Batwoman is an American superhero television series developed by Caroline Dries. It is based on the DC Comics character Batwoman and shares continuity with the other television series in the Arrowverse. The series premiered on The CW on October 6, 2019, and is primarily filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with location filming in Chicago, Illinois. In the first season, Batwoman follows Kate Kane overcoming her demons and past to become Gotham City's new symbol of hope as the vigilante Batwoman.
In May 2018, it was announced that Batwoman would appear in "Elseworlds", the Arrowverse series' 2018 crossover, with an announcement two months later that a series centered on the character was in development from Dries. Ruby Rose was cast as Kate Kane in August of the same year. In January 2019, the series received a pilot order from The CW, to be considered for a series order in the 2019–20 television season. The show was picked up to series in May 2019 and in October 2019 a full season of 22 episodes was ordered. Production on the first season ended early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the first season with only 20 episodes.
In January 2020, The CW renewed the series for a second season, which is set to premiere on January 17, 2021. In May 2020, Rose had exited the series, and two months later, Javicia Leslie was cast as Ryan Wilder, a new character that is set to take up the position of Batwoman.
Cast:
Main
Gracyn Shinyei portrays a younger Kate.
Ava Sleeth portrays a younger Beth.
Skarsten also portrayed an alternate version of Beth who was displaced from her native Earth during "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and appeared on Earth-Prime. This version did not get lost during the car accident.
Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore
Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton
Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox
Camrus Johnson also portrays his Earth-99 counterpart.
Elizabeth Anweis as Catherine Hamilton-Kane (season 1)
Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane
LaMonica Garrett also stars on "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two" as Mar Novu / Monitor, a multiversal being who tests different Earths in the multiverse in preparation for an impending "crisis" orchestrated by his polar opposite, Mobius / Anti-Monitor.
Recurring
Introduced in season one
Greyston Holt as TylerBrendon Zub as Chuck Dodgson
Rachel Maddow as the voice of Vesper Fairchild
Gabriel Mann as Tommy Elliot / Hush
Warren Christie portrays Elliot in the guise of Bruce Wayne.
Brianne Howey as Reagan
Rachel Matthews as Margaret "Margot" / Magpie
Christina Wolfe as Julia Pennyworth
Sam Littlefield as Jonathan "Johnny" Cartwright / Mouse
Nicholas Holmes portrays a younger Johnny.
John Emmet Tracy as August Cartwright
John Emmet Tracy as August Cartwright
Sebastian Roché provides the face and performance for Dr. Ethan Campbell
*** WARNING: FULL SPOILERS!!! ***
Episode Summaries:
Episode 1: "Pilot"
Three years after the disappearance of Gotham City-based vigilante Batman, Jacob Kane and his private security firm the Crows preside over a gala led by Mayor Michael Akins to turn off the Bat-Signal. At the height of the festivities, Alice and the Wonderland Gang crash the event and abduct Crows operative Sophie Moore, prompting Jacob's stepdaughter Mary to call his biological daughter, Kate. Returning from overseas, Kate learns Alice is targeting her father and sets out to locate her cousin, billionaire Bruce Wayne. She discovers, however, that Bruce is Batman, who she blamed for failing to save her sister and mother after they died in a car crash. Realizing there's more to the story, she dons her cousin's Batsuit, altered by Wayne Enterprises employee Luke Fox, before rescuing Sophie and foiling Alice's plan to detonate a bomb in a crowded park. The next day, as the news reports on what they believe is Batman's return, Kate begins to suspect Alice is her sister, Beth.Episode 2: "The Rabbit Hole"
Kate's growing suspicions about Alice's identity drive a wedge between her and Jacob, who firmly believes Beth is dead based on the evidence. While trying to get Alice's favorite knife tested for DNA, she comes under attack from a group of thugs that manage to steal it back. Deducing one of Alice's injured men used Mary's secret clinic, Kate frees him to give Alice a message. Kate then asks Sophie to buy her time while she meets with Alice, who refuses to directly admit she is Beth, but agrees to provide a DNA sample. Sophie tells Jacob where to find them, resulting in Alice being transported to Arkham Asylum. Alice tells Kate she tasked her boyfriend, ex-Crows agent Dodgson, with killing Mary; prompting Kate to save her before rescuing Alice from a bomb intended to kill her before both Kate and Alice escape from the police. Meanwhile, Kate's stepmother, Catherine, orders the thugs she tasked with stealing Alice's knife to destroy it. After interrogating Dodgson, Kate finds a parcel containing a live bat and a note from Alice that implies she knows her identity.Episode 3: "Down Down Down"
Bruce's former childhood friend, Thomas Elliot, leaves Kate an invitation to a gala celebrating the purchase of the building overlooking Wayne Tower. Around the same time, a railgun designed to penetrate the Batsuit is stolen from a Wayne Enterprises facility. Kate correctly infers that Elliot is the thief, having learned Bruce's true identity and intends to kill Batman for saving his mother years earlier, delaying his inheritance. When he takes hostages to force Batman out, Kate confronts him in a modified suit, adopting the persona of Batwoman as she rescues the hostages and disables the railgun. Alice subdues Elliot to save a cornered Batwoman, but they part on less than amicable terms while the Crows take Elliot to Arkham Asylum. Elsewhere, Sophie finds herself pondering her relationship with Kate, but dismisses them after enter a relationship with a bartender, Reagan. Catherine finds playing cards left by Alice in her bedroom, demanding Jacob deal with her despite his concerns that she might be Beth. Gotham publicly learns about Batwoman.Episode 4: "Who Are You?"
Kate's relationship with Reagan complicates her efforts to catch jewel thief Magpie, who has stolen Martha Wayne's necklace, and puts her newfound status as Gotham's protector in question. When Dodgson develops an infection during his captivity, Batwoman drops him off with Mary for treatment. While he is drugged with morphine, Mary impersonates Alice and gets him to reveal part of her plan: a mysterious figure named Mouse. After getting the necklace back, Batwoman foils Magpie's latest heist at a museum gala; allowing the Crows to arrest her and take her to Blackgate Penitentiary. Recognizing that she cannot be in an honest relationship, Kate breaks up with Reagan. To provide a cover for her vigilantism, Kate sets up a company to buy dilapidated buildings and turn them into low-cost housing with Luke as her assistant. Meanwhile, Alice meets with Catherine at Beth's grave and demands she turn over an experimental weapon; threatening to tell Jacob the truth about Beth. Catherine confesses to Jacob that she used a deer skull in place of Beth's, causing him to storm out.Episode 5: "Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale"
Alice is linked to a series of skin thefts in Gotham, so Kate captures her and gives her the chance to explain herself, while also leaving Jacob and Sophie a trail to follow. The sisters travel to the rural area where Beth was last seen. A series of flashbacks show Beth being rescued from drowning and subsequently being held captive by a man who wants her to be a companion for his disfigured son, Jonathan Cartwright, who will later become Mouse. Catherine tells Mary the truth about her deception and she storms into Wayne Enterprises in a drunken stupor. Luke calms her by letting her assist with his skin theft investigation, learning that they are connected to several escaped Arkham prisoners. Alice drugs Kate and locks her in Mouse's home. When Jacob and Sophie show up after subduing Dodgson and the Wonderland Gang members with him, Alice stabs her father. Kate escapes, takes Mouse captive with Sophie's help, and forces him and Alice to leave. Jacob recovers, but now fully accepts that Alice is Beth. Alice promises Mouse, who she calls her "brother", that she will help him become whoever he wants to be.Episode 6: "I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury"
A vigilante calling himself the "Executioner" begins targeting law enforcement and judicial officials he deems to be corrupt. Alice has Mouse impersonate one of Catherine's researchers to steal the weapon she refused to turn over. However, Alice convinces him not to as she still needs him for an upcoming tea party. When he discovers it was intended to kill Batwoman, he feels betrayed and confronts Alice; believing she wants to protect her sister. Sophie deduces Batwoman's identity, but is injured by the Executioner during his latest attack; forcing Kate to take her to Mary. A flash drive is located, which proves the Executioner's claims to be true. This upsets Luke, as he fears it would allow his father, Lucius', killer to request a re-trial. Sophie escapes, but not before Mary urges her not to reveal Batwoman's identity. Jacob manages to kill the Executioner, only to be caught in one of his traps. After Batwoman saves him, he tells her he was wrong to blame Batman for what happened to Beth and his wife.Episode 7: "Tell Me the Truth"
Kate runs into her old friend, Julia Pennyworth, while on the trail of a professional assassin called "The Rifle". Sophie threatens to tell Jacob Kate's identity unless she ceases her vigilantism. The Rifle meets with Alice and hands over a mysterious vial as he mentions his boss Safiyah. Kate invites Sophie to a local restaurant, where their show of affection upsets the homophobic owner. When they leave, Sophie confesses that Jacob was the one who convinced her to end their relationship, putting her on the path to where she is now. Catherine goes to see Jacob, who reluctantly agrees to hold off filing for divorce. Julia poses as Batwoman so Kate can trick Sophie, but winds up captured by the Crows when the Rifle ambushes her. Kate breaks her out and Sophie concludes that she was wrong. Nevertheless, Kate tells her it's best they stop seeing each other. After purchasing a space, Kate and Mary open a gay bar. Jacob meets with Alice, revealing himself as Mouse, while the Rifle leaves for the Mediterranean with Julia in pursuit as the real Jacob returns from upstate. Alice puts the next stage of her plan in action.Episode 8: "A Mad Tea-Party"
Alice has Jacob abducted while Mouse sequesters Sophie and Tyler as her plan unfolds. On Alice's orders, disguised Wonderland Gang members replace the security detail assigned to protect Gotham's Humanitarian Ball, where Catherine is to be awarded. Alice rewrites her speech, making her confess to numerous crimes before collapsing. Alice tells a captured Catherine and Mary they have been poisoned by a toxin developed by the former's company and there is only enough antidote for one. Catherine compels Mary to take it, expressing how proud of her she is before she dies. As Batwoman neutralizes the Wonderland Gang, she nearly strangles Alice in anger upon learning of her actions. However Mouse, disguised as Jacob, stuns Batwoman to exfil Alice. Jacob awakes to find himself framed for Catherine's death and arrested by Commissioner Forbes. Furious that Kate chose to believe in Alice, Mary is left devastated by her mother's death. Tired of doubting, Tyler asks Sophie to decide whether she loves him or Kate. As Kate visits Jacob, both agree Alice is beyond saving and must be stopped. Meanwhile in Central City, Nash Wells uncovers a wall of symbols before a blinding light pulls him inside.Episode 9: "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two"
To aid the heroes, Harbinger recruits Earth-74's Mick Rory and his Waverider. After Oliver Queen's death, the Monitor consults the Book of Destiny and learns of seven Paragons. Two are Sara Lance and Kara Danvers, but to find two more, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Iris West-Allen must locate a Superman who has suffered "more than any mortal man" while Kate and Kara search for the "Bat of the Future". Complicated by Lex Luthor stealing the Book in order to kill Supermen across the multiverse. When he finds Earth-96's Superman at the same time as Clark's team, he forces the Kryptonians to fight each other until Lois stops him. Meanwhile, Kate and Kara locate Earth-99's Bruce Wayne, an aged killer, but fail to convince him to join them. A heated confrontation erupts wherein Bruce is accidentally electrocuted. Elsewhere, Sara, Barry Allen, Mia Smoak, and John Constantine take Oliver's body to a Lazarus Pit to resurrect him; but it fails to work. Back on the Waverider, Ray Palmer builds a "Paragon detector", which identifies Kate as the "Bat of the Future". Unbeknownst to everyone, Harbinger is approached by the Anti-Monitor. This episode continues a crossover event that begins on Supergirl season 5 episode 9, continues on The Flash season 6 episode 9 and Arrow season 8 episode 8, and concludes on Legends of Tomorrow's special episode.Episode 10: "How Queer Everything Is Today!"
Following Catherine's death and Jacob's arrest, Mary tries to find an expert to testify in Jacob's defense and continues to distance herself from Kate while Sophie takes command of the Crows. After Batwoman saves a hacked train from crashing, the perpetrator demands a large sum of money as ransom or they will release all of Gotham's secrets online. Luke tracks the culprit to Gotham Prep, where Batwoman learns it was a lesbian student named Parker Torres, who was outed to her heteronormative parents by an ex-girlfriend and hoped to leave Gotham with the blackmail money. Alice breaks into the school, abducts Parker, and forces Batwoman to unmask herself to Parker or else she will murder her. She also threatens the school with a bomb and attempts to force Parker to out Batwoman's identity, but Parker contacts the Crows and GCPD instead, who evacuate the building and arrest Alice. Afterwards, Kate offers Parker emotional support and reconciles with Mary. Batwoman later comes out as a lesbian superhero in an interview with Kara. Jacob has encounters with a tough inmate named Reggie Harris. When she returns to Wayne Tower, Kate meets a doppelgänger of Beth, who happily greets her.Episode 11: "An Un-Birthday Present"
In flashbacks, Beth was shown to have an improving friendship with Mouse, but his father August Cartwright did not approve and got her involved in his latest project. In the present, Kate tries to clear things up with the second Beth; who got displaced from her Earth following the Crisis. To free Alice, Mouse kidnaps Commissioner Forbes' and Mayor Akins' sons before he and the Wonderland Gang intercept Kate before she can become Batwoman. Using a code Kate and Sophie learned, Sophie refuses to yield to Mouse's demands. In an attempt to fool Alice, Luke and Mary disguise the second Beth as Alice to buy Kate time to break free. When "Alice" does not use the proper code, Mouse captures her. Kate breaks free, subdues the Wonderland Gang, and injures Mouse before rescuing the hostages. Alice gets out before she can be taken to Arkham, telling Sophie she has her own demons to deal with. With Mouse under heavy guard in the ICU, protestors appear outside GCPD, demanding they light the Bat-Signal as Batwoman arrives. Later, Kate celebrates her birthday with Luke, Mary, and Beth. Suddenly, both Beth and Alice simultaneously suffer from migraines.
Episode 12: "Take Your Choice"
Sophie and Jacob petition Dr. Campbell for his testimony, who agrees if he can examine Mouse. Alice visits Mouse and learns of her doppelgänger as she continues to suffer from migraines. When she meets her in Wayne Tower, Beth theorizes that only one of them can be saved. Remembering that Mary's blood has the "cure-all" antidote, Alice attacks her at her clinic to save herself, but Mary leaves Alice handcuffed to a clinic bed and escapes to give her blood to Kate so she can save Beth. Meanwhile, Jacob is attacked by Dodgson, then saved by Reggie, who expects him to repay him before the other prisoners find out. Campbell visits Mouse in the ICU, revealing himself as August. Exfiltrating Mouse posed as a guard, August leaves him bound in an unknown location so he can target Alice. After giving Beth the blood sample, Kate attends to a weakened Alice while Luke gets Beth away from the Crows. Though Sophie follows, ready to kill Beth, she chooses to call for an arrest. August snipes Beth instead, mistaking her for Alice, allowing Alice herself to quickly recover and knock out Kate.Episode 13: "Drink Me"
With the truth of Catherine's murder disclosed, Jacob is cleared of all charges and regains control of the Crows. At night, people are targeted by a vampire named Nocturna. When Batwoman finds her latest victim, Nocturna stuns her with ketamine before taking a sample of her blood. Sophie helps Batwoman before the Crows find her; advising her to keep her distance. Mary treats Kate before the latter works with Jacob to draw out Nocturna. After speaking with Kate, Alice replaces the missing Mouse with a mannequin before she is attacked by Nocturna. Using facial recognition, Luke recognizes Nocturna as Natalia Knight, who suffers from porphyria. Kate finds Alice just as Nocturna attacks Mary. Alice donates her blood to save Mary before Kate confronts Nocturna and defeats her with a forensic UV light. Jacob confronts Sophie after viewing footage of her helping Batwoman and implores her to pick a side before suspending her until further notice. Mary remembers finding ketamine in Kate's system, and realizes she is Batwoman while Alice realizes Campbell is actually August. Kate visits Sophie by the Bat-Signal and they share a kiss.Episode 14: "Grinning from Ear to Ear"
In flashbacks, Duela Dent struggles with making her face look "normal," so she smashes a mirror and uses its shards to cut her face. In the present, Duela targets social media influencers. Still suspended, Sophie's mother visits her. Upon learning of her current relationship issues however, she leaves disappointed. August hooks up Mouse to a fear toxin canister and tells him he killed Alice. While investigating Duela, Batwoman determines her next target, Myrtle, and narrowly saves the girl's mother after Duela attacks her. Following this, Luke discovers Myrtle changed her name to Veronica May and Duela's victims were all connected to Dr. Campbell. Batwoman and Sophie later find Duela just as she is to drop Veronica in acid. While Batwoman rescues the latter, Sophie subdues the former and leaves her for the police. However, Alice gets to Duela first and steals her face so she can kidnap Dr. Campbell and reveal she knows his true identity. Meanwhile, as Luke feared, Reggie's lawyer, Bobby Reeves, visits him to establish his client's re-trial date in light of new evidence. Amidst this, Jacob finds himself questioning the circumstances behind Lucius' death.Episode 15: "Off with Her Head"
In flashbacks, Gabi Kane gave her daughters necklaces that matched her earrings. During her time with August, Beth endured torments from his mother Mabel, her "Queen of Hearts". Taking notice of Mabel's earrings, she traced them to a locked refrigerator containing Gabi's head. In retaliation, Beth turned Mabel's oxygen tank into a makeshift flamethrower. In the present, Batwoman finds a bound August near the Bat-Signal and alerts Jacob, who is unwilling to alert the police after what Forbes did to him. When he asks about the second Beth, Kate claims she was a "skin thief" to hide her true nature while Luke and Mary track down her killer. Meanwhile, Alice finds Mouse and frees him, but he hooks her up to the canister and flees, believing she's his greatest fear. Under the effects of the fear toxin, Alice hallucinates a zombified Mabel tormenting her before she breaks free. Jacob arrives soon after while looking for Mouse and uses adrenaline to save her before arresting her. Incensed by what August did to Beth and her mother, Kate accidentally strangles him, much to Jacob's dismay as he returns with Alice.Episode 16: "Through the Looking-Glass"
As Jacob buries August's body, Alice escapes with his gun. She returns to the Wonderland Gang hideout hoping to find Mouse, only to find her gang murdered and a threatening note from Safiyah. She convinces Kate to help her find Mouse, promising to leave Gotham afterwards. They visit a nurse who treated Mouse, only to find the Crows taking him to Arkham. Following a disagreement and fight, Kate agrees to help Alice break him out. They retrieve Mouse's cell key from Dr. Butler, but when Alice goes to free him, Kate locks her in; revealing she was part of a sting operation with Jacob to capture her. Meanwhile, Jacob instructs Sophie to investigate Lucius' death after hearing of Reggie's re-trial. A sniper nearly kills her, but Julia saves her. Luke and Mary attend Reggie's court hearing, where he is granted his re-trial and released. Luke confronts him, but Reggie claims he was set up before he gets shot. Sophie later informs Jacob that two people connected to Lucius' case have turned up dead before the hitman nearly kills him. He defeats him, but the hitman dies from his injuries before he can be interrogated.Episode 17: "A Narrow Escape"
Struggling with having killed August, Kate does not suit up for a week. Meanwhile, a past criminal called the Detonator resurfaces; placing people in bomb vests. Kate confronts George Adler, who confirms his deceased father was the original Detonator. Reeves falls victim next, so he contacts the Crows, who work with the GCPD to evacuate Mary's clinic. After Kate rescues Mary, she reveals she knows Batwoman's identity. When Jacob becomes the Detonator's latest target, Kate realizes that Crows agent Robles is responsible. Batwoman intercepts him and learns he is typing up loose ends concerning Lucius' murder and that the latest bomb is in Wayne Enterprises' underground parking garage. There, Batwoman discovers that Robles was paid by Elliot to get Lucius' journals, leading to his accidental death and Reggie being framed. Luke overhears and Kate stops him from taking vengeance, admitting that she killed August. Luke places the building on lockdown, limiting the blast radius. Jacob reinstates Sophie while Julia is transferred to the Crows. Meanwhile, Alice and Mouse, disguised as Butler, decide to take over Arkham to keep themselves safe from Safiyah.Episode 18: "If You Believe in Me, I'll Believe in You"
Batwoman plans to go after Lucius' journal, which is currently being held by Elliot's associate, Johnny Sabatino. With Luke's assistance in the Batcave, Kate and Julia infiltrate Sabatino's club, only to get captured. In response, Luke is forced to ask Mary for help in rescuing them. Meanwhile, Alice agrees to give Elliot a new face in exchange for the journal and to keep the Crows from putting him on trial. As Sabatino refuses to give up the journal however, Alice sends Magpie to retrieve it while she and Mouse work on Elliot's new face. The Crows later visit Arkham and find what appears to be Elliot hanged in his cell. As Julia is being tortured, Sabatino auctions off the chance to kill Batwoman. However, Mary frees Batwoman while Julia frees herself before they defeat the criminals and retrieve Lucius' journal before Magpie. After meeting Reagan at the club, Kate has a one-night stand with her, only to find the journal missing the next morning. Elsewhere, Reagan gives it to Magpie, who in turn gives it to Alice. While pouring over the journal however, she and Mouse discover it has been written in code.Episode 19: "A Secret Kept from All the Rest"
Kate storms Reagan's apartment and learns who she gave the journal to. Taking up the identity of Hush, Elliot abducts members of Gotham's Intelligentsia to decipher the journal on Alice's behalf and kills them when they fail to. He nearly abducts Parker, but Batwoman interferes; forcing him to escape. In response, Alice sends Hush after Luke and Julia. With help from Mary and Parker, Batwoman confronts Alice and offers Lucius' glasses in exchange for their safety. Once she gets what she needs from the journal, Alice releases Arkham's inmates and destroys Mouse's disguise before escaping into the tunnels. Following the incident, Jacob warns Batwoman that a war will start between her and the Crows should she ever resurface. Julia tells Kate that she was after the book for the Rifle's boss, Safiyah Sohail, but called off the deal after learning what it does. In the sewers, Alice continues reading through the journal and orders her associates to procure Kryptonite.Episode 20: "O, Mouse!"
Jacob and Batwoman confront Arkham escapee Tim "The Titan" Teslow, only to be defeated. Mouse shows Alice a mobile app developed for people to send alerts to the Crows. After learning that Kryptonite can pierce the Batsuit, Luke shows Kate a shard of Kryptonite that Bruce had; intent on destroying it before it falls into the wrong hands. Batwoman meets with Tim's brother, Apollo, to warn him, but Tim attacks and kills him. Mary lights the Bat-Signal to get Jacob's attention and convince him to call a truce with Batwoman to stop Tim. Alice kills Mouse when he begins to affect her plans. Batwoman and the Crows lure Tim to Gotham Stadium, but just as she reasons with him, the Crows kill Tim and Jacob reneges on the truce; forcing Batwoman to flee. At the Crows' headquarters, Jacob reaffirms his desire to take down Batwoman while Sophie learns about Safiyah from Julia. Kate shows Luke and Mary the Kryptonite in her possession, entrusted to her by Supergirl. Alice finishes Elliot's new face, making him resemble Bruce Wayne.The Verdict:
I remember reading the news of this series coming to a reality after being rumored for a long time and thinking it may be an interesting concept. Then I heard the casting news about Ruby Rose being lined up for the lead role and I wasn't too thrilled about that news. Look, I never saw the big deal about her when she was a cast regular in Orange is the New Black or one of the new cast members on one of the many Resident Evil movies, but I did understand that it was important to cast someone to properly identify with the LGBTQ community with this character.
When the series finally debuted on the CW, I remember watching the first two episodes on the CW app since my satellite provider stopped carrying the CW as part of the local networks on the broadcasting package I was paying for, so I was like whatever. It started off a little too "safe" for my taste as I wasn't really drawn to this character from her performance in the "Elseworlds" crossover the year prior. Don't get me wrong. I loved Batwoman/Kate Kane and The Question/Renee Montoya's romance in the New 52 novel that I read back in college. It was the same book that kindled my fondness for Black Adam and Isis' pairing. The turn off for me here off the bat was the whole notion that Bruce Wayne went missing and no one really bats an eye in Gotham City. It seems like a complete copout and lazy writing as a poor excuse that "Sorry, we currently don't have the rights to that character..." much like Superman being limited to text messages and instant messaging in the first season of Supergirl. To the show's credit, they won me over by the end of the third episode.
As much credit people will give Ruby Rose for laying the foundation for this show in terms of LGBTQ representation, I have to tip my hat to Rachel Skarsten for carrying this season on her back from start to finish as Alice. This entire season is essentially about Alice falling deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole so to speak. Rachel Skarsten's performance as this villain is comparable to Tom Cavanagh's Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash in The Flash on this same network that is just impressive from every scene she's in.
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| Rachel Skarsten owns this show as this character. Without her in that role, it would have been very unlikely that I would have stuck with this for the entire 20 episodes. |
Alice is introduced as Batwoman's Jokeresque villain to serve as this season's primary antagonist until it's quickly revealed that her ties with Batwoman are deeper. She's really Kate Kane's estranged sister, Beth, who was thought to be dead after going missing when they were children. One of the biggest head-scratchers from this season is that Kate mentions that Batman/Bruce Wayne was stumped on this case, but when the details of how she survived is revealed over the course of the season it just seems like Batman didn't try hard enough. That was the impression that I was given anyway.
Much like a lot of these CW DC Comics-based superhero TV dramas, Batwoman has a great supporting cast, ranging from Crows that enforce the law in their own militaristic means, led by Kate's own father, Jacob Kane, and Kate's ex-girlfriend, Sophie Moore, to Batwoman's team behind the scenes, Luke Fox (the deceased Lucius Fox's son who serves as Kate's tech support and genius behind her various gadgets) and Mary (Kate's step-sister from Jacob's second marriage, who runs an illegal medical practice in Gotham's underworld since she's still in med school).
Jacob Kane bottles up all of his hatred and anguish over losing Beth and points all of the blame onto Batman for failing to rescue his daughter during the night of the fateful accident that drove their family apart. He would come to realize that was a mistake when he was misdirecting the blame on anyone and everything except for himself. That doesn't stop his stubbornness to do things in his own way as he sees his Crows as superior to the corrupt Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) with shady cops accepting any and all bribes from Gotham's criminal underworld.
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| Both of them were in denial until this moment. |
Sophie Moore, who works in the Crows as one of Jacob Kane's most trusted and loyal officer in his militaristic police regiment, is Kate's ex-girlfriend, but she quickly becomes one of Batwoman's harshest critics. By the end of the first season, she's one of her biggest supporters after seeing Jacob Kane's methods to be too extreme at times and that Gotham needs a symbol of hope like Batwoman in the absence of Batman. She's an interesting character on her own right, especially after surprising me when I thought she was going to be merely an easily forgettable love interest. Then again... I don't know why I was surprised when I could look at what these shows have done with similar love interests, such as Felicity Smoak and Iris West-Allen. For as much street smarts, intelligence, and a keen mind for detective work in general that Sophie Moore has, it's rather ironic that she finds herself stupified by so many "dangerous" women over the course of the season. First, Kate Kane, then Batwoman, Alice, and later Julia Pennyworth.
Luke Fox is no Cisco Ramon, but he serves as the peanut butter to the jelly of the sandwich that keeps their team working like a well-oiled machine. Kate Kane was made painfully aware that her crime-fighting exploits are neigh impossible without his contributions. A lot of his journey throughout this season is discovering the mystery behind his father's murder, but whether or not he can live up to his father's reputation as not only a genius inventor and confidant, but as a valuable ally to the Wayne family in general. To his credit, Luke raises to the occasion above and beyond the call of duty.
Julia Pennyworth is introduced as a British spy who just happens to be Alfred Pennyworth's daughter and another one of Kate's ex-lovers. Julia's return to Gotham City seems to be for more reasons than she's letting on as she has an ulterior for monitoring Batwoman's exploits. That being said, she's a charming addition to the cast when she makes her debut and seems to stand out in every scene that she's in. She serves as a rebound for Sophie after falling out with both Kate Kane, Batwoman, and her own family after coming out as a lesbian. For as charming and charismatic Julia is, she seems to have no qualms about using anyone and everyone around her to complete her goals. Her array of skills seem to imply that she's had much more training than she's letting on too. Due to the awkward and impromptu ending of this season, her character journey doesn't see any resolution outside of that Kate is onto her working as a mole within the Crows, but isn't aware that Julia's somehow tied with the mysterious Safiyah.
Catherine Hamilton is Kate's stepmother and biological mother of Kate's step-sister, Mary. I honestly didn't trust her right off the bat as she had just as much shady dealings as Niko's mother in Marvel's Runaways. Alice forces her hand via blackmail to confess to planting fake remains of Beth and causing Jacob Kane to quit looking for his missing daughter. Catherine had as much of a part to play into making Alice into the psychopath that she is as the rest of the Kane family for giving up the search. Not the mention that Catherine's company was developing biological and advanced weaponry for the highest bidders. She had a lot to answer for when all of her skeletons came falling out of the closet.
Mary Hamilton comes across as a prima donna and fashionista at first glance, but much like the rest of her family, she has a secret of her own. Batwoman stumbles onto her private clinic where she treats anyone in Gotham City unfortunate enough not to be able to afford their own proper healthcare, whether it be criminals from the shady underworld or mere innocent people from Gotham's populace. She only wishes to save lives, anyway that she can. At the start of the season, Kate keeps her at arms length, but as the season boils over, they bond as sisters should after Kate realizes that Mary isn't trying to replace Beth's memory in her heart, but to be a part of her life too. She joins with Luke as part of Batwoman's support team during the tail end of this season.
Speaking of Kate Kane, despite not being overly fond of Ruby Rose in general, I found myself indifferent to her portrayal of the character of Kate Kane in general. It's just that this show doesn't gives her enough "good" material to work with in the first place anyway. In those moments where it counts, Rose has a knack to convey Kate as a certified bad ass and in others, she's compassionate and empathetic to those around her. So I applaud Ruby Rose's performance in that regard. Everything else comes off stale and shallow. When Kate chose Beth from other Earth over Alice, you could read it all over Rose's face to convey how much Kate hated to be forced into that position to choose between lesser of two evils.
(Laughs) Seriously though... how fucked up is it that Kate doesn't "betray" or abandon Alice not once but at least THREE times over the course of this season though? Meanwhile, Alice has MULTIPLE chances to kill Kate/Batwoman but spares her EVERY.SINGLE.TIME, claiming it's for she could be the only one to spare her suffering when in reality, she can't let her sister go like Kate and the rest of her family did to her. It was that same sense of twisted logic that had me enamored with Alice more than what Batwoman was going to do by the time the season came to a close.
One of Kate's defining moments over the course of the entire season is the moment that she killed August Cartwright by strangling him to death. It was that pivotal moment that completely distanced herself from Bruce Wayne/Batman completely. The emotional turmoil that she put herself through over the next few episodes was uncanny to the point that it was affecting her health since she refused to suit up in the Batwoman costume after convincing herself that she was disrespecting what that symbol of the Dark Knight represented. It's one hell of a twist too and a constant dilemma with the clash of ideologies. Bruce Wayne never ended a life (at least not in this continuity as far as we know...) and Kate Kane did it with her own bare hands. Sure, she was manipulated into getting hysterical by Alice staging the ordeal, but at the end of the day, it was her own decision. One could argue that Kate deserves to be locked up just like every other criminal and murderer in Gotham City. What was even more powerful was Kate's confession to Luke when he was about to do the same thing to the man who murdered his father. Kate didn't want the kindest and gentle soul that she knew to go down the same dark path that she did and lost Alice down to the rabbit hole in. It's moments like this that serve as the few bright spots in this season.
Since the titular protagonist of this show is obviously lesbian, the CW used this show as a platform to bombard the narrative with a lot of pandering to LGBTQ viewers as a marketing agenda. I'm not saying that's a problem as that's the key demographic/main audience that this show is being marketed towards, but it comes across as forced at times (like a LOT of these CW shows) when the entire core plot is dropped at times for this show to literally hang up a bright neon sign that says, "LOOK WE HAVE GAYS ON OUR SHOW!!" In its defense though, this show handles this subject manner MUCH better than Supergirl did when her sister, Alex Danvers, came out as lesbian. Batwoman comes out to the public as lesbian after hearing the story of a teenage hacker and how her family completely rejected her for it. Later in the the same season, Sophie comes to grips about her own lesbian identity after juggling her feelings for her ex-girlfriend, Kate Kane, only to start a budding romance with Batwoman (after completely discarding that she could be Kate under the cape and cowl, even though she had thought she had it figured out early on) that only served to complicate things with her then-husband before they got divorced shortly thereafter. After hiding this sexual identity for so long and the lengths she went to hide it - throwing Kate Kane under the bus for she could maintain her military rank and position of power within the Crows, she came clean to her mother about everything, only to be shunned by her as well. That was some excellent writing on that episode. I could feel her slightly stereotypical black mother's disgust with her child about coming out and it pained me as a heterosexual viewer. I can't imagine that the LGBTQ viewers went through that episode with any dry eyes unless they were made of stone. When I wrote about the many things that I loved about Doom Patrol's unconventional storytelling, I mentioned how I liked how they explored Larry Trainer's homosexuality and how the story of hiding his identity tore his family apart, even before he was possessed and bonded to the energy being. When told well, these "coming out" stories make for some great character development/growth moments in these shows like this. Here, it feels natural in its storytelling than feeling like the network is merely fulfilling a checklist of demographics to market towards - something a lot of the other CW shows tend to be guilty of. Think about it... How many of these DC Comics-based superhero shows on the CW has a LGBTQ cast member, a token POC (person of color) character, and a strong female lead and/or supporting character? Almost ALL of them. It rarely feels natural either. Here, it doesn't feel as forced. Instead, it feels more natural more often than not. I applaud CW that they are learning how to convey the message(s) they want to share without shoving it down viewers' throats whether they like it or not.
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| I thought it was cool that Hush made an appearance this season, even though his costume looked like something straight out of Power Rangers though. |
In terms of villains and action on this show, I thought the fight scenes weren't bad at all and it definitely kept me interested. I was a little surprised at some of the villain choices for this show (outside of the choice of Alice for the primary antagonist that I warmed up to quickly), but was pleasantly surprised to see that they found ways to make villains, such as Magpie, Duela Dent, Noctura, and Hush work in this continuity. Sadly, this show still falls into that "villain of the week" formula that the Arrowverse is known for across the board. We see Alice, Magpie, and Hush show up multiple times over the course of this season, but too many of these villains are one and done affairs.
I do want to mention that there's a few times that I was genuinely surprised at how bloody and violent that some of these scenes would get over the course of this season. It shows that this show wasn't afraid to push the envelope a bit to truly portray these adult-themed narratives and plot points. This is already another Batman show that is handicapped without Batman/Bruce Wayne in it, unlike it's predecessor Gotham, so it already has enough going against going in to begin with, so that was a nice nugget to have in its pocket. Even as I'm writing this review, I still feel like that the explanation for Bruce Wayne/Batman's absence was lazy as fuck and could have been done better. You would think that the CW would have learned from that mistake back with Superman's absence in the first season(s) of Supergirl!
It's narrative choices like that is where I had to draw the line at points during Batwoman. For everything they did great with the dynamic between Kate and Alice (from Kate desperately trying to reason with the sister that she thought she lost forever to Alice's multi-layered schemes to cause as much turmoil as possible for Kate, her loved ones, or the city that she's desperately trying to protect in Bruce's absence) or Kate's struggling to living up with the responsibility of being a symbol of good for Gotham City as a member of the Bat Family with the narrative over the course of this season, there's a lot of head-scratchers too, such as how did the other Beth continue to exist post-Crisis? I'm not even going to go into that entire crossover, but it was firmly established that the main Arrowverse universes were now interconnected. There shouldn't be anymore "doppelgangers from other Earths" from the Multiverse coming to the main Earth reality anymore. In hindsight, that narrative goof did give us the gift of allowing Rachel Skarsten to play Alice/Beth Kane from a completely different angle, so that was a plus. The whole subplot towards the end of the season concerning Lucius Fox's journal with encoded instructions of how to destroy the BatSuit was comically bad though. Even in the Nolan Batman films, it was established that Bruce Wayne was always improving onto Fox's original designs for his weapons and equipment, so why would a journal with precise instructions to destroy that specific model of the BatSuit worn by Bruce Wayne apply to Kate Kane's when Luke Fox made modifications and improvements to the design specifically for her? All of that was on the assumption that Fox's original designs were never tampered with nor modified in ANY capacity. It just seemed like a MacGuffin just to have a MacGuffin (or a hat on a hat) in there when nothing in that capacity was not really needed in the first goddamn place.
The finale of this season really suffered from not paying off the mystery of who in the hell is Safiyah and why does she have so many major players in Kate's life, including Alice is afraid of what she is capable of? We haven't even seen this chick and that's the biggest mystery coming out of the lackluster ending that this season ends prematurely on. I'll give them a small pass since no one had the foresight to see how long this COVID-19 epidemic was going to last, but they should have given viewers something else to chew on in terms of who is this character and why should we care.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
As it stands, this is a tough call. The first season ends abruptly at the end of it's initial 20 episode tenure without any real resolution for primary conflict(s) throughout this season. Hell, the ending creates more questions than answers. The news of Ruby Rose walking away from the role in the next season is rather alarming too. I binge-watched most of the season during the holidays over the stretch of a week and while I felt it had some ups and downs, I will applaud the show for holding my interest from start to finish. I want to see how they write off Ruby Rose's Kate Kane to make room for the new Batwoman in Season Two, Ryan Wilder (portrayed by newcomer, Javicia Leslie), while simultaneously finishing up the storyline between her and Alice/Beth. They better fucking deliver with this Safiyah character too, whoever the fuck she's supposed to be.
I doubt most other people will stick with this show for the long haul though, but those that do will be rewarded with some interesting takes on these characters. That being said, I can't honestly recommend this series for everyone since it took me at least 2-3 separate attempts to get into it. To its credit though, I thought Batwoman was a success in terms of centering the story entirely around a lesbian heroine with all of the baggage that comes with that. This was the first show of its kind within the superhero genre to tackle this subject manner. Some growing pains were to be expected before it found it's stride.
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