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Ugly Betty Episode 2.04: Grin And Bear It

by Tom on October 18th, 2007

Full recap for Ugly Betty episode 2.04: Grin And Bear It

The episode begins in an auditorium, an emo guy is reading his love story.  Betty is crying, impressed, and starts to cheer as he finishes.  Everyone in the class looks at her like she’s crazy.  The teacher asks Betty what she liked about the piece (mockingly).  Betty replies that it was sweet, and that she felt his pain.  The teacher says “This is what I felt”, and runs his nails down the chalkboard.  He then goes on a tirade about “finding your voice” and opening old wounds.  “If you have nothing to write, try killing yourself”, he says.  He assigns a 1000 word essay on “Your most defining moment”.

Ignacio is preparing breakfast, and tells Betty her story was great.  She tells of her plans to get published, get promoted to editor, then run her own magazine.  Betty tells her dad that she had sent her story to Daniel for evaluation.  Justin walks in the room, dressed in a leather jacket and with a snarly attitude.  He tells Betty he flunked his math test, and doesn’t care.  Hilda defends him.

At Mode, Daniel is arriving with Alexis.  She has too much makeup on, and is wearing her top very low-cut without a bra.  She is having trouble walking in heels.  Amanda sees her and says “Honey, No, No, no!  Ladies room, now!  Friends don’t let friends wear glitter before noon.”

Henry is listening to Kenny’s new rap recording.  Kenny is the accountant in the next cubicle, who has a “street” attitude.  Kenny sees Betty and reminds Henry that he has Betty her, and a babymomma back home.  “Teach me young Skywalker”, he says.

Betty asks Henry to tutor Justin in Algebra.  He agrees.

Marc sneaks into the love dungeon, Amanda is there with Halston the ugly dog.  Amanda has been having no luck at all in the search for her birth father.  Marc suggests she look at old episodes of Mode, which always had pictures of Fey at various parties - to see which men she socialised with at the time

Wilhelmina is leading a staff meeting.  Daniel and Alexis walk in.  Wilhelmina continues, but Daniel asks her to move so Alexis can sit down.  Wilhelmina obviously feels disrespected.  But she reminds everyone that she is leaving mode to run Meade publications, and the Meade family.  Wilhelmina comes to talk to Bradford about her future.  He tells her he can run any magazine she likes, but Mode (Claire owns that).

Back at the staff meeting, Sheila says they may have lost Wynona Ryder (for the cover) to a movie.  They weren’t sure if she’s making one or just going to see one.  Alexis suggests Anna Nichole Smith.  Daniel later finds her crying (her face is streaked with mascara).  Daniel consoles her, and reminds her she’s in the men’s room.

Daniel gives Betty a group of female empowerment articles - he’s too busy with a hot date.  He tells Betty that he read her story and loved it.  He gives her a thumbs up.  Betty tells Christina that this means he hates it.  Betty explains that whenever Daniel does this, he’s lying.  They then flashback to several scenes of Daniel giving the thumbs up: telling Amanda he would “call her later”, telling his dad he read the “Quarterly Competitive Analysis”,  telling a dominatrix he was “ready”. 

Back at the writing class.  The teacher is ripping into everyone’s writing.  He looks at Betty and says, “you’re up, crappy!”  Betty drops her purse and everything spills out.  She starts reading, and reads a line about her own blood dripping off a bear’s teeth.  Betty realises she’s reading one of the female empowerment stories (this one by Marsha Worthington), instead of her own.   The teacher tells her to go on, he’s actually interested.  Betty has a decision to make: she continues reading the bear attack story, claiming it as her own.

Henry is trying to teach Justin algebra using fashion flash cards.  Justin is bored with it.  He ends the session early.

Betty finishes “her” story with a line about being pregnant with her first child.   The class loves Betty’s story, so does the teacher.  He asks the class: why can’t the rest of you get attacked by a bear?

 Betty is in her bed, tossing and turning.  Poquito, her teddy bear, starts chiding her about how she cheated.  He then attacks her (it was a dream).

Wilhelmina meets all the other editors of all the other magazines in Meade publications: including an extreme sports magazine, a cooking magazine, and a men’s magazine.  She doesn’t like any of them.  She tells Marc that her plan has fallen apart.  “I was a simple girl with an evil plan”.   Marc rolls on the floor saying “We’re doomed!”

Betty is feeling guilty, she cannot even look her pink bunny in the one good eye.  Professor Barrett calls and says he wants to see her about her essay.  He tells her he’s sent her article to the New York Review.  Betty tries to back out, but can’t. 

Luke, who owns Atlantic Attire, is speaking to Daniel about the upcoming advertising spread.  He tells Daniel that he wants him to fire Alexis.  He is worries about the image of advertising in a magazine “run by a cross-dresser”.  Daniel tells Alexis about this, and of course Alexis is hurt.   She has a meltdown.  She also says she is tired of high heels, and throws one, which hits Marc square on the forehead.

Amanda is looking through old magazines.  Halston paws at one, she looks at it and sees an article about Fey and her assistant “Wanda” at studio 54.  She feed the photo into Photoshop, does some editing, and discovers that it is Wilhelmina.  “Ugly Willie”,as she says.  Wilhelmina hears this and confronts her.

The man at the New York Review tells Betty he can’t believe she’s turning down their offer to publish her story.  The legal department calls and says they need him to check the story by checking her ear.  Betty says she can’t publish the story in their magazine because she works for Mode.  As she’s leaving, the editor says, “You’re carrying low - it’s going to be a boy”

Wilhelmina threatens Amanda.  Amanda swears she’ll never mention it again.  Se says she’s just trying to find her father.  Wilhelmina tells her about April 26, 1981 at Studio 54.  Fey got lost in the crowd, then “Wanda” found her in a tryst, the only thing she saw about the man was the Tweety Bird tattoo on his behind.  Amanda is pleased that she was conceived at Studio 54.  Wilhelmina tells how, in exchange for her secrecy about the pregnancy, Fey paid for her transformation into Wilhelmina, supermodel.  She then says, to herself, “If I can’t have Mode, no one else can.”

Wilhelmina advises Daniel to lose the account with Luke.  He proceeds to tell Luke to get lost.

Henry tells Betty that he sucked as a tutor, but is not giving up.  She then walks to her desk; a woman is sitting there.  She says, “I hear we have a lot in common”, and pulls her hair back to reveal a mangled ear.  The woman had gotten a call from her agent telling her that her story ended up at the New York review with Betty’s name on it.  As she’s trying to explain, Daniel walks in.  He tells the woman the mix-up was his fault, and offers to publish her story at double the normal rate.

Henry comes to tutor Justin and finds him making out with a girl and drinking beer.

Daniel and Betty take turns giving each other pep talks.  They have a very sweet, platonic moment.

Wilhelmina gives Amanda the guest list at Studio 54 for the night Amanda was conceived.

Daniel is in the men’s room doing his at a urinal - Alexis comes in and hugs him.  She thanks him for standing up for her. At this time, Daniel confesses that he caused the accident.  Alexis is understanding, and hugs him. 

Amanda says “Hi, Daddy!”, and looks at a picture of Ted Kennedy, then a photo of Warren Beatty, and Ricardo Montalban.  She has a whole wall full of photos of men who were cool in the early 80’s.

Marc tells Wilhelmina that all of Mode’s advertisers are thinking about pulling their ads, no that they’ve heard about Atlantic Attire doing so.  He gathers that Wilhelmina was the one who spread the rumour.  He tells her “Oh, My God!  The botox has finally seeped into your brain!”  Wilhelmina reveals that she’s trying to destroy Mode so she can start a new magazine: Slater.

Henry is freaking out over Justin’s behavior.  Betty tells him to calm down.  She asks him why he’s getting so worked up: he reveals it’s because he’s going to be a father.  He had known the results from the paternity tests, but didn’t want to tell Betty because he still wanted to be together.  She tells him to leave.

Betty reads her story to the class, her real story.  The other students laugh.  The emo guy looks at her approvingly.

Note: I didn’t see a bagel in this episode.  I’ll watch again tomorrow, just to make sure.

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