Batwoman, season 2, episode 12: “Initiate Self-Destruct”

—>>> back to: Batwoman, Season 2, Episodes 7-12 <<<—

[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]

[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]

[SPOILERS ahead, I recommend that you watch the episode before you continue!]

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You can watch it LIVE on the CW (Sundays at 9 PM) or watch it also for FREE on the CW website (link) and on the CW app (if you live in the US)!

Support the show, rate the episode on IMDB and rate the show itself!

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“General”:

My highlights from this episode (without particular order):

1 – Kate Kane is back….as Circe Sionis! Wow, I certainly didn’t see that coming. We still don’t know a lot about Black Mask and his plan, like did he know that Kate was Batwoman? If yes, how and when did he found out? What has really happened to Circe? ….But now we know that Kate Kane is his “replacement” for his own dead daughter! Enigma has altered her memories and erased all her memories as Kate, well, for now at least. I bet that will change at the end of the season! Kate now thinks that she is Circe. But it’s only a matter of time as she might be questioning that fact. What about her voice? Pretty sure that some old memories will surface as well….sooner or later. More on her later on. Enigma is a really big influence on the Kane sisters! First, she made Alice into who she is now….and now Kate was changed dramatically as well!

2 – Sophie protecting Batwoman’s secret identity! Yeah, I love that secret identity stuff. Even it was very clear that Ryan wouldn’t be exposed as Batwoman…the writers did a good job on a(nother) suspenseful storyline! She doesn’t give any details to Luke after she did it, after all, she doesn’t want that anyone knows that she KNOWS who Batwoman is. Will the Crows discover that Sophie manipulated data? I think yes…..

3 – Many, many great funny lines in this one! I won’t list them all…but Batwoman and Alice had some really great lines as they were teasing each other. Alice in the Batmobile was just hilarious as she was behaving like a brat 😆 . Mary, who was thankfully back in action, had another good one “…not just a pretty face…”.

4 – Alice out of control…again! Wow, Alice was on quite a killing and torturing spree to get information out of the false faces. Yeah, they are the bad guys, but seeing Alice with that blowtorch thingy burning the face and mask of the guy…oh boy. But most folks love her no matter how deranged and crazy that murderous psycho is (even with her sad backstory). I too think she is an awesome villainess….but a part of me also wants her to locked away (again) in Arkham.

5 – Alice and Batwoman teaming up! I wasn’t surprised as one promo picture gave that away beforehand, but wow, I didn’t expect that to turn out that big! The first fight scene where Alice and Batwoman are fighting through a bunch of henchmen was really good! The scene where they sit next to each other as they waited for the false faces to leave (great distraction move by the way) was intense! Both were throwing lines at each other, a very intense scene, and Alice was only inches away from Batwoman’s face/cowl.

6 – Circe/Kate kicks ass! Well, that was a rather awesome ass-kicking comeback! And it also proved that her injuries are “only” superficial (except her face?), she is still a fighting machine. The action scenes with her, Alice, and Batwoman were easily among the best of the season. Her years of military training were really showing as she overpowered Batwoman 2.0. Maybe, team Batwoman should have some sort of advanced training program for Ryan/Batwoman. It won’t be the last time these two will battle each other…that’s for sure. Her outfit was quite….odd. A pink(!) short, fishnet tights, flat overknee boots…. hmh, don’t really like that combo. Judging from the trailer for next episode, she will improve on that. Would be cool if she would get a full costume with that mask!

7 – Alice, left behind…again! Hmh, I’m a little divided about that. Certainly, it would be perfectly reasonable to leave the murderous psycho behind, especially with the fact that she is more or less responsible for the death of Ryan’s foster mom. But Alice just saved Batwoman from Circe/Kate….so, well…..ah damn, I don’t know. I guess Alice and Batwoman won’t be teaming up again so soon 😉 

 

Aspects I didn’t like in this episode:

>>> Well…..actually….nothing comes to mind!

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More interesting aspects for me:

— Jacob on drugs! Yeah, Jacob is still very much affected by his Snakebite addiction! He barks at Sophie as soon she is talking to him and Sophie quickly realizes that something is off with him. With Mary, he had it better under control. But now that Sophie found the syringe in his office and told Mary about it….his secret won’t stay secret for long! I wonder how they will cure him of his addiction. Perhaps in the end Ocean can deliver some sort of antidote?

— Sophie and Batwoman on the rooftop! That certainly seems a classic place for them to meet. I’m pretty sure Batwoman’s line “…this isn’t a pager” is in “Batman Forever” as well. At least a very similar line as horny Nicole Kidman calls for Batman ;-). I was wondering if Sophie would tell Batwoman that she knows her secret identity, but no, she didn’t. Perhaps she is saving that for the right moment? We will see…..

— Ocean and Angelique cooking Snakebite for a tutorial video was a smart move by Black Mask. If he would have that on tape he wouldn’t need them anymore….which would be quite bad for their health 😉

— I was expecting that Mary would re-open her clinic. That’s her mission, that where she can help so many people when she isn’t needed in the Batcave. Her lines about telegrams and that fax machines were also really funny 🙂

— So, now it seems like Angelique would really go into the witness protection program. But what does that mean? I don’t think that we will never see her again. Perhaps Ryan will at some point miss her that much that she will confess that she is also Batwoman? Maybe she can motivate Angelique to come back after Black Mask is out of the picture…which will most likely happen at the very end of the season.

— So, now Alice will be thrown in a cell in some basement….yet again! Even she won’t stay there for long. I wonder what Black Mask plans for her? Well, Alice won’t like it, that’s for sure….

— Alice + Circe/Kate! That was an intense scene as Alice was starring into her mask! In season 1 Alice recognized her sister as Batwoman rescued her from that sunken truck. This time, she clearly didn’t realize that her sister was under that mask, just inches away from her! Damn, she will be shocked like hell once she finds out! And, she will, that’s for sure. Most likely Alice will help Kate to get back her memories…. or she will force Engima to do that at some point.

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>>> Rating “General:” <<<

4,5 out of 5 – An awesome episode with a LOT of interesting storylines and scenes!

It was a close call, as I nearly gave it a 5.

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“Mask”:

Batwoman screen time:  nearly 16:00 minutes(!)- long cut

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“Mask action” (blue colored if yes): – attempted unmasking  – forced unmaskings (incl. a witness) – self unmaskings (without witness) – self unmaskings (with a witness) – unmaskings  – mask damage – “mask talk” (incl. “secret identity talk”)  Sophie preventing that the Crows find out Batwoman’s identity – additional masked women Circe/Kate! – close calls with opportunities to unmask Batwoman Both Alice and Circe/Kate were verrrry close to Batwoman’s face/cowl

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 Who knows her secret identity by now (Ryan Wilder Batwoman)?:

For sure: 3.9 – 0.9 of these are villains

Mary

Luke

Sophie

Alice knows the name of Ryans’ dead foster mom now. Shouldn’t be too hard to find out Ryan’s name.

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Sexy “mask-related” -scenes:

Where to start? Batwoman has nearly 16 minutes of screentime! She never was on the screen that long for one episode in the entire series!

Also, there are some additional scenes with Circe/Kate…so basically there is at least one masked woman on the screen for half the episode!

Both masked women have great fight scenes and Alice and Circe came very close to Batwoman’s face/cowl.

I wished that one of them would have been a little…curiouser 😉

Plus all the scenes where Sophie was protecting Batwoman’s secret identity from being exposed!

An awesome episode in this section as well!

>>> Rating “Mask”: <<<

4,5 out of 5 – A record Batwoman screentime, masked Circe, and a lot of secret identity issues….awesome!

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Pictures:

(click to enlarge)

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And here are my special Batwoman cuts from this episode:

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Normally I want to upload every scene with Batwoman in it. In this episode, we have around 16 minutes of Batwoman + extra scenes with the masked Circe.

Such a massive screen time of masked women is really awesome but also delivers a problem for this blog.

I don’t want to upload more than 3 videos and at the same time, I wanna keep the videos under 4 minutes so they won’t get blocked on Youtube.

Warner Brothers is ok with these videos as they earn the AD money from them. But the videos shouldn’t be too long.

This means that I edited the Batwoman scenes down to nearly 12 minutes and I can’t/won’t upload the other scenes with Circe.

If you want to see them….you will have to watch the whole episode. The link to the CW streaming site is listed at the beginning of this page.

 

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What are your thoughts on the episode?

Feel welcome to leave a comment below!

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