Episode Report Card Potes: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Giving Up The Ghost
By Potes | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.21.2007
In the hallway, Betty confronts Daniel and asks in what world giving an alcoholic a bottle of vodka is a good idea. Daniel answers, "My father's world. But not mine." Turns out he couldn't give Cameron the drink after all, and that she didn't take it so well. Betty thinks this is great, but Daniel realizes that he effed up their cover and says that he's no Bradford Meade. Betty says that maybe that's a good thing, and that now he has a blank slate and can stop thinking about what Bradford Meade would do. Something about this strikes him, and he cryptically says that he may have found their cover as we head to commercials.
When we return, Daniel unveils his cover brainchild. It's completely black but for the Mode logo at the top of the page. Everyone seems confused until Daniel says that it's a foldout, and opens it to reveal the words, "In memoriam, Bradford Meade." He gets a round of applause. Sheila compliments him on his work producing a big bold cover, and says that issue 412 is ready to ship. Daniel says that it's issue 001, and that after nearly forty years, it's time for a new legacy. Sheila doesn't care what the number is, as long as they can get this bitch out. Daniel thanks Betty for the blank slate idea, and asks if she's sure she doesn't want to come back. Betty says she can't, since her mother would never approve of the person she was becoming at Mode. She says that she was changing, and Daniel tells her that she was growing up. No matter what you do for a living, there will be tough choices to make. Daniel thinks that Betty can stay and still be a person her mother would be proud of. Betty cries.
In a less touching familial-relations story, Wili visits with her dad. He's sorry to hear about Bradford. She says she's devastated, and then without missing a beat adds that she's moving on with her life and starting a new magazine. She needs seed money, and offers him a good deal for profits. Her father asks what ever happened to Wanda, and Wili says that she's still there, but prettier. Dad isn't so sure, given that she buried her fiancé twelve hours ago and is trying to wheel and deal. Wili thinks it's rich that he's giving her a lecture on compassion, and says that they might as well forget that this is a daughter talking to a father, because they both forgot about that years ago. The bottom line is that he'll make a fortune off the magazine. The Senator apologizes, but says he's not interested in investing in the world that turned Wili into "this." Well then, I guess he's also not investing in father/child relationships. He walks out, Wili calling after him.
Christina, meanwhile, finds Amanda in the Secret Love Dungeon, consoling herself with shoes. She says that she didn't inherit the fashion gene from her mom, who was all instinct and did everything so effortlessly. Christina tells her that she worked with Fey: nothing came effortlessly to Fey, and she would sweat like a fishmonger to boot. Amanda wonders with despair if she's going to have to work hard, and Christina notes that just because she didn't inherit Fey's talent doesn't mean that she's not Fey's daughter. She brings up her own mother, who was all thumbs. Fortunately, Christina's father liked to design gowns, and wear them. I love our glimpses into Christina's past, which also make me wonder what her former-and-possibly-current ne'er-do-well husband is up to. Amanda says that Christina's story doesn't help her, because Amanda doesn't know what her father's talents are. She doesn't even know who he is. As she gazes at her wall of Studio 54 patrons from the fateful night of her conception, Christina says that's all the more reason to keep looking. Oh, please let it be Tom Selleck! That feels so much more right than Dustin Hoffman or Ricardo Montalban.