“Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale” is episode five of season one of Batwoman.
The episode opens in a morgue where someone is cutting rectangles of skin from the bodies. Kate is narrating that she hoped for Beth and her to not be such great mysteries to each other. She’s determined to solve the puzzle before it’s too late. The person collecting the skin is, of course, Alice.
Luke is briefing Kate on what the media are calling ‘The Skin Pirate’ who has quite a work habit; three morgues in one night, the break-ins only 9 minutes apart. Calculating the shortest route gets camera footage of the perpetrator, who is clearly a she, not a he as the media suspects. Luke asks if the figure looks familiar to Kate. He thinks it’s Alice. Kate does not. Luke decides to check. Yes, it’s Alice. Kate wants Luke to look in to that the uses of skin are. He will, if she reminds him to clear his search history. Kate is going after Alice. No, she doesn’t know where Alice is, but in the previous episode, “Who Are You?”, she implanted Dodgson with a tracker before releasing him, and Alice likes to keep her toys close. Kate can’t find any night vision goggles. According to Luke, Batman doesn’t do goggles.
Alice is with Dodgson, wanting to know what he revealed. He says nothing, though Mary did tease some information out of him whilst he was under the effects of morphine. Alice says if he did, off with his head. The lights go off and Kate arrives, taking down the gang members before knocking Beth out. Batman appears to do night vision contacts.
Alice comes around, chained and in a cage. Kate wants to know what she wants the skin for; Dodgson said Alice had big plans for Mouse. Alice is sure he said lots of stupid things, after her stepsister illegally drugged him. Kate wants to know what Alice is planning. She can get her to a rehab hospital, a real one. Alice says Mouse is the one who found her after the crash. Kate wants to know what happened, or she’ll call their father letting him know Kate is with Alice. Kane will then be able to track her phone and he will send Alice to Arkham. Kate does this. Now Alice needs to talk. Talk? No; Alice needs to show.
In Kate’s car, Alice says it starts 14 months before Catherine Hamilton faked Beth’s death. Catherine admitted this to Kane in the previous episode, but no-one has told Kate. The bones were those of a deer and Catherine had the DNA tests faked. And daddy has just found out. Deep down, Kate knew the bones weren’t Beth’s. Alice says Kate is asking the wrong questions. She needs to ask ‘Why?’ Why is Beth like this? Kate asks. Alice tells her she doesn’t want to know. Kate has waited 15 years to hear this. Alice remembers how it all started. She woke up.
Beth wakes in a house and a boy tells his father that she’s awake. The man says that he and his son, Johnny, were fishing, and they found her on the rocks. The police will be here soon. The boy sat with his hair in his eyes, playing with his trucks. According to Alice, the first worst day of her life. First, they need to head to a diner.
Kane is speaking to Sophie about Kate’s call. He doesn’t want to get a team together; just the two of them. Kate’s phone has been tracked to an interstate.
Mary is with her mother; Mary can’t see how there could have been a mix-up with the bones. Catherine tells her it wasn’t a mix-up and she isn’t covering up the lab’s mistake. She wanted to give Kane and Kate closure. Mary is not impressed. Catherine wanted Mary to hear it from her. Mary is upset.
In the diner, Alice orders two beers. Kate doesn’t want one. Alice tells her she doesn’t want to hear this sober. Alice used to dream of running away to a place like this, but always woke up, hungry and weak. Back in the past, Beth was taken to a child’s room. Mouse’s room, though he was Johnny back then. He has a scarred face. The news comes on and it says the police are looking for Beth. Even though Johnny’s father said they were on the way. Johnny’s father doesn’t want her to leave and takes her downstairs, putting her in a room where there is a face floating in a sink. That was just the first day.
A rather drunk Mary has turned up at Wayne Tower, demanding to see Kate. Security has brought her to Luke. She introduces herself as Mary, Kate’s soon to be ex-stepsister. Luke tells her Kate is not here. Mary could leave a message. The message gets confused; Mary wonders if her mother killed the deer too. Even drunk and upset, Mary goes off on tangents. Kane and Sophie are on the way after Kate. He explains what Catherine told him.
According to Alice, she wasn’t a prisoner, she was a friend. Johnny hadn’t had much opportunity for socialisation, because the world made him an outcast, called him a monster. This is Beth’s home now. Johnny had no friends before Alice, and the skin was to hide his face.
Unfortunately, after Kate decides she really did need a drink after all, it was drugged, and now Alice has Kate not vice versa. She continues her tale, though. Mary keeps hanging around with Luke, still drinking, and trying to find out what he’s working on. It seems there was a breakout at Arkham.