Crimes of Fashion (Ugly Betty)

"Crimes of Fashion" is the third episode in the third season, the 44th episode overall, of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, which will air on October 9, 2008. The episode was written by Henry Alonso Myers and directed by Victor Neili Jr.^[1]

Plot

The episode begins with the police asking Betty where Daniel Meade was the night of the launch party. Betty hesitates, and the storyline flashes back to six hours earlier.

Betty is getting ready to go to work and notices her umbrella is missing, and ends up getting wet. She is then reprimanded by her father for leaving it outside where anyone could take it. At work, Daniel asks Betty to say they were in Player magazine's office if anyone asks where he was after the Mode launch party. He also asks her to take a dusty coat to the laundry.

Marc announces that Christina was pushed down the stairs, shocking everyone at Mode, but assures them that both Christina and the baby are fine. Then the police arrive and the beginning scene is repeated. Betty tells the police that Daniel was working late, leaving the police suspicious. When the police find footprints at the crime scene matching shoes Daniel owns, he is arrested.

Betty believes that Daniel is innocent, so she decides to try to figure out what really happened. First she visits Christina, but Christina barely remembers anything — but she does remember her fight with Stuart. Stuart arrives to visit Christina, so Betty takes the opportunity to ask him about the incident. Stuart denies pushing Christina, and tells her that his experimental treatment is not working and he is dying.

Betty then approaches the security guard to retrieve the security tape, but the tape has been stolen. When the security guard tells her that a "little blonde girl" also asked for the tape, Betty confronts Amanda. Amanda admits she requested the tape, as she needed the reward Wilhemina offered to cover her credit card bills. Moreover, she tells Betty she saw Marc yelling at Wilhemina after the launch party. Amanda and Betty confront Marc, but it turns out that he was actually yelling at a mannequin that looked like Wilhemina to relieve his stress and express frustration to his boss' demanding attitude. Marc recalls shoving Christina to get to the elevator, catching a glimpse of Claire angrily approaching Christina. The trio confront Claire, who admits she was drunk at the party after arguing with Wilhemina and saw Christina by the elevator. However, she remembers Christina helped her to the toilet, and Alexis took care of her after that. When Alexis is asked about that night, she says she was in the restroom worrying about her facial hair growing when she saw Christina and Claire, but did not remember when Christina left.

The investigation leads to a dead end, so Marc, Amanda and Betty decide to reenact the scene by throwing the Wilhemina mannequin down the stairs to help prove Daniel's innocence. The plan fails because the mannequin is too light, so Marc and Amanda try to push Betty down the stairs, which causes all three of them to tumble down. Betty discovers the floor was dusty, and remembering that Daniel asked her to clean his dusty coat earlier, concludes that Daniel might be the culprit.

Then Betty finds the stolen security tape in Daniel's briefcase and watches it, but it turns out to be a tape of Daniel having sex with a woman in the copy room. Daniel tells Betty the woman was Holly, the attorney he hired for Daniel Jr.'s custody battle, and he wants to hide it from the police because it would look bad. Betty is relieved that Daniel is innocent.

When Wilhemina hears the news, she decides to gain PR by offering a $100,000 reward for any information leading to the culprit, and then visits Christina in the hospital—accompanied by paparazzi and press. Christina is upset and tells her she doesn't really care about her nor the baby, but when Wilhemina finds out Stuart is dying she begins to have some sympathy and to better care of Christina.

Meanwhile, Hilda borrows Betty's apartment so she and Coach Diaz have a place to talk about their future. Ignacio drops by to visit Betty while Hilda is out getting ice cream, and is shocked to see Tony, who was in the shower when the door rang and decided to surprise Hilda. When Tony grabs his clothes, he accidentally drops his wedding ring and a disappointed Ignacio realizes he is married. Later, at their home, Ignacio and Hilda argue about her dating a married man.

Finally, Alexis admits that she pushed Christina. She tells Betty about the argument she had had with Wilhelmina that night. She was wearing Daniel's shoes because her heel broke; they wore the same size and she had also borrowed his coat. She defends herself saying that it was not premeditated and for a moment, it was Wilhelmina she saw in front of her and not Christina. To Alexis, the baby Christina was carrying represented Wilhelmina's hold over Mode and her family. Realizing that they would not be rid of her soon enough, she pushed her. Once Christina fell down the flight of stairs, Alexis came to her senses and, feeling guilty, checked whether Christina was still alive (causing the coat to get dusty and the footprints to appear), then called 911. Later on, Betty finds her umbrella, where she had left it with a note from her new neighbor Jesse who had taken it. She then smiles to herself and decides to leave it outside. Alexis is arrested, and tells Claire she was Daniel Jr.'s real father.

Production

This is the third episode (after "Sofia's Choice" and "Odor in the Court") to begin at the climax of the events and then return to reveal what had happened earlier.

Casting

This episode introduced Mark Consuelos in the recurring role of Detective Averaimo.

Music

"Breathe" by Two of Cups^[2][3]

Ratings

Despite strong competition from Survivor: Gabon on CBS, the NLCS game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies on Fox and the surprise debut of another Reveille-produced series that aired during the second half-hour, Kath & Kim on NBC, this episode helped Ugly Betty maintained its second-place showing with a 5.8/9 overall and a 2.6/7 among 18-49s with 8.5 million tuning in.^[4][5]

Reception

Zap2it gave this episode a positive review: "Oh boy. I wasn't quite sure where this season of Ugly Betty was going, but the third episode in was not only juicy, but kind of touching as well".

Also starring

• Rebecca Romijn as Alexis Meade
• Eddie Cibrian as Coach Diaz
• Julian de la Celle as Daniel Jr.
• Heather Tom as Holly Wright
• Derek Riddell as Stuart McKinney
• Alec Mapa as Suzuki St. Pierre

Guest starring

• Rob Bartlett as the security guard

References

See also

• Ugly Betty
• Ugly Betty (season 3)