- "Can't imagine what years in that place must have been like."
- "But you do know what it's like to feel trapped don't you, Sophie? I imagine you felt that way your entire life. It's unbearable when the only thing you dream about is being out."
- —Sophie Moore and Alice on their respective prisons.
"An Un-Birthday Present" is the eleventh episode of the first season of Batwoman, and the eleventh episode overall. It aired on January 26, 2020.
Synopsis[]
| On the Kane sisters' birthday, Kate and Alice contend with demons from the past, and an unexpected guest makes a surprise appearance in Gotham.[src] |
Plot[]
Kate continues to choke Beth, who tells her that she’s hurting her. Eventually, Beth is able to find her pepper spray, and uses it to douse Kate with it and successfully escape
Back at the Crows Security Headquarters, Alice is still chained up and inside a dark and low lit room.
Alice flashes back to her time in captivity as her younger self wakes up to tapping on her door.
A young Beth is holding tightly to an Alice in Wonderland book as she asks, “ Are there any lions or tigers about here?”.
To which a young Jonathan answers by saying, “it’s only the Red King snoring” and opens the door where Beth is being kept.
He has a box that he hands over to her as he wishes her a happy birthday.
Beth is surprised that Jonathan remembered, to which he simply says he hopes she likes blueberries.
Jonathan then reveals another present in the form of a kitty he found by the shed, but he warns Beth that his father can’t know. Beth decides to name the kitten Chessy, after the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. Upon hearing the floorboard creek, Beth quickly hides the kitten in the box Jonathan put it in.
Jonathan’s dad stands by the doorway and then lights a candle while telling Beth, that he supposes a birthday can’t be complete without making a wish Beth blows the candle, and Jonathan asks her what she wished for, to which she says that she wished to see her sister and father again. August then tells Beth that, “if you say your wish out loud, it means it will never come true”. Beth cries, and then August tells his son that it’s time for his classes and the two of them leave Ben in the room.
When Sophie talks with Jacob before she interrogates Alice, he says that,“Beth’s dead. Whatever happened to her in that house erased all traces of my daughter. She’s gone. Don’t make the mistakes I made”.
Sophie argues with Jacob that it’d be a mistake to not interrogate Alice.
But Jacob think all she would get out of Alice would be a bunch of nonsensical nursery rhymes.
Sophie for her part is hoping that Alice will incriminate herself.
Jacob tells Sophie that he appreciates the attempt, but that she needs to realize that she’s not getting a confession out of Alice, and that it’s too big of a risk of letting Alice get into her head.
Jacob says that instead, Sophie should keep her eyes on Alice until she’s transferred to Arkham.
Later, Kate shows up at the Crows Security building and asks Sophie when she was planning on telling her that Alice had escaped.
She goes onto say that Alice showed up at Wayne Tower, but Sophie says that’s impossible and shows her security footage of Alice being held in the interrogation room for the last eight hours.
Kate asks if it’s a live feed, and Sophie says it is and that there’s two guards at the door downstairs, and that she’s welcome to see for herself.
Kate says she swears she just saw her, and Sophie admits that she’s not the only one saying that because Mary saw her too.[1]
Back at Wayne Tower, Luke tells both Mary and Kate that he took fingerprints off the messenger back that the Alice look-alike left behind, and found that it was an exact match to the prints found of Alice in the Crows’ database.
Mary also finds out that this Beth wrote a 300 page dissertation on theoretical, extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology. Moreover this Beth also left behind her phone, and Luke says that he might be able to crack it in a couple of hours.
However, Kate puts in waffles as the password, and is able to get in.
Kate mentions that Beth always used it because it was the only password she could ever remember. Inside the unlocked cell phone, they also find a picture of Beth and Alice looking really close. Afterwards, Mary decides to go to Gotham University to see if anyone in the astrophysics department has ever heard of Beth.
She then asks Kate and Luke if they’re calling this mystery person Beth or Alice 2.0, and asks that when they figure it out, to let her know.
Kate then mentions that she has seen a picture of her and Beth together like this; only it was on a different Earth.[2] Luke even acknowledges the Anti-Monitor Crisis when he says, “that galactic dude put all the Earths in a blender”…
Kate then asks how it could be possible that this Beth is only Beth and not the Alice persona.
Luke think that maybe there was no crash. He goes onto say that with infinite Earths, there’s infinite variables as well.
He goes onto to say that this has got to be really scary for her because one second she’s on her Earth, and the next she’s slingshot to their Earth, where nobody knows her, and the only person she knows attacks her own twin sister.
She ends up finding the other Earth’s Beth where they used to go for their birthday.
Kate apologizes for how she acted, and Beth asks her if she is going to attack her again; thereby calling her a psycho in the process.
She confesses that she feels like she is going crazy because nobody else seems to know who she is.
The two hug and Kate says her wish came true when Beth asks her what is happening.
Back at Crows Security, Alice is requesting for Sophie to give her copy of Alice in Wonderland.
Sophie tells Alice that unless she’s willing to confess to framing Jacob for the murder Catherine Hamilton-Kane, she’s not interesting in her comfort.
Alice tells Sophie that she loves surprises even though Kate always hated them.
She also eventually reveals how she and Jonathan had a code they used to tell the other that the coast was clear.
Later, Sophie and the rest of the Crows look at a video of Mouse holding Steven Forbes, Commissioner Forbes son, and Bryan Akins, Heir apparent to Mayor Akins hostage.
He says in the video that he’ll give them till 9PM to release Alice; if they don’t then Mouse promises to snuff out Gotham’s best and brightest.
Back with Kate and the other Earth's Beth, she remains optimistic saying how the upside to no one knowing who she is on this Earth is that this also includes her exes.
Kate laughs and tells this Beth that she’s taking the whole death of the multiverse rather well.
Beth says she does have a master’s degree in astrophysics, so the whole concept of the Multiverse isn’t that bizarre for her.
The two then toast to lost time. Beth reveals that her Earth's Kate didn’t have any tattoos because their dad would have disowned her. Beth then tells Kate that on her Earth, that Earth’s Kate ended up rescuing her because she climbed back into the car and puller her out. Beth tells Kate that ever since then, her Earth’s Kate has been her hero.
Their conversation however, gets interrupted by looking to the TV which is on the Channel 8 Gotham News, where a reporter talks about how the Wonderland Gang strikes again and reports how, “Gotham is on high alert in the wake of the Wonderland Gang committing their most brazen crime to date” .
The reporter then asks the Commissioner if the fact that he hasn’t used the Bat Signal for help have anything to do with Batwoman recently coming out as a lesbian.
After seeing the same news report, Sophie comes back to where she's keeping Alice, and hands over her book, after she ran it through various tests to make sure there was nothing else secretly hidden in it.
She tells Alice that it turns out, it’s just a book, but Alice disagrees, saying it’s much more then than that because it set her free from that house of horrors.
In the past, a young Beth is reading the aforementioned Alice in Wonderland book while also looking at Johnny who is getting a face graft.
As Beth is reading her book, she notices the similarities between Dr. August with the mask he has on and the fact that he’s smoking his pipe, with that of the caterpillar from the Lewis Carroll story. He gets angry when it looks all wrong; saying the seams are all wrong and it looks like a quilt.
In the present, Alice talks about how she realized that both she and Jonathan were both trapped in that place.
Alice then reveals she knows Sophie feels trapped because she has never expressed herself fully and has remained in the closet all this time.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Gotham City, Kate is on her way to rescue the high profile hostages, when she gets hit by a truck that is being driven by Mouse and the rest of the Wonderland Gang.
He gets close to Kate and knocks her out by hitting her with a kick to her face. Mouse then uses Kate to have Sophie let Alice go.
He warns Sophie that time is running out, and she better hurry unless she wants to only end up finding Kate’s body.
Later, Beth shows up at Wayne Tower, and greets Luke, but realizes he doesn’t know her. Luke breaks it to her that Kate has been kidnapped by Alice.
In the past, Alice recalls how August, Mouse's father inevitably found out about the kitten and killed it saying that these vermin carry all kinds of diseases.
Back at Wayne Enterprises, Beth tells Luke that maybe they should call her dad since Kate told her he’s still special forces on this Earth.
Luke says he can’t since Jacob is in jail for murdering her stepmother, only he didn’t do it and it was actually Alice framing him.
Beth then decides to pretend to be Alice in order to save Kate.
Meanwhile, Steven and Brian are talking about how Batwoman will come and save them. But Steven is also not happy with his dad’s narrow minded views, and Brian says that it’s 2020, so people don’t care about gay or straight anymore.
In the past, a young Beth is getting chastised for having made a mask that looks like the pattern on the Cheshire Cat from the 1951 Disney film made for Alice in Wonderland.
Dr. August then tells Beth her dad has forgotten all about her and shows her a newspaper announcing his marriage to Catherine which has a picture of a young Kate and Mary.
He then tells Beth that she has been replaced to kill any hope she still has left.
In the present, Mary ends up helping Beth dress up to look the part of Alice, and when she does, she needs a moment to recollect herself.
She explains that the last time she looked at Alice, her mom was dying in her arms after being poisoned by Alice.
Beth tells Mary that she can't help but feel guilty for this Earth's Beth causing all that harm to her as Alice.
Beth shows up to the junkyard just after Mouse has doused the car Kate, Steven and Brian are in with gasoline.
She soon gets discovered when Mouse uses the code she and Alice developed and Beth doesn’t know it.
He rips the blonde wig off and points a gun at her head and then throws her in the trunk of a car in a junkyard. Kate manages to get out of the car and fight Mouse and the other Wonderland Gang members. However Mouse throws the lighter onto the car that has Beth in it.
Years earlier, a young Beth is washing the blood off her hands and she recalls Johnny's father telling her that her wish won’t come true if she says it out loud and how her dad has forgotten all about her.
Jonathan then thanks Beth for making him look normal and together they fix her Alice in Wonderland book.
She closes her eyes and when she opens them again, she speaks in a different tone of voice and christens Jonathan with the nickname Mouse, and tells him to call her Alice.
In the present, Alice tells Sophie that the book was her escape.
Sophie correctly deduces that this was how Alice dealt with all that trauma; by creating an entirely different reality and becoming someone else.
Alice then asks Sophie if that isn’t the same thing she did; escaping her own prison by becoming someone else.
Alice manages to escape after using the fishing line holding her book together and shooting the cops that were going to transport her to Arkham. She then taunts Sophie by saying, “My dear, sweet little birdie. I may be free of my cage, but you're still trapped in yours. And you always will be because it's one of your own making. And that is a hell more unbearable than”...
Back at the junkyard, Kate manages to save the young men and tries to rescue Beth by ripping the cushions from inside the car. But the metal railing just won’t budge.
Beth caresses Kate’s face and coughs. Kate goes back outside, and then manages to rescue her from the burning car at the last second.
Some time later, Vesper is heard saying, “evening Gotham, notice how I didn’t say, ‘Good evening?’ That’s because Alice is back on the streets. And while Gotham’s golden boys may be safe and sound in their beddy byes. I’ll be sleeping with a Louisville slugger under the bed tonight. Because with Batwoman on the GCPD’s Do-Not-Call-List, it’s the only bat that’s going to protect me”.
At Crows Security, one of the Crows agents tells Sophie that Mouse just got out of surgery and is in ICU, but Sophie tells one of her agents to put a six person team to monitor him.
Later, protesters take to the GCPD, where they demand that the police department turn on the bat signal. Batwoman then shows up at the GCPD headquarters, and the crowd of protesters gathered there cheer.
At The Hold Up Bar, Kate shows up and is greeted with a small surprise party that consists of Mary, Luke and Beth.
Beth tells Kate she had nothing to do with it, and Mary tells Kate that Beth had told them she wouldn’t like this. Kate agrees and says it must the twin intuition.
Beth downs a glass of alcohol, and tells the others that their bar needs bigger glasses. Mary then confesses to Kate, that she’ll be honest saying she never understood why she was so hellbent on redeeming that psychopath Alice, but now that she’s met this Beth, she totally gets it. She sees what Kate lost. Mary and Kate toast to miracles, but Mary tells Kate that she doesn’t think that’s what this situation actually is.
She reveals that she read Beth’s paper on extra galactic stuff, and thinks Beth being here is some kind of cosmic anomaly. Beth and Luke then come back with a birthday cake and two candles. Beth tells Kate to make a wish, but Kate says all she ever really wanted was a second chance, and blows the candle. Beth also blows her candle but then begins to get a splitting headache.
The others rush to her side to check if she's okay, as she screams in pain while holding her head.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Gotham, a newly escaped Alice is experiencing the same kind of headache that causes her to fall to the ground in agony.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Ruby Rose as Kate Kane/Batwoman
- Rachel Skarsten as Beth Kane/Alice and Beth Kane
- Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore
- Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton
- Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox
- Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane
Guest starring[]
- Sam Littlefield as Jonathan Cartwright/Mouse
- John Emmet Tracy as Dr. August Cartwright
- Nicholas Holmes as Young Jonathan Cartwright
- Ava Sleeth as Young Beth Kane
Co-starring[]
- Rachel Maddow as Vesper Fairchild (voice)
- Cameron McDonald as Commissioner Forbes
- Allison Riley as Dana Dewitt
- Nathan Witte as Agent Robles
- Ryan Rosery as Bryan Akins
- Gage Marsh as Steven Forbes
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- The word "un-birthday" is a term used in Lewis Carroll's novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. An un-birthday is any day in the calendar except for one's birthday. It gave rise to "The Unbirthday Song" in the 1951 Disney animated feature film Alice in Wonderland, where it was popularized.
- In some cities, this episode was postponed to air on February 2, 2020 due to news coverage regarding the death of Kobe Bryant.
References[]
| Batwoman season 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Pilot" • "The Rabbit Hole" • "Down Down Down" • "Who Are You?" • "Mine Is a Long And a Sad Tale" • "I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury" • "Tell Me the Truth" • "A Mad Tea-Party" • "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two" • "How Queer Everything Is Today!" • "An Un-Birthday Present" • "Take Your Choice" • "Drink Me" • "Grinning From Ear to Ear" • "Off With Her Head" • "Through the Looking-Glass" • "A Narrow Escape" • "If You Believe In Me, I'll Believe In You" • "A Secret Kept From All the Rest" • "O, Mouse!" | ||||