Batwoman Season 2, Episode 4 recap: Gotham’s dark underbelly

In Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4, “Fair Skin, Blue Eyes,” Ryan gets to the bottom of the real problems plaguing Gotham City and the people left behind by superheroes.

This season of The CW show hasn’t been afraid of exploring more real-life issues through Team Batwoman’s exploits. It makes for a powerful, albeit distressing watch at times, but this is the kind of messaging superhero shows need to share with their audiences.

With Ryan Wilder finally owning the mantle of Batwoman, this episode sees her make inroads within Team Batwoman. While Luke is still fighting to find Kate Kane, Mary has all but given up hope—and as a result, she’s practically accepted Ryan as a replacement, not only as Batwoman but as a sister.

Mary has been championing Ryan throughout the past few episodes, and in Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4, she takes yet another step—Mary invites Ryan to live with her in Kate’s apartment. This is a relationship that is developing beautifully, and we can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

We see the effects of the kryptonite bullet on Ryan—it’s painful and impacts her ability to work. But Ryan is yet to tell anyone about it. Here’s hoping she doesn’t wait too long, especially now that she’s living with a doctor.

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4 – The Candy Lady

Happy bonding times aside, Ryan shares a shocking incident from her past with Mary in Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4.

Long before Ryan’s adoptive mother found her, 13-year-old Ryan (Ava Augustin) was sent to a foster home that was not the happiest place to be. Though she made a good friend in fellow misfit Angelique (Kerensa Cooper), Ryan still felt alone.

So much so that she fell into the hands of the Candy Lady (Linda Kash). Using Ryan’s love of comic books to draw her in, the Candy Lady knocks the child out and kidnaps her for the express purpose of selling her off to a gang.

But it’s how the Candy Lady went about it that still lives on in Ryan’s memory. She kept a pot of jellybeans in the room—with 60 candies inside—and used them to count down how many days it took for someone to come looking for Ryan.

The point of this awful game—the Candy Lady wanted to show Ryan that she really was invisible, and nobody would come looking for her.

Young Ryan was optimistic that someone would come for her. And one day, a group of people did arrive on the Candy Lady’s doorstep—except they weren’t looking for Ryan. They were looking for a white girl. If this isn’t a reflection of the real world, what is?

Fortunately for Ryan, someone does find her—Angelique. She allows herself to get captured by the Candy Lady, and between the two of them, they fight the Candy Lady and escape. Angelique eventually becomes Ryan’s girlfriend, though the relationship does fizzle out.

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4 – A Missing Boy

Ryan’s horrifying experience helps her solve the case of young Kevin Johnson (Eli Tsepiso Larmour) in Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4.

While trying to find the False-Face Society, who are distributing the new and deadly drug, a young boy named Snake Bite gets Batwoman’s attention. His brother, Kevin, has been missing for two months but nobody cares enough to look for him. Will Batwoman help?

Yes, she will! Once she learns where Kevin went missing, Ryan puts two and two together to realize that the Candy Lady has been operating for 20 years—Kevin is her latest victim.

But Ryan can’t remember where the house she was kept in is located—and her ex, Angelique, is no help at all. Fortunately, Mary helps her pinpoint the location. That other girl that had gone missing when Ryan did? That was Beth Kane. Kate would have kept notes about where people searched. And that’s how they get the location.

Ryan decides to take on the Candy Lady on her own—no Mary or Luke, not even her Batwoman suit. It’s a risk, and it doesn’t pay off.

The Candy Lady doesn’t recognize Ryan, but she sees her as a threat, and she’s got back up to knock Ryan out. But Ryan is also Batwoman now—even bound and locked up, she can fight. The Candy Lady doesn’t stand a chance.

There’s more work to be done, however. Ryan still needs to find Kevin. It turns out the boy has been handed over to the False-Face Gang—and his initiation will be complete once he kills Jacob Kane.

Jacob has been desperate to find Kate ever since Sophie Moore returned with news that Kate was alive in the previous episode. He’s offering a million-dollar reward for news about Kate—and he follows a hot tip right into the hands of the False-Face Society.

But before Kevin can complete his task, Batwoman leaps into action. Jacob hadn’t seen eye-to-eye with the Gotham superhero before—when she was his daughter, Kate—but the two make a pretty good team as they take down the baddies.

And Batwoman uses her own experience and people skills to talk Kevin off the ledge and remind him that he has a family, that he is seen, and that he will be saved. Can Jacob learn from this to help the people of Gotham?

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4 – Unusual Partners

Batwoman and Jacob Kane aren’t the only unusual partnership in Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4. Sophie wakes up one morning to find an unexpected guest in her home—Alice. Since their return from Safiyah’s island, Alice has had one agenda—finding her sister.

To do that, Alice needs Sophie’s help—they need to find a man named Ocean who may have clues to Kate’s location. That’s not much information to go by, and Sophie can’t find him. Then Sophie has yet another uninvited guest appear at her condo—Luke Fox.

Despite Luke’s mistrust of Alice, he offers to help Sophie. The two of them manage to dupe Alice into believing that Ocean can’t be found. In actuality, Luke gets Julia Pennyworth’s help to find Ocean—she knew him on Safiyah’s island.

The location definitely looks like a place where Snake Bite is being made, but there’s no sign of Ocean. Worse, Sophie is ambushed by a woman there—someone who looks familiar but whom Sophie can’t place.

Alice eventually rescues Sophie. That plan did not work out. But Sophie finally learns why Alice is desperate to find Kate—she’s going to kill her sister. So, it looks like Alice is really sticking to this plan of hers.

Obviously, Sophie can’t let this happen. She goes to Jacob Kane with what she knows and the reason for their urgency.

Meanwhile, back at Ocean’s apartment, Alice sees a picture of the elusive man and recalls meeting him on Safiyah’s island. Also, he’s hot, and Alice may have just realized that?

But there’s yet another team-up to end the episode. That familiar woman fighting Sophie? She turns up at Kate’s bar, which Ryan is managing. Ryan knows this woman. She’s Angelique (Bevin Bru), all grown up.

The two of them haven’t spoken in years, but Ryan calls for a truce. But can Angelique be trusted? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Final Thoughts – Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4 is a Hard-Hitting Mystery

Every episode of this season gets better and better. Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4 shows just how committed the creative team is to their central theme—fighting Gotham’s oppression by making it reflective of the real world.

Ryan Wilder has had no dearth of experience—so many of them awful—but they’re making her a brilliant superhero and a compelling character that we can’t stop watching. Her chemistry with Mary is so lovely—they’re becoming the family that each has been craving.

The team-ups in this episode worked brilliantly, and we could definitely do with more of those. Luke and Sophie need to hang out more. And it would be great to see Jacob finally accept and work with Batwoman on the regular.

It certainly looks like the events of this episode will be shaping the narrative for the remainder of the season. We can’t predict what will happen next, but it will be a great and exciting ride.

What did you think of the Batwoman Season 2 Episode 4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Batwoman Season 2 is airing weekly on The CW.