Ugly Betty “Tornado Girl”
Original Air Date: Nov 13th, 2008
Nicola – TwoCents Reviewer
Nicola@thetwocentscorp.com
It’s another day in the fashion world, and Betty and Amanda are having a little girl time, including a little fashion therapy from Amanda when she dresses Betty up in her old clothes. Betty wants to talk about something a little more serious, like the editor’s retreat that the Meade editors get to go on. Betty is dying for more responsibility, and she’s love to go. However, before she even gets to work, she gets a call that could give her just that.
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Ugly Betty
ReplyDelete“Tornado Girl”
Original Air Date: November 13th, 2008
Nicola – TwoCents Reviewer
Nicola@thetwocentscorp.com
It’s another day in the fashion world, and Betty and Amanda are having a little girl time, including a little fashion therapy from Amanda when she dresses Betty up in her old clothes. Betty wants to talk about something a little more serious, like the editor’s retreat that the Meade editors get to go on. Betty is dying for more responsibility, and she’s love to go. However, before she even gets to work, she gets a call that could give her just that.
It turns out that the final approval for the latest issue of Mode has been pushed later, which would prevent Daniel from riding to the retreat with everyone else. Betty manages to convince him that the final approval can be left in her capable hands. Betty inspects the latest issue of Mode and irritates the printing press guys with her OCDness (hey, she’s got to take advantage of the power while she can, doesn’t she?).
Meanwhile, at the retreat, Connor gives a downer of a speech about business and coming up with profitable, “wow” ideas. Claire suggests that all phones and PDAs are removed to take away distractions (and also to get under Wilhelmina’s skin). Wilhelmina is suitably angered, but she decides to let off some steam and go hunting. She runs into Connor for another awkward moment. Daniel goes on a nice, calming walk and is nearly killed by a girl falling out of a tree. He helps her up and is smitten almost immediately (what a surprise!). But Wilhelmina and Connor spot them and we learn that that’s Molly, Connor’s fiancée, much to the disappointment of both Daniel and Wilhelmina.
A tornado cuts through Kansas and pictures of it strongly resembles the cover of Mode. Betty goes to try and stop the issue from being sent out, but Phil at the loading dock won’t stop it without order from Daniel or Wilhelmina. He finally says he can hold off for four hours so she can contact Daniel or Wilhelmina. But Betty, of course, can’t get a hold of either of them. She, Mark, and Amanda go on a road trip in Cliff’s car to talk to Daniel and Wilhelmina. Amanda takes advantage of the fact that Mark can’t go anywhere and starts to harass him about his and Cliff’s wedding. When he refuses to talk she goes rooting around in Cliff’s glove compartment and finds a receipt for wedding rings. This distracts Mark enough to get him to go careening into a tree.
Back in Queens, Hilda is trying to get a permit for her salon, but she’s been denied because she’s in a residential area. It’s Archie Rodriguez’s fault, the councilman who came in on Election Day! She decides to start a salon speakeasy through the back door, but her father doesn’t approve.
Betty starts running down the road, looking for a ride. She makes it to a service station (evidently in the Deep South, due to the accents, music, and rustic decor) and asks for a ride from a drunkard. Though he won’t drive her, a small child with a balsa wood flyer gives her an idea. She hires a plane to sky-write “Daniel – call Betty,” and gets the desired results.
But no good deed goes unpunished, and the issue is not halted! Betty gets blamed for the P.C. faux paux, though we learn that it was actually Daniel and Wilhelmina’s doing, a publicity stunt to bring up the circulation. Daniel feels guilty for letting Betty take the fall and the ding to her reputation, but he stays quiet for the time being.
Mark abducts Betty in the copy room and tells her to talk to Phil at the loading dock if she wants to get to the bottom of the situation. She does so, and Phil tells her that Daniel called to send the issue out, not to stop it. She confronts him about the ruination of her reputation, and Daniel seems to have a change of heart. When he and Wilhelmina hold a press conference, he comes clean to the press and tells them that all the proceeds of this issue will go towards helping the tornado victims. Daniel the humanitarian, much to the chagrin of Wilhelmina and Connor, who were kind of trying to make money here.
Speaking of making money, Councilman Rodriguez pays Hilda a visit and gives her a loophole for her business. If she sells products as well as cuts hair, she can keep her business open as a boutique. Hilda is grateful of course, grateful enough to flirt a little and let us know who her next love interest will be.
Betty returns to Mark and thanks him for giving her the information she needed. Betty, because she’s Betty, manages to get Mark to tell her what’s bothering him about his engagement to Cliff, and when she finds out about his cheating, she tells him to tell Cliff. He does, and Cliff leaves in tears.
This episode seems to have done very little to advance any major plotlines forward, although, come to think of it, does Ugly Betty have any over-arching plotlines anymore? Betty doesn’t have a love interest (it’s a bit surprising to see her rocker paramour dropped so suddenly, even if he did turn out to be a rotter), the Meade family and Wilhelmina seem to have reached a truce, temporary at least, and we didn’t even see Christina. Besides the everyday economic issues and Mark’s marital issues (and as much as we al love Mark, he’s more of a peripheral character), there aren’t many major issues to flush out. It’s concerning to see filler episodes, especially in really good shows. It feels like treading water.
Either way, I’m really liking the recent interactions between Betty, Amanda, and Mark. We always knew they were going to be friends, but now that Mark and Amanda’s taunts are more gentle than biting, we can see the friendship blossoming.
And thank goodness Lindsey Lohan is gone. Talk about publicity stunts.