“How Queer Everything Is Today!” is episode ten of season one of Batwoman.
A train fails to stop at a station, then lurches and speeds through another. It fails to slow down. The driver says that the brakes have failed. Luke is filling Kate in, or trying to; she’s on her bike and it’s noisy. He comments that she didn’t hear a word. Kate replies that she loves this bike. It also seems it’s her birthday in two days. He heads onto the tracks behind the train and fires a grapnel at the train and at the tracks. The train comes to an abrupt stop before it hits the end of the line – without anyone aboard being injured. Well, that’s improbable. The grapnel comes loose from the tracks and heads at Kate, who is tackled out of the way by a GCPD officer.
This results in speculation in the media about Batwoman and Officer Slam Bradley. Luke tells Kate that GCPD are stepping up their game, with the head of the Crows in jail – in “A Mad Tea-Party”, Alice killed Catherine and had Mouse frame Commander Kane. Kate doesn’t want to talk about Officer Bradley. Luke tells her that it’s not a total negative. Gotham is confused and misinformation helps keep her identity hidden. Luke says Gotham just wants to see Batwoman happy. Kate replies that she’s not. It seems she was reading on her father’s murder trial.
Alice and Mouse are having a tea party in the rain in a cemetery. By Catherine’s grave. Mouse thinks they should do this when the weather is better. Alice tells him that, with Catherine dead, sunshine is implied. Mouse comments on Alice’s fantasy that the three of them, including Kate, will be a family. Alice says she killed their mutual enemy for her sister. She will come around. Mouse, who seems to have a rather better grasp on the situation than Alice, says that Kate won’t see murdering Catherine as a gesture of Alice’s love for her. She doesn’t see a sister; she sees a soul that needs saving. As long as Kate wears the mask, Alice will never bring her into the family. That may have given Alice an idea.
Mary is recording a video for her followers; she’s received a lot of abuse and is signing off for a bit. Kate walks in and makes Mary jump. She didn’t mean to scare her. Mary is sure Kate didn’t mean her twin sister to kill Mary’s mother, but look how that turned out. Kate wants to help with her father. Mary says they got this. They’ve got every lawyer on retainer, Sophie is looking for Mouse and Mary is trying to find a plastic surgeon willing to testify that Kane could have been framed for murder. If Kate wants to help, tell her sister to stop defiling Mary’s mother’s grave. Kate never wanted to believe her sister was capable of this. Mary did, and Kate didn’t listen.
Luke is going over the train with Kate. Kate turns off the power and sees a glow coming from behind a vent. Inside is a device that Luke admits could theoretically have helped the train be hacked remotely. Then everyone in the city sees a message on their devices and screens from the head of a terrier, who demands $5 million by midnight Friday or all their secretes will be revealed.
The mayor is giving an interview, which Luke and Kate are watching in the Batcave, about how there is no reason to be alarmed. He gets hacked on live television; the terrier’s face replaces his own and his credit card numbers are put on the screen. Luke shuts down the Batcave’s system. The hacker is good and Kate – Batwoman – is a logical target. He admits they could trace the hacker from the recovered device, and Kate turns the system back on for him to try.
Mary is on the phone to Kane, who is in jail – not a great place for someone who has locked up quite a few of the people in it – telling him about what she is trying to do. She’s having problems finding a medical expert willing to testify. Kane is concerned about Mary and, just because he and her mother had a difference of opinion, didn’t mean he wanted to stop being her dad.
Luke has traced the IP address and Kate goes there to find Sophie and the Crows are already there. It looks like the hackers they have found are dupes. Sophie also looks to be on the edge of shooting one of them anyway. When Sophie leaves the building, she hears a noise and says to come out. Kate is there; she asks if Sophie wants to talk about it. Sophie ever asks if she feels she’s hiding from the world. Kate replies that she is literally standing in a shadow. Sophie’s husband left her, because he thinks Sophie is lying to herself. Sophie isn’t sure herself. Kate suggests she take her mask off. Sophie thinks Batwoman is one to talk.
Mary isn’t having much luck in finding an expert who is both willing to testify that Mouse could have disguised himself as Commander Kane and that believes it’s possible. She does see Alice at the university. Kate is feeling like a fraud. Luke talks her around. He also managed to do some offline research. The hacker is a girl, quite a young one too. And Kate recognises where the message was recorded. Her old high school.
Kate is being shipped with Officer Slam Bradley, much to her distaste. Bradley himself gets repeatedly compared to Captain America. And Chris Evans. There are a number of references to “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and at the end Kate gets a rather weird surprise.