‘Batwoman’ S1E11 recap: “An Un-Birthday Present”

Batwoman may be in its freshman season, but Crisis on Infinite Earths had a game-changing twist thrown at Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) in the final minutes of last week’s episode, “How Queer Everything Is Today!” The twist? A doppelganger of Beth Kane (Rachel Skarsten) showed up to wish her sister a happy birthday, totally unaware of her evil counterpart running around.

Dun, dun, daaaaa.

In addition, Kate has had a major falling out with Alice, who tried to make Kate admit that she was not a hero so they could “be together”. Kate, however, pointed out that Alice ruined her family and she wanted nothing to do with her. Meanwhile, Mary (Nicole Kang) tried to prep for Jacob’s (Dougray Scott) upcoming murder trial and deal with her conflicted feelings for her stepsister. Sophie (Meagan Tandy) was grappling with her sexuality and the dissolution of her marriage.

On top of all that, there was a troubled teenager Parker (Malia Pyles), a master hacker who was recently outed to her conservative parents. In order to help kids like Parker and get people stop shipping her and a GCPD officer known as Slam (Kurt Szarka), Kate officially came out as gay as Batwoman. Let’s get back to the whole doppelganger of Beth thing, shall we? 

The two faces of Janus

We pick up where we left off last week with Kate discovering Beth and freaking out. Luckily, Beth carries a mace and gets her sister right in the face before running off. 

At the Crows HQ, Alice gets to have some great flashbacks of her horrific life. Mouse visits her with a birthday present: a slice of blueberry pie. He also has a present: a little kitty. (That cat is not long for this world, is it?) The Father comes to wish Beth a happy birthday and light a candle for a wish.

Beth’s wish? To see Kate and Jacob again. Father (John Emmet Tracy), however, reminds her that saying a wish out loud means it will never come true. So Father takes Mouse to his classes, leaving Beth in the dark. 

Jacob tells Sophie not to make his mistakes by interrogating Alice. Kate shows up to tell Sophie about Beth’s appearance. Sophie tells about Mary’s sighting of Beth. Luke (Camrus Johnson), Mary, and Kate look through Beth’s things. Mary wants to tell Jacob, but Kate wants to hold off. Mary takes the dissertation of Beth’s to Gotham University.

Luke and Kate figure out that this has to do with Crisis. Kate feels horrible for attacking Beth, deciding to go to where “they always want on their birthday”: the waffle place. Kate arrives and apologizes to the freaked out Beth. Kate goes to Beth and hugs her, saying her wish came true. 

Alice wants Sophie to give her her book back, the copy of Alice in Wonderland. Sophie says no and Alice hints out that there is a “birthday present” in the works. Mouse (Sam Littlefield) has kidnapped the Commissioner’s son and the Mayor’s son in exchange for Alice’s release. 

Garnet

Kate tells Beth everything that happened with Crisis, who takes it pretty well all things considered. It turns out that Kate did not have tattoos on Beth’s Earth. It’s weird for Beth, looking at Kate. It turns out that the key difference was Kate pulled Beth from the car: saving her. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. Luke then calls about the kidnappings. 

On the news report, it turns out that the Commissioner has not turned on the Bat Signal yet. (Is it because of Batwoman coming out? Possibly. Ugh.) The Crows prep to help GCPD with the interrogation as Sophie gives Alice her book back.

Alice remembers her childhood with Mouse getting fit by a new face by Father, who is furious at it not working. Alice reads that Sophie is trapped in her own closet. Luke and Kate talk about the GCPD’s refusal to turn on the Bat Signal and also Kate’s own guilt over Alice. 

With two hours to find the hostages, Kate goes driving through but she’s hit by a truck, courtesy of the Wonderland gang and Mouse. They steal her bike and Mouse knocks her out. 

Snowdrop

Kate wakes up in a car with the hostages in a car in a perverted scene of what she and her mother went through. Kate passes a message to Sophie, who seems to understand very clearly what Kate means. Mouse hangs up saying his next call will be where to find Kate’s body.

Beth runs into Luke, who tells her that Kate’s been kidnapped. He then tells Beth about Alice. Yikes. Sophie decoded the message and informs Alice that Kate wants her to stay. Alice tells Sophie about her own Mouse’s own little message system, including when the cat dies. 

Luke tells Beth the whole messed up story, making Beth wonder if police exist on this Earth. Beth suggests that she goes in as Alice to make Mouse happy enough to release the hostages. Luke shoots that idea down super fast. (Beth’s gonna die, isn’t she?) 

Aquarius

Kate is trying to figure her way out while the two in the back argue about how the Commissioner is homophobic. Like, c’mon, it’s 2020. Sophie, meanwhile, tries to appeal to Alice’s inner Beth. Alice says Beth never made it out of the basement. Father destroys Beth’s book and tells her that she’s been replaced, showing her the wedding announcement of Jacob and Catherine in the paper. 

Father wants Beth to use her sewing skills to sew a new face onto Mouse. Well, this place continues to be a house of horrors. To paraphrase Andy Samberg, “Horrific backstory, still a murderer.” 

Mary preps Beth for going undercover as Alice, but freaks out a little when the transformation is completed. Beth comforts Mary, apologizing for what her doppelganger did.

Mouse douses the car in gasoline to light it on fire as Kate frantically tries to escape. Beth arrives. Mouse wants to punish Kate for living her life without Alice and realizes something is off with “Alice”. He unmasks Beth and holds a gun to her face, demanding to know who she is. 

Wolf Moon

Beth is placed in the trunk of the car just as Kate frees herself. She proves that she doesn’t need to wear a mask in order to fight like a boss. She then pins Mouse, who tosses the lighter onto the car. 

Sophie tries on the last appeal to Alice. In the past, Mouse, with his new face, comes to Beth with the book and fishing line and offers to help her fix it. Within that moment, Beth becomes Alice. Alice turns the questioning back onto Sophie, which gets Alice sent to Arkham. Sophie goes to look at the book, which falls to pieces because Alice has the fishing line. She takes out two Crow agents. 

Sophie runs out and Alice places a gun to her head. With Sophie thinking she’s about to die, Alice escapes. 

Kate goes to free the hostages. She grabs the two boys before focusing on Beth. She can’t get Beth out of there before finally getting a crowbar and freeing her sister. (Damn, that was tense.) 

Sophie is coordinating the recapture efforts for Alice while protecting the boys. Kate goes to check on Sophie, who wishes her a happy birthday. Meanwhile, protests have broken out at the GCPD demanding that the Bat Signal get turned on in solidarity with Batwoman, who makes an appearance to the crowd’s delight. 

Jacob asks Sophie about where Alice could be, who offers some comfort for escaping. Alice is now a fugitive and they can put a bullet in her without batting an eye.

Kate arrives at a little surprise party from Mary and Luke. (Beth wants to make it known that she had nothing to do with it.) Mary figured out parallel worlds think and thinks Beth is from one of them. She is a smart cookie. 

It ends with Beth and Kate blowing out the candles together. Beth then gets a splitting headache along with Alice. Apparently, them being on the same plane of existence is not good for either of them. 

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Batwoman returns on Feb. 16. Thanks, Super Bowl and the Oscars!

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