Episode Report Card Jessica: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Fey's Sleigh Ride
By Jessica | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.18.2006
After the ads, Betty wipes off her bleach and lets her co-workers inside. "Oh my gosh, I have that same Jesus nightlight!" Marc says as he steps in. Amanda calls the place very "flea market chic," and Betty introduces her family. "HHHHHOLA," Amanda says to Papa Suarez, loudly, as if he is deaf. He gently corrects her pronunciation, and she smiles and shakes her head. "No, there's an H in it," she tells him. Justin bounces in, still chatting about his lotions. "Hey guys! I didn't know you were here!" he says, as Marc leans in to get some of the hand cream. "Nice, you stole the good stuff," he says. I think he is a bit fond of Justin, who Hilda immediately sends upstairs. Amanda, done with her Cheetos, grabs some grapes off the table, only to find out that, to her great dismay, they're plastic. Papa Suarez suggests that Betty could offer her friends a snack. He's got some flan, he says. "What's a flan?" Amanda asks. "It's a delicious custard," Papa Suarez explains. "Oh, BRING IT," Amanda yelps, and drags him into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, over at the magazine, Daniel, Vincent, and Wilhelmina are still working away, surrounded by Christmas hoo-ha for inspiration. You can tell they're getting punchy, because Daniel sets a pair of reindeer antlers on Wilhelmina's head, and she lets him. Vincent suggests "a Laurence Of Arabia Christmas." Daniel says that he doesn't even know what that means. "It means that we can use the twenty-one tons of sand that are already there," Vincent snaps. Daniel tries to brainstorm with the sand. Maybe instead of Christmas, they can do other winter holidays. "Kwanzaa?" he offers. "Did you just gesture at me when you said Kwanzaa?" Wilhelmina snaps, slumped over at the table. "NO," Daniel shouts. Vincent giggles. ["For the record -- he did, a little." -- Wing Chun] Finally, Wilhelmina shows them Mode's 1986 holiday issue. The spread is called "Fey's Sleigh Ride," and it features Fey herself in the shoot, sitting in a sleigh and holding, yes, a music box. The issue was their biggest seller, she says. Daniel claims to know it well. Vincent looks it over and nods: "It's traditional. I like it. Old is the new new." Wilhelmina exposits that when Fey put herself in the issue, it "sent shockwaves." And she thinks that, in the year of her death, an empty sleigh would be a nice tribute. That's actually a great idea. It's a rather nice characterization that Wilhelmina is good at her job: it makes her fury at being passed over for the EIC job much more believable, and therefore makes her more sympathetic. Daniel agrees.