Episode 1: “Pilot” This is a complete recap of the episode and will be lengthy. If you just want the review, skip to the last paragraph. Again, this post is NOT spoiler free. Look away if you haven’t watched it.
Initially, I thought I was going to have to miss out on the wonderful attraction of premier night due to my work schedule. However, as luck would have it, I got to find myself parked on my lounge in front of the television at 8PM EST with a large pile of snacks that I had been to nervous to eat. I had been excited all day and had been eagerly checking the media feeds from the CWBatwoman official pages, and all the corresponding cast members, getting caught up in the hype, anticipation and chest full of anxiety, right along with them. From the Instagram take overs, to the numerous @posts displayed on my flickering tiny mobile screen, I had been more than ready to sit in with the rest of the United States Eastern Seaboard as the title screen illuminated the pitch dark that surrounded my television set.
The title sequence instantly gripped my attention with a big screen styled intro, complete with dramatic aerial shot, as Kane’s (Rose) voice starts to narrate our introduction into the origins of the Red Knight. With a quick sequence recapping the tragic events of her childhood, as all our brooding hero’s seem to originate from, we get glimpses into her past before Kane physically breaks through the barrier of ice and into the frigid landscape around her. Though -slightly- irritated with her trainer (Gray Horse Rider), he tells Kane that she found her own way through it and tomorrow she would find it faster. It’s this theme that becomes most prominent throughout the length of the episode, as it was in the comic series, as we move forward.
Kane’s narration gives us the briefing: Batman disappeared 3 years ago and the city divided itself in chaos and violence. Left with the concern that the GCPD may be overwhelmed, if not ineffective, against the rising crime rate, Kane’s father, Commander Jacob Kane (Scott), established the Crows, a nod to the Murder of Crows, a 6 man special forces team Kane’s father had established in the comic series as was in charge of the bulk of her training, to help bring order to Gotham. The Gotham civilian population had gathered to protest turning off the Bat signal, the beacon of hope that held for many of them, that he might return. Mrs. Catherine Hamilton-Kane (Anweis) addresses the Gotham One percent that have paid for the privilege, $10,000 a plate, as we learn from Crow Agent Chuck Dodgson (Zub), of being present as the light is turned off, that Batman had given up on Gotham and it was time to move forward without him. But this is Gotham and even flipping a switch just isn’t that easy.
Roof top and city surveillance cuts out as the Crows are now left blind (as a bat) to the events already in motion. After an anticlimactic countdown, when the Bat Signal fails to be turned off, a mischievous figure appears on view screen. Alice (Skarsten) summarizes that Batman couldn’t protect the city and neither could the Crows before pushing the camera for the live feed over and revealing the dead police officers she had murdered shortly before. Panic over takes the rooftop, and the Crows start to evacuate the attendees, a masked member of Alice’s gang, a White Rabbit, leads Agent Sophie Moore (Tandy) on a rooftop parkour chase before ending unconscious in the back of a van.
Word spreads quickly and soon Kane’s step-sister, Mary Hamilton (Kang), is calling out to let her know Agent Moore is MIA. A flashback let’s us known that Kane and Moore once had a romantic involvement as Kane re-enters the city via Harley-Davidson Sportster Iron 833 (so much better than a horse) to join the effort in locating and, hopefully, saving Moore from the crazed lunatic that took her. Kane tells us that she had been away training all this time in hopes they would be able to one day join the Crows alongside her father, however, still needed to prove herself worthy. Oh, Kane. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone but that’s a soapbox tirade for another time. Moving on.
We pan in on a pep talk about combating fear in the city and finding Agent Moore at what appears to be the Crows HQ. After watching her father challenge the team from the doorway, Kane walks over where her father embraces her with a hug. A tiny Easter Egg about Rose’s Veganism, as the Commander brings Kane a cuppa minus the cream, and Kane explains the purpose of their preemptive reunion, to join the team. Sadly the scene with Kane’s quip to being labeled the female Bruce Wayne (Awesome; hilarious; handsome) didn’t make it to the episode, however, she does defend her cousin as being the only one who was around when her mother and sister died in the car crash from the opening sequence. After the Commander brushes off Kane’s attempt to join the search for Agent Moore, we’re treated to a more in depth look into their joint history.
Luckily, before my own PTSD with the military got to bad, we flash forward to Kane’s free climbing Wayne Enterprises launching into a bridge overlay of memories of playing with her sister inside the office. Brief glimpses into the well-known Batman story through the eyes of Wayne’s cousin are told as Kane surveys the disheveled office. The flashback is interrupted as Luke Fox (Johnson) tried to apprehend Kane for breaking into the office. A small back and forth questioning Kane’s statement about Wayne being her cousin, and Kane has managed to slip out of her handcuffs with the aid of a paper clip and some quick moves. Since Fox had brought them into the surveillance room, obviously the thing Kane had been after to begin with, Kane quickly accesses the security camera from the other night and downloads it to a thumb drive before leaving Fox behind, now handcuffed to a computer tower. She does have the courtesy of dropping the keys on the floor and just out of Fox’s reach before she goes.
Kane makes their way back to the family home where her sister Mary is waiting with a surprise “Welcome Home” party. Kane, looking about as chuffed as a person living from combat training to training for the last 5 years would be in a room full of people, gets the excitable synopsis from Mary about the kidnapping of Agent Moore, as well as the decrease in available children’s literature for future offspring, and a peak at the social status and expectations of the Kane family in Gotham before we are given another glimpse into Kane and Moore’s mutual past. Utilizing my coping mechanisms for the 2nd time tonight, we carry on to Kane finally being able to talk to her father about the footage she wrested from Wayne Tower. Thought the video is initially unhelpful, Kane spots writing on the weapon, a wooden paddle, used to knock Moore out. Commander Kane makes out “Milk Well Behaved C. H.” which connects Kane back to something she had seen as a kid at the Burnside Orphanage where she and her sister Beth used to play in their youth. But as Commander Kane starts issuing out his teams orders, Kane has already headed off on her motorcycle in hot pursuit.
Once there, Kane sneaks into the orphanage but isn’t there long before she is jumped by members of Alice’s gang. Rose gets to draw on that boxing background as Kane fends off several members between the hallways, elevator and kitchen before being hit from behind by another paddle. Kane wakes lying on the concrete floor where Alice remarks that she had thought Kane had been sent away after she has her goons hoist her vertically suspended from a rope. Kane asks how she knows her but Alice fails to provide an answer. Instead, she says that she wants Kane to deliver a message to her father that she views the Commander and the Crows as bullies that bully Gotham into submission and that she will stop him by removing his power. After Kane offers to trade their life for Moore’s, Alice reveals that she took Moore because she thought the Commander regarded Moore as his real daughter rejecting Kane. Alice finishes off her emphasis with a formal introduction and another paddle to the head. Poor, Batñata. Pretty sure those aren’t lollies.
By the time the Crows show up, Kane is “missing” but her bike has been found in the bushes. The Commander sends out a search party while we flash scene over to an illegal clinic generously and unknowingly donated by Gotham University to Kane’s sister, Mary, who is busily stitching up the recently obtained wounds. After the briefest of bonding moments, Kane marches off to the Crows HQ with a stunned Commander Kane questioning where in the world she has been since the orphanage. Kane however takes the opportunity to confront the daemons Alice brought to the surface in telling her she wasn’t good enough for the Commander. After a tearful exchange, Kane walks off telling herself she’ll never been accepted by her father or his team because of the reminders she brings the Commander of a life lost.
Kane returns to Wayne Tower surprising Fox as he is tinkering with some equipment. After threatening him to get him to contact Wayne, she notices a fixture, her Aunt Martha’s necklace had been moved. A nice upgrade from the bust of Shakespeare from the original Batman TV series days, replacing Martha’s necklace opens a hidden door and elevator taking Kane down into the Bat Cave, receives a Mikveh in Bats, and straight to the Bat Suit. Realizing her cousin is, or was, Batman she begins looking around finding old clippings of the car crash involving her sister and mother. Fox tells her about the efforts Batman had made in trying to save them before rescuing a bus full of kids from the Joker the same day. Kane realizes she had Batman all wrong for years and that Wayne had forged his own path to help his city. Calling back to the message from earlier in the episode, Kane decides that finding her own way involves a similar leap and asks Fox to make the suit fitted for a woman. Cue Mary calling Kane about a lead on Moore and our stage is set.
At Gotham’s movie in the park, The Mark of Zorro (a nod to the comics as the last film the Wayne family watched before Martha and Thomas's murder), we learn that Agent Dodgson is not as he appears. Dodgson walks right by a bound and gagged Agent Moore and straight over to Alice who is peering down over the event. Alice kisses Dodgson at their parting before Alice calls the Commander from her hidden location. A few quick words, Alice tells him that she prefers to be memorable and has filled a Crows truck with “Forget-Me-Nots”. Commander Kane runs to the van only to find a bomb inside. Alice offers a choice: pick Agent Moore’s life, now on a plank buccaneer style over the edge of the building, or Gotham.
As the moments seem most dire, our hero enters the scene quickly dispatching the two thugs and framing themselves behind plastic sheeting. Alice, initially mistaking Kane for Batman, throws her butterfly knife into the barrel of fluid keeping Moore up on that plank. (C’mon Moore escape while they’re fighting!) Batwoman drives themselves into Alice but Alice counters with some quick moves of her own. After a bit of a struggle between the two, Batwoman manages to knock the remote activation device for the bomb that Alice had dropped in the struggle off the side of the building. Alice throws the butterfly knife at her narrowly missing Batwoman’s head. The barrel, however, is running out of fluid and Moore is running out of time. Instead of pursuing Alice, Batwoman flings themselves at Moore right as the plank gives way.
Falling into a conveniently placed construction office, complete with bed, Moore realizes that Batwoman is not who they initially thought. Batwoman leaves Moore behind before ascending back up the building via grappling gun only to find the butterfly knife with no sign of Alice. In the meantime, the Crows have descended on the location to find Agent Moore safe and sound. Batwoman perches herself off a beam from on high before gliding away from the location with lookers on from below.
Vesper Fairchild (Maddow) provides the commentary as we pan over the people reacting to the news of the Bat”man” sighting from the previous evening. Some people are rejuvenated in their hope for the city while others are skeptical. Commander Kane speaks to skepticism about previous pretenders who end up dying from lack of skill or training as Agent Moore reserves details from her interaction with her rescuer. Dodgson and Alice have moved to the top of the Crows priority list as the briefing comes to an end. Noticing Kane looking from above, Moore follows her into the hall saving them from the GCPD instant coffee machine. Life. Saved.
Kane and Moore have a brief reunion where Moore thanks Kane fore coming back to help out with the investigation and her rescue. The moment is soon interrupted, however, when Tyler (Holt) walks over to check on his wife explaining he is the over protective husband after the previous events. An extremely disappointed looking Kane excuses themselves leaving the couple behind in the hall. (Cue all the heart break)
We find Kane framed in a picture window overlooking Gotham when her father walks in saying that he had figure she had left town. Kane takes the opportunity to confront her father about his intentions to place her in the organization. The Commander confesses that he had never had any intention of making her a Crow and had had plans of calling in favors to land them behind a desk if they had completed training with the military. He goes on to confess that he did it all because Kane was all he had left and he didn’t want to loose her as well. He offers her a place with the Crows, but Kane turns back toward the Bat Cave. She writes her story down for Wayne to read later before turning her attention to a drawing of the car from Kane’s past. Fox explain’s that Wayne never stop looking for Kane’s sister’s body. Kane ponders why Batman couldn’t find her having had all the technology at his disposal. Kane inspects the butterfly knife Alice had left behind to find a stone matching the one in her own necklace. Coming to the conclusion that Alice is Beth, her long lost sister, the show cuts to Alice holding a picture taken from the day of the accident. Cue dramatic realization music. Show credits. Applause.
Overall I’d rank the “Pilot” 5 out of 6 only in as so far that I felt most of the episode had been shown already in Previews and Trailers leaving a severe desire to see more than what had been presented. This may also be why it had felt rushed, at times, speeding through large tracts of the comic book history in a bound. That could also be attributed to being well familiar with the Batwoman story already, however, the Batwoman staff and writing team has already made it more than clear that, in the first 42 minutes of run time, they mean to put their own stamp on the hero Batwoman is destined to become. Though I would personally add a few trigger warnings for folx like me who have an involved past similar to that of Kane’s, overall, the story, performances, and the concentration on the choices influencing who Kane chooses to become left me looking forward to not only seeing the future episodes, but rewatching the “Pilot” again and again.
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