I just have two things to say about this week’s episode of Ugly Betty: First, love squares are awesome. Second, I love some drama.
The editors are all gone on their editorial retreat and completely out of contact with the office. Before Daniel can leave, though, he finds out that he’ll have to drive up separately because the magazine is going to be late for final approval. Sad, because he really wanted to drive up with Connor. Luckily, Betty really wants her career to advance now because she begs Daniel to let her have final approval and after a little bit of convincing, he says yes. She’s watched him do it a million times and knows what to look for so everything should be fine, right?
Come on. There wouldn’t be a show if there wasn’t any drama. The cover picture is a girl in a tornado and the title is “Eye of the Fashion Storm.” Everything in the magazine is perfect so Betty ships it out. What’s wrong with it, you ask? Nothing. Except that a real tornado, the worst in history, is hitting Iowa right at that very moment and every image of the real tornado looks eerily like the one on the cover of Mode. That may not sound like a big deal but think of how everyone else will see it. Betty frantically runs to the shipping dock but the guy in charge won’t pull them back until he hears from Wilhelmina or Daniel and they’re completely cut off. What’s a girl to do?
Betty decides to raid the petty cash box and take a cab up to the retreat site. And, of course, Marc wants to go so he can take some of the credit when she’s praised for stopping the issue from going out. Amanda just likes road trips. Well, that and she wants to talk to Marc about his upcoming wedding to Cliff but every time she tries, he changes the subject. Oh, and there’s no way Marc is going in a cab the whole way so he suggests they take Cliff’s car.
They’re all trapped in a car together when Amanda finally brings up Marc’s wedding and Betty flips out, too. Both of the girls want to know everything about it and its obvious Marc is now in hell. While Amanda is searching for food, she finds a receipt from Tiffany’s for wedding rings. Okay. Now Marc is in hell. He starts to freak out and the three of them end up crashing Cliff’s car into a tree. There’s no rescuing that car and the tow truck won’t be there for 55 minutes. Betty remembers a store a mile back so she takes off running and tells Amanda and Marc to wait for the tow truck.
Meanwhile, at the editors’ retreat. Connor informs all of the editors that Meade is in dire financial straits. He wants everyone to focus and to come to him with ideas of how to turn their magazines around or all of them might not be there anymore. To clear his head and try to think of something, Daniel goes on a walk through the woods and is almost hit by a woman. No really, a woman named Molly falls out of a tree and nearly takes Daniel out with her. The reason she was in the tree? She wanted to climb it. It sounds crazy now but when she said it, it wasn’t so bad. Although now her ankle is sprained and so Daniel helps her back to the resort. Do you smell a love interest for Daniel? Because I do.
And we all know who Willie’s love interest is, or at least who she wants it to be. Unfortunately, Connor’s still engaged. Guess who to? The adorable girl who almost hit Daniel, naturally. Welcome love square. Daniel has a crush on Molly who is engaged to Connor (but kept sending little glances Daniel’s way) who is the object of Wilhelmina’s desire. Needless to say, if they knew about the tornado, their heads might be somewhere else but for right now, the birds are singing in all of their brains.
Speaking of tornadoes. Betty rushes into the store but the guy can’t drive because his license was taken away for excessive DWI’s. But she notices a toy plane advertising skywriting and has a brilliant idea. Yup. Over the resort are the words, “Daniel call Betty,” for the world to see. Daniel sees it to and he tells her that he’ll call the shipping dock to make sure the issues don’t go out to newsstands. Except, they are trying to raise their sales and nothing sells faster than scandal. Daniel and Wilhelmina decide to send them out just for that reason.
When Betty wakes up the next day and finds out the issues have shipped, she immediately goes to Daniel who says he has no idea what happened. Everything from there kind of spirals out of control. Mode, obviously, has caused tons of negative press to come it’s way and it’s leaked to them all that Betty was the one with final approval. I give you “Tornado Girl.” She’s being endlessly harassed. By phone, email, there’s even a tornado girl shirt (Justin was wearing it). Poor Betty. Her family is by her side, though, and her father convinces her not to be a victim and to find out what happened.
Daddy Suarez gives the same advice to Hilda, whose salon permit was denied because she it was in a residential neighborhood. She goes to the city councilman’s office and talks to Archie (played by the adorably grown-up Ralph Macchio) about how to fix it. The only thing he says it’s there’s nothing he can do. Nice. A knock on the door at the Suarez house reveals that he is nice, actually. He tells her he found a loophole and if she sells items and that accounts for 30% of her profits, she can keep the salon open and call it a boutique. Cute little guy. And yet another love interest enters Betty Suarezland. I’m just glad it’s not Betty’s. So Hilda is saved but Betty’s not so lucky.
The only person that gives her any answers, unsurprisingly, is Marc. He tells her she was sabotaged and to talk to the guy on the shipping dock about what really happened. I love when Marc lets his sweet side show. He and Betty have to watch each other’s backs, according to him, because they’re in the same position. That, and he secretly likes Betty’s spunk. So much so that he admits to Betty that the only reason he asked Cliff to marry him is because he felt guilty about cheating on him and that Cliff doesn’t know anything about the other guy. Leave it to Betty to be his conscious. She knows Marc’s a good person but she also knows it sucks to be betrayed by some one so close to you. Man. I really like Cliff and Marc together.
That’s not gonna happen just like Betty taking the fall isn’t going to happen once she learned that Wilhelmina and Daniel okayed the tornado issues to ship. Daniel was already feeling lousy about the whole situation when Betty confronts him. I don't think we've really ever seen Betty this hurt. She and Daniel have grown up together at Mode and the fact that he fed her up for his decision was more than a betrayal. Even with his apology, Betty still can't forgive Daniel. I bet you never thought Daniel would ever break Betty's heart. I sure didn't. To try and make amends, as much as he could, Daniel announces at a press conference that he was the one who approved the issue and that it was a mistake. To make up for it, all profits from this issue (the most profitable in Mode’s history) will go to benefit the tornado victims. Guess all that scheming did work in their favor after all. Mode is back on the map.
Marc tells Cliff the truth and he walks out. Wilhelmina schemes to keep Connor and Molly apart while Daniel pines silently for his best friend’s fiancé. Betty’s sad that she didn’t really change nor have an impact on anything and the only shred of light is that Hilda’s salon can now stay open as a boutique. I guess this is the drama part of a dramedy. At least no one died, right.
