- Title: Batwoman – An Un-Birthday Present
- wiki: link
Batwoman offers up one of the better episodes of the series by introducing a new Beth Kane (Rachel Skarsten), one that grew up on a parallel Earth who never went crazy and became Alice (Skarsten). While at first wary of another Alice trap, Kate (Ruby Rose) eventually comes to terms with a sane version of her twin sister arriving on their birthday. While she isn’t introduced to the the wider cast, Beth does make good impressions on both Mary and Luke. The final scene suggesting one of the two Beths must die for the other to live feels more like the show falling back into bad habits. While the death of Alice would certainly help the show drop dead weight and offer Batwoman room to grow and take on other villains, and still give Skarsten a role on the show, I’m not sure I see the courage in the show’s writers to be willing to make such a drastic shift (though I would be happy to be proved wrong).
Because it’s an episode of Batwoman, you know the episode comes with problems. We do get more creepy horror flashbacks to Beth’s childhood further explaining her transformation into Alice (which, awkwardly, seems to come all at once rather than more gradually). The horror-tone of the sequences continue to clash against the other scenes of the show. There are also the scenes of the Sophie (Meagan Tandy) attempting to reach Alice while Mouse holds hostages demanding her return. Most of this feels expanded a bit more than necessary to fill out the episode, but i will give the show credit for not immediately killing other Beth when the opportunity presented itself. Maybe next week?