Jump (Ugly Betty)

"Jump" is the 18th episode in the second season, the 41st episode overall, and the second season finale of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on May 22, 2008, the same day as Naomi Campbell's 38th birthday. The episode was written by Silvio Horta and directed by Victor Nelli, Jr..

Plot

Lindsay Lohan guest stars as Betty's rival Kimmie.

The story begins with a flashback to high school in 1999, in which we are introduced to Kimmie Keegan (played by Lindsay Lohan), who's a mean girl who torments Betty in a game of dodgeball by recruiting her on the team, only to be tricked when Kimmie has the girls get behind Betty, using her as a human shield.

Flash forward to the present day when Betty tells Gio that because of that she won't participate in the charity softball game of the year: Mode vs. Elle magazine. Betty refuses to awknowledge Gio as a boyfriend and shrugs off his claim. At the same time she sees her first article in Hot Flash, but is upset that Claire would alter her story, in which Claire told Betty that she needs to go beyond the "safe" approach. During lunch, Gio tricks Betty into practicing. Gio makes Betty an incredibly romantic offer, which is a trip to Rome, of which Betty accepts. But at home, Ignacio is against the idea of her going to Italy. Ironically, out of nowhere, Henry pops back into her life with a proposal of his own; a wedding proposal and an offer to go to Tucson to work at a magazine. The confusion also had Ignacio upset over both offers and was against it. However later that evening Ignacio showed up at Mode to show Betty a series of family photos, then told her that she should make her own decisions by looking inside her own heart.

In other developments, the manipulation continues for Wilhelmina, in which she attempted to sabotage an ad campaign for a Dutch cosmetics mogul, since Daniel doesn't trust Wilhelmina as he tells Alexis. Unfortunately Wilhelmina's handiwork once again comes through for her, infuriating Daniel once again. Alexis is once again called out by Daniel for letting this happen but Alexis thinks Daniel should lighten up.

Naomi Campbell guest stars as herself.

However, Daniel's problems just got more complicated when an orphaned boy from France turns up at Mode with an amazing claim that is expected to bring more surprises to the Meade clan. As he showed up at the building, he enters Daniel's office and thanks to a translator, Daniel learned that the boy, whose name is Daniel Jr., is Daniel's son. Daniel thinks its all a scam conjured by Wilhelmina, who denies it (she is telling the truth as she tells Marc). But nevertheless, they decide to use this latest surprise to her advantage by befriending the boy. As the news leaks (courtesy of Wilhelmina, who uses the boy by making it look like Daniel disowned him and at the same time succeeded in sabotaging the aforementioned campaign), Daniel caves in to pressure from Claire and Alexis (who reminded her brother about that time in Paris when they went there and met the boy's mother at a party) and agrees to care for the boy until the DNA comes back. This would be the turning point in which Alexis decided that it was time for Daniel to take a leave of absence. Wilhelmina would later use this opportunity to manipulate Alexis into convincing her that she should take over the editor-in-chief job at Mode by reminding Alexis of how she helped her become the Meade CEO back when they were plotting against Daniel and Bradford. Thanks to Wilhelmina's "advice," Alexis thinks that Daniel should be reassigned to another position at the company.

Hilda learns some shocking news about Coach Diaz, who shows up for their date, which left Hilda yearning for more. Later that night as Hilda was getting to know Tony, who was about to give her a necklace, Tony tells Hilda that his ex-wife has resurfaced, which made Hilda so uncomfortable that she got out of his car just as he was about to explain the reason why his ex showed up.

At the Mode vs. Elle magazine game, the players are finding themselves having more drama off-base than on. For Betty, she is shocked that Gio would confront her when he asked her about the Rome trip, only to be shocked by Henry, who joined the team at the last minute. Betty tries to avoid both guys. Daniel, on the other hand, learned that Wilhelmina used Daniel Jr. to make him look bad, but Wilhelmina in turn tells him that he is out as editor-in-chief at Mode, a move that infuriates Daniel, who would later blast Alexis for turning on him, then walks away from the game with Daniel Jr. Wilhelmina then takes his place as the pitcher, as she strikes out both Joe Zee and Robbie Myers from Elle. After this, Elle‍ '​s star player, supermodel Naomi Campbell, gets a hit. Amusingly, before batting she gets a phone call from Bono and the moment she pulls it out of her pocket, the whole crowd gasp. She tells him that she's playing cricket and returns to the game. When she hits the ball, Betty, Henry and Gio also see it, only to have Betty run into them and she would be knocked out. She then wakes up and she's in bed as Henry makes breakfast to his "wife" in Tucson. As she walks out of the bedroom, Betty sees a hotel room in Rome and Gio's there! Betty can't believe this and as she sees Gio and Henry yelling at her to make a choice, Betty jumps out of her nightmare and wakes up to discover that she helped Mode win the game. That's when she made her decision about what she should do.

As the episode ends, Daniel packs up his stuff as he vacates the office while he and Daniel Jr. watche Wilhelmina celebrate with the Mode staff, with Claire looking at Alexis with distrust and disgust, Hilda seeing Tony at the school playground, where the two would embrace each other with a kiss, and Betty packing her bags as she prepares to leave for the airport, destination unknown. Although her luggage displayed various landmarks in Rome, and when hugging Ignacio goodbye, Henry's ring was not seen on her finger, subtely hinting she might be either going with Gio or chose to go in a different direction, since she didn't give either guy her real answer as the final moment in the scene had Betty closing the door at her home, followed by a CGI background zooming away from Queens to show New York City with a plane flying off into the sunset.^[1]

Production

"Jump" is the last episode of the series to be produced in Los Angeles. Starting with season three, the series was produced in New York City.^[2]

The year "1999" was added to the Ugly Betty opening titles in this episode.

Casting

This episode marked the last for Rebecca Romijn as a series regular. Starting with the following season, she would be demoted to recurring in the role of Alexis.

Ashley Jensen (Christina McKinney) was not featured in this episode.

This episode introduced two new recurring regulars, whose storylines in this season finale set up ones in the third season: Lindsay Lohan as Kimberly in the first of four episodes,^[3] and Julian de la Celle as Daniel Jr.

Lohan was not listed in the cast credits for her 10-second appearance, and as a result withdrew her nomination in the category for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the 2008 Emmy Awards.

Music notes

The episode contained a variety of songs from Madonna's latest album Hard Candy: "Candy Shop", "Spanish Lesson", "She's Not Me" and "Miles Away". The song "Jump" from her Confessions on a Dance Floor album was also featured in the episode and can be seen as the inspiration for its title.

Reception

In an Entertainment Weekly review, Tanner Stransky wrote of the second season finale: "I think the producers were right to get back to the heart of the show — it melts me every time. Last season's finale was action-packed, and this one was sentiment-packed — with a few cliff-hangers thrown in for good measure. A nice balance, if I do say so myself."^[4]

This episode generated mixed feelings among viewers and critics. Negative feedback from viewers appeared on websites such as LiveJournal's Ugly Betty blog.

TV Guide gave both Lohan and Campbell "Jeers" for their performances.^[5]

Ratings

"Jump" was another episode that saw a ratings increase in the United States over the previous episode. While it pulled in a 6.2/11 overall with more than 8.8 million viewers tuning in and placing a 2.8/9 among 18-49 demos, it was second behind NBC's Deal or No Deal but helped ABC win the Thursday Night battle in the May 2008 sweeps.^[6][7] By contrast the first season finale had 10.39 million viewers, but viewership for this finale were off by 1.59 million viewers and like the first season finale it too was beaten by a TV special. However, the episode also returned Ugly Betty back to the Nielsen top 20 that week, where it ranked 17th.

Also starring

• Freddy Rodriguez as Gio Rossi
• Eddie Cibrian as Coach Diaz
• Julian de la Celle as Daniel Jr.
• Alec Mapa as Suzuki St. Pierre

Guest starring

• Naomi Campbell as herself
• Joe Zee as himself
• Robbie Myers as herself
• Nathanaël Maïni as Mode employee/translator
• Torill as Madelon de Bie
• Edward Stanley as Doctor
• Samantha Frank as Mona
• Lindsay Lohan as Kimmie Keegan (uncredited)

References