As the unhinged leader of the Wonderland Gang, Alice has quickly become one of the biggest villains in Batwoman's rogues gallery, made all the more personal by the bombshell revelation that she's secretly Kate Kane's long-lost sister Beth Kane.
The character is already being compared to the Joker or Harley Quinn due to her deranged nature, but Alice actor Rachel Skarsten notes that the villain's tragic origins and possibility for redemption set her apart from the Clown Prince of Crime.
"There are shades of the Joker in her, but the difference for me is that with the Joker -- up until, obviously, right now, with the Joker film -- we’ve never known really why he is the way that he is. He’s really been evil just for evil’s sake. There’s nothing redeemable about him. There was no reason for him being the way that he was," explained Skarsten in an interview with TVLine. "Whereas Alice, in the comics, we knew her to be Beth up until she was 13, and then you see [her and Kate’s] roads diverge because of this incredibly traumatic thing. And that’s what’s motivating her -- her evil is coming from a lot of brokenness. There are shades of the Joker, yes, but that, for me, was the biggest difference."
It was revealed that when Kate and Beth Kane were children, Beth was abducted and presumed dead. She was secretly twisted into the villainous Alice before leading her own campaign of terror across Gotham City. Whether redemption is possible for the Arrowverse incarnation of the character like the comic book source material remains to be seen.
Helmed 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.