Batwoman: A Narrow Escape

April 26, 2020 6:30 PM - Season 1, Episode 17

Batwoman encounters a new challenge when an old villain resurfaces, testing the heroics of Gotham's most stand-up citizens. Alice's limits are tested.

TV Line - Batwoman's Camrus Johnson Talks Luke's Moment of Truth, the Expanding Team, and Finale Cliffhanger to Come

TV Fanatic recap

posted by oh yeah! (2 comments total)

Good on Mary for letting Kate know that her secret identity isn't very much of a secret. I think it was perfectly natural that she was kicking herself for not realizing sooner and for looking back into their shared history for clues and evidence to confirm things in her own head. I don't know why Luke insisted on on keeping up the charade when it was obvious that cat was already out of the bag. If anything, he should have welcomed the news, especially given that he had earlier lectured Kate about not having anybody to speak with besides him.

I'm not sure what to think about people telling Kate to buck up and just keep going. Sure, Batwoman has made herself needed and Kate has a job to do, but she's under real stress and suffering PTSD/mental anguish/whatever we're calling it due to her actions. She needs help and understanding. Yes, there have always been jokes about comic book characters not being very good mental health role models, but somehow I expected more from this show, given how aware it is about other issues.

I'm also unsure about what I'm supposed to think about Tommy Elliot. I'm probably not supposed to be thinking about him, and am making a big mistake doing so, but it's hard not to wonder how we're supposed to reconcile Keven Conroy's much older Bruce with this much younger version of Tommy. I mean it's not like Kate didn't recognize the Crisis/alternate Earth version of Bruce, so he must be similar enough to this world's Bruce. Maybe this Tommy never went down quite the same evil villain path that his comic book counterpart did.

So, it seems that Bruce broke his cardinal rule, which is why he's not around Gotham any more. Makes you wonder what finally drove him to that final act. Somehow I think this show is doing the main character a disservice by putting the spotlight, however unintentionally on Bruce, or at least causing comic fans to speculate about him based on what they know of the character. Even Julia's line about the way Bruce would express his disappointment with Kate's action leads to a pretty direct (and bleak, most recently thanks but no thanks to Scott Lobdell) line into how comic book Bruce has dealt with similar situations.

I really don't like speculating about Bruce when I'm supposed to be watching Kate's story. I mean, of course he's going to be an overarching presence, since this is his symbol and legacy Kate has picked up but I'd really prefer for him to fade into the background as much as possible, at least for this show.
posted by sardonyx at 10:00 PM on April 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

I kind of have to wonder exactly where Kate, or another vigilante would GET help from. I mean it's not as though they can do to a regular therapist, that's too much of a risk to secrecy.

While patient-counselor confidentiality probably does apply to someone who confesses to a murder, it's a different matter if they plan to continually engage in violent self-endangering illegal acts. Kate would be putting the therapist in a very bad spot.
posted by happyroach at 12:15 AM on May 4, 2020