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Batwoman kicks off to a great start with its second season premiere titled “Whatever Happened to Kate Kane?” The episode is directed by Holly Dale and written by series creator Caroline Dries. If you haven’t seen the episode do not continue on as this review will be filled with spoilers.
This episode had a lot to cover, with the disappearance of Kane while also introducing Ryan Wilder and teeing up the threat of Hush as Bruce Wayne (Warren Christie). Luckily, however, all of these plots worked very well together to give us this phenomenal season premiere! Javicia Leslie delivers an amazing performance as Wilder really juxtaposing how different she is compared to Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane but also showing how similar she was at the same time. I really enjoyed how the show actually weaved her into the story so seamlessly, as if she was always a part of this whole world. They did a great job of establishing her backstory in just a short amount of time.
I really enjoyed that scene with both Mary Hamilton (Nicole Kang) looking into who Ryan is while Ryan is reading that article about Kane missing. My favorite scene of the episode was definitely Wilder facing off against the False Face Society goons while trying out the Batsuit for the very first time.
With Kane being gone, the premiere did a very good job showing the aftermath of all of the returning characters from Season 1 being affected by her vanishing. Everyone in the cast pulled no punches in their performances as each of their characters reacted to Kane’s vanishing in different ways. Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) and Hamilton both reasonably didn’t want to accept right away that Wilder would just be taking up the mantle of Batwoman, which even Wilder didn’t want to do by the end of the episode. It was very great to see — by the end of the episode — that Hamilton was willing to accept her as Gotham’s new Crimson Knight, and I can’t wait to see their dynamic continue throughout the rest of the season. I was so happy that both Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) and Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy) finally learned that Kane was Batwoman even if it took her vanishing for that to finally happen. Tandy’s performance while reading that letter — left for her by Kane — was very reminiscent of how the rest of the fans felt about Kate being gone.
The premiere also did a pretty good job teeing up the whole “Alice (Rachel Skarsten) and Tommy Elliot (as Bruce)” plot very well while also teasing the other antagonists of the season. Christie did a very good job playing both “Bruce” as well as acting as the maniac Elliot, picking up where Gabriel Mann left off. I would watch a whole series of him as the actual Bruce Wayne hopefully one day. I am a little disappointed that the “Bruce Wayne” plot did not last longer than this episode, but I am sure we will get to see more of him in future episodes. Alice, as usual, was a joy to watch on-screen as she unravels throughout the whole episode with her whole plan being ruined with Kate vanishing. While we don’t see her face off against our new Batwoman just yet, Skarsten gave us an amazing scene with her revealing to Jacob Kane that his daughter Kate was actually Batwoman. Seeing Alice cuddle with the dead corpse of Mouse (Sam Littlefield) at the end was both unsettling and yet so sad for her. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Alice’s story as she reunites with Safiyah (Shivani Ghai), who turns out to be the cause of Kate vanishing.
Overall I’m very surprised at how well this season premiere was, as it managed to give us a lot of information but still maintaining a balance between too much and too little. It was an amazing introduction to our new series protagonist with Javicia Leslie really giving us her A-game with her portrayal as Ryan Wilder. The rest of the cast did a great job, as well with their performances really showing how Kate Kane’s absence has affected them all. The action was pretty good too, even though we didn’t get much of it in this episode. My only real big complaint of this episode is that I wish they gave us a moment to breathe a little, as this premiere was just non-stop with tapping into our feelings.
(P.S. The Batmobile was amazing, and I can’t wait to see Ryan drive it.)
Score: 9.3/10
Batwoman will continue its second season every Sunday at 8 PM EST and free to stream on The CW the next day.
