“Rule #1” is episode nine of season two of Batwoman.
Luke, Mary, Julia, Sophie and Kane are attending Kate’s funeral. Julia spent months searching and found part of a skull outside Bludhaven. Three labs confirmed the DNA was Kate’s. Ryan can’t go to the funeral, or lay flowers on the grave, so she’s saying goodbye in the Batcave. And planting the flower that Angelique gave her, that was discovered to be the Desert Rose needed to save Ryan in the previous episode, “Survived Much Worse”, in the cave.
Black Mask tells Kate, who’s imprisoned and likely missing part of her face, that her family has declared her dead. They will make them believe in life after death.
One month later and Commissioner Forbes is interviewed outside City Hall. He says they will put an end to Snake Bite and are willing to work with Batwoman to do so. Then a young woman confronts him. The commissioner says his is an elected position. If she doesn’t like him, run.
Ryan and Mary are having breakfast when Angelique knocks on the door. She’s come to says he’s sorry. Mary excuses herself and says she’s going out of earshot. Hopefully. Ryan says they can’t have anything as long as Angelique is involved with Snake Bite. Angelique says she’s getting out. She didn’t say she couldn’t; she said she didn’t want to. With Ocean gone, she doesn’t want to run the lab for the False Face Society.
That night, False Faces gun down the commissioner outside of city wall. The woman who spoke to him earlier was tagging the building and sees. She manages to get away.
The next day, a businessman, Roman Sionis, is interviewed where the commissioner was killed. He offers to help law enforcement.
Luke, Mary and Ryan are wondering who killed Forbes. Sophie is running the investigation for the Crows. Both discover the CCTV footage of the actual murder is missing. Ryan spots an incomplete tag, though, and suggests that the tagger saw the murder. She and Luke are wondering how to find and protect the person when Mary says she’s found them. On social media. There’s a signature mark. The tagger is a Jordan Moore.
Sophie gets in her car to find her sister in the back. Jordan explains what she saw, but she doesn’t want to speak to the Crows. She came to see Sophie her sister not Sophie the Crow. Then False Faces attack, but Batwoman appears as well.
After the False Faces are taken down, Jordan asks how Batwoman knew she’d be there. Because when Jordan wasn’t at her place, it seemed likely she’d gone to see her sister. The False Faces thought the same. Ryan wants to know what Jordan saw. Jordan doesn’t want to snitch; the False Faces will know it’s her. Ryan suggests that the men on the ground mean they already do, and Sophie speaks up for Batwoman. Jordan saw two men and a woman, all wearing masks. The woman had a gold bracelet in the shape of a key, though.
Ryan knows whose bracelet that is and goes to see Angelique. Angelique says she was asked to do one last thing if she wanted out. But didn’t know that was the thing. The False Faces are run by a psycho called Black Mask and if she gives them up, she’s dead. Ryan can protect Angelique. How? Well, it may sound crazy but… she knows Batwoman. Angelique asks for time. Luke and Mary are not that happy and Mary reminds Ryan how Kate making excuses for Alice led to the death of Mary’s mother.
Alice, meanwhile, has returned to the old Cartwright place. She hears someone and goes to confront what she assumes is an assassin from Coryana. It’s Kate. Young Kate, the age when Beth disappeared. They sit down for a tea party. Alice says none of this is real. Kate agrees, but says Alice doesn’t want reality. Beth was always the one to get them into trouble; Kate was the one who got them out. She can make Alice’s pain disappear.
Commander Kane is still not convinced that Kate’s death was the accident the report makes it out to be. Julia promises to look into it for him.