'Ugly Betty' exorcises the ghosts
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Now that Bradford Meade is dead, Ugly Betty moved into a new era in which Daniel came into his own at Mode. But of course, he wouldn't have succeeded without his trusty Betty by his side.
Spoilers ahead that have just busted out of rehab.
Wilhelmina was not a happy camper at Bradford's funeral. Not only did Claire Meade trip her, causing her to fall humiliatingly into the empty grave, but the Meade siblings and mother made a unanimous executive decision to fire her on the spot. This pushed her to put a diabolical plan into action. Using top secret software, Wil infected all of Mode's computers with the Medusa X virus, which basically deleted all of their files, including everything for the upcoming January issue.
As the Mode employees scrambled to re-create all the content they lost in time, Wil further undermines Daniel by recruiting people from his staff to join hers at Slater magazine. Somehow, everything comes out okay though. Henry becomes the temporary food editor, Alexis is able to get the publisher to push back the printing, and Daniel has figured out how to deal with their lost cover so that they can keep their advertisers.
Apparently, they had shot the cover with wild child celebrity Cameron Ashlock. Now normally I will watch anything with Eliza Dushku, but in this episode, she was really, really annoying as a parody of a Lindsay/Britney/Paris-type who parties, abuses various substances and takes a stab at inner peace with the latest religious trend. After busting her out of rehab, Daniel found himself unable to get her to cooperate with the new photo shoot, and thus turned to a classier, creative cover instead: an all-black cover in honor of his father's passing. That's a bold move, especially for a fashion magazine.
In the end, Daniel convinced Betty that she could stay true to herself even if she did return to work for him. This is good since she was being haunted by images of Bradford guilting her right and left about her deathbed promise to him to look after Daniel. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy Alan Dale got more work, but that physical manifestation of her guilt was just irritating.
Meanwhile, Wilhelmina's plans for Slater's launch was stymied when her dad refused to give her the seed money. Perhaps she'll have to resort to her other plan, the one hinted at the end of the previous episode when she confronted the coroner over Bradford's corpse. Hmmm.
Oh, and I was sad to see Marc without Cliff again. How can Marc be such a horrible person with Wil and then date sweet Cliff? Maybe his man will have an effect on his ethics in the future. Sadly, Wil going off to do her own magazine means that BFFs Amanda and Marc will be separated since she's obligated to stay with Mode since her mother, Fey Sommers, put work into it. Let's hope the writers reunite them quickly because I love their banter.
Just as Daniel and Alexis have continued Bradford's legacy by saving their issue, the Suarez family had a parallel plot about honoring the deceased Mrs. Suarez. At first, Betty was resistant to any change, which meannt decorating the same Christmas tree the same way every year. After disaster struck in the form of Hilda, however, they Suarezes realized that their traditions could change cosmetically (really, a pink tree?) as long as the spirit remained.
Highlights:
- Betty: "Ghost gone -- this calls for another empanada."
- Okay, I loved Christina's cloche hat with button accents that she wore to the funeral. That's all.
- Marc: "If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: No one pushes Wilhelmina Slater into an open grave."
- Ignacio's nasty kidney stone ornament
- Marc: "Is this going to be some murder-suicide thing? Because Cliff and I have A Chorus Line tickets tonight."
- Mode employee: "Girlfight ... kinda." When Alexis tries to take a swing at Wilhelmina.
- Depressed after employees walk out, Alexis, Betty and Daniel sit down and assume the "See no evil" monkey poses.
- Betty's kitten screensaver is named Gatito.
- Cameron: "God ... he really touches me, but not in a sexual way."
- Wil: "Enjoy the complimentary cheese, two pieces each."
- Marc to Wil: "I always imagined you rising out of a cauldron or born of a jackal." Re: her having a father
Your thoughts? What's Wilhelmina planning next?
The Mode employee who said "girl fight ... kinda" is Alexis' ***istant. He pops up from time to time
I wish writers had more continuity. I was surprised that Wili would ask her Father for money seeing that she has the same Daddy issues with her Father that Daniel had with Bradford. All the times we'd seen the Senator previously he treated her the same way Bradford treated Daniel, with total disappointment because she was not yet Editor in Chief. Now, we get a different less mean looking actor playing him and he's more concerned about his evil daughter not grieving Bradford enough which frankly, if he was that concerned he would have been a) at the wedding giving his daughter away and b)he could at least have turned up afterwards whilst she was "worrying" about Bradford's survival but he was nowhere!
I'm also concerned that they are turning Amanda into some charicature dumb blonde which she isn't. She has a degree and did prove she could be a great ***istant to Daniel whilst Betty was working for Selma Hayak's magazine. Just because she's Fay's daughter doesn't mean she's now got to be perceived as stupid. Amanda was funny because she was smart and perceptive and mean but funny, now she's just idiotic. And she was wearing a puffa skirt which went out in the 80s!
I like that Marc is good only when Cliff's around; evil Marc is too hilarious to give up.
I loved that Wili told one of the defecting staff members that she'd never liked her causing her to have to slink off jobless - that'll teach not to be disloyal!
The fallout from the defection was quite interesting as I was sure Sheila (Illeana Douglas) would follow Wili and now that there are so many vacancies in the writing staff it should give our Betty a chance to follow her dream to do more writing.
I would so love the small printer to be in the show more often - he and Alexis had great chemistry.
More visits from Clare Meade please she is so cl***y even in that awful prison orange even if she did look like an older Paris Hilton. And the Meade family unit have now become as united as Betty's family unit.
I don't know what Wili will do next seeing that if she goes the way we think and tries to impregnate herself with Bradford's baby that's going to take too long to follow through with launching her magazine.
I'm more interested in where Justin would choose to do his internship - even though he is loyal to his Aunt Betty he adores Wili and has a real affinity with Marc.
My fave quote from Justin "...Wilhelmina Slater in an open grave and you took no pictures?? You turned a funeral into a tragedy!"
I loved Christina's hat too!
Someone want to explain the Eliza storyline to me? I thought the point of breaking her out of rehab was b/c they had to have her on the cover or the advertisers would pull out of the issue. Even with the 'genius' idea of making the magazine in honour of Bradford, that still doesn't fullfill the promise of Eliza's character on the cover.
Rishi I think Eliza's storyline was to show that Daniel is no longer going to stoop at nothing to get the magazine he wants ie giving Eliza booze to encourage her to co-operate. Because he didn't give her booze they couldn't reshoot the cover because Eliza had a ballistic meltdown so Daniel had to think of a Plan B and become his own man rather than the man he thinks his Father would have wanted thus making it alright for Betty to change her mind and stay because the new Daniel won't be compromising Betty's principals as much.
I meant to say "princeples" and there is no telling how long the new Daniel will last but it's a start.
Please, who makes the cloche hat with buttons that Christina wore to the funeral?