‘Batwoman’ Season One, Episode Two Recap: “The Rabbit Hole”

Adrienne
14 Min Read
Courtesy of The CW

WARNING! This Recap Contains Spoilers!

Hold on to your capes friends!

Courtesy of The CW

This Sunday brought the second episode of the brand new CW series Batwoman. It’s a new television series with a twist on the classic Batman, starring the incredible Ruby Rose, who has starred in Netflix’s original show Orange Is The New Black. Episode two was just as packed with twists, thrills and action as the series premiere and is promising to be just as action packed throughout this entire season. This has quickly become one of my favorite television shows, as I am a huge Batman fan. Similar to the series premiere, this episode was also directed by Marcos Siega. It starred series regulars Meagan Tandy (Sophie), Nicole Kang (Mary Hamilton), and Camrus Johnson (Luke Fox).

We start the episode right where we ended the last one. With Kate (Ruby Rose) discovering the villain, Alice (played by the remarkable Rachel Skarsten), the leader of the Wonderland Gang, is actually her twin sister, Beth. It’s been known since the first episode that Kate’s sister Beth was believed to have passed in a tragic car accident with Kate and Beth’s mother when they were children, after a failed rescue attempt by Batman.

Kate starts off the episode determined to prove to her father, the commander of The Crows, that Alice is Beth before he hunts her down. We see Kate chasing a member of the Wonderland Gang to interrogate him on Alice/Beth’s whereabouts when she’s interrupted by the screeching tires of a van with members of The Crows. Kate returns to the cave to Luke Fox being frustrated that she was gone for so long. Luke tells Kate she cannot keep pretending to be Batman. The following morning Kate announces her theory to her family and wants to test the knife taken from Alice after their first run in for DNA. However, her theory is brushed aside, which leaves her frustrated.

Next, we see Alice and her gang in no other place than Kate and Alice’s childhood home with the current residents tied up for good measure. Alice is missing her favorite knife. Alice divulges her plan to make commander Kane, her father, suffer as she suffered for the last 15 years, believing he gave up looking for her after the accident. Throughout this episode we see flashbacks of Kate following the accident. We see her tireless search and hope that she’ll find her sister. We learn Kate never gave up searching for the 15 years Beth was missing.

Kate then turns to Sophie, a Crow member and ex-girlfriend of Kate’s, to ask her help in getting DNA off Alice’s prized knife. Sophie declines, claiming it’s her fear of the reaction of Kate’s father. Kate then lets her guard down to tell Sophie she would have come home sooner if she had known Sophie was getting married. Quickly after, a van full of people dressed as members of Alice’s Wonderland Gang attacks the duo, takes the knife Kate had with them, and takes off. Kate and her father have another argument about whether or not Alice is Beth, ending with Kate taking off on her motorcycle to go meet with Mary, her stepsister. Mary is a medical student and currently running an underground clinic. She shows Kate a man that was found who was injured; the same man Kate was chasing at the beginning of the episode. Mary shows Kate the weapon she pulled from the gang member’s shoulder, which greatly resembled a bat. Kate stands by the injured gang member and gives him just one message to give to Alice: “Waffles.”

Back at The Crow’s headquarters, Sophie gets a call from Kate asking her to stall the crows and give her some time. Kate tells Sophie about her plan with the code work. Here, we learn “waffles” is a code word for Kate and Beth’s favorite childhood spot, a now deserted waffle stand. Sophie agrees to buy Kate some time before Commander Kane realizes Alice has been hiding out in their old home. They rush there to find the couple tied up and unfortunately murdered before they could get there. Sophie then tells Kate’s father of her location, ultimately giving Alice’s real location. Kate gets to the waffle stand with no sign of Alice, until she shows up on a nearby swing set. Kate and Alice talk. Alice tells Kate how she survived the crash. Kate tells Alice/Beth they have a lot to catch up on, and Alice taunts her about catching up and “talking about boys.” Alice declines and asks Kate just one question: When did Kate sleep through the night for the first time?

Kate tells Alice she still has yet to sleep through the night. Kate tells Alice it’s because she was her sister, and she still had hope she would find Beth. Kate feels like she should’ve been in the car with Beth.  This answer works for Alice, and she makes a cut on her palm telling Kate that’s her proof for their father. Immediately after, Commander Kane and the rest of the crows show up with their guns drawn. Kate stands in between Alice and the crows and convinces them to take her alive instead of the alternative. The Crows arrest Alice and take her away in a van. Sophie finds Kate, who lashes out at Sophie, telling her she thought she could keep a secret.

Before the van pulls away Alice gives Kate a riddle: “‘Tell us a story,’ said the March Hare. ‘Yes, please do,’ pled Alice.” And so the dormouse began, “‘Once upon a time there were three little sisters…'”

Alice reminds Kate that the reason they each would get their own waffles as children was that she didn’t like to share, insinuating that she was planning on doing something to harm Mary, telling Kate that she is her sister. Mary calls Kate again, reminding them of their dinner they were supposed to have an hour prior, when one of Alice’s gang members are discovered and attacks Mary. Mary manages to barricade herself in a room while the gang member tries to break in using an ax.

Just as it seems all is lost for Mary, Kate shows up as Batwoman and saves her from the attacking gang member just in time for news coverage to show Alice being taking to Arkham. The news coverage captures an explosion on the bridge the Crows were crossing with Alice. Kate rushes to the scene and sees the van with Alice inside, sinking in the water. Kate rushes to save Alice and gets to her just in time before a bullet hits the van under the water, causing the sisters to be separated by a blast. Kate is laying on the rocks unconscious while the police closes in on Kate. Kate manages to wake up and is saved by Luke Fox, the son of Bruce Wayne’s friend and helper Lucius Fox. The young Luke Fox tells Kate the suit is equipped with a defibrillator. He gets her to safety just before the police cars lead police to where Kate was laying.

Back at Mary’s underground clinic, a visibly shaken Mary is startled by an apologetic Kate, who is coming to apologize for ditching their dinner plans the night before. Mary lashes out at Kate. She tells Kate that Alice sent her boyfriend to kill her, because Alice sees Mary as a threat. She says it’s ironic that Alice sees her as a threat, considering the only remotely sisterly thing Kate has done is ignore Mary. Kate tries to apologize, but Mary asks Kate to tell Alice that she’s not a threat before walking away, leaving Kate alone. Back at Crow Headquarters, Jacob Kane is visibly angry that a bomb was planted on the bridge. Kate and her father then begin to argue about Kate’s interference earlier that night. We then see a flashback from Jacob’s point of view. As Kate is sleeping, he finds a map she was sleeping with and wakes her up. In the flashback, Jacob Kane tells a young Kate her sister’s bones were found. The young Kate gets upset and storms off. This is the first time we see how it affected him from his point of view.

Back to the present time, Kate is stopped by Sophie, telling Kate that Alice could have killed her. She told Kate’s father her whereabouts, because she cares for her.  Kate turns around and tells Sophie she wouldn’t have lied to the military academy they both attended if she did care about her. Kate then asks Sophie the question we’re all wondering: Is she happy? Sophie tells Kate that she is, in fact, happy. In a heartbreaking moment, Sophie tells Kate that there’s nothing between them, and Kate needs to move on. This scene is even more heartbreaking to the sound of Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over.” Kate meets with Luke Fox and jokes about the suit not having an auto dry function. They share a moment with Kate thanking Luke for saving her. Luke mentions again that Kate is giving people false hope and getting the citizens of Gotham excited for nothing about Batman being back, considering  that as of now, Kate has no intention of continuing her cousin Bruce’s legacy. Kate remembers Alice told her she didn’t send anyone to jump her earlier. This revelation means that somebody else knew about the knife Kate found other than Kate, her family, and Luke.

Courtesy of the CW

In a new plot twist, we discover the person responsible for the attack is none other than Kate’s stepmother, Catherine Hamilton. While sitting on a bench with a man, she is instructing him to destroy the knife, along with the masks that the men who attacked Kate and Sophie were wearing. Catherine tells the mystery man that she will take care of the security tape showing the attack. It’s nighttime in Gotham, and Kate stumbles across a present on the seat of her motorcycle. The box contains a single stunned bat with a note from Alice simply saying, “You Have Our Father’s Eyes.” The bat stirs and takes off flying into the night sky.

Courtesy of the CW

This episode did not disappoint. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I’m enjoying the chemistry between all the characters so much. They all seem to have secrets of their own and I’m very interested in seeing how this story line with Alice plays out. Let us know how you all are enjoying this version of the caped crusader and if you have any theories on how this season will play out!

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Adrienne is a Certified Medical Assistant, as well as a new writer that joined the team in 2019. She is a lover of all things true crime, Supernatural, Sherlock, spoken word poetry, among others. You can find her on all her social media platforms under adri_lynn.
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