IMHO "Ugly Betty" (1.20): Rabbit test

ABC's Ugly Betty returned to the air last night with a belated Easter-themed episode, and earns an up arrow by bringing some tension to the relationship of Betty and boyfriend Matt, and addressing the question of Baby William's parentage.

Mode is still in dire financial straits, but Daniel is hoping that'll change after Betty receives an "egg-vitation" to the fancy Easter egg hunt hosted by Matt's dad Cal Hartley (played by Sledgehammer himself, David Rasche).

Cal is a financial bigwig, and Daniel is hoping to get a meeting with him to discuss bailing out the company. He's crushed when Betty and her family receive an invite, and the ever-thoughtful Betty tries not to rub it in. (If it were me, I'd wave that egg around and sing in his face, I've got a golden ticket, I've got a golden tiiiiiicket. But that's just me.)

Betty promises to get Daniel a meeting with Cal, which is easier said then done considering Matt wants nothing to do with it. Betty pleads, but Matt is insistent on keeping his private life separate from ... his dad's business ... or something. It was a bit sketchy why Matt was so adamant about not wanting to help arrange the meeting. He just chalks it up to "daddy issues".

When Daniel finds out that he won't be getting that meeting, he and Wilhelmina decide that the only two choices left are to declare bankruptcy ... or cut back on payroll. Cue the pink slips, including one for poor Amanda, which leads to the meanest and funniest scene in the episode.

As Amanda tearfully says "who's going to welcome them now and tell them where to sign in?" the firing lackey puts a "Welcome - Please sign in" sign on the counter, and when she pleads, "but they need to see something pretty!" he places a single daisy in a vase next to the sign. Now that's harsh.

After seeing all of the damage, Betty ends up going behind Matt's back and invites Daniel to the Easter egg hunt anyway, and tries to secretly introduce him to Cal. Matt finds out, of course, and after first giving Betty the "I thought I could trust you" look, eventually realizes he's been sort of a jerkass about this whole thing

Daniel gets his meeting, and Cal decides to help out the company, but first he makes Daniel debase himself by putting on a bunny costume and staggering around like he's auditioning for Donnie Dorko.

Meanwhile, Willi is having pictures of Baby William made when the photographer mentions how much William looks Christina. In fact, the baby doesn't look anything like Willi. Could it be possible that Christina really is the mother?

Turns out that she did have sex with her boyfriend right before she had Willi's egg implanted, so it is conceivable (ha!) that Baby William has no Meade lineage.

A blood test is done, and the results show that Willi is the mother. Upon hearing this Willi immediately forbids Christina from having anything to do with the baby (and is no doubt the setup for Christina's departure from the show). But were the results real? I wouldn't put it past Willi to have them faked, so we'll see.

Well, this certainly wasn't the best episode of the season, but it's so good having Betty back I'm giving it an up arrow anyway. It cleared up the Mode financial mess (for now), and it allowed more development of Matt who, despite his adorkability, is a prepostorous character ("my parents are super-rich and influential, but I'm just a jeans-and-cheeseburger regular Joe who likes banging every chick I meet but have found love with a frumpy secretary").

But the absolute best part of the episode (and what clinched the up arrow) was Justin's tribute to Dynasty. It seems that he finally went through the gay teen boy's rite of passage and watched a Dynasty marathon, and his assessment of Matt and his problems with his rich family is spot-on:

"It's like when Blake has to choose between his wife Krystle and her look-a-like Rita, also played by Linda Evans in a red wig."

As I've said many times, Justin is wise beyond his years.

What did you think of this week's return? With only two episodes left, plus a two-hour finale, what are you hoping to see the rest of this season?