Episode Report Card Jessica: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Lose The Boss?
By Jessica | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.22.2006
Instead of coming in to the office and saving Baby Chutney from a terrible chain mail rash, Daniel is admiring all the handmade ornaments the Suarezes have saved throughout the years, mostly because he is Unfamiliar With A Cozy, Functional Family And Has Never Decorated A Christmas Tree Because His Servants Always Did It For Them. It is to Eric Maibus's credit that he doesn't reveal these sad yet predictable truths with too much self-pity. All the Suarezes make faces as though they've just learned that money can't buy everything.
At the office, Christina is trying the chain mail on Betty, who announces that it feels like her braces slipped. She doesnât think Chloe is going to go for it. "We're going to have to find something safer for the baby to wear, like maybe a plastic bag," grumps Christina, while Betty tries yet again to get Daniel on the phone. Betty wonders if they have anything lying around that would work on a baby. Christina suggests "Kate Moss's spandex dress," but rejects this because she would have to let it out. I have to say, I loved this episode, and I thought it was really sharply written, but that was one of the few jokes that fell really flat for me. Not because I have an issue with Models Are Skinny jokes, but just because it felt so crazy obvious, and this show is generally a bit sharper than that. Betty finally gets Daniel on the phone, and runs the chain mail/water ambush idea past him. "That's great," he mutters obliviously. Betty reminds him that if the baby burps, she'll "get lockjaw," and wonders if Daniel's feeling better. "A little," he says, distracted. We finally cut to Daniel, who is much less green, and very busy stringing popcorn and cranberries whilst watching the Family Suarez trim their tree. Daniel tells Betty that her family has a lot of cool ornaments and tries to launch back into his Tragic Boy Child Never Trimmed His Own Tree thing, but Betty just can't deal with it. She needs him to help her! Daniel finally tells Betty that she's always saying she wants more responsibility, and that by the time he got in from Queens, it would be all over anyway. On the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend? With no traffic? It would take you, like, twenty minutes, dude. You're the suckiest editor-in-chief ever. Daniel -- like Tim Gunn, except with no work ethic -- just wants Betty to make it work: "Betty, you're the man." He then wonders if he screwed up his cranberry chain. Betty hangs up and shakes her head. "Apparently, I'm the man," she tells a frazzled Christina.