The Courtship of Betty's Father
"The Courtship of Betty's Father" is the 14th episode in the third season, the 55th episode overall, of the American Dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on February 12, 2009. The episode was written by Peter Elkoff and directed by John Terlesky.
| "The Courtship of Betty's Father" | |
|---|---|
| Ugly Betty episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 14 |
| Directed by | John Terlesky |
| Written by | Peter Elkoff |
| Production code | 314 |
| Original air date | February 12, 2009 |
Plot
We open on the Suarez household at breakfast time. Betty and Hilda are shocked at how happy their father seems, they credit the rapid improvement to his nurse, Elena. Betty gets a phone call from Claire: It turns out that she has been shoplifting and she wanted Betty to bail her out by paying the $24.00 she owes the store. Betty does so and being concerned talks to Daniel about the incident, Daniel tells Betty Claire is about to turn 60. Betty suggests a surprise party to commemorate it.
After seeing past home videos of an Angela Bower-like Claire celebrating the family while drinking at Christmas, Betty gets the idea taping a video tribute for Claire's 60th birthday by putting together a collection of clips from people who know her saying nice things, and some carefully clipped portions of these old home videos. Unfortunately, Betty's pet project would turn into a fiasco; first by confessions from Liz Smith and two of Claire's friends, followed by Amanda's not-so-happy congrats to Claire.
Betty accidentally leaves the camera on at home and discovers some revealing footage about Ignacio, when Daniel is rewinding the tapes. In the footage Ignacio grabs Elena's butt. At home later that same day, Betty tells this to a very incredulous Hilda about what happened. The sisters are concerned that Elena might quit or even sue them due to harassment so they split up and talk to Ignacio and Elena separately with Betty walking with Ignacio while Hilda spent time at home with Elena. However the two assure the sisters that nothing was going on.
Later that evening at the Suarez home during dinner, Hilda asks Betty to get Ignacio and Elena to come downstairs to eat and when Betty looks out the front door window she sees Ignacio and Elena kissing! It turns out that Ignacio has fallen for Elena and they are now a couple. This revelation not only upsets Betty and Hilda, but also causes Elena to end this romance, resulting in a devastated Ignacio blaming his daughters for not allowing him to do something he has not done since Rosa died - to start dating again.
Claire asks Betty to go shopping with having discovered what Betty was planning for her birthday, she tells her that for once that she would like to spend more time with Daniel. After that conversation, Betty discovers that Claire was planning to shoplift again, but this time its Betty who gets caught after she grabbed the item out of Claire's hands. Claire would then return to clear up the mess with the store manager and Betty is free to go but this time around it would be Daniel who would pay the store after Claire was forced to stay there. After a long mother-son conversation, Daniel surprised Claire with a birthday dinner as a way to spend some time together, which included reliving those home videos featuring the two along with Alex.
Later that afternoon, Betty goes over to Elena's place to explain why Elena dating Ignacio shocked her and Hilda. Betty then returns to the Suarez home with Elena that night to apologize over not letting Ignacio date another woman who would replace Rosa. A surprised Ignacio told his daughters that even though they still think of their mother, he assures them that Elena will not replace their memories of Rosa. Despite this, Hilda, who thought of Elena as a friend, feels slighted over Ignacio dating his nurse.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Wilhelmina have difficulty adjusting to the new significant others in their lives. At the Rockefeller Plaza skating rink, the rivals, along with Connor and Molly, run into each other. After the foursome talk about what has happened after the events of the previous weeks, Daniel and Wilhelmina discover Connor and Molly talking about their past relationship, thus leading to Daniel and Wilhelmina to come up with a way to keep the new love lives with them.
For Daniel, he hoped that doing something for Molly that Connor didn't do for her would work in his favor. Since she has always wanted to go to Tibet, he tries to book a trip there. That doesn't work out but he does find a nearby Tibetan restaurant. Unfortunately, it turns out that Molly and Connor were regulars there and all of the staff knew them and question who Daniel is and where Connor is. However, Molly later tells Daniel that despite this, the only person she wants in her life is Daniel.
As for Wilhelmina, Connor prepares to take a business trip and asks Wilhelmina to keep an eye on his parrot, "Olivia Newton-Bird" (named after his childhood idol). Wilhelmina is not so keen about keeping the bird around and when Marc asked her about her true feelings about Connor, she blurts out "I Love Connor" and the parrot begins repeating it, upsetting Wilhelmina. In the end, when Connor returns from London, she says those same words, and Connor plants a long kiss on her.[1]
Casting
Ashley Jensen was absent from this episode.
Ratings
Despite a strong showing from CBS' Survivor: Tocantins — The Brazilian Highlands, the episode placed second with a 5.0/8 overall and a 2.3 among 18-49s, with 7.44 million viewers tuning in. Nevertheless, ABC did score another Thursday night win.[2][3]
References
Also starring
- Grant Bowler as Connor Owens
- Sarah Lafleur as Molly
- Lauren Velez as Elena.
Guest starring
- Liz Smith as herself