Blackout! (Ugly Betty)

Plot

Betty invites Hilda and Justin to stay for dinner after Justin's acting class audition, but they decline. Living alone, Betty realizes that she misses Matt and fears that if something happened to her, no one would know. Though Amanda and Marc live in the same building, they do not interact with her, increasing her loneliness. Meanwhile, Marc is feeling tension working for both Daniel and Wilhelmina, and sees an opportunity to advance his career when he hears that the vacant Senior Fashion Editor position will soon be filled.

Betty, attempting to befriend her neighbors, decides to throw a karaoke party. While hanging fliers announcing the event, she inadvertently lets burglars, posing as locked out residents, into the building. After they ransack the apartments, neighbors are justly chagrined by Betty's action. Betty convinces the landlord to install electronic locks on the doors, and uses this as another opportunity to get together with her neighbors. However, her plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the few tenants that bothered to come are foiled by a down beaten Marc.

Marc's submission for the Senior Fashion Editor position was lost when his laptop was stolen during the robbery. Betty, true to her nature, promises to help Marc recreate his material, prompting her neighbors to forgive her and come to her party. While Betty tends to her guests with Amanda's help, Marc finishes his submission.

Betty tells the crowd that she wants to set up a karaoke machine, and is performing an off-key rendition of R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," when New York City is hit with a blackout. This keeps the new electronic locks from opening, preventing everyone from going to a blackout party that Amanda set up. Additionally, Marc cannot deliver his submission to Mode. Ignacio calls Betty to see if she is okay. She tells him she is fine, but needs someone who can pick a lock. Bobby comes to the rescue, giving Betty instructions on how to open the lock. Arriving at the Meade building, Betty and Marc realize the blackout has probably locked it as well. Marc tells her that he was inspired by her to go for the position, but now he feels he will never move up in the world and walks away. Moments later the power returns. At Marc's desk they find a note requesting he pick up champagne and flowers for the new hire. This stuns Marc, as he assumed Daniel and Wilhelmina had already filled the job he wanted.

At Casa Suarez, Ignacio watches a scary movie, and thanks to the blackout begins to freak out. When he hears someone coming through the door he attacks them with a pie tin. The person turns out to be Bobby, who was checking on Hilda and Justin. While Bobby nurses the bloody nose Ignacio gave him, they start talking, even though Ignacio still believes Bobby is a thug. Bobby tells Ignacio that his problem is that he is afraid Hilda and Justin will not need him anymore. Ignacio calls Betty and after he learns thatshe needs someone to pick a lock, he gives the phone to Bobby. Bobby apologizes to Ignacio, who tells Bobby that he feels a little jealous. By the time Hilda and Justin return, Ignacio and Bobby are friends.

Daniel and Wilhelmina continue fighting over the services of Marc St. James, so Amanda decides to send the rival co-EICs to a couples counseling session hosted by Doctor Sparks. The session does not go well and Wilhelmina leaves. Left alone with Dr. Sparks, Sparks tells a skeptical Daniel that Wilhelmina's body language shows signs of sexual attraction to him. Daniel leaves for the elevator and sees Wilhelmina, but as they copy their body movements this leads Daniel to think Sparks is right. In the elevator Daniel observes Wilhelmina's movements. The blackout traps them in the elevator, prompting Daniel to "defuse the sexual tension" by kissing her. After he explains the doctor's theory to Wilhelmina, she punches him in the face. They begin hashing out their conflict and Wilhelmina confesses that Marc is the most important man in her life. Daniel suggests they find a way to settle their differences.

The next day Betty, Ignacio and Bobby attend Hilda's ultrasound only to learn that the baby has no heartbeat, and that Hilda has lost her baby. Back at the house, Bobby tells Hilda that he is still not going anywhere and an excited Justin announces to the family that he has been accepted into acting class. At Mode, Marc shows up at Wilhelmina's office with the champagne and flowers that he was asked to get for the new hire. She tells him that they are for him and that Marc has been promoted to Junior Fashion Editor - Wilhelmina has decided to have Marc work under her again, not because she wants to take him away from Daniel, but because he is the best choice for the job, something that Daniel agrees with. At the apartment, Marc apologizes to Betty and invites her come over to watch movies.

Ratings

The episode slipped slightly down from the previous episode, but still placed second with a 3.2/6 overall, a 1.6/5 among 18-49s and 4.59 million watching.