Strap in cuz we’re headed to Bummerville! This week’s episode takes some dark turns with intense character building!
We open with a flashback: It’s the twin’s Bat Mitzvah. Their dad Jacob loads the car with gifts and kisses their mom goodbye. She gives 12-year-old Kate and Beth her own personal gift — their red jewel necklaces that represent passion, courage, and war. It’s something to remember her by. Unfortunately, that’s all too true. But the main takeaway from this scene is Kate’s VERYYY GAY baby blazer. It’s purdy adorbz.
In today’s Gotham, a creep chases a woman through an alley and it doesn’t look good. Thankfully Batwoman whooshes down. The guy shoots her repeatedly as she says, “what a dick,” and with some of the strongest angst we’ve seen from her, grabs his gun away and pistol whips him. The woman is breathless but okay, and directs her attention to the Bat Signal.
In some impressive camerawork, our hero zips up through the city and lands on the signal roof. Beth’s captor, Cartwright, is lying tied up, pale and unconscious. In his mouth is a note that reads, “Ask About Mommy Dearest.” Bat Gulp.
Alice finds Mouse in the basement of an abandoned house. He’s been hooked to Fear Gas for god knows how long. She tries to convince him it’s really her by slapping him and then jabbering a riddle in the way only she knows how. But where are they? The house of the Red Queen, Mouse’s grandmother. The Jumpy Juice finally kicks in, and Mouse turns on Alice, saying she’s his greatest nightmare, locking her to the chair.
The next morning, Kate invites her dad over. Before she lets him inside she says, “promise you won’t kill him.” You know, normal family chatter. Then she forces him to take a shot of whiskey before dropping the whole Alice is Actually Still Alive truth bomb. Mouse’s dad is still tied up, and after Jacob rage squeezes him multiple times like a dog toy, it comes down to this: let him go or else Alice will lose the remaining wisps of sanity and either kill herself or many, many others.
So what’s making Alice go insane? Flashbacks of the Red Queen, a hell demon in a frail crone’s body. By this point, poor Beth was already conditioned not to escape, acting as Mouse’s companion and the family’s personal subservient Cinderella. But when grandma moves in, the abuse leveled up. Slapping, burning, beating. We see an adult version of Beth, absolutely frantic, looking for cream for the Queen’s Tea.
Cartwright, still tied up, tells stories of his mother being the villain but Kate isn’t having it. “You threw Beth in a cellar and taught her how to carve up faces, but Mommy is the bad guy. Nice try.” As Jacob goes to track his phone, this dude escapes his handcuffs and cuts his own throat. Whaaa? These people have no freaking endgames. Kates calls Mary who is happier than a clam that Batwoman is calling for advice. Kate staples his neck back together. Jeepers!
Luke and Mary do some sleuthing of their own and find Cartwright’s car and sniper rifle and piece the whole thing together. At Wayne HQ, when Luke’s not looking, Mary sneakily pulls books off the shelves to see if the Bat Cave opens for her. Let this woman into the club already! I need at least 3x more Mary per episode.
Alice jiggles her rickety chair until she falls over and it breaks apart. Uh…. okay then. But she’s too freaked out, and just before she can kill herself, Jacob rushes in and nullifies the toxin with adrenaline. He holds her as she weeps, “Daddy.”
Things seem resolved until the topic of Kate’s mom’s earrings come up. Why did the Red Queen have them? Turns out, Mommy Dearest refers to Mrs. Kane’s head. Hidden in the godforsaken freezer. For ten years. That Cartwright’s mother wanted as a new face. When Alice discovered this, it snapped her out of Stockholm Syndrome, giving her the power to stand up to the Red Queen, aka literally charbroiling her with her own oxygen tank.
And when Kate hears this, she loses her shit. Her promises to let Cartwright go in exchange for Alice’s location fly out the door. She kills him with her bare hands, shouting, “you’ve taken everything from me.”
But the second she realizes she’s done the thing she said she’d never do, Kate tries to bring him back. Jacob cries, “no, no no, what did you do,” as he and Alice walk in while she attempts to resuscitate him. How does he know she did anything? Dude slit his own throat an hour ago. And what good is he anyway? No one would believe this story anyway.
Outside, poor Kate chugs enough liquor to flatten a sumo wrestler. With a tiny tear in her eye, she texts Sophie “are you awake” but puts the phone down as Alice invites her to the body burying, and Kate follows unsure of this new path. It’s goofy AF that she’s being framed as a killer, but as Batwoman, she never wanted to cross that line. Let’s pray for a brighter day for our baby gay.
