Episode Report Card Jessica: B+ | 5 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Pilot
By Jessica | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.27.2006
So, after the ads, Betty tells Daniel no, and he goes back to his loft and kills himself. She decides to work for Herbalux and marries Walter. Magazines are not allowed in her house. The end.
Not really. Instead, after the ads, we sweep into the next meeting with Fabulously Douchey Fabia. Daniel is late, so Wilhelmina gets started without him, saying that she and Evil Marc would like to show her something...that we never get to see, because Daniel and Betty come in with their presentation at this exact moment. The presentation gets off to a rough start when Betty loads the wrong photos, starting with one of her eating hot dogs with Walter. And that, you perv, is not a euphemism. The rest of the presentation is pictures of Betty with her Dead Mom. Daniel explains that they're using the concept of mothers and daughters, focusing on special moments that are usually taken for granted. ["You may recall the whole 'perfect magazine concept based on personal snapshots' motif from 13 Going On 30." -- Wing Chun] The tagline is, "It's not the big events, it's the little moments that matter." While this is a very sweet idea, I do have to wonder why, if Betty is twenty-two or whatever, all her photos with her mother appear to have been taken in 1964. Fabia looks thoughtful, and says that although she has a daughter, and they don't do any of those sweet things together, she can understand. But why do they think this will appeal to her customers? Daniel hesitates, so Betty steps in and explains, with the help of all the research she did earlier, that Fabia's customers have been tremendously loyal to her since she started the company, and that they're older now. A lot of them have kids. Fabia thinks about this, and approves: "Just makes sure it's not too sappy. Do a picture where they're pulling their hair or biting each other," she says. "But it's nice. Now I go," she announces, and saunters out. As everyone disperses, Bradford comes up to Daniel and pats him on the back. "Good work," he says. Daniel smiles at Betty. "The idea was actually --" he begins. "His best one," Betty interrupts. "Don't you think?" Aw, that was nice of her. I hope she never does it again. "Welcome back, boss," Wilhelmina simpers, as she runs past them. Betty and Daniel just smile at each other.
We cut to a very mysterious place, where a very mysterious bandaged woman is very upset about something. Wilhelmina, who is lurking around this very mysterious place, agrees that "it is a setback." But once Daniel is out of the picture, the company will be theirs for the taking. The woman -- who I assume is the not-actually-dead Fey Sommers -- tells Wilhelmina to keep an eye on that "damn ugly assistant. What's her name?"