Batwoman season 2, episode 12 review: Initiate Self-Destruct

Bitter enemies Alice and Ryan become unlikely allies in this week’s episode of Batwoman season 2 when they team up to rescue their captive loves, plus Kate returns and they will wish she hadn’t.

I’ve been saying these hiatuses are turning into a recurring theme.

It’s at a new time but the wait is over for more of Batwoman season 2, same Bat channel, and things got a bit darker.

Previously, Ryan and Sophie took to the streets to infiltrate Black Mask’s False Face gang in a literal race against time to find Ryan’s flame, Angelique. They come face to scary mask with Mr. Sionis only to find he has an upper hand with Angelique, though he won’t hold onto it for long.

Elswhere, Alice was off doing her own thing when the second (or third) return of Ocean this season came in the last episode. With one of the main villains, Enigma, of this half of the season in the mix, Kate’s twisted sister realizes she’s been played and her memories were tampered with to erase an affair between herself and the presumed-dead right hand of Safiyah.

Mad Love

Alice and Ocean reunite and the False Faces come back to bite them like their street drug’s namesake serpent.

They manage to capture the latter of the two parties and hold him with Angelique, putting both Alice and Batwoman/Ryan on their collective tail.

Bitter enemies, better allies?

Those two now have to put their problems aside and form an uneasy alliance that doesn’t last — as you probably guessed — although they make a good team, at first. Ryan and Alice even have a few crazy heart-to-heart exchanges that would be cool to explore again down the line.

What undid the alliance, interestingly, was the actions or lack thereof by Ryan, still vengeful about her mother’s death at the hands of Alice’s gang and devoid of sympathy for enemy due to her many sins. The world might be better off without her but this move is bound to backfire on Ryan in such a way that will mark her worst mistake as Batwoman.

So, what happened? Ryan leaves Alice at the mercy of Black Mask’s deadly new henchgirl, Circe, who – suprise – doesn’t actually kill her prey.

About Circe…

The thing about Circe is she’s not what she seems. Black Mask is passing her off as his lost daughter when, in another shocker, she is really Kate Kane under a death mask – brainwashed into thinking she is Circe, and into acting as Roman’s new assassin.

To say this a huge deviation from the source material would be an understatement. Circe was a disfigured model in the comics, formerly engaged to Sionis before he turned to crime. She would betray him and side with Two-Face but that’s another story.

Whose Day is it on Batwoman season 2?

Concerning the Arrowverse TV show, this latest twist in Kate’s return is out of a French movie called Eyes Without a Face (which, in a side note, you should totally see; it’s on HBO Max with Batwoman season 1 and all the other DC stuff), down to a father giving his scarred daughter a spooky face covering.

There might appear to be a smattering of inspirations that shouldn’t match, but the good news is, finally, Wallis Day has arrived on the scene as Kate Kane.

We’ve been building to this since her casting was announced weeks ago and, while she has to act behind a creepy, wooden countenance, Day is showing signs of the talent that show developer Caroline Dries talked about when the Krypton actor landed the part.

And she is off to a fine start.

Have anything to say about this week’s episode of Batwoman? Kindly do so in the comments and be back here next time for our review of the next installment.