Ugly Betty - Falling In Love All Over Again

The Kids Are Alright - Ep. 217

Wily and Marc are BACK at Mode and the claws are out! The bitch is back! And Marc and Amanda are back together in the same bitchiness room together! Woo!

Things are well again! The zip and the zing are back! (Not that I had huge problems with the post-strike episodes but I will admit it didn't feel as zingy as usual).

Even Alexis seems to have presence again. I almost forgot she's an X-Men. She probably COULD take down Wily couldn't she?

Hilda gets more screen time again and is hilariously shameless in her continued flirting with Coach Tony Diaz. And there's a DANCE. I didn't know there was a dance? Hilda didn't either since Justin didn't tell her because everyone dresses up like a hillbilly.

Amanda and her daddy Gene Simmons have a new reality show, "Daddy's Little Girl" and Marc wants on, but Amanda tells him that her father doesn't like the gays, but the opposite is true when Marc and Gene meet. Gene thinks Marc is "FABULOUS"! That's totally fabulous!

Betty is still recovering from Henry, who is gone with baby now, so she runs to Gio to chat/flirt/get kissed. Oh Betty! Betty is shocked, but you know she secretly loves it, because really, who can turn down Freddy Rodriquez as Gio? Really. Who? That's a whole lot a love in there!

Justin is looking awesome in Grease retro as he readies for the dance, but Hilda is too sick to chaperone, so Betty fills in, where of course, Gio is also chaperoning. Gio helps Betty ope up her shell a bit. Plus, stealing the good citizenship award that Betty had won and gave back to the school.

Now, time to steal Gio's heart, who isn't willing to be the rebound guy. He wants to be the guy. !!!

Justin, annoyed like every teenage boy is of anything their mother does, just goes directly to Coach Diaz and asks him directly if he likes his mom. Cause she likes him. He never actually answers, but Tony later shows up at the Suarez's to bring a sick Hilda some soup. She's disgusting, with all that couching and sneezing, but the scenes plays so cute as the sparks start to fly between these two, that I can't wait for next week.

Meanwhile, Daniel has secretly asked a commanding Claire to give Betty an article to work on for her new magazine, while Wily comes in to save the day, running the show at Mode AND helping out Claire, that the nemesis is accepted back onto the Mode payroll as Creative Director when Alexis sees what Wily can do. The conniving is back on track at Mode where the fun REALLY is!

Oh, and some guest stint with Larry Flint interviewing Daniel when a secret caller (Marc disguised as a woman) calls in to destroy Daniel's reputation.

Daniel the boy comes flushing out in his desperate attempt to hold onto Mode against Wily's slow takeover. I love when Eric Mabius plays it that way. It's endearing and funny, something I never thought he could be back in the Eyes and The OC days.

Meanwhile, even with a returned pairing of Marc and Amanda, Amanda keeps pushing Marc away, even going so far as to insult him, only because Amanda doesn't want to see the little attention Gene Simmons is actually giving her when they aren't on camera (and letting Michael Urie and Becky Newton give some more dramatic depth to their comical side characters, thus why I LOVE this cast for making possible cartoons into fully realized creations). In the end, the tweety bird tattoo on Gene's backside is found to be a fake, and the whole thing was meant as a publicity stunt, leaving Amanda still fatherless, but at least Marc and Amanda make up again...to hang out at Mode again!!! And make snide remarks at Betty!!! Oh the joys!

So, a great episode that made me smile through and through with the comic zing back, and all feels right again with Wily and Marc at Mode, up against the Meades, with Betty still running around for Daniel, and in a lovelorn state being guided by the wise-beyond-his-years-fabulousness of Justin, with a dash of romantic comedy coming from Hilda herself!

Now if they can only find more lines for Christina. Because Ashley Jensen makes the little words she has pop in genius comical timing. Yet they still have never seem to figure out what to do with her. Still, hard to complain when they fit in so many other characters around the comic telenovela so well!