Ugly Betty Episode 2.17 Full Recap

Here is the full recap of Ugly Betty episode 2.17 (”The Kids Are Alright”).  This episode may have been the best of the season.  I loved it so much, I’ll hold off on reaction and place a review in a separate thread.  But, I’ll tell you, my favorite moments:

• Marc’s homage to the press (and all the fans): “Marc and Amanda.  We’re funny together.  Everyone says so!”
• Betty’s Mexican-accented trophy (with an assist from Gio).
• “Willa-meaner than ever!”
• Gene Simmons wanting Marc to be the “Wacky Gay Sidekick”.
• Betty slapping Daniel’s butt after a pep talk.
• Justin’s 50’s look.
• The return of Suzuki St Pierre!
• “No, God bless YOU, coach Diaz!”
• “You Frenched Me Suarez.  You Frenched me good!”
• “Betty Suarez, you are a BAD citizen!”
• That they dared to use the song “True”
• The whole ending sequence.  Benry fans have every right to be worried.  They never wrote a line that good for Henry

Then, they showed the promo for next week, which, if you’ve seen it, you know sets up an incredible finale for this season.  Anyway, we’ll get to that later.  Recap after the jump!

Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” plays as Betty lies on the bed, covered with mementos of her relationship with Henry, and self-help books; she is staring at their “snow globe”. Betty looks in the mirror and sees what a mess she is.

Ignacio is sick, Hilda is cooking breakfast, and the family is discussing Betty. It has been two weeks since the breakup with Henry. Betty walks in and asks for more tissues. They are out of puffy eye cream, so Justin puts sliced cucumbers on her eyes. Betty tells how she and Henry agreed: a clean break would be best.

Hilda rushes Justin out; she has to get to a PTA meeting (to see Coach Diaz, of course). Ignacio asks Betty if she can take time off work; Betty says that the Mode drama is the only thing keeping her mind off Henry.

[Suzuki St Pierre recounts the “Mode drama to this point]

Betty holds off the press while the Meades speak to their lawyer, seeing if anyone can do anything to stop Wilhelmina’s plot. Christina asks what’s going on – and surmises that Claire hates her. When the Meades come to speak to Betty, Christina runs away. Daniel tells Betty that Bradford’s will divided his estate amongst all of his children and future children, so they are stuck. Until the kid turns 18, Wilhelmina controls a 3^rd of Meade.

Wilhelmina and Marc are riding the elevator, and she proclaims, “Let’s do this bitch”. She makes a grand entrance into Mode. Amanda sees them and jumps up and down with happiness. The three of them line up opposite the Meades and Betty. They meet in the middle, and Wilhelmina makes a speech of how honored she is to be back, and how she wants to let the past be the past. She shakes hands with Daniel, and at that moment Marc takes a cell phone picture (as Daniel is pushing Wilhelmina away). She walks out, and Daniel stands there looking confused.

Wilhelmina enters her old office, while Marc takes sheets off of the furniture. She tells him of her plan to divide the House of Meade. She thinks the weakest link is Daniel. Marc tells her, “You are a horror movie I wish would never end”.

Daniel tells Alexis that he is in a panic over Wilhelmina’s return. Alexis tells him not to worry; they will stick together and not make a decision without consulting each other.

Betty tells Claire she is taking lunch orders. Claire instead asks Betty to write an article for Hot Flash, giving the youth perspective. Betty agrees, but is confused about what exactly she’s supposed to write about.

Amanda welcomes Marc back to Mode. She tells him how she’s on a reality show with her father, Gene Simmons. She shows him the title sequence. (It had to be awesome – Becki Newton recorded the song with Simmons). Marc is happy. Being a reality tv star is “What every pretty girl wth no specific talent dreams of”. He tries to talk her into letting him be the “wacky gay sidekick”. “Marc and Amanda! We’re so funny together. Everyone says so!” (almost makes me think the writers read here). Amanda turns him down. She tells him, “You’re cute. But you’re not TV cute”.

Gio gives Betty her sandwich order. Betty tells him about getting the Hot Flash gig. He makes a big deal out of being the first person she told. He reminds her that she’s always in his shop telling him about her life, and flirting. Betty denies it. He tells her to admit she likes him. She denies it. He says, “You want me to be a rebound guy”. She starts to deny again, and he kisses her. At first, she kisses him back (a little), but then she pulls away and slaps him.

Later, Betty is working. She gets an email (or IM, I can’t tell) from “Mode21” with the subject “Guess who ordered the tongue at Gios?”. She opens a link, and there’s a picture of her kissing Gio with the caption “”Betty Whorez is Out of Control!” Every person in the office receives the email at once, and starts laughing.

Amanda and Marc gawk over the photo. “It looks like she’s eating him!” Betty confronts them about sending the picture around, and they congratulate her for finding a “rebound guy”. They tell her Gio loves her, “and that’s a direct quote from the stall of the men’s room”

Daniel and Alexis are running a meeting about the next cover, and Wilhelmina walks in (she wasn’t invited). Daniel suggests a “War issue” of the magazine. Wilhelmina says Elle is going to beat them to it by a month. Wilhelmina taunts Daniel about not having a backup idea. He walks out.

He goes into the men’s room to get it together, and Betty comes out of a stall. She was cleaning the Gio note off of the stall. Daniel slips up and let’s Betty knew he put Claire up to asking for the Hot Flash article. She tells him how she hasn’t written anything yet because of the distractions. They give each other a pep talk, and as they are leaving, Betty slaps him on the butt.

Hilda walks over to coach Diaz (she was coming from the PTA meeting) She pretends to have gotten lost. Justin is mortified. He asks her to help chaperone the school dance. As he walks away, Hilda sneezes. Coach Diaz says, “God Bless You”, and Hilda yells back “No. God Bless YOU!”

Daniel walk back into the meeting, but it is breaking up. Wilhelmina has just talked the staff into doing a “peace” issue. Alexis went along with it. Daniel worries that Wilhelmina is taking over again. Alexis tells him to stop being paranoid.

Fashion TV reports about Wilhelmina’s return, and shows the photo Marc took (which makes Daniel look bad). Betty suggests he do something to counteract the bad publicity. He tells her to go home and work on her article, and that he will spin the press.

On the set of the reality show, Marc shows up. Amanda is obviously not happy. She tells him that Gene Simmons “hates the gays”. Marc gets angry and introduces himself to Simmons saying, “I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m eating your pastries”. Simmons asks him to join the show as “the funny gay guy”.

Betty still can’t write her article. She tells Hilda how Gio kissed her. Hilda tells her it’s OK to like two guys at one time. Justin walks in with an outlandish 50’s getup on. Unfortunately, Hilda has gotten Ignacio’s cold. Betty offers to chaperone the dance in Hilda’s place – hopefully she’ll be able to interview the kids and get material for her story. Hilda agrees, but tells Justin he has to spy on the coach.

Gene Simmons gives Amanda a beautiful father-daughter speech, but the show has sound problems, so they have to break from the scene. During the break, Amanda tries to talk with him about her mother, but he ignores her. He leaves, and Marc comes over. He noticed how Simmons was only nice to her when the cameras were on. Amanda gets angry and chews him out.

Later, Amanda wants to have a father daughter moment with Simmons, and he asks her if she’s going to cry because it would look great on camera. As he calls for the camera, his shirt rides up, and Amanda can see that the Tweety Bird tattoo isn’t real; it’s smudging.

At the gym, Betty tries to get quotes from all the kids, but they ignore her or run away. She finally talks to a little girl, who recognizes her. She says, “You know my brother.” She then points, and Betty turns to see Gio.

Gio is at the dance to chaperone – and he’s flirting heavily with Betty. He says (about the kiss), “You Frenched me Suarez, you Frenched me good!” Betty tells him to stop distracting her. All the while, Hilda calls Justin constantly, checking up on the coach.

Daniel appears on Larry King. They get a call from Vermont, accusing Daniel of being mean to poor Wilhelmina. The caller asks about the photo (and Larry shows it). Daniel figures out that the caller is actually Marc, but no one believes him. The interview turns into a disaster for him.

Betty asks Gio for help; he has a knack with the kids, and they are ignoring her. He tells her to just talk to them like anyone else. He points out kid versions of Daniel, and Amanda, and himself, then finally the young Betty. He says she’s not having any fun, probably writing an article for the school paper. Betty says, “No, she’s just waiting for someone to ask her to dance”.

As Betty interviews the girl, Gio dedicates the song “True” to her, and asks her to dance. He also asked Justin to ask “little Betty” to dance as well. They dance, and in a close moment between them, Betty says, “I can’t” and walks out.

Gio meets her in the hallway, and they talk. She worries what dancing with him says about her. He tells her she needs to stop worrying about how she’s supposed to be, and just…be. She says, “I’m really sad”, and he says, “we can work with sad”.

Justin walks up to coach Diaz and says his mom wants to know if he likes her. (too cute). He seems pleased to hear this.

Alexis gave Wilhelmina her old job back, much to the chagrin on Daniel and Claire. She felt there was no one better for the job.

Gio breaks into the trophy case to steal Betty’s Good Citizen trohy back (she had given it to the school when she won it). Gio calls to Betty as the trophy (and with a Mexcan accent!) sying, “come and get me!” As she is admiring the trophy, all the other trophies crash to the ground. The principal of the school then walks up, and scolds Betty for being a “Bad Citizen”. She and GIo giggle.

Amanda approaches Marc at Mode, and apologizes for how she treated him. She tells him that Simmons didn’t care for her – he wasn’t even her father. He says, “I’m sorry you still don’t know who your family is”. Amanda replies, “Yes, I do” and puts her head on his shoulder.

Coach Diaz brings Hilda some soup to make her feel better, and asks her out (in general). Hilda is elated.

Betty, Justin, Gio and Antonella are walking home. Justin and Betty turn to go inside. Gio tells his sister to wait while he gives Betty a proper goodbye. As Deep Dish’s “In Love With A Friend” plays, they say goodnight, and Betty stops Gio as he walks away. She asks him if he wants to go out sometime, but he turns her down.

He says, “I don’t want to be the rebound guy. I want to be the guy.”