Welcome back to Gotham! Hope is on the rise after some recent Batsightings as Gotham looks for their returned Dark Knight. But you and I both know this is no Bruce Wayne, it’s Kate Kane and she’s not here to play by the rules as she takes a walk down memory lane with her nemesis (who also happens to be her twin sister.) So DON’T don your cape, but be sure to grab your tragic flashbacks, and join us as we give you five thoughts on Batwoman season 1 episode 5, “Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale.”
1. The Bat gets a week off
“Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale” takes a bold move early in the episode by choosing to have very little of Kate in costume. Instead, the episode spends the majority of time following Kate and Alice as we learn how Beth became Alice. It’s always interesting to see heroes out of the costume, giving us a chance to see how these characters handle a situation when they don’t have an arsenal of gadgets or support behind them. In this case, Kate uses her bond with Alice to try and get deeper to learn the truth. Kate doesn’t use the most loving techniques to get the information out of her sister, but there is a level of empathy as Alice explains what happened in the fifteen years between the crash and Kate’s return.
The episode is not totally without the costume, but it certainly plays with our expectations. They establish a villain of the week, the Skin Pirate, but just as quickly reveals that it’s Alice. Batwoman uses the tracker she planted on Dodgson to kidnap Alice, but soon abandons the costume because Alice knows her identity. It felt like it was included to assure that, yes it is a superhero show, but clearly the creative team was more interested in telling a smaller and more personal story. It worked well, Batwoman is a symbol and in this case, the symbol wasn’t needed.
2. Down the Rabbit Hole
There is a good part of this episode devoted to Alice telling the story of how she became the woman she is today. In the past, we’ve seen brief flashes of Beth’s life, but due to how Beth uses her past to manipulate others, it was never clear how much of it was accurate. Based on the revelations of this week, it seems like the majority of what Beth tell Kate was true.
Beth wakes up in what appears to be a pretty average suburban home. There’s a boy playing with his trucks, a tv plays in the background, the walls are adorned with ugly wallpaper, photos, and knickknacks. We are also introduced to the boy’s father, a kind and mild-mannered man who informs Beth that they found her in the river and brought her back to the house to heal her while they waited for the police to arrive. As the episode progresses, however, it quickly becomes clear that this simple life is much more sinister.
The boy is a shy young man who hides behind his hair because there is a disfiguration of his face. He seems kind and has the ability to mimic any voice he hears but has been bullied over the years. Beth finds out that the father hasn’t actually informed the police of her location, holding her hostage because she has given his son something he needs, friendship and a connection. Beth also discovers that the father is stealing human skin to try and make a face that won’t be ridiculed by the public. Finally, there is one last scene where Beth tries to call her father but is told by her captor that if anyone discovers she is there, he will kill them.
Everything about the flashbacks works well in the story. Each sequence is established with a line of setup that pays off during the course of the flashback, which is especially effective the first time it is utilized. Alice informs Kate that the first time she woke up in the house it turned her life into a nightmare, but the scene itself seems very goodnatured. It makes you question Alice a little bit, how is this odd but seemingly kind family the stuff of nightmares? But as the episode progresses and her situation goes from bad to worse, every time Alice sets up a flashback you know that what she says will eventually be true.
Continued below3. Secondary characters provide levity (to varying levels of success)
The majority of the episode before the third act focuses mainly on Kate and Alice’s trip down memory lane. All of these scenes are intense and sometimes disturbing. Outside of the occasional Alice quip, the scenes with Kate and Alice are dark and sometimes difficult to watch. Because of this, “Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale” has a side plot featuring a little bit of levity by incorporating Luke and Mary (both characters who can function as comic relief.)
Mary is upset after her mother reveals the truth of everything we learned last week about her relationship with Alice and goes to Wayne Tower to talk to Kate about it. It appears that she might have had a couple to drink and Luke has to deal with the intoxicated woman demanding to talk to her half-sister. While these segments are sometimes hit or miss, it does reveal two things. One, Luke is pretty bad at the whole lying and double life thing. He fumbles over his explanations about Kate’s location and why he’s looking up information about the morgue robbings. Two, it seems like the show is slowly setting up a chance to discover the truth about her sister and join Team Bat. The plot also informs us that there was recently a breakout at Arkham (which no one knows about for the record,) which suggests we might be getting more Bat rogues in the future.
The plot sometimes felt superfluous, but it was nice to at least attempt to provide some good lighthearted antics between scenes of a child being tormented. It also helps that the actors were having fun with the material. Both of these characters are fun and it was entertaining to see them interact without Kate in the mix. Hopefully, this won’t be the last of them working together.
4. Guilt and manipulation are powerful tools
Later in the episode, there is one final flashback to Jacob and Kate infiltrating the house after Beth’s call. The father uses Johnny’s mimicry abilities to convince Jacob that it was a cruel prank. Meanwhile, Kate goes to the Basement where Beth is being held, but Beth can’t say anything for fear of hurting her sister and father. In the present, Alice puts the blame on Kate, saying that their twin powers should have revealed her, that she should have saved her. The scene is tragic and cruel but is nothing compared to a similar scene with Jacob.
Jacob similarly confronts Alice, but at the end calls her Beth in order to relate to her. Alice seems to break, she has gotten the acknowledgment from Jacob of who she really is. As Jacob goes to comfort her, she stabs him and all emotion leaves her face, it was chilling to watch. Alice is still up to her old tricks and seems to use Beth only as a mask to manipulate her family. To Alice, her family’s guilt is a weapon that can be used against them.
5. The mouse at the bottom of the rabbit hole
The ending of the episode is a reunion between Alice and her “brother” Mouse (aka Johnny) recently escaped from Arkham Asylum. Alice treats Mouse with all of the genuine familial love she was faking with Jacob and Kate. We also see that the skin Alice was collecting was not simply to lure Kate to her, but was intended as a present for her brother. In the flashbacks, Johnny seems mild and kind, in the present, he seems just as deranged as Alice.
There is clearly more to the story than we are aware, but one thing is clear, the two of them have big plans for Gotham and they don’t seem very nice.
So there we have it! More of Alice’s past is revealed and most of it seems verifiable to a certain degree. What did you think? What else is in store for our heroes? Who else got out of Arkham? Sound off below!
