Episode Report Card Jessica: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Box And The Bunny
By Jessica | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.04.2006
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Betty, it turns out, is one of those people who decorates her work station with all kinds of charming, cutesy tchotchkes, one of which is a stuffed pink bunny that suffers all kinds of abuse at the hands of the Mode staffers. The other inanimate object that suffers this week is The Book -- the hard copy of the magazine that the EIC gets every night for notes. See, Betty takes it home for safe-keeping, and Gina The Slutty Neighbor steals it and holds it for ransom. There's a whole lot of self-blame from Betty for letting it be stolen, and from Daniel for leaving it behind at the office in the first place. They both think about quitting (he, actually, just decides to leave the country) but manage -- surprise, surprise! -- to band together as a team and come out the better for it. They get a little help from the cover girl, a teen actress who hasn't lost the weight she gained for a role, and whose unretouched photos were lost along with The Book. Instead of freaking, as anticipated, she decides to go with the pictures as they are, because she's sick of normal people being made to feel ugly by the industry. Good for her. The Book eventually turns up safe and sound (Wilhelmina's team of spies had tipped her off to its whereabouts, and she had Evil Marc take the torturous trek to Queens to fetch it), and Daniel and Betty live to work another day. In other news, Non-Dead Fey Sommers places a very mysterious call to Daniel, telling him to investigate his father a little more closely, just as Bradford breaks into Fey's old apartment and starts burning items he feels might be incriminating. It is implied that he arranged for her "death." But who hasn't done that from time to time? Want more? The full recap starts right below!
We open at Mode, where Betty -- who's never met a sweater vest she didn't like -- looks way happier to be at work than anyone has a right to be. She carries a box to her desk, and begins to unpack it, which is when we learn that she is one of those people who decorates her desk with little cutesy plaques and whatnot. Back in the dark ages, I worked at a large insurance brokerage, writing marketing copy, and there was a woman on my floor whose desk was covered in Jesus. Little ceramic Jesus on the cross. Little plastic Jesus escorting small plastic children and several small plastic lambs through a field. Jesus everywhere. Now, I have no complaint with Jesus, and I certainly did ask God to help me to refrain from killing certain co-workers during my time there, but the Landscape o' the Lord always seemed a bit inappropriate in the workplace to me. I just put up big pictures of half-naked dudes in my cube. The object getting Betty's place of honor is a bright pink bunny in a graduation cap, holding a diploma. It seems that the entire office is watching Betty decorate her desk, but only Evil Marc comes up to her. "Great bunny," he says. Betty smiles broadly and tells him that her sister gave it to her when she graduated from Queens College. "One of America's best value colleges!" Marc squeals. "Yep! That's the one," Betty tells him. It's apparently also the only college in America where the students aren't well-versed in the concept of sarcasm. Betty tells Evil Marc that her bunny is a good-luck charm. "Well, kudos," says Marc, adding that he applauds her effort at "personalizing her desk": it's "so [her]." Evil Marc's smiling at Betty when Wilhelmina barks for him, and his face falls. "I have to go," he tells Betty.
In his office, Daniel is talking to someone on the phone. "It was an amazing night for me, too," he tells her, and swears that he'l call her very, very soon. He then hangs up and says to himself, "I have no idea who that was." It is a tribute to Eric Mabius that I still find Daniel charming despite the fact that he's That Guy. Betty pops her head into his office and cheerfully offers to get him some coffee. Instead, he reads her an item from Page Six, in which she is quoted as confirming that he wore a certain designer's shoes to an event. It turns out that although he did wear them, that particular designer is notorious for using sweatshops. Daniel needs Betty to be more careful when she's talking to the press. Like Page Six gives a shit what men are wearing to events. I suspect they care who's getting into his pants, rather than whose pants he's wearing. Daniel mentions that he's got "the Natalie Whitman meeting" later, and Betty squeals. She loves Natalie Whitman! Her "Jenna Fletcher" movies are Betty's favorite: "I love her catchphrase: 'You do the math!'" Betty wonders if Daniel is aware that Natalie -- or, as we know her, Renée Zellweger -- gains thirty pounds every time she plays Jenna Fletcher/Bridget Jones. Daniel is well aware of this. It seems, in fact, that Natalie has been unable to lose the weight this time. I wish old Squinty McBulimiaFace Zellweger had that problem. Although, speaking of old Renée Zellweger, where the hell has she been lately? Maybe the stress of people calling her Squinty McBulimiaFace has turned her into a shut-in. Sorry about that, Renée. Daniel invites Betty to come to the meeting, and she's thrilled. "Remember, you and me? We're a team," Daniel reminds her. And then he orders her to fetch him some coffee.