After some teasing, Batwoman season 2 shows that Black Mask had a far more sinister plan in your mind for Kate Kane, currently played with Wallis Day in the Arrowverse. When Roman Sionis became the brand new big bad for Batwoman, they established that this take on Black Mask had a massive grudge against the original female vigilante. While the characters feel that Kate died, Black Mask has been holding her hostage for months. Black Mask believes that Kate is responsible for getting his daughter Circe Sionis murdered, and consequently wishes to punish the original Batwoman and her loved ones. While Black Mask had brought Engima into erasing her memories, it’d just get darker from there.
Batwoman season 2, episode 12, “Initiate Self-Destruct” opens up with Kate Kane cuffed to a chair, as Black Mask was about to perform the last stage of his barbarous plans for her. Not only did Black Mask have Enigma make Kate forget her past life, but she had been brainwashed to believe that she is Circe. On account of the damages for her face, Black Mask had made Kate a new mask out of Circe’s coffin. Following Engima completes the brainwashing, Kate now believes she’s Black Mask’s daughter, which becomes an even darker part of Roman’s plans.
While Black Mask was already a dangerous villain from the get-go, this really is a brand new extreme for its Arrowverse’s iteration of this Batman foe. Even though Kate never murdered Circe, the idea that Black Mask would brainwash her rather than kill her portray him as possibly the most unhinged version of the character yet. In”Initiate Self-Destruct,” Roman even talks about believing in rebirth, showing that this is why he had Enigma re-program Kate to have Circe’s memories so his daughter can live in a very twisted way. Kate, like Circe, actually fights Alice and Ryan Wilder, the new Batwoman, as they have no idea who’s behind the mask.
This also became the very first time Kate and Ryan were collectively on-screen, but not under the ideal conditions. Even though they didn’t understand the other person was, this did result in a showdown between the original and new Batwoman, something that lots of fans probably did not expect to see through it likely will not be the final time that Ryan and Kate need to fight each other. Having Kate be brainwashed also helps further make Arrowverse’s Black Mask more distinct from Birds of Prey’s variant, played by Ewan McGregor in the DCEU.
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Since Batwoman season two, episode 12 finished with Alice being chased by Black Mask, it wouldn’t be shocking if she becomes the one which starts to awaken Kate’s memories that are locked. Despite the 2 sisters being at odds until Kate’s disappearance, they still do care for one another, even in their strange manners. With only a couple of episodes left in Batwoman season two, as they have fewer incidents this year due to the global pandemic, Kate’s Circe phase will probably be solved likely before or during the season finale. Nevertheless, it was still unexpected that Black Mask would go to such extremes to avenge his fallen girl. Though the larger puzzle that Batwoman season 2 has to answer is who did actually kill Black Mask’s daughter when it was not Kate Kane.
