Ugly Betty Recap – Queen for a Day

So are you guys loving Ugly Betty?  The critics seem to and the ratings are definitely there.  I wish the show was on a different night.  Thursday is a tough night for TV.  Lucky for us, Julie is here with the recap of each and every episode.

Title: “Queens for a Day”
Original Air Date: 10/12/06

After being thwarted in her attempts to access the club where Daniel’s celebratory first issue party is being held, a dejected Betty heads home to find Justin and Walter playing DDR (Dance Dance revolution, for the uninitiated). As amusing as I find it, the sight of Walter’s flailing limbs isn’t enough to cheer Betty up. She’s still bummed that her appearance kept her out of the club.

Daniel, similarly, is not feeling too cheery. Sure, his first issue’s a success, and he’s getting all the vapid female attention he can stomach, but the shadow of his apparently awesome dead brother Alex still looms over him. It’s hard to feel worthwhile when your dad doesn’t think you’re competent and you have a shrew like Wilhelmina always stabbing you in the back.

In an effort to prove his father wrong yet again (oh, Daniel, when will you learn?), Daniel buckles down with Betty and a bunch of back issues to analyze what his brother did that made the magazines he once worked on so successful. No shock, it’s all about appearance, too; the wildly profitable changes Alex made were just different fonts, layouts, and photo shoots.

As Daniel toys with some probably bad ideas (no, Daniel, if Mode were smaller, I still wouldn’t carry it in my purse), Betty explores new photographers they could use to liven Mode up. One of them, Vincent Bianchi, takes gorgeous pictures but apparently had a falling-out with Alex back in the day and vowed never to work for Mode again.

Later, while chatting with her dad, Betty discovers Vincent is really “Vinnie”, who lived in the area as a kid and whose parents still own a local store. Seeing this as her “in” with Vincent, Betty gives him a call. Vincent (who you may recognize as eccentric director Billy from Entourage) is charmed by reminiscing about Queens eateries and local haunts, but hangs up when he hears that it’s for Mode. Though daunted, Betty decides to boldly go where no Mode girl has gone before: into the sandwich shop, to buy a bunch of sausage-and-pepper heroes for Vincent. Since the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, Vincent agrees to lunch.

The catch, however, as Daniel reports to Betty, is that Vincent wants her there too. Daniel asks her to spruce up a bit for the meeting, but Betty’s already feeling the pressure since they’re heading to yet another swanky destination where she fears she won’t have the looks to fit in.

Hilda to the rescue! Well, sort of. Hilda decides Betty needs a makeover to build her confidence and make her fit in with all the posh Mode ladies. And of course, every makeover requires a montage of waxing, shellacking, hair-spraying, nail-embellishing good times! The result: Betty is a flashy Queens floosie, from the new stilettos that she teeters down the street in, to the iridescent eyeliner that sparkles every time she blinks, to the hair so voluminous she’d have to check it before boarding an aircraft.

Betty’s new look is a hit with Walter and miscellaneous construction workers (yes – one must always appeal to the construction worker contingent, because they are SO choosy). However, Wilhelmina snidely mocks it at Mode during a staff meeting where she simultaneously trashes Daniel’s suggested cosmetic changes to the mag. This leads Betty straight for the women’s bathroom in tears. Feeling too hideous and awkward to go somewhere posh for lunch, Betty begs out of the lunch meeting. I suspect the phrase “Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda” might be ringing in her ears. Aw, Betty, you’re no monkey!

Amanda, however, IS a monkey. Pretending to be Betty, she heads to the lunch with Daniel, with Bradford tagging along as well. Not surprisingly, Vinnie does not love this. He sees right through the veneer covering Amanda’s carb-free bitchiness and calls out that she’s no girl from the old neighborhood. As Daniel explains what really happened, with his typical disarming, charming honesty (homeboy is seriously growing on me), Betty arrives with the photo shoot proposal that Daniel left at Mode. Vincent takes a shine to her, and appreciating Daniel’s honesty, agrees to look at the proposal. See Daniel? Not being like your brother is a GOOD thing.

In the end, as we knew he would, Vincent agrees to do the photo shoot — as long as he only has to report to Daniel and none of the other “blowhards” as he puts it. Success for Betty and her cojones! So how does she celebrate that night? By going home and doing some DDR, of course! Betty’s got some sweet moves.

And, in sub-plot news, Wilhelmina gets “editor-in-chief” hair and gets stood up by her senator father. Meanwhile, the car that former Mode editor-in-chief Fey Sommers died in is up for auction. Bradford tries to swoop in on the car and conceal evidence of brake tampering (oh, you naughty boy), even as the Dimly Lit Conspirator Lady calls Daniel trying to tip him off about it. So Brad killed Fey Sommers? If she is, indeed, dead? The plot thickens…

Next week: loose lips sink photo shoots. Who spilled the secrets of Vincent’s December spread?

Julie is a GMMR recapper extraordinaire, but she also has her own fabulous TV website. Head over to TV and Sympathy to read more from Julie.