does and try to turn her into a sympathetic character that seems like will turn good. The end of the episode comes back to Alice completing a face for Hush (I'm just not going to question where she got poison, or constructed a perfect likeness face in the Gotham sewers) that turns out to be the face of Bruce Wayne! She then orders Hush that his mission will be to go to Wayne industries, and get her the Kryptonite inside.
I'll admit it was really cool seeing that the CW chose an actor for their version of Batman, should he ever come to the show; however, the episode felt very below average for me. It had some really good points, like the entire plot line with Batwoman and Jacob, but then the show tried to push some silly ideas in my opinion like Kryptonite being Batwoman's only weakness. The villain of the week also felt very predictable in that Kate was magically able to get through his craziness in the end. Then the parts with Alice. If they were trying to make her more unlikable and build towards her eventual defeat then yes, they're doing a good job, but with the track record of the show I'm almost positive that they will try to make the character appear good again and work alongside Kate, which I do not like when she does things as bad as she has done. Season 1 for Batwoman, in my opinion, had been a bit of a mess with a lot of it being a "will she, wont she" of Alice turning good, meaning no real progression of stakes, just the same tired series of tricks and betrayals. A true villain for Kate to appropriately fight and take down would be good for the show (I can't count how many times Kate met with Alice and then let her walk away), and I'm hoping that'll be the capacity of Safiyah in next season. I will give it a shot, but currently, the show's almost exclusive focus on Alice is just weighing it down for me.
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