Batwoman season 2, episode 16 review: Rebirth

No hiatus this time, but Batwoman season 2‘s sixteenth episode experiences a rebirth or two of a sort.

Where our heroes left off, Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) turned the lights out at Crow HQ once the organization was shuttered, ready to start a new chapter in how Gotham enforces the law. Jake was forced to make this move because of loose cannons in his ranks that cost him and the police the favor of Batwoman and Sophie, who spent years under his command.

Luke, meanwhile, was in the hospital clinging to life. As much as he’d rather see his father again, he has friends/teammates counting on him and a destiny to uphold we’ll talk about later. But, still, can Luke take the intolerant, broken world of Batwoman for what it is?

This week’s episode of Batwoman season 2 (16: “Rebirth”) has a title the show kinda lives up to for once. If you’re expecting a Batman Beyond riff in a tribute to that series’ first two episodes you’ll be disappointed. Nevertheless, there’s a couple of literary and symbolic “rebirths” for a few main characters.

Luke Fox begins a hero’s journey on Batwoman season 2

No, he’s not Batwing just yet but Batwoman’s nerdy interpretation of Luke Fox begins to man up. He goes to a bar where former Crow agent Russell Tavaroff (Jesse Hutch), fresh out of jail, hangs out, beats him at poker, and gets into a fight with him in an alley.

Here, Oliver Queen’s buddy John Diggle (David Ramsey) intervenes to play peacemaker and bail the young surviving Fox out. Dig, who may be on assignment but is sans any sign of a Green Lantern ring, used his ARGUS cred to get into the bar.

Being in the hero business for several years, Dig offers wisdom to a Luke unsure he wants to live in a world – much less protect one – that doesn’t accept him. This angers the lad but Dig tells him that rage can fuel his sense of justice. Counter to logic as this advice may seem, it’s not unheard of, in life or fiction.

He has no armor yet though this inchoate Batwing is on his way. It’d be cool to see Diggle stick around and act as a mentor to Luke much like Bruce did to Terry McGinnis and his various partners and wards, but that outcome is doubtful.

Whatever happened to Kate Kane?

Answer: she wants to be somebody else. Or that’s what the villains lead her to believe.

For those out of the loop, Kate’s death was staged by Black Mask (Peter Outerbridge) to eliminate the threat of Batwoman to his operations. The criminal went further by using the power of hypnotic suggestion to make Kate think she is his dead daughter Circe – a play of revenge against Jacob Kane for the real Circe’s accidental lockup in Arkham.

In reality, Ruby Rose left the show and producers feel like they need to explain in-story why Wallis Day is playing Rose’s old character. Wallis Day also doubles as Circe Sionis, thus, Kate’s new face is really that of her enemy’s offspring – which makes you wonder how Alice was able to recognize her a few weeks before.

Admittedly, that’s convoluted but some funny moments come out of it like a joke by Alice that a sign Kate “ain’t right” is she wears yoga pants. It also brings the Kanes back together in a position to put things right among them, assuming they get the chance.

It’s Beth, Alice if she’s nasty!

Alice goes through a quasi-“rebirth” of her own in which she is reminded – or confronted with – who she is – Kate’s (and, by extension, Batwoman’s) sister Beth. Due to this, it’s down to her and dear old dad to snap Kate back to normal.

Black Mask and the returning Safiyah can’t have this so they break up the family reunion. Roman takes custody of Jacob and sets in motion a plot to expose Alice as his daughter, landing the lawman in jail again (for some reason). And Alice? She loses everything when Safiyah makes sure Ocean is killed off for good.

If the plan was driving her over the edge, good job, despite it coming back to bite you.

Although there were instances of asking “why this and that?”, Batwoman had a solid, entertaining entry this week that improved on the last episode and laid the groundwork for what we’re all waiting for: i.e., Batwing.

What was your favorite part of this episode of Batwoman season 2? Are you looking forward to Batwing? Leave a comment and be back next week for more.