As this season comes to a close, I don't hate it, though I don't think it's as good as last season. And I don't think they've fully taken advantage of the lost Batman rogues' objects.
No one can expect a Caroline Dries series to ever dip its toes into the pool of continuity or reason; the villain gadgets were made into a big deal, and its all boiled down to the buzzer. No character is talking about the gadgets/weapons at all. What's telling about the entire buzzer matter is that it--like the beyond Plot Convenient flashback linking Marquis to the crash which killed Kate's mother--is that this series lacks an identity of its own (more on that in the season 3 finale review).
I think Poison Ivy fit the bill much better and came across as a threat on a greater level.
The problem with TV-Ivy is that her idiotic plot would
kill a city's worth of people when she claimed her ridiculous eco-terrorist plan was intended to save the environment and...people. Remember, this TV-Ivy is not supposed to be insane (hence the reason Batman simply did not place her in a light and water-deprived cell at Arkham), so her plan was supposed to be sound...only it made her look like a self-contradicting fool. Oh, well.
I had read that the actor was inspired by Jared Leto's Joker and that was a bold thing to say in part to the widespread derision Leto's Joker receives. I didn't dislike Leto's take. I rather liked the theatricality.
Leto and Phoenix are--by far--the best live action Joker performers, and recently watching both, its clear they knew how to capture what the best of the comic book Joker did in terms of not just being a rubber room candidate who laughs maniacally....in other words, they are not Marquis, the Discount Joker.
And I feel if the creators want to set Marquis up as Ryan's Joker, then they should go more all out in terms of his appearance and dress (not the traditional Joker look but more along the lines of what Leto did, including some of the tattoos, but hopefully not the forehead tattoo). Now I'm not saying that's what I want to see necessarily, but if they want to go that way then they should do it.
...but they should not, because once again, its
Batwoman playing two sides: one, they cannot use A-list Batman characters outright, so they rip, pick and tease, never establishing a world of their own, and two, the
one character who should have more of a legacy build-up--but does not--is Luke. Go figure.
I was left questioning if Barbara Kean now knows Batwoman's secret identity because it didn't take much for Marquis to goad her into taking off her cowl. And Kean still did seem lucid enough.
Honestly, Wilder runs around without the mask so much, she might as well no wear one at all.
I liked how she took the fall for Mary, but I didn't like how Mary allowed her to do it. While there were extenuating circumstances behind Mary's actions, she still committed murder and for her to seemingly be almost back to the 'old' Mary by the end of the episode, that was a bit much.
Mary is self-serving. Her entire Ivy arc was about her being an eternally whining woman-child who blames others for not giving her the 'round the clock attention she believes she deserves. While Luke and Wilder were clearly dealing with
serious problems, Mary (
before the Ivy infection) was all about
"me,me, ME!" Yet the showrunners see no issue with that--or the fact she's murdered two people, and as of this post, appears to be in no danger of facing legal consequences for her crimes. Its all just "Ivy infection influence" and turn the page with the forced bit about Alice taking the blame.
I would hope the Luke character does not have that last shovel of dirt tossed on his face with a romantic relationship with Mary, but this is a Dries series, so Mary will always get what she wants. By the way, notice how the hint of romance with Stephanie Brown (S2 / E13 -
I'll Give You a Clue") has been blown away to the winds, never to be referred to again? She was a far better fit for Luke (romantically and intellectually), but he's likely to be anchored to a needy whiner who has zero chemistry with.
I also thought Trek_God was on to something when it came to Luke. He was on the sidelines, way too much, so much so that I was expecting Mary to intervene to help stop Alice at the end instead of him. I sort of forgot he was on the show.
He's a token, and despite how his character was the last insider after Batman's departure, he's consistently marginalized and outright abused with disrespect from those who are no position to treat him in that manner, nor have any familial or professional ties to the Batman legacy. It is clear why Dries did this to Luke. So much for this "progressive" show..well, its "progressive" from the White Liberal perspective, which was never in the business of understanding black characters unless they were force-fit into their White Liberal concerns/agendas.
I thought last season's one-two punch of Black Mask and the corrupted Kate Kane, made for a better season finale challenge than Marquis in control of the Batcave
On any other series or film, Marquis having this knowledge would mean he signed his own death-warrant, but on
Batwoman, no one is going to be even mildly surprised IF BW and the Gang refuse to protect their own
world, and finally kill Marquis. Either someone will find a miracle cure (and forget he's still legally responsible for his crimes(, or he will just run off--or be allowed to--just like Safiyah, Ivy and Montoya.
Since Dries wants BW mine Batman so much, then she should have her finally mirror the decision their referenced Batman made in his final conflict with the Joker, then build on Wilder struggling to balance herself on a moral and ethical tightrope about the nature of her duty to stop crime--how far will she go.
That would be a far better arc (after killing Marquis) than anything since Wilder's addition to the series.
