Ugly Betty Episode 209 Recap: “Giving Up the Ghost”

At that exact moment, Wili hits “Enter,” and Medusa X is launched on the world!

Henry, who was working all day trying to settle accounts before the current issue closes, watches in horror as his Betty screen-saver transforms into Medusa’s terrifying visage.

Then everything in the building goes haywire just like in a “submarine in peril” movie right before a missile hits. The lights dim and are replaced with eerie red emergency lights, as “ah-oo-gah” alarms go off. All the computer screens go crazy, before they shut down completely and everything goes black.

Wili: It. Is. Done.

Back at the tree trimming, Betty and Hilda are acting like any family at the holidays and arguing. Betty insists on keeping with the family tradition of having the same tree, while Hilda wants the pink tree everybody was talking about at the mall.

Justin, for one, loves the idea of a pink tree, thinking it “would be so kitsch.” I’m guessing that attitude is what’s enabled him to keep living in that house all this time without killing himself. But Hilda’s had it with Betty …

Hilda: Get off my balls.

That line is the “So long, neighbor” of Chelsea. Actually, Hilda’s referring to her Christmas ornaments, which Betty is sitting on. But then Betty gets an emergency call from Henry, who tells her the Mode computers crashed and they’ve lost the entire issue.

At Mode, Henry explains to Daniel and Alexis that the hard drives are all dead. They’ve got just 12 hours to recreate the entire lost issue before the shipping deadline. And thanks to Betty, the entire staff is ready and waiting to help.

Daniel: You’re back.
Betty: For tonight.

That would so have been the perfect set-up for a Dreamgirls “One Night Only” montage. Instead, everyone gathers in the conference room and starts getting down to work.

But then Wili makes her second, equally stunning grand entrance of the episode. Alexis, outraged, announces she’s going to kick Wili’s ass, and my favorite part is that she prepares for the beating by first taking off her earrings, so you can tell the girl’s got her priorities straight.

Deputy Leo snarks, “Girl fight … sort of.” I know it’s meant to be a little dig at Alexis, but the fact is both those women could kick his weasly ass to Vogue and back again in the time it takes him to get his eyebrows waxed.