Zinging the Blues

It's been four months, Ugly Betty TV Watchers, since we last convened. A painfully long four months. I was honestly worried about you: Did you survive your summer without a fix of Suarez and Co.? Summer TV is dandy (all right, that's a stretch), but the show-tune singers on America's Got Talent? No match for Justin belting ''Good Morning, Baltimore'' on the subway. Boozy escapades on The Real World? Gin-swilling Claire Meade could drink those little lushes under the table. And the attitude on Big Brother? Sure, there's a laugh or two in there, but they'll never top the Willy-Marc-Amanda barb-throwing trifecta. What I'm saying is: Thank goodness Betty is back!

My biggest concern going into last night? That this episode would go the way of so many sophomore-season premieres — the way of ''we got too big for our britches, i.e., we got cocky and tried to one-up ourselves but fell flat on our faces.'' I'm all about one-upping, but in the case of Betty, why change something that was working so delightfully well? I'm happy to report that the show didn't go off the rails. I was impressed: From Amanda's sudden weight gain (genius!) to Justin scoring an internship (as the correspondent from Fashion TV would say, ''ah-maaaz-ing''!), the whole thing felt very core Betty.

The thing that struck me most about this jam-packed hour — besides the odd and cruelly deceptive Hilda-Santos dream sequence, but I'll rail on that in a sec — was how mired we were in the disasters that the finale set up. Only three weeks after those catastrophic events, everything was still in upheaval, which asked a lot of this episode, requiring it to clean up the messes of such a flashy season ender. All of the cliff-hangers — Henry leaving and Betty's subsequent grief, Santos being shot, Ignacio stuck in Mexico, Willy's marriage, Amanda's parentage, and the Alexis-Daniel car wreck — made for a choppy episode. Few story lines moved forward, and — good news for everyone — no new ones were started. (Although I won't be happy if that's the case for too long.) The hour felt like the day after a blizzard when you spend the entire time just clearing a path to the front door of your house. I'm fine with that for now, but spring — and newness — best be knocking soon!

And let me just put it out there: The Hilda-Santos dream sequence, while quite touching in parts (the vows! Hilda's stunning dress!), was completely ridiculous. I was confused about what exactly was happening until I rewound my DVR to rewatch as I picked up my jaw from the floor. So Santos is definitely dead. But isn't it a tad odd that Hilda was the only one still truly grieving over it? Santos and Justin didn't have much of a relationship until just recently, but the son seemed pretty okay with everything (um, your dad's dead!) and actually more put out by the prospect of having to make macaroni necklaces at arts-and-crafts camp. (I need to remember that logic doesn't apply in Betty World! To Justin, macaroni necklaces would be a death sentence!) And alas, not everyone grieves the same way.

Some people, as we saw, bury their past. Which brings us to Betty and Daniel, who ceremoniously planted old loves in a hole in Central Park. While the burial was a little cheesy (Betty saved soy-sauce packets from her and Henry's first date?), what I'm still enamored with is this boss-assistant relationship. It's beautiful in its simplicity, in the mutual give-and-take. Daniel doesn't treat Betty like a subordinate just because she's his assistant, and Betty doesn't treat Daniel like a monster because he's her boss. ''It's no secret you turn to potatoes in times of need,'' Daniel said when he found her at the french-fry bar. Just that he would know that — and know to look for her there — melted my heart (with chili cheese, natch). Their bonding over letting go of their pasts — she said goodbye to Henry, he threw a bottle of pills away — was just plain sweet.

NEXT: Willy is back!

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