On Batwoman season 2, episode 7, Ryan’s kryptonite infection worsens, leading to hallucinations of her late mother. Meanwhile, Tatiana fills in Alice on her and Ocean’s missing time living on Coryana, changing everything for Gotham’s notorious villain.
Batwoman season 2, episode 7 is a game-changer, opening up everyone’s eyes to what has really been going on in Gotham. As Ryan, Mary, and Luke struggle to find a solution to the infection that’s slowly killing Ryan, she gets it in her head that she has to get justice for her mother once and for all by killing Alice.
Meanwhile, the Ocean decoy fools Tatiana, leading to an interesting walk down “memory-less lane” as Alice’s life on Coryana is shown in flashbacks. It’s an exciting episode that picks up the pace, and feels like everyone is finally getting their chance to shine without Kate.
‘Batwoman season 2, episode 7 review
Honestly, the show has kind of been dragging recently and focusing too heavily on Kate’s disappearance. The characters have felt like they were at a seemingly perpetual standstill over the last few episodes… except for Ryan, though aspects of Kate’s disappearance were holding her back too, like Luke’s reluctance to accept her.
Everyone has been held back to grieve Kate, which hasn’t allowed us to see what the show will truly be without her around (as we know she’s never returning in any permanent capacity). I wish the show had premiered with Kate’s disappearance and done a time jump to after the characters had a chance to grieve and mourn, making her disappearance more like Bruce Wayne’s. It has been a severe obstruction to the overarching story.
However, on Batwoman season 2, episode 7, we are finally seeing the characters move forward, and it feels like the first glimpse at who they will be when the mystery surrounding Kate is wrapped up or shelved indefinitely.
(My bet is on the latter, as I truly do not think Kate will appear on the next episode, despite what the trailer teases. Alice is just going to be locked in the cell where she’s told Kate is, and this will have been Safiyah’s plan to get Alice back and get rid of Ocean from the beginning).
In short, I’m excited to see where the story for every character goes from here. Yes, even the unbearable Jacob Kane.
Alice
It’s no secret that Alice is, by far, my favorite character on Batwoman, so any flashbacks to seeing how she became the villain she is today are entirely welcome and enjoyed. Though I didn’t have much hope for this Coryana story to pay off for Alice, Batwoman season 2, episode 7 proved me wrong… Everything with Alice is different now.
First of all, I am enamored with Alice and Ocean’s relationship. It’s surprisingly interesting to see how Ocean’s presence — both in the present and in flashbacks — causes Alice to behave differently and focus on emotions other than rage and betrayal.
Knowing that, had Safiyah not wiped her mind, Alice would be a completely different person is… shocking. Safiyah turned Alice into the monster that returned to Gotham and only felt hatred and lusted for revenge. It’s intriguing to think about the things Alice has done in this light, especially after Rachel Skarsten’s delivery of Alice telling Ryan it wasn’t her fault.
There are clearly complex layers for Alice and the Batwoman writers to peel away at now, as Alice finally gets to begin confronting the things she’s done while still not having access to the feelings she had for Ocean — and didn’t think were (but now knows are) possible for her.
Not to say that this revelation excuses anything Alice has done by any means, as she’s still culpable for the lives she’s destroyed, but how much of it was unnecessarily caused by Safiyah’s hypnotization? If what Tatiana said was true, then Alice was never going to return to Gotham to exact her revenge on Catherine Hamilton-Kane.
The potential for this story going forward is just so incredibly exciting, and there’s no better actor to see this story through than Skarsten. Even amidst the chaos Alice has caused, Skarsten’s performance has always given Alice the potential for (some sort of) redemption.
This new development, to me, feels like the perfect beginning to the “Red Alice” anti-hero arc that we’ve been expecting since the series began. And with the current state of her relationship with Ryan, this dynamic between Batwoman and Red Alice could be even better than it would’ve been with Kate.
Ryan
Ryan’s story on Batwoman season 2, episode 7 was absolutely heartbreaking. Though I think she’s placing the blame for her mother’s death on the wrong person (as Alice did, after all, stop her goons from killing Ryan too), her passionate need to get justice for her late mother before she, too, passed away was devastating. We’ve barely seen Ryan’s relationship with her mom on-screen (more flashbacks, please), but it’s clear how much love was there between them.
Pair the emotional turmoil with impending death, and it’s no surprise that Ryan became a bit reckless. She’s desperate to live, and desperate to spend more time with those she loves. So finding out that Angelique is most likely cheating on her is just another devastating blow.
It’s possible it’s just a red herring, but Angelique is just the kind of shitty person to do that (so we’ve seen), so it’s not the most surprising twist. I believe the girl was also in Angelique’s robe that Ryan wore after their first night back together, so that’s another sign that it’s the right takeaway from that scene… as if Angelique wasn’t already awful enough.
I’m excited for this kryptonite infection to be resolved and see Ryan without a live-threatening wound influencing her every decision. I want to see her as Batwoman without a detriment to her abilities, as she’s already proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with while dealing with this injury… What could she do without it?
Ryan moving past her desire to kill Alice is also something to be incredibly thankful for on Batwoman season 2, episode 7. As Kate learned the hard way (and I’m still disappointed we won’t see her continued struggle to deal with her actions), killing isn’t the answer.
Killing Cartwright didn’t help Kate, just like killing Alice wouldn’t help Ryan. It’s not who either of these characters are, and I hope we don’t have to see Ryan cross that line. (Also, using the hallucinations of Ryan’s mother to show this to her was an excellent creative choice.)
I want to see Ryan and Alice continue to go head-to-head, but I really didn’t like what this need to kill Alice was doing to Ryan… or to Mary, for that matter.
Mary
I love Mary Hamilton with my whole heart, but I really don’t like what’s being done with her, especially on Batwoman season 2, episode 7. During the back half of Batwoman season 1, Kate manipulated Mary by using Mary’s emotions for her and desperate desire for a sisterly relationship to keep Alice “safe” after she killed Catherine.
Now, Ryan is doing something similar: Manipulating Mary by using Mary’s emotions for her mom to allow Ryan to do whatever she wants to Alice, including killing her. Mary has too big of a heart and has acknowledged multiple times that killing someone, even Alice, is wrong. So that entire scene on Batwoman season 2, episode 7 just felt out-of-character for Mary, especially having her tell Ryan where the keys to the Batmobile were (to assist in this murder scheme). It’s disappointing.
While Ryan is completely allowed to feel what she feels as she deals with her grief (even if Alice isn’t actually the person who killed her mom), it’s not fair that this keeps happening to Mary. No one is really looking out for what’s best for her in any sense, and she’s left to continue dealing with the actions of others, that always deeply impact her even if she has no say in them.
‘Batwoman’ season 2, episode 7 final thoughts
Overall, Batwoman season 2, episode 7 is an exciting episode, teasing the fallout of multiple events. In particular, there is certainly trouble to come from Ryan catching that girl at Angelique’s, but how will Ryan explain how she knows without revealing the big secret?
With that confrontation out of the way between Alice and Ryan, this dynamic has shifted now, too. The plan is to to apprehend Alice, but what lengths will the Bat Team go to? Will they find out what Safiyah did to Alice, and will it change how any of them (namely Mary) approach her? Plus, Alice now knows what Ryan looks like, it’s not long before she puts the pieces together and figures out her true identity. That’s certain to mess with Ryan’s life moving forward.
As for Jacob, Sophie, and the Crows, was there even much to talk about with them on Batwoman season 2, episode 7? They lost the map, it was destroyed, and now they have no accessible leads. There’s really not much for them to do lately… other than screw things up in some capacity. (Which is what the Crows do best.)
Also, what happened to Julia, who arguably had the biggest tie to Safiyah last season? That aspect of the story has been completely dropped, and for what?
The future of Batwoman looks bright and riveting, as soon as Ryan gets this damn desert rose and it’s inevitably revealed that Kate inexplicably isn’t on Coryana. Can’t wait!
Batwoman continues Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW!
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