Whatever Happened to Kate Kane?

"You're not Bruce Wayne."

"And you're not Batwoman."

—Ryan Wilder and Hush

"Whatever Happened to Kate Kane?"
Information
Season 2 » Episode 1
Episode number	21 of 51
Original airdate	January 17, 2021
Written by	Caroline Dries
Directed by	Holly Dale
Chronology
Preceded by	"O, Mouse!"
Followed by	"Prior Criminal History"

"Whatever Happened to Kate Kane?" is the first episode of the second season of Batwoman, and the twenty-first episode overall. It aired on January 17, 2021.

Synopsis

Kate's friends and family hold on to hope that Kate may still be found, a homeless 25-year-old named Ryan Wilder stumbles upon Kate's Batsuit. Focused on no longer being a victim, Ryan takes the suit to use as armor and goes rogue in the streets of Gotham, taking out various members of a new gang called the False Face Society. Meanwhile, both Jacob Kane and Luke Fox launch searches for Kate, Mary Hamilton grapples with losing yet another family member, Sophie Moore struggles with things left unsaid to her first love, and Alice is furious that someone got to Kate before she could exact her revenge. At the same time, "Bruce Wayne" returns under the pretence of searching for Kate, but the truth is he wants his suit back and it becomes the clash of imposters as "Batwoman" and "Bruce" square off in the action-packed season premiere.[src]

Plot

Ryan Wilder talks to Susan Stevens.

Years ago, the Wonderland gang was squatting in an apartment when its landlord, Cora Lewis, and Ryan Wilder entered; before Ryan could be killed as the two others were, Alice entered and told her minions to exit, leaving Ryan in mourning. Ryan's life spiraled downhill from there. The night before she is scheduled to see her parole officer, a plane explodes over the van she calls home, dropping its contents and passengers, including the Batwoman suit which Ryan finds.

Days ago, the Bat Team had a meeting where Luke Fox was adamant that Kate Kane should go to National City and get permission from Kara Danvers to destroy the Kryptonite Kara gave Kate. Kate decided to go and left a note to Sophie Moore in her safe for Julia Pennyworth to retrieve only if Kate does not return.

The plane that exploded was Kate's private jet. Jacob Kane and the Crows work with the GCPD, but Kate is not found.

Meanwhile, "Bruce Wayne" has returned to Gotham City; Luke takes him into the Batcave so he can help in the search for Kate. "Bruce" is interested in the kryptonite shard and Luke relinquishes it without a second thought. When "Bruce" asks for his suit, the search intensifies.

Ryan has decided that since she now has the suit, she will get vengeance for the death of her adoptive mother and seeks Alice. When Mary Hamilton and Luke confront Ryan to return the suit to them, Ryan refuses.

Alice tells Jacob that Kate was Batwoman.

Batmobile.

"Bruce" wants the suit badly and decides to get it himself so he finds the Batmobile and pursues Ryan.

Julia, who got suspicious of "Bruce" when he did not know who "Eagle" is, gets a fingerprint sample from a glass "Bruce" used and discovers that he is Tommy Elliot and alerts the Bat Team who in turn alerts Ryan who no longer wants the suit after she has researched Kate and feels that Kate was heroic, not her. Ryan is told not to give the suit to Tommy, so she decides to fight him for it. He shoots her with the kryptonite, but she fakes her death so that she can beat him; she beats him so badly that his false face comes off.

Elsewhere, Julia gives Sophie Kate's letter, revealing to her that Kate hated lying to the woman she loved about her secret identity.

Infected wound.

Ryan returns the suit to the Bat team after they send Tommy to Arkham and retrieve the Batmobile. Looking into the night sky, Ryan sees the Bat-Signal, but feels a pain; her wound from being shot is infected.

In the sewers beneath the city, Alice opens a paper plane; it is the obituary of Kate. Written inside is a note saying "Consider Us Even". As Alice cuddles the body of Mouse, she declares war on Safiyah Sohail.

The Bat-Signal is active because Jacob is waiting for Batwoman to come; he cries as there is no answer...

Cast

Starring

• Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder/Batwoman
• Rachel Skarsten as Beth Kane/Alice
• Meagan Tandy as Agent Sophie Moore
• Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton
• Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox
• Dougray Scott as Commander Jacob Kane

Guest starring

• Sam Littlefield as Jonathan Cartwright/Mouse
• Christina Wolfe as Agent Julia Pennyworth
• Warren Christie as "Bruce Wayne"

Co-starring

• Rebecca Davis as Parole Officer
• Shakura S'Aida as Cora Lewis
• Jason Day as Clown
• Andrew Moxham as Official
• Marcus Aurelio as Ski Mask
• Praise Vaughn as Top Model
• Alistair Browne as Homeless Man
• Peter Grasso as Landlord
• Rhys Williams as Wonderland Member

Uncredited

• Ruby Rose as Kate Kane (photo)
• Gabriel Mann as Tommy Elliot (photo)

Trivia

• This is the first episode of Batwoman:
  • To not feature Ruby Rose (Kate Kane). However, Kate was featured in a photograph and in archive footage.
  • To feature Javicia Leslie (Ryan Wilder) as a series regular.
• The Batmobile resembles a customized 2019 C7 Series Corvette.
  • The Batmobile was supposed to appear in what would have been the penultimate episode of the first season, had the COVID-19 pandemic not disrupted production. Caroline Dries explained: "We had already prepped and created the Batmobile and I already had that in my brain of like, "Well, we have it. We're obviously going to use it." So ultimately, we decided, "Well, it's great to use it in the premiere, of course. And I wanted to give Ryan a new mode of transportation, ultimately. So she's going to adopt this car as her own... This 2021 Corvette kind of already looked like the chassis of what we were looking for. So our production designer souped it up, and then I sent photos of the mock-up to DC, and it goes through their channels, and they basically approved it".
• The title is a reference to Robert Aldrich's 1962 movie What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?.
  • This title is also a reference to the Neil Gaiman DC comic Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?.
• This is the 20th episode in the Arrowverse, and the first episode of Batwoman, to be named after a character in a civilian sense, after "Sara", "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak", "Who is Harrison Wells?", "My Name Is Oliver Queen", "Alex", "Zari", "When Harry Met Harry...", "Run, Iris, Run", "I, Ava", "Schott Through the Heart", "Harry and the Harrisons", "Nora", "The Virgin Gary", "Tender is the Nate", "My Name is Emiko Queen", "All About Eve", "A Girl Named Sue", "Alex in Wonderland", and "Zari, Not Zari".
• According to Caroline Dries, Alice's plan to get Jacob Kane to shoot Kate with the Kryptonite and unmask her (as she explained to Tommy Elliot) was actually the original ending to Season 1 before the COVID-19 pandemic and Ruby Rose's exit changed things. However, instead of being killed, Kate would have survived the gunshot and instead revealed herself to have been poisoned by the Kryptonite (the season's cliffhanger), leading into the next season where she would go to Coryana to find a Desert Rose to cure herself and learn more about her sister's backstory along the way, including her hypnotization at the hands of Enigma.^{[citation needed]}
  • Many aspects of this plot were reworked into Ryan Wilder's storyline, with Ryan being poisoned by the Kryptonite instead and traveling to Coryana to cure herself, along with uncovering more of Alice's backstory.

Goofs

• Luke tells "Bruce" that it's been four years since the latter left Gotham. It has actually been five years (Oliver Queen had stated in 2018 that Bruce had left Gotham three years previously).