‘Batwoman’ Recasts Kate Kane — What Does This Mean for Her Loved Ones?

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 2, Episode 8 of Batwoman, “Survived Much Worse.”]

Sunday’s Batwoman seems to kill off Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) only to bring her back to life in its final moments as the CW series recasts the character who was its titular hero in its first season.

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Alice (Rachel Skarsten), Kate’s twin sister (who no longer wants to kill her), Jacob (Dougray Scott), their father, and Sophie (Meagan Tandy), her ex-girlfriend, converge on Coryana to get Kate back, but as it turns out, Safiyah (Shivaani Ghai) never had her. Meanwhile, news comes to the Bat Team from Julia (Christina Wolfe) about their missing friend, and it’s not good. Body parts were discovered, she tells Luke (Camrus Johnson) and Mary (Nicole Kang, who plays Kate’s other sister), and the DNA matches Kate’s. The former Batwoman presumably did die in the plane crash like they’d suspected at the beginning of the season. But there’s a twist…

In the final scene of the episode, below ground in Gotham, we see a very injured, very bandaged person…wearing a certain red necklace. Yes, Kate Kane is alive, and she has been recast: Wallis Day (Krypton) is stepping into the role, which she called a “dream job” in a tweet in May 2020 after news broke of Rose’s exit between seasons.

The CW

That shocker sets up “two parallel stories” moving forward, showrunner Caroline Dries told EW: “The Bat Team coalescing without Kate, and Kate going through her mysterious journey.” That journey will eventually bring her back and the others will learn she’s alive, which will affect the new Batwoman, Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie), Dries continued, teasing her “confidence will be rattled a little bit.”

The recasting also sets up several questions, in addition to those connected to her even being alive and having a new face, which she and her loved ones will have to deal with. They’ll have all grieved Kate by the time she reappears. How will Luke and Mary react to having her back while also maybe being in the middle of two Batwomans? (Will Kate even want to be Batwoman again?) How will Jacob and Sophie react now that they know Kate was Batwoman? Is there a future for Kate and Sophie after everything, especially the letter the former left for the latter?  (She’d written she lied to her about being Batwoman because she loved her.)

 

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But perhaps the most intriguing story will come from how Alice handles the news, both that Kate is dead and then that she’s actually alive. The villain had just realized she didn’t want to kill her sister. However she reacts (we have a feeling the residents of Gotham will end up in the crosshairs), we expect at least a couple intense face-offs between the sisters once Kate makes her official return to everyone’s lives.

Batwoman, Sundays, 8/7c, The CW