In the aftermath of the previous episode, Kate struggles to cope with her killing of August Cartwright, while Alice seeks her help to free Mouse from Arkham. Meanwhile, as Reggie Harris's case comes up for appeal, Sophie looks into the crime he was accused of, and Luke questions the facts of his father's death.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Alice frantically begging her sister not to leave her behind evokes some sympathy.
- Assassin Outclassin': Jacob kills the sniper who tries to assassinate him, the same one who also killed Reggie Harris and the other witness and tried shooting Sophie.
- Asshole Victim: Jacob and Alice both insist that Kate shouldn't feel any guilt over Cartwright's death. Deconstructed, as the fact that she doesn't feel any guilt over it is exactly what's messing with Kate's head.
- Becoming the Mask: Averted; Kate puts on a Wonderland gang mask, but it turns out she has no intention of following her sister down the rabbit hole of madness and casual murder.
- Bedlam House: Arkham Asylum, naturally. According to Alice, the warden used Mouse as a guinea pig during his time there, testing fear toxin on him to further understand its effects.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Between Kate and Julia at the end of the episode.
- Bittersweet Ending: Alice and Mouse are finally locked up, but at the cost of even more guilt piled on Kate for betraying them. Jacob moves Cartwright's body so they can't be blackmailed, but both Jacob and Kate feel morally compromised with the latter questioning whether she deserves to be Batwoman. Luke Fox sees the man who killed his father die, but indications are he was innocent anyway. Sophie and Jacob both survive assassination attempts, but this only reveals the existence of a wider conspiracy they'll have to confront.
- Blackmail: Alice blackmails her family into letting her go and later Kate into helping her find Mouse by threatening to oust her as Cartwright's murderer.
- Brick Joke: Alice flips around her butterfly knife and invites her sister to have a try. When Kate refuses, Alice claims it's because Kate doesn't know how to use one and doesn't want to admit it. Later Alice throws her sister the balisong and it turns out she can use it quite well.
- The Bus Came Back: Julia Pennyworth returns.
- Call-Back: Kate refers back to her encounter with the Batman of Earth-99 as she wonders if she's heading down the same path that he did.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted. While Kate does pretty good against the Arkham guards, she eventually gets overwhelmed because she's fighting several men twice her size, and would've lost if not for Alice coming to her rescue.
- Continuity Nod:Kate: You need help finding the guy who framed my dad and murdered Catherine.
Alice: Both done at my request.
Kate: Didn't he also try to kill you?
Alice: And yet I still forgive him, choosing to see the best in him. Ever try that?
Kate: (gestures toward Alice) All the time. Never works out. - Diving Save: Though in this case the rescuer actually catches the bullet meant for Sophie.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- Mouse is targeting his former tormentors from Arkham.
- Alice constantly abusing Kate's trust to her own benefit bites her back when Kate does the same to make sure Alice is locked up in Arkham.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Kate, after Alice is locked up.
- Enemy Mine: Alice seeks out Kate's help to find Mouse, and later, to break him out of Arkham. Unusually for this type of situation, it turns out to be the hero who stabs the villain in the back.
- Exact Words: Kate promised to reunite Alice with Mouse. She never said they'd be free to go afterwards. She also made Alice say Kate could trust her, multiple times, but never gave Alice the same promise.
- Failed a Spot Check: When Jacob tries to arrest Alice, she reveals that she lifted his firearm while he was in shock over discovering his daughter had murdered someone.
- A Friend in Need
- Luke goes to attend the court hearing on his father's killer being released. Knowing from the loss of her own mother that this is not a time to be alone, Mary turns up to offer moral support.
- Kate would rather drown her sorrows alone rather than be comforted by her estranged ex-girlfriend. Julia is not having it.Julia: You don't have to say anything, but a friend wouldn't leave you drinking on a ledge.
- Guile Hero: Kate manipulates Alice into trusting her and has her locked up at Arkham at the end.
- He Knows Too Much: A hired killer targets Reggie Harris and another witness of Lucius Fox's murder. They also try to kill Sophie and Jacob, who manage to escape with their lives.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Discussed by Kate, who wonders if Cartwright's death is the first step down a very dark path.Kate: "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster".
Alice: I'm afraid that passage wasn't in the one book I was allowed to read.
Kate: Someone once said it to me.
Alice: How did that work out?
Kate: He became a monster. - I Did What I Had to Do:Jacob: Getting her to trust you, alerting me, helping your city wasn't easy. Took a hell of a lot of courage.
Kate: (stoic) It had to be done, and I had to be the one to do it. - I Gave My Word: Alice actually keeps her word of not killing anybody inside Arkham, in contrast to the last time she made this promise.
- Impersonating an Officer: Kate and Alice try to stake out Nurse Tammy's house posing as a plainclothes unit of Crow Security, but given her time working in Arkham she easily works out they're shooting her a line and calls the real Crows, who grab Mouse when he turns up. It doesn't help that Alice is still acting her manic self during this impersonation.
- Internal Reveal: The Arkham staff learns that Alice is alive.
- Irony:
- Alice points out how the man who destroyed their family brought them together again at the beginning when they are burying Cartwright.Alice: Ahh. Irony, you are one sick bitch!
- The one time Alice actually keeps her word to Kate, it turns out to be Kate who's manipulating her.
- Alice points out how the man who destroyed their family brought them together again at the beginning when they are burying Cartwright.
- It's Personal: Alice gets pissed when she finds her entire gang murdered by somebody (presumably Safiyah).
- Kick the Dog: Alice repeatedly rubs Cartwright's death in Kate's face. And to Jacob, who threatens to cuff her if she doesn't be quiet.
- Laser Sight: Used for the usual Five-Second Foreshadowing. Having been already alerted there's a hitman around, Jacob is a bit quicker on the move and is able to dive for cover.
- Lovely Angels: Kate and Alice kicking ass together is incredibly cool before its tragic conclusion.
- The Missus and the Ex: Downplayed when Julia saves the life of Sophie. Although Julia states right away that they're both ex's of Kate Kane, given the circumstances Sophie is hardly going to complain about it.
- Mook Depletion: Alice returns to her lair to find all her minions killed by an unseen former foe of hers, leaving the Wonderland Gang down to just herself and Mouse.
- Moral Myopia: Alice seems to think that manipulating Kate into killing a man was doing her a favor. Kate nearly strangles her when she hears about it. She also believes that Kate snapping and killing one person in a moment of extreme emotional stress makes her exactly the same as Alice, who has murdered several people for petty reasons with premeditation and sadistic glee. Alice isn't wrong that Kate is a criminal, but she's nowhere near as much of one as Alice herself.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Kate, when she nearly strangled a petty thug to death while out as Batwoman.
- My Way or the Highway: Played for Black Comedy; Kate agrees to help Alice rescue Mouse, on condition Alice do things her way. Alice points out that as Kate's way involved strangling a man until he choked to death in his own blood, she'd love nothing more!
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Mouse calls Alice out for trusting Kate, leaving them both locked up.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Alice maintains this about herself and Kate throughout the episode, as they're both killers now. Kate herself becomes worried that this is the case, and she manipulates Alice into a cage at Arkham to try and ensure that she won't become like her sister. Julia later assures her that she is in fact Not So Similar.
- Kate reflects on her encounter with the Bruce Wayne of Earth-99, fearing that he was right about it being impossible to hold to a moral code and that killing Cartwright might be the first step down a similarly dark path.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging
- After burying Cartwright's body, Kate sees someone has turned on the Bat-Signal to call the Caped Crusader.
- Despite the fact that his father's apparent murderer is facing release from prison, Luke Fox wants to stay and help catch the murderer of Beth, unaware that he's already in the ground thanks to Kate.
- One that only becomes obvious in retrospect, but Alice tells Kate that her worst nightmare under the fear toxin was being abandoned to her fate by her father and sister.
- Oh, Crap!: Mouse gets downright terrified when he is brought back into Dr. Butler's care.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After almost getting killed by Kate, Alice drops her taunting attire for a moment, genuinely telling Kate that she doesn't need to feel guilty for killing Cartwright. Later, she also gets terrified when Kate has her trapped in Arkham, begging her to not leave her.
- Pet the Dog: With someone very dangerous gunning for her Alice needs to get out of Gotham fast, but refuses to abandon Mouse to the tender mercies of the Arkham Asylum.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: After Kate locks her in Arkham, Alice breaks down, tearfully begging Kate not to leave her, only getting more distraught as Kate walks away.
- Poor Communication Kills: Averted; Julia tells Sophie right away who she is, why she's here and that she's Kate Kane's ex, likely to avoid the same misunderstanding that caused her and Kate to break up in the first place.
- Rage Breaking Point: After one too many taunts, Kate flies into a near-murderous rage against Alice, almost strangling her.
- Revealing Cover Up: After Reggie's case is brought up for appeal, whoever is behind the frame-up starts killing off people who can expose it, as well as trying to kill people investigating it. All this does is further convince the heroes that there's something very fishy going on.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Kate needed to trust Alice so she can help her free Mouse.Kate: No one dies.
Alice: Have I ever lied to you?
Kate: Literally dozens of times.
Alice: Yeah, okay. - Sex for Solace: Well snogging for solace at least. Julia finds Kate drinking while sitting on the edge of a very long drop off Wayne Tower and does her best to comfort her. Even though Kate gave her the cold shoulder last time she was in Gotham, it ends with them kissing.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Poor Reggie Harris gets killed almost immediately after finally being released from his imprisonment on false charges.
- So Proud of You: According to Reggie, before he died, Lucius told everyone in a convenience store about Luke getting into MIT, proudly telling them that his son would change the world.
- Spotting the Thread: Nurse Tammy immediately notices that Kate and Alice are telling her a false story.
- Tears of Remorse: You'll notice Kate tearing up as her sister begs her not to leave her imprisoned and it really pains her to do so.
- Taking the Bullet: Julia, non-lethally, takes a bullet for Sophie during her Diving Save.
- These Hands Have Killed: Batwoman has a panic attack after nearly choking a criminal to death.
- Two-Keyed Lock: There are two keys to Mouse's maximum security isolation cell, one kept by the Head of Security, the other by Dr. Butler. This is why Alice needs Kate's help to spring him.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Despite Jacob saving her from cutting her throat in the previous episode, Alice has no problem threatening him and Kate with a gun and blackmailing them in order to go free. Averted with regards to Cartwright's death, however; Alice sincerely thanks Kate for killing the man who destroyed both her life and their family.
- Villain Has a Point:
- She's mostly just taunting her father and sister, but Alice is right that simply trying to put Cartwright's death behind them won't do Kate any favors.
- When Alice accepts Nurse Tammy's offer of a brownie, to Kate's annoyance, Alice points out that given the events of the previous night, they really should eat something.
- When Kate says she's not a criminal, Alice replies "and they say I'm the delusional one". Given that Kate had committed manslaughter the previous night, helped bury the body, and regularly goes out as a vigilante, it's not hard to agree with Alice.
- Villainous Rescue: Alice saves Kate from being overwhelmed by a bunch of Arkham guards, tossing her sister her knife.
- We Need a Distraction: Alice places an Incredibly Obvious Bomb under a linen truck to distract the guards while she and Kate enter via the tunnels under Arkham.
- Window Love: There's a brief moment of palm-touching when Kate slams the transparent cell door on her sister, until Jacob appears and Alice realises Kate was luring her into a trap all along.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Alice's glee at Cartwright's death doesn't do Kate's troubled conscience any favors.
