Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 8 - A Mad Tea-Party

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

Alice and Mouse push forward with their plan for a "Mad Tea Party." The aftermath will change things forever between Alice and Kate, as well as Kate ant the rest of her family. Meanwhile, Tyler and Sophie have a deep talk about Sophie's relationship with Kate.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.


Goofs

Tyler's suddenly bringing up wanting kids and dogs at the end just comes out of nowhere and kills the momentum of the episode. See Dialogue Disasters for More.


Performances

Again, Rachel Skarsten steals the show as Alice.


Artistry

The fight scene of Batwoman fighting the Wonderland Gang members posing as Crows in the theater lobby is one of the best this show as seen.


Bat Trivia

Luke notes that Kate broke her staff and she says it would be a lot better if it came apart so she could use it as escrima sticks instead of just a bo staff. In the comics, this is Kate's preferred weapon. It's also a favorite of Dick Grayson.

Alice reveals that the antidote she developed to the poison that she gave to Catherine Hamilton-Kane was taken from a desert rose that only blooms on the island of Coryana. In the DC Comics universe, Coryana is a fictional pirate nation ruled by Safiyah Sohail - a former lover of Kate Kane's from her days traveling the Earth.

The plot-point of an antidote coming from a rare rose was used before in Pretty Poison - the episode of Batman: The Animated Series which introduced Poison Ivy and saw Pamela Isley trying to kill Harvey Dent for building a new prison on the last habitat for the Wild Thorny Rose, which she was barely able to save one plant of before it went extinct.

This episode ended with a scene involving Nash Wells from The Flash, setting up Crisis on Infinite Earths. This scene is described in detail in the entry for F608.


Technobabble

Luke is able to use the cell-phone Kate took from one of the Wonderland Gang members and track its former GPS coordinates to Alice's current hideout - a warehouse in the Bowery.

Project 4782 is a neurotoxin developed by Hamilton Dynamics to kill without mercy. The poison causes dizzy spells,  nosebleeds, muscle paralysis and respiratory failure before completely liquidating a person's internal organs.


Dialogue Triumphs

Kate: (voice-over) They say the choices we make define us, but despite all the darkness, despite all those who doubt, and despite my own fear that I've lost my sister forever, I choose to hope that Beth is still there. Don't tell anyone, Bruce, but I think this makes me an optimist.

(Kate is in the middle of cleaning her new property. Mary suddenly strides into the room, carrying several garment bags.)
Mary: So the way I see it you can either spend your Friday night in here inhaling asbestos, or you could join me in wearing this season's sexiest haute couture, hmm? Seriously, Gigi and Bella could not even get their hands on this yet.
Kate: You want me to go to that thing tonight?
Mary: That thing is the Gotham Humanitarian Gala, i. e. the most important event of the season.
Kate: Honoring your mom, who told my dad that Beth was dead. (mock-cheer) Asbestos it is!
Mary: I get that we are bordering on "too soon".
Kate: Hmm. Pretty sure we're right in the middle of it.
Mary: I know that this isn't important to you, but it's important to me, okay, so why can't it be important to you that it's important to me?
Kate: Because you think that if Gotham sees us as a family that we'll start to believe it, and that's just not how it works. Not after what Catherine did.
Mary: But you gave Alice a second chance and a third and a fourth. How can you just write off my mom as Satan but you don't seem to have any problem holding out hope for the actual most evil person in Gotham?
Kate: Because she's my family.
(There is a too long pause.)
Mary: And I'm not? Got it. I guess I am the crazy one, you know, for thinking that you and I could still be sisters.

Jacob: What do you want me to say? I'm sorry? There is no word to describe what it feels like to know that I left you behind.
Alice: Then find the words to explain why you never tested the skull fragments Catherine found.
Jacob: I had no reason to think that she was lying.
Alice: But your daughter was missing, and this was just a handful of bones found by some woman you'd known for less than a year.
Jacob: Maybe believing that you were dead was easier than waking up every morning with hope or going to sleep every night with a broken heart. Of course, I should have looked longer. I should have hoped harder, I should have I should have had the DNA tested myself. I wish I wish I could have been your father for the past 15 years, but I failed. I failed you.
Alice: Thank you for saying that. And thank you for making me who I am today.

(Alice has offered an antidote in exchange for an apology, only to refuse it when Catherine choked out that she was sorry, saying she didn't feel that was sincere.)
Mary: She said she was sorry!
Alice: You think I enjoy watching a daughter lose her mother?! (intensely) I was just inches from my own mother's severed head floating down the Gotham River after our car plummeted off the bridge.
Mary: (to the fading Catherine) Oh, please. Please just try. I can't lose you. Please just try.
Catherine: (gasping out the words) I'm a mother. Alice When I saw Kate grieving... I saw my own daughter... I just wanted to take away her pain... but in trying to take away Kate's pain, I gave you a lifetime of it. It's all my fault, Alice... All the lost years, all the agony you endured, it's all my fault. It's all....I'm truly sorry.
Alice: (sweetly) Thank you, Catherine. I do believe you've earned a draught of this tea.
(Alice holds out the antidote as Mary gasps in relief, her hand going to her mouth.  And then she feels something wet on her finger tips, pulling away her hand to reveal the blood dripping from her nose.)
Alice: (still sweet) Oh, dear. Not you, too?
Mary: What?! Uhh. No. What did you do? How did you...?
Alice: (mock innocence) Tell me you didn't both drink the champagne! Oh, that's such a shame, seeing as there's only enough antidote for one.

(Batwoman arrives behind Alice, who is walking away from where she left Catherine and Mary.)
Alice: You're too late.
Batwoman: Where is my dad?
Alice: Our dad. You'll find out soon enough.
Batwoman: Whatever you did, you can undo it.
Alice: But I don't want to undo it. I was locked in a cell for 11 years. What do you think put me to sleep at night, rainbows, unicorns? I dreamt of revenge.
Batwoman: What did you do? What did you do?!
Alice: "It was all very well to say, 'Drink me', but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry". (seeing that Kate doesn't get it.) Oh, come on. It's not like Catherine didn't have it coming.
Batwoman:  You poisoned Catherine?
Alice:  (suddenly furious) Catherine poisoned Catherine! When she slithered into our family and brainwashed our father and replaced us with that vapid human run-on sentence of a daughter! (hissing) Catherine brought this on herself, and I was more than happy to watch Daddy go down with her.

(Kate finds Mary in her clinic.)
Kate: Mary?
Mary: Do you know how many horrible people that I've saved?
(Kate shakes her head.)
Mary: Druggies thugs with face tattoos. Pulled a windshield out of a guy... who stole the car that he totaled. Walked out of my clinic the next day like nothing had happened, but I... I couldn't save her.
Kate: I am so sorry, Mary.
Mary: (sobbing) You know how she died? Exactly the way that Alice planned it. Slowly And in pain. And the only way for her to save herself was for me to die. (voice growing stronger, more angry) And she sure as hell wasn't about to let that happen. Because she is not the horrible person that you and Alice claim that she is. You...You are literally the last person who can bring me comfort right now. I'm gonna ask you again, Kate. Is Alice worth it?
Kate: (softly) No.
Mary: Finally! (sighs) Too bad it's too late.
(Without another word, Mary walks past Kate.)

Kate: (voice over) We all make choices, Bruce. I chose hope. And I chose to believe Beth was still alive. I chose to save my sister from the monster she's become. But by making that choice I lost my entire family for the second time. And now the only thing I'm left with is the awful truth that Alice was right. Beth is gone.


Dialogue Disasters

Most of the Tyler and Sophie scenes. Ignoring that Sophie is the least sympathetic character on the show, these scenes also distract away from the much more important (and interesting) storyline of Alice getting her revenge.  But the peak of this has to be the final scene and this exchange.

Sophie: This is insane. How can they think he actually did this?
Tyler: People believe what they're told. It's human nature.
Sophie: Then people are idiots. (looking at her phone) I should call Mary.
Tyler:  I want kids.
Sophie: (stunned) What?!
Tyler: And a dog. And family traditions that we bitch about but do anyways.
Sophie: Okay.
Tyler: I don't want to move past this today and then have it come up again in two years and realize that I'm wasting my life fighting for something I can't actually have.
Sophie: I don't want that either.
Tyler: Do you love me?
Sophie: Yes.
Tyler: Are you in love with me? Because if you love me, you'll be real with me right now.
Sophie: (hesitantly) I don't know.
Tyler: Let's not make this any harder than it is. I think you need to figure yourself out, and when you do and if you see the same future I do, maybe I'll still be here. Maybe I won't.


Continuity

Batwoman beats up one of the Wonderland Gang members, taking his jacket and leaving him for the police. The jacket contains a cell-phone, which Kate hopes can be used to track down Alice's current hideout.

According to Luke, an Italian restaurant called Slice of Gotham makes the worst bread sticks in the city.

Alice makes reference to the events of 105 and Kate kidnapping her.

Alice gives Kate the piece of the rail gun that makes it capable of killing Batwoman.

Kate notices a picture of Beth and Kate on the day of their Bat Mitvahs. Alice tells her to keep it.

Jacob calls the Crows from outside of Gotham, telling them they'll discuss plans for an upcoming charity gala when he gets back, just before he is jumped by the Wonderland Gang.

The gala in question is revealed to be honoring Gotham City's Humanitarian of the Year, who is Catherine Hamilton-Kane.

Kate refuses to go to the gala because she wants nothing to do with Catherine.

Mouse is still impersonating Jacob at Crow's Security. Kate confronts him over his apparent reconciliation with Catherine.

Alice chains Jacob up in the basement dungeon of Dr. August Cartwright's house. He says he's sorry for failing her - a gesture she genuinely seems to appreciate, but which will not stop the "Mad Tea Party" in his honor.

Kate begins to suspect that someone is impersonating Jacob based on how forgiving he is of what Catherine did to him. According to Kate, her father is not big on forgiveness and grounded her for an entire summer when he found a joint in her backpack as a teenager.

Kate calls Jacob to apologize and asks him if he remembers the big snowstorm when he and Catherine were getting married and how she'd wished they'd get snowed-in so the wedding would be cancelled? Jacob says that he does. This confirms to Kate that "Jacob" is an impostor since he and Catherine were married in the summer on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year.

Tyler is still freaked out about that Sophie dated Kate for three years.

Kate texts Sophie about Mouse impersonating Jacob. The message arrives just before she and Tyler are knocked out by The Wonderland Gang.

Tyler and Sophie are tranquilized and left tied up in Jacob Kane's office.

Mary, Catherine and Mouse (still posing as Jacob) ride in a limo with complementary champagne to the gala.

Kate confronts Alice about where Jacob is. She tells her that she left him in the place that Jacob left her.

Kate goes to the Cartwight house but finds that Jacob is already gone.

While scanning the crowd at the gala, Luke recognizes one of the Crows as Scott Kaiser - a criminal and member of the Wonderland Gang. This reveals that Alice has replaced all the Crows personnel working the gala with her own people.

Jacob Kane's office has one-way windows and sound-proof walls, leaving Tyler and Sophie with no way to call for help or get attention from their co-workers elsewhere in the office.

When Tyler asks why they weren't just killed, Sophie guesses it's because her dying would upset Kate. She doesn't answer when Tyler demands to know if she still has feelings for Kate.

Alice takes control of the teleprompter for Catherine's acceptance speech, forcing her to talk about how she's secretly been selling weapons to Gotham's criminals for years and how her husband had been getting rich preying on people's fears of those criminals.

Catherine begins to suffer a nosebleed.  She and Mary are taking into a room by one of the fake Crows, where Alice meets with them.

Tyler saws through his ropes using the diamond on Sophie's engagement ring.

Alice reveals that she poisoned Catherine with a neurotoxin developed by Hamilton Dynamics. They never developed a cure, but Alice did - a universal cure-all based on a desert rose that only grows on the island of Coryana. A prick of the thorns can kill a person, but the flower can be made into a life-giving serum.

Unfortunately, after forcing Catherine to choke out an apology for faking the evidence that stopped the search for Beth Kane in exchange for the antidote, it is revealed that the neurotoxin was delivered through the champagne in their limo.

It is at that point that Mary's nose begins to bleed as well and Alice says she only had the one dose.

Catherine makes Mary take the antidote.

Batwoman tries to strangle Alice but can't bring herself to finish it. She is knocked off a balcony as Alice and Mouse escape.

In her dying moments, Catherine reveals that she knew about Mary's secret clinic and that she is proud of her. She also says that Mary is the only good thing she ever made in her life.

Jacob wakes up in an SUV near the theater. He calls Kate and she demands proof of who he is. He relates a story that confirms his identity.

Jacob bought Kate a bike for her 6th birthday. She wrecked it the same day because it was too big for her.

Shortly after Jacob wakes up, he is surrounded by the GCPD. They search him and find the vial holding the Project 4782 sample that killed Catherine. He is formally charged with Catherine's murder.

Mary tells Kate off for trying to save Alice instead of trying to be her sister.

Tyler tells Sophie she needs to figure out if she still has feelings for Kate or not before trying to build a life with him.

Kate speaks with Jacob in prison, who says when this is cleared up he is finally going to kill Alice.  Kate says this time she won't stop him. 

Location

Jacob is somewhere outside Gotham when he is jumped by Alice's gang.


Untelevised Adventures

Jacob spent several days outside of Gotham trying to track down Mouse.


The Bottom Line

A powerful episode which changes everything forever. The only sour note in it is the time devoted to the Sophie and Tyler subplot, in which Tyler is made cartoonishly awful in order to build sympathy for Sophie that she has not earned. There's a lot of that going around, as Rachel Skarsten's Alice is so human and so vulnerable in her insanity that she's still more sympathetic than Catherine. The heck of it is we don't even know if Alice was making up the crimes Catherine confessed to, given the horrible things we HAVE seen her do on the show so far. There's a lot of choosing between the lesser of two evils here and I think Alice may well be the least of all the evils. It's something to debate at least and a great cliff-hanger going into Crisis.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 7 - Tell Me The Truth

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




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.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 6 - I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

When a mysterious new vigilante begins targeting various lawmen in Gotham City, the public all upon Batwoman to get to the bottom of things. As Luke makes a surprising confession to Kate, Alice continues her vendetta against the Kane family, setting her sights on Catherine Hamilton.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.


Bat Trivia

There have been several DC Comics villains who have used the name of The Executioner. The first was a Batman villain - a man named Willy Hooker who executed wanted criminals to claim the bounties on their heads. It was eventually revealed that he was helping the criminals to escape from prison in order to set them up.

The Arrowverse version of the Executioner is a man named Bertrand Eldon, who served as the executioner at Blackgate Penitentiary for many years. He becomes a vigilante targeting crooked public officials after finding out that a corrupt judge, district attorney and police officer worked to send many innocent people to Death Row, indirectly putting innocent blood on his hands.

A news broadcast in this episode gives the name Jack Napier to The Joker. This is the name of the gangster, played by Jack Nicholson, who became The Joker in the Tim Burton Batman movie.

The current Police Commissioner of Gotham City is revealed to be a man named Forbes.  This may be a nod to Jack Forbes - a corrupt Internal Affairs officer in the Batman comics, who worked with Carmine Falcone and Mayor Hady in the comics to force Jim Gordon out of power and go after Batman.

At one point The Executioner barricades himself in a building on the 200 block of Rucka Avenue. This is a nod to Greg Rucka - one of Kate Kane's co-creators and the writer who wrote most of her early appearances.

Rucka Street is said to be in West Harlow. This is one of the districts in downtown Gotham City in the comics.

A reference is made to a former Mayor Cobblepot. This is almost certainly a nod to Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin, who tried to run for mayor of Gotham City in several Batman stoires in various media, including the movie Batman Returns.

Chris the Fist is arrested on Sprang Avenue. The name is a tribute to Dick Sprang - a classic Batman artist, who created the character of the original Executioner.


Technobabble

Dean Deveraux was the scientist at Hamilton Dynamics who was able to make the coil accelerator of the rail gun that could penetrate the Batsuit work. The most difficult part was finding a way to overcome the ferromagnetic projectile saturation.

Hydrogen cyanide is the lethal gas used in Gotham City's gas chambers.

The Bat-suit's carbon fiber ribbing is designed to absorb any impact, so any deformation in the fibers is recorded in the suit's data. Originally this was so the suit could track damage caused by bullets and blunt-force trauma to find better ways to repel such damage in the future. Luke uses the same technology to record a partial imprint of the license plate of The Executioner's car.

Hydrogen cyanide is a flammable gas. It burns at 6% saturation. This means that one can escape a room full of hydrogen cyanide gas by setting burning the hydrogen and the flames will then burn up the cyanide before it can be inhaled. 


Dialogue Triumphs

Kate: Any suspects?
Luke: Well, if you exclude the law-abiding citizens of Gotham, that leaves the other half.

Bertrand Elrond: (video) So if you found this, then you found me, and, um... And I did it. I am guilty as sin, but I'm not the only one. For 20 years, I threw the switch on the worst people Gotham ever spat out. I was glad to do it, too. Doing the public a service, and it never bothered me when they said they were innocent.
Batwoman: Great. Sadistic and long-winded.
Bertrand Elrond: (video) I mean, what else were they gonna say, right? See, then all their stories, they started to sound the same. The same names kept coming up. Same evidence. And everybody who sat in my chair started to look the same; black, brown, poor. In 20 years, I never juiced a rich white guy. So I started digging in their files. You know what I found? The same three corrupt law enforcement officials, pulling the strings in every case. Coerced confessions and murder weapons suddenly showing up out of nowhere. I mean, obviously planted...
Batwoman: Didn't Chris The Fist say that his confession was coerced and the murder weapon just suddenly turned up in his car?
Bertrand Elrond: (video) The people that I executed were innocent, which meant that that I was the guilty one, that that cabal, they turned me into a murderer, which they made me punish the innocent.
Batwoman: (thoughtful) So who's the third member of this cabal?
Luke: Wait. You're not actually buying this? OK. Believe me. I know racial profiling is a thing in Gotham, but this guy is obviously crazy, almost killed Sophie, nearly made you roadkill.
Batwoman: Doesn't make him wrong.
Luke: He's an admitted killer, Kate. I knew Stanton, OK? He spent hours with my family day after day, and he never, ever stopped working until he found justice. If Stanton is accused of being dirty, my dad's killer could use that go get a new trial.
Batwoman: But if Chris The Fist or anyone else can do go down for something that they didn't do, how is that justice?

Sophie: Believe it or not, I'm trying to protect her.
Mary: By having my dad shut down her entire operation?
Sophie: She's gonna get herself killed.
Mary: Batwoman can take care of herself just like she took care of you twice by my count, and now you're just gonna betray her? Uh I mean, what? Is that, like, your thing?
Sophie: What's that supposed to mean?
Mary: I mean, that's what you did to Kate, and then she had to put an entire ocean between you and her, and now you walk around, pretend like she meant nothing to you.
Sophie: You don't even know what happened.
Mary: No, but I saw what it did to her. (sighs)  Look. You're right. It's not my drama, so do what you want. In the meantime, Ibuprofen every 4-6 hours and change the bandage once a day. Don't tell my dad about this clinic And maybe think about whether or not you want to add Batwoman to the list of people you hurt.

The Executioner: You protect him, a man who sent so many innocents to their deaths?
Batwoman: The law will take care of it.
The Executioner: Yeah? I used to believe that, too, until the law turned me into a murderer.
Batwoman: The law's not perfect, I'll give you that. Doesn't mean you get to rewrite it in blood.


Continuity

The man who abducted Beth Kane is identified as Dr. August Cartwright. He is confirmed to have been a medical doctor.

The first victim of The Executioner is Angus Stanton - a district attorney in Gotham City, with a reputation for being tough on crime. He is famous for convicting various costumed criminals, including The Joker. He was electrocuted while trying to climb a chain-link fence.

Sophie requests another specific assignment from Jacob Kane: trying to hunt down Batwoman.

Alice creates a flesh-mask that allows Mouse to pose as Dean Deveraux - an employee at Hamilton Dynamix.

The Police Commissioner is a man named Forbes.

Lucius Fox died on the night Luke Fox's high-school graduation party. He was caught in the crossfire of an armed robbery, after going to a convenience store to get ice.

Luke was accepted to MIT, but never wound up attending due to the stress of his father's death.

Angus Stanton was the prosecutor who put away Lucius Fox's apparent killer.

Luke suggests The Executioner might be Chris Medlock, otherwise known as Chris The Fist; an ex-boxer,  and ex-con, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for second-degree after shooting a bartender. He confessed to the crime but later claimed it was coerced, but the murder weapon was found in his car.

Chris Medlock demands to speak to a Detective Donnelly at the hostage situation on Rucka Street.

Sophie identifies Batwoman as Kate Kane, just before being shot.

Batwoman takes Sophie to Mary's secret clinic to get her patched up.

Kate determines that the common link between the Executioner's murders is that he uses methods of execution prescribed by Gotham City law - electrocution, firing squad and gas chamber. This leads her and Luke to theorize that the next murder will involve a gas attack.

The Crows arrest Chris The Fist on Sprang Avenue. This means that he cannot be The Executioner, as he robbed the one warehouse in town holding Hydrogen cyanide pellets after Chris The Fist's arrest.

Using the imprint of a license plate embedded into the Bat-suit, Luke determines The Executioner must be Bertrand Eldon, who worked at Blackgate Penitentiary for 20 years as their executioner.

Sophie learns about the existence of Mary's secret clinic, but agrees to keep quiet about it.

Kate finds the canister for the stolen hydrogen cyanide pellets on the coffee table in Betrand Eldon's house. It turns out to be empty, except for a flash drive, where Kate finds Eldon's confession and explanation for why be became the Executioner - to see justice done to a corrupt cop, lawyer and judge who framed innocent minorities to look tough on crime.

Batwoman gives the flash drive to The Crows.

Mouse figures out that Kate is Batwoman on his own and confirms it after he calls Alice pretending to be Kate

Mouse kills the real Dean Deveraux.

Judge Calverick is identified as the third member of the cabal, but Jacob Kane doesn't believe it.

Jacob Kane blames Batman for making Gotham as crazy as it was and for failing to save his wife and Beth.

Luke is left wondering if the man arrested for his father's murder might be innocent.

Mouse is revealed to have stolen the rail gun from Hamilton Dyanmics. He gives it to Alice.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode with an interesting one-shot villain that gives some unexpected depth to Luke and puts an odd twist on one of the classic Batman supporting cast members.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 5 - Mine Is a Long and Sad Tale

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

Alice meets with Kate and takes her down the long and winding road of her life after the accident, revealing how Beth Kane became Alice. Meanwhile, after an argument with her mother in which she learns of Catherine Hamilton-Kane's actions, Mary goes off in search of Kate and a sympathetic ear. Unfortunately, all she can manage is Luke Fox.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.


Goofs

The green-screen effect when Kate and Alice are driving around is sub-par.


Performances

Again, Rachel Skarsten steals the show as Alice, narrating the horrific story of how Beth Kane became her wonderfully while still dancing on the knife's edge between sympathetic and scary as she confronts Kate.

Ava Sleeth's performance as the young Beth Kane is truly heartbreaking. You truly feel for her as everything goes wrong for her and she suffers torment after torment.


Artistry

The fight scene in which Batwoman takes down Alice and her gang is well-blocked and well-shot, with the editing seamlessly cutting between the black-and-white view of Batwoman's night-vision and the dark room where Alice and her gang are helplessly trying to fight back.


Bat Trivia

A news report in the flashback mentions how the search for Beth Kane was expanded into Bludhaven County. In the DC Comics Universe, Bludhaven is a town located upstream from Gotham City and is one of the few cities on Earth even more corrupt and hellish than Gotham City. It is where Nightwing moved to establish himself outside of Batman's shadow.


Technobabble

There are no night-vision goggles anywhere in the Batcave, because according to Luke "Batman doesn't do goggles." The helm of the Bat-suit, however, apparently has some kind of built-in night-vision mode.

When Catherine tries to explain to Mary how she faked the evidence of Beth Kane's murder, Mary misses the point and focuses on how the investigators could possibly have confused deer bones for human bones, since the density and genomes are quite different.


Dialogue Triumphs

Luke: They're calling him the Skin Pirate because apparently he likes to take skin from the booty.
Kate: Never say that again.
Luke: I didn't write the article.

(Alice wakes up, her arms chained above her head. She looks up, chuckles and then looks at Kate, who is in her Batwoman costume, with the mask off.)
Alice: Kinky. Even for you.

Alice: You're not asking the right questions, Kate. What is my evil plan? Who am I targeting next? How am I gonna do it? When you really need to be asking why? Why am I like this?
Kate: Okay. Why?
Alice: (cutely) Oh, you don't want to know that.
Kate: I have waited 15 years to hear it.
Alice: Well, it all began with an unfortunate event which I remember vividly, and if given the chance again, I would take it back in a heartbeat. It was a simple, effortless thing that I had done so many times before. I woke up.

Alice: The little boy just sat there with his hair in his eyes, playing with his trucks. For him, it was an ordinary day But for me, it was the first worst day of my life.

(Kate and Alice are sitting across from each other in a roadhouse diner. The waiter returns with Alice's burger and fries.)
Alice: Uh, two beers, please.
Kate: None for me.
Alice: You do not want to be sober for the remainder of this story. Trust me.
(Kate just smirks, as if to say "Try me.")
Alice: (clears her throat in a ladylike fashion before whispering to the waiter) Just the one beer.

(Alice finishes telling Kate about how she found a severed face in the sink of the basement. Kate just stares at her, aghast.)
Alice: And that was just the first day.
(The waiter returns with Alice's beer. She smiles, takes it, and looks at Kate, still in shock.)
Alice: Hmm. I think she'll take that drink now.

(Luke has just sent away the security guards who apprehended an incredibly drunk Mary)
Luke: Uh, can I help you? Possibly to an AA meeting?
Mary: That depends. Is your name Kate?
Luke:  Most definitely not.
Mary: Then can you tell her that I'm here?
Luke: I'm sorry. Who's here?
Mary: Mary? Kate's soon-to-be ex-stepsister? And you are?
Luke:  Luke, Kate's, uh, associate, Assistant. Real estate person. Look. Kate's not here.-
(Mary sighs in melodramatic annoyance.)
Luke: You know what? You could leave her a message.
Mary: (tearing up) Okay. Tell her that I'm so sorry I was ever born from the Wicked Witch of Gotham, and I get why she's avoiding me, but I'm totally on her side! I can't believe that my mom would ever do something so awful! (in sudden realization) Oh, my God! Do you think that she killed that deer, too?!
(Luke looks completely lost at all of this.)
Mary: Are you getting any of this?
Luke: All I heard is that your mom may or may not have killed a deer.

(Jacob Kane rounds a corner, running right into Alice.)
Alice: Hi, Daddy.
(There is a long pause as Jacob regards her. Finally he speaks.)
Jacob: Where's Kate?
Alice: "Where's Kate?"(angry) "Is Kate okay? Is Kate happy? Is she sleeping enough? "Has she done her homework, seen a doctor, had enough to eat?" Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate! I'm so sick of Kate!
(Alice pulls her knife and holds it to her wrist.) 
Jacob: What are you doing?
Alice: (tearing up) Where's Beth? When was the last time you uttered those words, Commander Crow? Was it here? Was it in this house?
Jacob: Come on. Don't do this.
Alice: Was it when I called you and you didn't even believe it was me?
Jacob: Let's go outside. We'll talk.
Alice: You told your men to kill me.
Jacob: Put down the knife.
Alice: Because you don't care. You've never cared!
Jacob: Put down the knife.
Alice: You gave up on me!
Jacob: (suddenly shouting) Beth, drop the damn knife!
(Alice suddenly smiles through her tears.)
Alice: "Beth." You... you said it.
(Alice looks at Jacob. He looks at her and steps in, raising a hand as if to touch her face. Suddenly, she lashes out with her knife hand and stabs him in the stomach, her face returning to its usual mask of indifference.)


Continuity

This is the first episode chronologically after the events of the Elseworlds crossover event.

 The Skin Pirate is a new criminal who steals the flesh off of corpses. As the episode opens, they just robbed three morgues in one night, within a single nine minute window.

Luke and Kate determine that Alice is the Skin Pirate.

Kate is able to track down Alice and the Wonderland Gang and capture's Alice.

Alice reveals that the "Mouse" Dodgson told Kate about in 104 was the one who found Beth Kane after the car accident.

14 months passed between the time Beth Kane disappeared and when Catherine Hamilton created the fake DNA reports that convinced Jacob Kane to call off the search.

Alice tells Kate about how Catherine Hamilton paid her detectives to fake the evidence that Beth Kane as dead.

Kate calls her father, to get him to start tracing her phone, as she goes off with Alice.

Beth Kane was washed downstream from the accident site and discovered by Jonathan "Johnny" Cartwright, who alerted his father, Dr. August Cartwright, to the girl in the water.  Alice claimed to be ignorant of the name of Johnny's father, however, and this information is only revealed in the episode credits.

Johnny would later take the name Mouse, according to Alice.

Mouse had an amazing gift for mimicry, and could copy any voice he heard.

Catherine tells Mary about how she faked the evidence of Beth Kane's death.

Mary does not take it well and gets drunk, going to Wayne Enterprises to find Kate and cry to her about it.

Alice has Kate stop at Dusty's Roadhouse Diner, because she dreamed of them going to a diner like that together after she was rescued.

Mouse grows his hair long to hide his face, which is hideously scarred after an unspecified accident.

Beth was locked in the basement of the Cartwright house after she saw the news report about her still being missing and realized Dr. Cartwright had lied to her about her father being on the way.

It was here in the basement that Beth found the flesh mask in the sink - the image from Alice's nightmare in 103.

Luke and Mary meet for the first time.

Jacob Kane confirmed that the bomb which nearly killed Alice in 102 was made by Hamilton Dynamics.

Alice explains that Mouse's father had kidnapped Beth so his son would have a friend and that he had pulled Mouse from school and devoted himself to finding a way to fix Mouse's face by making him a realistic skin mask.

Alice drugs Kate's drink, knocking her out.

Alice escapes back to the Cartwright house with an unconscious Kate while her gang holds off Jacob and Sophie at the roadhouse.

Alice reveals that she found the tracker Kate planed in Dodgson and that she knew she was coming.

Beth knew how to pick locks with a nail when she was 13.

Beth tried calling her father once she escaped from the basement, but was caught in the act by Dr. Cartwright.

Jacob traced the call on his own after the GCPD refused to act. He and Kate both went to the Cartwright house.

Kate wound up on the opposite side of the door where Beth was being held at one point, seemingly sensing her sister but ultimately not testing the door. Beth, for her part, was too terrified to cry out, with Dr. Cartwright having threatened to kill everyone she loved if she ever tried to escape again.

Dr. Cartwright convinced Jacob that the call was a prank call initiated by Mouse, who was able to copy Beth's voice after hearing a recording of her on the news.

Jacob figures out where Alice took Kate after realizing they're driving around the same remote part of Gotham City where the Cartwright house was.

Luke searches for criminals similar to the Skin Pirate's MO and finds Jacob Cartwright - an Arkham inmate with a history of stealing skin from cadavers.

Luke says that the recent incident at Arkham Asylum (i.e. Elseworlds) was covered up, as were the inmate escapees that resulted from it.

Alice confronts Jacob Kane and stabs him in the stomach.

Alice and Kate wind up in a standoff with Kate holding Mouse hostage and Alice holding Jacob. They agree to part ways and fight another day.

It is revealed that Johnny gave Beth a gift the day after Kate and Jacob came and went away - a copy of Alice in Wonderland.

Alice and Mouse both took their names from Chapter Two - The Pool of Tears of "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland."  They regard each other as Brother and Sister now.


The Bottom Line

Phenomenal on every level and far scarier than many episodes of some horror series. Between Rachel Skarsten's performance and the writer's conception of the horrors Beth Kane suffered in becoming Alice, you almost want her to succeed in making Jacob Kane suffer

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 4 - Who Are You?

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

Magpie, a costumed criminal with an eye for shiny things arrives in Gotham, but she may have more sinister plans that simple robbery. As Kate attempts to find a balance between her personal life and her new role as Gotham's guardian, Catherine has an uncomfortable encounter with Alice and Mary has a close-encounter with Batwoman, who needs a favor.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.


Goofs

The small explosions for Magpies booby-trapped pearls are less than convincing.

Reagan is supposed to be an expert at reading people and proves to be a master detective, so why doesn't she put two and two together on Kate being Batwoman after she disappears just before Batwoman shows up?


Performances

The interactions between Ruby Rose and Camurus Johnson as Kate and Luke are much more solid in this episode, leading to some fantastic dialogues and interplay between them.

Nicole Kang is a delight as Mary, and her deciding to play Alice while talking to a doped-up Dodgson is a fantastic bit of comedy, yet it still works well as a dramatic moment that is important to the plot.


Artistry

This episode features the strongest cinematography of any episode yet, with some grand dramatic shots of Gotham City.

The fight between Magpie and Batwoman in the museum is well-choreographed.


Bat Trivia

Magpie first appeared in The Man of Steel #3 in November 1986 and was created by writer/artist John Byrne. A museum curator named Margaret Pye by day and a cat-burglar who specifically targeted jewels named after birds by night, she had no superpowers but was notable for leaving behind booby-trapped replicas of the items she stole.

Magpie is mostly remembered today as the first villain whom Superman and Batman teamed up to fight together. She was apprehended after Superman came to Gotham City, seeking Batman out thinking he was a criminal or a dangerous lunatic. The skills Batman showed in tracking Magpie convinced Superman that Gotham City needed a hero like him, though he still disagreed with some of Batman's methods.

Magpie was Poison Ivy's cellmate in Arkham Asylum, despite having no superpowers.

In the Rebirth era, Magpie has been seen fighting Batman, Catwoman, Batgirl and The Flash.

The Arrowverse version of Magpie is named Margot. No last name is given in the episode, but it is possible it is Pye. She is a photographer who used her work to case out museums before robbing them, but otherwise seems true to the original comics' character, particularly in how she utilizes explosive, 3-D printed jewelry replicas.

Kate makes reference to Killer Croc - aka Waylon Jones; one of the more infamous members of Batman's Rogues Gallery, confirming his existence in the Arrowverse.

Kate notes that Bruce's mother was killed over her pearl necklace and that he spent $1 million to recover it when it turned up at an auction years later. In some versions of Batman's origin story, particularly ever since The Dark Knight Returns, great play was made of how Joe Chill broke Martha Wayne's pearls during the robbery, even though real pearls are stringed in such a fashion as to prevent the whole necklace from falling apart if the string breaks.

According to the show's producers, this is the last episode set before the events of Elseworlds.


Technobabble

The Batarangs are coded to return to the gauntlets of the Bat-Suit. Unfortunately, Luke Fox used the pre-programmed length of Bruce Wayne's arms in building Kate's costume. This cause the returning Batrangs to go past her hand, breaking a priceless vase after her first fight with Magpie.

Kate uses a voice modulator to artificially lower her voice to hide her identity while talking to Mary.

Magpie makes use of 3-D printed explosives, disguised as charms which she hangs from her belt - both caltrops (to slow pursuing guards) and replicas of items she's stolen to act as distractions.

Magpie's explosives are created with a nano-thermite infused ink and are comparable to an M-67 fragmentation grenade in terms of power. The ink's sale is highly regulated and only a few companies sell it.

Depending on the complexity of the deformulation, it can take Luke up to 1.5 hours to analyze the chemical composition of an explosive.

The bomb which targeted Alice's convoy was an IED using high standard components. It was able to target the van carrying Alice in a 7-vehicle convoy with 99.9% accuracy and likely used an advanced sensor initiation to detect its target. The only sensor that strong, according to Sophie, is an unreleased technology unique to Hamilton Dynamics.

Magpie's lair is climate-rigged so that if anyone enters the lair the change in temperature from the additional heat will trigger an explosion. The same sensors also measure kinetic energy, making it impossible for a person to breathe around them without setting off the same trigger.

The Batsuit can temporarily lower the wearer's temperature to avoid setting off heat-based weapons or thermal scanners.


Dialogue Triumphs

Kate: (V/O) A wise woman once said, "Hurt me with the truth. Don't comfort me with a lie." Yes, Bruce - I'm quoting Rihanna because I'm not a liar. I have never hidden who I am. I came out when Brad Morrison told all the kids at school that I was gay. I said, "Yeah, and?" Then punched him. Ever since then, I've been out and proud as long as I can remember. So how the hell am I supposed to wake up every morning and hide who I am?

(Alice confronts Catherine, as she is excavating Beth Kane's grave.)
Catherine: What are you doing here?
Alice: (ponderously) The great existential question. What are we all doing here? You know the thing I love about bad guys? Is that despite ourselves we are all so tragically predictable. Of course, you'd follow the cards I left right back there to cover your tracks.
Catherine: What do you want?
Alice: Hmm. To keep this to myself, and in return, you are gonna give me something, a very powerful toy. I understand that Hamilton Dynamics is developing a very "top-secret" weapon.
Catherine: I own one of the largest defense companies in the country. I'm hardly privy to its day-to-day project management side.
Alice: Oh, but you are. You are the priviest because this particular project was your idea.
Catherine: How do you know that?
Alice: Well, I spent in an hour in your house, Catherine. What did you think I was just poking around your shoe closet? Which should be its own monument by the way. Yeah. You are gonna give it to me by 10 p. m. tomorrow, or Commander Kane will know that you're the one who convinced him his dear, darling daughter was dead.

(Reagan just caught Kate lying about where she was.)
Reagan: So here's why this sucks. I like you. You're funny, you're cool, but that's not really enough. I'm not a needy person, Kate, but if I'm gonna make an effort, miss a spin class or rearrange a work shift, all I ask for is a little honesty.
Kate: Here's why this sucks. I think you're fun and cool and seem to care about all the right things But I'm not in a place right now where I can share all of myself with someone else. I am sorry.
Reagan: I get it. You obviously have a lot going on. I just hope whatever it is makes you happy.

Kate: What do you know about real estate?
Luke: Um, everyone hates popcorn ceilings.
Kate: So more than me. I'm starting a real estate firm.
Luke: Okay.
Kate: So the last thing the city needs is another predatory developer cluttering the skyline.
Luke: I agree.
Kate: That's why I want to buy run-down buildings from outside the Crows districts, keep the rents low, and give them back to the community.
Luke: So Bruce was a billionaire playboy, and you're gonna be who... Joanna Gaines?
Kate: You can be Chip.
Luke: I just told you I don't know anything about real estate.
Kate: Well, you better learn quick because you're gonna be my assistant.
Luke: Associate.
Kate: Hmm. Up for debate.


Continuity

Magpie is said to have robbed three jewelry collections in the past week and nearly killed a guard at her latest heist. Batwoman has not been seen in that time, because Kate is spending her nights with Reagan the bartender, whom she met in 103 at Tommy Elliot's party.

Kate came out after a boy named Brad Morrison said she was gay. She said "Yeah, and?" before punching him.

Kate is temporarily loaning Martha Wayne's pearl necklace to the Gotham Museum of Antiquities for an exhibit of the jewelry of women of power.

Martha Wayne was a supporter of the museum when she was alive.

The curator of the Gotham Museum of Antiquities is named Roxanna. No last name is given for her in this episode. She is attended by a photographer named Margot, who is later revealed to be Magpie.

Luke called Kate because Dodgson, still held captive, is starting to go septic instead of being dehydrated, as Kate insists he is.

The playing cards left on Catherine's make-up table from 103 are revealed to be a reference to the cemetery lot where Beth Kane was meant to be buried - 283.

Alice threatens to tell Jacob that Catherine faked the evidence of Beth Kane's death unless she delivers a new top-secret weapon to her.

Batwoman takes Dodgson to Maty at her clinic and asks her to save his life. Mary agrees, despite having misgivings about treating the man who tried to kill her.

Mary's clinic is revealed to be on Bennett Ave.

The vase which Kate breaks by accident in her fight with Magpie belonged to Marie Antoinette.

Sophie reports to Jacob that the explosive that took out Alice's transport in 102 likely came from Hamilton Dynamics.

Reagan grew up in an apartment building which was later gentrified by The Crows.

Kate asks Reagan to be her date to the antiquities museum gala that evening.

Magpie steals Martha Wayne's necklace from Bruce Wayne's office, in broad daylight.

Sophie gives Kate a list of everyone within a 100 mile radius who bought the explosive ink used to make Magpie's explosives.

Alice captures several of Catherine's henchmen, who come looking for her. She cuts the finger off one of them and turns him loose to send a message to Catherine.

Magpie bought the ink through a PO Box, linked to an address at the Old Gotham Hotel.

According to Luke, Bruce was miserable leading a double life, unable to get close to anyone. He thinks Bruce was happier as Batman toward the end before he disappeared.

Kate poses for a selfie as Batwoman to get the address linked to the PO Box.

According to Luke, Batman never posed for selfies with civilians.

Magpie protects her lair with a climate-controlled rig that sets off an explosion if it detects a change in the temperature of the room or detects someone breathing.

Kate can hold her breath for just over 2 minutes.

Kate sets the sensor off accidentally by sneezing, but manages to escape with a copy of Magpie's hard drive.

Dodgson hallucinates that Mary is Alice. Mary plays along and learns that Alice has big plans for someone called Mouse.

Magpie had complete semantics for something important on her hard drive. It is later revealed to be a 3D-printed replica of Martha Wayne's necklace.

Sophie shows up at the gala opening for the jewelry exhibit, killing the mood of Kate's date with Reagan.

Security guards show up with the pearl necklace, despite Kate calling ahead to tell the museum it had been stolen. This tips her off to Magpie's plan even before Luke tells her what he printed off of Magpie's hard drive.

Kate stops Magpie from escaping by cutting her zipline, in full view of the crowd of gala attendees.

Reagan dumps Kate for not being honest with her..

Catherine tells Jacob about how Alice is trying to blackmail her for a weapon.

Catherine tells Jacob the truth about how she falsified the evidence of Beth's death.

Jacob kicks Catherine out of their apartment.

Mary tells Batwoman about Mouse.

Batwoman chips Dodgson so she can track him to Alice's lair.

Kate decides to start a real estate company to buy run-down buildings from outside the Crows districts, keep the rents low, and give them back to the community.


The Killing Jokes

There's a bit of slapstick with Kate not catching her Batarang on the rebound, destroying a priceless vase and sneezing in the middle of a room primed to explode if anyone breathes. It's made up for by the end, but it all is done to emphasize how green Kate is despite her combat training.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode that introduces a fun villain, pushes forward most of the subplots and establishes some fantastic interplay between Luke and Kate. The series is shaping up into something truly entertaining and doing so far faster than Arrow did relative to how many episodes have passed.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 3 - Down, Down, Down

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

As the city waits with baited breath for Batman to make another appearance, Alice continues to taunt Kate but also sets her sights on Jacob and Catherine. Meanwhile, Sophie is assigned to act as Mary's personal bodyguard, as the whole Kane-Hamilton family is invited to the penthouse of Tommy Elliot, who is celebrating his new building and being able to look down on his old friend Bruce Wayne in every sense of the word. And a new villain tries to lure Batman out and may be responsible for stealing the only weapon capable of killing Batman from Wayne Enterprises.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams and Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee.


Goofs

Why doesn't anyone else in Gotham City (like the police, for instance), respond to the Bat-Signal being lit and used to make shadow puppets on the Wayne Enterprises building?

It's a little hard to believe that any version of Batman would ever commission a special gun to be the only weapon capable of destroying his armor, in case it ever fell into the wrong hands.

Kate reasons that Alice can't have been the one to steal the rail gun, because the person who did that would have to know Bruce Wayne is Batman and have a reason to need that specific gun. Given that Alice knows that Kate is Batwoman and that she's been hanging around Wayne Enterprises a lot lately, it wouldn't take much for Alice to figure that out.

The idea that The Riddler knows Batman's secret identity in this reality and hasn't broadcast that information to the world also flies in the face of everything we know about the character.

Where did a real estate guy like Tommy Elliot learn to fight as good as Kate Kane?


Performances

Rachel Skarsten continues to be a delight as Alice, getting some wonderful moments of silent acting in this episode as she wanders around the Kane-Hamilton penthouse.


Artistry

The script is a smartly written affair, which credits it main hero and villain with being brilliant. Kate is shown to be no mean detective and Alice manipulates Jacob and Catherine expertly.


Bat Trivia

This episode introduces the Arrowverse version of Tommy Elliot - a real estate mogul who is obsessed with becoming richer than Bruce Wayne and building a bigger building than the Wayne Enterprises tower so he can finally look down on Bruce Wayne. Once a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, he became obsessed with Batman after he saved Tommy's mother from dying in the same car crash that killed Tommy's father. Nobody suspected that Tommy had planned to kill his parents to inherit their fortune. He later learned Batman's secret identity and plotted to lure Batman out of hiding so he could kill Bruce for forcing him to take care of his invalid mother for 13 years.

In the original comics, Tommy Elliot was a medical doctor rather than a real estate mogul and his obsession with destroying Bruce Wayne came after Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, saved the life of Tommy Elliot's mother in surgery after Tommy failed to kill both his parents in a car crash. He became jealous of Bruce inheriting his family's fortune after his parents tragic deaths and became obsessed with avenging himself on Bruce because he got everything that Tommy wanted. This led Tommy to try and hire the Riddler (who had just deduced Batman's secret identity) to kill Bruce Wayne, but Riddler instead mentored Tommy in the art of being a supervillain and helped him adopt the alias of Hush.

Tommy Elliot quotes a line by Aristole; "What is a friend? A single sole dwelling in two bodies." This line was also quoted in the original Batman: Hush storyline.

In a nod to the original Hush story, Tommy Elliot says he learned who Batman is by paying a man to "riddle me the answer." This is a clear nod to Edward Nygma, aka The Riddler, who did tell Tommy Elliot that Bruce Wayne was Batman in the comics.

The playing cards Alice leaves on Catherine Kane-Hamilton's make-up table are the 2 of Hearts, 8 of Clubs and 3 of Diamonds. In cartography, the 2 of Hearts can signify either marriage, deep love between two people (like twins) or bad news. The 8 of Clubs can signify either success in business after hardship or a woman who is working against your interests. The 3 of Diamonds represents financial success or that you will soon be working with a family member on a new project.


Technobabble

One of the items in Wayne Enterprises' Advanced Weaponry Vault which gets Kate's attention is a two-way grappling hook.

The Bat-Suit is made up of military-grade kevlar woven with enriched carbon nano-tubes. The fabric was designed by Lucius Fox. It can absorb the impact of a Desert Eagle Mark IX, though Kate notes it still stings the wearer.

The weapon stolen from Wayne R&D is a rail gun with a parallel conductor that generates a pulsed force of electromagnetism, accelerating the velocity of the projectile. It's the most lethal weapon that Bruce Wayne ever had commissioned, designed specifically to be capable of penetrating the Bat-Suit if it was ever stolen.

Mary determines that one of the elevator victims is suffering from a subdural or an epidural hemorrhage.

The Bat-Suit contains a disruptor in the gauntlet that can be used to disrupt energy weapons like the rail gun. It needs to be charged ahead of time, however, and requires 30 seconds to charge once expended.


Dialogue Triumphs

Kate (V/O): Alice figured me out, Bruce. I put on your suit to terrify her, but it can't protect me if she knows who I am. I lost my advantage. And in the process, I gave Gotham their hero back. I didn't sign up for this part. I never meant to give the city so much hope. I can't do this. I'm not you.

(Kate walks towards Alice, who is making shadow bunnies on the wall of the Wayne Enterprises building with the Bat-Signal.)
Kate: Subtle.
Alice: Hmm. I guess it's broken. It's supposed to call Batman.
Kate: What do you want?
Alice: What happened it your Batsuit knockoff, Kate? Too tight, no give, or did you just realize that you accidentally blew a dog whistle that you can't unblow?
Kate: I wore it to protect myself from you and your goons.
Alice: And in the process, you made everyone horny for Batman. All these poor souls gazing up at the Bat-light, thinking, "My life is about to change. "
(Alice looks around melodramatically.)
Alice: No. Still sucks.

Mary (To Sophie): You want to know why Kate's not a Crow? It's because you're a Crow. It's because 5 years of training was easier to walk away from than going to work with the girl who broke her heart.

(Jacob answers his phone. Cello music can be heard in the background.)
Jacob: Who is this?
(Cut to Alice, who is playing the cello.)
Alice: You taught me, remember, or did you give up on music like you gave up on me?
Jacob: What are you trying to do, Alice? You're not getting in my head.
Alice: You'd be surprised where I can get into, Commander.
Jacob: Where are you?
Alice: Well, I could tell you, but that would ruin the surprise. Let's talk until you're finished tracing my call.
(Alice stops playing and idly strokes a piano's keys as she moves to the window.) 
Alice: I never understood why you stopped looking for me. I always thought a father would do anything to find his daughter Swim oceans, move mountains, but now I get it. You're on top of the mountain. Heh. If I had this view, I'd stop looking for me, too. More time to enjoy your new life.
Jacob: How'd you get in my house?
Alice: Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh. You should be ashamed, Commander. King of the Crows, can't even protect your own nest.
Jacob: I'm coming for you.
Alice: Maybe if you'd uttered those words 15 years ago, we wouldn't be here now. I won't let you forget me, Commander. Not again.

Tommy: Nothing could be average with Bruce. Even had to have more dead parents than me.
Kate: Because he saved your mom's life.
Tommy: Oh, yeah. No. I am aware. Thanks to him, instead of collecting my inheritance, I was left wiping the spittle of a jabbering madwoman's lips for 13 years.
Kate: If you wanted him dead, why wait until he's in a bulletproof suit?
Tommy: Because Bruce didn't ruin my life. Batman did. Do you know what it's like to have the villain of your story be the hero of your city? He is a monster, who left me anchored to a repulsive, gold-digging bitch, and now he's gonna die!

Kate: This place is crawling with Crows. You shouldn't be here.
Alice: Well, I came to crash the party. Turns out our host beat me to it. (looking at Kate's costume) I didn't know that it was a costume party. Let me guess... Red. The color of our birthstone.
Kate: To remind us where we came from.
Alice: About that. They say if you want to quit you have to really want to, and, well, I didn't want to. You see, 24 hours is a really long time. Guess you're gonna have to let my sweet Dodgson die. Like I said Beth is gone.
Kate: Then why save me?
Alice: Because I have plans for you, Kate. That, and it's no fun torturing a corpse. Believe me, I've tried.


Continuity

Alice is shown to suffer from reoccurring nightmares, much like Kate.

Alice's nightmares involving her wandering through what appears to be a hunting lodge, downstairs into a basement where she discovers what appears to be a pealed human face floating in some kind of container of liquid.

Alice uses the Bat-Signal to get Kate's attention.

Kate makes a bargain with Alice; go 24 hours without killing someone and she'll consider letting Dodgson go.

Alice smashes the Bat-Signal.

Elliot Estates is a high-price gated community, featuring on-site Crows security and a panic room in each house. It is the brainchild of Tommy Elliot.

Sophie asks Jacob to assign her to work as Mary's personal bodyguard, as part of a "special assignment."

It's been 10 days since the last Batman sighting, according to Vesper Fairchild.

Tommy Elliot just bought a building five stories higher than Wayne Tower and moved into the penthouse.

Batman saved Tommy Elliot's mothers life 13 years ago.

Someone broke into Wayne Enterprises' Advanced Weaponry Vault. Luke Fox later determines that the thieves stole a rail gun which Bruce Wayne specifically had designed to be capable of penetrating the Bat-Suit.

Someone leaves a bloody effigy of Batman on the steps of the Gotham Gazette.

Kate reasons that Tommy Elliot must have stolen the railgun because he dropped an invitation to his party off for Bruce, expecting him to be in town. This is not a leap that would have been taken by anyone who didn't know Bruce Wayne was Batman.

Kate meets a bartender named Reagan at Tommy's party, who is incredibly good at reading people. At the end of the episode, they agree to go out on a date together.

Tommy Elliot has 10 contracts with The Crows to protect various holdings.

Sophie told her husband nothing about her former relationship with Kate.

Jacob Kane taught Beth Kane to play the cello. There is a certain piece by Bach that they considered their song.  Alice Kane plays this song as she is talking to Jacob on the phone.

Kate tells Tommy Elliot that the stolen rail gun has a GPS tracker inside it.

Alice is revealed to be calling Jacob from the Kane-Hamilton Penthouse. She killed the Crow who was stationed to protect the place while the family was at Tommy Elliot's party.

Alice goes through a box of Kate's belongings and finds a box with Beth's name on it, which containing the map of locations where Kate searched for her sister as a child.

Tommy figured out who Batman is after paying a man to "riddle him the answer." This would seem to indicate that The Riddler in this world knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Tommy takes the people in the elevators of his building hostage and drops one. He then threatens to drop the next in an hour if Batman doesn't meet him on the roof.

Sophie, Tyler and Mary are able to escape from their elevator.

Mary starts treating the people injured from the first elevator car fall, proving she's a more than capable medical professional.

Kate saves the elevator car holding Jacob and Catherine using the double-grappling hook.

Alice knocks out Tommy Elliot as he's about to stomp on Kate's fingers as she's left hanging on the hole in the elevator shaft.

Tommy is sent to Arkham Asylum.

Catherine discoveries three playing cards on her make-up table. She hides this from Jacob and reaffirms that they have to kill Alice rather than just catching her.

According to Vesper Fairchild, Gotham City is aware there is a new Bat protecting them and that she's a woman.


The Fridge Factor

Tommy Elliot is as good as fighting as Kate, for no other reason other that it drags out their fight in the episode's climax.


The Bottom Line

Perhaps the best episode of Batwoman yet, with even its most annoying element (i.e. Tommy Elliot) not being so bad as he gives us a chance to see how awesome Kate is... right up until hes's somehow as capable a fighter as her despite being a weasel rather than a fighter. Still, most of the subplots are well-developed and it's a treat to watch Alice further mess with the minds of our heroes.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 2 - The Rabbit Hole

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

With Jacob Kane and The Crows more determined than ever to bring down Alice and the Wonderland Gang, Kate faces a frightening possibility - what if Alice is her long-list sister, Beth? As Kate explores this possibility and continues to make use of Bruce's old tech, she must discover who she can trust, particularly when Mary has her own secrets and Sophie seems to have figured out Kate is Gotham's new vigilante.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.


Performances

Rachel Skarsten delivers a great performance as Alice/Beth, finding just the right balance between mad genius and vengeance personified.


Bat Trivia

There's a tree stump in the middle of the Bat Cave under Wayne Enterprises. In the comics, Kate's lair also had a tree stump in the middle of it.

The parking garage through which Kate accesses the secret garage entrance to the Bat Cave looks very similar to the underground bunker where Lucius Fox worked in The Dark Knight trilogy of movies.

When Sophie asks Kate if she is Batwoman, Kate says that if she were going to dress up and dramatically save people she'd do it as Wonder Woman. This is the first indication that Wonder Woman exists in the Arrowverse, even as a fictional character. (It should be mentioned, however, that the Amazons and Themyscira were confirmed to exist on Earth 1 in L306.)

Reference is made to Robinson Park - the Gotham City equivalent of Central Park in the comics. It is named in honor of legendary Batman artist Jerry Robinson.

Kate uses "Waffles" as a code-word to prove that Alice is Beth, as the two sisters always went to the same park after-school on Fridays and got chocolate waffles at a nearby snack stand. This character note is taken directly from the Batwoman comics, where the two sisters got chocolate and waffles (their favorite food) on their birthday before being abducted by terrorists.

At one point one of The Crows make reference to the Kubert District of Gotham City. This is likely a nod to Andy Kubert - a notable artist, famous for his work on Batman and Son and the Neil Gaiman story Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader? It could also be a nod to Joe Kubert, Andy's father, who is more famous for his work on various war comics, but did draw a number of milestone covers for various Batman titles before founding The Kubert School for comic book artists.

The explosion which allows Alice to escape occurs on Loeb Bridge. This is a nod to writer Jeph Loeb, who wrote The Long Halloween and Hush.

It is said that the fragments which were determined to be part of Beth's skull were found at Miller Farm. This is a nod to writer Frank Miller, who wrote The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One.

Vesper Fairchild makes a joking reference to Robin's high school graduation as to why Batman might not have shown up to investigate the bombing of the Loeb Bridge. This is the first time Robin has been confirmed to exist in the Arrowverse.


Technobabble

Wayne Enterprises owns a thermal cycler and Polymerase Chain Reaction mixers, which are used to separate and amplify DNA. These could be used to compare two DNA strands to see if they match.

Batman's gear includes a laser saw that can cut through anything and a rebreather that lets a person breathe underwater without a SCUBA tank.

The Bat-Suit has a built in defibrillator, but no auto-dry function despite costing $10.8 million to make.


Dialogue Triumphs

Alice: Tell me you found my favorite knife.
Dodgson: No luck.
Alice: What the hell did I do with it? It is so much more fun unveiling my evil plan when I can flip it about for cadence.

(Luke is trying to scare Kate out of using the gear in the Bat Cave)
Luke: See, these aren't toys. These are one-of-a-kind, dangerous tools which even I don't know how to use. I don't how to use half the stuff in here because it's not meant for me. It's meant for Batman.
Kate: You know who you sound like?
Luke: I'm sure you'll tell me.
Kate: Lucius Fox.
Luke: Trust me. I am a far cry from my father.
Kate: (dryly) Oh, I know. He was actually useful.

(Alice sits on a swing, regarding Kate.)
Alice: Well, look who finally figured it out.
Kate: Are you my sister?
Alice:  Mmm. Who in the world am I? Now that is the great puzzle, isn't it?
Kate: Did you know I was gonna have your knife tested for DNA?
Alice:  You had my knife? (laughs) And here I've been going around using this charmless contraption. (idly plays with a butterfly knife)
Kate: You didn't have your guys jump me?
Alice: Jump you? Kate, we're sisters.
Kate: Prove it. Let me test your DNA before the Crows kill you.
Alice: I already proved it. I'm here. I knew the password, "Waffles." Our favorite spot. We used to come here after school on Fridays and gorge our faces in chocolate-covered garbage. How else would I know that? (pauses) Unless... oh, dear. Did the press mention that you and Beth used to come here as part of your silly, little tradition, and did I read an old article online?

Alice (V/O): It may have taken you years, sweet, darling Kate, but you found me eventually Even if I'm not the girl you expected me to be. I had my secrets just as you have yours, but do be careful, my dear sister. Putting on that suit and all the darkness that comes with it makes you just as crazy as me.


Continuity

This episode opens four days after the events of 101.

According to Kate, practically everyone in Gotham was searching for Beth the day after she disappeared. Eventually it was just her and her father... then just her.

Kate tells Jacob about her theory that Alice is Beth. She also shows him the knife with the garnet stone in it that matches the one from her necklace.

Jacob insists Beth is dead because fragments of her skull were found at Miller Farm.

Alice breaks into the house she grew up in and kills the elderly couple that lives there now. The address of the house is 1472 Norman Drive.

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=batwoman-2019&episode=s01e02.

Kate approaches Sophie for help in scanning the knife she took from Alice for a DNA sample.

Kate and Sophie are attacked by men in Wonderland Gang masks, who take Alice's knife back.

Kate asks how they knew she had the knife in the first place, but this question is largely ignored.

Kate determines that one of Mary's patients works for Alice and that she fought him as Batwoman the night before. She uses him to deliver a one-word message to Alice - "Waffles."

Kate tells Sophie about her plan to lure Alice out and prove that she is Beth, asking her to stall The Crows for a few hours. Instead, Sophie betrays her trust and tells Jacob Kane about what Kate is doing.

Kate blamed herself for Beth's disappearance, because she got out of the car while Beth climbed into the front seat to check on their mother before their car fell off the bridge.

Alice tries to make Kate uncertain whether or not she really is Beth, saying that she might have read an article which spoke about Kate and Beth's Friday habits.

Alice cuts herself to give Kate a DNA sample, just before The Crows show up.

Alice seems to feel honestly betrayed that The Crows showed up to what Kate said would be a secret meeting.

Dodgson attempts to kill Mary in her secret clinic. Kate shows up to save her as Batwoman.

Someone bombs the transport taking Alice to Arkham Asylum.

Kate frees Alice from the transport she was trapped in, but is knocked out after The Crows throw something explosive in between her and Alice.

Kate is revived before The Crows find her thanks to Luke triggering the defibrillator in her suit.

Mary doesn't tell Jacob about Dodgson attacking her or that Kate told her about her plan to track down Alice and prove she was Beth. This shows that, ironically, Mary was more worthy of trust than Sophie, whom Kate thought she could trust.

Jacob Kane threatens to have Kate arrested for aiding and abetting if she doesn't drop the idea that Alice is Beth.

It is revealed that the information that Beth's skull fragments were found at Miller Farm came from investigators employed by Catherine Hamilton.

Catherine Hamilton is revealed to be behind the attack on Sophie and Kate. Presumably she was also responsible for the bomb that nearly killed Alice.


The Bottom Line

Another solid episode which thickens the plot and adds further depth to the core cast. The heel-turn with Catherine Hamilton is perhaps not as surprising as it might have been once (Every CW Arrowverse show has had a mentor be revealed to be someone they weren't at this point.) but the acting is believable and the story well paced.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 1 - Pilot

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 



Plot

When her first love is abducted by the supervillain known only as Alice, Kate Kane returns home to Gotham City after spending years traveling the globe training with various combat and survival experts in the hopes of earning a place in her father's private security company. When he still refuses to offer her a position among his soldiers, The Crows, Kate finds her own path after discovering that her cousin Bruce Wayne is Batman.


Influences

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams.


Performances

Ruby Rose delivers a powerhouse performance as Kate Kane. As much of an impression as she made during Elseworlds, she seems even stronger here.


Artistry

The fight choreography is top-notch.


Bat Trivia

The character of Kate Kane first appeared in August 2006 in 52 #7. Her first appearance as Batwoman came four weeks later in 52 #11. She was created by writers Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and writer/artist Keith Giffen, though Rucka is credited with writing most of her early appearances in the 52 mini-series.

Kate Kane based on an earlier character, Kathy Kane, who was introduced into the Batman comics in the 1950s as a love interest for Bruce Wayne, in order to throw off accusations of Batman and Robin presenting a relationship based on pedophilia and/or homosexuality. Ironically, it was decided that Kate Kane would be a lesbian, in order to add some diversity to the Batman comics.

The new Kate Kane was Bruce Wayne's first cousin on his mother's side. Kate hoped to follow in the footsteps of her father, US Army Colonel Jacob Kane, and enrolled in the US Military Academy at West Point. Unfortunately, Kate was discharged from The Academy after her romance with a fellow female Cadet was revealed to her commanding officer. While she was offered a chance to disavow the charge and let that be the end of it after facing a demotion in rank, Kate refused to violate the Honor Code by lying about being a lesbian rather than officially deny the charges that she had violated the Academy's policy against allowing lesbians to serve openly. Afterward, Jacob said that he was proud of Kate for refusing to lie and remaining true to herself.

Moving back to Gotham, Kate lived the life of a wealthy socialite and began dating police officer Rene Montoya. Their relationship ended because Rene refused to out herself, fearing that she would be abandoned by her devout Catholic parents and that it might cause trouble for her at work if it was known she was a lesbian.

An encounter with Batman inspired Kate to become a vigilante herself, after a mugger assailed Kate one night. Batman heard the sounds of conflict and arrived to discover Kate had subdued the mugger herself using her combat training. At first Kate fought crime using military equipment borrowed from her father. When her father discovered what she had been doing, rather than being angry, he sent Kate on a two-year journey around the world with some of his Special Forces friends to see Kate better trained for her chosen life. When she returned to Gotham, he gave her a custom-made Batwoman costume. It was not until later that the two learned of their blood relation to Batman.

The Arrowverse version of Kate Kane has a similar background, though the details are slightly different. Kate was discharged from a military academy other than West Point, but still refused to lie and violate the Honor Code after her romance with another Cadet, Sophie Moore. She traveled the world for several years training, but this was before she decided to become a vigilante. Perhaps most importantly, her father does not support her seeing combat and had planned to use his influence to get her a safe desk job after she graduated from The Academy.

In the original comics, Col. Jacob Kane was a career military man who acted as the Alfred to his daughter Kate's Batman, tending to her gear and providing her with intelligence via radio while she was in the field. Part of an elite squad known as The Murder of Crows, Kane also oversaw a secret US Army squadron known as The Colony, who were trained in the same skills exhibited by Batman to act as the ultimate anti-terrorist task force.

In the Arrowverse, Col. Kane runs a private security company that is utilized by Gotham City to augment the GCPD. Known as Crows Security, the company is renowned for only employing the best soldiers in the business.

Dougray Scott, who plays Jacob Kane, was the original choice to play Wolverine in the X-Men movies. An injury he acquired while riding his motorcycle forced him to leave the role, which eventually went to Hugh Jackman.

As in the comics, Jacob Kane's second wife is Catherine Hamilton. In the comics, she was heir to the Hamilton arms fortune. In the Arrowverse, she is a Gotham City Councilwoman but nothing has been said about her family's investments yet.

As in the comics, Catherine is the only person who addresses Kate as "Katie." As in the comics, Kate hates being called Katie.

The character of Mary Hamilton, Kate's stepsister, seems to be partly based on the character of Mary Elizabeth "Bette" Kane, who fought crime under the name Flamebird and harbored an obsessive crush on Dick "Robin" Grayson. She would later became Batwoman's sidekick in her comic series, fighting crime under the codename Plebe. Apart from the name, the only real connection Mary seems to have to Bette so far is an easily excitable personality and a tendency to talk too much.

Mary Hamilton is a medical school student who plays at being a shallow socialite. In truth, she's been stealing supplies from her school to run an illegal free clinic for needed individual in the slums of Gotham City. Bette Kane also played at being more shallow than she was to hide her superhero identity.

The illegal clinic Kate stumbles across is also a nod to the character of Dr. Mallory Kimball. Another ex-lover of Kate in the comics, she ran a clinic similar to the one Mary manages in the Arrowverse.

The scene where Kate wakes up in the clinic not knowing how she got there is taken directly from 52 #11.

The current police commissioner of Gotham City is said to be a man named Forbes. This could be a nod to Jack Forbes - a former Internal Affairs officer who became the interim Commissioner during the David Finch/Paul Jenkins run of Batman: The Dark Knight.

The current mayor of Gotham City has the lat name Akins. This could be a nod to Michael Akins, who was the current mayor of Gotham City in the Batman comics in 2019.

As in the comics, Kate's first love was fellow Cadet Sophie Moore. When Kate met Sophie again in the comics years after they broke up, she was a Colonel in the US Army and overseeing a military college close to Gotham City.

The Arrowverse version of Sophie Moore chose to lie about who she was to save her career. Instead of staying in the military, however, she was recruited into The Crows. She also got married to a man Tyler.

Some elements of Kate Kane's relationship with Rene Montoya in the comics seem to have been transferred to the Arrowverse version of Sophie Moore. Specifically, how Kate sees Sophie's refusal to stand by her as a betrayal and disapproves of her lying about their relationship in order to remain enrolled at the Academy, whereas Sophie admonishes Kate for not realizing that not everyone has a rich family to fall back on like she does. This is similar to the arguments Kate and Rene had about Rene remaining in the closet.

Luke Fox is the son of Lucius Fox - Bruce Wayne's long-time business manager and weapons' designer. In the comics, Luke took up a superheroic identity of his own, becoming Batwing.

The Arrowverse version of Luke is privy to Bruce Wayne's secret identity and is overseeing Wayne Enterprises' building in Bruce Wayne's absence.

In the comics, Kate and Beth were identical twins, whereas Kate and Beth are fraternal twins.

As in the original comics, Kate's mother died when she was a young girl and her sister Beth was presumed dead, though no body was ever recovered. However, the circumstances of that death are wildly different.

In the comics, Beth, Kate and their mother were taken hostage by terrorists on the twins' 12th birthday. Jacob Kane led the mission to save them, only manage to successfully rescue Kate. The terrorists executed Kate's mother and Beth was apparently killed in the crossfire between the terrorists and The Crows.

In the show, the Kane's car was forced off the road by a school bus stolen by The Joker. Batman stopped chasing the Joker long enough to try and rescue the Kanes, who were left teetering on a broken bridge. Unfortunately, only Kate was able to climb free of the car before it fell into the river below. Beth's body was never recovered.

It is revealed in the end of the episode that Alice is Beth Kane and that she had the garnet from the necklace matching Kate's transplanted into a knife, which she leaves as a calling card for Batwoman, having apparently figured out that Kate is Batwoman. Though Beth Kane in the comics did become a villain called Alice, the circumstances seem to have been changed from the comics.

In the comics, Alice was a member of the Religion of Crime - a cult that sought to sacrifice Kate Kane to fulfill a prophecy. Introduced in the Batwoman: Elegy storyline, Kate eventually discovered that the new Religion of Crime leader was her long-lost sister. It was never explained how Beth came to be indoctrinated into the cult, but she was eventually redeemed and became a DEO Agent known as Red Alice.

This is not Rachel Skarsten's first time on a superhero TV show. She also played Dinah Lance on The WB network's Birds of Prey series, though her version of Dinah Lance was a teenage telepath rather than a martial-artist with a sonic scream.

The gang that Alice leads seems to be based on The Wonderland Gang. Created by writer Paul Dini and artist Dustin Nguyen and first appearing in Detective Comics #841, the Wonderland Gang were a group of costumed robbers who all dressed as Lewis Craroll characters. Apparently led by The Mad Hatter, it was later revealed that he had fallen prey to his own mind-control technology and that the gang was truly being run by Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

In the comics, Alice never had any connection to The Wonderland Gang or any of the other villains in Gotham City with Lewis Carroll-themed names or gimmicks.

The Wonderland Gang was also the name of a real-world gang of cocaine dealers that was based in Los Angeles in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Crow who betrays the team to Alice is named Chuck Dodgson. Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Dodgson.

As the episode opens, we are told that Batman hasn't been seen in Gotham City in three years. Coincidentally, Kate became Batwoman in the comics during a time in which Batman seemingly abandoned Gotham City for one year, during the events of the mini-series 52.

The "Welcome To Gotham" sign in the opening has been defaced to say "Hellcomes To Gotham." This may be a nod to Batman Returns, which Selina Kyle damaged a neon sign that said "Hello There," making it read "Hell Here."

Two different newspapers are seen in the episode: the Gotham Gazette and the Gotham Inquisitor.  The Gotham Gazette is commonly seen in the comics, but their rival paper is usually The Gotham Globe. This may, however, be a nod to the series Smallville, where the rival paper of The Daily Planet was The Metropolis Inquisitor.

Kate is a vegan and has acquired a neck tattoo since the last time she saw her father.

According to Kate, Bruce Wayne doesn't have a legal middle name. While this has been largely true for many years, Bruce's full name was given as Bruce Thomas Wayne in Batman #20 of the Rebirth era series.

In the Arrowverse, Kate is significantly younger than Bruce, who was running Wayne Enterprises while she was still a tween. In the comics, they are closer in age and were both children when they lost their parents within a few years of each other.

Kate also identifies Bruce Wayne's birthday as February 19th. This is Bruce's official birthday according to the DC Super Calendar from 1976. Astrologically, this makes Bruce a Pisces and one astrology site claims that people born on February 19th tend to be romantic, selfless and intuitive and will sacrifice anything to save their loved one, but they often take on too much and sometimes have trouble accepting reality. (Sounds accurate to us!)

The password to the computers in Wayne Enterprises is Alfred. This is a nod to Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's loyal butler.

Kate figures out that the Wonderland Gang is hiding out in the old Burnside Orphanage building. Burnside is one of the boroughs of Gotham City, comparable to Brooklyn in New York City, and was the territory protected by Batgirl for many years in her solo comic.

In the reality of the Arrowverse, Bruce Wayne has a Bat-Cave hidden under Wayne Enterprises, which is accessed by a secret elevator, revealed by a switch hidden under the case containing the restored pearls his mother wore on the night of her death. It is unclear if this is the main Bat-Cave or an auxiliary one in addition to the one under Wayne Manor. In the comics, Bruce Wayne did have several smaller caves set up around Gotham City.

The movie being screened at the Movie In The Park event is the 1920 silent film version of The Mark of Zorro. In most versions of Batman's origin story since The Dark Knight Returns, this is the movie that Bruce Wayne's parents took him to see on the night of their murder.

A child dressed as Zorro can be seen running through the crowd at the movie screening, along with a boy dressed as Robin.

Radio Hostess Vesper Fairchild is heard near the end of the episode. Vesper was first mentioned in A709 as a gossip monger who knows everyone in Gotham. She apparently had a one-night stand with Oliver Queen at one point before he became Green Arrow.

In the original Batman comics, Vesper Fairchild was a radio show host who was briefly linked to Bruce Wayne romantically. She first appeared in Batman #540 in March 1997. She was later killed by the assassin David Cain as part of a plot to frame Bruce Wayne for her murder. This kicked off the Bruce Wayne: Murderer? and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive storylines that ran through the Batman comics in 2002.

Vesper Fairchild is voiced by MSNBC pundit and former talk radio host Rachel Maddow.


Technobabble

Batman's grappling hooks are capable of holding one ton.


Dialogue Triumphs

Kate: (into phone) Hello?
Mary: Kate, it's Mary. Your stepsister.
Kate: Mary, our parents have been married for over a decade. I know who you are.

(Kate has her hands cuffed behind her back.)
Kate: Bruce gave me a great piece of advice once. Grow into the person you needed as a kid.
Luke: That's great. Police are on their way.
Kate: Oh. It it turns out that the person that I needed as a kid can do this.
(Kate reveals that she slipped out of her cuffs and grabs Luke, forcing one cuff on to his wrist before chaining him to the wall with the other.) 

Kate: You signed it.
Sophie: I told them what they wanted to hear.
Kate: You lied.
Sophie: I need this school, okay? I want to be here.
Kate: But they don't want you.
Sophie: Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of being offended by that.

Kate: How do you know me?
Alice: Better now.

Kate: (in her journal to Bruce) I spent 15 years searching for a place I fit, and I think I've finally found it. Some see fear, others hope. I see the freedom to be myself, to play by own rules.


Continuity

As the episode opens, it has been three years since Batman has been seen in Gotham. Bruce Wayne also disappeared shortly thereafter.

Kate says that Bruce is the only member of her family who didn't abandon her after he mother died, with Jacob Kane becoming more obsessed with his work.

Kate and Beth had matching garnet necklaces. Kate figures out that Alice is Beth after she realizes the same garnet is in Alice's throwing knife.


Location

As the episode opens, Kate is in some arctic environment, training how to survive swimming in freezing waters.


The Bottom Line

A solid set-up for the series that sets up all the major players with grace and style.