Batwoman Trailer Declares True Love Is Worth Saving
by Erik Amaya
If you happened to see the debut screening of Batwoman at Comic-Con, the clips from this CW teaser for the new series will look quite familiar. The teaser itself declares “true love is worth saving,” but based on the first episode, we’re not convinced the relationship between Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) and Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy) is really true love. Sure, Sophie’s disappearance gets Kate to come back to Gotham City after a several-year absence. It also sets off a series of events which turn her into Batwoman. And yet, we’re not convinced this is a love that will echo though the ages. Take a look and judge for yourself.
Admittedly, we were big fans of Kate and Maggie Sawyer’s relationship in the Batwoman comic by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman — and that might be coloring our view here. We also really liked Kate’s trashfire relationship with Renee Montoya in their shared 52 backstory. But there’s another reason we’re suspicious of framing Kate and Sophie as a one-true-pairing: the Arrowverse always botches its initial romance plot. From Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) to James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) to the Hawks of Legends of Tomorrow, that initial love story either lacks chemistry or ends up poorly written. Even the one successful relationship presented in a pilot — Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) — began in a baffling and somewhat sinister way. Remember how long he, her father, and all their friends lied to her about Barry’s identity? And that’s even before we talk about them growing up in the same house or Barry’s creepy stalking when she was dating Eddie.
And having watched the Batwoman pilot, we can say there’s shades of The Flash‘s creepiness and plot-demanding relationship buried in the plot. It is mingled with an interesting backstory — Kate came out when their relationship was exposed during boot camp, but Sophie chose to stay closeted — but we totally expect this to founder like all Season 1 Arrowverse relationships. Maybe they’ll convince Floriana Lima to come back as Maggie Sawyer for Season 2. Now that would be a love worth saving.
Batwoman debuts October 6th on The CW.
