Bananas for Betty

"Bananas for Betty" is the tenth episode in the second season, and the 33rd episode overall, of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on December 6, 2007. The episode was written by Tracy Poust and Jon Kinnally and directed by Michael Spiller.

Plot

The story begins with Daniel and Alexis sitting in Daniel's office where they watch a video of Bradford's will, which was interrupted by Betty (who got a closeup). As he looks into the camera, he tells the siblings that he was sick and upon his death he wanted one of them to run Meade Publications; however, as he begins to explain the situation, he turns the camera off by mistake and the two are left without an answer. This causes Daniel and Alexis, who have been civil since Bradford's death, to once again renew their competitive sibling rivalry. The two later try to resolve the situation by calling Claire from prison but their mother is tired of the two arguing and tells them to settle this once and for all. The Meade siblings decide to solve their problem with a paintball contest.

Nick walks over to Amanda's desk and sees her using paperclips, which he had been looking for all day. Amanda counters by saying she had a good reason, and shows him a string of clips that lead to Halston, who is dressed up in nailclip couture. Nick responds by getting security to remove Halston from the building, stunning Amanda.

Meanwhile, Betty's workday is interrupted by Hilda's visit to make copies for her new beauty salon. Betty has invited Henry and Gio to help fix up Hilda's new business. Gio and Hilda hit it off, but things don't go as well for Henry and Betty. Gio offers to help Henry fix a sink but Henry says no. After Henry fixes the sink on his own, however, he gets drenched; his clothes are replaced by a new set whipped up by Justin. When Hilda and Gio announce that they are going to a salsa club they ask Betty and Henry to come along; however, Betty and Henry already have plans at Henry's apartment, so they turn down the invitation.

For Wilhelmina, her attempts to get funding for SLATER are causing most of her staffers to start losing patience, and even the attempts to get financiers have hit a roadblock. Marc suggests another option; change her image. Apparently, it works and the "makeover" makes the headlines on "Fashion TV." However, later that evening after a meeting with her investors, Wilhelmina grabs a taxi only to be confronted by an elderly woman, on whom she slams the door. Unfortunately, the elderly woman turns out to be Betty White, and thanks to a pair of eyewitnesses who catch the incident on a cell phone, it makes headlines even on YouTube. Wilhelmina is surprised over this negative publicity, and when Marc assures her that it won't affect the investors, the phones start ringing endlessly with calls from the backers.

At Henry's apartment, Henry tells Betty what their romantic evening consists of: making ice cream and watching a movie, though Betty sees this as boring. Although they attempt to spice things up by having Betty place ice cream and toppings on Henry, the evening for the two becomes a disaster, so Betty suggests that the two should join Hilda and Gio at the club. Once there, Betty sees her sister and Gio hit it off by drinking and dancing, while Henry feels that he is out of place as Betty tries to loosen him up. Even though Gio offers to buy drinks, Henry turns him down and loses his cool, getting his shirt burned by the flaming pelicans (drinks), and walking out on Betty. Moments later Betty finds that Henry has returned and is showing off his dance moves, thus winning Betty over. The two decide that they will return to the apartment, leaving Hilda and Gio alone. Gio watches the whole scene and ignores Hilda, who sighs, giving the idea that she has "discovered" something. However, as Hilda and Gio return to the Suarez home, Hilda thanks Gio for a wonderful evening, then tells him that she wasn't "the Suarez sister that you like", as she has figured out Gio's true feelings about Betty.

Back at Mode, Daniel and Alexis prepare for their paintball battle, with Amanda on team Daniel and Nick and Kenny on team Alexis. During the entire evening the teams try to eliminate each other, but it is Alexis who seems to have the upper hand, even taking out most of Daniel's team. Amanda finally confronts Nick and begins to shoot at him only to find that their dislikes are a turn-on, and they start getting passionate by making out with each other against a window. Alexis then comes in and shoots Amanda, leaving only herself and Daniel in the game. Finally, as Daniel and Alexis confront each other, Daniel sees Alexis fall to the ground; as he prepares to shoot, Daniel instead picks up Alexis and holds her, saying that they can run the company together. Despite this gesture, Alexis tricks him by taking his gun and shooting him, making her the winner and the rightful CEO/President of Meade Publications. The following morning, Betty learns of Daniel's loss as he ponders about what it will be like working under his sister.

The following day, Wilhelmina gets a surprise phone call from Betty White, and the two agree to meet at the hospital to call a truce. Unfortunately, the truce, broadcast live on TV, turns out to be a setup; as the cameras started rolling, Miss White pretends to shake Wilhelmina's hand, only to pull it away and "blaming" her for trying to hurt her sound hand. Wilhelmina cannot believe this, but White was adamant in her story. Later in her apartment, Wilhelmina tells Marc that there will be no SLATER, thanks in part to the publicity they didn't want with Miss White, so she turns to "Plan B," which she removes from the refrigerator and shows to Marc - the sperm she recovered from (the then newly dead) Bradford Meade, which she plans to use to give birth to an heir and get her stake in the company and become part of the Meade family.

Production

The episode is a homage to the two Betties, that of America Ferrera's character getting an ice cream named after her, and guest star Betty White, who parodied the title character in the 2007 TV Land Awards.^[1] Ironically, Mark Indelicato, who played Justin Suarez in the series, guest starred on White's TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland after Ugly Betty ended its run in 2010.

For the first time in the series, the opening scene began with the starring cast's credits before the Ugly Betty title sequence was shown.

This episode mentioned the 2008 movie 27 Dresses, which Christina had exclusive passes to. The film's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, got promotional consideration in this episode. Fox was also the distributor of The Devil Wears Prada, whose producer also helmed Dresses. This episode mentioned the Brazilian 2005 movie Se Eu Fosse Você starring Glória Pires and Tony Ramos were cited by Betty, Hilda and Gio.

The scene where Wilhelmina and Marc are walking inside during their conversation in the daytime is Downtown Los Angeles, a couple of Los Angeles County MTA buses are visible in the background.

The Fassbinder German film Henry mentioned in this episode, Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant, is translated in English as The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and is a story about a lesbian love affair. The film was released in 1972.

Another reference to the movie The Devil Wears Prada is made when Fashion TV host Suzuki St. Pierre says "The Devil DONATES Prada", referring to Wilhelmina and her good deeds.

Candace Kita, who had brief cameo in the episode, also had a cameo in an episode of Pepper Dennis, which starred current Ugly Betty regular Rebecca Romijn in the title role.

Alexis' outfit was loosely inspired by the 1968 film Barbarella, the scene where Alexis starts looking for Daniel when she says "Daniel, come out and play..." was inspired by the 1979 movie The Warriors, and the scene in which she "shoots" Daniel was inspired by a scene from X-Men, where Wolverine holds, then kills Mystique (the character that Romijn played in the film series), who was disguised as Storm after he held her.

The YouTube video featuring Wilhelmina slamming the cab door on Betty White, as mentioned by Marc in this episode, can be seen here.

This was the last episode of the second season to be shown in the United Kingdom because of the U.S. writers' strike. The show restarted in April 2008.

Reception

In a review from Zap2it, Hanh Nguyen welcome the comedic elements back to the show: "Ugly Betty gets past the grimness of Bradford's death to return to a more cheerful, wackier time. Alexis and Daniel get their sibling rivalry on, Betty and Henry go on a double date with Hilda and Gio and Wilhelmina tries to change her cutthroat image in order to woo investors. Oh yeah, and a Golden Girl!"^[2]

Betty White's performance in this episode also won over reviewers in "New York Magazine"("Golden Girl Gets It") and "The San Diego Union-Tribune"("AARP Smackdown").

At the same time, there was criticism over the product placement for "27 Dresses".^[3] This is the fourth time in the series that a brand name has been used, following Gucci ("Swag"), Victoria's Secret ("How Betty Got Her Grieve Back") and "Wicked" ("Something Wicked This Way Comes").

Ratings

The episode was seen by 9.3 million in the United States and scored a 6.4 rating/10 share^[4][5] and placed 26th in the December 3rd-9th, 2007 nielsens.^[6]

Surprisingly in Chicago, the episode (which aired on ABC O&O WLS-TV) managed to beat an NFL game between the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins that was airing on WPWR-TV^[7]

References

Also starring

• Max Greenfield as Nick Pepper
• John Cho as Kenny
• Freddy Rodriguez as Giovanni "Gio" Rossi
• Alec Mapa as Suzuki St. Pierre

Guest stars

• Betty White as Herself
• Ted Lyde as Security guard
• Ian Gregory as Bradford's attorney
• Patrick Cavanaugh as Morgue director