Betty is having a late-night snack. She opens the refrigerator for some milk and finds Bradford's head on a platter. She slams the door, waits, and looks inside again; he's gone. Betty breathes a sigh of relief... and finds Bradford standing behind her.
He explains that he's not a ghost; he's a manifestation of her guilt. He helps himself to an empanada and tries to get her to take her old job back.
The funeral is the next day. Daniel is miffed to discover that no one told him they have a family plot at the cemetery. Claire arrives in an orange jumpsuit and shackles.
Daniel gives a short speech about the daunting task of filling his father's shoes. He vows to continue his father's legacy. There's an awkward pause after he finishes - no one else comes forward to speak. Finally Betty gets up. She hints that Bradford wasn't great with the employees, but she says he did love his family.
Wil arrives unfashionably late and gloats in front of the mourners. Claire kicks her into Bradford's grave (the casket hasn't been lowered yet) and fires her.
Wil and Fido go back to the office. Wil opens a super-secret compartment to reveal a CD-ROM entitled "Medusa X." She loads the CD, which wipes out the entire computer network. Over in Accounting, Henry watches in shock as the Medusa X logo fills his screen and the lights go out.
Betty and her family are decorating the tree. Hilda tries to get Betty to take her old job back. Betty resists and adds that she doesn't think anything can go wrong. Hilda makes a pitch for getting a pink Christmas tree. Justin adds that pink is the new green. They want white lights and tinsel, too. Betty hates the idea - the green tree is a tradition.
Henry calls and tells Betty that the January issue is gone, and the Book is missing. Alexis and Daniel arrive a while later and Henry tells them the computers are all toast. The Meades immediately suspect Wil. They ask Henry to call in the staff, but Betty has already taken care of it. She tells Daniel she's just here for tonight.
At home, Hilda accidentally knocks the tree over. The lights begin to short out, and the tree catches fire. They call Betty to give her the news - like this couldn't wait till she got home? The important thing is that they saved their mother's angel tree-topper.
Daniel holds a meeting to figure out what they need. The cover's gone, and - but they are interrupted by Wil, who has turned into a human gloating machine. At least, I assume she's still human. She announces her new magazine and offers a 15% raise, plus good benefits and cosmetic surgery to any Mode staffer who joins her. She also tells Alexis that her father considered her a circus freak.
Many of the employees follow Wil out. Amanda stays (because Mode was Fey's life's work), and Sheila (Wil's obsequious ex-future creative director) inexplicably stays.
Daniel sulks. The not-ghost of Bradford appears on TV and tells Betty that Daniel needs one of her pep talks. She reminds Daniel that he had promised to fill his father's shoes, and he's still got enough staff left to get the job done. (Most of the remainder are administrative staff.)
Daniel goes back to the meeting and starts handing out assignments. He tells Betty to write a book review. Henry will be the new food editor. They need an extension on their press deadline, so Alexis goes off to the printer to try to seduce him. Daniel has Amanda write things on a whiteboard for a while, until she insists that she can do Fey's old feature "What's Hot."
There's another problem - they've lost their cover. Their advertisers had signed off on a cover featuring someone named Cameron (Eliza Dushku), but the photographer is in the middle of a 16-hour flight and can't get them the negatives. Cameron herself is in rehab. Daniel decides that they have no choice but to sneak her out. He pays a security guard $2000 to get into the facility. Betty is mortified that she's helping.
Cameron is meditating in her room. She tells them she's doing well with her rehab and has found God. She doesn't want to leave to redo the shoot. Betty manipulates her, guilting Cameron for her bad behavior at the original shoot. She should make amends as part of her recovery.
Alexis arrives at the printing company. The man she was planning to seduce is no longer with the company, and the new guy, Harvey, is a very little person. He doesn't want to cooperate with this gigantic woman, so she traps him in the room and taunts him by holding the key out of his reach.
Meanwhile, at Slater, Wil serves champagne and cheese (limit two pieces per person) to her new staff. Within seconds, she fires someone. Fido takes her aside and asks how she expects to finance the magazine. Wil says her father will give it to her.
Once Cameron is out of rehab and back at Mode to shoot a new cover, she locks herself in the dressing room and demands booze and drugs. Daniel tells Betty he's going to get her a drink. That's what his father would have done. Betty is disappointed.
At the front desk, Amanda struggles to come up with an idea for "What's Hot." She recalls that Fey used to say that her work was all inspiration and no perspiration. Before Amanda can work up a good sweat, the pizza man arrives, and inspiration strikes. She asks him for his clothes.
As the night grows long, Alexis and Harvey bond over their common experience of being a disappointment to their fathers. Harvey reminds Alexis that now that her father is dead, she's free. He finally takes pity on her and agrees to move back the deadline.
Cameron comes out of her dressing room and proceeds to demolish the set. So much for her rehab.
Amanda reveals her creation for What's Hot: It's a woman in a dress made out of the pizza guy's red-and-white striped uniform. Sheila tells Amanda to go back to the phones: she's no Fey.
Daniel is upset about the cover. They didn't get the pictures they needed. He tells Betty that he didn't give Cameron the drink after all. Betty tells Daniel to do what Daniel would do, rather than what Bradford would do. With Bradford gone, he can start with a blank slate.
This gives Daniel an idea. The January cover won't have a photo. It'll just be blank, with a fold-out dedication to his father. The advertisers love the idea and sign off on it. Daniel decides to make it issue #001 instead of #412.
Betty is glad she inspired the new cover, but she still doesn't want to come back to work there. Her mother wouldn't approve of the way it was changing her. Daniel reminds her that we all change as we grow; and no matter where she ends up, she's going to have to make difficult decisions. Her mother would be proud of her for facing the challenges.
Wil meets with the Senator and asks him for a loan that she'll pay back generously in six months. She offers him some more incentives. He says he misses Wanda. He's not sure "Wilhelmina" is prettier than his original daughter. He's shocked that she's wheeling and dealing just 12 hours after burying her fiance. He declines to give Wil the loan.
Amanda sulks in the dungeon with a pile of shoes in her lap; she tells Christina she wants to drown her sorrows in fine leather. Christina assures her that, despite Fey's claims, inspiration didn't come so easily, and there was plenty of perspiration. Christina suggests that perhaps Amanda has inherited some skills from her father and she shouldn't stop looking for him.
Brad's not-ghost tells Betty he likes the new cover. Betty decides that she doesn't feel guilty any more, so she doesn't need him. She sends him to the beach. He walks down Mode's long Habitrail hallway into a bright light.
Hilda, Justin, and Ignacio are surprised to find a pink tree with white lights in their living room. Betty tells them they can afford another tree because she's taken her old job back. They can have a new tradition - anyway, they still have their mother's old angel tree-topper.
Hilda and Justin admit that the new tree is ugly.
Next time:
I don't know! There wasn't a preview!
As for the rest of the season - the latest I've heard is that there are four episodes left, which should carry us through the end of the year.
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