REVIEW: BATWOMAN - SEASON 1, EP. 11: "An Un-Birthday Present"
Since the end of Crisis, Kate Kane's life has dramatically changed. The world at large is mostly unaware that there was (and, to an extent, STILL), a multiverse. So, they are oblivious to the changes to the norm. However, since the end of Crisis, we have seen things different on Supergirl, such as different versions of Brainiac 5, as well as different beings that managed to survive the antimatter wave and escaped to an alternate dimension that wasn't consumed, or have managed to find themselves now on Earth-Prime. One of those beings just happens to be Beth Kane---Kate's sister. Only, she's the Beth we saw in the picture with Kate from Earth 99...but that Beth is dead. So, where did this one come from, and how did she get here? Our Lady Crusader has lots to figure out...all while having to deal with the next phase of Alice's devious plans.
When last we left Kate, she had returned to her office at Wayne Enterprises, only to be shocked to discover that there was Beth Kane, alive and well, awaiting her. This unnerved Kate, who thought she was an imposter, and attacked her. We see her still attacking her as we start this installment, as Beth tries to explain that she is who she is, but---in order to defend herself, whips out pepper spray, nails Kate in the eyes, and makes a break for it. By the time Kate recovers, Beth is gone.
Alice is in Crow custody, and she hears a knock at the door, and is reminded of the secret knock her and Johnathan--Mouse to us--used to let them know that they were safe. She flashes back to her past, when they had that knock, and he showed up with a gift for her bithday - a cat. She called it her Cheshire Cat, since she was reading Alice In Wonderland at the time. John's father arrives, and they quickly hide the cat from him. He knows it's her birthday, so he lights the candle on the cupcake John brought, and asks her to make a wish. She says out loud she wants to be with her dad and sister again, and blows out the candle. John's dad says that if you say the wish out loud, it'll never come true.
Sophie is talking to Jacob about Alice, and Jacob warns her to NOT interrogate her. It will give Alice a chance to get into her head, and play mind games. He tells her to get Alice to Arkham, and then she'll become THEIR problem. After they finish chatting, Kate shows up, and is looking to find if Alice is still in custody. Sophie shows her that she's under surveillance. Kate then tells Sophie she saw Beth. Sophie isn't surprised, and tells her that Mary said she saw her too.
Back at the office, Luke has run a series of tests to discover that Beth is exactly who she says she is. She left her cellphone behind, and Luke says it will take some time to hack into it, too see if she's on the level, but Kate--knowing her sister--knows her password (since it's the only one Beth could remember, which is 'breakfast'), and gets into her phone. They see pictures of what Beth is working on, which is astrophysics, and pictures of her and Kate. Mary says she's going to the college to talk to anyone in the astrophysics department to see if they have heard or seen Beth. Kate then tells Luke about the possibility of this Beth being from a different Earth, and managed to wind up here after the universe was reshaped. Either way, Kate needs to find her. Luke isn't sure where to start, but Kate has an idea. We find Beth at the same place that Kate and Alice met---the waffle stand. Beth is leery of Kate, and Kate immediately apologizes. Beth says she wandered around, she feels at home, but no one knows her, and she has no idea what's going on. She looks at Kate, and asks what's going on, and Kate simply says she got her wish, and the two women embrace.
Sophie, going against Jacob's orders, begins to interrogate Alice. Alice has a request for her book of Alice In Wonderland, but Sophie isn't into granting requests. Alice is offended, and says that's not a way to treat someone on their birthday. Sophie isn't into giving a party, either. Alice comments that Kate hates surprises, but she absolutely LOVES them. Sophie inquires what she means about that, and Alice simply doesn't answer.
We then see a video feed from Mouse, who happens to have kidnapped the Mayor's son, as well as the Commissioner's son. Mouse says that if Alice isn't freed by 9 pm, the boys are as good as dead.
Kate and Beth talk about the multiverse, and how she got there. Beth recounts that Kate was her hero, having rescued her from the car going off the bridge, that did eventually kill their mother. Kate is surprised to hear this story. Just then, Luke calls, and tells Kate to check out the TV. We see a news report about the Mayor and Commissioner's sons being kidnapped. At the same time, Sophie is watching the same news report. The reporter wants to know WHY the Commissioner hasn't called upon Batwoman, and wonders if it has something to do with her being a lesbian. The Commissioner, to his credit, says they need to park the political angle, so he can find the boys.
Sophie brings Alice her copy of her book. And she wants information. Alice knows what she wants, and then goes into another flashback of her time with Johnathan and being held captive. The book kept her sane. She watches John's father work on making a new skin graft for his face, while smoking a pipe. Alice likens him to the Caterpillar from the book. She sees him walk off in frustration at his failure to fix John's face. Sophie comments how horrible it must have been being trapped there. Alice, beginning to pull her string, says it was hell for BOTH of them. But Alice begins to twist the knife by commenting to Sophie about knowing what it's like to be trapped...having hid her TRUE self from the world, and not being able to come out as lesbian. This begins to work on Sophie's defenses.
Kate is walking towards her bike, talking to Luke about how to save the boys. Luke asks why she doesn't suit up as Batwoman, and she says that Batwoman is a political liability right now. He calls her out on it, and says it's a cop out. She hops on her bike and says she's going to save the boys, anyway. Luke says she sounds like Bruce. She then comments to Luke that she could've saved Beth. Luke says she doesn't need saving...you HAVE Beth. Kate fires up the bike, and is off to save the boys. As she's en route, a van comes up and hits her. She goes flying and lands roughly on the ground, banged up. Mouse then comes up to her and kicks her unconcious. When she awakes, she finds she is ziptied to the steering wheel of a car, with the boys ziptied in the back seat. Mouse approaches them, and said that he had to nab her before she got all suited up to come to their rescue. He uses Kate's phone to call Sophie, and Alice answers. She's tapping on the table, as Mouse asks about her. He then hands the phone to Kate, to tell Sophie to release Alice. Kate tells Sophie to release Alice....twice. Sophie reluctantly agrees.
Beth has been searching for Kate, and bumps into Luke. Luke then drops the bomb that Kate has been kidnapped by Alice---Beth's "evil twin" so-to-speak. Beth is shocked to hear the news.
Alice is still in custody, and wondering why she has not been freed as yet. Sophie reveals that Kate's response was code from their survival training. Repeating a request means the opposite. So, when Kate repeated to Sophie to release Alice twice, it meant for Sophie to keep Alice in custody. Alice comments on their cleverness, but Alice reveals that she too, as a code with Mouse. They used it a lot to hide their activities and to communicate with each other from the Caterpillar. She flashes back again to when he got her the cat, and they tried to hide it from the Caterpillar. He discovered it, and disapproved of her having it, and ended up killing it, despite their protests. He also ruins her book in the process. Alice then puts another twist of the knife in Sophie by asking her what would she do if she loses the one thing she loves most.
Luke is trying to pinpoint Kate's location, and Beth asks him to contact her Dad, since he's the head of the Crows, but Luke informs her that he is in prison for killing his wife. She inquires about the police, but Luke says they're useless as well. He says that Mouse is going to kill her. Beth then comes up with a crazy idea: if Mouse wants Alice, they'll give her Alice. She offers to become Alice to rescue Kate, but Luke flat out refuses it. She says that Kate saved her life on her world, it's time to save Kate in this one, and return the favor.
We're back at the car, where Kate is fidgeting with the wheel, trying to find a way to escape. Meanwhile, the boys in the back are hoping she can save them, and the Commissioner's son is pissed off at dear old Dad for not turning on the batsignal and calling out to Batwoman.
Alice continues to work her way into Sophie's head. Sophie wants to see what Kate did: a scared little girl still inside her. Alice says Kate used to think that way. She says Beth used to think that way...but the truth is, Alice remarks, is that Beth NEVER made it out of that basement. We flashback once again to when Caterpillar approached her about the sweater she made the cat. She says that her father will kill him, to which Caterpillar shows her a paper, with news of Jacob's marriage to Catherine, with Mary and Kate in the picture. He tells her that she's been replaced. He asks her again about the knitted sweater. She says she did make it, and he says he admires it...she has steady and precise hands. He wants to use her skills to help him make the faces for John. She says that's how she became good at making faces using human flesh. She knew escape was never going to happen.
At Wayne Enterprises, we see Mary doing Beth's makeup, trying to get her to look like Alice. Once she's done, Mary is unnerved by her work. Beth asks if she's okay, and Mary says that she just reminds her of Alice. Beth apologizes, and says that it's her fault, to which Mary denies it. She says that Beth is NOTHING like Alice. She also comments on why Kate tried so hard to save Alice in the first place. She then goes on to coach Beth on how to act like Alice, and use Alice's references to the book in order to play the part.
Beth shows up in disguise, finally seeing Mouse, who is happy she is free. He asks if she was followed by referring to whether or not there are any lions and tigers about. She says no, but he smells the ruse. He pulls off the wig, and Beth is exposed. Kate begins to work faster as she witnesses Beth being tossed into the car, which they're going to set on fire after Mouse doused it with gasoline. Kate managees to escape, and starts taking down gang members. She fights Mouse, and kicks him back, and he's impaled on a piece of junk. However, he's still able to light a lighter and toss it at the car, causing it to catch on fire. Kate frantically opens the doors to cut the two boys out, and they make a break for it. She then goes back for Beth, who is trapped in the trunk. Kate can't open the trunk lid, so she goes into the back seat, and tears out the upholstry to get to Beth. The smoke is getting worse, and the fire is raging, and Kate is racing against the clock to save her....and she manages to get the frame off the back of the seat enough to grab Beth and pull her to safety.
Sophie is giving Alice one last chance to spill the location of the boys. She has one last flashback, where she is sitting alone, and John thanks her for his new face, and gives her fishing wire to fix the spine, and put the pages back togther for her book. She sits, eyes closed, as if she is going to break down...but she ends up having a psychotic break. She opens her eyes, and says that from now on, he is her little Mouse, and she is called Alice. He asks if she'd like some tea, as the flashback ends. Alice is then taken into custody, and headed towards Arkham. Sophie notices she's left the book behind, and picks it up, only to have the pages begin to fall out. At that moment, Alice begins to unravel the fishing wire she took from the spine of the book, and uses it to incapacitate the guards and make her escape. Having remembered the fishing wire from her story, Sophie is hot on her trail. Sophie tries to find her, but Alice gets the jump on her, and has a gun pointed at her head. Alice reminds her that while SHE is free from HER cage, Sophie is NOT free of HERS...and that is a prison of her OWN doing. Sophie is shaken up, as Alice takes off.
In the aftermath, we hear from Vesper Fairchild again about Alice being on the loose, and the GCPD's unwillingness to call for Batwoman's help. Kate checks in with Sophie, and Sophie is beating herself to death about being manipulated by Alice. They watch a news report on TV about the citizens storming the GCPD, demanding them to turn on the signal and bring Batwoman back. They eventually relent, and the signal goes out, as Batwoman arrives, to thunderous applause.
Sophie pays Jacob a visit in prison, and she again chastises herself for letting Alice get to her. Jacob says it's okay, because now they can use excessive force on Alice, with extreme prejudice. The gloves have come off.
At Kate's bar, Mary talks with Kate, and finally understands what the reason was for why Kate fought so hard to save Alice. Mary, obviously inebriated, discusses her theories of the multiverse to Kate, who is taking this all in stride. Beth comes over with Luke with a cake, and wishes them both a Happy Birthday. Beth asks Kate to make a wish and blow out the candles. Kate reiterates that she got her wish, and blows it out. Beth makes hers, and blows hers out, but out of nowhere, she starts having some kind of mental attack, as if her brain is on fire and in extreme pain, kind of like an anuerysm. At the same time, we see Alice suffering the safe effects as the episode comes to a close.
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Things are getting stranger and stranger. The end catches us a little off guard, and it will be interesting to see what happens when the show picks up again the Sunday following Super Bowl Sunday. But we DID get to fill in more gaps to Alice's story, we see that Sophie is not as smart as she makes herself out to be, and Mary and Kate move a little closer as sisters. Mouse can prove to be a threat on his own WITHOUT Alice, and we see the results when the GCPD is unwilling to call upon the Lady Crusader because of her sexuality.
Kate and this alternate universe Beth start off the show in a bad way, but you'd be freaked out too if your twin sister showed up as you saw her in a picture on said alternate world, and not wondering whether or not is your ACTUAL sister playing mind games with you. So, Kate reacts the only way she knows how: attack. However, thanks to tests that Luke runs, it's an actual GOOD Beth Kane. One who, apparently, graduated college with a degree in astrophysics...so she is QUITE versed in the theories of the multiverse, and knows that she is from another Earth....an Earth where Kate had saved her, and became her biggest hero. So, these two are connecting pretty quickly on a sisterly level that Kate has dreamed of. Of course, like the Caterpillar said to Alice all those years ago...you make a wish out loud, it never comes true. So the little brain anuerysm attack Beth has at the end of the episode is NOT good for Kate. It's also NOT good for Alice, apparently. It seems as though that these two CANNOT exist in the same time and space. I have a feeling that next episode is going to be a HUGE one for Kate. Credit to Rachel Skarsten for her acting chops in this episode...playing the sweet, smart, and loving sister Beth, while still killing it as Alice.
Speaking of Alice----it seems people never learn around her. Sophie is the latest victim to fall prey to her manipulations--DESPITE, mind you, Jacob's reminder of such. He WARNED Sophie NOT to interrogate her, because she would just mess with her head, and that's EXACTLY what Alice did. Weaving more of her backstory about her entrapment with Mouse and his father, whom she dubs The Caterpillear from the novel, and how he ended up causing her to finally snap, and come to grips with her reality. Hence, she let Beth die, and Alice be born. And the neat trick with keeping the fishing wire in the book, holding it together, and getting it when she needed it....keeping herself one step ahead of our heroes. Alice didn't really have to do much in regards to Sophie---she just reminded Sophie how free she herself was, and how Sophie continues to live in a her own cage of lies---having a husband she truly doesn't love to save her career, while she can't live the life she KNOWS is right: being OUT as a lesbian, and hiding her feelings for Kate. Sohpie is in her own prison...and only SHE has the key to let herself out. Alice knew that, and played on Sophie's insecurities just enough to get what she wanted. Now, what will Sophie do? We know that's going to stick on her mind now. One thing we DO know, however...Jacob has pretty much taken the gloves off, and is now ready to use lethal force to end Alice's terror once and for all. It will be curious to see if it comes to that, will it be Sophie or Jacob himself (providing he gets out of prison), that pulls the trigger.
So...with both Beth and Alice having this weird brain anuerysm happening, we're starting to see more fallout from Crisis. What this means for both of them, we'll find out soon enough. I'm also glad that the city of Gotham realizes that it needs its hero, and uses public protest to get the Commissioner to make a call out to Batwoman again. They need her, and they know it.
Another quality episode. The show is finding it's way, and the story is starting to pick up the pace. We're seeing lots of progress, and we're getting some interesting twists along the way. I love, love, LOVE Alice as a villain---she certainly fits the motif of The Mad Hatter, with just a tiny dose of Joker mixed in. As with most Bat-villains, they all seem to be off-center, and mentally disturbed. But I truly do like her a lot.
Okay, children, that's all for now! We'll be back after Super Bowl Sunday AND the Oscars with another installment. But until then, subscribe, pass along the good word, and leave a comment or two, huh? Cheaper than gas for your car.
Until February 16...the Bat Signal is OFF!
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