SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "What Happened to Kate Kane?", the Batwoman Season 2 premiere.
When Ruby Rose exited Batwoman last year, the Arrowverse series was forced to find a new actor to take up the mantle. Although the show has recruited a new lead in Javicia Leslie, who plays Ryan Wilder, Kate Kane's sudden departure from the series has left her supporting characters reeling -- including her sister, the villainous Alice.
Last year, in the Season 1 finale, Alice swore to exact revenge on Kate for choosing her alternate dimensional doppelganger Beth over her. In Alice's eyes, a quick and clean death was too simple for Kate, and so she spun an elaborate plan to bring about her demise. In the Season 2 premiere, she revealed exactly what that plan was as she lamented to Tommy "Hush" Elliot about her sister's disappearance.
Alice found Elliot living large at Wayne Manor. Since she had disguised him to look like Bruce Wayne, he decided to take full advantage of his new life. Armed with the truth about his situation and a bottle of whiskey, Alice arrived to see him. When he scoffed at her for "mourning," she shrieked, "I wanted to kill her myself!"
"Not to say I told you so to a belligerent psychopath, you could have shot her months ago when she was out of the city," Elliot pointed out.
"When did I say I was going to shoot her?" Alice spat. "I said I wanted her dead! You, 'Cousin Bruce,' procured the Kryptonite. I was going to ensure Commander Kane found it. A scene would bring them together. Battie would get caught in his crosshairs, and then bang! As she went down, he would pull off her cowl to discover in sinking horror that he had killed his own daughter! Alas, mechanical failure."
Fortunately for Alice, she got her opportunity to torment her father later in the episode. After Elliot tipped him off about Alice's whereabouts, Jacob discovered her at Wayne manor. "I know something you don't know," Alice sang in a mocking tone. When he demanded to know where Kate was, she slammed on the piano keys. "What do I know? I know what a watermelon looks like when it falls from a great height," she mused.
"That's your sister you're talking about," Jacob hissed, to which Alice replied, "And now she's gone, which is probably your cue to move on with your life, maybe remarry, find a new daughter to replace her with."
"I'm not making the same mistakes I made with you," Jacob insisted. "I will not stop looking until she's found. It's over, Alice --"
At that, Alice leapt to her feet and leaned over the piano. "Kate Kane is Batwoman!" she howled, causing Jacob to freeze, but only for a moment. "And I'm the Joker," he shot back. "Arkham is waiting."
"Use your brain, Commander," she snapped. "A lesbian superhero who could have killed me a dozen times but didn't? Hm. Wonder who that could be."
"That's preposterous. Kate would have told me," Jacob scoffed.
"You rejected her, over and over, to the world, to her face. You wanted her dead," Alice pointed out, breaking into laughter. When Jacob insisted she was wrong, she continued, "Am I, or did you spend your last precious moments together firing a gun at her? You got your wish, Daddy. Batwoman is dead, and she died knowing that her father hated her."
With that, Alice took the gun from Jacob's hand and strolled out of the room. "If you don't believe me, turn on the Bat signal," she said as she sauntered away. "See if she comes."
Despite herself, Jacob took her up on this. As the episode came to a close, he ascended to the rooftops and switched the Bat signal on. Naturally, Kate never arrived, as she had disappeared following her plane crash. This led Jacob to realize Alice had told him the truth and the episode left him on that rooftop with tears rolling down his face.
Even as Alice and Jacob adjust to life without Kate, a new Batwoman has emerged in Gotham City. Ryan took up the mantle by the end of the episode, so the city won't go long without a new hero to protect it. This will likely put her directly in Jacob's crosshairs, as he has proven himself not to be a fan of vigilantes. Further, Ryan is already on the prowl for Alice, who played a part in the death of Ryan's foster mother. As such, they will all inevitably find their stories entangled as the season continues.
Airing Sundays at 8 pm ET/PT on The CW, Batwoman stars Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, Rachel Skarsten as Alice, Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore, Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox, Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane and Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton-Kane.
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