Plot
Faced with the knowledge that Sophie is certain she is Batwoman and is certain to tell her father, Kate must decide how much she trusts her first love. Meanwhile, Alfred's daughter Julia Pennyworth - now a super-spy for a secret agency - returns to Gotham in search of a mysterious assassin with a connection to Alice and the Wonderland gang.
Influences
Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.
Performances
Ruby Rose gets a powerful moment confronting the bigoted restaurant owner on his own territory.
Christina Wolfe is an immediately charming presence as Julia Pennyworth - one I hope we see more often in the future.
Artistry
The opening sequence with Batwoman stopping The Rifle from killing a man at Alessandro's is wonderfully composed and balanced against the music.
Bat Trivia
Julia Pennyworth first appeared in Detective Comics #501, though at that time she used the name
Julia Remarque. Julia was the product of a brief romance between Alfred Pennyworth and Mademoiselle Marie - a French resistance fighter and one of DC Comics' war comic heroines, who appeared in various titles over the years. Julia was raised by a friend of her mother's, Jaques Remarque, who finally told Julia the truth about her mother and how her final words were the name of Alfred Pennyworth. Julia went after Alfred thinking he was her mother's murderer. Thankfully, Batman was able to learn the truth and father and daughter were happily reunited. Julia would go on to become a permanent guest at Wayne Manor through the end of the pre-Crisis Bronze Age of comics.
Julia Pennyworth was revamped for the New 52 era of comics in the pages of Batman: Eternal. This Julia Pennyworth was of mixed racial heritage, having darker skin than her father and an unspecified mother. A member of the British Army's Special Recognizance Regiment, Julia was a master spy who briefly worked for Team Batman as mission control, using the codename Penny-Two. She would later go on to team up with Batwoman in the pages of her Rebirth solo title and harbored a clear attraction to Kate Kane.
The Arrowverse version of Julia Pennyworth splits the difference between both versions. Like the modern version, Julia is a master spy with an organization she refers to only as "The Agency." She is, however, a Caucasian woman with blonde hair. (The first Julia Pennyworth was a Caucasian brunette.) She also has a prior romantic relationship with Kate Kane, having posed as a martial arts instructor to check up on her, as she traveled the world, at Bruce Wayne's request. The romance ended with an old enemy tried to kill Julia and called her by her real name before Julia could tell Kate the truth about who she was and why she'd sought her out.
There is a dinosaur toy that Kate keeps in the Batcave which Julia Pennyworth recognizes. This may be a nod to the giant dinosaur which is routinely seen in the background of the Batcave in the comics.
The trope of the superhero and their alter ego appearing in the same place is evoked here, with Julia Pennyworth impersonating Batwoman to make Sophie doubt her belief that Kate Kane is Batwoman. While this was done repeatedly throughout the Silver Age of comics, the most famous example of it in the modern day is probably Alfred the Butler donning the Bat-Suit to impersonate Batman at events where he had to appear with Bruce Wayne in the 1966 Batman show starring Adam West.
Mention is made of a Grant Street at one point. This could be a nod to either Alan Grant or Grant Morrison - two prominent Batman writers.
At one point The Rifle makes mention of a woman named Safiyah who will be angry about being double crossed and whose name sparks a rage in Alice. This may be a reference to Safiyah Sohail - a pirate queen turned terrorist from the Batwoman Rebirth comics who was one Kate Kane's lover and who once abducted Beth Kane in an effort to reawaken her Alice persona.
Technobabble
A microspectrometer can track the unique electromagnetic radiation signature of the rail gun that can penetrate the Bat-Suit. The Crows have been loaned such a microspecrometer by ARGUS.
Dialogue Triumphs
Kate: So you lied and pretended that you had a thing for me.
Julia: Love, the only thing I lied about was why I was there.
Sophie: Was that necessary?!
Kate: Standing up for myself? Yeah. That's what it looks like when it comes out naturally.
Sophie: Don't even go there, Kate.
Kate: I have no intention of going there. There is some sad and lonely closet that I want nothing to do with.
(Kate is opening the entrance to the Batcave. Luke and Julia are about to follow after, when suddenly they hear a voice behind them. It is Mary.)
Mary: Oh, my God. You have a safe room?!
Kate: (awkwardly) Um, Mary.
Luke: How did you get past security?!
Mary: Carl at the front desk loves double-whipped frappuccinos.
Kate: Good. He'll be making them soon.
Julia: (To Kate) You know, apart from my father and Lucius of course, Bruce Wayne never trusted a soul. Now I'm not judging his choices. I wasn't in his shoes, but When you don't trust anyone, it means that you can disappear for 4 years without a single person on the planet having any idea where you are. Now, call me sentimental, but I don't think that's a good thing.
Kate: (voice-over) Batman was praised and revered, but Bruce Wayne not so much. No one knew the man beneath the cowl. You didn't let them in, Bruce, for good reason. Because even the people we love are still people at the end of the day...They act out of fear, pride, hope, pain, and sometimes, they let us down. But you know better than I do that no one can be a lone wolf forever.
Dialogue Disasters
Sophie: She did more for this school than anyone who's ever gone here, so you can scrub her name from every plaque and banner and roster, but you will never erase her or the effect she's had on the people here.
Continuity
Batwoman stops an assassination attempt by a gunman called The Rifle.
Sophie confronts Batwoman as she is leaving the crime scene. Again, Batwoman denies being Kate, but she says she will find Sophie later.
Sophie outright tells Batwoman that if she doesn't tell Jacob who she is, that she will.
Julia Pennyworth's Codename is Tuxedo-One.
According to Vesper Fairchild, The Rifle has already killed two people in Gotham City earlier that week.
Jacob Kane has filed for divorce from Catherine Hamilton.
Luke determines that both of the previous victims of The Rifle worked for Catherine Hamilton. One of the people at Alessandro's the night before, Derek Holcomb, also worked for Pyra Electrics - the company that makes all of Hamilton Dynamics' conductors.
Jacob Kane is apparently traveling upstate.
Tyler shows Sophie the video footage the Crows caught of Sophie talking to Batwoman. She lies to him about knowing who Batwoman is.
A coil accelerator at Hamilton Dynamics went missing, despite being under a Level 5 Security Protocol.
Dean Devereaux, whom Mouse impersonated in 106, has been found dead.
Batwoman goes to confront Derek Holcomb. She manages to save him from The Rifle, but is blocked by Julia Pennyworth, who was tracking The Rifle to capture him.
Julia Pennyworth recognizes Batwoman as Kate Kane after she uses a hammer strike that she taught her.
Mouse kills Derek Holcomb
It is revealed that Alice hired The Rifle to kill three scientists at Hamilton Dynamics, whose deaths would insure that no one could replicate the rail gun that can penetrate the Bat-Suit.
Alice has a bargain with The Rifle's employer to hand over the gun in exchange for an unspecified price.
Julia Pennyworth has been tracking The Rifle for 8 months on behalf of her agency.
Julia and Luke know each other.
When Julia and Kate first met, Kate had just left on her journey of self-discovery. Bruce asked Julia to check up on Kate and Julia did so posing as a Krav Maga teacher. The two honestly fell for each other, but Julia's cover was blown by an old enemy before she could tell Kate the truth. Kate has been holding a grudge ever since.
In the past, Kate tried to convince Sophie to refuse to lie about their relationship, saying that there was no way they'd expel the top two cadets a week before graduation.
Sophie broke Sean Azadi's obstacle course record by one second.
Kate broke the record for sharp-shooting. She was reportedly hungover when she did it.
Sophie ultimately betrayed Kate, despite saying she'd stand by her, fearful of her homophobic parents' reaction and her ability to move on afterward.
Kate asks to meet Sophie at Alessandro's.
Alessandro had the bullet from the assassination attempt at his restaurant framed.
Alessandro tries to kick Kate and Sophie out of the restaurant after he sees them holding hands. Kate makes a scene about it, much to Sophie's embarrassment.
Sophie tells Kate that she had planned to stand with her, until she talked with Jacob Kane. He convinced her to save herself, because he knew there was no way he could talk Kate out of standing up and honoring her oath to tell the truth.
Sophie finally tells Tyler about her relationship with Kate Kane and how she broke it off to avoid getting expelled.
Kate and Sophie were secretly involved for three years. This is longer than any relationship Tyler had apart from Sophie.
Sophie doesn't answer Tyler when he asks if she still has a thing for Kate.
Mary now knows about the Bat-cave entrance in Bruce Wayne's office, but she thinks it leads to a safe room.
Kate lies and says Julia is her new assistant. Mary asks why she has two assistants for a real estate company with no real estate.
Catherine Hamilton approaches Jacob Kane about her belief that The Rifle is targeting her employees that are responsible for designing an anti-Batwoman gun.
A microspectrometer can track the unique electromagnetic radiation signature of the rail gun that can penetrate the Bat-Suit. The Crows have been loaned such a microspecrometer by ARGUS.
Sophie tells Jacob Kane that Batwoman is Kate Kane.
The Rifle delivers what Alice wanted in exchange for the rail gun. It is contained in a small box.
When Kate was expelled, Sophie recovered her Sharpshooting record medal before it was thrown out.
Jacob does not tell Catherine Hamilton about Kate being Batwoman, even after she askes why Sophie wanted to meet with her.
Julia poses as Batwoman so that she and Kate Kane can appear in the same place at the same time in front of Sophie.
The Rifle shoots "Batwoman" but she survives the shot, thanks to Alice having sabotaged the gun.
Luke tracks the vehicle holding Julia to 5th and Grant in the Bowery.
The Rifle was hired to retrieve the rail gun for a woman named Safiyah, whose name Alice doesn't want to hear.
Kate and Julia make peace with their past.
Luke gets the police report on Derek Holcomb's murder. He was stabbed with a butterfly knife - Alice's preferred weapon.
Julia has to hit the road and track down the Rifle in Santorini, but she says she'll come back to Gotham to socialize someday.
Kate decides to call her new real estate company Gotham Pride Real Estate. Her first acquisition is an abandoned building across the street from Alessandro's, which she is thinking of turning into a gay bar.
Kate and Sophie agree to keep their distance from one another from now on.
Sophie gives Kate her sharpshooting medal.
Sophie tells Tyler that anything she felt for Kate went away the day she chose her future over Kate.
Kate invites Mary to help her with getting her first acquisition fixed up and promoted.
It is revealed that Jacob Kane is still upstate and that the "Jacob Kane" to whom Sophie revealed Batwoman's secret identity was Mouse in disguise.
The Bottom Line
A fantastic episode all around, even with the heavy emphasis on Sophie, who has somehow become the most annoying, least sympathetic love interest in Arrowverse history and I say that as someone who cheered when Laurel Lance was killed off in Arrow Season 4. Julia Pennyworth is a fantastic introduction to the guest cast and the Alice scenes are slowly building to something big. Save me a seat at the Mad Tea Party. This show is getting better with every passing episode.
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