Ugly Betty Episode 3.21 Full Recap

Here is the full recap of Ugly Betty episode 3.21, The Born Identity.  Some quick thoughts:

• This was a very good episode.  I thought the writers and actors were really on top of their game.
• What is it about this show?  Except for Gio, every exiting cast member found out he/she had a child right before leaving the show.  It’s just a weird coincidence, I guess.
• It’s funny that this is the first episode in which Stuart was truly likeable from beginning to end.
• “All this drama, and I can’t even tell the drama club!”  – boy, they’re going to have fun with Justin next season.
• The episodes with Suzuki in them seem to be better than the ones without him.  He just adds that extra hmmmph.
• Amanda’s bizarre scene where she fantasized about being Betty’s mother was weird and hilarious.
• The ending was, of course, bittersweet.
• Ana Ortiz was brilliant in the scene where she’s trying to hide Betty and Christina from the TV crew.

All in all, a very well written and acted episode.

Full recap after the jump.

At a pub, Christina, with Stuart, throws darts at a picture of Wilhelmina.  Betty asks her to come back to work which she’s been avoiding since getting fired as Wilhelmina’s nanny.  Betty invites Christina to the party surrounding Cal Hartley’s rescuing of the company. 

Betty gets home, and Hilda and Archie tell the Suarez family they have an announcement: Archie is going to run for Queens borough president.  Archie tells Hilda that he wants her to be a part of the interview he’s doing with the media as part of the launch.  This is a big deal because it means Archie wants Hilda to be a “part of his life or something.”  Betty offers to lend Hilda clothes from Mode for the interview.

Betty covers for Christina at work; she still hasn’t come back.  Meanwhile, Daniel is really stressing over the presentation to Cal and his co-investors later that morning.  Wilhelmina walks in with William, and asks Daniel to hold him.  She plans to use the baby as a prop to woo Cal, who loves children.

As Betty is in the Closet sewing a button on William’s sweater, Christina walks in.  She is upset to see that the baby is at Mode that day.

Daniel leads an entourage of Mode employees to meet Cal as he comes off the elevator.  After a false alert, Cal shows up, surprised to see the crowd.  He says hello to Claire, who he apparently knows “from way back”.  Wilhelmina makes a bid deal of leaving to check on her baby, and Cal of course wants to come along to see him.

Cal walks to the bassinet, and sees that there is no baby, only a vase.  It then strikes Wilhelmina and Betty that William has been kidnapped. They call the police and lock down the building.

Betty runs downstairs to make sure Christina is there (she is).  Wilhelmina rushes in with the police, and tells them Christina did it.  Betty insists she couldn’t have done it.  The police then try to piece everything together to sort it all out.  Betty later tells a detective that there’s no way Christina would ever kidnap William.

Suzuki from fashion TV arrives and reports on the scene.  He interviews Amanda, who is hilarious, but not very helpful.  At the same time, Cal insists that Daniel continue with the presentation, or the deal won’t happen.

Betty rushes down to the street, where Christina is attempting to drive away.  She is very nervous and says she just needs to get away from Mode.  Betty jumps in the car to talk to her, and we hear a baby fuss in the backseat.  Christina then peels away, with Betty and William in the car.

Christina insists that it isn’t kidnapping, because William is hers.  She says she suspects that Wilhelmina faked the DNA test.  At this time, a police car pulls them over.  It’s just a traffic stop, but then the policewoman sees the baby, she makes the two get out of the car.  The officer then shows them how to properly attach the car seat, and asks who the baby belongs to.  Betty replies that he’s “ours”.  The officer lets them go.  They decide to go somewhere safe to figure things out.

Daniel gives the presentation to Cal, but after seeing Wilhelmina melt down, he mans up and tells Hartley that he must reschedule, that having a missing child is a more pressing matter.  Hartley, surprisingly, agrees.

At home, Justin watches Suzuki’s hilarious coverage of the kidnapping.  Hilda turns it off, because the TV crew is about to start interviewing Archie and her.  He moves to the kitchen, and Christina and Betty walk in with the baby.  Hilda and Justin are mortified. 

After viewing a security tape and seeing Stuart leaving the Mode building with the baby, Wilhelmina confesses to Marc that she did indeed fake the DNA test.  They have to find Christina before she has a chance to find out the truth.  (She will lose any claim to the Meade fortune).

During Archie’s interview, there is a madcap scene where Betty  and Christina try to hide from the interviewers.  Hilda successfully gets the TV crew out of the house, but Ignacio then comes down and makes Betty confess what’s going on.

After a family argument about it, Betty calls Claire for advice, but Marc listens in.  Claire arranges to have the baby discreetly tested with her doctor.  But, because Marc listened in, he informed the police, who show up at the DNA facility just as Claire meets Betty, Stuart and Christina.  They are all arrested.  Claire and Betty are let go, but not Christina and Stuart.  Daniel tries to talk Wilhelmina into taking another DNA test to put all of this behind them, but she doesn’t agree to it.

Marc later has a moment of clarity, and in a roundabout way, tries to convince Wilhelmina that she’s done the wrong thing.  But he can’t come out and say it.

Later, as Betty and Hilda talk over the events, Archie walks in.  He tells them Justin told him everything.  After Betty says that it’s over, Wilhelmina won, Archie asks her if she’s tried fighting dirty.

Betty arrives at Wilhelmina’s apartment, and tells her that she’s going to prove that William is Christina’s.  She tries a ruse, but Wilhelmina sees right through it.   But Betty does convince Wilhelmina that she needs to tell the truth.

Wilhelmina calls a press conference the next day, announcing the “error” in the DNA test.

At the presentation to Cal Hartley, before he signs the papers to bailout Meade, Claire fires Wilhelmina (she couldn’t hold it in anymore).  Cal, however, having met with Wilhelmina the night before – in which she let him know how ruthless she was and that she’d make a better ally than enemy – insisted that Wilhelmina remain at the company with the same stake as before, or there would be no deal.  Daniel reluctantly agrees.

Later, Christina and Stuart arrive, and Betty gives them the baby.  Christina then tells her that they are going back to Scotland for a fresh start.  After a tearful goodbye, they leave for their new life in Scotland.

Image: Bauer Griffin