Batwoman 1x5 : Mine Is a Long and Sad Tale review

Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it. 

Five weeks into Batwoman and now finally with this episode we get to learn of Alice / Beth's backstory. Beginning with Kate narrating over the scene she says how her and Alice are like mysteries to one another even though they spent almost half their lives together. At the bat-cave Luke informs Kate that someone has stolen body parts from three different morgues in Gotham in one. Deemed the 'Skin 'Pirate' Luke pulls up camera feeds and Alice is seen walking out of the morgue's with a white bag. Kate is unconvinced on the issues and says that Alice would never stoop so low as to cut off human flesh and use it for her own weird reasons. Kate walks over to Batman's gadgets and asks Luke why there isn't any goggles? Luke responds with ''Batman doesn't do goggles'' which is again a nice continuation of the banter between the two. The next thing we see is Alice who is questioning her second in command after being held by Batwoman last week. Alice says he better not have told Batwoman anything as if he did..it's off with his head. It's not seconds later when Batwoman rushes in and uses darkness as her ally. She takes out the Wonderlang Gang members surrounding Alice and ends up taking Alice hostage. With Alice tied up Kate questions her about the info she gained in last week's episode. Who is Mouse? and what is she really planning?? Kate gives her dad a call saying that she's with Alice but hangs up almost instantly leaving him a tracking location. 

It is from here on out that the episode gets really interesting as Alice and Kate go on a little car trip. On the way Alice tells Kate of just what happened to her and we learn that as she had survived the car crash years ago a man and his father saw Beth by some rocks and took her to their home. The boy is named Johnny and his face is extremely Two-Face like. The man however is right off the bat eerily creepy. He tells young Beth that the police are on the way and they will sort everything out. Time passes by and no police show up. Life only gets worse for Beth though as she sees that cops are upping their search for her on the news. Upset and scared Beth says she just wants to go home but the man goes and locks her up in a secret room he has behind a bookcase. It leads even further down into the house as Beth is placed there with only time being her friend. As time goes by Beth tries to make her escape from her prison which now includes Mice, visits from the man who has her captive and even a face bathed in liquid which he says is an experiment. Beth eventually makes her escape from the room using a hanging nail to lockpick the door. She heads upstairs and calls her dad. She barely gets a sentence in before she is cut off by the man again. Jacob and Kate Kane show up an hour after as the location gets traced. The man who places Beth back in her prison says if she makes any noise he will kill both her sister and her dad. Jacob rushes into the house screaming out for Beth. He goes inside and searches the house from top to bottom. Upstairs he sees Johnny who is playing with some toys. Johnny's dad convinces him to use his mimic powers (yes he has mimic powers) to convince Jacob that it was he who rang him and not Beth. Johnny speaks in Beth's voice which sinks Jacob's heart. Kate who was told to stay in the car outside ventures inside and finds the secret location behind the bookcase. Walking down the steps she puts her head against the door. The camera pans and we see the two sisters on each side. Beth was mere inches away from Kate who calls out to her but doesn't speak over the man's promise to kill them all. Kate walks away as we see Beth's anguish take center fold. Everything could've been solved in an instant if Kate just felt her sister and called out for help from above. Life really can be cruel sometimes.

 The episode draws to a close as after being drugged by Alice thanks to a seemingly harmless beer at a bar Alice returns the favor and ties Kate up in the same location where she was for many years. On the outside Jacob and Sophie arrive having tracked Kate's signal throughout the sisters journey. A gun battle takes place outside as inside Alice blames Kate for leaving her behind. She mentions how the story of twins having a special connection isn't true as if it was Kate would've sensed her behind that door all those years ago. The tension rises even more as inside Alice confronts Jacob while Sophie sweeps the area. We're introduced to the Mouse finally and it's none other than Johnny. Now fully grown his face is still a mess but it looks like it's been heavily experimented on. Alice ends up stabbing her dad in the stomach as see says that throughout all of this he never once called her Beth. He never once believed that Alice was Beth. Kate breaks free of her shackles and along with Sophie manage to stop Johnny. While pointing a gun at him they tell Alice to drop her gun on Jacob which she does before escaping with Johnny. Jacob tells Kate that Alice is Beth and he finally believes it now. Kate and Luke (well Luke more in this case) learns that Alice was getting help with her morgue trips. During a recent Arkham break out a man was taken and now this all happens?? it's all a little bit too on the nose. Could the man stealing the skin be the same man who held Beth hostage for many, many years?? and just who is he?? from the moment I saw him I got strong Dollmaker vibes. Everything from his creepy way of acting to experimenting on faces. It all just seems obvious. My theory from last week was the Court Of Owls this week Dollmaker. All of this probably won't even happen but I can't myself from coming up with theories. It's what makes these shows so fun for me. The final thing we see in the episode is Alice and Johnny who say they are both mad and once Jacob is out of the way nobody will be able to stop them. Wow. Five episodes in and this episode was easily the best. Silly at times sure with Kate getting drugged by a beer when it was just ordered from a regular bartender. Beth's backstory was really interesting and makes me excited to delve deeper down the rabbit hole as the season goes on. Batwoman took a backseat for the majority of the episode which was perfectly fine. All in all this was great and the best Batwoman has been all season. If it can keep going like this I think it could be so much better than people are giving it credit for.

★★★★