“An Un-Birthday Present” is episode eleven of season one of Batwoman.
This episode opens where the previous episode, “How Queer Everything Is Today!”, finished, with Kate discovering Alice in her office at Wayne Tower. Alice wished Kate happy birthday. She is upset when Kate grabs her and says it’s bad enough that someone has converted her apartment into a boy’s dorm without telling her. Kate is trying to pull Alice’s face off and demands who she is. Beth; who else would she be? Kate starts throttling her but Alice – though it seems unlikely it is Alice – pulls some pepper spray and blasts her in the face with it and flees.
At the Crows Alice – the real Alice – is still in custody. She remembers Johnny – Mouse – coming to see her on her birthday with a pie and a candle in it. He’s also brought her a present; a box with a kitten in it. His dad can’t know. That doesn’t bode well for the kitten. They hide the kitten from Cartwright who tells Beth that Johnny told him it’s her birthday. She’s lucky to have such a thoughtful friend. It can’t be official without lighting a candle and making a wish. Beth blows out the candle. When asked what the wish was, she says that she wished to see her sister and father. Cartwright tells her that if you say wishes out loud, they never come true.
Sophie is on the phone with Commander Kane. He’s warning her about Alice; Beth is dead and it’s too dangerous to interrogate Alice. Just let her be transferred to Arkham. Kate arrives afterwards and asks when Sophie was planning to tell her Alice escaped. Kate explains what happened. Sophie shows her a live feed of Alice in a cell. She’s been there all the time. Kate could swear she saw Alice. Sophie tells her she’s not the only one; Mary did too.
Back at Wayne Tower, Luke is telling Kate and Mary that the prints he lifted from the bag Beth left behind match Alice’s totally. He found an ID as well; it’s not in the system but it’s the best fake he’s ever seen. Somebody has gone to a lot of trouble. Mary agrees; she’s found a 300-page astrophysics dissertation. They have Beth’s phone, which Luke may be able to crack. Except Kate gets in with Beth’s password – ‘waffles’. There are photos on it, including of Kate and Beth together.
Mary is going to head to Gotham University to see if they’ve heard of this Beth. Afterwards, Kate says she’s seen photos of her and Beth together before. No surprise; on a different world. Luke suggests that, when the galactic dude blended all the Earths together, Beth landed up on this one. This Beth is not Alice, so perhaps there never was a crash. If Beth is from another Earth, then no-one here knows who she is. Kate is going to find her; she’s going where Beth always went on their birthday. The waffle place. Beth is there and is upset. No-one but Kate recognises her. She feels like she’s going crazy and wants to know what’s happening. Kate’s wish came true.
Alice has a request for Sophie; she wants her Alice in Wonderland book. Sophie isn’t going to let Alice out of the cell unless she admits to framing Kane. And don’t hope for a party. Alice tells her one has already been planned. She doesn’t want to spoil the surprise. Kate hated surprises, but she loves them. The first surprise is a video from Mouse. He’s kidnapped the sons of the commissioner and mayor. He wants Alice back by 9PM.
Kate is explaining things to Beth in The Hold Up. Beth’s grounding in astrophysics gives her a better understanding of concept of multiverses. They talk about their lives’ in Beth’s universe, Kate pulled her sister from the car after the crash. Not what happened in this Earth. Luke calls and tells them to watch the television. There’s been no Batsignal and the commissioner is asked if that’s because Batwoman came out in the previous episode.
Sophie gives Alice the book. She’s scanned it and found nothing special about it. You just know that this is going to be a mistake.
Kate is heading in to suit up and speaks to Luke. In this universe, she was told that if she’d tried to save Beth, they would both have died. Luke tells her that this Beth doesn’t need saving. The hostages do. Then Beth is knocked down by the Wonderland Gang and knocked out by Mouse. She wakes up in a car with the other two hostages. Mouse calls for Alice and Sophie, explaining he has Kate. Kate speaks but, going by how she talks to Sophie, it sounds like she was passing a message on.
Beth arrives at Wayne Tower. She knows Luke; he doesn’t know her. He blurts out that Kate has been kidnapped. There was no easy way to get it out. By who? No easy way for this either. By Beth.
Alice is expecting Sophie to free her after what Kate said. Not going to happen. Kate did pass on a hidden message; not to free Alice. Alice says that she and Mouse have one too.
Kate is kidnapped and Mouse wants Alice. At some point, someone is going to realise that they technically have two Alices.