"We'll Laugh About This Someday".

What is fascinating from the opening scene of 'Homefront' is that Artemis, just out of her dreamstate, has this flashback of her sister that left many years ago. The audience is not told exactly when this takes place. May have been right after Paula Crock was sent to jail, or if this was set many years after taking abuse from their dad; I say this because of several lines given in later episodes of their father making them fight each other, but since we are given no set events between this time and the present we have to assume this is the last time Artemis sees Jade for many years. Of course, this flashback begins after Artemis sees a poster of 'Alice in Wonderland' with the 'Cheshire Cat' being a prominent character on the poster; in the flashback this is shown to be on her sister's side of the room. While on that point, one can notice that their is no rearrangement of Jades' room after she left even after many years. One can interpret this in many ways, here are just a few: either Artemis wanted to hold onto some of her sister's past and innocence, but it also could be that she is keeping it the same way so she could grasp onto a little hope that her sister could return as the only person she trusts for some time and also the only person that did not leave her after hardship. But like I said, there could be many different interpretations of her motives in that situation.

After the flashback is shown, Artemis is shaken out of deep thought from Paula telling her that she needs to get up to start school. Once she arrives at school, there is a scene one could say is throwaway but still a good character bit, as she has the 'Gotham High' uniform on and automatically feels uncomfortable in short skirts. One could interpret this as she is not trying to impress boys as she is trying to pull the skirt down as far as it could go, it could also be she doesn't like wearing a uniform that symbolizes a higher class; possibly even the idea of not being comfortable trying to fit into a systematic environment where everyone looks similar in hairstyle and clothes. While talking to Bette Kane(a nice nod to the comics as a 1960s Batgirl), kind've a tour guide in a sense, where she is their to welcome her and make the establishment look better than anything could be in reality; Dick comes along to take a picture with her saying "We'll laugh about this some day". A nice setup character I would be remiss to mention, Dick goes away and Barbara asks him who he was talking to, almost in a jealous look. This is also the first time we see Dick without his mask so it is somewhat of a reveal if one does not have the ear for voices.

Later, after school, Artemis heads to her typical zeta tube area(which is a nice touch that it is an out of order telephone booth) and Dick comes and has fun messing with her the entire scene. Saying things like asking her why she is using this instead of a zeta-tube in 'Star City', to which Artemis makes an obvious lie that her cousin participated in spelling bee in Gotham. The scene may be considered to jokey for some, but considering how dark the rest of the episode will get in ideas, themes, and character motivation, it certainly is justified; and even catches some people off guard making the audience think that it could be that kind of story where she has to lie in the really clichéd way that almost any sitcom anyone can see. This is all that becomes of that kind of story, made clear by the fact that once Artemis goes through the portal fire shoots out. Nothing is seen but smoke and fireballs shooting out before the title sequence begins.

That is all for this part guys. Did not think I would make this episode into multiple parts, do not know why considering the density of character. Hope you guys enjoy this mini-series as this may end up being more parts than 'Infiltrator'.