Ugly Betty Episode 4.04 Full Recap
October 31, 2009 by Tom
Here is the full recap of Ugly Betty episode 4.04, The Wiener, The Bun, and the Boob. Based on the comments in my Quick Thoughts post, you guys REALLY liked this episode.
Even though I initially thought too much was going on, it looks like that’s when the show works well – and now that I think of it, what happens on a quick-paced episode is that there isn’t time for the story to get bogged down. The show has gotten in trouble in the past when the situation was set up, then we had 20 minutes of navel-gazing. 4.04 was better because it kept moving. As usual, you guys were right.
It’s funny how Daniel made things better by telling the truth, and Betty made things better by lying.
The Amanda kissing scene was even funnier the second time.
Oh, and “the boob” may have referred to Lexie’s, but it could have also referred to Hilda’s impression of Meghan McCain.
This was a great episode!
That being said, the ratings did not improve. Sigh.
Full recap after the jump.
We see a hapless bunch of people lined up. Betty and Daniel talk about this, and it turns out that they are the candidates HR sent for Daniel’s new assistant. Betty reminisces and talks it over with Daniel, and prefers Gavin (a REALLY dorky guy). Daniel is totally uninterested. Betty hides his chocolate covered pretzels he’s nervously eating, making Daniel realize why he misses Betty.
Betty then gets slowly swallowed under with editorial tasks for work. She walks by Marc and Amanda, who insult her, but she throws an insult right back at Marc. Betty runs into Matt, dropping her work. As Matt helps her pick it up, Amanda eyes Matt slyly.
Matt asks Betty for a feature idea for the New York issue. Betty tells him about an idea she had about New York’s toughest jobs, He likes it. Matt then tries to get his messages from Amanda, but she is too busy flirting with him (even pulling his hair!) Marc notices this and mentions it to Amanda after Matt leaves; she denies and says that Matt is tainted – kissing him would be like kissing Betty.
Claire tells Betty that Daniel has picked a new assistant – Betty goes to meet her, and it turns out to be super-beautiful Lexie (Brooklyn Decker). Betty offers to help, but Lexie rudely rudely rebuffs her. Betty next tells Daniel that she doesn’t approve. Daniel says Lexie won him over when she got down his chocolate pretzels from Betty’s hiding place. 
Nico comes back from an errand. This freaks Wilhelmina out, so she decides to keep Nico in her site at all times.
At the Suarez house, Justin teaches Ignacio how to check his email. Hilda is cranky because Archie is so busy campaigning, they never see each other anymore. Betty is burning the midnight oil with all the work she has. Justin suggest she ask for an assistant.
Marc tells Wilhelmina that Hartley and Claire were having dinner with Isabelle Bissette (her possible replacement) the night before. Wilhelmina surprises Marc by saying that she’ll just have to become a “team player” as “kiss Claire’s bony ass”. Marc then goes to talk to Nico, which scares WIlli (afraid Nico might blab about the murder). Betty then approaches and asks for an assistant. Wilhelmina, seeing an opening on two fronts, appoints Marc as Betty’s temporary assistant.
Neither Marc nor Betty wants this, but Wilhelmina insists. Marc then lays down the law: he will not get her coffee. He reminds her that Dante Nelli, Jr himself offered him the job. Betty asks him to trim a hundred words from the Tends column, which he says he could do in his sleep.
Daniel tries to talk to Lexie while on his way to have lunch with Natalie, but Lexie rudely ignores him, then tells him to go away.
Nico has actually gotten Wilhelmina to eat in the cafeteria. Claire and Hartley walk up and Cal tells WIlli about his idea to put a vampire on the cover of the New York issue (ala Twilight). Claire actually goes along with it, though she thinks the idea is horrible.
Natalie tells Daniel about this inspirational speaker she’s been going to see, who helps people get over all kinds of traumas. She invites him to come to a “Community of the Phoenix” meeting that afternoon to check the guy out.
Hilda calls Betty and tells her about her idea to spice up her relationship with Archie by sending him a sexy Halloween text. (Ana Ortiz really shows her her “new mom” boobs in this scene)..
Marc finishes the Trends column, then reminds Betty that he thinks she got the job because she and Daniel were lovers. Betty, indignant, suggests they both go ask Daniel which they do. Daniel hems and haws, then Wilhelmina comes in and tells them the truth: they had flipped a coin, and Betty won because she was “tails”.
Later, Daniel tells Betty that she WAS the most qualified in his opinion, but the coin toss was the only way to break the impasse. Marc teases her by calling her “tails”. Matt asks about Betty’s “toughest jobs” article – Marc suggests Betty also get into the uniforms and they take pictures (to humiliate Betty). Matt likes the idea.
Hilda calls Archie – he is beside himself. Hilda had sent her picture by doing a “reply all” on one of Archie’s campaign emails. Now the whole district had Hilda’s sexy pic. After hanging up, Hilda notices that Ignacio is checking his email (which would include the infamous text). Hilda rushes (in slo-mo) to stop him.
Daniel tells Betty that things aren’t working out so well with Lexie. Betty reminds Daniel that his father had picked Betty, to stop Daniel from hiring an assistant he wanted to sleep with. Lexie overhears this and is angry. Daniel goes to apologize to her, attempt to put his hand on her shoulder, but his hand slips and he accidentally brushes her one of her boobs. She yells at him and calls him a dirty old man. (heh)
Betty and Marc go to work on her “worst jobs” feature. She pedals a rickshaw, separates garbage, and waxes a man’s back (with Marc taking pictures. They then approach The Taj Ma-hotdog (a meat substitute hot dog stand), because Betty will be the hot dog hostess there. It turns out, Betty will be in a hot dog outfit, and they also need a bun, which Betty volunteers Marc for.
The owner then teaches the two (dressed outrageously as a hot dog and bun), the Bollywood-style song and dance that go with the suits. Betty falls down into some garbage, and Marc doesn’t catch her. They then argue about the job they both felt they deserve. Marc tells Betty she’s the luckiest person he knows. He says that he can’t catch a break.
He mentions that he had turned down a job from Dante Nelli, Jr (who happens to be right there).
Wilhelmina watches the “vampire” photo shoot, hating it. She tells Nico, and Claire overhears her. Wilhelmina tells her the truth. She also tells her she knows about Isabelle Bissette. Claire says when they asked her about it, they expected her honest opinion – but agreed to ask Cal to cancel the vampire shoot. She also tells WIlli to cut 10 pages of content, and to just do her job, while she still has it.
Claire tells Daniel that he can’t fire Lexie because he had “grabbed her boob”.
Archie and Hilda argue over Hilda’s sexy pic spam.
Nelli, Jr says he remembers Marc. Betty tells Nelli that Marc is an editor and she is her assistant. Nelli is impressed and asks Marc to have lunch sometime. They then get a text about an emergency editors meeting in 7 minutes. Betty, mad at Marc because he had thrown away her real clothes, struggles to get in a cab.
Daniel and Natalie go to see the speaker. Daniel scoffs at his “be honest and reject ‘acceptance’” spiel. The speaker challenges Daniel to try being totally honest in a situation he doesn’t want to be, and see if it doesn’t change his life.
Matt approaches Amanda, and says he has to tell her something. He draws her in close to her, then kisses her. Suddenly, the kisser turns to Betty, and Amanda screams. Then we see that Betty is actually (in real life) standing before her in the the hot dog suit, and Amanda screams again. Matt pokes his head from behind Betty, and Amanda screams again. Matt tells Betty that Wilhelmina is cutting ten pages from the issue, and everyone is having to fight to keep their work in. They have to go immediately to the meeting.
Daniel asks Lexie to get The Book from the art dept, and Lexie tells him to get it himself. Daniel calls her back in, and tells her that he only hired her because she was beautiful. He tells her to “sue him”, causing Claire to panic. He tells her she should be a model, not an assistant. She likes the idea.
Wilhelmina starts to cut Betty’s article, but Marc asks her to reconsider. They then perform the hot dog song from the stand. (Hilarious!) They then make a great pitch to use the uniform/fashion angle , and to reshoot the pics with supermodels instead of Betty. Wilhelmina decides to keep the article.
Later, Daniel and Betty look over the new pictures for the article, featuring Lexie and some buff male models. (HA! They didn’t put HER in the hot dog suit!). Daniel reminds her that she, like him, may have gotten a break in getting her job, but she had to earn it, and she had.
Archie interrupts Hilda in her beauty salon, and asks her to watch his news conference on TV. In it, Archie says he won’t apologize to anyone, because his girlfriend is beautiful. He apologizes instead to Hilda. AND, his polls are going up – he’s in the lead.
Wilhelmina tells Nico that she has found out that Isabelle Bissette turned down the Mode job. Nico reveals that SHE called Bissette pretending to be an editor at French Mode, telling her how awful it was to work for Cal and Claire. Wilhelmina tells Nico she thinks everything is going to be all right, but we then see someone discovering the drop of blood left behind on the boat.
Marc gets Betty coffee, and Betty shows him the final edit of the worst jobs article: she has shared her byline with Marc. They “side hug”.
Image: Bauer Griffin
Is it just me or does the COMMUNITY seem like there is more to them? First I’ve read that Daniel will join a cult, is THIS the cult I read about? Secondly I read Natalie has a secret, perhaps it involves this “cult”? From spoilers, the 7th episode will be all about the COMMUNITY. Daniel will apparently give power of MODE over to the community leader, and EVERYONE will try to help him. I’m assuming he is going to be mentally disturbed at this time because I read Sarah Lafleur will be guest starring, so perhaps a hallucination? I finally have read that there will be a fire in the first half of the season from Ausiello. Usually when I think of a cult, I think of some sort of religious sacrifice or killing of some sort, like the overused poisonous wine scenario (Criminal Minds), or a bombing and fire (Dollhouse). So perhaps the fire will be linked to the COMMUNITY/Cult and hopefully bring some real drama, and perhaps that’s why in the following episode they head to the Bahama’s for a photo shoot, to relax and get away from the troubles of MODE. Just a guess, but I hope I’m right, if so that will sure make for an interesting episode, if done correctly. What do you think TOM?
The ratings may have no improved, but they didnt get worse, they basically stayed the same. So thats good news!
the ratings are freakin’ me out! Just read the EW review on canceling the show it’s so freakin’ scary.
I thought this episode was GREAT even though I was a bit squemish about it at first. Thoughts:
Marc and Betty: I thought that this plotline was done very well. I was completely satisfied with Betty and Marc in this episode. I definitely love the new attitude that Betty has and I recall reading a comment that someone made about her voice returning to normal. I definitely agree that it no longer has that squeekiness that made it so unbearable in season 3.
Wilhelmina and Nico: Some people are saying that the actress who plays Nico is a terrible actress, but I definitely disagree. I think that she’s a very good actress. I thought that it was weird that Wilhelmina didn’t have a plan to counter the fact that Claire and Cal were looking for someone to replace her- like Marc says, she almost always has a plan. Although Nico came through by faking a call from French MODE (she really is Wilhelmina’s daughter, isn’t she?
), shouldn’t Wilhelmina have thought of that initially? Great mother and daughter bonding at the end.
Amanda: Her fantasy was hilarious and unbelievable! I can’t believe Amanda and Betty shared a kiss!
Hilda and Archie: They are adorable together, they really are! The scenes where Archie was really mad were the best scenes that we have gotten from the character so far. It’s good to know that he’s not always so calm and collected.
Daniel: I thought that Brooklyn Decker was used very well in this episode. I scoffed when Daniel was saying how he was such a good judge of character and how he went so far as to say that he did hire Betty after all. Betty mentioned how it was actually his father that hired her and I felt like adding to that that he tried to have her quit the first day that she worked! Also, has Daniel reflected on the women that he’s dated? One lied to him and another was plain crazy. Not a very good judge of character!
Anywho, I still love him and I thought that that scene was funny. I felt a bit uncomfortable with the Community of the Phoenix scene since what speaker was saying (I think his name is Bennett) was so cheesy and I felt that this was where the writer (Brian Tanen) really didn’t do so well. It’s good that Daniel felt the same way about what the speaker was saying. However, the community just seems so innocent that I’m not sure how they are going to become such a threat- I was impressed by how subtle they were and how the show didn’t give any hints as to how they may (or may not) turn out to be bad news.
I agree with what M said in that although the ratings haven’t improved, stable ratings are better than a ratings drop.
There is an article on EW written by Ken Tucker that I’m a bit ambivalent about: http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/10/31/ugly-betty-cancel/. I agree that there are only so many times that Betty can be the underdog and only so many ways that they can keep Wilhelmina from becoming advancing in the company, etc… However, I also believe that there are so many more places that they can take the show. In most shows, most women are more older and already fairly grown up, but for a woman that is in the process of growing up, there are many more plotlines that can be used. A lot of people long for the Ugly Betty that we saw during season 1 and 2. The thing that I miss the most from those two seasons is the humor since not a scene went by where I didn’t fall on the floor laughing. With the scenes that we have in season 3 and 4, I usually find myself just chuckling a bit only. However, season 1 and 2 were also very campy and full of some unrealistic plotlines. They were also very fragmented and I feel like season 3 and 4 were far more realistic and put together. I guess a balance has to be struck somewhere between being laugh out loud funny and being realistic- I definitely prefer the latter. I feel that Ugly Betty still has another 2-3 years left in it.
Sorry Tom about all the long comment entries. I really do try to be concise, but it’s hard since I love talking about Ugly Betty!
As for the promo pictures of Lexie doing some of New York’s toughest jobs, they must have been from a deleted scene, at least that’s my presumption. Or at the very least, they were going to be used as a visual gag, showing the beautiful model reenacting all of the dirty work that Betty had to perform.
Timmeh, to put it bluntly, I think it is pretty obvious that The Community is the cult that you’ve read about. It seems that your ideas of what a cult is are similar to the things that many parents tell their children to frighten them. If cults advertised themselves as these bloody, child-sacrificing, Devil-worshipping covens, it would be very difficult for them to trick people into joining. A cult has to start out as something alluring, in order to increase its numbers. The cults that turn out to have sinister leaders usually burn themselves out pretty quickly, either by losing their followers to disillusionment, or, as in those rare but news-making cases, by convincing the followers to commit mass suicide. Most cult leaders are usually satisfied if they are able to use their charisma to trick enough people into giving up their free will, as well as a good portion of their earnings, to their “churches.” It can be argued that most, if not all, of the world’s accepted official religions started out as what would be defined as “cults.” If a cult and its leaders are really good at attracting people, and they don’t kill themselves off, eventually when there are enough members they become accepted religions. Nobody in any “religion”, no matter how big or small, ever thinks of themselves as being in a cult. Sometimes a cult, just like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Very good and hilarious episode. I love America Ferrera,she is amazing and funny actress on Ugly Betty.
I also just saw those spoilers & it seems like that episode will be the episode that everything will to a head regarding Daniel & the Community. (Wasn’t Jamie-Lynn Sigler signed up for only 5 episodes) . esp. when Daniel gives his power of Mode to the leaders of the Community. The cult might be the secret that Natalie is hiding which is going to pit her against Betty when she finds out. I think when Daniel lets the Commnunity call the shots at Mode, Betty figures out something is not right & with Claire they will scheme to get Daniel out.. from some unlikely allies in Matt & Amanda. I think Amanda might have an idea what they will be like because in the spoilers for the previous episode Daniel is going to introduce Amanda to the Comnmunity. I think maybe this episode could be the that has something to do with a fire…possibly maybe involving Betty & putting her life in danger.(kinda like the episode when she was trapped with Renee (Wili’s delusional sister) in Daniel’s apartment trying to kill her. I think by the time they go to the Bahamas for a photo shoot, Daniel & the Community will be history. I’m kinda excited for that episode…just to see how far Betty will go to help Daniel.(and as usual getting him out of another sticky situation)
Hello, I’m one of the bigger italian fans of Betty since the first episode went on the air here in late May 2007. Can you say to me if this season still has the same visual effects of the last season? You know, hallucinatory colours on clothes, objects and environment…
I loved Ugly Bettys newest episode. It was so funny. The rating wouldn’t gone down if they didnt change the day and time. If it stayed on Thursday and @ 8:00 they would stay the same. Other than that, ok. I really like Natalie and I am soo mad if she is planning something bad. She is so cool.
Lu, the production design has not changed at all. The main difference is in Betty’s wardrobe. She is not dressing outrageously anymore. The settings, props, bright colors, cinematography, etc. are all the same. You must be a regular visitor to http://www.uglybettyitalia.it/ right?
Has there been any more news regarding the Italian Betty? I would like to update the following page at my website, if you have any new information: http://sirlizard.prohosts.org/italy.html
Thank you, Lizard!
No, there are no considerable news about the italian version…
I noticed a change from season 2 and 3. 2 has no particular visual effects, but 3 is largely computer edited stuffs, like enhanced colors. So I was wonder if in season 4 still has this beautiful style. Is it?
And excuse me for my awful english lexicon
SirLizard, in this article (http://www.tvblog.it/post/16065/roberto-sessa-della-grundy-a-tvblog-un-errore-non-aver-realizzato-yo-soy-bea-in-italia-orgoglioso-de-la-nuova-squadra-sono-fiducioso-per-americas-got-talent-e-sin-tetas) – Sorry, it’s in italian – there’s an interview to the director of the society who thought to produce the italian remake. He basically says it won’t be done, unfortunately
@Lu Per caso frequenti qualche forum italiano su UB?