Ugly Betty Episode 210 Recap: “Bananas for Betty”

Cut to pecs. Inside a tight striped shirt. That shows off major biceps. This episode gets substantially better in direct proportion to how revealing Henry’s clothes are. The camera pulls back and we see his belly button showing, as well as boxers peeking out above pants that hang around his lower butt cheeks. Justin happily shows off his creation …

Justin: See what I did here? I mixed a little bit of prep with a little bit of gangsta, and I found an edge where there was none.

Frankly, I expected better from Justin. This whole look is disappointingly frightful. But nothing so bad that it couldn’t win raves on Project Runway this season.

Hilda runs in all excited that she asked Rico out and they’re going dancing. It makes total sense to me that Hilda and Rico would hook up, what with both of them being young entrepreneurs and all. Maybe they can pool their businesses together! The ads could say, “Put Your Lips Around a Foot-Long While You’re Being Blown.” They’d make millions.

Then Rico struts in, crowing about fixing the sink in this deep “Mr. Porno Handyman” voice. And I’m either hard of hearing or not culturally aware, but I swear he asks Hilda if she likes something called “rigatoni” music.

Betty says it sounds like fun, leading Hilda to invite them along. But when Henry glares at her, Betty says they need to stay in, since Henry’s got a big surprise planned.

Cut to Henry’s big surprise. Instead of just having ice cream, he says, tonight they’re going to make it themselves. And he holds up a box of something called “Professor Freeze’s Lil Ice Cream Maker,” complete with a cartoon of a guy in a cap and gown gesturing with a pointer. If this is more of ABC’s product placement, I take back my boycott, because I so have to have this.

Henry goes ahead and serves Betty a flavor of his own invention called “Bananas for Betty.” Excellent name for an ice cream, lousy name for an episode. He’s also rented a Fassbinder movie called … and again, I’m either hard of hearing or culturally unaware, but I swear it sounded like “The Bitter Tears of Maria Von Trapp.”

Betty, remembering all of Rico’s kinky talk from earlier, says she has something a little more fun in mind involving ice cream ...

Cut to Betty holding up a cherry. And placing it carefully on a sundae. On Henry’s “dead ringer for Michelangelo’s David” torso. Woo-hoo! More shirtless Henry! I’m so pleased my letter-writing campaign paid off.

Starting to get a bit nippy from the ice cream, Henry says he thinks this is one of those ideas that might be better in theory than actually experiencing. That’s true of so much in life. Like boy bands. And all-you-can-eat sushi. And heterosexuality.