Sometimes it is loss that makes you realize how much you love. Directed by “Brothers” director Lev L Spiro, “A Tree Grows in Guadalajara” is the final episode in which he’s relevant. While the writing comes from long-term producers Tracy Poust and Jon Kinnally, the two joined from “Brothers” until the end. The two co-wrote their seven episodes, similar to what they did when they co-wrote thirty-three episodes of Will & Grace, and their three episodes in season 2 of 2 Broke Girls. Proust most recently co-wrote episode 6 of Mid-Century Modern, starring everyone’s favorite queen, Nathan Lane.

So, Bradford is a big queen from Florida, Anita is a fun drunk, Betty is on drugs, Hilda is eating bus quesadillas, Alexis’ ex is showing up, and Daniel is popping pills. Have I missed anything? Oh yeah, Amanda is a reverse hag for an “African Queen” who is so straight he’d put coconut shell buttons on a black jacket. Honey, if you want to pretend to be gay, suck some of the fashion juice out of a man sometimes. Otherwise, leave it to the queens from Queens.

As Daniel chases the dragon, he’s working with Wilhelmina and Marc not to stop a meeting between a cover story model and Alexis – the model being Alexis’ ex. Yeah, here we go again, where I need to point out that you can like a show and like some parts of a character who is supposed to be trans, while also picking it apart bit by bit each episode when something is trying to show the life post-transition and when it doesn’t get it right. Daniel’s complex relationship with Alexis can be shown both well and very poorly throughout a show that’s 85 episodes.

When I say this man is tweaking like a crack addict in the abandoned building on the outskirts of town, I mean it. In the opening meeting, he’s as hyper as a toddler with chocolate all over their face and suggests, “Guys want girls. Girls that are accessible, girls they think they can get. We need to get those kind of girls in this magazine. And listen, they don’t have to be ugly, nor fat, very good-looking, hot, and wear really nice clothes too. You know what I mean?” Wow, so thin-pretty women in nice clothes in this fashion magazine? Why hasn’t anyone thought of that before!

Now, with his new-fangled energy from a lack of sex due to his pill popping, Daniel wants to do everything else. After Alexis and Jordan meet for the first time in two years and one transition later, Daniel gets a bit too close for being the little brother of Jordan’s ex. Offering to join her on the shoot for the magazine, bungee jumping… off the Brooklyn Bridge. Honestly, I don’t know what this story is; it is just a bit crap, and I’ll be honest in saying I don’t like Rebecca Gayheart in this role.

See, how I can actually have a moan about some of the story with a trans character as well as praising it elsewhere. I’m 50/50 on the whole Alexis meeting Jordan thing; some of them are jokes, and they aren’t punching down. Other bits are punching down in a completely indefensible way. Especially now.

What do I mean when I say “punching down?” Well, it is a comedy term typically around jokes about certain people or groups of people, and it is a very gray-scale sort of thing. The general rule is that anyone with privilege or power over other groups, particularly the group/person being spoken about, and the joke is entirely at the expense of the group/person, that’s broadly punching down. As I say, there are many layers to it, but 96% of what Ricky Gervais says is punching down.

“I almost wore the same outfit” would be seen as punching sideways – both people are in on the joke, and both are at the expense/both the teller and receiver of the joke are seen as equal. “This explains a lot about our relationship, like why you never left the toilet seat up,” not really punching down, not really punching sideways, somewhere between. Also, I’ll read a chapter of a book while peeing, so yeah, the seat should stay down – if you mean the lid, though, yeah that should also stay down, you mucky pups.

The fact that Jordan also goes on to say this is who Alexis was supposed to be, and compliments her on her breasts, that’s fine; she’s not actively trying to be horrible about it. It is when she’s around Daniel that she starts referring to Alexis as “He— She already has. That’s hard to get used to.” It isn’t that she uses the wrong pronouns, Daniel does that, though there is a lot more complexity to it there, but rather how Gayheart performs those moments. It is almost overacted as a comedy bit that does feel like punching down.

That’s the problem with it. Daniel’s relationship with Alexis is a lot more complicated in terms of how he is processing Alexis’ transition. I’m somewhat willing to take that on a scene-by-scene basis. We only get Jordan this one time, and she’s a little two-faced with it. Maybe this is just me not liking something in the actor, maybe it is the writing, maybe it is the direction, or possibly it is Gayheart trying to do something, and it is coming off in an unintentional way. What I can say is that around Alexis, she’s supportive and understanding to a degree, but around Daniel, she really annunciates that “He” then “She.”

Moving on to the B stories, because they are more closely connected than being separate, Wilhelmina is still trying to get Bradford to divorce Claire, but he struggles to accept it. So instead of stroking his little blue-assisted fella, she’s stroking his ego with a makeover – making him over to look like he wanted to be in the file but wasn’t allowed, a bit like Elon but less of an utter dork. The whole make-over thing is to stroke his ego at the African queen’s little loft fashion show, the same queen that Amanda is actually sleeping with because Mykel Shannon Jenkins’ Tavares is as bent as a ruler.

Let’s totally ignore that Todd Snyder has three daughters, I think Kiko Kostadinov is straight, and I think Yohji Yamamoto is also straight. Those are just three names that I plucked out of the air. This is another one of those “fun when you’re just watching” sort of storylines, but the second you put them under a bit of scrutiny… I don’t want to say it falls apart, but it isn’t so entertaining, rather just a bit flat.

Tavares plays up that he’s a queen because I guess that’s the thing to do in 2006, while secretly he’s being handsy with Amanda. Brother, I don’t blame you on that latter point, but the first one? The whole playing up gay but being straight thing does two things: It flips the thing Marc did in “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but it also plays very much into the stereotype of fashion designers. Really, it doesn’t say anything groundbreaking, it doesn’t change characters (other than Bradford coming out), it doesn’t really move people along, and this is the last we’ll see of Tavares. It is a comedy bit to be a comedy bit – very sitcom.

I’m honestly in two minds over the Tavares storyline. We get more Amanda, and I do love the more we get of Becki Newton, but we know she enjoys sex. We know she enjoys fashion. All this storyline does is showcase another man breaking her heart, and honestly? Daniel did that enough as is, though we might want to talk about that possible family tree being a wreath. What? Nothing, I’m not teasing a far more interesting and fun storyline that happens soon. SHHHHHHHH!!!!

Shall we talk about the Mexico stuff? Staying over at Aunt Mirta’s place, Betty, Hilda, and Ignacio meet up with the side of the family that lives in Mexico. In another life, she might be better known as Anita or Valentina, Carmen Sandiego, or even Sister Peter Marie Reimondo, as Rita Moreno makes her guest star appearance as Mirta in the episode before “East Side Story.” With Papi needing to settle his immigration status in Guadalajara, we go on a road trip down an unexplored part of Betty’s family, including a search for her abuela. We’ll get to that, but like all episodes in the back of a season, we need a speed bump storyline.

I can’t remember where I am in this story because I’ve written next week’s episode already, but I think we’re at the point where Charlie became possessive after the pugil stick fight? Oh no, whatever will I do in a love triangle where I am not actively and never have been in a relationship with the person I’m in love with? I don’t know Betty, act like an adult (ok, you’re 22) and say “either decide who you are with, her or me.” That’s not what happens, though, as Betty starts hallucinating images of Henry in Mexico. That White boy ain’t lasting but two minutes in the sun.

So at the reunion, Betty spots an old woman. The kind of woman you would say, “Look at that old woman.” Turns out that she’s a curandera, and she tells Betty that something is holding her back. Yeah, you don’t need to be a folksy American healer to know that, love, you don’t need Lilyan Chauvin, who managed to survive a breast cancer diagnosis from the 60s until 2008. Nonetheless, Betty is told about finding a tree, which heat-stroke-induced Henry leads her to after Hilda eats quesadillas made in the back of an old school bus. She makes great decisions.

All the while, as Betty and the family have been in Mexico, Aunt Mirta is a fun drunk who will tell you the family’s secrets, like how Betty and Hilda’s abuela is still alive. The same abuela who swore she hated Ignacio for taking her daughter away to Queens. Honestly, this is about the only good thing about the Henry storyline once Charlie is introduced, and it has nothing to do with Henry while having, sadly, everything to do with Henry at the same time.

Betty finds her abuela, Yolanda (not that one!), a frail woman who lives somewhat alone, albeit with a possible stay-in assisted living person…? I’m not quite sure. The house is remote, and she’s there when needed for plot reasons. It is somewhat implied that Lillian Hurst’s Yolanda has a form of dementia in that she sees Betty and instantly recognizes her as Rosa, Betty’s mother and Yolanda’s daughter.

Of course, the bit that’s making it really heartbreaking is that she tells Betty that she should be with the man she loves, the man who loves her, to live a happy life, and so on. Obviously, she’s seeing Rosa, so it is Ignacio that Yolanda is talking about, and Papi walks in to finally get that approval. Of course, with Betty, it is “be with Henry,” but it is the bit for the fabulous Tony Plana’s Ignacio that makes the scene for me. You can just see the subtleness of Plana’s holding back while showing emotion that makes it as much his scene as it is America Ferrera’s.

The story of Ignacio killing Ramiro and whisking away Rosa is a really dark but heartwarming sort of fairytale come drama. It is a reverse Cinderella, I guess: The cook kills the abusive husband after falling for the wife, taking her far away, marrying her, and making sure her and the children feel safe and warm. This is all while hiding the fact that he never became a citizen or that he killed a man. Well, maybe he did. The episode does end with a phone call by a mysterious stranger after hearing the name Suarez, so maybe a revenge plot? Maybe Ramiro isn’t dead. Spoiler, he isn’t. Who else would put out a hit on Ignacio?

As an episode, it is a weird one. “A Tree Grows in Guadalajara” has big moments, some of the most memorable of Ugly Betty, but I don’t know if all for the right reasons. There is part of me that is– not disappointed, but spoiled elsewhere when it comes to penultimate episodes of a season. The obvious example is Ted Lasso: Lots of things wrap up in this penultimate episode, and the finale of the season is metaphorically always tying very neat and pretty bows in terms of writing. Here, the metaphor is kicking the can down the road.

We’re not putting a full-stop (period for Americans, and women) on the Henry thing. Tavares goes where all of Amanda’s lovers go, in the bin where they belong, and that includes Daniel. The Wilhelmina thing goes into next season for storylines that are, to put it rather politely, interesting. Something about Orange is the New Black, a rifle, and amnesia, I think. While the less said about Jordan, the better, really, because it started nowhere, goes nowhere, and ends in a lesbian kiss that was about as forced as Gayheart’s delivery of “He— She…”

The real standouts of “A Tree Grows in Guadalajara” are Rita Moreno’s Aunt Mirta being a fun drunk, leading to Betty and Ignacio’s moment. Closely followed by basically the last 4 minutes as a whole. Ignacio tells the mysterious guy his last name, Daniel gets knocked out by his drug dealer, and Marc and Amanda find Fey’s secret sex dungeon in the Mode offices, specifically the one Leslie Jordan talked about, which is in the closet. You know, normal stuff you have in the penultimate episode of a show.

Ultimately, “A Tree Grows in Guadalajara” has its moments that shine and shimmer in your memory, but it also has a lot of crap. I could have had more with Tavares than two to three episodes; I could have asked Jordan to actually do something to affect characters more than the sibling rivalries too. Honestly, if you and your sister are going for the same woman, you are losing – she has boobs. Yet that one scene in a bare room with an old woman lost in her old age, seeing a reflection of her daughter again, giving that blessing to love the person you love, that’s a punch and a half to the heart.

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Ugly Betty "A Tree Grows in Guadalajara"

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• The scene with Yolanda (not that one!).
• Those last four minutes. Chef's kiss!
• Marc hitting on Bradford.

Cons

• Tavares being another man to break Amanda's heart.
• Henry has go-away "heat" with me now.
• Gayheart's acting about Alexis' transition.