Batwoman Reveals First Look at Black Mask in “Rule #1” Preview

The CW has released a new preview for “Rule #1”, the ninth episode of Batwoman‘s second season. The episode is expected to feature a major turning point for Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie), which is especially interesting after the tumultuous events of this week’s “Survived Much Worse.” Now that Ryan appears to have a cure for her Kryptonite injury — thanks to a Desert Rose flower that grew out of her trusty plant — she will be turning her attention to Gotham’s “biggest foe,” Black Mask. It was confirmed last year that the villain would serve as one of the major villains of Season 2 — and while we haven’t seen him in person yet, we have seen the effects of his False Face Society spreading drugs throughout Gotham City.

“We have a couple big bads this season,” showrunner Caroline Dries previously revealed. “One, [who] we teed up midway through last season, is this woman Safiyah, and she’s sort of Alice’s Achilles’ Heel. And ultimately yes with the False Face Society, we will see the leader of this gang as Black Mask later on in the season.”

The episode is also expected to answer some questions with regards to Kate Kane, who (as was revealed shortly after this week’s episode) will be recast to be played by Wallis Day in Season 2. Now that we know that Kate is definitively alive — albeit, clearly changed in some physical ways — that storyline is sure to be propelled even further.

“Once we sat down and huddled for season 2 and decided, “Look, we are not killing Kate Kane. That’s not the way we want that character to go out,’” Dries recently explained to Entertainment Weekly. “We looked back at what our options were, and to me, this seemed like the most organic option to tell in this space we had for our season 2 launch.”

“Ultimately, we [thought], “What’s the midpoint of our season? It’s probably about episode 8 or 9. Let’s make this reveal here.” And the way we revealed it was very specific which is we have the Bat Team and all of Kate’s loved ones looking for her for the first half of the season, and they definitively learn that she’s dead so that they can now close the book on Kate and grieve, but the audience is let in on this huge secret that she’s alive, and that then propels these two parallel stories moving on to the second half of our season which [are]: the Bat Team coalescing without Kate, and Kate going through her mysterious journey as will unfold as the season goes on.”

You can check out the synopsis for “Rule #1” below!

“THE CHOICES WE MAKE – Batwoman (Javicia Leslie) confronts Gotham’s biggest foe, while new information forces those closest to Kate to make some difficult decisions. Ryan’s feelings for Angelique (guest star Bevin Bru) puts her partnership with Luke (Camrus Johnson) and Mary (Nicole Kang) at risk, while Alice (Rachel Skarsten) goes on a warped walk down memory lane. Also starring Dougray Scott and Meagan Tandy. Michael Blundell directed the episode written by Nancy Kiu and Maya Houston.”

Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW. “Rule #1” will air on March 28th.