Show Don’t Tell me how you feel: A Wildmoore Analysis
so there’s something i’ve been thinking about in terms of the portrayal of Ryan and Sophie’s relationship and how balanced/complete the development of their dynamic feels. in no way did it feel rushed or like it came out of nowhere, nor did it feel like it was shoved in our faces or stuffed down our throats. with some genius writing and savvy character arcs, Batwoman managed to find the perfect sweet spot in including Wildmoore into the show, and not just as an extra piece they tagged on to give Ryan a love interest (because in no way at all is Sophie Moore just a love interest), but their dynamic is literally EMBEDDED into the fabric of the story.
their whole relationship and its evolution is the driving force for the majority of the decisions they make, it’s the underlying conflict behind the visual action on screen, and most genius of all, while it’s shown from Ryan’s perspective, it’s mainly told from Sophie’s perspective.
Ryan’s the main character yet she’s almost a passive participant in her own romance. multiple times throughout this season i found myself thinking, what’s going on in Ryan’s head? but not Sophie. it was Sophie’s POV where we got the “I have feelings” conversation with her sister while she gazed lovingly at Ryan. it was Sophie who insisted on posing as Ryan’s girlfriend when meeting her mother. it was Sophie who said “great first date, huh?” at the end of said first date. practically every move to advance their relationship into romantic territory came from Sophie, and that’s because the Wildmoore plot line didn’t belong to Ryan—this plot line was mainly Sophie’s.
Sophie’s entire season 3 arc is the evolution of her relationship with Ryan/her struggle to gain Ryan’s trust and to be let in. despite this, Wildmoore never once felt one-sided and that’s thanks to Show Don’t Tell, a writing technique that the Batwoman writers used fabulously. let’s be real, Ryan has had a shit ton of conflicts to deal with this season. her story is already jam packed with CEO stuff, best friend issues, mama drama, a Joker brother, and psycho villains running rampant all over Gotham.
the last thing the writers needed was to try and squeeze in a conversation between Ryan and Luke about her feelings for Sophie, so instead of telling us, the writers used visual storytelling to show us the development of Ryan’s feelings; from inviting Sophie as her plus one to meet her mother, to openly flirting with Sophie, to being petty after Sophie slept with someone that wasn’t her, we got to subtly see the progression of Ryan’s interest in Sophie, while simultaneously hearing about Sophie’s frustration regarding it all.
and to tie it all together, their character arcs finally meet!
Ryan’s resolution with her mother turns out to be the actual catalyst in resolving Sophie’s character arc.
they were connected all along, and let me tell you, the storytelling nerd in me is just gushing at this development. the resolution to a story should be unpredictable yet inevitable, and that’s exactly what happens here.
we always knew, to some extent, that Ryan and Sophie would be together, and we always knew that Ryan would find peace in her relationship with her mother, but in no way did i expect for those two storylines to connect, and to connect so brilliantly at that.
in her pursuit to gain Ryan’s trust, Sophie was front and center in supporting Ryan through meeting her mother and all the emotional turmoil that came with it, and as a result, Ryan got to learn about a (literal) missing part of herself which was just what she needed to let Sophie in.
i sure love when things come full circle.
