‘Batwoman’ Finale: EP Explains Hush's Face, Casting [SPOILER], Supergirl’s Kryptonite And More

The CW’s “Batwoman” was forced to end early at episode 20, but the Arrowverse drama still managed to deliver an exciting Season 1 finale that included a major death, the reveal of Bruce Wayne’s face and some “Supergirl” references. Executive producer and showrunner Caroline Dries spoke to International Business Times about what couldn’t be filmed before production shut down, casting Batman and why Alice made her most emotional kill yet.

International Business Times: Did anything in the finale get changed or edited differently after you found out it would actually be the finale since this is episode 20 and not the planned finale, episode 22?

Caroline Dries: Yeah, nothing got changed or revised that we had shot. There was a little C-story with Julia and Sophie that we didn't get to shoot because that was taking place after we shut down, and so that was the one day of shooting that we didn't get to shoot. So that was kind of a bummer, but we lucked out that we had a lot of footage already and it's edited together with relatively few holes. So I felt just incredibly grateful when I saw the director's cut and knew that we had a finale.

READ: ‘Batwoman’ Star Nicole Kang Wants Mary To Be A Superhero

IBT: So Kate's dad in this episode becomes very determined at the end that he's going to find a way to kill Batwoman. But earlier in the episode, it really emphasizes that he's always kind of let Kate experience extreme consequences when she made a mistake. So I wonder, would him finding out Kate is Batwoman actually change anything?

Dries: Well, I think Kate's point of reference is her childhood, but the consequences were pretty severe. I mean, he had his own daughter arrested on several occasions for like, teenager type of things. And Kate saw what he was willing to do to Alice, who he also views as a lost cause and somebody who is against his moral stance. So, from her point of view, whatever the consequence may be is too great. And regardless of punishment, I think the real consequence would be just losing her dad, her dad's love. So it's just too great of her to have to deal with it at this exact moment. I think that Jacob, she knows it too, Jacob has some healing to do to get over this.

IBT: Yeah. I find the whole family dynamic of the Kane family from Alice and Mary and Kate and everyone just to be really interesting to watch. It's just so complicated and complex. And in this episode we kind of see another facet of that, where Kate goes, "I know my dad" and Mary's like, "Yeah, he's my dad too." Are we going to see more of that kind of stepsister divide? It seems like they've been growing closer until that moment.

Dries: Yeah, I've really loved that Kate and Mary relationship all season and, and Mary just trying to get into Kate's crosshairs to be noticed and appreciated. And now I think one of the most successful moments of making this feel like a finale is when the sisters toast each other's glasses and say "To sisters", and it's like, "Okay, that relationship has evolved to a mature place where that feels like we're good now."

But there's a third point of that triangle, which you said is Alice. And that piece of the Kate-Mary relationship has not fully healed because as long as Kate has a soft spot for Alice, there's danger and Mary has not, in my opinion, fully grieved the death of her mom and that fact that Alice killed her. So there's all of that gap to explore, that emotional gap to explore, in season two. And frankly, anytime Mary and Alice are in a scene together, it's just rife with tension. That's super cool and interesting to watch. So I'm looking forward to seeing more of them in the future too.

IBT: Kryptonite can puncture the batsuit. How did you guys come to that decision to use kryptonite and kind of bring in that Superman element?

Dries: So I was thinking of how we've had weapons in our past on the show's mythology, which is, cause this [Batwoman suit is] bulletproof. In episode 3, Tommy was after the rail gun. I think he wanted to kill Batman. And then in episode 6 and 7, Catherine was building recoil accelerator, which Alice ultimately broke. And so we set up these two weapons that we kind of set up and then took them off the table.

I knew whatever new weapon we introduced, it had to feel really unique and rare. Not something that could be built in a lab cause we feel like we've already seen two iterations of that. So it occurred to me. I was like, "What is rare in our world?"…And then I was like, "Oh my God, kryptonite." And one of my favorite moments from the crossover was when Kara gave Kate that piece of kryptonite and said, "I trust you,”… this rock represents this bond between these two women and the trust between them.

Lucius obviously built the bat suit, and we know Clark and Bruce knew each other in the past. So if I were Lucius Fox building a suit, I would have a failsafe built in, in case the suit ever got into the wrong hands or if Batman ever went crazy and needed to be stopped. So he designed the failsafe to be this piece of kryptonite. And that's what Luke, ultimately, finds to start the show and Luke thinks it's the only thing on the planet because he's not privy to the Kate-Kara piece. So that's kind of how all of that took place.

IBT: She references that she has to talk to Kara before she decides to destroy it. Were we supposed to see that conversation in episode 21 or 22?

Dries: It was not necessarily going to be on camera because we didn't, we didn't have access to Melissa [Benoist] or the “Supergirl” crew, but it was just one of our shoutouts to the fact that we're Prime Earth and that these people exist out there. You know, people are always saying like, why doesn't Supergirl come in and save her or whatever? We want to say, like, they're still friends, and they're all in each other's orbits now.

IBT: This episode feels so much like, like a planned finale because we also have the major death of Mouse. Alice kills Mouse, who's her only real ally. So why exactly does she do that? And what does that mean for her moving forward?

Dries: Mouse represents her anchor to her past and to her humanity, and Mouse is an incredibly wise friend. His advice is, "Let's cut ties with Gotham and get out of here while we can." And unfortunately for Alice, her plan and her need for revenge is just the strongest emotion she's feeling right now, and nothing is going to stand in the way. So her killing Mouse is a dramatization of where her brain is and her heart is right now, which is just like revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge at all costs. And it's going to, in Season 2…it's going to take a minute for her to actually realize what she's done because she's got such thick blinders on right now.

IBT: She puts on Bruce Wayne's face onto Hush. Why is now the right time to show his face?

Dries: She made Hush a face earlier on in the finale, and Hush does not like how it looks and threw it at Mouse. So she's just at that point in the story, she's just like, get this guy what he wants and get rid of him because he's a loose cannon.

But then when she discovers that what she needs is located in Wayne, it's like the light bulb goes off in her and she's like, “I know somebody who can waltz right into Wayne and get it for me.” So that's what gives her the idea to make Tommy somebody he's not going to complain about and get what she wants as a result.

READ: ‘Batwoman’ Star Rachel Skarsten Teases Alice’s ‘Much Darker Side’

IBT: How did you guys go about casting Bruce Wayne, or rather, Bruce Wayne's face?

Dries: We knew Bruce had to be handsome and sort of like a charming kind of guy and chiseled and all of like the physical features you would expect. But we also needed to cast an actor who was incredibly talented, who was basically playing two personalities and was able to just flip them on and off. We haven't seen it yet, but… Tommy's going to have his Bruce experience, but when Alice is around, he's still going to be Tommy. So it's going to be fun to see the light switch go on and off with him.

Then logistics wise, we knew that it was supposed to be... Technically that's Gabriel Mann's body, if we're thinking of the science of it. So here we had to cast somebody who kind of fit his stature, but that was a good secondary. The fact is that I saw Warren Christie's name on the casting sheet and I was like, him.

“Batwoman” has been renewed for Season 2, which will air on the CW in 2021. The entire first season is available to stream for free on The CW website and app. HBO Max will stream the series this summer.

Return to International Business Times on Monday for more “Batwoman” Season 2 scoop!

(This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)