The events of this episode take place on August 29th, 1993, 1994, and 1995.
It is Kate Wallis' birthday.
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In 1993, Jamie tells Rod about his planned gift for Kate: a promise ring. While Kate is getting ready, Joy insists on her birthday party being at 7PM sharp. At the mall, Jamie gives Kate the promise ring to her visible discomfort. Tennille produces a flask which Jamie immediately takes. After the girls finish a shopping spree, a visibly inebriated Jamie spills some of the liquor from the flask on Kate's dress, after which she struggles to lead him out of the mall and get him home. When the two get busted by Martin when Jamie urinates on a bush in front of his house, Martin drives them home. During the drive, Kate confides in Martin that a family secret has been eating at her, which Martin advises her to expose.
Returning home much later than agreed, Kate finds an angry Joy, who had sent everybody home and is now sitting alone. After a dressing down by Joy, Kate has enough and reveals Joy's affair with Scott to Rod. Meanwhile, Martin is getting drunk alone in his house, thinking about Kate. Joy deflects Kate's accusation by mentioning Kate's similar doubt of Rod. A shouting match ensues and Joy slaps Kate. Kate runs upstairs and packs a bag, with Joy teasing and criticizing her, calling her naive, simple, boring, and predictable, daring her to run away.
Kate does run away. To Martin's.
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In 1994, months before her birthday, Kate is locked in Martin's basement, with Martin telling her through the door that everybody stopped looking for her and Jamie has moved on to Jeanette. On her birthday, while chatting with "Berenice4", Kate complains about Jeanette still not being charged and her lack of appetite due to Martin's use of food to control her. Joy and Rod announce that they got her a spot on the Marsha Bailey Show where she could tell her side of the story, but Kate refuses.
To Joy's surprise, Kate's only guest is Mallory, herself unaware that it's Kate's birthday. On Mallory's suggestion for curing her appetite loss, the girls get high. When Ash sees them, they invite her to smoke and watch a movie. The three go out to rent a movie at Vince's video store, to the latter's shock. Their movie afternoon is cut short when a scene triggers Kate's PTSD. Mallory leaves and Joy tries to convince Kate to go on the Marsha Bailey Show again, in vain. Rod then advises her to not dismiss the idea only because it came from Joy. But when a news story breaks about another victim of Martin's, a story that Kate does not believe and is revolted by, she becomes much more amenable to the idea.
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In 1995, Kate wakes up sharing her bed with Mallory, who wishes her both happy birthday and happy friend-a-versary. Listening to her therapy tapes, Kate finds another mention of Annabelle, but this time even Kate from 1994 does not remember who she is, and mentioning her gives her a panic attack. With Kate obsessed with having forgotten so much, Mallory suggests she should relax and take the day off, even telling off Joy when she brings up the subject. Mallory takes Kate to the rolling rink where she works as assistant manager, open only for the two of them.
On returning at the Wallis', Mallory looks at the printer they were going to give away. She realizes it is not broken, just jammed, but what she pulls out of the printer makes her reconsider her ban on all legal talk for the day. Kate confronts Joy, now aware that she was the one who printed the "Liar" letter, accusing her of having raised her to be obedient and trusting, which Martin used to groom her, and of sending her to the Marsha Bailey Show, which got her sued, to which Joy retorts that she went off script. Joy breaks down in tears, admitting she is jealous of the relationship she has with Rod and used to have with her, and that she printed the letter to give her a bad guy, to motivate her. On this, mother and daughter finally reconcile.
After spending a night with Ash, Derek logs in on her computer while she's in the shower and finds her chat with Kate, which he promptly prints and brings to Jeanette. Jeanette is shocked to learn that Kate went to Martin willingly.
Tropes Used:
- Title Drop: Kate wishes happy birthday to herself when she wakes up, like Jeanette did in the pilot episode.
