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Ugly Betty Episode 2.09 Full Recap

by Tom on November 23rd, 2007

Full recap of Ugly Betty episode 2.09, “Giving Up the Ghost”.

As the episode begins, Betty is in her bathrobe and curlers, in the Suarez kitchen, having a midnight snack.  She goes to the refrigerator for more milk, opens the door, and sees Bradford’s head behind the milk.  He says, “A box of baking soda wouldn’t hurt in here”.  Betty counts to three and reopens the door, Bradford is not there.  However, Betty turns around to see Bradford in tropical attire.  He says, “I’m not a ghost – I’m a subconscious manifestation of your guilt”.  He says of the way he’s dressed, “I didn’t pick it, you did”.

Betty denies that she’s guilty of anything.  Bradford reminds her that she promised him on his death bed she’d take care of Daniel, yet she hadn’t yet returned to Mode.  Betty says she can’t go back to Mode because it changes her too much.  She says she’ll remain Daniel’s friend though.  She promises to do this, if he’ll go away and let her go back to bed.  He says, ”You mean, eat the rest of these empanadas?” Betty says, Damn you, subconscious manifestation of my guilt!”

Later, Hilda and Ignacio are watching a telenovela, and Justin walks in with a box of Christmas ornaments.  Hilda says they won’t be trimming the tree that day, Justin reminds her that they decorate the tree that day every year.  Hilda doesn’t want to do it for Betty’s sake because Bradford’s funeral is that day.  Betty comes down the stairs and insists they should decorate the tree later that day, because it was their mother’s tradition.  Justin and Ignacio leave to set up the nativity scene.  Justin says, “Mary what happened to your hair?” Hilda asks Betty if she’s going back to Mode – Betty says no; she’d disappoint her mother.

At the funeral, Daniel and Alexis are discussing the family plot that Daniel didn’t know existed.  Betty explains to Christina that Henry is not there because the next issue of the magazine goes to print that night, and he is doing last minute work.  A police car pulls up, and Claire gets out, under guard, in full prison garb.    Daniel then gives a nice eulogy, saying that Bradford’s shoes will be hard to fill.  He asks if anyone else would like to speak.

Betty gets up and starts to say some nice things.  She says, “He was also a father, and a husband…” – at this point Wilhelmina shows up with Marc and says, “He was ALMOST my husband”. Daniel confronts her.  She mocks Claire, and as she walks past, Claire trips her; she falls into Bradford’s dug-out grave.  As she is in there, Claire proposes that Wilhelmina be fired, the two siblings agree.  She adds, “Rest in peace, bitch!”

At Mode: Later, Marc and Wilhelmina arrive at an empty Mode.  Marc says, “If I’d said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, ‘Nobody pushes Wilhelmina Slater into an open grave!’”  Wilhelmina says that she was prepared for being fired.  She dials 0 on a phone, and out of the desk rises a CD labeled “Medusa X”.  She then rips open Marc’s wallet she gave him for his birthday, pulling out and electronic key.  She uses it, getting out the CD.  Marc asks what it is; she says it’s something the Pentagon cooked up – she had dated one of the joint chiefs.  She types a password (retail) into a computer, and presses ‘Activate’.  Buzzers and alarms then start to go off, and files erased from all the computers.  Everything is replaced by a Medusa looking Wilhelmina.  Wilhelmina says, dramatically, “It is done”.

At the Suarez house:  The Suarez family is getting out Christmas decorations.  Hilda thinks it’s weird decorating the day of a funeral, but Betty insists.  They discuss the year they decorated an hour after Ignacio passed a kidney stone (which they turned into an ornament).  Hilda and Justin want to buy a ink tree, but Betty insists on tradition.  Henry then calls Betty to tell her about the disaster happening at Mode.

At Mode:  Henry tells the Meade siblings that everything in the computers is gone.  Daniel says that the issue ships in 12 hours, and that they’ll never make the deadline.  Alexis reminds him that they have to: the magazine is already in trouble.  Daniel says that he will not let Wilhelmina win.  He tells Henry to start making calls, to get everyone in to help.  Henry says they are already there – through a window you can see the whole Mode crew, and Betty stands before Daniel.  Daniel says, “You’re back?”, and Betty says, “For tonight”.

Everyone is scrambling around, trying to put together the magazine at the last minute.  They have lost the cover, and cannot get in touch with the photographer.  Wilhelmina walks in with Marc.  She then reveals the mockup for Slater magazine, and offers a 15% raise to anyone who will leave Mode to come work for her.  After adding in dental and cosmetic surgery, most of the Mode staff decide to jump ship for Slater.  They all leave together, but Amanda decides to stay with Mode because it is her mother’s magazine.

As Betty is checking in with her family on the phone, Bradford shows up on her computer (inside SoCuteItsSick.com). He says she should go give one of her “annoying pep talks”.  He threateningly grabs one of the kittens inside the screensaver, to blackmail Betty into helping Daniel.  She goes into Daniel’s office and gives him the “pep talk”.  She reminds him of his eulogy, and tells him a story of how her family had to carry on a birthday tradition, even though her mother had died right before her dad’s birthday.  He gets inspired and goes to work.

Amanda writes the number of pages of content they have to fill on the board: 83. (She makes the 8 look like Betty).  Each person who if left is given a writing assignment (Henry becomes food editor).  Sheila says she just got off the phone with the printer, and he won’t extend the deadline.  Alexis says she knows the guy, and thinks she can charm him into extending the deadline.  She leaves to put on something seductive.

Everyone works together, and slowly they create content to fill the magazine.  Amanda gets assigned the “What’s Hot/What’s not” feature.  They discover that the cover cannot be retrieved. Betty suggests they reshoot.  Daniel tells her that the advertisers were sold on Cameron Ashlock (America’s Sweetheart), but now she’s in rehab.  Daniel decides to break her out of rehab.

Betty goes with him, but tells him she doesn’t like at, and that it was things like this that make her not want to come back to Mode.  They bribe the guard and get to Cameron’s room.  She is meditating.  She says she has now “found God”.  Betty convinces her that a good way to make amends (and please God) is to make amends – including with Mode, by shooting the cover.

Back at Mode, Cameron will not come out of the dressing room until she gets booze or drugs.  Daniel decides to take her a bottle of booze.  Unfortunately, Cameron bursts into the room and destroys the set in a temper tantrum.  She then gets dragged out. 

Betty tries to lecture Daniel – but he says he didn’t give Cameron the drink.  He says that the cover is gone; he’s no Bradford Meade.  Betty says, maybe that’s a good thing – he’s got a blank slate.  When she says this, Daniel gets an idea.

Sheila asks Amanda where her What’s Hot section was; Amanda says she’s waiting for inspiration.  At this moment, a pizza delivery guy shows up.  Amanda gets an idea when she sees him, and is excited.  Later, she announces her creation, she has a model come in wearing the pizza delivery look.  Sheila is not impressed. (It is pretty bad).  She tells her to go back to the phones.

Daniel presents his idea for the cover: a completely black cover, a foldout with “in memoriam, Bradford Meade” on the inside cover.  Everyone loves this and applauds.  Sheila says “Issue 412 is ready to ship!”  Daniel says it’s actually 001, they are going to get a fresh start.  Daniel asks Betty to come back again.  He tells her that no matter where she works, she’ll have tough choices to make.

Amanda is sulking in the sex room when Christina walks in. She says that fashion was instinct for her mother, and that she can’t live up.  Christina tells her that her mother actually worked her butt off.  She also convinces her to keep looking for her father.

As Betty stares at the pieces of the issue on the wall, Bradford appears.  She asks if he’ll show up again, he says, “That’s up to you”.

At the publisher: Alexis walks in the door, looking for the printer.  The man she was expecting to be there wasn’t there anymore; a little person named Harvey was now the printer.  He tells her he will not give Mode more time.  Alexis locks the door and says she will not let him go till he changes his mind. She holds the keys where he cannot get them.  Later, Alexis has a heart to heart conversation with Harvey.  They discover they have much in common.  He convinces her to quit trying to please her father.  She decides to let Harvey go.   He decides to give Mode the time it needs.

At Slater: Wilhelmina fires one of her new people because she doesn’t like her, then tells everyone that the magazine will commence work the next day when they get financing.  Marc asks her where the financing is coming from; she tells him The Senator (her dad).  Later, over dinner, she asks her father for the financing – he refuses.

At the Suarez House:  Hilda is putting the lights on the tree.  Justin and Ignacio are being critical of the job she’s doing; she starts to get down angrily, and accidentally pulls the tree over.  It then catches on fire.  As Betty is scrambling to get the issue together, she calls home.  Hilda says the tree is “hot – it’s smokin’!”.  Betty knows that she is lying; Hilda admits that the tree burned up, including some of Betty’s favorite ornaments.  They did save their mother’s angel, though.

Later, the Suarez family comes downstairs to see that Betty has bought and decorated the pink tree.  They put up the angel to honor their mother.  She announces that she took her job back.  The episode ends with Hilda proclaiming that the tree is ugly.

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POSTED IN: Alexis Meade, Amanda Tanen, Betty Suarez, Bradford Meade, Daniel Meade, Henry Grubstick, Ignacio Suarez, Marc St. James, Ugly Betty Recaps, Wilhelmina Slater