“I’ve killed once, I’ll kill again,” do we count that as bury your gays?. For his one and only episode of Ugly Betty, Jeff Melman directs the 17th episode. Melman has done a lot of directorial work, including Community, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and two of the worst US adaptations in history, Men Behaving Badly and Red Dwarf. If he directed Kings of Van Nuys, he’d have had the trifecta of tripe. Meanwhile, season story editor, Dailyn Rodriguez, returns from “After Hours” for her second and final episode as a writer. She continues on to “East Side Story” as story editor, though.

It is another busy one this week, but one that’s arguably a little more focused. A week (or a couple of weeks) on from “Derailed,” Daniel is still sleeping with Lucy Liu’s Grace Chin, while Ignacio struggles to breathe as he’s being smothered by Octavia Spencer’s Constance. Two to three years before we get that performance alongside Viola Davis, Cicely Tyson, LaChanze, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in The Help. While those four lovebirds have their contentious moments, Henry and Charlie invite Betty to Charlie’s birthday, so Betty takes the gay Orthodontist. Sorry, Gabe Orthodontist, I’m forgetting Modern Family hasn’t aired yet.

The “messiest” part of “Icing on the Cake” is probably Daniel trying to hide from Grace the fact that Claire killed Fay. While he hides this, Wilhelmina is scheming once again to get her trans-femme best friend back on side by realizing Daniel is working against her plan to see Jim Robinson rot in a cell. Turns out daddy didn’t murder his lover, it was mother dearest, but Alexis doesn’t know. So when she tries to get The Chin off daddy’s case and Daniel’s little D, it could cause more dysfunction for the family. That’s all they need, more drama.

Keep in mind, we’re still in season one here. We have as guests or recurring stars in this one episode: Lucy Liu, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jayma Mays, Octavia Spencer, Judith Light, and Alexandra Wescourt. I mean, what’s next? Kristin Chenoweth, Patti LuPone, and Leslie Jordan? No, I mean it, how stacked could this show’s roster of guests get? With The Chin on the case, Daniel feels confident his dad will be out of prison in no time, assuming Alexis doesn’t find out about their sex dates. All the while, Betty tries and fails to fight the feelings she has for Henry, despite Charlie being around.

If anything, “Icing on the Cake” is best known for that later scene at the house where Betty stalls for time and Dr. Gabe gets hit with “oh, the accountant is much cuter” every few minutes. Something about Rodriguez’s writing this time out is so tight and focused that, despite effectively having four different stories here, they all come together around the focus point of Betty and Betty’s house in Queens. The only one that isn’t really moving location too much is, of course, Ignacio and Constance’s love story, or rather her obsession and his “I just need my papers.”

Betty and Henry have a chat at the office, and he invites her to Charlie’s birthday, to which a conversation with Christina leads Betty to take her Orthodontist as a date. The idea, of course, is to try and give Henry a sense of what it feels like, seeing this person you obviously want to be with, being with someone else. Oddly enough, this is something that I spoke about with Walter before, and how Betty is changing, something that even the family (particularly Hilda) notices. Now, without Walter and with minimal Hilda this week, Mode is having a real negative influence on Betty.

Being corrupted by the Mode-es, as they are called. All for it to come back home, where she takes Jesse Tyler Ferguson after the party, and we get those comments about how Henry is the cute one, the nice one, the one Betty is always talking about. I wouldn’t even call it a love triangle, I’d call it two circles: Betty wants Henry, Henry wants Betty but has Charlie, Charlie loves Henry and likes Betty, and Betty just sees Charlie as in the way. I don’t think Betty hates Charlie. She’s just annoyed that she’s in the way of that relationship happening.

I’d hardly call it a spoiler, but to have Henry and Betty become a perfectly happy couple, especially here and now, just kills the show. It would define her goals and aspirations as a character through a romantic relationship, which reduces her dimensions into a 1950s-Americana housewife, and that’s not what the show is at all. The title isn’t Ugly Betty because someone sweet comes along and finds her attractive; it is Ugly Betty because everyone around her has an ugly personality, while she’s the pure one who happens to also be conventionally attractive if you take away the braces and the sweaters.

Defining Betty by her romantic relationships takes away from the fact that she’s driven, independent, and can get things done. We saw in “Lose the Boss” that she can run the magazine, we saw in “Pilot” that she’s willing to take the punches but also drive home that she won’t be made fun of just to run away, and throughout she’s shown as resourceful, to ground Daniel, and ties her family together. Giving her a relationship with this perfect person, Henry, doesn’t add or change anything in her; it would feel good, but it doesn’t do anything beyond that.

That’s the biggest takeaway from “Icing on the Cake,” that while the relationship is something Betty wants and that she wants Henry, it doesn’t fulfill her. I love Chris Gorham, and I love Henry, but the complications are here for a reason. Not only does it give Betty a focus on her actual ambition in magazine publishing, but (I feel I’m repeating myself), Henry, in particular, doesn’t do anything to challenge her. Maybe that’s the fault of the writing team, not giving him a “fault” beyond Charlie, which isn’t entirely his responsibility; it is a fluke of relationships and timing.

Thematically, that’s often the focus of the episode alongside Claire wanting to escape the country, but we can’t forget Amanda’s outfits. Butting in at a party, she shoves some “skank” aside to talk to some made-up designer. As revenge, the woman she pushes aside gets a friend to deliver a dress— Look, it is a condom! It is a great, big, grey leathery condom with a pixie hat; there truly is no better way to explain it. Becki Newton once again proves she’s the perfect actor for every bit of Ugly Betty.

Maybe that’s what I’m trying to say as I repeat myself over and over: You have this rather basic episode with a big, explosive end that changes things. You have all these guest stars and this main cast of perfectly-cast gems. Now, trying to pick it apart years later feels weird because it isn’t bad, it isn’t perfect, but it is good and does everything that it needs to with a comedic campness Ugly Betty is known for.

I mean, you have Octavia Spencer here with blonde highlight extensions that dominate her actual hair, those big eyes bugging out like The End from Snake Eater, then you have her ready to throw hands with Judith Light’s Claire Meade. Pushing her away, saying, “You’re the hoe stealing my man,” to this massively upper-class, perfectly molded, not a hair out of place woman is beyond words. It is noises of “What is this show?” especially when Jesse Tyler Ferguson gets that backhand.

Taking “Icing on the Cake” with a stone-faced seriousness just isn’t going to work; it is far from an episode with a lot of serious moments. The final third has its flecks of a serious tone, as Daniel and Grace Chin act like teenagers caught having sex by one of their parents, Alexis demands answers, and Claire calls the cops. If you’re honest with yourself, though, the episode where Octavia Spencer has obvious extensions in and threatens to beat up “the skinny blonde bitch” isn’t serious. It is one major plot beat with comedic surroundings.

Ultimately, “Icing on the Cake” is like the icing on a cake – you like it, it tastes good, it even tastes good on its own sometimes, but too much of it isn’t worth it, and it would have been better (not a pun) with the icing on the cake. What I’m saying is, as a one-off, watching in a series-long rewatch, “Icing on the Cake” is a fun delight of an episode with dark themes towards the end and soap opera drama throughout. However, it isn’t an episode you could fully enjoy on its own regularly. I could watch “Fey’s Sleigh Ride” in a couple of weeks and enjoy it, but I couldn’t rewatch this one as quickly.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Ugly Betty “Icing on the Cake”

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• So many guest stars for one episode.
• A clearer, more focused episode.
• Octavia Spencer with those highlights and backhand.
• Amanda's big condom.

Cons

• Its focus on one point makes it feel slower than others.