Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ugly Betty)

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" is the sixth episode in season two of the dramedy series Ugly Betty, and the 29th episode in the series, which aired on November 1, 2007. The episode was written by Henry Alonso Myers and directed by Wendey Stanzler. The episode takes its title from the phrase "something wicked this way comes", as well as the fact that this episode features the popular Broadway musical Wicked as a date venue.

Plot

The day begins with Betty creeping down the stairs, trying to sneak out. Ignacio catches her and rushes her to the kitchen, as they celebrate Hilda's first week at her new salon job, so he's planned a celebration. But Betty says she's going to the movies, which is what Ignacio didn't want to hear, since he was hoping that she got over her feelings for Henry, plus he wanted her to stick around for the family's sake, even to the point of the entire Suarez family asking to go with her to the cinema. However, Betty does sneak away...and meets up with Henry, waiting behind the trash can, to tell him that she can't go. He already knows: "Your family is really loud." Henry is frustrated that Betty has so many friends who don't want her to be alone, and says that they see less of each other now than they did when they weren't going out. Henry believes that they should tell people that they're going out, but nixes the idea, saying the utter stupidity of what they're doing makes this impossible.

The following day Christina, who was putting together swimwear designs, notices Betty having something else on her mind, so she talks to her about intervention, using doughnuts as an example. Christina then figures out that Betty and Henry are seeing each other secretly when she starts noticing the two fidget awkwardly, and Christina realizes that Henry is Betty's "doughnuts". Christina thinks that it's crazy, but hot.

Bradford continues berating Daniel for losing the Atlantic Attire account, saying that Daniel should have lied to Luke Carnes and he could have taken Alexis's name off the masthead for a few months. Bradford can't believe Daniel couldn't think of a way to keep their business, and Alexis says that she has some contacts at Ralph Lauren from her time at Hudson. Daniel meekly says that he has contacts, too, but Bradford tells him that he's done enough, and that Alexis will take care of it. Elsewhere, Gio returns to tell Betty about the sandwich business he's launching and hands her a flyer for Gio's Sandwiches. After that conversation, Betty spots a dejected Daniel, who can't believe that Bradford has begun to bond with Alexis a lot more than ever.

Betty later goes to get Henry to "sign" something, and drops it under the desk. The two pop under there, where Betty asks if Henry wants to go on a real date to see Wicked. However, they bump into Daniel, who tells her that if she were seeing Henry he'd have to fire him to save Betty from certain heartache. Later on, Betty, who tried to get tickets but learns that they are sold out, lies to Daniel that she's dating Gio. At lunchtime, Daniel tries to coerce Betty into looking under the bun of his sandwich, where he put the ad for Wicked in his turkey and Swiss, because he got Betty and Gio tickets. He says that MODE has access to house seats, so Amanda can get tickets for just about anything. As Betty ships Daniel off to a meeting with advertisers before asking if she can have the tickets, he tells her he gave them to her "boyfriend," Gio, who later gives Betty one of the tickets because he doesn't think that she should be with Henry either, which causes Betty to fume profusely. Betty then walks up to Amanda, who tells Betty that if she wants her to help her to get another set of tickets, Betty will have to walk Halston for one month...in her bathing suit.

Hours later, Becks is there to hear Daniel's failure meeting with the advertisers. As Becks looks at the list of advertisers, he comes up with Sandra Winthrop, who owns a jewelry company. She's over fifty and foxy, says Becks, who adds that "If you want to land your advertiser, you have to land your advertisers."

It looks like Marc is doing his best to keeping his relationship with Cliff at arms length. First he sends Amanda running when he sees Cliff coming, then pushes him toward the elevator, and Cliff asks if they'll have dinner tonight at a locale other than one of their apartments. Later that day he tells Cliff on the phone that Wili ordered him to stay late. When Cliff shows up to see Marc several hours later, Amanda pops in, and Marc introduces Cliff as his "friend." Cliff then breaks up with Marc after he realizes that Marc is ashamed to introduce him to anyone. Cliff is outraged, and tells Amanda he is—or was—Marc's boyfriend and tells Marc that he is upset over his treatment of their relationship.

Marc had feared telling Wilhelmina that her daughter Nico won't be able to be her maid of honor because of a bad monkey bite, but Wilhelmina was more preoccupied with having to put on some weight (six pounds) before her next fitting with Vera Wang, not to mention being upset over the caterer segregating the chocolates for the reception. Later on, in the ladies room, Amanda tells Marc about how he was treating Cliff as Marc ponders what would happen if dumped Cliff and ended up all alone. They also talked about Marc knowing about how Nico is just avoiding her upcoming nuptials and that Wilhelmina doesn't really love Bradford. Wilhelmina overhears Marc and Amanda gossiping about her, and would confront Marc about it in her office moments later, saying that she hoping that Nico would show up but vows that she won't be alone. Wilhelmina then calls Victoria "Posh" Beckham to ask her to be her maid of honor, and Marc calls Cliff to apologize.

Back at the Suarezes, Justin, who was trading collectible "Playbill"s, learns from his friend that instead of working at the salon, Hilda is actually waiting tables at "High Beams." His friend says "It's like Hooters, just not as classy." They also shows Justin a video of her dad's waitress, who is Hilda. When Hilda arrives home, Justin tells his mother that he knows about her working at High Beams. Hilda then tells Justin that she was fired from the beauty salon and that she needed to make money to support the family, which disappointed Justin.

When Betty and Henry show up at the theatre to see Wicked, they run into Gio in the lobby. It turns out that Daniel and Sandra are there, too, so Betty ends up sitting with Gio and Henry sits with Gio's little sister, Antonella, who seems to not like Betty after she asks her about being too old for braces. Henry is jealous to see that Gio has his arm around Betty, and Betty isn't pleased to see Daniel getting cozy with Sandra, just to save the magazine. Betty and Henry almost get caught kissing in the lobby, so they sneak backstage, while Daniel and Sandra sneak into the coat-check room, where Daniel starts having second thoughts about seducing Sandra, who likes the idea of being seduced. Eventually he decides against this but does convince Sandra to advertise in MODE, even though she would pass on a celebration offered by him.

Betty and Henry begin to argue over how to handle this relationship, but as they are running around looking for a place to be alone, they find themselves accidentally onstage via Glinda's bubble, shocking everyone in the audience and the cast. After the two are thrown out and banned for life from all productions of Wicked, Betty realizes that her purse is still in the building. Daniel then confronts Betty and asks her why she's being so stupid, setting herself up for heartache, but she says it's her heart. Daniel thinks she is making a mistake and leaves. Betty then she decides to just go home to talk to Hilda, who also tells her that she's stupid, but for not choosing to spend every moment that she can with the man she loves, no matter how long or short their time together will be, so Betty goes to Henry, where they have their night of Wicked-ness together.

Meanwhile, Justin and Ignacio surprise Hilda with a new salon chair and hair dryer so she can start her own business, which was used with "Playbill"s that Justin traded in for money.

Production

Scenes from the episode were filmed on location at the Pantages Theatre with the Los Angeles production company of the hit musical Wicked, which was a stand-in for the Broadway production.^[1] In this production, Megan Hilty and original Broadway standby Eden Espinosa played Glinda and Elphaba respectively. However, that this wasn't a real show is obvious in the fact that at the end of "Popular", Elphaba is still seen on stage next to Glinda when she is supposed to have left, as well as Glinda's bubble (with Henry and Betty on it) moving during "Defying Gravity" as the bubble isn't used at all during that number.

The use of Wicked was one of many Broadway-themed episodes that have influenced the series. In a July 29, 2007 interview with Playbill, producer Marco Pennette expressed his love for the musicals and its performers: "I love theatre actors," says Pennette. "I grew up back east (he was born in Greenwich, Connecticut), and I'm a big lover of theatre. I want to go into theatre; TV sort of lured me away..."^[2]

Reception

There were some mixed reviews over this episode because of the "plug" for "Wicked." In a recap from Entertainment Weekly, reviewer Kate Ward described it as, "If after last night's episode, you didn't stand up, walk to your computer and log onto Ticketmaster while chanting, Must...see...Wicked, well, then consider yourself immune to all influences. Because if Ugly Betty wasn't just one giant commercial for the Broadway show, I don't know what was."^[3]

All in all, reception of the episode was mostly positive. Despite reviews, audiences loved the element of romance between Betty and Henry and how they finally decided to go against all possible odds to have their first night together.

Ratings

The episode was watched by 9.9 million viewers in the US and had a 7.3 rating, according to ABC.^[4] While the episode was second behind CBS' installment of Survivor: China, the showing helped contributed the network's Thursday night win in the first night of the 2007 November TV sweeps. 5.0 million watched this episode in the UK, keeping its 5.05 million average with an 18% audience share, placing first.

References

Also starring

• Freddy Rodriguez as Giovanni "Gio" Rossi
• David Blue as Cliff St. Paul
• Bailey Chase as Beckett "Becks" Scott
• Juliette Goglia as Hilary

Guest stars

• Eden Espinosa as Elphaba
• Megan Hilty as Glinda
• Marlo Thomas as Sandra Winthrop
• Jasmine Anthony as Antonella Rossi
• Kristoffer Cusick as Fiyero
• Casey Margolis as Duncan