Crimes of Fashion (Ugly Betty)

"Crimes of Fashion" is the third episode in the third season, the 44th episode overall, of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, which will air on October 9, 2008. The episode was written by Henry Alonso Myers and directed by Victor Neili Jr.^[1]

Plot[]

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The episode begins with the police asking Betty where Daniel Meade was the night of the launch party. Betty hesitates, and the story flashes back to six hours earlier.

Betty is getting ready to go to work and notices her umbrella, which she normally leaves outside, is missing, and ends up getting wet. At work, Daniel asks Betty to say they were in Player magazine's office if anyone asks where he was after the Mode launch party. He also asks her to take a dusty coat to the laundry. Marc announces that Christina was pushed down the stairs, shocking everyone at Mode, but assures them that her and the baby are both fine. As a PR stunt, Wilhelmina offers a $100,000 reward for any information leading to the culprit, and then visits Christina in the hospital — accompanied by paparazzi and press, leaving Christina upset about Wilhelmina's lack of sympathy and integrity for her and the baby. Betty tells the police that Daniel was working late, leaving the police suspicious. When the police find footprints at the crime scene matching shoes Daniel owns, he is arrested.

Betty believes that Daniel is innocent, so she decides to try to figure out what really happened. First she visits Christina, but Christina barely remembers anything — but she does remember her fight with Stuart. Stuart arrives to visit Christina, so Betty takes the opportunity to ask him about the incident. Stuart denies pushing Christina, and tells her that his experimental treatment is not working and he is dying. Betty encourages him to be honest to Christina after all she has done for him, and he does tell her the truth. When Wilhelmina learns of this, she begins to have some sympathy and to better care of Christina.

Betty then approaches the security guard to retrieve the security tape, but the tape has been stolen. When the security guard tells her that a "little blonde girl" also asked for the tape, Betty confronts Amanda, who admits she requested the tape as she needs the reward Wilhelmina offered to cover her credit card bills, admitting she is having financial problems. Moreover, she tells Betty she saw Marc yelling at and slapping Wilhelmina after the launch party. Amanda and Betty confront Marc, but he explains that he was actually yelling at a mannequin that looked like Wilhelmina to relieve his stress and express frustration to his boss' demanding attitude. Marc recalls shoving Christina to get to the elevator, catching a glimpse of Claire angrily approaching Christina. The trio confront Claire, who admits she was drunk at the party after arguing with Wilhelmina and saw Christina by the elevator. However, she remembers Christina helped her to the toilet, and Alexis took care of her after that. When Alexis is asked about that night, she says she was in the restroom worrying about her facial hair growing when she saw Christina and Claire, but did not remember when Christina left.

The investigation leads to a dead end, so Marc, Amanda and Betty decide to reenact the scene by throwing the Wilhelmina mannequin down the stairs to help prove Daniel's innocence. The plan fails because the mannequin is too light, so to counter this, Marc and Amanda try to push Betty down the stairs, which causes all three of them to tumble down. Betty discovers the floor was dusty, and remembering that Daniel asked her to clean his dusty coat earlier, concludes that Daniel might be the culprit. She then finds the stolen security tape in Daniel's briefcase and watches it, but it turns out to be a tape of Daniel having sex with a woman in the copy room. When Betty confronts Daniel the next day, he reveals that the woman is Holly, the attorney he hired for Daniel Jr.'s custody battle, and he wants to hide it from the police because it would look bad. Betty is relieved that Daniel is innocent.

Finally, as Daniel leaves for the day, he asks Betty to give his coat back to Alexis, who had borrowed it two days ago, commenting that it looks better on her. With this, Betty puts two and two together and confronts Alexis, who admits that she pushed Christina. She tells Betty about the argument she had had with Wilhelmina that night. She was also wearing Daniel's shoes because her heel broke and they wore the same shoe size. She defends herself saying that it was not premeditated and for a moment, it was Wilhelmina she saw in front of her and not Christina. To Alexis, the baby Christina was carrying represented Wilhelmina's hold over Mode and her family. Realizing that they would not be rid of her soon enough, she pushed her. Once Christina fell down the flight of stairs, Alexis came to her senses and, feeling guilty, checked whether Christina was still alive, causing the coat to get dusty and the footprints to appear, then called 911.

Betty says that she knows Alexis is a good person, but that she needs to prove it herself. Alexis takes her words to heart and confesses to Daniel, Claire and the police. Later on, Betty finds her umbrella, where she had left it with a note from her new neighbor Jesse who had taken it. She then smiles to herself and decides to leave it outside. Alexis is arrested, and tells Claire she is Daniel Jr.'s real father.

Meanwhile, Hilda borrows Betty's apartment so she and Tony can discuss their future. Ignacio stops by to visit Betty while Hilda is out getting ice cream, and is shocked to see Tony, who was in the shower when the door rang and decided to surprise Hilda. When Tony grabs his clothes, he accidentally drops his wedding ring and a disappointed Ignacio realizes he is married. Later, at their home, Ignacio and Hilda argue about her dating a married man, though they later come to an understanding of the situation after Ignacio talks to Betty.

Production[]

This is the third episode (after "Sofia's Choice" and "Odor in the Court") to begin at the climax of the events and then return to reveal what had happened earlier.

Casting[]

This episode introduced Mark Consuelos in the recurring role of Detective Averaimo.

Music[]

"Breathe" by Two of Cups^[2][3]

Ratings[]

Despite strong competition from Survivor: Gabon on CBS, the NLCS game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies on Fox and the surprise debut of another Reveille-produced series that aired during the second half-hour, Kath & Kim on NBC, this episode helped Ugly Betty maintained its second-place showing with a 5.8/9 overall and a 2.6/7 among 18-49s with 8.5 million tuning in.^[4][5]

Reception[]

Zap2it gave this episode a positive review: "Oh boy. I wasn't quite sure where this season of Ugly Betty was going, but the third episode in was not only juicy, but kind of touching as well".

Also starring[]

• Rebecca Romijn as Alexis Meade
• Eddie Cibrian as Coach Diaz
• as Daniel Jr.
• Heather Tom as Holly Wright
• Derek Riddell as Stuart McKinney
• Alec Mapa as Suzuki St. Pierre
• Mark Consuelos as Det. Averaimo

Guest starring[]

• Rob Bartlett as the security guard

References[]

See also[]

• Ugly Betty
• Ugly Betty (season 3)