Batwoman Just Established a Major Connection to Batgirl
The third season of Batwoman has almost come to a close, with the penultimate episode making its debut on The CW on Wednesday night. The newest batch of episodes have been chock-full of surprising Easter eggs to the larger DC Comics universe, as well as introductions of new takes on iconic heroes and villains. As the fight against Marquis Jet / The Joker (Nick Creegan) began to come to a head, the show happened to weave in a surprising reference to one of the Bat Family's other heroines. Spoilers for Episode 12 of Batwoman, "We're All Mad Here", below! Only look if you want to know!
The episode saw Ryan Wilder / Batwoman (Javicia Leslie) and the Bat Team working together to figure out Marquis' next move, as Jada Jet (Robin Givens) began to help them. After getting a copy of Marquis' schedule, they realized that he had a meeting on the books with Barbara Kean — the woman Ryan and Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy) recognized as the former wife of Commissioner Jim Gordon. They also acknowledged that the pair had a son, who had gotten in trouble in the past for doing malicious things. Later on in the episode, we learned that Barbara was one of the other members of the Black Glove Society, a secret organization of rich Gothamites that hoped to cover up the crimes of their children. Marquis kidnapped the members of Black Glove — including Jada and Barbara — and began to torture them, before being apprehended by Batwoman.
The way that Barbara Kean and her family factored into the episode is undeniably surprising, especially as they all have ties to the original Batgirl, Barbara Gordon. In the comics, Barbara Gordon is the daughter of Jim and Barbara, and deals with her brother, James Jr., being a sociopathic serial killer. While the younger Barbara isn't mentioned in this episode, this serves as the most concrete allusion to her that the Arrowverse has had yet, outside of Arrow acknowledging that the name Oracle was "taken" when Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) was trying to come up with a code name.
This reference to the Gordon-Kean family comes as Barbara is about to get her own solo story in an upcoming Batgirl movie, which is poised to make its debut on HBO Max.
What do you think of Batwoman referencing Batgirl's family? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!