The timeline for Batwoman can be difficult to place within the larger Arrowverse. One might guess it takes place concurrently with Arrow and The Flash. Yet the pilot episode could easily be confused for a prequel to both shows.
In some ways, the chronology of the series directly mirrors the journey of its main character: from uncertain and confused to confidently making its own way. To better understand where the character is and where she might be going, it is important to look at where she’s been so far.
Elseworlds
Ruby Rose made her first appearance as Kate Kane, cousin of missing billionaire Bruce Wayne, during the 2018-2019 season's Arrowverse crossover event "Elseworlds." She enters the story as a mysterious ally to the bizarre trio of Kara Danvers and the body-swapped Oliver Queen and Barry Allen, bailing them out of jail and letting them use the WiFi at the abandoned Wayne Enterprises building.
When a doctor with a book that lets him change reality is confronted by the Oliver Queen Speedster, he releases the inmates of Arkham Asylum. As the rogues flee their cells, we get our introduction to Gotham City’s newest vigilante, Batwoman, as she swoops in wearing her dark suit complete with red wig and bat insignia.
She is exact in her movements and methods as well as proficient with a few gadgets. This is obviously a woman who has been fighting crime in her city for some time and has started to establish herself as the heir apparent to the absent Batman.
Batwoman Begins
The other shows in the Arrowverse had moved beyond the reality-altering chaos of "Elseworlds" when Batwoman officially premiered with a bit of a backwards time-jump. Instead of catching up with Kate Kane post-crossover, the first several episodes of the show told her origin as a hero.
The beginning of the series presents a more uncertain Kate than the character we met in "Elseworlds." She doesn’t quite know where she belongs. All that changes when she discovers her beloved cousin Bruce Wayne was Batman, inspiring her to take up his mantle but on her terms. By the end of the first episode, she’s wearing an altered version of the batsuit, but she still isn’t quite the hero we met before.
There is no red bat insignia or wig, and Kate isn’t as confident a combatant yet. The demented villain Alice gets the best of her more than once, even coming close to strangling her. While initially jarring to viewers already familiar with what Batwoman will become, one can quickly see that these first few episodes are about the journey to "Elseworlds" rather than the aftermath.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
By the fifth episode of the series, “Mine Is A Long And A Sad Tale,” things had finally progressed beyond "Elsworlds." The episode takes place two weeks after the Arkham Asylum outbreak seen in the crossover. Still, it is clear that this doesn’t quite catch Batwoman up with the rest of The CW's DCTV universe. However, this will be rectified soon. If the first four episodes of the season were about getting to this point, then the next four have to get us to this season's massive crossover “Crisis On Infinite Earths.”
First teased in the premiere episode of The Flash, not only will “Crisis” span episodes of Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow, it will also incorporate characters from Black Lightning, Smallville and a whole host others from across the DC Universe. Given Batwoman has a whole episode devoted to the crossover, we can assume that the show will at last synchronize with the rest of the Arrowverse be the time the crossover hits the small screen.
After a fairly compressed timeline, Batwoman will no longer be playing catch-up with the rest of the DCTV shows. During "Crisis on Infinite Earths," she will stride across the Multiverse with the rest of the heroes as a fully fledged member of the Arrowverse.