Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Batwoman: Season 1, Episode 15. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 1, Episode 14.
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Early on, Alice was easily the biggest disappointment with the debut season of Batwoman. She just wasn’t the dangerous, surreal villain she comes across as in the source material, and certainly not a worthy foil to Ruby Rose’s Batwoman. But Alice may well end Season 1 as the show’s most improved character. Recent episodes have done a lot to delve deeper into her background and explore how a promising young girl was warped and twisted to become Gotham’s latest costumed psychopath. That process culminates in “Off With Her Head,” an episode that fills in major gaps in Alice’s backstory and introduces a truly unsettling new villain.
There’s a fun battle of wills between Alice and her old tormentor Dr. Cartwright fueling much of this episode. The opening suggests Alice has finally outsmarted Cartwright by wrapping him up and delivering him to Kate’s doorstep, Batman style. But it soon becomes clear Alice has underestimated Cartwright, walking right into his fear toxin trap. Hey, if this show is going to ignore most of the classic Batman rogues, at least their influence is felt in other ways.
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Using Scarecrow’s old modus operandi is a great catalyst for another flashback-heavy Alice storyline. It’s certainly an effective way of introducing Debra Mooney as the twisted, hateful Mabel Cartwright. Mooney makes a strong impression as this Mommie Dearest-esque character. The sheer amount of menace and loathing oozing off this character is impressive. As much as being kidnapped and imprisoned by a demented psychiatrist with a penchant for swapping faces must be, it quickly becomes clear it was Mabel who gave Alice that final push into insanity and forced her to become a homicidal storybook character to survive.
Alice has always worked best when the show emphasizes her vulnerable, human side over her theatrical displays, and this episode really takes advantage of that by exploring just how much the Cartwright family matriarch haunts her even today. The nightmare scenes are especially well done, with past and present bleeding into each other and Alice having a complete breakdown by the time her father arrives. As disappointed as I was that the short-lived Beth doppelganger storyline didn’t result in the two characters merging together, this episode suggests that was never necessary. After everything she’s done, it turns out Alice’s greatest fear is still being abandoned by her father and sister. It definitely looks as though Alice is transitioning from antagonist to more morally ambiguous figure in Kate’s life, which seems like the right choice.
This episode is arguably even more important where Kate is concerned, given that she finally loses control and kills Cartwright. As much as he deserved a painful death, this is a dark development for a hero who so recently saw what happens when a Caped Crusader crosses that line and becomes a killer. I’m very interested to see how this impacts her character arc in the remainder of the season and Kate’s relationship with Beth. Perhaps she understands her sister a little better, along with the lesson their mother was trying to impart with those necklaces.
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On that note, Episode 15 sets some other exciting wheels in motion with the reveal Kate and Beth’s mother was targeted by Cartwright and the implication that Mabel may still be out there wearing Gabi’s face. Where it seemed like Cartwright was being angled as the season’s main villain, now it appears his dear old mother is instead stepping up to claim that title. Having established a very personal connection between Mabel and both Kane sisters, that prospect is very appealing.
This episode only falters a bit during the small Luke/Mary subplot. That’s to be expected from a storyline involving two characters trying to connect dots we the viewers already understand. Apart from the moment where Mary tries and fails to confirm her suspicions about Kate’s extracurricular activities, there’s not much to write home about here.
Source: IGN.com Batwoman: Season 1, Episode 15 Review