“The Rabbit Hole” is episode two of season one of Batwoman.
The episode starts with Kate narrating as she writes in her journal about the difference between hopeful and crazy. It goes back 15 years with the car falling off the bridge. Kate’s sister, Beth – and after the events of the previous episode, “Pilot”, she thinks Alice is Beth – was not found in the car with their mother, and without a body came hope. The entire city looked for her but, as the days dragged into weeks and then months, it was just Kate and her father. After 15 years, she’s still looking. Kate is looking for her sister; her father is looking for someone else entirely.
Commander Kane is briefing the Crows about Alice and former team member Chuck Dodgson (probably not a coincidental name; Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Caroll, wrote the Alice stories), now second in command of the Wonderland Gang. Kane is saying that Alice plans to terrorise the people of Gotham by undermining the people protecting them – the Crows. Kane wants Alice stopped, dead or alive. Crows are currently entering what looks like a former base of the Wonderland Gang, only for their van to be torched whilst they are inside. The two gang members responsible run, but one gets slammed to the ground by Kate in the Batman suit. Another shoots her and she realises the suit is bulletproof. As Kate questions one of them about where Alice is, the other leaves, with a batarang on him. As the Crows arrive, Kate leaves and the remining gang member is shot by the Crows as he tries to grab a gun. Kate wants to convince that Alice is Beth, before he has Alice killed.
She returns to Wayne Enterprises and the Batcave; Luke Fox is not exactly happy about her going out pretending to be Batman. The return of Batman is all over the news and Kate says that, in a city divided by walls, money and bad luck, it rallied around a hope – Batman. But she was too busy to notice.
At breakfast, Mary starts babbling about Sophie, and what her deal is given she’s now married, when Kate blurts out she thinks Alice is Beth. Kane says they have skull fragments from Beth. Kate mentions she has Alice’s knife, which has a garnet stone in it, their birthstone. Why has Alice got a vendetta against her father? How does she know everything about Kate? Why didn’t she kill her? Kate intends to prove it.
Alice is currently in a house with two tied up people and her gang. She wants to know if Dodgson has found her favourite knife. He hasn’t. It’s more fun recounting her evil plan when she has it to flip around. Alice says her father gave up on her and she will make him suffer the way she did, by stripping away everything he cares about.
Kate is looking at the knife again, and remembering nightmares after Beth disappeared. Luke wants to talk about the suit. The city is clamouring for a hero that isn’t here. He shows Kate the various pieces of equipment. They are not toys; they are one of a kind items that are dangerous. He doesn’t know how to sue them, because they are not for him, but fur Batman. Kate thinks Luke sounds like Lucius Fox. Only his father was useful.
Kate’s next stop is Sophie; Sophie wants to know if Kate is the person in the Batsuit. Kate wants Sophie to run a DNA test on the knife, and against her, to see if there’s a match. Sophie refuses. Then a van enters the Crows garage where they are, deploy gas and steal the knife. They were wearing rabbit masks. Kane isn’t happy. He also says lab reports prove Beth is dead. Kate isn’t saying Alice is a good person, but what if she is actually Beth? Another Crow enters with a report on where the one who escaped was last seen.
That, Kate recognises, was near Mary’s illegal clinic. So, she heads there to speak to Mary. The gang member is there, and Mary pulled a batarang out of him. Which she’s keeping. Mary is still talking, but Kate isn’t really listening. She wants the gang member to take a message to Alice – ‘Waffles.’
Dodgson has been spotted in a suburban neighbourhood and Kane knows exactly where Alice is. Kate calls Sophie; she wants her to stall Kane that she doesn’t kill her sister. She’s going to try and meet Beth at the waffle stand. Luke, meanwhile, starts pushing buttons when the system in the Batcave starts making noises, and manages to bring the entire system online by accident.
Alice may, or may not, be Beth. She seems to know a lot of what Beth does and she certainly seems to be acting as if she believes she’s Beth. However, it is also evident that she’s utterly barking. What happened to her, if she is Beth? And are the skull fragments hers? If they are, that would suggest some sort of severe head injury. Kate, meanwhile, is wearing the Batsuit but hasn’t taken up the mantle of Batman, or the responsibilities. There also seems to be another player in the game.