WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Off With Her Head," the latest episode of Batwoman.
The CW's Batwoman finally revealed what broke Alice for good.
In "Off With Her Head," the latest episode, Alice delivered her abductor Dr. August Cartwright to Kate Kane and their father Jacob. Cartwright came with a message attached: "Ask about Mommy dearest." Though Cartwright tried to convince Kate and Jacob the note was about his own mother Mable, the real truth was even worse.
As it turns out, Alice wasn't the only person that Cartwright fished out of the river the day of the accident. He retrieved Gabby Kane's corpse as well, but not all of her. Her kept her severed head in a fridge in his shed, with a padlock to keep prying eyes from discovering it. Unfortunately, Mable undid his careful planning with her cruelty and greed.
After being exposed to Scarecrow's fear gas, Mouse became susceptible to Cartwright's suggestion that Alice was bad for him. So, when Alice rescued him, he turned on her and subjected her to a lethal dose of fear gas. The gas caused her to see Mable and recall some of her worst moments, like when Mable poured burning tea on her hands or cut her hair against her will. This also dredged up memories, including the day Alice discovered her mother's head in Cartwright's freezer.
It all started with a cup of tea. When Mable demanded Alice get her cream for her tea, Alice tore the house apart looking for some, lest she be punished. As a last resort, she turned to the freezers in the shed. She tried to remove the padlock, but Cartwright interrupted, telling her never to search in there again.
Later, Mable showed Alice her new earrings. The earrings, however, weren't new; they belonged to Alice's mother and were intended to match her necklace. The sight of them stirred something in Alice. She demanded to know where Mable got them, only for Mable to reveal they were a gift from Cartwright. So Alice went back to the shed and broke into the freezer, where she discovered her mother's head.
The sight of her mother's head caused Alice to snap. She returned to Mable's room in the attic, where Mable demanded Alice warm her tea. "Consider it a pleasure," Alice said, breaking off the knob of Mable's oxygen tank. "Long live the Queen." With that, she flicked on a lighter and tossed it into the stream of pure oxygen, causing a column of flames to incinerate Mable.
"My mother wanted a fresh start," Cartwright explained to Kate elsewhere. "She begged for your mother's face from the day I fished it out of the river. As she got older, her obsession only got worse, but I kept pushing it off, knowing it would cause trouble once she took on the face of a dead woman. It gave her something to live for. Your mother was a beautiful woman, Kate. It would have been a pity for her to go to waste."
Alice's discovery marked a crucial turning point in her journey. Up until this point, she had been a timid, fearful girl who found herself at the mercy of her twisted abductors. The sight of her mother's head drove her to action and led her to make her first kill, which gave her the will to escape. What's more, it started her down a path of revenge, once that she realized what it was like to wield fear as a weapon.
Created by Caroline Dries and developed by Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, Batwoman stars Ruby Rose, Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson, Dougray Scott, Elizabeth Anweis and Nicole Kang. The series airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.