The Butterfly Effect Part 2

"The Butterfly Effect Part 2" is an episode from the dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on October 16, 2009. It is the second episode from Season 4, the 67th episode overall, and the conclusion to a two-part episode.

Plot[]

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In the wake of Daniel's return to Mode and handing Megan's story idea back to Betty, Betty finds herself being under attack from everyone at work, to the point of someone breaking her glasses. During the next meeting, Wilhelmina challenges Betty to come up with something bolder than the insect jewelry concept. While looking through her notes she discovers a new and last-minute idea after she sees a piece of cloth on a photo of a model and pitches a story about malaria. Wilhelmina goes with the idea but this causes more bad blood for Betty's co-workers, especially for Matt and Megan, who think Betty and Daniel are still a team.

At Daniel's apartment that night, fueled by his memories of Molly, Daniel's erratic and violent temper has Betty concerned, even as she tries to help him at the expense of her co-workers. After waking up late she arrives at the United Nations, where the chaos ensues over responsibilities, as Betty tries to please a designer, feuding models, and Matt showcasing a smiling mosquito. This leads Betty and Matt to argue and when he accuses her of sleeping with Daniel, Daniel shows up and punches Matt. A furious Wilhelmina then lectures Betty for the chaotic shoot as well as Daniel for letting his temper get out of hand. She asks them both to leave the shoot and questions Betty's true ability to change in her workplace. Betty and Daniel talk about what has happened between the two of them and agree that they should move on from boss and assistant to just being friends. Daniel also decides that it is time to seek help for his anger.

At home, after looking at her "blog", Betty decides to change her image, so she takes the dress suit Christina sent and wears it to work, along with the new glasses to replace the broken ones. When she arrives at work, almost everyone is surprised to see a "New Betty" although Amanda and Marc are still somewhat unaware. The "New Betty" also apologizes to Matt about what happened at the shoot, then tells him that she will not answer to Daniel but adds that she is moving on from Matt. She also shows Megan her infamous poncho from her first day at Mode that she now has framed to hang on the wall at her office. As she walks out of the building that evening, she turns down Daniel's offer to ride with him in favor of taking her own limo.

Meanwhile, Wilhelmina runs into a private investigator, who then proceeds to tell Wilhelmina about Nico's boyfriend. This makes Wilhelmina more concerned and when she tries to convince Nico to talk about what happened that night when she was attacked by Jonathan, which in turn led to Nico pushing him off the yacht the night of his disappearance. Although they give the detective a false alibi, flashbacks reveal that they actually went to the yacht to get rid of the evidence that might tie Nico to Jonathan's demise. The ploy works, except for a small blood stain that is still visible on the yacht.

At home Justin is upset over Hilda talking to Marc. This has Hilda trying to find ways to help Justin, even starting a fake profile on a social network site, which Ignacio thinks is a bad idea, even after reminding her about what she did when she was a teenager with the pregnancy that resulted in Justin. When she visits Marc the next day at work, she changes her mind and allows Marc to be friends with Justin. Hilda then later talks to Justin about his situation at school and that he can turn to her if he wants to.

At Amanda's reception desk, she encounters a woman named Helen, a former receptionist who has just been hired as a temp, and the two strike up a friendship. While at the desk later that evening, Helen reveals to Amanda why she gave her job up and when she tells Amanda about her past it parallels Amanda, and she begins to take a look at her own future. The following day, Amanda sees Helen taking things after her temp assignment is finished, which mirrors Amanda taking stuff from the Closet. Amanda then gives Helen her earpiece as a reminder of their friendship.

Production[]

In an interview with TV Guide, creator Silvio Horta admitted that Paula Abdul was to guest star in this episode, but the show went with Kristen Johnston instead. "We got many, many calls about her wanting to be on the show. The idea was Amanda sees a version of herself that has gone wrong and I thought, "Paula has expressed interest in doing the show. What about this part?" At that point, it was just one episode. There was any one of a number of miscommunications, and it got fouled up. But we wish her the best."^[1]

See also[]

• Ugly Betty
• Ugly Betty (season 4)

Notes[]

• For the second hour, the episode saw an increase with 5.2 million viewers tuning and placing a 1.5 among 18- to 49-year-olds and a 3.5/6 overall, which was good enough for third. This was up from the first hour, when it had 5.0 million tuning in and placing a 1.3 18-49 and 3.4/6 overall. As expected, the two-hour premiere of Ugly Betty on ABC improved on the previous week's reruns of FlashForward and comedies, bringing the network an okay third-place finish for the night.^[2][3] It also had better numbers in this timeslot than the previous season, when it had Wife Swap in this time period.^[4][5]
• There were a lot of good reviews about this two-hour episode, especially coming from Zap2it^[6] and Entertainment Weekly.^[7]

References[]