Ugly Betty: Crimes of Fashion (Episode 217)

Last week ended with the dramatic twist of Christina being pushed down a stairwell by a mystery man. This week the police will be investigating and everyone, and I mean everyone, is a suspect.

We begin with Betty under interrogation. They ask her if she knows where Daniel was at the time. She hesitates and then we flashback six hours earlier to Betty on the phone with her dad on her way to work. Someone stole the umbrella she left outside her apartment door, so she has to walk to work in the rain. Oh well, Betty doesn't let this ruin her day. Then again, does Betty let anything ruin her day, ever? Anyway, she and Daniel have a chat about what's going on. He mentions that he was supposed to take his mom home the night before but he asks Betty to cover for him if it comes up and say he was with her packing things up at Player. Betty suggests he just tell the truth but he says it's just easier this way.

Marc shows up and makes a grand announcement to everyone. He tells everyone that Wilhemina is in the hospital... with Christina who suffered a fall down the stairs the night before. He says Wilhemina and the baby are fine... he's not sure about Christina because he never asked. Douche! Betty is devastated. She rushes to Christina's side to find out what happened and Christina tells her that she thinks someone pushed her.

The news of Christina's fall is headline news and talk of the gossip mill. Wilhemina holds a news conference saying she wants a full investigation into who would have done this and tries to work out a few fake tears. She tells Marc this is the perfect opp to turn the news attention to this tragedy rather than the horrible sales of her first issue of Mode. She wants Marc to turn this whole thing into a media circus.

The investigators show up and first to greet them of course is Amanda who immediately tries to get the lead investigator to have sex with her. She needs a man, like now! Luckily, Betty saves the investigator from Amanda and leads him to a private conference room where he and the other investigators can conduct their interviews with Meade staff. Betty tells the investigator she is Christina's best friend and offers to do anything she can to help with the investigation. The investigator tells her that's good, she can go first and then two officers drag Betty to the conference room. Betty's in the hot seat and can't contain herself, she accidentally outs Daniel for asking her to lie about where he was the night before. The investigator finds this strange and makes a note of Daniel's name and then circles and underlines it. Betty starts freaking out thinking she just screwed Daniel over. Betty has dinner with the fam and tells them what happened, they try to make her feel better. Before she leaves Hilda asks her a favor. She asks Betty if she and Tony can meet at her apartment to talk privately. They can't go anywhere else supposedly. Betty says she doesn't want her apartment used as their love den, Hilda says they just need a place to talk and promises Betty that's all that will happen. Betty gives her a key to her apartment.

The next morning at Mode, Betty spots the investigators coming into the office and rushes to Daniel's office to tell him that she accidentally told the police about his lie. Before they can talk the investigators are in his office. They ask about a shoe that is sitting around and Daniel tells them that it's a one-of-a-kind shoe made just for him, and of course the soles are identical to a footprint that was found in the stairwell where Christina was pushed. They arrest Daniel, he tells Betty to call his lawyers. Daniel doesn't spend too long in jail before Alexis and Claire arrive to bail him out. Betty has arranged for the car to pick them up before the media can get too many shots or ask too many questions. In the car it's just Betty and Daniel. She asks him to tell her what happened the night before but he tells her that he did not push Christina but beyond that it's complicated and he probably shouldn't talk.

Back to Christina in the hospital, Wilhemina arrives and acts like she cares for Christina and then we see the media is just outside the room taking shot after shot. Wilhemina fakes a breakdown and then after a few shots of that she struts off.

Hilda and Tony meet at Betty's apartment and have a chat, but Tony decides he'll take a quick shower while Hilda runs to get some ice cream. They'll talk more after his shower and her ice cream run. She leaves, he jumps in the shower. As he's finishing up in the shower we hear and see the door unlock, Tony figures it's Hilda so he jumps out of the shower naked but it turns out to be Betty and Hilda's dad. Tony grabs his pants but then his wedding ring falls out and the secret is out.

Betty goes to see Christina again to find out if there are any other details that could help lead to finding the person that pushed her. Christina finally tells Betty about her fight with Stuart that night. She says she sort of didn't tell the police about that. Betty is excited by this new development. She tells Christina that she needs to tell the police. Betty leaves Christina's room and as she's walking around a corner she spots Stuart walking toward her. She ducks back behind the corner. She then steps back out and confronts Stuart. She asks him what shoe size he is, he tells her size 14, and then tells her that he's disappointed that she would think he would hurt Christina. He tells her that the treatment Christina paid for didn't work and that's why he's been doing drugs again - to try to numb the pain, he hasn't had the courage to tell Christina yet because he knows she'll be devastated. Betty tells him that he owes it to her after all she has done for him. Stuart finally goes and breaks the news to Christina.

Hilda tries to sneak in the house later in the day after the whole Tony/Ignacio incident but he catches her sneaking in. He expresses his disappointment and they argue.

Betty goes to the police department to get back a security tape. She tries to talk some moron at the front desk to give her the tape but he tells her that someone already came and got the tape. And, he mentions that another blonde came by asking about the tape. Betty goes to Amanda and asks her about going to the cops for the tape. Amanda admits she did and she did it because she needs the reward money because she's gotten really far into debt and needs the money. She tells Betty that she was at the office the night Christina fell, she was on the phone with a bill collector when she heard Christina scream. And, she heard Marc yelling at Wilhemina around that same time so they go to him. At first he sort of admits to pushing Christina but then goes back on that. He then reveals he was actually yelling at this life-sized doll of Wilhemina he created. Yes, he is very disturbed. Betty asks why he would've been yelling at Wilhemina, or the Wilhemina doll at least. He tells her that he was mad about her hiring Betty to take his place so he was mad. He then says he saw Christina on his way to the elevators to leave but he jumped in the elevator before her, then as the elevator doors were closing he saw Claire stumble towards Christina in a rage that Christina was carrying the baby for Wilhemina.

Betty plays detective and goes to Claire to question her. Claire flashes back to what happened after Marc's story ended. It turns out Claire just stumbled toward Christina because she was drunk, but Christina actually helped Claire to sit down with Alexis. So, that's where Claire's story ends and Alexis's story begins. Betty, Amanda and Marc go to Alexis for the next part of the story. Alexis tells them that she never even saw Christina leave after she brought drunken Claire to her so she's not sure what could have happened.

Betty, Amanda and Marc go to the stairwell to try to reenact what happened. At first they toss the Wilhemina down the stairs but that doesn't tell them much, they need something or someone bigger to match Christina's size. They both turn to Betty and try to push her down the stairs, she struggles, they all end up falling down the stairs. After they all get up and are brushing themselves off they are all dusty and that's when Betty remembers how dusty the raincoat was that Daniel asked her to have cleaned the day before, just before he asked her to lie about his whereabouts.

Betty goes to her dad for advice. She still can't believe that he would have pushed Christina but she doesn't want to be naive. She somehow ended up grabbing a copy of the security tape that the police had. She watches it and finds out the tape only shows Daniel having sex with some girl from the office. She goes to Daniel to find out why he would be hiding this from the police. He tells her that he didn't want the girl to get fired or to lose his son. Betty is so relieved to find all of this out. Daniel has to leave to pick up Jr. but before he goes he asks Betty to please return the coat she had cleaned for him with the dust to Alexis, he says she borrowed it a few days ago. It clicks with Betty.. it was Alexis who pushed Christina.

Betty confronts Alexis about pushing Christina and she admits she did it. Betty is disgusted that she would set up her own brother to take the blame though. Alexis flashes back to what happened to tell Betty what exactly happened. Alexis tells of how something came over her that night. She somehow envisioned that Christina was Wilhemina and wanted to be rid of her. After she pushed Christina she realized what she had done and regretted it. She ran down the stairs to make sure Christina was alive. She says she never meant for any of this to happen or to hurt Christina. Alexis breaks down crying. Betty says she's the only one who knows and more or less hints that she'll never tell anyone.

Alexis ends up giving herself up to the police anyhow. But, before she does she reveals another shocker to Claire. She says that she opened a piece of Daniel's mail by accident and it was a paternity test for Daniel Jr. - it turns out Daniel is not Jr.'s father... Alexis is!

How's that for a twist?! They are just full of twists this season and it's just getting started. I have to say this season has been a major improvement over last season already.