Filing for the Enemy

"Filing for the Enemy" is the second episode in the third season, the 43rd episode overall, of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on October 2, 2008.^[1] The episode was written by Joel Fields and directed by Michael Spiller.

Plot

At a shoot for Player involving "sexy lawyers and judges," Betty discovers Daniel (who took Betty's "idea" for the aforementioned shoot) working on a "Mode" mock-up sent to him by mistake. When Betty takes the mock-up to Alexis, Alexis is impressed with how it turned out... in fact, so impressed she tells Wilhelmina that Daniel's ideas were better than hers. Wilhelmina, as "Mode" Editor-in-Chief, finds a way to ensure her future at Meade Publications—by manipulating Betty, who Wilhelmina feels can help her succeed, into joining her team.

Seeing Betty's potential, Wilhelmina invites her to lunch at a chic restaurant. Betty, however, has serious doubts (no surprise, considering Wilhelmina has interfered in Betty's career so often), but Wilhelmina says she wants to bury the hatchet and tells Betty if she wants to move up in the world of magazine publishing, to rejoin the "Mode" staff and work for her. Unfortunately, as Betty tells her family about the offer, Wilhelmina jumps the gun by rubbing it in Daniel's face at work, leading to Daniel forcing Betty to decide... which she does by accepting Wilhelmina's offer.

As Betty resumes her work at Mode under Marc, it appears that Betty is winning Wilhelmina over, with "winning over" being the operative phrase. At a meeting with a cosmetics mogul to negotiate an advertising deal, Betty offers suggestions that impress the mogul and are accepted (grudgingly) by Wilhelmina. Betty is then sent by Wilhelmina on a seemingly impossible errand... to fetch a historic tiara under guard in a museum, for Wilhelmina to wear at the "Mode" re-launch gala. When Betty returns with two museum guards and the tiara, Wilhelmina admits she was only testing Betty the same way Fey Sommers once tested Wilhelmina, and says she wants to make Betty her protégé and personal assistant, which shocks Marc. Wilhelmina then hands the re-launch party planning (which was Marc's assignment) to Betty, causing a major rift between Betty and the deeply offended Marc.

The abrupt changes left Betty with more questions than answers, which is made worse when she falls asleep and dreams that she became a "Betty-mina", where Betty looked exactly like Wilhemina but with braces and glasses, shouting and firing all the staff, getting botox from Marc, chucking Daniel out of her office and then proceeding to kick Halston, Amanda's dog, but then woke up before she saw it, which gave her a horrible shock. Marc and Amanda gives Betty bags full of "old mail" to shred. Luckily, before she began her task, Betty discovered the bags were full of supportive letters to Daniel from "Mode" readers that Wilhelmina had kept hidden. As she showed Daniel the letters, Betty encouraged him to fight for his old job.

That evening at the party, Betty decided to give Wilhelmina two weeks' notice, which Wilhelmina accepted but without telling her that she made the wrong choice. As Betty was about to leave, Claire stopped by to smugly announce a "surprise." As Daniel and Alexis joined Claire, Alexis told Wilhelmina she was demoting her back to creative director and restoring Daniel as Editor-in-Chief. This came about after Wilhelmina's reworking of "Mode" had resulted in a plunge in sales and subscribers. Wilhelmina was humiliated and stunned; Claire reminds Wilhelmina that despite the impending birth of Wilhelmina and Bradford's child (being carried by Christina), Wilhelmina is not part of the Meade empire. Claire dramatically makes her point by shoving an ice sculpture of Wilhelmina off its pedestal to shatter on the floor. A furious Wilhelmina walks away, setting the stage for a new battle between her and the Meades. Daniel rehires Betty, who realizes Marc masterminded the "letter-shredding" scheme so Betty could give Daniel the letters, allowing Betty to return to Daniel while Marc reclaimed his position as Wilhelmina's assistant. Marc admits that despite his loyalty, he is willing to hurt Wilhelmina's interests if she is damaging his.

Meanwhile, a custody battle for Daniel Jr. heats up when Daniel learns that DJ's French grandparents are holding up his immigration papers. This has Daniel concerned that DJ might be returned to France; when Daniel tentatively broaches the topic with his son, DJ says he wants to stay with his father, and Daniel decides to fight for custody.

Hilda continues to romance Tony, who surprises her by asking her on a "real" dinner date because his wife is supposed to be out of town. Hilda accepts with delight. When Tony stops by Mode to see Betty and pick up a specially autographed copy of "Player," Marc and Amanda swoon over the coach (to no avail). After Tony leaves, Amanda reveals she swiped the coach's cell phone. Betty takes the phone away, only to see pictures of Tony kissing "another woman" and (as Betty thinks) cheating on Hilda. At her apartment that evening, Betty finally admits this to Hilda, who says the woman is Tony's wife. Betty is shocked, but Hilda says she's in love with Tony and wants to keep seeing him. Unfortunately, Tony stands Hilda up for their date... his wife didn't leave town after all, as Hilda discovers when she calls Tony from the restaurant to see what's keeping him. Instead, she hears him fake a conversation with a "male friend" so his wife won't overhear and realize who he's really talking to. Hilda hangs up, looking forlorn.

In another scenario, Christina confesses to Betty that she thinks Stuart is abusing drugs again. She sends some of Stuart's hair to a lab for testing. When the results come back positive, Christina is devastated—the only reason she agreed to be Wilhelmina's baby-mama surrogate was to get money for Stuart's "experimental treatment." When Stuart returns, Christina accuses him of using drugs and the couple have a brief, but nearly violent fight. When Christina threatens to call immigration, Stuart roughly shoves over a mannequin and stalks off, leaving his shocked wife behind.

That evening, as Christina is leaving Mode for the day, she misses the elevator and is forced to take the stairs. She is then pushed down the stairs by an unshown assailant and knocked unconscious, putting the life of the unborn child in question.

Casting

This episode will feature the first appearance by Heather Tom in the recurring role of State Department agent Holly Wright.

Trivia

The character that said "Previously on Ugly Betty" is Daniel.

Music

• "Body" by Ja Rule
• "High and Mighty" by Cyndi Lauper
• "Up" by The Saturdays was featured in the promos.

Reception

Notes Zap2it's Hanh Nguyen on the well-received episode: "Things move fast in Ugly Betty land, so even though equilibrium was achieved in this episode, a whole lot of wrong was put into motion as well."^[2]

Entertainment Weekly's Tanner Stransky cites the Betty-mina daydream as one of the best moments in this episode: "How delicious was last night's episode of Ugly Betty? Hands down, the best moment was the hammy flash-forward scene where we saw a future version of Betty reimagined in the divalicious image of Wilhelmina. Honestly, who requests a snack of carrot shavings? And that bit with the puppy at the end? Genius!"^[3]

Ratings

The episode, which aired on the same night as the Joseph Biden/Sarah Palin Vice Presidential debate that followed this episode, came in with only a 5.7/9 overall, a 2.6 among 18-49s and 8.6 million viewers watching, to place second behind CBS' Survivor: Gabon.^[4][5]

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

Guest starring

• Florencia Lozano as Penelope Del Rios
• Michael Mandell as laughing security guard no. 1
• Chuck Bunting as laughing security guard no. 2
• Lisa Masters as the crying museum curator

References

See also

• Ugly Betty
• Ugly Betty (season 3)