Last night’s penultimate episode of Batwoman season 1 revealed the name of the big bad of season 2. The installment, which featured the debut of Hush in all his finery, saw various characters trying to get their hands on Lucius Fox’s journal which held the secrets to penetrating Batwoman’s impregnable armor. One of these was Julia Pennyworth, who it turns out had fallen under the thumb of mysterious crime boss, Safiyah Sohail. It wasn’t a name Kate Kane had heard before, but she’s no doubt going to become very familiar with it next year.
While speaking to ComicBook.com, showrunner Caroline Dries confirmed that Safiyah will be the major villain of season 2. It was always her intention to bring the comic book character – who she describes as a “lesbian pirate” – to the screen, but decided to hold her off until the show’s sophomore run in order to do her justice.
“We know viewers are like, ‘This show is only missing one thing, and it’s lesbian pirates,'” Dries said with a laugh. “I love the Safiyah storyline in the comics, and we knew we wanted to bring her in at some point. But we didn’t want to waste her or blow out her character in Season 1 when there are all these other hijinks happening. So we’re really kind of teeing her up to be our baddie in Season 2.”
Safiyah is a relatively recent addition to the DC universe, having debuted in Batwoman: Rebirth #1 in 2017. The ruler of pirate nation Coranya, Kate and Safiyah were lovers before the heroine discovered her true darker nature. They then became enemies when Safiyah travelled to Gotham to wreak havoc as the leader of terrorist organization the Many Hands of Death. It’s unclear whether their past romantic history will be retained for the Arrowverse though, as Kate didn’t seem to have heard of her before Julia’s namedrop.
The addition of Hush suggested things might move into Batman’s rogues gallery for season 2, but the promise that Safiyah will be the next big bad tells us that the focus will still be on Kate’s own rogues gallery from the comics going forward.
Don’t miss Batwoman‘s season finale, 1×20 “O, Mouse,” this Sunday on The CW.