“Scandal, and sex change, and murder – oh my!” thanks Tim, that opening line sums up Ugly Betty as a whole. Misgivings about the title aside, series-long producer Sheila Lawrence takes her second credit following the wonderful “Fey’s Sleigh Ride” after some Gilmore Girls. Before going on to Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Private Practice, and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. While Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie director, Lev L. Spiro, makes his first of two outings as director. Lev has done a lot of individual things or very small runs on TV shows, including Modern Family and Orange is the New Black.

A whole three days after Mode’s “ones to watch” show at Fashion Week, no one can quite put together what is going on with the family Meade. The least of which is Ignacio. As Betty worries about her job before riding in the lift with Alexis, the whole company is a bit on edge; Daniel is still calling Alexis by her dead name and using He/Him. Damn these pronouns, I really should figure out a way for YOU to understand THEM better, like maybe forcing YOU to go back to 1st-2nd grade? We’ll get onto that here in a short while, in what is probably going to be quite a lengthy discussion.

Turns out, this was the plan all along: First, fake your death and transition for 2 years into this beautiful, sexy tall woman; second, come out very publicly during a major public event where you can get your daddy arrested for murdering someone; and third, seize control of Meade Publications, ousting little Danny and placing Wilhelmina in the seat of Editor-in-Chief. It almost worked out better than every Simon Pegg clip from an Edgar Wright film. Almost being quite operative there. You could almost forget about the whole Walter/Henry storyline, or Claire, too.

So from the off, we need to talk about the title and some of the lines, because it is 2026 and people will find the whole thing quite off-putting. From claiming “they” keep “it” in a jar after surgery, completely misunderstanding how sex-change surgery works, to Ignacio’s confusion and “shemale” line. No one look at Ignacio’s search history, for the love of the catholic baby Jesus. There are a lot of lines that, if chopped up and isolated, would be seen as plainly transphobic, and honestly, I get that criticism.

I love Ugly Betty, but to say the show got it right all the time – the episode is called “Brothers” for the love of god – would probably be a bit disingenuous. However, I think there are plenty of things throughout “Brothers” (I feel sick just writing that) that show a different side of that coin, especially for 2006. Daniel, in particular, is the one who’s vicious for his misgendering and dead-naming, but Claire also does the same without hatred or anger behind it.

15 minutes in, give or take, Claire is in Daniel’s office showing off dresses she’s bought Alexis, and she says the line: “The child I buried and grieved over for the past two years is alive. I don’t care what he came back as, I have him back. [extended pause] Her.” It’s not just the wonderful Judith Light as Claire Meade that does this; everyone is having a different processing time of “ok, so she was a man, but she’s now a woman, what am I supposed to say?” I don’t think I’ve seen a show, even now 20 years on, that shows that processing of someone’s transition in real-time for characters as well as Ugly Betty did.

The whole thing is messy, raw, sometimes horrible, and sometimes filled with heart, but it was trying. That’s the important thing about being an ally to LGBTQ+IA people: It’s not that you get every single thing right as soon as they come out to you, it is that you try and you take the time to be kind. To listen, understand, and try to accommodate is all anyone is asking you to do. Ugly Betty and its characters don’t get it right in every moment, especially here, but by Jove, it gave it a go for 2006/2007.

Back to the summary and talking about plotlines rather than the socio-political climate of language and dialogue from 2006. I know it aired in 2007, but it was shot in 2006. So Justin went to school “twirling a flag” and got into a fist fight. Indeed, I’m surprised there wasn’t an L dropped there – from the transphobic frying pan and into the presumed homophobic fire. Justin needs to go home from school early, and instead of calling Hilda, who’s working on hair (we’ll get to that storyline), Santos brings Justin home with his flag and with a cut on his cheek.

Yeah, now we’ve dropped the mystery storyline, and we’re dropping the Walter plot (spoiler). Santos is returning from “Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral.” Yes, the same episode he stormed out of because Hilda was taking Justin to fabric shops and letting him enjoy musical theater – short hand for, “HE’S GAY, DO YOU GET IT YET?!?!?!?” I’ve said it before, being a gay teenager during this time is hard enough, never mind the fact that the dad who doesn’t live with you at all won’t accept you. Now he wants to “fix you” because you’re being bullied.

For those of us who have seen the show, umpteen times by this point, you know that next time out in “Derailed” we get more of this story, but it’s a heavy storyline. Not just for Justin, but for Hilda. I keep doing this, I’ll praise her, then she’ll be big and bold, but that’s Hilda in a nutshell. I’m not saying that this is a story all about Hilda, more than it is about Justin. Because it is absolutely about Justin and his parents’ acceptance of being gay, but it is also about how Santos makes Hilda feel as a parent of a gay son.

Everything Santos says is that Hilda is “enabling” Justin; he’s just punching down and trying to make her feel bad for making sure Justin feels happy. Gay even, in the early 20th-century sense. That’s the theme of the episode: Mothers wanting the best for their kids, be it a son who’s being bullied for different reasons than presumed, a daughter in a relationship she has no love for, or a daughter she didn’t know she had until three days ago. Drop the B and R, add an M, and you’ve got the name of the episode based on the theme.

I’ll quickly run through the Walter thing, because honestly, I don’t care, and good riddance. From the very start of Betty’s day, Walter is trying to talk to her, but you know what it’s like when your boss’s dead sister has transitioned after she faked her own death, and there is a hostile takeover of the company trying to oust your boss, right? As it turns out, Walter was given a promotion to store manager, but the store isn’t in New York or New Jersey; it’s in Maryland. He’s ready to turn it down to stay with Betty, but everyone, especially Claire, tells her to stop stringing him along.

We’ll see Kevin Sussman’s name in the credits until the end of the season, but in reality, this is the last we’ll ever see of him. The way it ends between them is fine, but it doesn’t make up for Walter’s poor character up to this point. He’s just making the way for Henry to swoop in and be Betty’s Clark Kent. Right now, it is a nothing story that I’m glad is over, and I’m more excited about what is next.

The episode’s almost crescendo, as there are so many big reveals and character beats in Act 3, is that infamous bumper car scene at Coney Island between Alexis and Daniel. Again, if you want to pick it apart with modern sense and sensibilities, it is messy, it is clunky, it is unrealistic, and it has lines in there that are a bit meh.

However, Alexis’ line, “I needed a new life. Not all of us were born in the lives we’re supposed to have. […] then I realized I had a chance to get back at dad. […] He wasn’t worshiping me! Daniel, he figured it out – he hoped tossing a ball around would change things. When I finally told him I was going to do this… he said if I went through with the surgery, I’d lose everything; the company, the money… our family. […] he said he’d rather I was dead.” These are lines that I honestly can’t think of any other actor saying in this role.

I made clear last time out, and I’m repeating the point here, there is a lot that you could say against the role now. Be it a studio exec’s orders or some messy, complicated understandings of trans people for 2006. Nothing on TV at the time or since has done a storyline quite like this, as big and impactful on such a mainstream show, especially for someone who doesn’t have that experience. That’s the ton of bricks landing on you as you realize what trans folks feel like and go through.

I’m not trying to pat myself on the back for having empathy; it’s just a storyline (early on) that does a better job than a lot of TV does, even now. Especially in such a format as this. Aside from Daniel’s lines about Alexis’ previous life, very little of this episode feels like it is punching down, which is a comedy term for jokes that do nothing but belittle and attack; see anything Ricky Gervais does. What’s important to note here for the Daniel lines is that he’s doing that because he’s angry, he’s bitter, and he doesn’t know how to process any of this.

For Daniel, his brother died two years ago, and he watched his mother spiral into depression and alcoholism, but recently, he’s had pressure from his dad to be the prodigal son. To Daniel, he did nothing but look up to Alexis in her previous life, and he wanted that attention from their dad, which, to Daniel, only Alexis was getting. It doesn’t excuse what he does. What it does is put into context the character reliving the trauma of the dead brother, alcoholic mother, and disinterested dad, and Daniel’s character lashes out in anger as a response.

This sort of drama in film and TV, especially now, tends to avoid storylines that are as messy and uncomfortable as this for one reason or another. Mostly to avoid showcasing casual transphobia because there is enough of that going around, be it governments or public figures, but the trouble is that this sort of family and friends response is more realistic. I’m already in depressing enough territory, but sometimes trans (and general LGBTQ+IA) folks have a complicated network of people supporting and demeaning them. A mother who is happy her kid’s alive, and a dad who doesn’t get it – a sister who becomes closer, and a brother who hates the similarities are gone.

Even Justin’s storyline follows this complicated, messy, and at times uncomfortable thing. The fistfight he got into at school, and Santos in particular thinking it is about Justin being gay, allows for the surprise that he’s actually standing up for Hilda. Being called a “slut mom” because of how she dresses. Even then, Santos is switching sides despite his sly comments towards Justin a line or two before; a much more realistic depiction of that character and dynamic than in most shows.

Ultimately, “Brothers” might have a problematic name and a few lines that make you feel uncomfortable now more than ever, but in the context of 2006/07, it is nearly revolutionary. It’s this role that made me fall in love with Rebecca Romijn, not the one where she’s half-naked and blue, and it is her role that introduced me as a young kid to the idea of trans people. Otherwise, it was Drag Queens like Lily Savage and Danny La Rue. Sure, other parts of the episode, like Justin’s storyline, the Walter breakup, and the fact Claire knows who actually killed Fey, are good, but this was the episode that confirmed “this is Alexis Meade,” and I love it.

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Ugly Betty “Brothers”

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• The Coney Island scene.
• Everyone has a different processing time for Alexis' transition.
• Claire tells Betty who killed Fey Sommers.

Cons

• Some lines, even for 2006, that are just horrible, not uncomfortable.