Ooh. Oh, how this episode nearly broke my heart. Ok, one specific element of it nearly broke my heart but still, it was a very tender episode, and reminded me of all the things I love about this show.
Firstly, Betty gets permission to put the final approval on the latest issue entitled eye of the storm, while all the editors go off to their retreat. Of course, needing to discover new ideas, Aussie guy whose name I still can’t remember declares no phones, no blackberries will be allowed throughout the weekend.
And a tornado devastates mid-west US, meaning the new edition is very poorly timed and Betty attempts to get it postponed. But as neither Daniel nor Willy are answering their phones, she has to go up to the retreat to get their attention. Marc, with his new guilty and sad slick hairdo decides to drive up in Cliff’s car, which provides Amanda with the opportunity to join in for the road trip. Of course, Amanda is actually using this opportunity to work out what’s wrong with Marc as he keeps distracting her whenever she brings up the wedding, and then she finds the receipt for wedding rings from Tiffani’s, which causes Marc to crash the car into a tree. Yipes. Marc is obviously flipping out and not dealing well with cheating and then proposing. Betty runs off to get help while Amanda squeals about all the things her heels weren’t made for in a thinly-veiled joke about boots, which I quite liked. Betty ends up hiring a sky-writer to say Daniel, call Betty, and is congratulated on her impressive creative thinking and brilliance in order to save the magazine. But Willy has other ideas….
In the meantime, on the retreat, Willy is trying to stay away from Connor, the Aussie guy and my god I remembered his name, finally, after 3 episodes! They end up hunting together in the forests, as Willy needs to kill something to deal with her feelings. They definitely have great chemistry together. In the meantime, Daniel battles his inner monologue (heh) to think of something good and is nearly hit by a hippie-esque woman falling out of a tree. She happens to be Connor’s fiancé.
Willy decides to let the issue run, using the PR from the disaster to sell issues, which inevitably leads it to being the highest-selling issue of all times. I had a feeling this would happen, because this is exactly how you rack up media attention. Unfortunately, the media discovers Betty had final approval, so they converge on Tornado Girl and rip her to shreds. Meanwhile, Marc realises they need to help each other now they’re on an even level, and tells her where to get info, because he knows what happened. When Betty finds out, she gets uber-pissed off with Daniel for betraying her knowingly like that. Daniel realises this and rather done protect Betty from further abuse, he decides to take the blame, thus negating the whole process and throwing the Meades into further trouble.
However, Connor’s fiancé is impressed with him standing up for Betty and there is also definite attraction there. Something which Willy notices, and organises a late work meeting, causing Connor to cancel anniversary dinner plans and make the fiancé angry. Ooh, Connor, you should learn better than to allow Willy to play.
Marc has confessed to Betty what happened at her party and she tells him to be honest, and hopefully Cliff will understand.
Meanwhile, Hilda’s permit was rejected and she’s defeated. But, Papa Suarez won’t accept his 2 girls being defeated and so Betty drags Hilda to the councillor’s office and they inform him it was rejected. He says there’s nothing he can do, so Betty sadly tells him it’s the best thing which has happened to her sister in a long time, at which point he finds a loophole, saying as long as Hilda sells stuff she can have her salon. And yes, there is an attraction there, and I like him more than Coach Diaz, so please let Hilda be happy for once!
And then, over the ending montage, we see Marc tell Cliff not only that he crashed his car…but he cheated on him. The look on Cliff’s face, the knowledge of what happened s he walks out, oh my god it breaks my heart. Please please please don’t let this be the end of Cliff, I love Cliff, I need my Cliff-and-Marc loving! Oh I’m sad now. I need to go and cry.
