- For other episodes of the same name, see Pilot.
"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season of Batwoman, and the first episode overall. It aired on October 6, 2019.
Synopsis
Kate Kane never planned to be Gotham’s new vigilante. Gotham is a city in despair, the Gotham City Police Department have been overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia. Years before, Jacob’s first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm by kidnapping his best Crow officer – and Kate’s ex-girlfriend – Sophie Moore. Although remarried to wealthy socialite Catherine Hamilton-Kane, who bankrolls the Crows, Jacob is still struggling with the family he lost, while keeping Kate –– the daughter he still has –– at a distance. But Kate is a woman who’s done asking for permission. In order to help her family and her city, she’ll have to become the one thing her father loathes –– a vigilante. With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary, and the crafty Luke Fox, the son of Wayne Enterprises’ tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice, who’s always somewhere slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman.[1]
Trivia
- David Nutter was originally set to direct, but stepped down for personal reasons and was replaced by Marcos Siega. However, he still served as executive producer for this episode.[2]
- This episode served as a prequel to Kate Kane's appearance in the Elseworlds crossover.
- Alice makes various Alice in Wonderland references:
- When asking if the people believe Crows Security to be capable of protecting them, she claims to believe "six impossible things before breakfast", a phrase used by the White Queen in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
- When she comes face to face with Kate, she quotes "Curiouser and curiouser", as spoken by the character Alice in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- When introducing herself, she asks "how do you do?", a reference to the song "How D'Ye Do and Shake Hands" from the 1951 film.
- While on the phone with Commander Kane, Alice claims that "we're all mad here", following it up by saying "I'm mad, you're mad", as spoken by the Cheshire Cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- Alice fills the Crows Security truck with explosives, calling them "Forget-Me-Nots".
- With the upper hand on the Crows, Alice directly asks ""How do you like the Queen?", said the Cat", quoting the Cheshire Cat regarding the Red Queen in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.
- When Jacob asks why Alice is doing what she's doing, she replies with the infamously unanswered "Why is a raven like a writing desk?", asked by the Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- Mary calls herself the "Meredith Grey of Sherwood Forest", referencing the titular character of Grey's Anatomy, and the tales of Robin Hood.
- The footage of The Mark of Zorro playing at the movie in the park pays homage to the comics; it was the film that the Wayne family watched the movie prior to Thomas and Martha's murder.