26 Thoughts I Had Rewatching the First Episode of ‘Ugly Betty’

7. In Daniel’s office, his reputation as a womanizer precedes him: An assistant emerges from underneath his desk. Talk about an HR violation.

8. Betty gets a call from Meade telling her that she has landed a job at Mode as Daniel’s assistant (a ploy from his father so that he doesn’t sleep with his assistant). “Try and dress fashionably,” Justin shades her about her first day. “Do you have anything?”

9. Betty struts into her first day wearing her iconic Guadalajara poncho. “Oh. My. God,” snarks Amanda, the bitchy receptionist. To be honest, I love the poncho—she’s representing her culture and roots through style. Is there anything chicer?

10. “Are you the before? The before-and-after photo shoot?” asks Amanda.

11. The Mode office looks chic as hell. Big windows. A spaceship-like hallway. 

12. Betty walks into a glass door in front of the entire editorial staff. Not a great impression. I’d simply just go home after that and hand in my resignation. 

13. Daniel is introducing himself to the staff when Wilhelmina walks in. God, she looks fabulous in her white trench coat and huge black sunglasses. There’s clearly tension between the two, though.

14. “Killer poncho,” says Mark, Wilhelmina’s assistant, to Betty. Then he makes a puking motion with his hand behind her back. 

15. Wilhelmina is getting Botox in her office. We love a powerful woman on the go. She’s complaining that she hasn’t gotten the job. “Is it because I’m getting old?”

16. Daniel becomes convinced that he has to make Betty quit, simply because she doesn’t fit his “image.” God, I hate fashion people sometimes. 

17. Nobody wants to sit with Betty in the cafeteria. It’s giving me Mean Girls vibes. But Christina, who works in the closet at Mode as an in-house seamstress, quickly befriends her. They bond over their shared dislike of the “bitches at Mode.” Love.

18. Daniel is putting Betty through the wringer. He makes her pick cabbage out of his coleslaw; calls her at three in the morning; makes her get his coffee, walk his dog, pick the gum off his shoe. She ends up missing her dad’s birthday. Fashion is demanding, baby. 

19. Daniel’s sleeping with Amanda, the receptionist. Shocker.