Batwoman Star Rachel Skarsten Says She Hopes Alice Doesn’t Find Peace Right Away

While there are a lot of villains in The CW‘s Arrowverse — considering that there are six shows set over three worlds, a lot of villains are necessary — it’s Batwoman, the newest show in the shared universe, that gives the franchise perhaps one of its best villains. Batwoman’s nemesis/twin sister Alice has easily been the breakout character of the series with her mix of diabolical madness and sisterly love. However, while Alice has now become Batwoman/Kate Kane’s number one enemy series star Rachel Skarsten hopes Alice doesn’t end up being tamed just yet.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Skarsten said that she’s having fun playing Alice and her madness and she wants to be able to continue to do so for some time.

“I have a lot of fun playing the wackier, insane side of Alice,” Skarsten said. “While eventually she finds her peace, I hope it’s not for a little while, because I am having too much fun playing her as she is.”

The idea of Alice finding peace and potentially being redeemed is something that Skarsten has spoken about previously. Earlier this year, Skarsten explained that while the character’s motivations and vulnerabilities would end up playing a role, any “good” side of Alice may be a long way off.

“I wouldn’t count on Alice being redeemed any time soon,” she added with a laugh. “I think the writers are having far too much fun with her being bad. But it could be in the cards at some point. In the comics, actually, Alice does become Red Alice — a bit of a crime fighter/partner for Batwoman — but that’s later. And also, obviously, there are many different delineations of the comics.”

And that redemption may be one that is further off than ever currently. The Batwoman midseason finale saw Alice unleash her master plan to enact wrath on the Kane family by poisoning Mary Hamilton and Catherine Hamilton-Kane, with Catherine dying after she gave the only antidote to the poisoning to Mary.

“It was in a theater, right? And then it was backstage, and it felt operatic, it felt like this symphony, it felt like it all came to a [head] and then it became very, very quiet. It was theatrical in this way that many, many… comic book lore [have done] before me,” Nicole Kang, who plays Mary, told ComicBook.com of comparisons to Bruce Wayne watching his parents get murdered. “It just feels significant and it’s more than just this person, that it is this person in this family in Gotham from this comic, in a Batman comic. That I signed so significant, and yeah, and that’s why it has to be handled with care, and if we were going to do it, we were going to really do it.”

“But I got to say, Bruce seems to snap into Batman and really figure it out,” Kang continued. “Mary is in shock and denial and she’s going to… Her journey is long, and she doesn’t even know Batwoman’s identity. So I think she’s more… she’s #relatable. I mean, she’s a citizen of Gotham, and potentially she’s having an experience that many people have had, losing someone very close to them at the hands of Alice. This time, just as an audience, it has significant ramifications. So I think it shows how villainous Alice is.”

Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.