‘Batwoman’ S2E02 “Prior Criminal History” Review

After a very solid start to the season, Batwoman returns with its second episode “Prior Criminal History,” directed by Carl Seaton. It does a very good job continuing the storylines set up in the premiere. In this episode, we begin to learn more about Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie)’s history as we learn she has had prior encounters with both Kate Kane (in the Batwoman costume) as well as Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy). I enjoyed how organic that revelation was. Sophie knew Ryan previously as she had been arrested by her on multiple occasions, always being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In regards to her actually being saved by Kate, it was actually very reminiscent of Kate’s origin as Batwoman from the comics. In case you don’t know about that origin from the comics, simply put, Batman saved Kate from a mugging while she was out partying, and being saved inspired her to become Batwoman. Having a very similar origin be given to Ryan really works well for the series as it still shows how important Kane is to the show, even with her gone.

Alice (Rachel Skarsten)’s story continuing on this episode also felt really fitting as it incorporated elements from the scrapped Season 1 finale, as well as adding in new elements along with what was set up in the premiere. Rachel Skarsten’s performance in this episode was brilliant as always as we get to see her recalibrate her plans to get the attention of Safiyah (Shivani Ghai) instead of having her plan be solely focused on getting rid of Kane now. Her plan was both simultaneously ridiculous but also kind of fitting, having the whole swarm of bats with the Desert Rose poison in them. Watching Alice and Ryan meet for the first time in the present day was such an interesting dynamic to see, as the heart of the show has always been the rivalry between Batwoman and Alice. Well, now that dynamic has shifted, as Kane is gone but someone else has taken up the mantle of the fallen Crimson Knight. As Mary said in the episode, the audience can really tell that deep down, Alice still misses her sister even if she shows it in her own messed up way. I can not wait to see Alice come face to face with Safiyah in the next episode. Hopefully, we get more teases about what she ended up doing with Kane because I doubt she will be showing up in the next episode.

With the rest of the characters on the show, I liked seeing how they all continued to react to Kane vanishing in different ways. The dual scene with Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) interrogating Mary Hamilton (Nicole Kang) — and Sophie with Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) — about them knowing (or not knowing) if Kate was Batwoman was so intense to watch as we know all of them cared about Kane. Seeing Luke start to warm up to the idea of Wilder being Batwoman was nice, as he recognizes the importance of the Bat legacy to the people of Gotham. I like how they differentiated Wilder from Kane, with Wilder wanting to kill Alice unlike her predecessor. I can’t wait to see how that conflicts with the Batman “no-kill rule” that Luke wants to continue on. With Jacob and Mary, I’m actually looking forward to seeing their dynamic evolve in the upcoming episodes as they hunt for what happened to Kane. Those two never really got that much screentime together, so watching them bond together more in this season should be an interesting plot.

This episode was a great continuation of what was set-up in the premiere of the season. From evolving character dynamics to pretty decent action sequences (with the store robbery and the swarm of Bats), overall this was another great episode of the series. If there was one thing I had to complain about in this episode, it was the lack of delving more into the Kryptonite poisoning that Ryan is enduring. We did see her pick up some drugs, in the beginning, to try and numb that pain but other than that, she didn’t even seem phased throughout the episode. I assume we will see that plot pick up more in the upcoming episodes though.

Score: 9.4/10