'Ben and Kate' Season 1, Episode 4: '21st Birthday' Recap
by Shannon Keirnan
At the bar, Kate is marveling at how much more money BJ makes than her, but it’s no secret. BJ undoes one of Kate’s buttons and boom, extra tip.
The bar is full for a party, and Ben’s making friends with everyone as usual. He and Tommy order drinks and speculate on Kate’s own birthday, which is coming up. She just wants to relax, but Ben thinks she needs to have the 21st birthday party she never had.
At Kate’s house, he has called in reinforcements to plan "Kate’s 21st Birthday 2.0." Kate comes home and insists that she just wants to get her ice cream like every year—cut to her alone at a table, meekly asking the surly waitress to wish her happy birthday for the past few years. Ben promises he won’t throw her a party, but when she leaves, it’s on. He decides to call her crazy friend from high school, Molly, but Tommy still harbors a grudge against Molly for taking $15 from him. BJ asks why but he won’t go into it.
As Ben, BJ, and Maddie are picking up party supplies, they drive past Darcy's parent’s house, and notice a moving van. He mentions that he and Darcy wanted to get married and move into that house together. They even planted a tree in the back yard, and Ben had planned to carve it into a canoe when Darcy died, and spread her ashes on Lake Placid.
BJ tries to comfort him but she’s got nothing.
Kate comes home to her surprise party, which is set up like a 21st, including Beer Pong. Ben has her check the bathroom for her big present—which is Molly. BJ gets ignored as Molly stirs things up and gets Kate in the party mood.
Tommy lets it slip that Darcy is moving into the house with her husband, and Ben is crushed. He grabs BJ, who is getting ignored anyway, and the two drive off to dig up the tree Ben planted.
Once they’re in the yard, however, Ben realizes he can’t do this. BJ just throws his shovel through the window, alerting Darcy to their presence. Darcy invites them in and makes them coffee. Ben wants BJ to vanish so she says, “I’m just gonna have a snoop around the place, if that’s all right,” and Darcy and Ben talk.
Ben is hurt that she’s living their dream, but she tells him it was really more his dream. She never took him that seriously, or saw a life together. BJ overhears this and defends him, telling Darcy that he will become something one day, and pretending awkwardly to be his lover.
Meanwhile Molly has dragged Kate to a club. Tommy reveals that he was going to take Kate out on their first date with the $15 that Molly stole from him—instead she dated someone else and he missed his window. She admits she really only saw him as her brother’s friend at the time, and he asks how she seems him now.
Molly distracts them however, calling for Kate as she argues with the bouncer. Kate rushes over with the $40 Molly is demanding—Kate accidentally buys drugs thinking it’s cover charge. They hear a siren and run.
Kate tells Molly doesn’t want to go crazy any more, she’s a mom now. It’s not her anymore, but they will always be friends.
BJ brings Ben home, offering him, “I just think, Ben, that you could dream bigger than a dead girl in a canoe.”
Ben is bolstered, and removes his stolen tree from the top of the car.
Inside, Ben apologizes to Kate for throwing the party. He takes her to the ice cream store. He tells her he just didn’t want her to be alone on her birthday again. She tells him she is never alone—we cut back to those lonely birthdays and the ice cream, only now we realize that Kate was talking to Maddie, not the waitress, asking for a happy birthday as Maddie got bigger each year.
This year, Maddie needs no coaxing to wish her mom a happy birthday.
Kate tells Tommy that he should take someone out who realizes how amazing he is—like her, she says, as she kisses his cheek. Understandably, he has no idea what the hell that means.