Batwoman, season 2, episode 8: “I Survived Much Worse”

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[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!]

You can watch it LIVE on the CW (Sundays at 8 PM) or watch it also for FREE on the CW website (link) and on the CW app (if you live in the US)!

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“General”:

My highlights from this episode (without particular order):

1 – Batwoman + Sophie! The episode had a lot of strong emotional scenes, my favorite was Sophie sitting next to the dying Batwoman so that she wouldn’t die alone (as BW thought). Ryan and Batwoman didn’t like Sophie at the beginning of the season. But that changes more and more for the better. Sophie seemingly develops more and more feelings (especially) for Batwoman. The way she was holding her hand and was leaning onto her….perhaps I am interpreting too much into it, but I think Sophie once again falls in love with a Batwoman ;-).

2 – Batwoman + Alice! The scene where Batwoman and Alice were in that cell together worked really well for me. Batwoman certainly figured out how Alice’s mind works towards Kate. She stated that Alice wouldn’t want to kill Kate after all as her connection to her sister is her last straw of humanity. In the end, Alice would be totally alone and would be without a goal. No one would be left to whom she could direct her anger.

3 – Safiyah and her mind games! I enjoyed how Safiyah came up with these evil “games” so that she forced Batwoman and Alice to make really BIG decisions. Alice had to choose between Ocean and her sister. Batwoman had to choose between saving her own life or saving Kate. But well, Safiyah was bluffing big time as Kate wasn’t on the Island after all. But in the end, she got what she wanted, as she wanted to push a wedge between Alice and Ocean and also pushing Alice away from her idea to go after Kate.

4 – Ryan and Mary! The scene with Mary and Ryan in the Batcave was really emotional!  Ryan knew that she had only very little time left and wanted to make a last effort to get Kate back and save herself as well. The plant that she got from Angelique is again a topic, and now we know why the plant played a role in the season. It was also interesting to see Ryan wondering about what would happen if they would Kate back as then there would be two BatwomEn in town. After all, she fears that she would lose her new “job” if everything would work out on Coryana as planned.

5 – Julia is back! Finally, Julia returns to the show after missing for 5 episodes. I loved her entrance as she just appeared and immediately killed that assassin by throwing a knife into her heart. Quite a badass entrance ;-). Hopefully, she will now be a real part of the show again! Her absence was explained pretty much like I thought it would be with her investigating into Kate’s disappearance.

6 – Kate Kane is back! Well, sort of. We saw a woman with Kate necklace sitting in some dark basement. Her face was covered with some medical fabric so her wounds would heal. Perhaps she was even operated. Right after the episode had been aired the BIG news surfaced that Wallis Day will now play Kate Kane!

She was one of the big favorites for the role before Javicia Leslie was cast as I posted in May last year, check out my post from back then (link).

Fun fact: She looks very much like Rachel Skarsten (Alice), so the fact that they are twins…..really fits perfectly now. 🙂

Carlone Dries said that she will play an altered Kate Kane. This situation leaves SO many questions!!! Why is she in that basement? Who holds her there? They did find body parts of Kate…but she is very much alive! So, it seems that someone wants everyone to think she is dead! But who and why? When will she escape that basement? When will the others find out that she is still alive? And what happens when she is finally back? Will she put on the costume again?

Alice was kept for 11 years in a basement, and now Kate shares her fate to a certain degree. A fitting parallel, but Kate won’t stay that long there, that’s for sure. 😉

 

 

Aspects I didn’t like in this episode:

>>> As many emotional scenes and drama were in the episode…there wasn’t a single real fight scene! I was looking forward to seeing a good fight between Batwoman and these soldiers, they are closing in, the fight just starts, then a cut, and then she is already prisoner as they bring her to Safiyah. A nice fight between Batwoman and these goons would have been nice….. Yeah, she was in bad shape, but they should have shown how they knocked her out and took her prisoner.

>>> The scene where Alice sets the field with the Desert Rose on flames wasn’t well done. The CGI looks really bad and I don’t like that the whole (really BIG) field was on flames. Yeah, there was fertilizer there that explodes. But the field was on fire as if someone spilled tons of gasoline there. I hope they don’t say that all Desert Rose plants are now destroyed. There must be seeds on the island, also there must be other plants on the island like the one that Safiyah showed to Alice in the previous episode.

 

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More interesting aspects for me:

— Again, the writers put in some really funny lines and scenes in the episode. My favorites were the scenes where Ryan tells Mary that she learned from Youtube how to use the syringe on herself and especially the scene where Luke explains to Ryan that there isn’t a “shark repellant” on her belt as it would be “silly”. A great reference to the Batman movie from the 60s where Batman has a shark repellant spray to fight a shark in one of the strangest/absurd scenes 😆

— As Luke involved Sophie to get her help he gave away that he works with Batwoman. Will be interesting to see where this will lead! Perhaps that will help Sophie to figure out who Batwoman is?  Well, from now on she can contact Luke if she wants to get in touch with Batwoman.

— It was an interesting comparison as Safiyah wanted Sophie to join and made her see the parallels between the Crows and her own army. The Crows are pretty much out of control with no one holding them responsible for their actions. Interestingly the Crows who nearly killed Wolf Spider were just fired and weren’t thrown into jail. Clearly a parallel to some cops in the US in the past.

— What will happen with Alice now? Her only goal was to get revenge on her sister….even Safiyah and Batwoman uncovered that she wouldn’t kill her in the end. Now Alice doesn’t have any clue of what happened to her sister. I guess she will learn that Julia has discovered the fact that Kate would be dead (as far as they know). What will Alice do then? Will Safiyah be her new enemy from now on? Her reason to go on?

— Tatiana’s evil scheme was finally uncovered. She wanted to put Alice against Safiyah, so Safiyah would see Alice as an enemy. In the end, Tatiana wants to get Safiyah for herself as she is in love with her. Tatiana will have to regain Safiyahs trust after that betrayal… which will get tough.

— I’m happy that the Kryptonite story is over now. She was affected for most of the episodes of the season and it’s time that she is Batwoman in full strength. Also, the whole search for Kate seems to be over for now as well as they don’t know of Kate being alive in that basement. From now on the show can focus on being the new Batwoman, her night job. Black Mask should appear in the next episodes. And I guess there should be finally some more “villain of the week” episodes. So far we had only the one with Victor Zsasz.

— I didn’t realize that the plant that is so important to Ryan is actually a Desert Rose from Coryana. So it seems that Ocean managed to grow one after all. Does he have more? How did Angelique get that one, or why did he gave it to her. Looking forward to finding out more.

— I wonder how many scenes they will include with Wallis Day in the next episodes? I am verrrry thrilled to find out more about the circumstances WHY she is in that basement, and WHO is behind it.

 

>>> Rating “General:” <<<

4 out of 5 – A real rollercoaster ride with too little action, but with many emotional scenes that moved the story forward big time! A real turning point of the season!

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“Mask”:

Batwoman screen time: 12:50  – long cut

“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”) – additional masked women – close calls with opportunities to unmask Batwoman

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

For sure: 2.9 – 0.9 of these are villains

Mary

Luke

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

Sexy “mask-related” -scenes:

Nothing in terms of secret identity issues or unmasking action. But Batwoman was captured and in really bad shape with her Kryptonite poisoning.

And she was in costume and cowl for practically the entire episode!

Also, she used an oxygen mask in that halo jump scene, a nice little bonus.

>>> Rating “Mask”: <<<

3 out of 5 – A LOT of Batwoman screentime in this one but no secret identity issues or “mask action”.

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Pictures:

(click to enlarge)

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And here are my special Batwoman cuts from this episode:

What are your thoughts on the episode?

Feel welcome to leave a comment below!

3 thoughts on “Batwoman, season 2, episode 8: “I Survived Much Worse””

  1. Seems that was the entire fight scene.
    The guy with the knife moved in and as she fended him off the two others flanked her and knocked her out with a single punch.
    The camera blacked out to seemingly show Ryan lost consciousness.

    It again shows how vulnerable Ryan is in actual combat or when suprised. After this episode she was fully recovered but again lost a fight with goons and got knocked out easily.

    Kate seemed way more skilled as she never got suprised or blindsided and beat a squad of crows with just her batons.

    Reply
    • Yeah, I guess it was the entire fight. But they should have at least showed how she gets knocked out and falls to the ground.
      I like to see the full thing 😉
      Well, I think Kate had years of training before becoming Batwoman, Ryan has “only” some martial arts fighting skills.
      She will learn and she will do better without that Kryptonite affecting her.

      Reply
      • Seems the first punch snaps her head to the side right into the path of the second punch. Shows those goons have actual skills :O

        After healing from the kryptonite she got taken out by masked goons while using her staff after trying to save Angelique.
        She only survived because Sophie saved her (very unusual for Sophie who often is the damsell).

        Seems Ryan is just not that good compared to Kate.

        Reply

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