Ahh yes, that episode to make you feel something rather significant. Written by showrunner and creator Silvio Horta, this is only his third writing credit for his own show, which is good to see sometimes. As I’ve said before, it’s difficult to say much more about his credits, given that this was by far his most successful work. We also see the return of James Heyman, in the fourth outing as director, with a further four to come. He’s great, and I think, despite Richard Shepard’s work in “Pilot” and Sheree Folkson in “The Box and the Bunny,” Hayman established Ugly Betty’s sense of style much better.

Breaking down the studio doors (not really) in her big puffy coat, Betty tries to warn Daniel about something. Don’t you just love in medias res? Now, fully Sofia’s assistant after setting up her replacement, then the Oshi incident, now finally moving on, we get Betty working for the woman she once idolized. Meanwhile, Ignacio needs a little help with his immigration status, but if we’re honest, I don’t think he needs that kind of “help” from Constance. It is also the last outing of Elizabeth Payne as “Masked Lady,” with us finally building up to that storyline’s crescendo.

Coming to a crashing crescendo, however, is the Sofia storyline, as Betty discovers Hunter is a dancer at a women-only bar filled with dancers. That and she’s been slipping the Nazi-looking Niles Crane a wad of cash for the pleasure. Tippled by a mystery, Inspector Betty is on the case while Sofia fakes tears to push Daniel into proposing within 60 days. A plan she’s had for an article that is going to either be a great big hit, or a great big load of hit with an S, given the circumstances. You know, it might just be the latter.

Stepping back 24 hours from the TV studio business, we get Betty’s first day at MYW, or as Marc puts it, “Feminazi.” It is the most beige office you’ve ever seen, and I get that Mode’s sterile white tubes of death aren’t much better, but it at least gives the place a hint of personality. Ok, the personality of a hospital run by cats in the far-far future, but personality nonetheless. With the women of the magazine’s staff being plain Janes of every beige variety, even a budget Betty (played by Becki Newton), who is little more than a weirdo.

It might also be her first day, but she’s also given her first assignment: Write up six hundred words on her experience of working at high-fashion hellscape, Mode Magazine. I’d love to say that six hundred words is fine, but for the love of god, I’ve used up four hundred and seventy words to get to this very moment here. I’ve not spoken about Wilhelmina wearing Jeans, Amanda admitting her admiration for Betty’s lack of fashion fear, or much about how Ignacio is sort of scared of Constance Grady. Six hundred words are hardly enough to mention Nolan North.

The B-plot, if you count Daniel and Betty’s stories as one, is focused on Wilhelmina and Texas Ted. I didn’t mention it at the end of “Fake Plastic Snow” because the major stories were Daniel and Betty, but towards the end, Ted shows up, and under the soundtrack, you hear a heartbeat as Wilhelmina checks her sweaty palms, suggesting she’s also found love. Well, a few weeks and an Oshi-based diversion later, she’s spent time in Texas, and he’s up in New York telling Wilhelmina to start acting like an Armadillo and not like a roadrunner. What is it with Southern men named Ted and their weird, middle-aged White men analogies?

Taking his advice, she’s stopped caring too much about work, she’s dressed down, she’s… she’s wearing jeans? Might as well wear a black plastic bag and take yourself out by the bin, or at least that’s Marc’s thoughts when he’s confused by her calm demeanour. Nearly fainting when he unwraps Ted’s gift to Wilhelmina, a stuffed Armadillo. I won’t say the Ted storyline is all that great, especially as a parallel to Sofia; it doesn’t have the high drama (a positive), but it does have a maturity to it that I think works well against that very story.

Ignacio, on the other hand, is being treated like he murdered someone instead of just crossing the border. Well, he did! But Octavia Spencer doesn’t need to know that. Working as a case worker alongside ICE (Hawk Tuah), Spencer’s Constance Grady is one of the first major “before they were super massive” cameos/appearances. A no-nonsense government worker, she’s a little something else as we’ll come to know in the coming few episodes. With a little bit of that crazy coming out once Ignacio tries to get a new case worker, something she’s not very happy about.

So, looping back around to Good Morning America or whatever, as hosted by Nolan North and Andi Matheny, Daniel proposed to Sofia the night before. After having dinner with Bradford and Claire, as well as Inspector Betty and horny Deputy Christina, having Hunter spill The Full Monty, Daniel reveals to Betty he’s just proposed. Fantastic, I’m sure that won’t be a militant feminazi article to cover Sofia’s first issue of MYW. Oh wait, “From fling to ring in 60 days; It’s easier than you think.” Which, oddly enough, isn’t even given the middle pages for her featured article.

Putting aside the horrible person you have to be to do something like that, of which I could name a few. It’s just a bit of a weird story. Ok, before I get into how weird the storyline is, I can’t pass up the opportunity to give Piers Morgan and Rupert Murdoch a good solid kick-in.

In 2000, then EIC of the Daily Mirror, Piers Morgan, admitted to his paper hacking phones and listening to voicemails from Paul McCartney. Meanwhile, the scum of the earth News of the World (owned by Murdoch, who owns FOX News) hacked a dead kid’s phone, and the police did (practically) nothing about it. Journalistic malpractice is putting it lightly; it is subhuman behaviour.

Almost as scummy as that, Sofia led Daniel on to create this cover story of how to bed and domesticate a man-whore in 60 days. Am I saying that it’s more scummy than this red-pilled whatever “culture” you want to call the Andrew Tate/Crypto bros are? No, I’m saying that this is on par with that sort of awful behavior, yet that’s still not my major problem with it as a storyline. It is the question: How did she expect this to work out in the first place?

Sure, domesticate and tame Daniel in 60 days, get him to propose, and put it in your magazine. A magazine that’s published by… Daniel’s daddy. The same Daniel you’ve just made a fool of in your stupid little game, to tell women that they can be Richard La Ruina, the Super Seducer. Given the tone of Ugly Betty is that of camp, and the storylines aren’t that deep, it feels odd that I have to say this, but it really does feel like a weird point to build to and end on. Yes, it makes you feel for Daniel, far more than you did at the end of “Pilot,” but where is the character logic?

The big blow-off moment between Sofia and Daniel climaxes with “How many times have you done exactly the same thing to dozens of women?” Literally? Never. That’s the thing about being a character that’s characterized as a womanizer, a man-whore, and a himbo: He sleeps with women and moves on. He’s not led them on to the point of proposing to him, and then, after accepting the proposal, making it a big publicity stunt. Is he a good person for being a himbo? No, but he didn’t sleep with someone for 60 days simply for a story.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” that’s what they say, supposedly, and neither character’s actions were right. Acting like the martyr of revenge for all the women Daniel has slept with and never called back makes you as bad a person; it doesn’t make you better. You’ll be held up as the champion of women by a select few who feel hurt from a previous relationship, but that’s it: A few vindictive people who need to go to therapy. Just as Daniel needs to go to therapy to solve his completely messed-up life.

As TV, I like the Sofia storyline to a point, but the reality is that it doesn’t make much sense once you actually look at it beyond the high drama that it is played up to be. With a story like that, what did Sofia think Bradford would think? I like that she stands on what she did: “You can call me a bitch, you can call me whatever you want,” but at the end of the day, she admits that this is how she got places. The trouble I have with it from a character writing perspective is that she’s shown as an intelligent woman up to that point, but it’s a dumb move.

For an episode of TV and an episode of Ugly Betty, “Sofia’s Choice” is pretty good. Often considered one of the best of the season at least, but looking at it from a critical writing perspective, there is something about that twist that never really settles right with me. Especially as Daniel went “poof… disappeared.”

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Ugly Betty “Sofia’s Choice”

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Becki Newton is a Betty; I know it, but I can't see it.
• Octavia Spencer is good.
• "You love your Wang..."

Cons

• What was smart about Sofia's logic here?
• Oklahoma? I don't like Ted that much.