Ugly Betty: Tornado Girl (Episode 222)

This week Betty is looking pretty in pink thanks to Amanda playing dress up with her. Amanda says it's like playing dress up with a plus size doll. Sometimes you have to wonder if she has any filter whatsoever. As usual Betty just lets the insults slide off her back. As they're walking Betty gets a call from the printer and finds out that they are running behind and the latest "fashion storm" issue will be delayed by a few hours. Betty goes and tells Daniel and he starts whining because he'll have to stick around longer now to give his final approval, which means he won't be able to ride with Conner to some management retreat they're having. Betty suggests that he go ahead to the retreat and let her do the final approval. After some hesitation he gives in and agrees. Betty jumps for joy and thanks him a a bazillion times.

Amanda wants to get the dish from Marc about his marriage proposal to Cliff, but Marc is still feeling the guilt from cheating on Cliff so he avoids the subject as if it's the plague. He distracts Amanda by saying her hair is frizzy and then they start plotting what they'll do while the editors are away on the retreat. Shall they make the temps kiss each other again? Before they can come up with anything clever Wilhemina calls for Marc to come to her office. He walks in to find a rifle pointed at his head and just about shits himself. She explains that it's for the retreat, which Conner is forcing her to go to. She then admits that she's still lusting for him, but there's no use because he's a married man.

The "fashion storm" issue is finished and Betty gives her final approval. And, believe me, she is super excited! She's so excited she has to take a pic of herself with the issue and send it to everyone. Meanwhile, all the editors, as well as CFO Conner, are at the management retreat. There he tells everyone that this is not a good time for the company and this may mean some magazines getting cut. He invites everyone to offer up new ideas. Claire has an idea, how about everyone has to give up their phones and PDAs during the retreat so that they can truly focus. Conner and Daniel like the idea, Wilhemina not so much. She tells Claire that she's going hunting later and to feel free to walk in front of the gun. Gee.. someone's bitter.

Betty gets back upto her Mode offices just in time to catch "breaking news" on TV. There is a massive tornado ripping through Kansas causing devastation. Amanda is quick to point out that the tornado eerily resembles the latest Mode "fashion storm" cover. Betty starts to panic. She runs to the loading dock and talks to Phil, who handles all the shipping. She tells him about the disaster and that they must stop the shipping. He is not happy and refuses to listen to her, he says he only listens to Daniel and Wilhemina, Betty has no authority. She begs him to please help her, he finally agrees to give her four hours to get Daniel or Wilhemina in touch with him but if he doesn't hear from them by then the issue is going out. This wouldn't usually be a problem if Daniel or Wilhemina were in Manhattan but they're not, they're off on their wildness retreat with no phones.

Hilda gets a letter back regarding her permit request to have her home-based salon. It's not good, she was denied because commercial businesses are not allowed in residences. At first she's upset, but then she gets angry with the councilman. Justin suggests she just open the salon anyway, Ignacio says she can't do that, but after Ignacio goes to work Hilda and Justin scheme.

Daniel is out walking by himself in the woods trying to think of new ideas to pitch to Conner. As he's standing next to a tree thinking he gets hit by a woman falling out of nowhere. No, it's not raining women, although I'm sure that was Daniel's first hope. Instead, it's Conner's wife. She was climbing a tree, apparently she doesn't believe in getting too old for things. Daniel helps her up but clearly she has hurt her ankle so he has to help her back. Off in another part of the woods is Wilhemina who thinks she's about to shoot an animal but instead she's aiming her gun at Conner's head, and he's aiming right back. Thankfully, I think, neither one of them shoots and they agree for safety reasons they should probably pair up. I have a feeling Conner isn't the type to not let his marriage get in the way of a good affair, and we know Wilhemina isn't going to let someone else's marriage get in the way of what she wants.

Hilda calls Betty to ask her where she is storing the hats from her 'ugly hat phase.' Betty is blissfully unaware that she went through such a phase and has no idea what Hilda is talking about. Hilda wants the hats because her idea is that if she makes people pay cash for their haircuts and then gives them free hats that'll somehow make her business legal. How she manages to make this all right in her head is beyond me, but it's Hilda. She ends up finding the hats so Betty's help is no longer needed. Betty grabs money from petty cash and decides she'll take a cab to the retreat to talk to Daniel. Before Betty leaves, Amanda and Marc decide to jump on the bandwagon, they wouldn't want to miss out on this adventure. And, what an adventure it's going to be. They Marc decides to take Cliff's car. On the ride Amanda of course wants to talk about Marc's wedding, which Betty had no clue about until now, but again Marc avoids the subject. Betty is bitching the whole time that Marc could at least do the speed limit, meanwhile Amanda is relaxed with her feet out the window. Betty and Amanda decide they're hungry and Amanda just knows Cliff is the munchie type so she starts digging around. She doesn't find munchies but she does find a receipt from Tiffany's for two wedding rings. Marc has a panic attack, Betty tries to grab the wheel and they end up crashing the car into a tree. Thankfully, I think (again), they are all right but Betty is freaking out because now they're never going to make it to Daniel in time to stop the issue from shipping. Betty tries running by foot to the nearest town to hopefully get a ride the rest of the way to Daniel. She ends up finding a little run down gas station. She tells the guy behind the counter she'll pay him over $200 to give her a ride, but he says the government doesn't want him to drive after those 3 DWI's. Just then a kid throws a wooden airplane at her, she's nice and gives it back to the kid but then a lightbulb goes off. She hires a 'sky writer' to get a message to Daniel. As Daniel is sitting outside the retreat talking to Claire they spot the message in the sky, "Daniel call Betty." Daniel calls Betty, she fills him in on the situation, he tells her that he'll call Phil and stop the shipping. But, after she and Daniel hang up Daniel goes to Wilhemina and tells her and she suggests that they not stop the shipping, maybe this stunt will sell more issues.

Ignacio catches Hilda continuing with the salon and is not happy. Betty goes home feeling amazing that she handled the crisis today so well. But, that feeling doesn't last long because Justin comes home and he has the almighty Mode "fashion storm" issue.

By the next day, the issue is headline news, and the "fashion buzz" tv show does a full report on the controversy. When Daniel and Betty arrive for work the next day they are confronted by a swarm of reporters. The host of "fashion buzz" is the leader and he has only one person in his sights, and it's not Daniel. He pins the whole thing on Betty calling her "tornado girl." The media makes it look like it was all Betty's fault that the issue went out and Daniel isn't being of much help to clear her name. Later, Daniel has a meeting with Wilhemina. He's upset because he never meant for Betty to take the fall for this. Wilhemina tells him that that's what the little people are for, she says it'll blow over. As she's telling Daniel this we can see "fashion buzz" on the TV and they now have an image of Betty's head in a tornado, and she's officially being labeled "tornado girl."

Betty goes home and gripes to Hilda because she's been getting calls from people all day. Apparently someone put her phone number on "enemiesoftheheartland.com" so people are calling her and being mean. It doesn't help that Justin is walking around wearing a "tornado girl" t-shirt. He says he couldn't help, it's the first time since Winona Ryder that there has been a t-shirt worthy scandal.

The next morning, Betty goes with Hilda to the councilman's office to complain about her permit being rejected. Hilda ends up getting to talk to the councilman and she complains to him. He says there's nothing he can do, "the law is the law." Hilda storms off, but Betty sticks around and tells the councilman that the salon is the only thing Hilda has to be happy about and tells him that there are millions of home-based businesses, isn't there something he can do? Betty then walks out.

Betty heads back to work and on her way to her desk Marc snags her into a the copy room. Under the intense light of the copy machine, Marc tells Betty in cryptic that someone sabotaged her efforts to stop the issue from shipping. He suggests that she talk to Phil at the loading dock for the truth. Betty goes straight to Phil and demands he tell her what happened. He breaks and tells her that Daniel called him but instead of telling him to not ship the issue, he was told to ship it. Betty goes to Daniel's office and confronts him. He tells her that she was never meant to get blamed for all of this, Betty says he knew the truth the whole time and lied to her face. He tells her that it's ok, it'll blow over. She gets mad and almost starts crying, she tells him that she's not Daniel Meade, she's an assistant, this will not just blow over. She doesn't want to be an assistant her whole life. All she has is her reputation and now she doesn't even have that.

Hilda doesn't have much going for her right now either, but just when it seems nothing is going right the councilman shows up at the door. He says he did some research and found a loophole for her. She just needs to have a "boutique" instead of a "salon." 30% of her revenue needs to come from the sale of products, so he brought over some candles he thought she could sell. Hilda is excited to have her business back and she even flirts a little with the councilman.

Things are going a little better for Betty as well. She thanks Marc for suggesting she talk to Phil to get the truth. She then says Cliff's goodness must have rubbed off a little on him, no pun intended. Marc admits that things aren't well between him and Cliff and the reason is that he cheated on Cliff. She tells him that she knows he is a good person but she also knows how much it hurts when someone you love lies to you, she says that he deserves the truth.

Wilhemina, Daniel and Conner call a press conference to address the controversy. When the talk at the conference turns to Betty aka "tornado girl" Wilhemina just comments by saying that it's an "internal issue." Daniel FINALLY steps up and takes the fall. He tells everyone that it was actually his fault that the issue ran. Wilhemina acts shocked. Daniel says that Meade Publications will be donating all of the profits from the "fashion storm" issue to the victims of the Kansas tornado. Betty watches the conference and mouths to Daniel afterward "thank you."

Marc takes Betty's advice and asks Cliff to come to the Meade offices. He first tells him about the car, which Cliff laughs off because he thought Marc had to tell him something much worse. Marc then tells him that there is something worse and tells him the truth about cheating on him. Cliff doesn't take the news well and walks away crying.

Daniel and Conner's wife chat after the press conference. They seem to get along very well, a little too well in fact. It's her and Conner's anniversary though so she runs off after their chat to go to dinner with Conner. Wilhemina overhears and gives one of her sneaky looks. She then corners Conner and tells him that she hopes he doesn't have any other plans for the night because they need to strategize since Daniel gave away all the profits from the issue. Conner says he had dinner plans but he'll reschedule, this makes Wilhemina happy. Conner's wife is not happy though, which of course is what Wilhemina wanted.

Betty goes home and although things are better after the controversy, she still seems deflated. She tells Ignacio that after she did so well handling the crisis she hoped there would be something bigger and better to come but now things are just back to normal. Ignacio tells her that she just needs to keep putting one foot in front of the other and she'll get to where she wants to go.

The episode ends with the Suarez family celebrating Hilda's new candle shop boutique.