I mentioned in my “quick notes” that I liked “The Fall Issue” more than this part of the finale, but I should have mentioned that I really liked this episode as well.  I thought it was very good, almost great.

First and foremost, the Henry storyline was well done.  You could almost see how much the two of them had matured in a year.  Their knowing glances were romantic and sad at the same time.  It was very good to see Chris Gorham on the show again – I love to watch his reactions to Michael Urie and Becki Newton.

The Molly/Daniel storyline made me cringe.  Not that it’s not believable; it’s just the idea of a dying person joking about their spouse’s love life after they are gone.  Daniel’s surprise for her at the end was nice, though.

The YETI interviews storyline was a little intriguing; I love the thought of Betty working at The New York Review.  But Betty is like a modern-day George Bailey, stuck in her Bedford Falls of Mode Magazine.  Jodi stealing her job was quite believable (especially in this economy).

Vanessa Williams and Christine Baranski are very good together (both in acting and in song).  Maybe we can see more of that in season 4.

America Ferrera was quite good in this one.  Her voice-overs were nice comedic distractions from all the drama.

Look for a recap for 3.24, The Fall Issue, soon.

Suzuki St Pierre reports on Fashion TV that New York has gone ga-ga over Daniel, because he has turned into such a devoted husband.  Molly is released from the hospital some time after her wedding night collapse.  Daniel is so popular, he gets invited onto The View.  he thinks it’s to talk about the Wedding Issue, but all Behar and Hasselbeck want to talk about it his devotion to Molly.

As Daniel is working out, Cal approaches and tells him he wants to capitalize on Daniel and Molly’s popularity, for he’s arranged for Molly to throw out the first pitch at a Mets game.  Daniel isn’t comfortable with that, so they agree that Daniel will do it instead.  Cal also gives tickets to Betty.

Wilhelmina exclaims, “Why does God hate me?”  She then recaps how Claire talked Cal into placing her in power over Wilhelmina.  Claire comes in and tells her she needs to make a change to the cover of the Wedding Issue.  Wilhelmina vows to find a way to get Cal to turn against Claire.

Matt shows Betty his first painting – an almost-nude portrait of Betty (glasses and all).  He uses this as a segue into asking Betty to move in with him.  She tells him it’s a biog step, and she’ll think about it.  Amanda comes in, sees the painting, and runs away screaming “My eyes!  My eyes!”

As Claire and Wilhelmina discuss the changes to the Wedding Issue cover, Victoria walks in, and shares a terse hello.  Claire is obviously uncomfortable, and Wilhelmina notices this.  She tells Marc that she will find out what’s going on between the two.

Jodi comes to Mode and advises her before her YETI interviews.  They have a nice mentor/student moment.  Jodi asks about Marc, and Betty says he hasn’t mentioned Jodi.

Betty tells her family about Matt’s proposal, and surprisingly, Ignacio agrees. (With a little fatherly muttering thrown in).

On the phone the next day, Betty tells Matt she will move in with him.  At this moment, at the end of a rainbow, she sees Henry getting into a cab.

Marc tells Wilhelmina he’s looked into Victoria’s background (including a “lesbian rumor” …hmmmm), and that he’s signed Wilhelmina up for Victoria’s tennis club.

As Betty looks over he YETI interview guide, she also checks Henry’s Facebook status, which he is updating quite often.  Marc sees this, and reminds her that it’s time for their interviews.  As they are leaving she notices Henry’s at a restaurant around the block.

Betty then goes through a series of interviews, including with the New York Review.  As the interviewer is leaving, Betty gives her an impassioned speech about how much the Review means to her.

Jodi tells Betty the interviewers loved her.  She had less kind words for Marc, but mostly because he hadn’t been calling her.  Later, Betty asks Marc what happened between them, and he say “there were kisses, and boobs, and beer, and…I don’t want to talk about it anymore!”.  Amanda approaches, and they all end up in front of the restaurant Henry said he was at.  As Betty struggles with whether she should go see him, Henry shows up, with his girlfriend Chloe.

Henry explains that they are in New York for Chloe’s aerobic convention.  She’s proud of her work, including what she’s done with Henry.  Betty turns down Chloe’s dinner invitation because she’s going to the Mets game.  Marc and Amanda “helpfully” give their tickets to Henry and Chloe.  Later, Matt says it’s fine if they all go together.

Jodi calls and tells Betty she’s been offered an editor position at the New York Review (although it’s not official yet).  She tells Daniel, and they have a tearful pre-goodbye.

Victoria beats Billie Jean King at tennis, and then Wilhelmina walks up. Victoria and Wilhelmina decide to play a game.  Then, they decide to have a drink together.

Molly jokes about the women who are fawning over Daniel, joking about how much “tail” he’ll get when she’s gone.  This makes Daniel very uncomfortable.

At the Mets game, Daniel throws out the first pitch.  In the stands, Matt gives Betty the key to their apartment, as Henry and Chloe arrive.  Henry tells about being an accountant, and Matt talks himself down.  Betty tells about his art and almost-law degree, but her conscience scolds her for “trying to sell Matt”.  Chloe tries to show off Henry’s abs, and Matt uses the occasion to make his own belly button “talk”. 

Betty looks at the scoreboard, and it has changed to Henry vs Matt, and Henry is winning 1-0.  As the evening progresses, the score goes back and forth as each man does something that impresses Betty.

At the same time, Molly runs into a friend from the school she teaches at, and says she’s always wanted to introduce them.  Daniel takes this the wrong way, and tells the woman he can’t “go out with her”.  Unfortunately, she’s married and very freaked out.  So is Molly.

Henry tells them about his new apartment, and Matt prods Betty to tell their “really big news”.  She tells Henry about her job offer, which upsets Matt, who thought she’d mention their moving in together.  Matt later asks her if she did this because she was leaving the door open for Henry.  Betty apologizes.

Wilhelmina and Victoria sing “The Man That Got Away”, having been drinking heavily.  Claire (supposedly) calls Wilhelmina, and Victoria uses the occasion to tell Wilhelmina about an affair that Claire had with Cal long ago – and that a baby was the result.

Hilda tells Betty to forget about Henry, even though Betty still has feelings for him.

Daniel apologizes to Molly, who makes a joke about him dating her friend.  Daniel tells her to stop this, and she tells him in tears that she’s most fearful of dying and everyone forgetting that she was ever here.

Betty almost “unfriends” Henry on Facebook.  Marc tells Betty that he hasn’t had a single call.  Betty tells him he should call Vogue (the one he really wanted) and tell them just who Marc St James really is.  He agrees.

Betty calls The New York Review, and discovers that Jodi has stolen her job.  She rushes to confront Jodi, who tells her that she couldn’t sit by and let some cheery 20 something take what she’d dreamed of her whole career.  Betty storms off.

During her acupuncture, as Wilhelmina tells Marc about what she found out about Claire, Marc tells her he got a job offer from Vogue.

Betty leaves Matt a tearful voice message, and discovers that Henry is only a block away (according to his Facebook status).

Daniel comes to see Molly in the bed, and shows her the cover if The Wedding Issue; Molly in her wedding dress is the cover.  He says, “Now everyone will know you were here”.

Betty meets Henry to tell her his problems.  They decide that although they have feelings for each other, they need to move on with their lives.  As they share a small goodbye kiss, it turns into a passionate kiss.  As they walk away from each other, we see Matt holding flowers, who has seen the whole thing.

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Post from: Ugly Betty News

For the uninitiated, Jump was Ugly Betty’s season finale for season 2, and it left the show in a mess.  Gio fans were mad.  Henry fans were mad.  Fans of Betty and all the other characters wondered, “What the heck is this all about?”  (Not to mention ABC hyped a 30 second Lindsay Lohan appearance, that foreshadowed her disastrous stint on the show in season 3). Like I said, it was a mess. And Silvio Horta,the show’s creator and executive producer, was solely responsible for the script.

As he was for the final hour of last night’s season finale, entitled, “The Fall Issue”. 

Incredible.  Bravo.  I wish I had an “11″ paddle.

The first hour, entitled “Curveball”, was OK.  It was a good setup, with a properly sad and cliff-hanger-ey ending.  But, there was a noticeable change in the writing (and even the acting), once the second hour. It was much crisper, with the smart-alec banter we all love (which was almost entirely missing from “Curveball”). 

For some strange reason, Amanda totally changed personality once the episodes changed.  In “Curveball”, she reverted to downright mean.  Then, she came back to wacky Amanda in hour two.  This is the problem with back-to-back episodes, written by different people.

I’ll save the spoilers for the recap (boy, two hours is a real haul!), but I can tell you that there were more OMG moments last night (especially in the second hour) than in the entire season.  The last 5 minutes, all I could do was stammer in the live blog.  Some of the moments we knew were coming, but the way they were executed still was shocking.

In case you haven’t figured it out, the writers of the show like to make Betty’s suitors less likeable before a breakup.  They really did that with Matt last night.  Although, to be honest, I don’t blame him for being mad at Betty.

You could tell, the whole Henry storyline was the producers’ way of saying “I’m sorry we didn’t give you Benry fans your proper closure…we’re making up for it tonight”. And it was good closure for the story line, better, I think, than Gio’s – which would have been great had he and Betty remained on-screen friends.

Horta really knows how to write the Marc/Justin scenes.  You can tell, they are really coming from his heart.  Michael Urie and Mark Indelicato are on the same page as Horta – last night’s scene was one of the best the show has ever had.

I want to watch the episode again before I say anything about America Ferrera’s performance. Betty was bounced around like a pinball in the finale, so Ferrera’s job was mostly to react.  Although her kiss with Chris Gorham was hot. 

Eric Mabius proved he could bring the drama last night.  I didn’t really care for the “Molly joking about being dead” story line, but it was carried out beautifully.  When Daniel finished his speech, and Molly wasn’t there next to Betty anymore…we knew.  Then the music started and the tissues came out.  So well executed.

(For those who complain about this – does anyone remember East Side Story?  This was one of the best ever UB episodes.  Remember Hilda and Betty falling to the floor sobbing?  It’s part of Ugly Betty, especially season finales).

The Claire/Wilhelmina story line gave us the two things we’ll wonder about all summer.  Who and where is the adopted child, and who did Wilhelmina see at the end? (OK, I’m slightly giving away spoilers).  It all happened so fast.

The Detty moment at the end just felt right.  The whole Marc/Betty rivalry did not. 

Next season will be interesting.  If it didn’t separate Marc and Amanda, I’d love to see Marc go work for Vogue.

I’m working on the monster recap.  Had “The Fall Issue” been at the level of “Curveball”, I’d really be complaining right now.  But hour two of the finale was so good, I think it made what was a lackluster season a success.

Image: SplashNewsOnline.com

Post from: Ugly Betty News

Here is the press release for the Ugly Betty Season 3 finale (which is two episodes back-to-back).  3.23 is entitled “Curveball”,and 3.24 is “The Fall Issue”. 

Fair warning: the synopses are quite spoiler-ish about things that will happen in the next two episodes, so turn ye back, all who are spoiler-averse!  You have been warned.

The synopses:

Ugly Betty” concludes the season with a shocking two-hour telecast, THURSDAY, MAY 21 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. In the first hour, entitled “Curveball” (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), just as Betty agrees to move in with Matt, Henry (guest star Christopher Gorham) pays a visit to NYC, forcing Betty to admit she still has feelings for her former fiance. Meanwhile, Betty and Marc wait to see if their YETI editor interviews resulted in actual jobs; Daniel’s transformation from playboy to devoted husband makes him a media darling; and Wilhelmina cozies up to Victoria Hartley to find out just what kind of connection Claire Meade has to Cal Hartley.

In “The Fall Issue” (9:00-10:00 p.m.), the sudden death of a Mode editor leaves Betty and Marc competing for the same job. Meanwhile, Wilhelmina demands that Claire tender her resignation at a big awards ceremony . . . or she’ll reveal Claire’s dark secret to Cal Hartley; Matt lets his jealousy over Henry get the best of him; and Justin nervously waits to see if he got into performing arts school.

Pardon my quoting the promos for last season’s finale, but…

OMG.

OK, first, about Claire and the Hartleys.  I haven’t even had a chance to post about this yet, but apparently ABC execs stopped a story line about a supposed affair between Claire and Victoria from making it to the air.  At least that’s the story.  I’m not so sure, though.  These hints sure make it seem like it might be “the deep, dark secret” after all.

So, Betty and Matt plan to move in together.  Second verse, same as the first.  I wonder how Ignacio will react to that one.  He didn’t do so well the first time with Henry.  I seriously doubt the extra zeros in the bank account will make much difference.  (Speaking as a father)

Henry’s storyline will last at least these two episodes, it seems.  I don’t know if he’s actually IN both episodes (he isn’t listed in the guest star list of either one – only in the synopsis of “Curveball”).

You guys were right – it’s an unknown, unseen editor who falls to his/her death in “The Fall Issue”.  As much as I like Marc, I’d say the odds are pretty good that Betty gets the editor job.  THAT will be awesome.

I can’t tell you how weird that feels, reading “Daniel’s transformation from playboy to devoted husband…”  That storyline will provide this year’s “Santos gets shot” moment that was just plain missing from last season’s finale.  No matter what you think of Molly,I’d advise an extra box of tissues.

AND, Justin had better get into performing arts school.  We could have some real “Fame” moments next season.

For what it’s worth, Silvio Horta wrote “The Fall Issue” himself. 

This is going to be the finale we were hoping to have last season, I think.

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Post from: Ugly Betty News