Ugly Betty Recap: “Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral”

“Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral”
Original Air Date: November 16, 2006

Becky’s at work the day before Thanksgiving, waiting for Daniel to leave so she can leave. As Hilda calls to remind her, she needs to do the shopping and get home in time to meet with Leah the lawyer. But Daniel, grumpy over getting nothing but silence from Sofia, refuses to shake a tailfeather. He’s so depressed that she hasn’t called, he’s “this close to splitting a Cobb salad with Sarah Jessica Parker and talking about shoes.” Hee.

Finally Sofia pops by and Betty makes like a tree to give them some alone time. Sofia breaks the news that she just wants to be friends, but she’ll see him at Bradford’s Thanskgiving brunch for the editors, right? Sure he will, if she’ll be there. And she will, along with her boyfriend, Hunter. Buuurn.

Also making plans are Marc and Amanda, who agree to meet at Mode the next day to drink champagne, watch the Macy’s parade, and try on couture. Raise your hand if you want to join them! I can’t be the only one who thinks that sounds like a rollicking good time. (GMMR note: Can I just say that during when I watched the first few eps, I like Marc and Amanda the least. I thought they were cartoonish. But now…oh now I LIVE for Marc and Amanda scenes….love them!!)

Christina, who’s having dinner at Betty’s, learns Nico will be in town for Thanksgiving but that Wilhelmina is planning to ditch her for some Versace party. She tries to guilt Wilhelmina into spending time with her daughter instead.

Betty arrives home late. She missed Justin’s thanksgiving performance (“I was the only pilgrim that could do jazz hands!), missed her dad’s meeting with Leah, and Hilda already did the shopping. Betty’s clearly frustrated, stretched thin by her responsibilities to both her job and her family.

At last, it’s Thanksgiving, and all of our lovely Mode employees choose to spend it in different ways.

Marc and Amanda are hilariously boozing it up in Wilhelmina’s office, watching the parade and looting through gift baskets for vittles. Later, they move on to singing Dreamgirls and trying on dresses from the Mode closet. Both of them. The hilarity! So much champagne guzzling gets them into a reflective mood, and Amanda confesses her biggest regret was falling in love with Daniel. Aw. You’re both so fun when you’re not being heartless shrews! (Okay, you’re fun then too.)

Daniel, codependent to the last, calls Betty with “an emergency” and she rushes over to help him…choose between shirts to wear to the brunch. Clearly a Very Important Decision, but one that peeves Betty. What does she care whether he makes a good impression on Sofia’s boyfriend? And is he wearing concealer? “I have a pimple, all right? Go away.” Betty sees through he petulant exterior, gives him some compliments to boost his ego, picks the purple shirt, and is on her way.

Earlier, Betty bumped into trashy boyfriend-stealing Gina Gambaro, who tells her Leah the lawyer is bad news, and bilked a neighborhood woman out of a hefty sum, then just disappeared. Dutiful daughter that she is, Betty seeks out the woman to ask if there’s any truth to the story. Donna tells her it’s absolutely true; Leah lied to her, took her money, lost her case, and left.

By the time Betty returns, Santos has arrived and is awkwardly bonding with his son. Should’ve known Justin would treat a jock like a Phantom of the Opera mask…that’s what you get for being an absentee father. Hilda, meanwhile, is upset that Betty left her to do the cooking, and even more upset when she finds out what Betty learned about Leah. She refuses to believe it, and says Betty’s just jealous. “You can’t just get involved with the family when it’s convenient for you!” Ouch.

Daniel’s not having a much better time at brunch, since Hunter is this absurdly tall, blond, Norse god of a man who’s so perfect his name should practically be Thor. Even worse for Daniel, he seems to be pretty great guy: Peace Corps volunteer, sensitive, well-educated. Daniel embarrasses himself royally trying to make himself look good next to Hunter. Later, learning Sofia wants to go dancing and that Hunter is no good, Daniel jumps on the opportunity to show him up: “I’m good at dancing. I love dancing. I think the three of us should go dancing.” He’s acting like a lovestruck teenage boy here, and it is simultaneously adorable and pathetic.

Wilhelmina, who has given in and is attempting to cook Thanksgiving dinner for herself and Nico, calls Martha Stewart for turkey assistance. (Justin would be so jealous!) She prepares a really lovely spread, but when Nico gets home she tells her mom she’s heading to a concert because she assumed she’d have other plans. Wilhelmina plays it off like it’s not important, but she’s hurt.

At Casa Suarez, Leah has arrived to pick up some papers. Betty just can’t keep silent about what she’s learned, and confronts Leah about it despite her family’s protestations. Leah explains she dropped the case, because the woman was an alcoholic, and that Betty should get her facts straight. Betty, feeling bad, apologizes and heads upstairs even as her family tries to get back in Leah’s good graces by inviting her to Thanksgiving. She says sure, she’ll just head home to drop something off and come back in time for dinner.

Cut to dinnertime, and Leah’s nowhere to be found. Hilda insists they wait for her to show up. While they wait, Betty gets a call from Daniel, who somehow found himself at a salsa club, which he wasn’t expecting at all. He pleads with Betty to teach him how to bust a salsa move. There’s a cute interchange on the phone where she describes the steps to him. He seems to get it, but then makes a total fool of himself out on the floor. And the hits just keep on coming, when it turns out Hunter is really good at dancing. Like “almost made the world ballroom dance team” good.

Dejected, he heads out to the limo to go home. Sofia stops him, and he kisses her, asking her if it doesn’t mean anything to her. Sofia explains that it can’t mean anything, because she found a ring in Hunter’s dresser. Maybe she doesn’t seem like it, but she needs stability and wants to settle down. Daniel can’t give that to her, can he? When he doesn’t stop her from going, Sofia has her answer.

Marc shares some gossip with Amanda in an effort to cheer her up. He brings up, with stellar drunk logic, that Wilhelmina might be a lesbian, because she’s always getting mysterious calls from a woman that she hides from Marc. The two investigate, find the cellphone bill, and call the number, which goes to “Wellmore Surgical Center” and the mystery woman herself. They hang up, perplexed and intrigued.

Nico, having spotted the feast her mom prepared, decides to stay for dinner. The two actually have a good meal, it looks like, which is interrupted by mystery lady calling Wilhelmina on her cell and asking why she called from the office. Wilhelmina looks alarmed.

Betty makes her mother’s traditional Thanksgiving dessert while Hilda apologizes for having the wrong idea about Leah and not trusting Betty. Betty apologizes in turn for not making the family her priority, but Hilda tells her, “you can’t live your life for your family, Betty.” They need to learn to rely on her less.

Especially as Daniel begins to rely on her more, it seems. She gets a call to pick her drunk, depressed boss up at the salsa club, which looks to be shutting down for the night. Daniel tells Betty “I didn’t tell [Sofia] what she wanted to hear. It wasn’t a very good Thanksgiving.” Betty agrees, and she helps prop him up as they walk out together.

Bradford, in a storyline I will be more than happy to see end, spotted Fey at the Thanksgiving brunch. He heads to Fey’s tomb with his PI, and when they find the tomb empty, Bradford accuses the PI of conspiring with Fey and setting him up. He has an evil henchman come and seal the PI up in Fey’s empty coffin. We end the episode with the PI shouting and banging on the lid of the coffin, to no avail, giving us the funeral in the title.

Next week: Betty gets a job offer with Sofia’s magazine. Don’t take it, Betty! Mode is too much fun!

Julie is a firm believer in “all things in moderation” — except when it comes to TV, writing, Logan Echolls, and carbonated beverages. When she’s not debating TV Boyfriends with GMMR, she’s writing for her site, TV & Sympathy, or kicking ass and taking names.