SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "What Happened to Kate Kane?", the Batwoman Season 2 premiere.
Meet the new Batwoman, who is nothing like the old Batwoman. In the Season 2 premiere, Ryan Wilder took her first steps as Gotham City's Scarlet Knight after she discovered the Batsuit in the wreckage of the plane crash. As it turns out, though, she is more connected to Batwoman than she ever could have realized, as "What Happened to Kate Kane?" revealed Ryan's history with both Alice and the Crows.
When Ryan took Batwoman's suit out of Gotham Harbor, she did so with a mission in mind. This become clear as she sat down with Susan Stevens, her probation officer, who was more interested in whether or not Ryan got a job or housing than hearing about her startling discovery. "You make it sound like these are all my choices," Ryan pointed out.
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"These are your choices, Ryan," Susan insisted. "You have the power to turn this around!"
Ryan leaned forward. "You want to know why I haven't paid my fines? Because I can't find a job, because I don't have a home, because no landlord wants to rent to an ex-con in post-release," she shot back. "You see how this works? No one cares that the dope wasn't mine, or that the Crows were dirty, or that I'm actually a decent human! I am a file in your cabinet. That is not having power; that is the very definition of powerless."
Ryan's conversation with her parole office spurred her to put on the suit for the first time, so that she could finally feel powerful. Immediately, she sought out the False Face Society -- Black Mask's gang -- in order to track down some information. After a few missteps with the Batsuit, resulting in a Batarang lodged in one henchman's leg, she demanded, "Look, I'm looking for someone. Figured the False Face Society knows things. So, who's going to point me in the right direction?"
Unfortunately, Ryan didn't find the information she was looking for, so she retreated to the sewers for a moment of respite. This is where Luke Fox and Mary Hamilton-Kane found her, as she had accidentally switched on the suit's GPS. Although they expected Kate, they found Ryan instead. Hurt and angry, Mary wanted to know who Ryan was and why she thought she could pretend to be Batwoman.
"Trust me, I know I'm not a symbol or a name or a legacy," Ryan admitted.
"Exactly! So why do you think you're worthy of wearing [the suit]?" Mary demanded.
"Because I'm a number," Ryan returned, anger rising in her voice. "I am the 327th baby of a Black woman who died during childbirth that year. I'm a $20 a day check to a group home. I'm inmate 4075, serving 18 months for a crime I didn't commit. But I can live with all those numbers, because the mama who adopted me, I was her #1. But it turns out she's just one of a quarter million murders in this country who have not seen justice, and that is a number I can't live with. So you can have this damn suit back when her killer is dead."
With that, Ryan used her grappling hook to make a hasty exit, leaving Luke and Mary standing defeated in the sewer. They returned to Wayne Tower, where they did a little digging on Ryan's background, which led them to discover her mother was killed by Alice and the Wonderland Gang.
"Her mom died in childbirth, father died before she was born," Mary read off a report. "In and out of group homes, teen runaway, high school dropout. Arrested for possession and intent, insisted the drugs weren't hers and served 18 months. At her sentencing, the judge said that Ryan had been on the right track thanks to the woman who adopted her. Ryan graduated high school, she found a job. Everything fell apart after -- oh my god."
"Apparently, when Ryan and her adoptive mom walked into their new apartment, they startled a bunch of squatters," she continued. "A fight broke out. The building's landlord and Ryan's mom were killed. The squatters were linked to the Alice in Wonderland gang. That's why she wants the suit: to go after Alice, because Alice's gang killed her mom."
While Mary looked up information on Ryan, Ryan conducted a little research of her own. She read Kate's biography off a news clipping, which led her to feel inadequate and insecure about wearing the suit. She believed Kate to be more of a hero than she could ever be, so she switched the suit's GPS back on in the hopes Luke and Mary would come get it.
Instead, someone far worse came for it. Tommy Elliot, disguised as Bruce Wayne, used the Batcave to track down the suit's location so he could take it back and become Batman. He used the Batmobile to zero in on Ryan and a car chase ensued. Fortunately, Luke was able to hack the Batmobile and stop it in its tracks, which led to a physical confrontation between Elliot and Ryan. He shot her in the shoulder with a Kryptonite bullet in order to kill her, but merely wounded her instead. She eventually overpowered him and knocked him out.
That confrontation made up Ryan's mind. Once the fight was over, she returned the Batsuit to Wayne Tower. "That suit, it's bigger than me. It's one thing to put it on and it's another thing to wear it," she told Mary, who couldn't help but look disappointed. "Like you said, Kate was a hero. I'm not."
Having washed her hands of the whole Batwoman situation, Ryan returned to her van. "I did the right thing today, Mama," she promised, speaking to her potted plant in place of her late mother. "I will try to do the right thing tomorrow and the next day and, sooner or later, I promise I'll be your #1 girl again."
However, she suddenly stopped speaking due to a pain in her shoulder. She peeled the bandage back, revealing an infected wound with jagged, dark green lines: Kryptonite poisoning. This proves the show isn't quite done with her yet, as this injury will surely send her looking for help of a super variety. Plus, Ryan's nemesis Alice is still on the loose, with plans to bring a war to Gotham, which means the city will need its protector more than ever -- whether Ryan likes it or not.
Airing Sundays at 8 pm ET/PT on The CW, Batwoman stars Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, Rachel Skarsten as Alice, Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore, Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox, Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane and Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton-Kane.