"Ugly Betty" (3.11) recaplet: Dress for success

This week's Ugly Betty is pivotal in setting up the second half of the season, with Betty moving forward at YETI, romantic upheavals at Mode, and a shocking (well, not so much) family emergency.

See all the details after the break!

Betty is excited at getting to meet her personal heroine Jodie Papadakis at YETI, but the rest of the family is more concerned with getting the house ready for the grand re-opening of Hilda's boutique. Betty has promised to help out, but she's pre-occupied with YETI, and the conflicts between work and family are going to play out in a major way this episode. Btw, is this not the greatest sign you've ever seen?

Back at Mode it's time for a dreaded staff meeting, where it's revealed that Elle kicked Mode's ass in sales the month before, and they have to make sure it doesn't happen again (and Wilhelmina delivers my favorite line of the night when she looks around at the terrified staff and says "if it does ... one of you dies").

Daniel enlists Betty's help in preparing the next issue. They've uncovered a lost Halston dress (unearthed in the catacombs under Studio 54, no doubt, along with a bedraggled and confused Bianca Jagger and various fashionable C.H.U.D.) and arranged for Kiera Knightley to wear it on the cover, but Betty has to pick it up from the collector's loft, and make sure no one finds out about it (hmm ... what could possibly go wrong?).

Betty and Marc attend their first YETI class, where Betty finally meets her role model Jodie (played by the fabulous Bernadette Peters). Unfortunately, Jodie tears into Betty for not attending the mixer the night before, and tells her she's going to have to make some sacrifices if she wants to make it. Yikes! I'm not used to seeing Bernadette cold and scary, though it still doesn't hold a candle to the nightmare fuel that was ... Heartbeeps (oh c'mon, you knew I had to bring it up).

Betty is humiliated, but vows to make YETI her top priority. Jodie's homework is to get forty industry contacts before the next class, and Betty calls in her favor from Marc (as you recall, she's responsible for getting him into YETI) to help her out. He reluctantly agrees, and tells her to meet him and Amanda (who only has a brief cameo this week) at a bar called "Swill" (I guess "Gulp", "Guzzle" and "Ingurgitate" were already booked).

Betty agrees, but it'll mean missing more of the preparations for Hilda's opening. She calls her sister to explain, but it's obvious that Hilda is very disappointed.

That night at "Swill" Betty tries to "network" for the first time, but is raked over the coals by Marc and Amanda for talking to a caterer, and not someone who can help her career. Marc explains that there are steps to successful networking involving forging a bond, getting info, and getting out. Betty is unsure of herself, but Marc tells her "you're a mean, not-so-lean contact getting machine. You're The Terminator ... no, you're The Bettynator."

Betty tries Marc's steps, and is amazed when they work. After getting thirty-nine contacts, she meets fellow networker Teri (guest star Nikki Blonsky), who works for rival Elle but seems nice and friendly, allowing Betty to drop her guard (did she learn nothing from the whole Kimmie debacle?). When Betty excuses herself to go the restroom she leaves her Blackberry on the table, as an evil grin spreads over Teri's face.

Betty is in a good mode the next morning, until Daniel tells her she'll have to pick up the dress later that day, which means she'll miss out on helping Hilda again. Things gets worse when she arrives at the loft and finds out that Teri impersonated her and has nabbed the dress.

Willi is livid and wants to fire her, but Daniel tries to diffuse the situation. They arrange a video call to Elle, who admit to having the dress, but refuse to relinquish it. What's worse, when Willi tells them that they're dis-invited from her fancy cocktail party that night, Teri basically sticks out her tongue and says "nyah, nyah, we're having our own party".

Betty vows to Daniel that she'll find some way to make it right, but even he looks somewhat disgusted with her. He tells her to go home, and that he probably should have trusted someone else to do the job. Ouch.

As Hilda's grand opening gets underway, Christina has come to help out, but her pregnancy is making her hormones go crazy, as she experiences strange crying jags and fantasies about lunatic gay reality stars building things and screaming at her.

Anyway, Betty is helping out with the opening, but she pulls Teri's business card out of her purse to throw it out and realizes that there may be a way to get the dress back after all. The caterer that Betty spent so much time talking to at "Swill" is the same guy who's catering the party at Elle. As a plan forms in Betty's head, she gets ready to leave, which brings the wrath of both Hilda and Ignatio down on her. Papi begs her to stay because her family needs her, but she says "I'm sorry you don't understand, but I have to do this."

Betty and Marc show up at the Elle office, and Betty's caterer friend lets them in (because she was so nice to him at "Swill"). As they're struggling to get the Halston dress off the mannequin (and I know this dress is supposed to be vintage and awe-inspiring, but to me it looks like someone went nuts with a BeDazzler), Teri catches them, and Marc and Betty have to book it to the elevators carrying the entire mannequin.

They show up at Willi's fancy cocktail party with the mannequin (it's never explained how they managed to get from the party to Willi's building) and Willi decides to let them come in and mingle. Daniel tells Betty how proud he is, and Marc drops his guard for a moment and tells her affectionately, "doors are really opening for us."

Betty gets a call from Hilda, but sees that Jodie is approaching her, so she puts her phone on "silent". Jodie drops her guard momentarily as well, and when Betty asks her to be her mentor, she says with a small grin "let's start with me not kicking you out of YETI, and we'll take it from there."

After the party Betty finally returns home, only to find a dark, empty house with overturned chairs and spilled food. She checks her phone, and sees that Hilda tried calling her dozens of times. She frantically calls her back, and a tearful Hilda tells her that they're at the hospital ... because Papi had a heart attack.

Meanwhile, things are heating up with the office quadrangle of Willi, Daniel, Connor, and his fiancee, Molly. Willi shows Daniel the security tape of him kissing Molly, but much to his surprise, she's not going to blackmail him with it. She's decided to do the right thing, and give him the tape, because she doesn't want anyone getting hurt.

Or ... she's going to let the affair with Daniel and Molly take its course. That way she can be there for Connor to help him pick up the pieces of his shattered heart. Yes, that's more like it. Don't scare me like that, Willi!

Daniel tells her that he definitely has feelings for Molly, but is afraid he won't have the opportunity to express it to her, as she seems to be avoiding him. Willi suggests he come clean to her at the cocktail party, and if it helps, Willi will even distract Connor so Daniel and Molly can have some alone time.

Things work swimmingly for Willi, as the party is a hit, and she rocks the hell out of the dress she's wearing (even if it does like the hull of a fiberglass boat). Daniel and Molly manage to talk, and he finally tells her how he feels, but she's confused about what to think, and she and Connor end up leaving the party early.

As Daniel is heading home he sees Molly on his stoop. She says she does have feelings for him, and just broke up with Connor. As they kiss, Willi gets a knock at the door. It's Connor, who's not taking this thing lying down (although he will in a few minutes). They kiss passionately, as we cut to the hospital and the heartbreaking scene of the family gathered around Papi's bed.

End of episode

Well, we knew this was coming, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. From next week's previews, it looks like Hilda's not going to let Betty off the hook, and the guilt that Betty has is going to be with her for a while.

I'm giving this episode a solid eight out of ten on the Marc fabulous scale. There were a lot of stories going on all at once, but the show handled it well. And it nicely sets up the second half of the season.

What did you think of this week's episode?