Batwoman S01 EP12 spoiler review

Batwoman is back from a break that I didn't realize was going to happen, and I hope doesn't happen again because I've never liked the random week or two long breaks that the CW does with their shows in the back half of every season. The episode offered some really awesome points but I think there were some parts of it I found a little weird, and I still haven't really gotten used to having a misplaced multiverse character suddenly in the story...though that isn't much of an issue by the end.
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The smallest plot line in the episode involved Jacob Kane in prison where he is confronted by one of his old Crow lieutenants, Alice's old boyfriend who I had completely forgotten even existed. He stabs Jacob in prison, but before he can kill the Crow commander, another prisoner saves him. I figure it will lead to something later on, but I think Arrow and Flash pulled off the storylines of heroes being in prison a bit better. Wasn't a lot of meat to this portion of the episode, and being reminded of Alice's old boyfriend makes me think about how forgettable he was and how strange it is for Alice to have been so attached to him when he doesn't matter not too long afterwards.

Primarily, the story of the episode focused around Beth and Alice, and how the two of them could not exist on the same earth at the same time. This goes against everything we've seen so far on the CW with doppelgangers, the multiverse, and even post-crisis doppelgangers with Winn on Supergirl, but it did its job for the episode which was provide tension. Kate was faced with the "tough" choice of choosing between Beth and Alice, and I put tough in paraquotes because even though Alice is technically her real sister I think it is a no brainer. Alice continues to just murder and hurt people, while Beth is nothing but a pure, good soul and everything they hoped to find in Alice. It was a lot of back and forth between the characters this episode as they struggled with what to do and at one point Alice went to Wayne industries and confronted the group as a whole, learning that Beth was saved by Kate on her earth, and ultimately tries to kill her doppelganger. Kate saves her, and the two of them begin to suffer their headaches once again. I was frustrated with this part, because just as Kate was about to go after Alice and undoubtedly capture her, Luke all of a sudden says that Beth needs her but like what is she going to do for her? Alice gets away, while Kate just sits beside Beth rather than being able to capture and stop Alice.

The villain tracks down Mary, figuring I think that she can somehow cure her being erased from existence, but the villain remembers that she gave Mary the cure to the poison she had slipped her a few episodes ago. It is supposedly a cure-all to everything, and as proven in this episode is still coursing through Mary's blood instead of being filtered out like it should have been. So I guess Mary just has blood that can cure anything, and they won't use that to cure everything. Mary gets an awesome moment of power where she defeats Alice after initially being knocked out herself, and Kate uses the blood Alice initially drew to save Beth. Kate lies with Alice while she dies, and at the same time Luke smuggles Beth out of Gotham since the Crows are on the hunt for Alice. This is where the episode brought the Alice flashbacks to present day relevance.

Mouse has been restrained in the hospital since his capture, and he is visited by his father who is revealed to be alive and resentful of his son who he sees as manipulated by Alice and vows to kill her. He tracks Luke and Beth outside the city, and kills Beth thinking it is Alice. This allows Alice to survive, and the villain vows her hatred of Kate for letting her die before knocking her sister out.

Quite the shocking ending to the storyline, but I can't say I'm too sad to see the Alice doppelganger storyline go as the whole Crisis multiverse induced storyline was a bit much for Batwoman who had up to this point been a pretty realistic storyline in the confines of her own series. I'm excited to see what this leads to, as Alice won't be playing around as much anymore as she visibly hates Kate now. Next week we also get the introduction of the villain Nocturna which I'm very excited about, and I hope she is a lasting presence beyond just that one episode.