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Here is the full recap of Ugly Betty episode 3.11: Dress For Success. I’ll give you some quick thoughts before moving on to the recap:
- The episode was good. Classic Betty situations: romantic intrigue, espionage, sabotage, in-fighting, desperation, heartbreak.
- The ending was,well, you just have have to see it. Wow. We knew it was going to happen, but what happened before…just devastating.
- They need to find a way to get Hilda and Christina on the screen together more often. Their one scene together was very good.
- Vanessa Williams looked better than I’ve ever seen her (especially in her first scene).
- Marc was really funny. His instructions to Betty were classic Marc.
- The Terminator graphics were a neat touch. I love how one of them said in the personal info section, “Father in REO Speedwagon”.
- Amanda was hardly in this episode, Claire not at all. I know there’s only 40 minutes available, so maybe next week.
- All in all a really good episode, setting up what should be a barnburner next week!
Recap after the jump!
Image: Copyright © 2008 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc./ PATRICK HARBRON
The Suarez family is decorating their home for Hilda’s grand opening party. Betty goes on and on about her idol, Jodi Papadakis, who is running the YETI program. Justin says, “You chose us over her?” Betty replies that tonight is just a mixer, and that she’ll meet her tomorrow. Hilda is quite excited about her party, but all Betty will talk about is YETI. She does, however, volunteer to get Hilda samples from Mode for gift bags.
Daniel and Wilhelmina tell everyone at the staff meeting that Elle kicked their butts last month. Daniel says “we cannot lose to Elle again” Wilhelmina says, “If we do, one of you dies”. 
Daniel says he has something big planned for the April issue – something secret.
After the meeting, Connor compliments the two on their good-cop bad-cop routine. Wilhelmina invites him to the party she is throwing on Friday. Connor says that he’ll bring Molly. Wilhelmina is disappointed.
Daniel shows Betty a sketch of a recently unearthed Halston original dress from the “fireworks” collection. He found a collector who will loan them the dress for one shoot. Kiera Knightly will do the shoot – but only if she can wear that dress. The cover alone got them 30 more pages of ad copy. Daniel asks Betty to arrange the pickup of the dress.
Wilhelmina shows Daniel the security recording of his encounter with Molly. She gives the only copy to Daniel and practically begs him to go chasing after Molly. Marc thinks she’s crazy, or terribly devious.
Christina gives Betty a YETI gift, then proceeds to get very, hormonally emotional. Betty suggests she go to Hilda’s grand opening to make herself feel better.
Jodi starts the meeting at YETI by announcing that the magazine business is dying. She tells the students they must toughen up to survive. She calls on Marc and asks him to name 5 other people in the room and who they work for. He proceeds to do just that. She then calls on Betty, who can name no one because she wasn’t at the mixer the previous night. Jodi tells her that she must put career first. She gives the group their first assignment: gather 40 new contacts by next week.
Connor meets Betty in the elevator and notices she’s in YETI. He says his friend Jodi is running the program this year. She tells him about the networking thing, and he tells her that she’ll have to miss family things sometimes if she’s serious about her career. He tells her to find someone very good at superficial stuff, and do what they do. She, of course, chooses Marc.
He agrees, but only because she pulls the “I got you into YETI” card. He and Amanda will take her to Swill – everyone she needs to meet will be there. Betty remembers her obligation to her sister, but Marc tells her it’s tonight or nothing. Betty calls Hilda to tell her she can’t come home and help with the gift bags, and Hilda is a little upset. Ignacio defends Betty gently.
Daniel runs into Molly and tries to talk to her about his feelings, but Connor interrupts, and the moment is over. Wilhelmina gives him a knowing look. Later, she eggs him on again, and tells him to try to talk to Molly at her party.
At Swill, Betty gets a guy’s card. Marc and Amanda criticize her because she spent 22 minutes talking to a caterer. She needs to focus on advancing her career, they tell her. Marc then proceeds to give his secrets:
1) Tell your name, where you work and one memorable fact.
2) Gather info. In order to get info, you have to give info, but sly make it meaningless.
3) Get in, get info, get out.
Amanda illustrates by getting up and leaving. Heh.
Marc leaves as well, after calling ehr the “Betty-nator”. They they have a montage where Betty sees “terminator” style graphics. Betty gathers 39 contacts. A young woman, Teri, then walks up, saying she hates networking. They hit it off right away. They trade cards – Teri is from Elle Magazine. They bond anyway.
During their long conversation, Teri reveals that the caterer that Betty talked to for 20 minutes was doing Elle’s holiday party this year. Betty gets dip on her top, so she excuses herself. After she’s gone, Teri looks slyly at Betty’s Blackberry, which she foolishly left on the table.
Daniel is fretting that Elle is shooting their next cover in the Venice canals, just as Mode was going to do. Betty tells him that those plans changed because Jessica Stam (their covergirl) will not shoot in Venice because she just broke up with her Italian boyfriend. Daniel is very pleased with Betty. She tells him about Teri. He asks Betty to pick up the Halston dress personally instead of sending a messenger. Betty had agreed to help Hilda, but she tells Daniel she’l do it.
Ignacio comes to get the samples that Betty should have brought home. Ignacio lets Betty know that he’s not happy with her, putting work before family. Christina volunteers to come and help. Ignacio still wants Betty to come.
Betty comes to pick up the dress, but the collector tells her that someone from her magazine already came and got it – Betty Suarez. She even left a card! (That wascally Teri)
Wilhelmina is mad as hell. She tries to fire Betty, but Daniel holds her off. Daniel and Wilhelmina try one last desperate move: a teleconference with the editors of Elle. It doesn’t go well. Joe Zee and Robbie Myers just mock them. So does Teri. Wilhelmina storms out of the room, ready to murder. Daniel sends Betty home.
At Hilda’s party, she gets interviewed by a newspaper reporter. Betty is sulking, and Ignacio tells her to let it wait till Monday. Betty pulls out Teri’s card from her wallet, and sees the caterer’s card, which gives her an idea. She calls Marc and tells him to meet her. As she leaves, Hilda and Ignacio are quite upset with her.
Connor and Molly arrive at Wilhelmina’s party. Willie steals Connor away to work the room, and Daniel moves in. He asks her if they can go somewhere and talk. He opens his heart to Molly (in a touching scene). Molly reminds him she’s engaged. She doesn’t want to hurt Connor. Daniel says that if she can honestly say she doesn’t have feelings for him, he’ll go an let her get on with her life.
Connor is working the room, and Molly interrupts him and asks if they can go.
Ryan the caterer is so happy that Betty talked to him for 20 minutes at Swill, he helps Betty and Marc get into Elle (he’s doing their party). They find the dress in “the closet”. But then, someone approaches. Marc and Betty decide to make a run for it. As they do, Teri sees them and tries to stop them. Betty tells Marc to run while she runs interference with Teri. They throw things at one another while Marc gets away. As they leave, Betty mocks Teri by telling her to “call her”.
Wilhelmina has a quiet talk, and Daniel tells Willie that he knows she’s interested in Connor. The doorbell rings. It’s Betty and Marc with the dress. She invites them in (a big honor!). Betty relishes the moment, especially when she sees odi at the party. As Jodi approaches her, her phone rings. It’s Hilda. Betty silences her phone.
She asks Jodi to be her mentor. Jodi says let’s just start with not kicking her out of the program.
Betty comes home and finds no one there. She looks at her phone and sees that Hilda tried to call her many, many times. She calls, and Hilda says they are at the hospital. Ignacio had a heart attack.
Daniel approaches a house – Molly is on the doorstep. She tells him he was right – she broke up with Connor. They kiss.
Wilhelmina’s doorbell rings. It’s Connor. He immediately kisses her.
Betty comes into the hospital room. Hilda and Justin look devastated. So does Betty.
not a bad ep! i have to say though, there weren’t too much comedic elements, it’s a bit too dramatic & soap operaish now. on another thought… what will be the direction of Betty… to be in that biz, you do have to choose between biz & family, mean/cutthroat vs nice/accommodating. didn’t we learn that from devil wears parada? i don’t mean you have to go to the extreme end, somethings gotta give..
i personally loved it. i do agree though with geek that there weren’t many comedic moments thrown in. but otherwise, it was great.
betty herself faces a dilemma, family or work, but isn’t this show partly about betty’s attempts to juggle both her work and family commitments- not favouring one over the other?
highlight for me was marc and betty stealing the dress from elle and teri tries but fails to get it back. ha ha!
great to see more of christina in this ep
the molly, daniel, willie and connor quadrouple triangle worked out in the end- daniel got his woman and willie got her man. just wonder how long their relationships will last.
dissapointed we didn’t see more of amanda- however, the writers should make up for that in the next ep. and finale, was well a shocker, but an interesting one as well.
but yeah, dressed for success was awesome. i loved it.
Tom, I heart your Ugly Betty recaps. They are always very detailed and right on the money.
Keep up the wonderful work. The ending was so HEARTBREAKING and dare I say it: SOAPY.
Anyway, a new year means some NEW updates at http://modeny.com. Wilhemina’s has the letter from The Editor again and my favorite part of the website Amanda/Mandy’s BLOG has been updated. I don’t know who writes it but they do an EXCELLENT job it’s right on the money and a JOY to read.
i don’t think daniel/molly will last long. secrets in molly’s closet will be coming out when she hinted ‘he went through A LOT with me the last 4 years’ or something like that. I love connor though, hope he’ll stay on as the power couple and trying to bring daniel down with willie.
i agree with connor. i hope he stays on the show, even if he and willie do break up. he has grown on me as this season as has gone, thanks to grant bowler’s performance as connor.
two words- loved it!!! i was on the edge of my chair the whole time.
and i agree with the molly/daniel thing. it won’t last. there’s definately something going on with her that we’re not seeing.
but i am hoping against hipe that willy and connor will last.
i think hilda and christina should get more scenes together. they’re both so funny
and how BRILLIANT was bernadette peters?? i’ve been a HUGE fan of hers for a long time, and i thought she was absolutely perfect. how many more episodes will jodi papadakis be in?
[...] by Tom on January 9th, 2009 Here is the promo for Ugly Betty episode 3.12, Sisters on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The promo aired last night after episode 3.11, Dress For Success. [...]
gabrielle- i think she was scheduled to appear in just the one episode; i.e. this one.
i have never heard of her before, i live in the UK btw, but jodi was great as bernadette. hopefully with marc and betty both at YETI, as well as mode, we should also see more of bernadette too.
In the last podcast, if I remember well, Bernadette says something like “I’ve just finished shooting my FIRST episode on the show..” that let me think that she should stay a little more. It would be great, I love her as Jodie!
Kudos to authors & writers for the final montage. Wonderful. Emotional. Just Great.
Nanyscia-
i went back and listened to the podcast again: you’re right. she did say that
plus it’d make sense considering what Jodie said to Betty at Wilhelmina’s party.
Honestly…am I the only viewer who thinks this season has been a downer? If ONE more thing goes wrong for Betty I’m going to save Thursday nights for Bones and catch UB online on the weekend.
swan- probably. well a few other people do not like season 3. i am personally loving it, much more than season 2, which frankly, i don’t care much nowadays.
i went on other websites, fan sites- live journal especially- posting the exact question you have asked, and the general consensus from there is that they are enjoying season 3 a lot.
I guess I’ll have to chime in about not enjoying the show this seasons, quite frankly hadn’t gotten caught up with the episodes. Big reason for me is the storytelling. There were too many one-shot episodes that made me less anxious for the next episode. And the plot arcs didn’t add up for me. the DJ plot had potential, but if you snip it away it doesn’t effect anything. Willy should have been EIC for more than two epis, and Betty should have been her assistant for least two more for everything to go back to status quo so soon. It could have been a nice arc and given Daniel time to grow some sort of spine with out Betty cleaning things up for him. YETI while a good move, should have been introduced at the start of the season with Betty pursuing it earlier on or have Betty not get in this year and save it for next year as life lesson.
While I think the second half of season two, I place it around 2.10, wasn’t has enjoyable, you must realize TBTB were going for the ratings. If you could tell from the explosion of shippers on the websites last spring, it was a ploy that worked even though the writer had no idea work with what they had set up. S2 finale was contrived in many ways, and plotlines wrapped up and forgotten in an episode or in some cases a minute.
I don’t care much about the shipping drama the writers and Horta caused, as much as I hate they stick with it and finish it off organically as possible instead of culling it. It’s a bad sign when I can’t dispense disbelief for tv and mentally edit eps in my mind instead of watching it.
But I think it’s the clothes that finally did me in though, horrible styling for just about everyone, and even worse for Betty.
Honestly, I think people are missing the point if they think that this season is a major downer. In my opinion, Season 3 reflects what often happens in real life: Basically, sh*t happens, and it usually happens to the best people. And that’s what’s happening with Betty right now. She’s going through ups and downs – pretty much like what she went through in Season 1. Right now, she’s definitely going through another tough time. But the thing is, we never see her stuck in a permanent rut forever. She ends up bouncing back somehow. So, it’s not like we never see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. It’s there, but sometimes, it takes a little longer to get to it.
And another thing: As a sidenote, I know some fans are upset by the fact that Betty (and other characters, like Daniel) are still naive and making wrong moves, silly mistakes, etc. But let’s face it – this show will only move forward if the characters are still going through their growth stage. If they easily grow up in a matter of 1 or 2 seasons, then what’s left to explore? There’ll be nowhere else to go but down – meaning the show will have to fold. So, like it or not, we’re going to continue seeing Betty, Daniel, etc. making foolish mistakes every so often. Besides, no matter what, isn’t that what REAL human nature entails – making mistakes every so often? No one is perfect, after all. Not even on TV.
starryeyed- you have to remember that we are currently in season 3 and so to expect every character to have fully grown and developed at this point, when this show has the potential to last 5 or 6 seasons and that there are so many storylines yet to explore, i’m sorry but the nature of these types of shows is that once everything is resolved- i.e daniel and betty for instance do get together earlier than expected and the likes of marc, willie and amanda have changed for the better so soon, the show is more than likely going to jump the shark. which i hope will not happen.
i disliked season 2 a lot particuarly as the storylines became messy, got way over the top and some of it was rather contrived and silly.
also, you mentioned that whilst it wasn’t ‘enjoyable’, you also said it worked for the benry and getty shippers’. but you see, that was another problem with S2- the show became almost the betty/henry/ gio show, which whilst it pleased many of the shippers, that storyline further isolated the other characters and their situations; thus they became dumbed down as a result. and of course, fans of whom watch this show for reasons other than betty’s romances, like myself were dissatisfied with this. and rightly so.
all i can say is that those who are complaining about the third season and the direction this show is heading, i ask ‘why are you continuing to watch UB?’. and those that have stopped watching and yet continued complaining about it, just stop.
as jace rightly points out- whether you people like it or not, these characters will continue making errors and decisions and will try to address them, in the way they see fit. even if we disagree we them. because if that wasn’t the case with UB, then this show just wouldn’t be worth tuning in for.
There’s a problem with character development when you can take characters that are supposed to have a grown a little and put them back where they were from the start and see no significant change in their storyline.
Instead of growing, I feel that great deal of characters have regressed/haven’t changed. Or in a more cynical view season three is a reboot of the series to improve after going after ratings in season two and losing their focus. I still think the focus isn’t there, there still isn’t a main storyline that unifies all the subplots and characters, but storyline wise it’s getting better.
For the costumes, (I can’t think of them as clothes,) if even you hated season two with a passion Betty’s clothes didn’t take over the character until I was wondering what is she wearing now?
staryeyed- i think that as we currently entering the half way mark, and 11 episodes in already, i guess you are right by saying that whilst individually almost all the characters have their own storylines and situations to contend with, there seems to be one thing missing which ties all the subplots together.
i still however, do not expect all of the characters to have fully developed and changed entirely for the better at this stage or by the end of season 3. this is because i feel this show has so much more to offer and there are still storylines and situations that need resolving but of which this takes time as well.
i’d still want amanda’s father storyline to be tied up and also, i’d like her to be romantically involved with someone for a change. i don’t want her going back to daniel because i feel that ship’ has sailed. in addition, it would be nice for cliff to make a return- if not as marc’s boyfriend but as a reccuring character. and i want christina to be given better storylines and interact with not just betty, amanda and marc individually but collectively as well. i am sick of her being under used- ashley’s character deserves to be treated better than this.
as for the clothes, some of it has been interesting, others well have been awful but i don’t really care much about the wardrobe. just the state of the show and the storylines in general. as long as it is interesting and entertaining then that’s good enough for me.
To starryeyed & Swan: thanks god! I am not the only one to think that this third season totally sucks!
I totally agree with you starryeyed: Willy should have been editor in chief for more than one episode. The return to status-quo was just not credible and was getting me tired : willy fired, willy is back, willy editor in chief, willy fired, willy is back again… In real life, you fire someone and that’s it, you find someone else to do the job!
The DJ plot was interesting and promised a lot of potential developments.
I loved the season 2: it was hilarious, fun, Willy was a masterpiece of cynicism, and Betty was confronted to dramatic choices. This season 3 is nothing but a lame soap opera where the storyline between Wilhelmina and Connor , Daniel/Idontrememberhename, is ruining the show.
I can understand that the show could not be the story of the eternal quest of Wilhelmina for revenge and power, but please, give me some nasty Willy! Bring back the fun ,writers and give us some interest for the next episodes! Now when I’m watching UB, I don’t even feel like I want to know what will be next… And that’s a pity
frenchilo- ‘I loved the season 2: it was hilarious, fun, Willy was a masterpiece of cynicism, and Betty was confronted to dramatic choices. This season 3 is nothing but a lame soap opera where the storyline between Wilhelmina and Connor , Daniel/Idontrememberhename, is ruining the show.’
well frenchilo, as i said, you are in the minority. for me as i mentioned countless times, season 2 for me was mostly boring, soap opera-ish and silly. i’m glad to see the back of it. i love season 3 and i know i am not the only one who feels this way.
if the likes of you don’t like it, then stop watching it. besides, it’s not like nobody is forcing you to.
If we are still watching it, it is because we still love the show. We just want the writers to come round and to finally set a solid plot which will give a new interest to the stories.
frenchlio- i guess so. i will still tune in because this show still has a lot to cover in terms of storylines and character development.
i just wish though the writers and producers wouldn’t always fire one or two cast members, every season. which they have done and to improve on the storylines and situations.
[...] a little more of Judith Light on Ugly Betty soon. She wasn’t part of episode 3.11, Dress For Success, at [...]