Batwoman has officially hit its stride, establishing Kate Kane/Batwoman’s (Ruby Rose) journey to become a superhero, while also marching towards The CW‘s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover. This week’s episode took a small detour from Gotham City itself, diving into the origin of Elizabeth Kane/Alice (Rachel Skarsten), and how she became the antagonist that she is today. It’s something that Kate and the audience have been eager to find out — but it’s safe to say that the truth is much creepier than some might have expected. Here’s what you need to know about this week’s episode, “Mine Is a Long and Sad Tale”.
Videos by ComicBook.com
—
Alice harvests the skin off of corpses in a morgue. Word of the attacks begins to be publicized in Gotham, with the perpetrator being dubbed “The Skin Pirate”. Kate and Luke investigate and find CCTV footage of Alice leaving one of the morgues. Alice reunites with Dodgson, who claims that he revealed nothing of her plan while he was tortured by Batwoman. Batwoman suddenly attacks Alice’s hideout, capturing and imprisoning her. Kate asks about Mouse, but Alice refuses to answer. Kate calls Jacob and lets him know that she has Alice captured. Alice promises to tell her her origin story if she frees her.
Kate begins to drive Alice back to Gotham, and Alice tells her that Catherine faked her death. She tells her how she was rescued by a man and his son Johnny – a.k.a. Mouse – shortly after the accident. Kate and Alice stop at a diner, where Alice continues to talk about her time with Johnny and his dad. The dad lied to Beth and said that he’d called the police to let her know she was safe, but then locked her in a closet where a face was floating in the sink. The dad told Beth that he was experimenting to find a way to repair his son’s face. Kate begins to grow lightheaded while hearing Beth’s story, and passes out. She wakes up chained to a wall, and Alice reveals that she was aware of Dodgson’s tracker and Kate’s plans.
Alice reveals that while in captivity, she managed to escape and call Jacob, but the dad threatened to kill anyone who came for her. Jacob and Kate came to rescue Beth, but the dad lied and said that Johnny was the one who faked the call. Kate nearly found Beth in the basement, but she pretended she wasn’t there so that Kate and Jacob wouldn’t be killed. Alice says that she believes she and Kate aren’t really connected as twins anymore.
Meanwhile, Jacob and Sophie track down Kate and Alice’s location. While driving to find them, Jacob tells Sophie about Catherine’s lies. They arrive at the diner and engage in a shootout with Alice’s men, including Dodgson. Jacob recognizes the route they’re going on to find Alice and Kate, and suddenly realizes where they’re located — the house that Beth was held captive in. Alice confronts Jacob, arguing that he never cared about her. She then stabs him. Sophie finds Kate — and they both find Mouse. Kate threatens to shoot Mouse if Alice hurts Jacob, and she ultimately agrees to walk away.
Kate later blames herself for all of the suffering Alice went through.
Alice reconnects with Mouse. When they were children, Mouse gave Beth a copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which he returns to her in the present day. Alice then gives Mouse new skin, and they plan to get revenge on Jacob.
Other tidbits from the episode include:
- Catherine tells Mary that she deliberately lied about Beth’s remains. Mary gets upset about this news, and goes to visit Kate at Wayne Tower. She finds Luke there and begins to tell him about Catherine’s lies. Mary gets upset about her situation, and feels jealous that Kate is hanging out with Alice instead of her. Mary later finds out about Alice being The Skin Pirate, and she helps Luke investigate. Later, Mary leaves, and Luke hints that she might be able to fix things with Kate.
—
Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.
