Ugly Betty 1.09 'Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral'

I’m a firm believer in a good situation gone wrong idea. It’s a tried and tested formula that a lot of shows have been successful with, and of course, others haven’t been. Ugly Betty has a lot of these kinds of stories. In fact, almost every episode revolves around Betty’s optimism for a successful outcome crashing down around her. ‘Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral’ is one that crosses the funny hijinks line and straight into annoying town, but there were a number of themes at this episode’s heart that I loved.

Betty faces a long holiday dinner in ‘Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral’ when she tries to convince Hilda that the lawyer they hired for their fathers case is trying to fleece them. Daniel meets Sophia’s boyfriend, Hunter. Wilhelmina tries to spend the holidays with Nico, and Amanda and Marc decide to use MODE to watch the parade.

Starting with Daniel’s struggle to cope with Sophia’s new beau, the whole thing sort of got lost in itself after a while. Each joke just seemed like a hybrid of the one before it, but seeing Daniel foam at the mouth in jealousy is something that we haven’t seen before. He’s either forgone any territorial behaviour by either moving on, or finding something else to occupy his time. Here, he’s feeling something like this for the first time, and is forced into confronting his feelings.

Betty’s family are the sort of characters that kept the series grounded over its four years, but it’s no secret that their inability to listen to what Betty has to say gets in the way of their likability at times, no more so than Hilda. Betty battles her sister here, who refuse to believe the woman in whom they’re putting a lot of trust, is leading them astray. Of course, once they realize what’s happened, it’s too late, but another catastrophe brought the family back together. That is, until Betty has to prove something else to them.

Elsewhere, Wilhelmina struggles to place her daughter ahead of her usual Thanksgiving traditions, but a realization of what’s important in her life leads her back to her daughter; its sweet to see her like this sometimes. It makes the living wax work she is otherwise more believable. Along with this, Marc and Amanda’s usual craziness leads us not only to more exploration of Amanda’s secret desires, but to our next clue in the masked woman mystery. We didn’t learn anything major, but the scenes gave the mystery a little life so that it was kept alive over this break from regular proceedings.

There are a lot more episodes like this sprinkled throughout the series, but when it manages to get the story a little further along, then I can only deem it a success.

7.5/10