In the first episode back from Crisis On Infinite Earths, we return to Gotham, reminded of how Alice had killed Catherine Hamilton, Jacob Kane was arrested for the murder, and Mary asking Kate, “is Alice worth it?”
As we travel through the city subway, an all too fast train is missing stops, and the passengers are getting upset. Something is wrong. The conductor announces that the computer system is not responding, and they have lost brake function. Batwoman is on coms with Luke, racing her new bike on route to the train as he tells her there is only about half a mile of the track before the end of the line. But, she is ignoring him over the excitement of the new toy. A grappling hook is fired from the front and back of the bike, jamming into the end of the train and the track itself. Thankfully, the bike is strong enough to hold the force of the speeding train, and it doesn’t crash by maybe an inch. All the passengers are safe. The hook from the back of the train comes loose as police arrive on the scene, and Batwoman is nearly taken out by her own devices. A handsome Captain America-like officer rescues her, and photos are taken from bystanders, oh boy.
BREAKING: #Batwoman spotted with a man after heroically stopping a train. Stream a new episode now: https://t.co/EyTwax3HDL pic.twitter.com/UjBzggya8H
— Batwoman (@CWBatwoman) January 20, 2020
We are painfully reminded that Oliver Queen is, in fact, dead via voiceover. Thanks. Meanwhile, every newspaper and media outlet in Gotham is showing that photo of Batwoman and Officer America. According to Luke, Officer Slam Bradley is as hometown as it gets, but all Kate wants to know is why he is suddenly everywhere she is. Luke points out that GCPD is stepping up now that Jacob is in jail. The head of the Crow’s can’t do much if he is behind bars. Kate is less than pleased. The city is more focused on her sex life than why a subway train would lose its breaks.
Dear sweet Alice, a cemetery is no place to have a tea-party in the rain. At least she brought her umbrella and chairs. After reciting a very Alice-like rhyme, she pours out a cup of hot tea on the tombstone next to her, belonging to none other than Catherine Hamilton-Kane. Alice asks Mouse why Kate would not come. He replies that first, she would have to respond to a call or text. Mouse points out that Alice’s fantasy of the three of them being a family is just that, a fantasy. Furthermore, Alice believing that killing Catherine was a gesture of love is a weakness, another unraveling strand of her psychosis. Mouse’s speech here is very truthful. Alice will never bring Kate into this family. Kate sees her as not a sister but a lost soul. He takes a sip of tea and spits it out, while Alice turns away from him at her tea party.
At Mary’s lab, we see her leaving a message for her social media, asking people to be better to each other and stop being hateful since they do not have the facts. Kate arrives and startles Mary, not meaning to scare her, Mary quips that she also didn’t mean for her twin sister to murder her mother but look how that turned out. Kate wanted to tell Mary that another legal team has been called for Jacob. Mary brushes off the help and tells Kate that “we got this.” Between Jacob, Sophie, and Mary, every lawyer in Gotham is on retainer. Sophie even has a team to find Mouse, and Mary is looking for a plastic surgeon to testify that face replacement is a great way to frame someone for murder. Mary then asks Kate to please tell Alice to leave her dead mother alone. Mary coldly tells Kate goodbye before Kate walks out. Ouch.
Luke and Kate are at the train authority to investigate. Each train has a system that should make them unhackable, so what went wrong? Kate notices an electronic device hidden behind an air vent in one of the cars that nearly crashed. Uh oh, It’s an interceptor for digital signals. Luke determines the hacker used the device to hijack the train’s brakes remotely. Just then, both phones for Kate and Luke go off as does the security camera for Mary at her lab, all with the same terrier emoji message. Five million dollars or all their secrets come out. And it’s not just them. This message got sent to everyone in Gotham.
The Mayor’s office is holding a press conference. He is doing his best to reassure Gotham not to be alarmed or coerced into the demands of some prankster. Just then, the broadcast itself is hacked with another terrier emoji, if the city is that safe, why is the Mayor’s credit card number being broadcast for all? Luke pulls the broadcast (and internet), claiming that Kate is the most famous person in the city right now. She’s a target. They are quite stuck as well, neither Kate or Luke can turn the internet on to find who is doing this to the city, but they cannot have it off and not be able to help figure any of it out either. Kate turns it on anyway and agrees to five minutes before going dark.
Ah, Jacob, we do not like seeing you in jail, and someone put a razor blade in your meatloaf. Rude. Another prisoner sits at his table, insinuating poetic justice of the man who locked half of them up is now in there with them. Jacob is allowed to call Mary. He finds out his trial was moved up a week. However, she cannot find a medical expert to testify about face-swapping. Jacob asks her to stop and is genuinely concerned for her. He wants to know how she is handling her mother’s death and him being accused. Mary says she is engaging in escapist strategies as a defense so that everything does not come crumbling down. Jacob expresses that he and Kate would like Mary to talk to someone, but what she wants is to find Alice. Sophie later tells Mary the same. But will Mary seek help? Even finding Alice won’t bring Catherine back.
We see Batwoman entering a warehouse trying to talk to Luke, but she realizes the coms are off. Next, we hear Sophie’s voice and see her hit a hostage tied in a chair. Several captives are tied to chairs. It turns out the group that has been captured are Russian hackers after social security numbers but had nothing to do with the train. The prisoner begs for his life as Sophie holds a gun to his forehead, insisting it was not any of them who cut the brakes. She whips him across the face with the pistol instead and storms off. Batwoman confronts her, we find out that Ty left Sophie because he believes she is lying to herself, or she is too terrified to deal with it.
Mary runs into Dr. Campbell on campus later that evening and asks him to be a witness at Jacob’s trial. Dr. Campbell doesn’t understand or follow precisely what Mary is asking. She explains how he was set up. Dr. Campbell also tries to tell Mary that for a man to perfectly resemble another man is science fiction. Mary knows what she saw, and unfortunately, Dr. Campbell turns down her proposal. He will not help her prove Jacob’s innocence. While on the phone, Mary tells Sophie that Dr. Campbell believes her to be “totally off her rocker just like everyone else,” that it is impossible to see things that aren’t there. Sophie asks her if she’s tried talking to Kate, however, even though Kate lost her mom too, that makes it more difficult to trust her. Sophie mentions that she has a cousin in Metropolis who went to med-school and may know a plastic surgeon. Mary spots someone who looks a lot like Alice entering one of the buildings on campus. Sophie tells her to get out of there and that she is sending a team.
Kate goes to the Batcave to find out why Luke turned off the coms. Until they find this terrier terrorist, she is on her own when she goes out. Kate then questions if she is a fraud, that when she puts on the suit, she is lying to the entire city. Luke tells her it’s part of the job, but Kate rebuttals, that according to the multi-verse, she is supposed to be the paragon of courage. Luke does not take this seriously, however, as it was before the infinite earths collapsed into a single space-time continuum. Kate feels that living in the shadows, wearing a disguise, and letting people believe she is dating that officer. What part of that is courageous? Luke reassures her that she is a hero.
She won't stop until Kate joins her. Stream the latest #Batwoman now: https://t.co/EyTwax3HDL pic.twitter.com/mu5k6cncyE
— Batwoman (@CWBatwoman) January 22, 2020
However, Gotham City’s image of Batwoman is not her, and that bothers Kate, a lot. Luke hands Kate an electric charge disrupter that will kill everything with a charge for ten seconds. In the time that Kate was at the warehouse, Luke also did reverse audio on the talking terrier to get the actual hacker’s voice discovering the hacker is a young girl. They isolate background noises to determine the five million dollar demand was made from Gotham Prep High School, according to Kate, the vilest place on earth.
Batwoman drops in on the party, using the electronic device to cut off everyone’s phones. Everyone except one. She follows the girl into the restroom and confronts her, using the same message for ransom. The girl is surprised she got caught, and that her name was not found out. The Terrier is Parker Torres, and she claims she wasn’t going to crash the train because she was on it and was going to stop it, but Batwoman stopped it first. Torres had been controlling the train from her phone.
Torres did all of it as a prank because her parents consider her a freak for being gay. She wanted to scare her parents into thinking she almost died so they would be happy she was alive. Her ex had revenge outed her. Batwoman stands there, really listening to Torres, “my parents wanted me to be someone I’m not, do you know how that feels?” Yeah, she does. Torres is angry at the world and storms off before Batwoman can say anything before Kate can say anything.
The police arrive on campus where Mary saw Alice enter, but no one is found. Back at Gotham Prep, Torres is walking the hall and oops, enter Alice. Batwoman is right behind her, and the two of them fight. Ahh, sisters. Alice knocks Batwoman out with a trumpet that fell out of a locker and kidnaps Torres to shop class, scaring her with a table-saw. Bad Alice. Batwoman shows up just in time for Alice to bribe her to take off the mask. Kate calls Alice’s bluff that putting away the Bat will make her join the twisted fairy tale. It won’t. But Kate does take the mask off!
Alice wants Torres to out Kate as Batwoman. But Gotham can’t take care of itself. It needs her. Kate hands Torres the phone, tells her to go ahead and do it, while Alice dances around. As mass alerts go off to everyone in Gotham, Torres did the right thing. GCPD Alert to Gotham Prep. There’s a bomb in the school. Thanks, Alice. Kate tells Alice she ruined her life. Alice insists she fixed Kates instead as a gift. If everything has been a gift, she wants it gone. Beth is dead and gone.
Police arrive, students exit, but the detonator is not on campus, Mouse has it in a car off-site while he watches. The bomb explodes through the school, and Officer America is outside the front door just as the flames are about to engulf him, Batwoman covers him and saves his life. What timing. Kids with phones and cameras demanding they kiss, he tries, she REFUSES. As for Batwoman having a crush? Sure she does, but not Officer America. Kate decides to come out and is on the cover of all Gotham press for doing so. Luke mentioned that it would help a lot of people feel a lot less alone as well. Torres pays a visit to the Wayne office, she and Kate have a heart to heart, giving Parker someone to talk and look up to.
In closing, Alice is locked up with the Crows. They’re demanding Mouse. Jacob talks to Kate for her birthday and tells her that she and Mary are going to need each other. Kate returns to her office to find someone who looks a lot like Alice. She had finally come home from a semester abroad, but Kate does not believe this person she is seeing in front of her. Kate grabs her, pinches her face, and tries to peel away a mask, but the girl is saying her name is Beth. Who else would she be? Hello, Crisis version Beth.
Find out what happens next Sunday on The CW, and follow Batwoman.