There is so much to talk about from this week’s season finale of Ugly Betty but the most important is how stupid Betty can be sometimes and how much Daniel has changed since the premiere episode a few years back. Plus, Wilhelmina’s still up to her old tricks, working to make the Mode world a little more interesting.
Betty and Marc are preparing for their YETI interviews when suddenly, Betty sees geeky and annoying Henry hailing a cab across the street. Suddenly, her life is upside down. Why, I have no idea? I mean, Henry broke her heart but she still whines to Marc about him not calling her. She quickly checks his FaceBook page and sees he’s been in New York for three days. Three days and not a word to Betty!? Um, hello, you guys broke up eons ago and you’re in love with the adorkable Matt. Oh, silly Betty. Marc is, thankfully, able to help her focus enough to get through her interviews beautifully.
Back at Mode, Willie and Marc are squirming under Claire’s authority. Willie decides to the only way to take Claire down is to figure out why she and Cal are so close. Not hard to do with the visible tension that arises when Cal’s ex (and Matt’s mom) shows up and has a stare down with dear old Claire. Wilhelmina simply shows up at the club and says her tennis partner didn’t show. Victoria offers to play and afterward, Willie asks her to get a drink. After enough to make her secrets just barely slip out, Willie brings up Claire. Soon, she finds out that once upon a time, the Meade’s and the Hartley’s were best friends. Until Claire and Cal had an affair. More than that, Claire became pregnant by Cal but never told him or Bradford. Jackpot. Wilhelmina tells Claire she knows about the baby and threatens that if she doesn’t quit, she’ll open up to Cal. Ruh-roh.
Wilhelmina never will change and that’s exactly what Marc is going to miss most. Yup, our little Marc scored an editor position at none other than Vogue. He’s set to leave in two weeks and he and Willie share a rare but sweet and awkward hug. Betty’s not so lucky. After Jody told her she was going to get an offer from the New York Review, nothing came. Then, she finds out that Jody actually convinced the magazine to hire her instead, thus cutting the budget and eliminating the two junior positions. I guess Jody had always wanted the Review, too, and couldn’t stand a younger version of herself stealing her dream. Nice mentor choice, Betty. Naturally Betty’s upset so she calls Matt but gets his voicemail. Then she calls stupid Henry.
It isn’t out of nowhere. Betty, Matt, Henry, and his new girlfriend went to a Mets game together courtesy of Cal (Amanda and Marc gave Betty their tickets so the two happy couples could double). During this game, Betty kept a running tally of the things she likes about Matt versus what she likes about Henry. Really, Betty? Are you moving to Arizona to have whiny, skanky babies with Henry? If not, why does it matter? To be fair, she asks herself the same type of questions but she just can’t help herself. Apparently, though, she can stop herself from mentioning that Matt asked her to move in just a few days ago and she said yes. Did I forget to mention that? You would think that with that big a step she’d be able to let Henry go. I mean, I know he was her first love but, seriously, get over it. That’s exactly what everyone in her life tells her but still, she calls Henry to cry to him about Jody. Not a good move because they soon start talking about “us” and they share an innocent kiss. Followed by a definitely not innocent one, which, of course, Matt sees. He came to try and cheer Betty up and instead got his poor sad heart broken. Seriously, Betty.
Betty wants to tell Matt what happened, not aware he witnessed the kiss, but Hilda talks her out of it since Betty swears it didn’t mean anything. Just when she was starting to say something, though, the features editor for Mode comes flying by them from her 28th floor window. Seems she was trying to shoo away pigeons and fell. The death was a tragedy, yes, but also an opportunity. Before she barely hit the ground, Betty was asking Daniel for the newly opened editor job. He says yes but then, Marc and Willie aren’t stupid and she tells him he can have the job. It opens up a bit of a dilemma for the semi-friends. It also is a problem for Willie and Daniel who can only agree that both Marc and Betty are deserving of the position. They decide that whoever writes the best version of the article the former editor was working on wins and the other stays an assistant. Betty and Marc go along with it at first but then decide that their two Editors-in-Chief have to figure it out. They refuse to turn in the article and leave it to the their bosses.
There’s no choosing between Marc and Betty, though, and so at the MAMA awards (the magazine world’s version of the Oscars), Willie and Daniel cowardly decide to flip a coin. And the winner is….Betty. She’s thrilled, of course, and now she can turn her full attention to the category Mode is nominated in. They win, as if there was ever a chance for those other magazines, and Daniel gives a touching speech after spotting Molly in the crowd. Since she collapsed on their wedding day, she’s been in and out of the hospital and on this particular night, her fever had returned. She convinced Daniel to still attend but it seems she got better right at the end, which is good because the flurry surrounding Daniel and Molly since the wedding will subside soon. I mean, Daniel is being basically stalked right now but it’s only a matter of time before they can just be themselves again. When Daniel goes to find Molly, however, Betty says she never saw her. You know what’s coming. Yup. Daniel arrives at home to find his wife being carried, covered, into an ambulance.
Willie, meanwhile, confronted Claire and found out that she has preempted Willie’s strike. Claire told Cal about the baby herself. She didn’t tell him that the baby was adopted instead of aborted, as everyone else thought, but baby steps, people. Seems Claire will be sticking around Mode for a while and she won’t be the only new face. Cal offered Matt a position there and he accepted. Then he broke up with Betty when she said there will always be a piece of her that loves dumb old Henry. So many changes in such a short amount of time. Why can’t everything in Betty’s life be good? Why when she is finally getting what she wants at work does she have to lose the guy? Whatever, nothing in her life compares to the despair Daniel is going through. It’s no wonder he turned to the one constant in his life, Betty. She rushed to his side and we are reminded why we put up with all of Betty’s nuttiness.
It’ll be interesting to see how everyone fares after all the changes made. It’ll also be interesting to see what Willie’s newly hired private detective can dig up on Connor. What? You thought she would just give up. She knows the only way to beat Claire is to get Cal out and the only way to do that is to get back all the money Connor stole. It is nice to have her back but after next year, she either takes over or she’s out. Agreed? Thought so.
