I See Me, I.C.U.

"I See Me, I.C.U." is the eighth episode in the second season, and the 31st episode overall, of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on November 15, 2007. The episode was written by Bill Wrubel and directed by Rodman Flender. This episode would mark Alan Dale's last episode in this series as a full-time regular, as Ugly Betty would be his third television series in which Dale's characters were all written out of each series respectively through fatal heart attacks, following Neighbours and The O.C..

Plot

The story begins with the news of Bradford ending up in the hospital after he suffered a heart attack during the wedding, as reported by Suzuki St. Pierre. Betty shows up at the hospital, where the resuscitated Bradford is in the Intensive Care Unit, and she's snubbed by Daniel. When Christina see this, Betty tells her that Daniel has indeed fired her. And while Betty goes unnoticed by Daniel, he does see and kicks Wilhelmina out of Bradford's room, saying that since the wedding didn't take place she is not a member of the family. As Daniel and Alexis argue, Bradford wakes up and tells them to stop fighting, and they do. As Alexis leaves the room, Daniel tells Bradford that after what has happened, he still loves him and after Daniel leaves, Bradford said that he loved Daniel too. While the two sit around over what has happened, Daniel gets some encouragement from Amanda, who says that Daniel does have his father's jaw line.

Betty goes back to the MODE office to clean out her desk and she meets L'Amanda, the weekend security guard, who is aware of Betty's relationship with Henry, since L'Amanda has the hots for "Sugar Stick" (aka Henry). As she walks in to pick up her pink bunny Betty hears a voice that wants to take it from her. She then looks up and sees that she's talking to the version of herself (wearing the "Guadajara" poncho) from the first day that she started her job, as it appears that Past Betty is disappointed by some of the things that this Current Betty has been doing with her life, not to mention being disappointed that current Betty have not moved up in the publishing world (and learning that Amanda is still mean). Betty later comes back to reality as she sees Christina walk in.

When Betty gets home she finds Claire and Yoga hiding in her bedroom, waiting for her. Claire tells Betty that she plans to leave the country for Italy that very night, but before she goes she has to know that in the event that Bradford dies he has not changed his will to leave the company to Wilhelmina. She gives Betty the location of the will and the combination of the safe in which it's contained, and Betty decides to go along with Claire's plan so she can try to make amends for having kept Wilhelmina's affair with Dwayne to herself. After Betty leaves, Ignacio hears noises coming from Betty's room and he discovers Claire and Yoga, Yoga pretending to be cable TV repairmen, a gimmick that Claire finds lame. Soon after they are also discovered by Hilda, who gives Claire a makeover to help her to look more like the Latina on the passport (under the faux name "Maria Elena Sonzoni") that she intends to use. After she sees Justin coming from the living room Claire decides that she can't leave without seeing her family one last time, so Ignacio agrees to help get Claire into the hospital and get to Daniel. Claire also tells Yoga that if she doesn't return, Yoga is to leave without her.

While riding back to the Meade Building, Wilhelmina ponders her next move as she tells Marc she has to find a way to become a Meade and was hoping to walk into the Building as the new owner. And like Betty, Wilhelmina decides that she'd like to find Bradford's will, too, before Bradford gives everything away to charity (which Marc thought was a person's name).

Later that day at the Building, Amanda won't let Betty (who claimed she left stuff behind) back into the building because she's no longer an employee, so Betty turns to Henry for help. Betty and Henry make their way to Bradford's office and are soon joined by Wilhelmina and Marc. After the foursome square off Betty opens the safe (the combination written on her hand), but there is no will there, so she and Marc get the idea that the coveted document might be somewhere in Fey's secret love dungeon, thus giving the foursome the same idea, prompting Marc to tell Betty that she has something on her glasses, and then tosses them to the floor. He gives Henry a push, and grabs Wilhelmina. They run off and lock Henry and Betty in the office. As Henry decides that he and Betty should crawl through the building's heating ducts to get to the secret room, Wilhelmina is offended that she never knew about this place and that she was never invited there. In the dungeon, Marc finds the will that states that Wilhelmina would only get a share, but only after she marries Bradford. Meanwhile, in another part of the building, Henry falls through a grate and practically lands in L'Amanda's lustful arms. He distracts her long enough for Betty to make her escape, then he breaks free from L'Amanda's embrace. Like Wilhelmina and Marc, they also find the will and calls Claire to tell her that Daniel and Alexis will still inherit the company.

As they prepare to leave, Betty decides to write a nasty letter and leave it on Marc's desk, but as she tapes it to the computer Betty and Henry accidentally discover that Marc has been ordained over the internet to perform weddings. They realize what Wilhelmina is up to, so they rush to the hospital to stop her plan. While Bradford's room is empty, Wilhelmina and Marc slip in so that Marc can perform a legal wedding ceremony, but Bradford would come to his senses and stops the ceremony by telling Wilhelmina that Daniel had told him about how she'd cheated on him with her bodyguard Dwayne. When he asked her to look him in the eye to see if she loved him, Wilhelmina didn't, prompting Bradford to ask her to leave.

When Ignacio arrives at the hospital, he informs Daniel and Alexis that their mother is here, so they head to the elevator, where besides telling her children how much she loves them, Claire also tells Daniel the reason why Betty hadn't told him sooner about Wilhelmina's fling with Dwayne, which was to get Ignacio back into the United States. As Betty arrived to Bradford's room, she is relieved that Bradford didn't marry Wilhelmina now that he knows the truth. Betty then calls Claire's cell phone so that the Meades can be reunited. As Claire answers the phone, she tells her children that will give up her plan to flee to Italy, so she walks out of the elevator and reveal her identity to the reporters and photographers in the hallway as she enters Bradford's room. The two talk and finally reconcile for what would be their last time together.

Daniel tells Betty that after what has happened and that he now knows why she had to betray him, he'd like her to come back to work for him, but as she once again sees her past Betty looking at her, she does not think that she should return to MODE because Betty believes that she is not the Betty that she used to be. The Past Betty is relieved as she walks away (and as usual, still bumps into glass doors).

Claire leaves and is caught by police and is dragged away. Betty again visits Bradford after Daniel asks Betty to stay with him. Bradford tells Betty that he wants her to promise that she will take care of Daniel because he knew from the first day he saw her walk into the building that she would be the one that guide Daniel's path. As Betty gets Bradford his water, he dies as Betty watches the doctors attempt to unsuccessfully save him. After his death and Claire's arrest makes the evening news, the Suarezes turn around to see Yoga sneak off towards the airport when they hear the reporter mentioned Claire stating that Yoga (whose real name is Amelia Bluman) was "killed" in their escape attempt.

Hours later, Wilhelmina later appears in the morgue and makes a proposition to the young doctor who is attending to Bradford's body.

As we find out in "Bananas for Betty", Whilhelmina took some of Bradford's sperm and plans to give birth to a baby, so that she can get her stake in the company.

Production

"I See Me, I.C.U." was originally titled "You May Find Yourself", but as with most episodes in the series, it was changed at the last minute.^[1]

Prior to the episode's airing, there was speculation that one of the series' regulars would die in the second season by year's end.^[2]

This would be the first episode in which viewers would hear Yoga's real name, Amelia Bluman. It also marked Lorraine Toussaint's final appearance in that recurring role. Ironically, viewers were hoping that Yoga would stick around as a regular character because of the chemistry between Claire and Yoga, but the producers have decided to write her character out of the series, with no plans to bring her back.^[3]

Music notes

The song played at the end of the episode is "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" by U2.

References

Also starring

• Alec Mapa as Suzuki St. Pierre
• Lorraine Toussaint as Yoga

Guest stars

• Mo'Nique - L'Amanda
• Ossie Mair - Dr. Fryktman
• Gina St. John - Newscaster
• Patrick Cavanaugh - Morgue Doctor