Welcome back to Gotham! Gotham’s own paragon of courage Kate Kane defends her city as Batwoman, but her life has been difficult. Not only does she have to try and stop her evil twin, but she has to fight a hacker holding Gotham’s personal information hostage in a desperate attempt to get out of Gotham. So don your cape, grab your limited emp burst, and join us as we give you five thoughts on Batwoman season 1, episode 10 “How Queer Everything Is Today!”
1. A broken team in the wake of a brutal scheme
When we last left Gotham, Catherine Hamilton is dead, Jacob Kane arrested for her murder, and Kate vowing that she will take care of Alice. At the beginning of “How Queer Everything Is Today,” we are seeing the fallout of these events.
Mary is taking these losses the hardest, her pain manifesting in overworking and isolation. With nowhere else to turn for the comfort of support, she has begun to work tirelessly to find ways to free her step-father. The difficulty, though, is that no doctors will help her theory that a face switcher could really be out there. With her sanity being questioned, and her wanting nothing to do with Kate, Mary is increasingly becoming alone.
While not part of the family, Sophie too has been impacted by Alice. Jacob was like a second father to her and is now arrested. Her husband left her, upset that she was withholding information from him. Sophie has become increasingly more aggressive in her work, threatening to kill on site.
Finally, Jacob is in constant danger. Jacob was responsible for many of his fellow inmates being imprisoned and is now among them. In the episode, his food is tampered with and he is threatened by an inmate. Yet, despite it all, he manages to be a good dad to both Kate and Mary. Jacob can be a bit of a hard edge sometimes, but his ability to be a good dad despite it all is still impressive. It’s interesting to see how these characters dealt with the trauma, all unique and all totally match with the character.
2. Gotham’s personal information is at risk!
Our villain of the week is “The Terrier,” a cyber-terrorist. The Terrier is given their moniker by an animoji of a white dog with a garbled voice that can be sent to every phone in Gotham. The Terrier is also able to hack Gotham’s all-electric elevated train system to crash it, hack into live television recordings to doxx the mayor of Gotham, and is demanding money to be transferred to them to escape the city with fear of revealing personal information
I admittedly don’t know much about hacking, but it felt sloppy in this episode. Everything seemed to come too quickly and easily to The Terrier. The interesting thing, though, is that it does put Kate at a disadvantage. In an attempt to stay safe, Luke is limited computer time in the Batcave to cover their identity. This means that Kate doesn’t have a “guy in the chair” helper which does impact her ability to fight crime. It’s a simple reminder of how important tech has become.
We eventually learn that the signal is coming from Gotham Prep and Luke gives her a limited emp that will isolate the cell signal of the source. (Once again, not an expert on computers, but this feels written by other people who also don’t know much about computers.) With a clear direction to go, Kate goes to stop the hacker.
3. The importance of representation
The episode begins with Batwoman being a sensation. She is well-liked by the people of Gotham, the media, and there is even a rumor of a romance with GCPD Officer Slam Bradley. (Which, please God be a nickname…) The problem is that all this attention is making Kate uncomfortable. Especially the implication of the very gay Kate’s alter ego being in a heterosexual relationship. Luke assures her this is good. If people think that Batwoman is straight, it will keep Kate off of people’s radar for the identity of the caped crusader. By the end of the episode, though, this all changes.
Continued belowThe Terrier is revealed to be Parker, a student at Gotham Prep. When confronted by Batwoman she reveals that she was never going to crash the train. In fact, she was on the train controlling it. She was trying to give her parents a fright so they would realize how lucky they were to have her. She was recently outed by an angry ex and her conservative parents disowned her. She gives a heartbreaking monologue about how she hates herself, how she will always have to hide her girlfriends. It’s very impactful. She also doesn’t want Batwoman’s help. How could someone like her, a superhero who was probably a popular girl in school, relate to a queer outcast?
Parker’s tune changes when she discovers Kate’s true identity (as she is being held hostage by Alice) and decides not to out Kate as Alice intended but to save her friends. At the end of the episode, Kate realizes how much people like Parker could benefit from having someone like her defending them, coming out in an article by Kara Danvers. Representation is important and having a character like Kate being out an proud is a good thing for superhero media.
4. Where does Alice go from here?
At the end of the first half of season one, Alice is triumphant. She has successfully removed her foes and gotten her revenge. But she doesn’t have Kate back, and that is making her upset. The majority of Alice in this episode involves her and Mouse as they banter about whether or not Kate will join the family.
It feels like Alices’ motivation now is to show that heroism is a facade, a convenient lie to tell yourself. But when the chips are on the table, who really is a hero? Alice decides that if Kate can’t hide behind the mask, perhaps she will become just like her and Mouse, and holds a high school hostage in the process. (Quick aside, she knocks out Kate and Parker after grabbing a loose trumpet out of a locker. As a former band kid, I can assure you no one would fo this thing.)
Alice probably has a larger plot, a bigger bad waiting in the shadows, but it just seems like she’s twiddling her thumbs until that happens. Considering how fun she was in the first half of the season, she just felt like she was in a holding pattern, which was also holding her back in general.
5. The promise of a new earth
Hey, did you know that we had a crisis? With Infinite Earths in fact! (Check out our coverage! It was a lot of fun!) All the CW shows now exist on one earth, and it’s exciting to see that there is an actual impact on the world at large. For one, Kara Danvers wrote the article about her coming out.
But honestly, the most important change comes in Kate’s character. Crisis taught Kate to be more of a team player, seeing how many people reached out wanting to help Oliver, that there is importance in a team. In this episode, Kate just seemed more… fun. There is also one final twist that might be a result of the recent event. Beth is back from a semester abroad. Beth, not Alice, and she doesn’t seem to be Mouse. It was a shocking twist and one that has me excited.
[break]So there we have it! Batwoman is back and better than ever! What did you think? Do you think that’s an imposter, or really Beth? Sound off below, and see you next week!
