Things Fall Apart (Ugly Betty)
| "Things Fall Apart" | |
|---|---|
| Ugly Betty episode | |
| Episode no. |
Season 3 Episode 16 |
| Directed by | Tom Verica |
| Written by | Henry Alonso Myers |
| Production code | 316 |
| Original air date | February 26, 2009 |
| Episode chronology | |
"Things Fall Apart" is the 16th episode in the third season, the 57th episode overall, of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on February 26, 2009. The episode was written by Henry Alonso Myers and directed by Tom Verica.
Plot
Daniel is sick and checks into a luxury hotel where he can be babied. Molly brings him soup and he complains that he's dying. She has something serious to tell him about but changes her mind, saying it can wait.
Wilhelmina wakes to find Connor holding baby William. She wishes that they could just "live in this moment" and laments that they both have to go to work.
Betty and Marc's YETI assignment for next week: Do a presentation on their magazine's budget. Matt volunteers his help because he's got an MBA but Betty turns him down. Marc points out to a clueless Betty that Matt was asking for a date. He also teases her about what it will be like to return to the accounting department, since it will remind her of Henry. Sure enough, the new accountant gives them an update: Henry's just posted pictures on Facebook of him and his new girlfriend in Peru.
Justin advises Betty to channel her frustration over Henry into a project, so she buries herself in Mode's budget numbers. When the budget comes up short by several millions, she asks Daniel, who tells her to take it up with Connor or Wilhelmina.
Connor explains that corporations often move money from one account to another and that it's nothing unusual. Out of earshot, Connor, makes a call to his banker saying, "Looks like I might have to make my next transfer ahead of schedule." Connor suggests that he and Wilhelmina get away, and she thinks he's talking about a long weekend, but he's got something more long-term in mind.
Betty tells Marc about the budget discrepancy and he's skeptical that she caught something that all the real accountants didn't. Marc thinks it's all about her being jealous over Henry having a new girlfriend, and advises her to find a new guy. Betty decides to give Matt a call, but Connor interrupts, telling her he appreciates her "moxie." After multiple interruptions, she blurts out over the phone to Matt, "Do you want to go get a drink?"
Matt backs up Betty's suspicions about the budget as they chit-chat over drinks. When she gets a text message from Henry, requesting to be her friend on Facebook, she spills the whole story to Matt, who listens patiently. She decides to get going and he tries to stop her, so she tells him that she's not ready to see anyone right now. But he was simply going to tell her that he forgot his wallet! She offers to get some money from an ATM, but forgets all about Matt when she sees that she has an extra $100,000 in her account! She goes to ask her family's advice, and then finally remembers Matt, but only gets his voicemail.
He shows up at Mode to tell her it's fine since the bar started a tab for him. He knows she's not over Henry and she insists she is, but believes that dating a colleague is a bad idea.
Betty asks the Meade accountant to check on her account and it says that a "B. Suarez" authorized the transfer! She asks Connor if he knows what's going on. In the elevator, Connor implies that any one investigating the money transfer will believe that Betty did it herself.
She asks if he's responsible. Connor stops the elevator and looms over her threateningly. "I don't know why anyone has to know about stealing from the company. The way I see it, if you keep quiet about this, there's no reason that anyone needs to know about the money in your account," he says, adding that papers he had her sign implicate not just her, but Daniel as well. He warns her not to tell anyone else, and threatens he'll "ruin their life with a couple of keystrokes."
Connor goes to tell Wilhelmina everything. "I'm stealing from the company. I'm taking the money and I'm leaving the country and I want you and the baby to come with me." He confesses that he hates Daniel for taking Molly from him, but that he loves Willy now, not Molly. "When I found out about them, I came up with a plan to steal everything... I found a way to take all of their money and I want to give it to you. We could work for these people for the rest of our lives or we could be happy together." He's chartered a private jet that's leaving tonight and he wants her to be on it.
Wilhelmina confides to Marc that she's considering leaving the country with Connor. "Mode is your life," he tells her, and she insists it's her one chance at love. "If you had a chance to have all the money you ever needed and be with the person you loved for the rest of your life, would you do it?" Marc doesn't know what to tell her.
Betty informs Daniel of Connor's scheme and Daniel isn't sure whether to go to the police, so they call Claire. No one's seen Connor in hours, or Wilhelmina either, but Claire has more bad news, "As of noon, all of the Meade accounts have been cleared out. We're going to have to find that money, or this company is dead."
Marc's loyalties are conflicted, but he hands Betty the address where Wilhelmina is meeting Connor. "You didn't get this from me. If you hurry you can still stop her."
Daniel, Claire and Betty arrive at the airport to stop Wilhelmina. She tells them that if they thought she was running way with Connor, "You don't know me at all," just as the police, whom she called, arrive. But Connor's already gone. He calls to tell her he took an earlier flight and that he still loves her.
"He asked me to choose, him or my career," Wilhelmina sadly tells Betty. "You have to make choices. You can't have it all. You are a career girl just like me. You'll see."
Betty returns home to find Elena handing out presents from her trip to LA. Alone with her in the kitchen, Betty confides she might have just lost her job. She asks Elena if she ever had to make a choice between work and a personal life. "If I felt like that, I never would have met your father," she answers. Betty wistfully watches her father and Elena cuddling on the couch. She decides to accept Henry's friend request. Then she goes to find Matt at his usual bar, where she's just in time to bail him out from another cashless situation.
Molly is waiting at Daniel's office. He suspects she saw him looking at engagement rings, but she replies, "We don't have a future, because I don't have one. I'm sick. It's cancer. I beat it before and it's back." She insists she can't put him through what she put Connor through a few years ago, so she's going to go stay with her family. He begs her not to go, but she walks out. Claire, who witnessed the whole thing, comes to comfort him.
Music
The ending song is sung by Other Lives, called "Black Tables".
Viewership
This episode of Ugly Betty, which posted a 4.6/7 and came in third behind American Idol on Fox and Survivor: Tocantins on CBS, hit below 7 million for the first time, and had lost 3 million viewers since the debut of Season 3. It was the lowest result for Ugly Betty at that point, at 6.78 million.[1]
Guest starring
- Bernadette Peters as Jodie
- Grant Bowler as Connor Owens
- Sarah Lafleur as Molly
- Lauren Velez as Elena
- Daniel Eric Gold as Matt
- Laura Heisler as Jenny
- Chris Northrop as Blonde Modie