Much like that time Maggie died: Willy’s in the grave, in the grave, Willy’s in the grave! I genuinely wish it wasn’t as awkward to transition to this now, but our director this week only did one episode of Ugly Betty, Gary Winick. Winick is probably best known as a director for two things: The so-so 2006 Charlotte’s Web and the far superior Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo flick 13 Going on 30. Winick died in 2011 from brain cancer. Officially, the episode was written by soap opera head writer Charles Pratt Jr, with an “(uncredited)” credit for the last episode. Bill Wrubel is “(uncredited)” here as a writer too.

With the decapitated head of Bradford Meade in Betty’s fridge while she eats her weight in empanadas the night before his funeral, she’s still got her heart set on this quitting her job thing. As I say, it is the old man’s funeral, so Daniel and Alexis are all in black, Amanda thinks her two years working the front desk mean she can run Meade publications, and Claire takes tips from Yoga and wears orange to a funeral. Cookies to you if you get that one. Though much like my favorite American adaptation, there is a funeral crasher. No Valium or gay lovers, though.

After being humiliated and fired by the Meades, Wilhelmina reveals “Medusa X.” I have been waiting for this episode! Last year (in “Lose The Boss”), it was “Baby Chutney” and Daniel getting over the hangover by decorating the tree. This year, it is Wilhelmina deleting the entire magazine 12 hours before it ships. Not just delete the layout, she wiped the servers clean, and Henry notes to Daniel and Alexis (who just buried Bradford, mind you) that the “hard drives are dead.” Indeed, I am once again ready to reference “The Less I Know the Better” from Tame Impala.

Yes, as I’ve called her previously, the wicked bitch of the Upper East Side has finally done it; she’s burning the city down from within and laying the foundations to build her own metropolis on the rubble. As she revealed several episodes ago, Wilhelmina Slater has been sabotaging Mode once she realized Bradford (but mostly the kids) wouldn’t give up control so she could start Slater. With the help of Betty one last time, Daniel has a full staff in the conference room ready to build a magazine from scratch, until Wilhelmina offers benefits and a raise.

As Betty went to the funeral in her final act as a Mode employee, she left the family to set up the Christmas tree. Listen, I’m just going to say it. When the Suarez’s are setting up their tree, Mode should not be putting together a major part of the magazine. Last season, Wilhelmina was telling a hooker, “stop pawing my piece,” and stole from charity, while Daniel helped set up the tree and Betty fixed the magazine. This year? Mode is in ruin, and someone (I’m not naming names – Hilda) burns the tree.

See, we’re back to proper Ugly Betty! None of this Gio being an awfully written character and an episode that’s terrible because it is focused around a love triangle that isn’t really one. There is loads of plot going on, and we’re going forward like a freight train. I like it!

That said, we’re still doing the whole “Did you know she used to have a penis?” thing with Alexis. When Wilhelmina walks into the conference room after the server wipe and is about to reveal the new magazine she’s going to start, we have Alexis pulling out her earrings and kicking off her heels, saying, “I’m gonna kick her ass!” Once again, we get Max Greenfield, and he says: “Girl fight… kinda.” No, it is not the worst line, and it isn’t the most transphobic, but it continues the horrible sniping we have at Alexis’ gender identity.

Despite that, I think the majority of “Giving Up the Ghost” is what I’ve been missing in the eight episodes we’ve had thus far in season 2. The first episode was building to that gut punch of Hilda realizing that Santos is really dead, and it’s time to move on. From there, we’ve had hints of the show as we know it, but a lot of the focus has swung towards trying to be funny and do the “romance” plot without the heart that I think the best episodes tend to have. Here we’ve swung back to the established formula.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying every episode needs to be this, where we get Betty talking about her mother passing right before Ignacio’s birthday and how she held on to traditions. The last two episodes I’ve been enjoying quite a bit more than I did “Something Wicked This Way Comes;” sounding a woodworking file down my pee hole is still more appealing than that episode. My point is that we can have fun episodes with Posh Spice and trying to marry a man on his literal deathbed, but they don’t have an impact without episodes like this.

I mean, sure, we have zany bits of Wilhelmina being kicked into the grave, the Medusa X CD and the animations for that, as well as Daniel and Betty breaking Eliza Dushku out of rehab. However, you also have Betty opening up to Daniel about how her mother would make tamales for everyone’s birthdays and care so much about these little traditions, as well as Daniel opening up about his insecurities about failing Bradford’s legacy. We also have that bit where Alexis tries to write off her breasts as a work tool.

Putting on a little red dress and tall heels, Alexis tries to convince the printer to hold for an extra hour or two so they can finish the magazine. Indeed, this is one of those “Something something” miscommunication, “something something” big and small, and “something something” dark-side moments. Meegosh from Willow, the late David J Steinberg, plays the new guy at the printer who contrasts this Amazon of a woman against his stature. Steinberg has dwarfism.

It feels easy to say “If you’re easily offended, these are not scenes for you,” and I somewhat get that. More importantly, when it comes to the jokes about dwarfism and reactions to that, the show actually has an actor with it. Unlike Disney in 2025, with a Snow White film where the Seven Dwarfs are reduced to five and only one actor is playing one of the titular Dwarfs who is under 4ft tall. Not that this is the most important part; there are also some comments about Alexis and her body that are on the line of both transphobic and, I guess, sexist.

“Giving Up the Ghost” isn’t perfect, but mostly because of the tired phrase “it is of the time.” If you can accept that the show was written when people weren’t as knowledgeable about trans people in general, when having a man with dwarfism making a joke about being sold off to the circus was a thing, and when everything was a bit happier to punch down (to reference that again), you could see past its problems. Not that it excuses the problems. The point, more so, is that this is what the show felt like in season 1.

Throughout the whole episode, you have Betty being tormented by the ghost of Bradford in a Hawaiian shirt as we’re talking about serious and heartfelt moments. Unlike having Victor Garber play a cartoon of a professor, the only cartoonish thing here is that Betty is haunted by her dead boss. Almost every other story has a sense of grounded heart.

Daniel is dealing with the fact that his dad just died, and he is the heir to the fortune alongside Alexis, but he’s also contending with the massive legacy left behind by Bradford. Alexis is internally fighting with awful, cutting words said by Wilhelmina and her memory of Bradford. Wilhelmina asks The Senator for seed money to start Slater. Betty is fighting this idea that her mother wanted her to be good, but she doesn’t understand that here she’s already doing good. Then you have Amanda.

I said it when we got that bit with Wanda/Ugly Willy, and how Amanda is just as fragile and broken as everyone else, despite the outward persona she puts up. It is a little ham-fisted as she continues this “did you know, I am Fey Sommer’s daughter?” as no one actually cares. However, it is the end with Christina in the sex dungeon, where she reveals she’s been looking for daddy. Again, it is a heart that the show sometimes misses, where characters are vulnerable to each other in place of “let’s do the wacky, zany thing.”

Ultimately, “Giving Up the Ghost” feels like a warm hug of an episode as it returns to what made me fall in love with the show in the first place. It is a little bit dark and risky in places and has all the mad-cap zaniness without making that the focus. Most importantly, it has some heart at the center of it. Yeah, Winick’s direction, particularly with the Three Wise Monkeys reference, isn’t revolutionary. Though, to the same degree, I also see why Pratt Jr didn’t return either. It is a good episode, but not an all-time great.

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 "Giving Up the Ghost"

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Willy's in a grave, in a grave!
• The heart returns to the center of the show.
• Actually hiring an actor with Dwarfism, something Disney doesn't do in 2025.

Cons

• “Girl fight… kinda.”