Ugly Betty Episode 4.01 and 4.02 Full Recap

Here is the full recap of Ugly Betty episodes 4.01 and 4.02 “The Butterfly Effect”.  Since this was a two-hour episode, it pretty darned long (although sometimes I can’t help myself).

Two contradicting things stand out to me:  this was one of the better episodes of the show, putting this season on a great track, and unfortunately, the ratings weren’t that good.  This is not unexpected – I’m actually amazed that they only lost less than a million total viewers from last season’s finale considering:

1. It was a Friday night.
2. A good number of people tuned in last week, not seeing the show which had been rescheduled at the last minute.
3. It was up against the New York Yankees in the baseball playoffs, and two shows in its target demographic (Ghost Whisperer, Medium) whose seasons had already been established.

Interestingly, if you look at the 30-minute numbers, it’s obvious there were a lot of people who said as the night went on, “Crap! Ugly Betty’s on!”  The total viewers (and “demo”) went up as the night progressed, not down.  This means the show was strong enough creatively to keep the audience it had.

SO, I predict (all things being equal) Betty’s ratings will actually improve next week – depending on baseball, of course).  Yeah, I’m the ultimate homer, I guess.  We diehards need to hold the fort till our friends get the word and start watching again!

Anyway, I LOVE the way this double episode set up the season, and can’t wait to see how it plays out.

Recap after the jump

The episode begins with a fabulous 2001 – A Space Odyssey sequence of Betty getting her braces out, and being unhappy with the results.  Of course, it is a dream.  Betty tells Hilda about it, and about the fact that the orthodontist has her scheduled “a few months from now” to get her braces out for real. 

Justin comes in dressed super-stylishly for his first day at school in Gucci.  Hilda the gives Betty a gift from Christina, a new pantsuit.  Betty says “it’s not really me” about it.

Hilda takes Betty and Justin’s picture to commemorate their “first days”, and then things fall apart for both of them.

We see an extended montage of Justin being sneered at, openly laughed at, then finally full-out bullied as someone purposefully turns Justin’s lunch tray over, spilling his lunch on his new shirt.  (Mark Indelicato is outstanding in these scenes)

At the same time, Betty hits opposition everywhere she turns.  She start out well, getting a company credit card and learning about available town cars and the gym.  She then goes into her new office and finds she’s sharing it with Megan (pronounced “mee-gan”) who is highly resentful of Betty, mostly because she had to give up her own office to Matt.  Betty also goes to a staff meeting where Matt treats her horribly. 

Matt asks for ideas for the Global fashion issue, and Betty suggests something about malaria.  As Matt is rejecting this, Megan suggests a story on insect jewelry, and Matt agrees and gives the story to Megan.  Later, Betty approaches Marc, who ignores her by speaking into a stapler as a pretend phone.

Betty then finds Amanda stealing clothes from The Closet – who proceeds to congratulate her on being the first Latina Supreme Court Justice :)  Marc arrives (changing Amanda’s demeanor to mean), and takes a cell phone picture of Betty.

Meanwhile, Suzuki St Pierre recaps the Claire/Cal/Wilhelmina situation for us, mostly that Wilhelmina is on her way out. (He also tells that Daniel is in Tibet spreading Molly’s ashes)

Wilhelmina watches this, and is startled by someone (she speaks directly to the camera).  The doorbell rings, and she tells that someone to hide.  It is Marc, obviously suspicious.  She rushes him out.

Betty goes into the steam room after her awful day, and has a heart-to-heart with Wilhelmina, who tells her she’s going to have to change and become tougher to survive.

The next day, Betty bakes no-fat-no-carb muffins to win over her coworkers.  When talking to the family about this she reveals that she kinda-sorta wants to eventually get back together with Matt. 

Justin walks in wearing a school sweatshirt – the family thinks it’s school spirit, but Justin walks through the house and goes to his room as quickly as he can.

Wilhelmina meets with Claire and Cal, expecting be hired, but they end up keeping her (no one else is as good at what she does).

As Betty gives out her muffins, Justin comes to Mode to speak to Marc about surviving in public high school.  Betty’s muffins do not win anyone over, in fact they contained walnuts and send Marc into anaphylactic shock.  Betty calls Hilda, letting him know that Justin was at Mode talking to Marc.

Claire gives Betty advice, telling her that Matt still has feelings for her and she just needs to bring them out.  Later, as Matt is jogging, Betty stops him, talks to him, and kisses him, but Matt rejects her.

Hilda confronts Justin about his visit to Mode; he lies and tells her he was there just to get a replacement shirt after spilling low-fat dressing on his.

As Marc spritzes Wilhelmina, someone calls Willi’s cell, and Marc answers it.   Wilhelmina rips the phone out of his hand, saying she needs her privacy.  Marc later tells Amanda he suspects it’s Connor that Willi is hiding.

Daniel calls Betty – he’s back at the airport, but in trouble.  Betty picks him up, and they talk about Daniel’s troubles with Molly’s leftover ashes, and Betty’s troubles at her new position.  In the course of taking about this, Daniel reveals that there is a blog (started her first year at Mode) devoted to daily posting Betty’s fashion disasters and mocking them. (Daniel thought she already knew about it).

Daniel also points Betty to a jewelry designer named Olivia who specializes in insect jewelry, to help her with Megan’s assignment.

Marc sneaks into Wilhelmina’s apartment, and discovers the person hiding there is Nico (WIlli’s daughter).  Wilhelmina later comes in to find the two having a nice chat.  Willi later tells Marc about how she’s looking or Connor.  After Marc leaves, she tells Nico that they have to act like everything is normal.  We then see a flashback to when Willi first saw Nico, whose dress was covered in blood.

Betty goes to visit Olivia, who rushes her into her living room to watch the birth of new butterflies.  Olivia then notices the butterflies are attracted to Betty’s outfit.  She uses this to lure the butterflies to the butterfly room.  Betty enjoys this greatly.  She also gets some classic jewelry from Olivia to use in Megan’s story.  Megan is suspicious, but is grateful for the help.

Hilda comes to Mode to thank Marc for giving Justin a new shirt, then fins out about the bullying and gets very angry at Justin and Marc for keeping it secret.  She tells Marc not to talk to Justin anymore.  Later, when Justin comes to Mode, Marc says they can’t talk anymore.

Megan softens to Betty, then Daniel calls an emergency staff meeting.  He chastises everyone, especially Matt, for treating Betty so badly.  He makes them give the story back to Betty.

Next comes an incredible dream sequence (set to music from the Lion King) where everyone in the office is chasing Betty with crossbows.  (Her glasses get broken in the dream, just as they do in real life).

Amanda is talking to Marc when Daniel’s new temp assistant arrives.  She is an older version of Amanda, and they hit it off right away.

Daniel sends Betty to the staff meeting to pitch her story idea to Wilhelmina.  Willi doesn’t like the insect jewelry idea.  As Betty is struggling to think of a new idea, she comes up with a cross-promotion with the UN’s Nothing But Nets program.  She says they can shoot at the UN and get a designer to make dresses out of mosquito netting.  Willi likes the idea.

A private investigator approaches Wilhelmina about Nico’s boyfriend’s whereabouts (he is missing, but the police think he went back to Spain).  Willi denies knowing anything.

Hilda and Justin argue about the fact that Hilda told Marc not to talk to him.  Justin tells her that she doesn’t understand him at all.

Betty books the UN, but it’s only available the next day (at the last minute).  Betty tells Matt she’s going to need the help of the entire department.  They all do this begrudgingly.  As she’s handing out assignments, Meade security calls her because Daniel is going berserk beating up a sign (it reminded him of Molly).

At Molly’s apartment, Betty tells Daniel he needs help.  Daniel is in the “anger” grief phase.  Betty decides to stay with Daniel to make sure he’s OK.  At the same time, the features staff is working on her project, growing more resentful by the minute,  She ends up falling asleep on his couch next to him.

Amanda has a conversation with the temp, and sees her own future:  one day she will be put out to pasture, when her looks are gone. 

Hilda creates a fake online profile to friend Justin, but Ignacio tells her the idea is ridiculous.  He tells her that what she is going through is normal (using Hilda’s teen years an an example).

Later, Hilda comes to Mode and tells him it’s OK if Justin comes to talk to him about his school troubles.  Hilda later tells Justin as well.

We see another flashback of Nico, this time telling her mother about defending herself against an attack from her boyfriend Jonathan the night she showed up with a bloody dress.  Willi vows to help her cover it all up.  Later they lie to the investigator, who falls for it.  As they tell the lie, we see what actually happened (the two cleaning up all the blood)

Betty wakes in Daniel’s apartment and rushes to her photo shoot at the UN.  Everything is going to hell.  The designer is passive-aggressively upset, the models are fighting with each other in Russian (with no interpreters), and Matt has brought this ridiculous smiling mosquito statue to the shoot.  As Betty and Matt argue about this, he insinuates that she and Daniel are sleeping with one another,  Out of the blue, Daniel hears this and punches Matt.

As things continue to fall apart, Wilhelmina calls the room to order by beating on the podium with her show (ala Kruschev)  She kicks Daniel and Betty out.  At first Daniel says no (and tells everyone that if they mess with Betty, they mess with him), but Betty convinces him to leave.

Betty and Daniel talk about their relationship and how it has changed.  They are no longer boss and assistant, they are friends.  They decide to start acting like it.

Later, Betty is looking at “her” fashion disaster blog, and Hilda asks her if she wants her to cut her bangs.  Betty decides instead to do something different.  She parts her hair to the side, gets some new, stylish glasses, and wears Christina’s gift pantsuit to work.  She looks a whole lot better, and heads into work.

Marc starts to take a picture of her,and notices that her outfit “isn’t that funny”.  The temp gathers “her” stuff – she has been fired – as she leaves, Amanda looks at her contemplatively.

Betty apologizes to Matt (for everything).  She tells him that Daniel will no longer be fighting on her behalf – she can fight her own battles. 

Wilhelmina tells Nico that the investigator bought their story.  As she does this, we see that they left a spot of blood on the boat where Nico killed Jonathan.

Betty has her famous poncho framed and put on the wall her in office.  After a long day, Betty gets into a town car, feeling proud of herself.

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