Derailed (Ugly Betty)

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"Derailed"
Ugly Betty episode

Lucy Liu as Grace Chinn
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 16
Directed by Jim Hayman
Written by Cameron Litvack
Production code 116
Original air date February 15, 2007
Episode chronology
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Episode chronology

"Derailed" is the 16th episode from the dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on February 15, 2007. It was written by Cameron Litvack and directed by Jim Hayman.

Plot

As the day begins, Betty wakes up from a series of nightmares (involving Claire Meade, who sits next to her with a martini and tells her she will kill her, followed by Henry, who shows Betty his 'girlfriend' then tells her that Claire will kill her). At MODE, Daniel and Alexis arrive at work still on speaking terms, but Wilhelmina isn't happy about this union as she watches the Meades bond.

Daniel walks by and gives Betty two tickets to a party hosted by Stella McCartney. Betty tells him about Claire's confession of killing Fey Sommers. Daniel insists that Claire becomes a little deranged when she drinks a lot, but after Betty goes into the details about the murder, Daniel immediately takes this info to Bradford at prison. However Bradford tells Daniel that Claire is simply a confused drunk and instead wants his son to focus on other things. Bradford orders him to hire lawyer Grace Chin, a plain girl whom Daniel happened to stand up when they went to the university together (leaving her to spend the rest of her "date night" playing Wolfenstein 3D on the PC in her dorm). Ironically, Grace's college photo looks a lot like a certain personal assistant, who was not amused over his 'description' after he tells her about what Grace looked like.

When the now-attractive Grace finally arrives to meet Daniel, she sticks to business and Daniel thinks that he's off the hook and that she doesn’t remember him. However, when she tells Daniel that she's the only one that can win this case, she stuns him by stating that she won't take it and the only reason she came was to embarrass him the way he did back at college. Daniel insists that this matter is about his father and wants to know if there is anything that he can do to make this up to her. He tries to plan a dinner for him and Grace, but she tells him that it is not going to be that easy. She pulls out a book and starts reading a list of girls he hurt in college. She tells him that she is all about justice and that if he wants her to take this case he is going to have to apologize to all of them. Daniel takes her orders and starts to make the long overdue calls (though he is actually calling his friend Becks). Daniel gets the shock of his life when Grace tells him that his sincere sadness is such a turn on. She turns the chair around, rips his shirt open and kisses him. Then they have sex.

Marc tells a stressed Wilhelmina that he will find out what is going on with Alexis, as Wilhelmina calls Christina to her office and demands to know if Betty has said anything about her and Daniel and reminds Christina that her job is to "snitch"...not "stitch". Marc returns to inform Wilhelmina that Alexis’ calendar is blank and that she has no friends (of any kind), thus giving Wilhelmina an idea, by inviting Alexis to the Met. Along the way, Wilhelmina and Alexis stop by for drinks. As Wilhelmina steps away for a minute to call Marc and see how things are going, she is thrilled that he and Christina are growing closer. She turns around and is upset to find Alexis talking to a guy named Joel. Wilhelmina rushes over and tells Alexis that it is time to go so that they can get to the show, but Alexis tells her that she wants to stay, and end up staying for a bit longer as Alexis hits things off with him. Before they finally leave, Joel asks Alexis to write down her phone number on a napkin, but after she does, he screams out loud and tells his friends. Alexis then learns that he knows exactly who she is and that he doesn’t date freaks and tells her that it was just a bet to see if he could get her number. Then Wilhelmina comes over and apologizes for not introducing herself earlier and punches Joel right in the face and he falls off of stool to the ground. Wilhelmina grabs Alexis and they head to the car, where on their way back she thanks Wilhelmina for being there and is thankful that Daniel is on her side. But when Wilhelmina reminded Alexis that Daniel is the enemy, Alexis tells her that she's keeping Daniel as EIC and Wilhelmina will remain Creative Director and offers to pay her more but insists that Daniel is her brother, prompting Wilhelmina to act furious and gets out of the car.

In other scenarios Betty goes downstairs to see Christina. They both freak out when Christina receives a call from Sarah Jessica Parker’s people claiming that she saw her work at Fashion Week and then go into panic mode when they find out that she wants Christina to design a dress for her. ....by tomorrow! Christina tells Betty she'll have to pass on the party because she has to get this dress done, so Betty assures her that she can do it. Later on that day Marc follows Wilhelmina’s orders and goes to hang out with Christina where he ends up helping her with the dress. The two of them go round-n-round trying to put together a dress with whatever they can find. ....everything from fabric to office supplies! Wilhelmina shows up and tells Marc and Christina that they need a new plan because Alexis has changed her mind. Christina tells her that she is not one of her flying monkeys, but Wilhelmina quickly reminds her that she is and tells her that if it wasn’t for her she would never have gotten noticed at fashion week. Later Marc and Christina are alone again in the office when Sarah Jessica Parker’s people call and tell her that they have changed their mind about the dress. Marc tells her that "Willy" certainly works fast and insists that there is no need to worry and that it will get easier.

As Betty stops by the cafeteria line she meets a new friend, Charlie. the two hit it off and even make plans to go to the party together, until Henry comes up and tells them that he sees that they have already met. Charlie and Henry hugs and then he introduces her to Betty as his girlfriend! Henry stops by to see Betty later at her desk and thanks her for getting Charlie to go out. He asks her if this is going to be weird, but lies and insists that it will be fine. Amanda tells Betty that it is time to seize her inner MODE girl and suggests that she find Charlie’s weakness and exploit it!

As Betty and Charlie are walking out in the blizzard, Betty keeps seeing Amanda’s face and hearing her voice, which keeps telling her to lose Charlie so she will be so scared enough to leave town. As Betty struggles with the voices, the crowd starts rushing in and out of the subway car and she lets go of Charlie’s hand and the doors close, leaving Betty on the outside and Charlie on the inside! As the subway takes off Charlie screams out for Betty. Betty finally comes to her senses, prompting her to chase after the train screaming for Charlie to get off at the next stop. Henry shows up in a panic but assures Betty that this isn’t her fault but is shocked when she says that she thinks that she may have lost her on purpose! He tells her that he doesn’t understand what Charlie did to her to make this happen. Betty then breaks down and tells Henry that she broke up with Walter. ...for him! Henry then chases after Betty, who then tells him that she didn’t love Walter anymore and that is why she ended it with him. Henry tells her that now she will be able to find someone that sees how wonderful, kind and beautiful she is. But as they stare at each other and prepare to kiss, Charlie runs up and tells her that she loves New York and insists that it must have been fate that separated them tonight. Crushed, Betty gives the two tickets to Henry and Charlie.

At the Suarez home, Hilda cuts her father’s hair as Justin stresses over a blizzard approaching the city that could threaten him getting to see Hairspray tonight. Ignacio tells Hilda that he doesn’t know if this is a good idea (inviting Santos without telling him that they are going to a musical). Hilda says that he is the one that wants to spend to more time with his son. Later that evening, as Santos, Justin and Hilda hop on the subway to go to the show, Justin stresses even more when suddenly the power starts flickering and tells Hilda that he is mostly upset because his father is going to miss that wonderful experience. So Justin stands up, takes off his coat and puts on his own version of the 2003 Tony Award winner. All eyes in the subway car are on Justin until a man tells him that they have seen enough, which prompts Santos to stand up and tells him that he is going to let his son finish and that he had better clap when it is over.

Claire goes to see Bradford and tells him that she is going to turn herself in, but Bradford screams for her not to, but she insists that she has to. As she arrives home Daniel waits for her, having learned from Grace that Claire's blue Aston Martin was at the murder scene, just as Betty mentioned earlier.

Production

This episode also has an alternate title: Snow Job.

This episode was also a tie-in with a contest in which Ashley Jensen's character, Christina, must come up a designer outfit that was created by viewers at home. The winning design was unveiled in this episode.[1] On February 8, 2007 Ricardo Rodriguez of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was announced as the winner.[2]

The subway scenes had several errors. When Hilda, Justin and Santos are on the E train, it is seen going from 179th Street in Queens to the World Trade Center in Manhattan. However, the E train's Queens terminus has been Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer since 1988. This is improperly regarded as an error, because the E train does run to 179th Street during rush hours in addition to Jamaica Center. The exterior shot of the E train was of a Redbird train, which are no longer in service in the NYC subway system. They were retired in 2003. Also, the Redbird trains were IRT trains not IND trains thus the wrong size to run on the E train. The subway scene where Betty and Charlie got separated was shot at the 7th St/Metro Center in Downtown Los Angeles; the LACMTA Red Line was a stand-in for a New York City Subway station.

When Grace is listing off girls Daniel treated poorly in college, she mentions a Julie Dwyer. This is a possible nod to Kevin Smith's films, which feature a simiarlarly named character whose offscreen death lead to many of his film's events. The episode mentioned that Grace and Daniel graduated college in 1995.

This episode introduced Jayma Mays to the cast as a recurring regular. This will be the second television series in which Mays played a character named Charlie; The first being Heroes. Also, Jerry O'Connell (playing Joel, in the bar) is the real life husband of Rebecca Romijn (playing Alex/Alexis Meade), who would return the favor by playing his ex-wife on O'Connell's sitcom Carpoolers.

Although Kevin Sussman is no longer a regular, his name was still credited in this episode, which would continue throughout the first season.

Music notes

Awards

Rebecca Romijn submitted this episode for consideration in the category of "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series" on her behalf for the 2007 Emmy Awards. Lucy Liu also chose this episode for submission in consideration of her work in the category of "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series". [3]

Reception

Entertainment Weekly's Tanner Stransky notes, "Vote for Betty! Vote for Justin! Vote for Christina! Vote for Willy! Vote for Alexis! With the bulk of Ugly Betty's population fighting for the things — and the people — they want last night, I found myself rooting for my favorite characters in all their battles. Just think of me as Napoleon Dynamite. Except I'm not rooting for Pedro, and I'm wearing five layered T-shirts with those five proclamations on them instead."[4]

Trivia

In this episode, guest star Jerry O'Connell (Joel) is actually married to Rebecca Romijn (Alexis)

In the scene where Betty wakes up from her nightmares, a book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series can be seen by her dresser--this may be a reference to series star America Ferrera's role in the film adaptation of the books.

References

  1. ↑ From The Futon Critic 01-14-07
  2. ↑ From The Futon Critic 02-08-07
  3. ↑ "2007 Emmys CONFIRMED Episode Submissions". The Envelope Forum, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-06-18. 
  4. ↑ From EW.com (February 16, 2007)

Also starring

Guest stars


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