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Ugly Betty Season 1 Episode 1
30-Sep-2006
Written by: Vanessa Yara
The Pilot
The show opens with Queens College graduate Betty Suarez waiting for her interview at Meade Publications. She sits next to an impeccably dressed fashionista who comments her poncho is Dolce & Gabbana. When Betty is called for her turn, she is turned away. The person is obviously hating on her red glasses, braces and red-checkered dress when he tells her all the positions are filled. Betty persists by telling him what a hard worker she is and how much she loves magazines. Betty rattles off some things about covering important world events before finally being turned away. Bradford Meade witnessed the entire incident.
At home in Queens, Betty lives with her father, her sister Hilda and her effeminate nephew Justin, who I believe totally steals the show. Hilda is boring Justin with her television choice of a telenovela. The telenovela scene features a cameo by Selma Hayek as a gun-pointing maid. The maid has the gun taken away from her by the handsome "Mister" and they immediately start tearing each other's clothes off, of course. Justin eventually gets his way and turns the channel to FashionTV, which is doing a piece on the latest gossip at Mode magazine. Mode's Anna Wintouresque editor-in-chief Fey Sommers has died, and the magazine's creative director Wilhelmina (Vanessa Williams) has been passed over for the open position in favor of Meade Publications owner's son, Daniel Meade.
At the Meade building, Bradford enters his son's new office. Bradford is openly suspicious. Daniel realizes the jig is up and announces, "He knows you're here." A woman comes out from under Daniel's desk. Ew! Bradford apologizes for interrupting their "dictation." What?! It's 8:05! This is the second inappropriate reference of the evening.
The family builds Betty up about the impending marriage proposal from her boyfriend Walter. But when Walter shows up, he tells Betty he is leaving her for the neighborhood slut, Gina. Betty begins to feed her sadness with flan when she gets the call from Meade Publications. Justin is overjoyed to learn she'll be working for Mode while Betty admits it isn't her first choice.
Betty shows up to work the next day in a huge Guadalajara poncho. Amanda, the receptionist, is shocked to learn this girl won the assistant to the editor-in-chief position over her. Betty's tardiness is highlighted when she slams into the glass doors at the conference room where the staff meeting is being held. Betty's incident and poor fashion instantly make her a pariah. Daniel continues with the meeting when Wilhelmina enters even later. Wilhelmina takes control of the meeting when she points out the Fabia Cosmetics Supplement layout must be done. This is important because it is the only paid layout editorial works on. After the meeting, Wilhelmina has her assistant Mark give her Botox injections while she bashes Daniel.
Later that day, Amanda gives Betty the scoop on the photographer in Daniel's office. His name is Felipe, and he and Daniel have just rekindled their friendship since Daniel slept with Felipe's ex. Amanda also adds that she dated Felipe for a week and they don't call him the tripod because he's a photographer. That makes this the third inappropriate reference of the hour. Betty enters Daniel's office and inadvertently insults Felipe when she tells him his most recent layout reminds her of one she saw many years ago by another photographer. Once Betty leaves, Felipe tells Daniel if he can't fire Betty, he must make her quit and to "beat her down to a pulp." That line gave me the creeps. It was so mean and evil, and just ugly. This show had a lot of laughs, but more than anything it reminded me of the ugly lack of taste the Latin soaps have when it comes to capturing just how cruel people can be.
At the cafeteria, Betty meets Christina, who is also larger than a size 0 and works as a seamstress in the closet, the large office where they store all the clothes.
Bradford Meade takes some time to sit on a bench feeding pigeons while having a secret conversation with an unidentified male who assures the boss Sommers is gone. Meade is still worried and tells him to double check because she knows too much. I love soap mysteries.
Back at work, Daniel begins his mental beating on Betty. He has her pluck the cabbage out of his coleslaw. Walk his huge dog. Calls at all hours of the night with ridiculous requests. Betty misses her father's birthday because she has to stake out Daniel's apartment and call him when a girlfriend's cab arrives so he can get rid of the girl he has upstairs.
Later that night, Betty returns home. Her sister saved her some birthday cake and asks her if this job is really worth missing her father's party. Betty is left alone in the living room staring at family pictures when inspiration hits. She breaks out her notebook and jots down "Work Idea."
The next day at work, Betty confesses to Christina that Daniel treats her like dirt and wouldn't even look at her work idea. Christina hesitates before telling Betty everyone but her knows she was hired by Bradford to make sure his son wasn't tempted to sleep with his assistant. Betty tries to be gracious and says she isn't bothered because at least it is an "in" to the business.
Betty delivers a dress to the layout photo shoot. Felipe tells Daniel he is short a model and if he tells Betty to fill in, she'll definitely quit. Daniel tells Betty and she returns to the set in the dominatrix wardrobe. Besides, the tacky outfit, Ms. La Fea really isn't fat so this scene doesn't have the humiliating punch it intends. Betty solemnly gets in the pictures. They all laugh at her. Betty continues to try to work but the laughing continues and Daniel is finally broken. He orders Felipe to stop but it is too late and Betty runs out. Daniel catches up to her and Betty tells him he got what he wanted by humiliating her because she is now quitting, all because he couldn't stand to work with the ugly girl. Why did this scene almost make me cry? It kind of reminded me of those ‘80s shows that would really lay it on thick, like "Highway to Heaven."
At home, Betty is sitting on the steps when Justin brings her some chamomile tea. He tells her everything his mom has been saying about Betty and her goals to one day own a magazine. "She says that kind of stuff... doesn't happen to people like us unless you're J. Lo or something." Just then, Betty can hear the lovemaking going on at Gina's house. Betty barges into her house and finds Gina there with some guy who isn't Walter.
At work, Daniel presents the layout photos to the Donatella Versace like Fabia (Gina Gershon). The layout shots have an auto accident theme and Fabia loses it. She yells at Daniel and throws stuff at him before leaving. Wilhelmina's assistant clues Daniel in on the Lizzie Grubman incident Fabia had last month when she backed her SUV over 12 people.
Daniel tells his father he can fix it. Meanwhile, in bed together, Wilhelmina and Felipe have a toast to revenge.
Back in Queens, Walter asks for Betty to take him back. She says no as Daniel arrives on her doorstep. Daniel apologizes for everything. Betty doesn't care and tells him she has real problems like paying rent and getting the insurance company to pay for her father's bills. Daniel admits he recently lost his brother and needs to prove to his father he is just as good. Daniel tells Betty her work idea was brilliant and beautiful. He wants to use it and give her full credit.
The next day, they present the mother and daughter snap shots to Fabia, using Betty's own photos. Fabia asks why she should go in that direction. Betty pulls out statistics that the majority of her customers are mothers while the rest are teenage daughters. Fabia OKs the idea. Bradford congratulates his son on the idea. Daniel tries to tell him it was Betty's idea but she doesn't let him. Stupid! Later, Betty tells Daniel she'll take credit for the next one.
The episode ends with Wilhelmina entering a strange dark chamber. The chamber has lots of medical equipment set-up and holds an unseen person with whom Wilhelmina converses. Hmm, I wonder who this could be? They talk about their plans to take down the company and agree Daniel's "damn ugly assistant" is ruining their plans.
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