Queens For A Day

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Ugly Betty episode
“Queens For A Day”

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 3
Writer(s)	Marco Pennette
Director	Jim Hayman
Production no.	103
Original airdate	October 12, 2006
Episode chronology
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"The Box And The Bunny"	"Fey's Sleigh Ride"
List of Ugly Betty episodes

For articles with similar titles, see Queen for a Day (disambiguation).

Queens For A Day is the third episode in the American dramedy series Ugly Betty. It aired October 12, 2006.

[edit] Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At a club to celebrate Daniel's first issue party Bradford congratulated Daniel on coming through as MODE's editor-in-chief, but Wilhelmina spoils the festivities when she brings up Daniel's older brother Alex, who was the editor-in-chief at sister publication Hudson. The word of his late brother proves unsettling for Daniel, which prompts him to set out to prove to his father and Wilhelmina that he can be as capable as his brother in running a magazine. This gives him the idea to revamp MODE in a effort to attract a more upbeat audience.

Meanwhile Betty, who came home after being turned away from the party, discovers Walter playing Dance Revolution 2 with Justin. Walter tried to turn it around by saying it was Betty who dumped him but Betty doesn't buy that line and told him to leave. She also finds herself given the lecture on not fitting in with their own kind by Hilda, who thinks that she needs to change her look a bit, but Betty says no. Betty also discovers that her dad is drinking coffee knowing well that he has a heart condition and he was told by his doctor to lay off the caffiene, prompting Betty to make him take his pills in front of her.

The next day Daniel enlists Betty for a brainstorming session on changing the look at MODE by looking the back issues of Hudson. When he discovers a series of past layouts from Vincent Bianchi, he is reminded by Bradford of how Bianchi vowed that he would never work for Meade because of the treatment he got the last time. But it turns out that while at home Betty learned from Ignacio (Dad) that he know him and his family because they lived four blocks away from them. With this info Betty uses her Queens connections to entice Vincent to do a shoot for Mode. But when he insists on meeting her at a posh restaurant, Betty agrees and allows Daniel to come. When Daniel insists on Betty dress up for the occaision, she in turn enlist Hilda for a makeover, which apparently doesn't go well, especially at the board meeting where not only Daniel's idea of changing MODE not only gets laughed at, so does Betty when Wilhelmina compares the new look for MODE to Betty's.

Embarrassed, Betty decided not to go to the restaurant, leaving Daniel with no choice but to take Amanda (who pretended to be Betty) and Bradford (who decided to tag along). As the three prepare to pitch the ideas to Vincent, Betty discovers the layout on her desk being left behind and takes it upon herself to go to the restaurant herself (and in the process snaps at Marc, who was hoping to cut her off, only to get put in his place by Betty). Betty's arrival at the restaurant proved to be a lifesaver when Vincent finally got his chance to really meet the real Betty that he liked on the phone, thus once again coming through for MODE (And once again foiling Wilhelmina, who broke everything in her office except for the vase with the flowers which was saved by Marc).

In other scenarios, Bradford began to set his sights on the vehicle that was involved in Fey's death and wants Steve to track it down. Steve later finds the vehicle in a auto salvage yard in Bayonne, New Jersey but sends him a e-mail that has the burned car up for sale on a eBay-type website. It also turns out that the mystery woman seems to know about this as well and calls Daniel to ask him about the yard where the car was, only to have the lying Bradford replied that he doesn't know anything about it and claims that the person calling was a crank.

The mystery woman also met with Wilhelmina and explained their strategy on how to further drive a wedge into Daniel and Bradford by using the car and Alex as examples. Wilhelmina was also preparing for a big date with a senator and had Marc prepare her office (which she would destroy afterwards) to make it look like she was in charge. Unfortunately it didn't look that impressive to her date: The senator was Wilhelmina's father.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Marlene Favela, who played a pregnant housekeeper on a telenovela in the second episode, played the same role on a telenovela in this one, which also featured cameos by Ninel Conde and Helena Rojo.
The episode featured music from The Pussycat Dolls ("Buttons"), Shakira ("Hips Don't Lie") and Rihanna ("Unfaithful")
The scenes that featured Justin involves him playing Dance Dance Revolution, which is also played by Walter and Betty.