Episode 2 of BATWOMAN. Once again, the writers are in an impossible situation: they have a season of BATWOMAN and they've lost the actress who plays Batwoman and for reasons that I grudgingly understand, they do not feel comfortable recasting Batwoman at this time with showrunner Caroline Dries saying that she thought it could only be jarring if character confrontations started by Ruby Rose's Kate Kane were concluded with some other actress' Kate Kane.
And with episode 2, we have another problem: if some new person, some nobody is going to be Batwoman now -- won't the show feel totally disconnected from Season 1? But episode 2 does something incredibly clever: it observes that Season 1 was very much about an absence, the absence of Bruce Wayne and Kate Kane constantly journaling to Bruce, asking this offscreen figure if she was making him proud, if he would approve of her, if she was good enough to take his place.
Season 2's second episode makes it clear that Season 2 is very focused on the void left by Kate Kane's absence. The city demands that Batwoman stand up to the Crows and protect the people. Alice has gone crazy(er). Sophie and Julia's romance has been shattered. Jacob Kane is so damaged he's terrorizing the only daughter with whom he can still be on speaking terms. Just as Bruce's disappearance left a void in Gotham for Season 1, Kate's absence has left a hole in Season 2 that characters once again circle, gingerly step past, stare into nervously or fall into completely.
This is something I really understand. I was 13 when I watched "The Exodus" and I think everything in my life after that to 2015 was a reaction to the death of Professor Arturo. Every anxiety, behavioural difficulty and psychological paralysis was the result of having watched a father get his brain sucked out before being shot and exploded, of being unable to confront and address this traumatic and terrible loss.
Season 2 truly feels like part of Season 1 despite losing its lead character. Just like Season 1, Season 2 is about all the ways people react to another absence: Mary wants the comfort of knowing someone will be Batwoman. Alice is disturbed that the Batwoman is wiling to kill her. Jacob is angry that someone would impersonate his daughter. And Luke declares that Ryan is but a temporary substitute until Kate's return when we know Ruby Rose is never coming back. He isn't ready to confront the truth and to be fair, he has good reason to think Kate's alive.
I don't really approve of the decision to not recast Kate. Paradoxically, I would approve of these stories as a path to recasting Kate -- by having Kate disappear in the plane crash, all the characters reacting to her death, various people standing in for Batwoman -- and then having a recast Kate return after 4 - 6 episodes, and account for the new actress not having Ruby Rose's tattoos saying that the plane crash necessitated skin grafts. They're probably not going to do that; they're still using photos of Ruby Rose as Kate Kane.
But even so: Episodes 1 - 2, despite being in a difficult and untenable situation, are extremely well-written, well-performed and well-produced. Being good counts.