Jump
Production Number: 2-18 (episode 41)
First Aired: Thursday, May 22, 2008
Recurring Characters: Freddy Rodriguez (Giovanni "Gio" Rossi), Eddie Cibrian (Coach Tony Diaz), Alec Mapa (Suzuki St. Pierre), Lindsay Lohan (Kimberly), Julian de la Celle (Daniel Chainet), Nathanaël Maïni (Nathanael)
Guest Cast: Naomi Campbell (Herself), Joe Zee (Himself), Robbie Myers (Herself), Torill (Madelon de Bie), Edward Stanley (Doctor), Samantha Frank (Mona)
Anxiety regarding the upcoming company softball game, Mode v. Elle, has Betty flashing back to high school dodgeball in 1999, when a schoolmate named Kimberly picked Betty for her team just to use her as a human shield. Gio tells Betty that if they're going to go out on their first date they'll have to do so very soon, because he's planning to go to Italy for a month. Betty sees the first issue of Hot Flash and looks for the article that she'd written, "Young at Any Age," but it turns out that much of the piece was rewritten. Claire explains that what Betty wrote had very good ideas, but the execution was too "safe." She tells Betty that not only does she have to start taking risks in her writing, she has to do so in her life, too. Hilda and Tony bond over Tater Tots and green Jell-O, and she tells him that she'd like to take things slowly. Alexis is concerned because Daniel doesn't seem to trust her anymore. Betty tries to talk Amanda into letting her be on Mode's cheer-leading squad, so she won't have to play for the team. Amanda puts Betty through her paces just so she and Marc can humiliate her. Wilhelmina continues to undermine Daniel with clients. A little French boy named Daniel shows up looking for Daniel and claims, through a translator, to be the elder Daniel's son. The boy's mother, a model named Lucie Chainet, recently died. While teaching Betty how to play softball, Gio asks her to go to Rome with him, and, taking Claire's advice regarding risks, she accepts. Wilhelmina tries to find a way to use the French boy to her advantage. Daniel and Daniel submit blood tests for a DNA test. Ignacio is upset by Betty's plans to go to Italy, but Hilda is supportive. Just as Betty is announcing her travel plans, Henry shows up and proposes to her. She is upset because she has been trying to get over him, but he tells her that she can move to Tucson and find a job as a writer there. Ignacio changes his stance regarding the trip to Rome if it will keep Betty from getting married. Wilhelmina leaks the story of Daniel's potential love child to Fashion TV to make Daniel look like a dead-beat parent. After defending Betty's situation to Ignacio, Hilda decides to seize her opportunity and she goes to see Coach Diaz. Not knowing about Henry's return, Daniel gives Betty an all-expense paid, first-class trip to Rome for her and Gio to enjoy. Wilhelmina tells Alexis that she's actually found it easier to run things at Mode while Daniel has been preoccupied with his personal situation. Tony reveals to Hilda that he's married, but he feels that he's falling for her. Despite the language barrier, the two Daniels bond over talk of sports and women. Betty wants her father's advice, but Ignacio tells her that the decision has to be hers; she has to make a decision, take a deep breath, and jump. At the charity softball game, Gio is surprised to see Henry. Wilhelmina reveals to Daniel that Alexis is taking his Editor-in-Chief job away from him and replacing him with Wilhelmina herself. After defeating Daniel, Wilhelmina turns her sights on Naomi Campbell and the rest of the Elle team. After Henry and Gio smash into Betty on the baseball field, while trying to catch the ball that Naomi has hit into the outfield, Betty is knocked unconscious and she dreams that she's in Tucson with Henry, but then she walks into another room and she's in a luxurious Roman hotel room with Gio. The two rivals tell Betty that she has to make a choice, then she regains consciousness and realizes that she knows what she wants to do. Later, Daniel returns to his office and packs his belongings, while Wilhelmina and the Mode team celebrate their victory. Hilda decides to try to work things out with Tony. And when Betty gets home, she packs a suitcase and says goodbye to her family... but is she going to Italy or to Arizona?
Trivia:
• Ashley Jensen (Christina) does not appear in this episode.
• "Spanish Lesson", "Miles Away", "She's Not Me", and "Candy Shop" (songs from Madonna's new CD, Hard Candy) were heard in this episode. Also featured was Madonna's song "Jump" (from her Confessions on a Dance Floor CD from 2005), which had also been featured in The Devil Wears Prada. In fact, the entire theme of this episode, as well as its title, is based on that song. There was another reference to the pop diva in this episode when Ignacio showed Betty a picture of her first Halloween costume—Hilda had dressed her as Baby Madonna.
• Before signing on for a guest stint on "Ugly Betty", Lindsay Lohan had been the subject of a couple snarky (but funny) comments in at least two previous episodes. Lohan returned for a story arc during the third season that was originally planned to last for at least five episodes, but turned out to be only three, reportedly because of on-set drama and tension between Lohan and America Ferrara.
• This was the last episode to be filmed in Los Angeles before the production moved to New York for the third season.
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