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 tries to keep a work-life balance as a superhero. So don your cape, grab your newly modified Batarang, and join us as we give you five thoughts on Batwoman season 1 episode 4, “Who Are You?”
1. Learning how the other half lives (and how some deal with it)
Gotham has always been a city with its fair share of problems when it comes to how the rich vs poor citizens of Gotham live their lives, a problem that seems to have only gotten worse since the disappearance of Batman. In previous weeks, we’ve seen that there are literal walls separating the rich from the poor, living in districts that are monitored by their own private police force. We’ve also seen the real estate robber barons who made their fortunes by exploiting Gotham’s poorer citizens by removing affordable housing and pushing the poorer citizens of Gotham to the fringe. Kate’s girlfriend Regan tells one such tale about how her childhood building was bought out from the nice residents who lived there.
This week, these problems begin to heighten as a new villain named Magpie is robbing jewelry stores, rich people’s homes, and museum exhibitions. After a robbery where a guard is injured, Batwoman decides to intervene, but Magpie explains that her crimes pay for necessities like food, shelter, and “a modicum of dignity.” As the episode progresses, we discover that Magpie is a photographer for the museum who can use her access to rich homes and museums to plan her heists. After Kate confronts her, Magpie explains that she doesn’t have the privilege to sit in her tower, she needs to do this to survive.
The episode ends with Kate, moved by Regan’s story and the extremes that Magpie went to, to start her own real estate company to create affordable and safe housing for Gotham’s less fortunate populace. Kate has begun to use both aspects of her life to create hope for all citizens of Gotham.
2. Catherine’s role expands and the mystery deepens
One of the best-plotted mysteries of the season so far is that of Kate’s stepmother Catherine. Initially presented as a social media-obsessed CEO of Hamilton Industries, it has become increasingly more clear that Catherine is playing a bigger role in the mystery of just who Alice is. At the end of the last episode, Alice laid out three cards in Catherine’s room. At the beginning of “Who Are You?” Catherine is exhuming Beth’s body, which seemingly correlated to something Alice refers to as “Plot 283.” At the cemetery, Catherine is confronted by Alice who demands a secret weapons program that Hamilton Industries is working on or she’ll let Jacob know Catherine’s secret, that she falsified information about Beth’s death.
As the episode progresses, Catherine attempts to use hired goons to (unsuccessfully) take out Alice and loses the trust of her husband when she comes clean to him about falsifying Beth’s death records. She explains that she was worried about him and Kate and hoped that giving them closer would make them happier and bring peace to their lives. Though it seems like there might be more in play, considering that it was also Hamilton Industry tech that was responsible for Alice’s truck being blown up in the convoy to Arkham and Catherine’s continued attempts to prevent Kate and Jacob from finding out the truth.
It seems like Catherine is at the center of a lot of conspiracies concerning the Kane family and it will be interesting to see how they progress from here. It might even be possible that not only is Hamilton Industries responsible for the coverup of Beth’s death, they might also be responsible for the accident in the first place.
3. Mary uses her skills and wiles to help Batwoman
Mary is another character who has become better developed over the past few episodes, especially in her work as the owner and operator of a free clinic in one of Gotham’s less savory neighborhoods. In “Who Are You?” Kate begins using her stepsister’s skills as a doctor to help with her investigation of Alice.
Continued belowKate has been keeping Alice’s “boy-toy” Dodgson tied up and tortured for weeks at this point, which has made him weak and septic, almost on death’s door. Mary is critical of Batwoman’s treatment of him (even if he did ruin her favorite shirt by stabbing it a few weeks ago) and honors her code to do no harm and save his life. Mary isn’t all saintly, however, taking advantage of Dodgson’s drug-induced confusion to gain more information about Alice and her plans. Alice is looking for someone named “the mouse,” and while we don’t know who it is, it’s another clue to the puzzle.
Mary continues to grow as an interesting character because it’s clear that she has skills and empathy, but also enough of a chaotic streak that she’s willing to do things that are less than ethical to help out Batwoman. It will be interesting to see where she goes from here.
4. The growing familiarity between Kate and Luke make for fun superhero moments
One of the best aspects of “Who Are You?” is the growing friendship between Kate and Luke. In previous episodes, Luke was kind of a wet noodle telling Kate not to touch things and generally being very worry-prone about the whole situation. In this episode, he’s becoming more comfortable not only with Kate in the role of Batwoman but also being the man in the chair. Their banter is beginning to become more familiar and when Kate refers to Luke as a work friend, it feels genuine.
There’s also an especially funny sequence while Kate is in the suit where Luke takes advantage of her inability to speak to issue an apology. Early in the episode, Kate botches a Batarang throw and breaks a priceless vase, blaming it on faulty equipment but Luke protests that nothing he and Bruce made is faulty. Later, as Kate is infiltrating Magpies lair, Kate has to adjust the suit temperature and stop breathing because MAgpie has rigged bombs with thermal detonators if the heat of the room gets too high. Luke takes advantage of this situation to admit that the Batarangs weren’t calibrated to Kate’s shorter arms. It takes what could have been an intense scene and added some fun levity to it. These two are becoming friends, and a strong friendship makes for fun adventures.
5. Living a double life is hard (even for Batman)
Early on the episode, Kate expresses her discomfort in having to lie about an aspect of her life, especially to those she cares about. She tells us that she’s always been true to who she is, even coming out at a young age. Her inability to lie especially comes through when she’s trying to lie to Regan about why she has to sneak out of dates early or why she wasn’t answering her phone.
Kate assumes that it must have been easy for Bruce to live the double life, considering that he had so many resources, three Ferraris, a constant string of beautiful young one night stands, but Luke informs her that it Bruce never found it easy to live the double life, that in fact near the end he found it easier to be Batman than to be Bruce Wayne and lie to everyone in his life.
It’s interesting seeing Kate struggle with this, understanding the necessity to keep her secret identity secret. Not only would it compromise the safety of her family and those she loves, but potentially Bruce’s safety as well, and that is not her decision to make. In the end, she discovers that it’s not comfortable to hide an aspect of who you are, but being a superhero is not a comfortable job and the sacrifice is worth it if it’s to help a city you love.
So there we have it. Kate is becoming more comfortable being the Bat, Luke is more comfortable being a member of a team, and Gotham is beginning to embrace their new hero. What about you, do you believe in “The Bat?” Sound off below!
