Hot damn, what are they paying nurses with in Telenovelas, blood diamonds? Directed by Jamie Babbit, she’s known for directing a few things even recently, like Only Murders in the Building, My Lady Jane, and Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, but also But I’m a Cheerleader, starring “My Wife…” Natasha Lyonne. You are young if you don’t know that reference. While writer Cameron Litvack writes one of his two episodes of Ugly Betty, before going on to write for V, Grimm, and co-executive producing Outer Range. Litvack also produced and wrote some episodes of Charmed, the proper one.

With Papi revealing that he’s in the country illegally and the mystery woman saying Fey Sommers “needs to come out of seclusion,” we’re inching forward on both the home and work mysteries. Meanwhile, as Daniel walks into work with Amanda, who is walking a little crooked, he sees a smoking hot Mexican woman who could make Antonio Banderas look like chopped liver. Hitting on the hot woman in the lift (“elevator” for Americans) as she gets her breasts out, Daniel will do anything to embarrass himself. Wilhelmina lives with the consequences of having some unknown guy spill himself inside her, as her troubled daughter, Nico, shows up.

Turns out the series executive producer (Salma Hayek) has been recast as Sofia Reyes. A super sexy, accented, bold, independent, 21st-century feminist, author, and now, the Editor-in-Chief of a new weekly publication releasing in January 2007. All the while, Mode’s January issue is what all publications do in January (even us), fart out anything with filler until there is something interesting to cover. Sorry, am I breaking the illusion? The yearly issue is called “Must Mode;” everything that is a must in 2007, from style and fashion to personal stuff, like must try not to swear and instead use “catty” in place of a B-word.

Yeah, we’re back to stupid, sexy, dumb-dumb Daniel for a bit, so strap on, Sofia is about to (as her book is called) make her man a bottom. Look, I’ll say it just to get it out there, Latin American women with brown hair and accents that I (from a young age) thought were very attractive (and still do) look the same to me. Sometimes I need a reminder which one is which when it comes to Salma Hayek and Cote de Pablo (Ziva from NCIS) – both looking similar enough that my dumb-dumb man brain can’t tell the difference sometimes.

So, “Trust, Lust and Must,” which once again is missing the Oxford comma, is the episode we finally get to talk about Ignacio’s immigration status, Nico’s rebellion, and we see that, despite progress, Daniel is still a himbo at heart. As well as Hilda practically forcing Betty to sell Herbalux, which is a stand-in for the Avon catalog, and these super-skinny weight loss protein things that taste like the East River. We might be six episodes in, but in terms of many storylines going on at once and crossing into each other, Ugly Betty isn’t letting up.

Ignacio revealed last time out that he came to the US illegally, and we’ll find out why later on, but despite the offers of amnesty and other “legal” ways, he just didn’t apply. That is the big contention between him and ICE agent Inspector Betty here: why did he not apply, why doesn’t he want to say why, and why is there a torn photo of Betty’s mother wearing a wedding ring and holding another man’s hand? Now, more than 20 years on from the immigration issue starting, the family needs to make $20,000 to hire a (supposedly) really good lawyer. No offense to Andy Milder, but I trust Saul Goodman more.

Daniel’s story is a bit similar, but if you have two brain cells to rub together instead of rubbing the inside of your pocket, you’d see where Daniel is going wrong with MYW editor Sofia. He’s treating her like every other woman who wants to sleep with him because he’s a himbo, because he’s a Meade, because he’s a rich boy in a suit, and because he’s very conventionally attractive. She’s not interested in that, but (spoiler) she’s got some sort of attraction to his weird overconfidence that she can tease out of him.

Wilhelmina’s story, on the other hand, takes a bit of a back seat, effectively being the c-plot. After being kicked out of every boarding school, Wilhelmina’s daughter, Nicole (Nico), has come home to mother coldest – it’s like “mother dearest,” but for a woman colder than Thatcher’s cold, dead, decaying heart. Turns out that when little Wanda Slater was Nico’s age, she was getting kicked out of schools too, rebelling like there was no tomorrow, and that Daddy wasn’t a Senator. As her final act of rebellion, Nico calls the press down to cause a massive headache for the magazine.

I haven’t even gotten into the fact that the old man is seeing dead people, Wilhelmina offering Betty the $20K for the lawyer, or the fact that the great Debi Mazar plays a Queens lawyer, Leah Feldman. There isn’t really much to complain about with “Trust, Lust and Must,” unless you are looking for more of the magazine in action or things like that. I don’t love how pushy Hilda is. I understand the character’s point in the plot and everything, but she’s the biggest bone of contention with me.

Sometimes I love Hilda to bits, then other times I want her out of the scene faster than that guy in the subway wants to die in a few episodes. It’s the fact that she’s pushing Betty not just outside of her comfort zone, but also sometimes pushes the show a little bit beyond where it feels just right. Part of the reason that I love Ugly Betty so much is that it verges on camp. It dances on the edge of absurd and out there situations, but grounds itself in the likes of Ignacio’s immigration story. Often, Hilda is the one pushing it over the edge.

As an episode, “Trust, Lust and Must” feels like the show is sort of plateauing out into something a bit more consistent or setting the groundwork for a standard the show will try to aim for from here out. It is also the 6th episode of season 1, which is often my rule for “if I don’t like a show by this point, I won’t like it at all.” That’s why I’ve been avoiding spoilers up to this point, even though the show is (depressingly) nearly 20 years old at the time of writing. From “After Hours” next time out, I’ll be talking spoilers freely, so be warned!

I won’t say that Litvack’s writing is anything spectacular, nor am I going to speculate on how production (particularly writing) worked for the show. It is fine, “Trust, Lust and Must” doesn’t outstay its welcome like Nico, but it also introduces some players for the next few episodes in an arc that I enjoy well enough. I’d love to say Babbit’s direction meant anything this episode, but like most good directors, she kept things simple and didn’t draw too much attention to making her episode look entirely unique. Both parts of production did their job well without making too much of a splash.

Ultimately, “Trust, Lust and Must” sticks its chest out in a bra that’s pushing up everything but Sofia’s kneecaps, and pulls enough attention to make you focus on them— I mean it, the episode does fine enough. With 23 episodes in the season, we’re not going to get explosive reveals and big mystery items every episode, but Ignacio’s immigration story is one we’ll be following for a while now, with some more twists to come. I can bemoan Hilda’s loud personality and big sister energy all day long (being the little brother does that), but Ana Ortiz will always be loved despite that.

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Ugly Betty “Trust, Lust and Must”

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Good, simple direction that lets the story tell itself.
• Salma Hayek is always a delight.
• Ignacio’s immigration story begins.
• To be a letch, that elevator scene awakens things.

Cons

• I love Ana Ortiz, but Hilda is sometimes a bit too much.
• After five episodes of explosive reveals, it can feel tame.