It’s weird to introduce a new show the same year as a massive shared-universe-altering crossover. The new show has to exist apart from the rest of the universe while it sets up its own world and story. It can’t hint at Crisis the same way Arrow and The Flash can. There’s also the complication of “Elseworlds.” Last year’s crossover introduced Batwoman to the Arrowverse. At that point, she already had her red wig and was Gotham City’s resident vigilante. This series so far has followed her origin in a pretty much linear fashion. I guess we’re to assume that Elseworlds happened at some point between the last few episodes? In any case, Crisis is happening next week, so Batwoman has to bring its fall arc to at least a half-satisfying stopping point.
Alice is preparing for her Tea Party, whatever that is, and her sister is still trying to talk her down. Batwoman captures one of her henchmen and tracks Alice to a warehouse. There, Alice explains that she disabled the weapon that could kill Batwoman and killed the people who made it. That’s enough to convince Kate that there still might be some good in Alice and she once again asks her to turn herself in. That’s not going to happen. Crisis may be next week, but there’s still a whole two-thirds of a season left afterwards. Alice sends Kate away, as she has big plans to get ready for. Plans that involve capturing her father.
Rachel Skarsten as Alice — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
You might remember from last week that Jacob is actually out of town still. Mouse has been impersonating him for a while now. He’s the one that chose to make up with Catherine, not the real Jacob. The real Jacob is accosted by a bunch of goons in rabbit masks and captured. Alice taunts him for a while before teasing that he’ll be the guest of honor at her tea party. Meanwhile, Kate gets into a fight with the fake about him getting back together with Catherine. One thing I will give this show credit for: It doesn’t let it’s characters be stupid. A lot of other CW DC shows, *cough*The Flash*cough*, will let multiple episodes go by with characters blatantly ignoring obvious clues and refusing to talk to each other until the proper moment for a reveal. It gets tiring. Batwoman is supposed to be a detective, like her cousin. It would be disingenuous for her to have a season-spanning brain fart like that. She rants to Luke about how strange her father’s sudden change of heart is, and it dawns on her. That’s not her dad.
The show puts another scene in where Kate tries to convince Alice to do the right thing, and I’m not sure what the point was. She’s obviously still going through with her Tea Party, and we’ve already had this exact same back and forth not ten minutes earlier. Alice tells her where Jacob was, but of course when she reaches the door, he’s not there anymore. The whole scene was just a pointless time-fill, stalling for the main event. And the gala scene is good. It just would be a lot better if the story didn’t slam its breaks right before the good part.
Rachel Skarsten as Alice and Ruby Rose as Kate Kane — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
Once the gala starts, the episode gets so much better. Catherine is being honored for her philanthropy, and we just know something’s going to go wrong. The show lets the suspense build for a little while, as we’re left to wonder exactly how Alice will make her entrance. It starts as Catherine reads her speech. Suddenly, her teleprompter changes, and she’s forced to read out an indictment of the work she’s done and her relationship with The Crows. She starts bleeding from her nose and collapses. Mary caries her into a backstage area, where they’re met by Alice. She explains that the champagne was laced with a poison Catherine’s company developed. It systematically shuts down every organ until a person’s dead. And the company never bothered to develop an antidote.
This sequence is definitely one of the best we’ve seen so far from Batwoman. The way it lets the tension build, the way it escalates every time Alice verbally twists the knife. She demands an apology from Catherine in exchange for a natural antidote she found on a remote island. When she finally gets a sincere one, there’s one final twist. Mary drank the champagne too. She’s also poisoned, and Alice only brought enough antidote for one. I somehow wasn’t expecting Alice’s plan to be quite this sadistic. Of course, Catherine refuses to take the antidote and gives it to Mary. Mary has to sit alone and watch her mother die. I never had any strong feelings for Catherine as a character one way or the other, but this sequence just works. For this moment, it made me feel real sadness as Mary said goodbye to her mother.
Ruby Rose as Batwoman/Kate Kane and Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW
So the Tea Party was Alice’s long-planned revenge against Catherine for convincing the entire Kane family that she was dead. There’s a brief confrontation between Alice and Batwoman, but it’s nothing to write home about. Alice gets an angry villain monologue and Kate finally realizes that she’s been making a mistake. Beth really is gone, and giving her chance after chance got someone killed. At this point, I was wondering if that was really all her plan. As well done as it all was, it seemed like Alice staged this big event takeover just to hurt two people. That would have been a letdown, especially since it would mean all the stuff with Jacob was pointless. The show pulls it out in the end though. The real Jacob wakes up in a car and as soon as Kate confirms it’s him, he’s arrested. Alice and Mouse have framed him for Catherine’s murder. That’s the cherry on top of this evil plan that makes it.
Batwoman set out to deliver a tragedy with its first eight episodes, and it succeeded. It was simultaneously fun and horrifying watching everything come together. Looking back on it now, a lot of the detours were needless, though. The first part of this season dragged heavily at times, and this payoff wasn’t enough to make me feel better about all of it. Moment to moment though, it made for a great episode of this fledgling show. The only part that didn’t work at all was Sophie and Tyler being captured and tied to chairs. They spent the episode working out their marital issues. With everything else going on, I just can’t be bothered to care. Sophie admits in the end she doesn’t know if she’s still in love with him, so that’s… something, I guess. Kate realizing she lost a second sister by trying to get the first one back was a much stronger tragic moment. That’s the ending right there. That’s the moment that turns the entire show on its head. It’s no longer about Kate trying to save her sister. It’s about her realizing she can’t. And shouldn’t. Everything else is just teaser for the winter season.
Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton and Ruby Rose as Kate Kane — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW
There is a new episode of Batwoman next week, but all these stories are going to have to wait. The final credits tease showed us Nash Wells from The Flash finally meeting with The Monitor. As he reaches a metal door with strange symbols on it, he is engulfed in white light. Next week, Supergirl, Batwoman, and The Flash will air the first three parts of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Check back next week for a single recap of all three episodes, with one on the conclusion in January. Yeah, this event is so big, it spans the entire winter break. Let’s hope it’s all worth it.
Batwoman airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on The CW
Previously on Batwoman
- Batwoman Season 1 Episode 7 recap
- Batwoman Season 1 Episode 6 recap
- Batwoman Season 1 Episode 5 recap
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