Ugly Betty Episode 3.01 Full Recap

Here is the full recap for Ugly Betty Episode 3.01, The Manhattan Project.  Here is the synopsis:

Betty makes a moving decision about what to do with her life. Meanwhile, Ignacio gets a new job at a fast food joint, and Wilhelmina’s manipulations force Daniel to make some changes of his own, on the season premiere of ABC’s award-winning “Ugly Betty,”

Before the recap, let me say I absolutely LOVED this episode.  The perfect balance, I think was struck between comedy and drama.  And neither was heavy-handed.  Yes, there was too little Marc, Mandy, and Wilhelmina.  Unfortunately, no one in charge has seen the wisdom of a two-hour premiere (or finale), so we’ll just have to wait for more witty barbs.  There were a few good ones, though.

I know many of you are disappointed with the sudden turn of plot (although it’s not like we weren’t warned).  This new direction, to me, just feels so fresh, so alive, so optimistic.  I had gotten tired of sulking Betty.  Watching the last 15 minutes of this episode made me feel young again.  That’s really saying something.

Image: Copyright © 2008 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc./ PATRICK HARBRON

Full recap after the jump.

The episode begins with Betty speaking about her choice between two guys, and how torn she was.  They flashback to the softball game, explaining that when Betty was hot by the softball in the head, she had a moment of clarity.  We then see her giving Henry back his ring, and turning down Gio’s offer to go to Rome.  Back to Betty’s soliloquy, she says that there is so much she wants to experience before settling into a relationship.  We then see that she is speaking to her mother’s grave.

Betty tells her mother she has to find out “who I am…by myself.”  She then leaves the picture of her mom and Ignacio “in front of” the Grand Canyon. Betty decides to start there.

We then see a montage of Betty traveling the country (set to the B-52’s Roam). 

Next, we see Betty telling her family about the trip and showing pictures from her laptop.  She shows a picture of a woman (with very short hair), who had traveled the country on bicycles with women who had survived illnesses.  Betty then says that she will pitch this, and many other things, as ideas to Mode.  She has created an idea binder.  Hilda notices the blue dove around Betty’s neck.  Betty says it’s her “power animal”.  Betty calls her father to the room so she can tell him about her new plans and dreams.

Ignacio comes in, dressed in a fast food uniform.  Betty is excited that her father has a job.  Justin “blinged out” Ignacio’s uniform hat (he was trying to put the “you in uniform”).   They start to argue, and Betty interrupts them to tell her plans: 

1. More responsibility at work – eyeing a promotion by the end of the year.
2. She won’t let any romantic entanglements get in her way.
3. She is getting her own apartment in the city.

(BTW, this are probably also going to be the guiding principals of the show for a while)

Betty’s family is not happy at all about her move to the city.  Her father (now talking to Betty on his way to work), tells her her whole plan is just naive.  This upsets Betty.  She walks away mad.

Ignacio walks into work, and Kim asks it that (Betty) was his daughter.  When he verifies this, Kim’s mood changes, and she puts him to work cleaning urinals.

Betty mentally prepares herself in the elevator to “take on Mode”.  When the elevator door opens, EVERYTHING has changed.  All the orange accents are now black.  Everyone is wearing black.  And everyone is obviously very cold (shivering).   She approaches Amanda, who is VERY excited to see her.  Amanda tells her about the cold: “She” likes it that way.  Marc comes in trying to convince Amanda to look busy, and she points out to Marc that Betty is back.  Marc then joins the excitement. They miss Betty (and making fun of her).  Apparently, Wilhelmina is all business now.

We hear footsteps.  Marc gets scared an says, “Manalo Blahniks, Fall 2008, only one person in this office wears those shoes.  EVERYONE LOOK BUSY!”.  The entire office then scurries about in fake work.  Betty then goes to Daniel’s office, only to find it has been converted to a hideous black and white baby room.  A sledgehammer then cones through the wall (though which we now see Wilhelmina).  She wants the window between her office and this room to be in the exact spot she just demolished.  Wilhelmina then notices Betty is back.  She explains to Betty that Daniel is no longer at Mode.  Betty asks where he is, and Wilhelmina looks down.

Betty takes the elevator down – to Player magazine’s offices.  (I love the “Shake your rump” music in the background.  DJ passes through on a scooter, knocking over Betty’s notebook.  Daniel (dressed very casually) notices Betty and welcomes her to “our new home”.

[Whew!  They turned the entire show on a dime in 8 minutes That has to be the biggest first-segment recap I've ever written]

Betty asks Daniel if Player isn’t a little…”smutty”.  Daniel says it is more his style.  He says it’s the 3rd best selling no-nudity men’s magazine in the country.  Betty gives Daniel his own “thumbs up” when he asks if she likes his facial hair.  :)  Daniel tells Betty that being at Player has allowed him to cut down on his hours and spend time with his son.  He’s learning French, and DJ is learning English (from late-night TV).

We are then introduced to Ginger the player receptionist, who makes Amanda look like Albert Einstein.  Daniel introduces Betty to “the gang”.  They boo her. Daniel says they do it to everyone, but then Ginger walks in to catcalls.  Daniel tells Ginger to show Betty the “lay of the land”; as she does, she tells Betty, “I was once voted the lay of the land”.

Wilhelmina walks past Claire, calls her perfume “musky”, to which Claire responds, “Bite me.”  Willy approaches Alexis, who is not happy about the large budget for the “New” Mode launch.   Wilhelmina insists they need the huge budget to announce to the world that Mode is back (including the giant billboard in Times Square).  Alexis says the giant billboard is for Hot Flash.  Alexis tells Willy she’s “Cutting her off”.    Before Wilhelmina can explode, Marc whisks her away to the elevator, where she promptly screams.  Claire hears this and smiles slyly.

Betty and Christina are walking the streets as Betty complains about her new non-responsibilities.  Betty then surprises Christina and tells her that she’s getting an apartment in the city, and they have arrived at the building she wanted to look at. 

Back at the Suarez house, we see Hilda and coach Diaz on the couch, in a post-lovemaking glow.  She plays a joke on him, making him think Ignacio was home.  Then, they try to talk about Diaz’s marital status, but his wife keeps calling. :)

Betty walks into the apartment, where there is an open house.  It’s absolutely perfect, but before she can make an offer on the apartment, someone else gets it.  The real estate agent tells her about another place in the building, on a higher floor with “sexy views”.  She says she cant legally show it, but Betty, afraid someone else will get it, makes an offer sight unseen, against Christina’s warnings.  Betty is ecstatic.

We next see Hilda and her carrying stuff to the apartment (5-G), which can only be gotten to by stairs.  She opens the door, and it’s an absolute dump.  The “sexy views” were actually two old nudists in the next building.   Hilda yells at her for spending ALL of her money on the dump of an apartment.  Betty insists she can fix it, but Hilda tries to call Ignacio.  Betty tries to stop her, and they fight over the phone.

At Player, Betty simultaneously tries to fix her apartment problems while doing her job.  Daniel tells her to come to the conference room, but DJ has glued her to her chair.  She gets up, ripping off the back of her skirt.  The Player guys boo Betty again, till they see her underwear where her skirt used to be.  Daniel and Uno then tell Betty that they want to use her “sick chicks on wheels” idea in the magazine.  However, they want to change it to hot girls on motorcycles riding through party towns.  They decide to introduce the biker chicks of Player at a Harley event in Brooklyn the next day, and that Betty should head up the event.  She reluctantly agrees.

Cut to Wilhelmina yelling at her designers for a really bad Japanese design (“You really put the gay in Geisha!”).  Alexis comes in, and as Wilhelmina is “apologizing”, Marc yells that Regis and Kelly are on the phone.  She talks Alexis into coming on the R&K show with her, to get the free publicity.  Alexis is actually VERY excited about this, and scurries out of the room.  Marc says, “Like taking candy from a tranny…”

Cut to the biker show.  Betty is running the show, while trying to get her apartment problems fixed (with little luck).  The biker chicks all have capes that have letters that together spell “PLAYER”.  Marc and Amanda show up, hoping Betty will do something they can make fun of.  DJ then sprays Betty with silly string.  She asks Daniel to do something about it, but he won’t.  He says he doesn’t want to be like Bradford.

Ginger then approaches and frantically tells Betty about an emergency: “R” has left the shoot because DJ sprayed her with silly string.  Betty has to think quick, because the introductions are starting.

On Regis and Kelly, they discuss the changes at Mode.  Then the conversation turns to Hot Flash, and it gets ugly.  Regis, Kelly, and the audience mock the magazine ruthlessly, and Alexis sinks in her chair.  On the way home, Wilhelmina tells Alexis that she has an idea about “Stopping the bleeding” with Hot Flash and helping Mode.

At the Harley Festival, each “letter” is introduced and rides to a given spot to spell “PLAYER”.  Betty has decided to be the “R” herself.  She puts on the goggles and gets ready to go, but at the last minute, DJ sprays her with silly string again.  She takes off, but can’t see where she’s going.  She ends up crashing into a jello wrestling pool. :)  Marc and Amanda are ecstatic.

Betty waits for a promised handyman to come to her apartment, but he never shows.  Then everything goes wrong.  She hears loud music.  She sees the old nudist couple dancing.  A pigeon comes into the apartment and attacks her and her book.  She leaves the apartment, sits down, and looks at her goals.  Hilda calls and tells Betty to meet her at Flushing Burger.

They arrive to confront Kim about cutting back Ignacio’s hours.  Betty recognizes her, and tells Hilda to “stand by” as far a kicking her ass.  Betty confronts her about cutting back her Dad’s hours.  Kimmie says he’s a slacker, and Betty gets angry.  Betty tries the throw milkshake on her, but misses.  (This scene is hard to describe, but hilarious).  Kimmie then puts Betty’s idea book into the deep fryer.  Hilda then throws salad at Kimmie, and mayhem ensues.  Food and insults are flying everywhere.  A security guard comes in and kicks Betty and Hilda out.  As they are leaving, Kimmie says to tell Ignacio he’s fired.

Cut to the Meade house.  Alexis is about to tell Claire something, but DJ gets cake on her dress.  Daniel then gets angry and demands that DJ apologize.  He gets very firm with DJ and yells at him, sending him to his room.  Later, Claire tells Daniel that DJ’s behavior is perfectly understandable after all he’s been though, but that Daniel needs to be firm, and that he needs to always be there for his son.  She then gets a call from her assistant.

Claire argues with Alexis, who she has found out has reduced Hot Flash to an insert.  Claire tells her that she’s not making the decisions, just doing Wilhelmina’s bidding.

Betty is talking to her dad at the Suarez house (post-shower towel on her head).  She apologizes for getting him fired.  She takes off her power animal.  She says that he was right – she had been naive.  She admits she didn’t grow up on her trip after all.  Ignacio tells her that she’s doing her growing up now – it’s about dealing with decisions you’ve made.  He tells her her believes in her, and that everything will work out just fine.

Betty comes back to Flushing Burgers and apologizes to Kim.  At this point, Kim admits that she was jealous of Betty because her life is turning out better.  Kimmie tells how bad her own life is, and says she thinks nothing is ever going to change.  Betty assures her it can, based on her own life.  As Betty is leavinb, Kim says to tell Ignacio to be there at noon (she’s rehiring him).

DJ comes out of his room, and Daniel has a father-son talk with him.  DJ apologizes.  Daniel tells DJ (in English and French) that they are in this together.  They each say that they love the other, and hug.

At Player, everyone is watching the video of Betty crashing into the jello pool, finding it hilarious.  Daniel tries to protect Betty by breaking it up, but Betty comes in and says that actually, it is pretty funny.  She suggests they put the video on their website for the publicity.  She says they should appeal to their demographic – 18 to 35 year old male idiots :), and this is just the thing to appeal to them.  The office cheers (and catcalls) Betty.

Later, Betty approaches her apartment, and hears noises inside.  She grabs a whistle and a mop handle, ready to confront the intruder.  It turns out it was her family, who arrived to help her fix up the apartment.

Wilhelmina and Marc are standing on Broadway, looking at her new humongous Times Square billboard.  As Wilhelmina walks away, her likeness winks at her.

Back at Betty’s apartment, she is settling in, going though her list.  When she gets to “no romantic entanglements”, she hears loud guitar.  She goes into the hallway and knocks on the door of the apartment across the hall.  “Jesse” then opens the door, and apologizes for playing too loud (he’s rehearsing for a gig).   Betty introduces herself, and Jesse gives her the “B” necklace which had fallen out of her stuff.

As Betty goes back to her own apartment, it’s obvious that she’s slightly smitten.  She then looks out her window at the city, smiling.  We hear Jesse’s guitar again, then Tom Petty’s “American Girl”.  Betty dances to the music, as the camera rises above Betty’s building to NYC.