It’s Fashion Week at Mode and Mark is feeling the stress of having to prove himself as an editor as well as having to deal with his new flatmate, Helen, who is in ‘love’ with him. At the editors’ meeting Wilhemina conveys her disappointment in all the editors, especially Mark, for not working as hard as Betty, who she ‘rewards’ with a report on an 800-page book about the history of sewing machines.

At first happy with her assignment, Betty is then told by Daniel that all editors get to cover a show, sometimes up to 3 shows at once. Realizing that Wilhemina was trying to get Betty out of the editors’ meeting on purpose, Daniel later argues with Wilhemina on Betty’s behalf. Wilhemina points out that Daniel has banned male models and one out of the ten designers to watch has quit, and that she is now scrambling to get Fashion Week on its feet so she does not have time to put up with Betty. Daniel continues to deem it unfair and tries to set something up for Betty.

Meanwhile at their apartment, Helen continues to drool over Mark despite Amanda telling her Mark’s gay (which Helen takes as a joke). Finding the green mini dress she was going to wear to a party completely stretched out by Helen, Amanda worries that she will have nothing to wear. Helen tells her it’s not a problem and that she’ll make a her new dress, where she then rips a curtain off the apartment and begins working on her sewing machine. Amanda tries out the red and black dress made by Helen and proclaims it to be amazing and realises that Helen has a real talent for dressmaking. Amanda proposes that she and Helen become a fashion design team, which Helen promptly accepts.

Betty and Hilda are putting up a discarded chandelier that Ignacio brought back from his restaurant when Justin tells Betty that she has a voice message from Daniel. With her hands full, Betty asks Justin to play the message out loud. In the message, Daniel says that there was a misunderstanding with Wilhemina and that Betty is indeed covering a show for Fashion week. However Daniel fails to turn off his new hands-free phone properly and a further conversation with Wilhemina is recorded, where Wilhemina insults Betty’s lack of fashion sense (the reason why she didn’t want Betty covering a show in the first place). Upon hearing this, Betty becomes extremely dismayed.

The next day, Daniel goes to Betty’s office and apologizes for what was said in the message he left, bringing her a pot plant as a peace offering. Betty confides in him that she feels awful because no one trusts her taste, but Daniel tells her to prove everyone wrong. He gives her that chance by assigning her to a low-priority show (the only one that was available).

As Daniel walks by, Wilhemina pretends to be on the phone with a fashion designer who wants to use male models. Acting as if she doesn’t know Daniel is standing right behind her, Wilhemina rejects the request of the ‘designer’ to use Daniel as one of her models. Flattered by this request, Daniel interrupts and falls for Wilhemina’s ploy by reconsidering his ban on male models for Fashion Week.

While admiring the new dress made by Helen, Amanda notices that Helen has disappeared. Turning around, she sees Helen flirting with a guy and goes over there to snap Helen out of it so they can focus on getting their fashion line established. The guy turns out to be Tyler, who has traveled from South Dakota in search of Claire Mead, but Amanda does not make the connection and drags Helen away.

Betty, Hilda and Justin sit through a ‘fashion show’ in a restaurant-turned-catwalk, where each outfit displayed is worse than the last. Then a grey dress catches everyone’s eyes and they all agree it’s pretty awesome. Betty goes ‘backstage’ and finds the designer, Marisa, telling her that she will do her best to get Marisa into Mode’s top 10 designers to watch. Back at the Mode, Betty tries to persuade Mark to partner up with her and lobby for Marisa in Wilhemina’s office, sharing the credit if Wilhemina approves. Mark declines, hinting that he doesn’t trust Betty’s judgment on fashion, but when he sees Marisa’s portfolio, he agrees that the designs are pretty good and agrees to persuade Wilhemina.

Having gotten in his head that he would make a great model, Daniel decides to strut his stuff in one of the hallways. However he is seen by a passer-by who mistakenly asks him if he’s hurt. Embarrassed, Daniel admits that he was practicing his walk for the Mode show. The girl, Heather, tells him not to worry, and that she used to have a terrible walk too. She invites Daniel to her fitting, which he accepts, and checks her out while she leads the way.

Mark is giving Betty a lesson on how to pitch something to Wilhemina, using a cardboard cut out of Wilhemina as a guide. Amanda bursts into the room and asks Mark that since he’s pitching an unknown designer, if he could pitch her designs while he’s at it. Mark pushes the decision onto Betty, and makes vomiting gestures behind Amanda’s back to emphasize his dislike for her designs. Betty tries to say no but Amanda forces her designs onto Betty anyway and leaves the room skipping with excitement.

The model coordinator is telling Wilhemina about the shortage of male models since all the good ones have all been booked when they spot Tyler. Thinking he is a model, Wilhemina tells him that all the models are supposed to be in their fitting. Tyler says he’s not a model and that he’s looking for Claire Mead, but Wilhemina notices his potential and gets him to spin for her and declares that he’s a model now.

Ignacio keeps fiddling with the new chandelier, adding a mood lighting effect onto it. However it goes on the fritz and shocks his finger when he goes to turn it off. Hilda walks by disapprovingly but Bobby tells her not to bug Ignacio about it. Hilda says that if Ignacio wants to fix something, he should start in her salon, which is falling apart and costing her so much to fix that she’s barely breaking even. Bobby asks her if money is a problem, and Hilda jokingly says that she wishes lightning would strike the salon and she could just collect the insurance money. Bobby gives her a funny look, but shakes it off and kisses Hilda on the cheek before he leaves.

Tyler is shown to his fitting, where he finds Daniel and Heather already dressed in their outfits. Daniel introduces himself to Tyler and Tyler makes the connection that Daniel is Claire’s son. At that moment, the model coordinator comes in to tell Daniel that the final suit may be a bit tight on him and that they should put it on someone thinner, like Tyler. Daniel objects and says that the designer specifically requested him. The model coordinator meekly smiles and agrees with him.

Mark and Betty present Marisa’s designs to Wilhemina, who looks bored and disinterested. But she agrees nonetheless to enter Marisa into the show as she hasn’t seen any better designs so far. She praises Mark for finding the new designer, and when Betty tries to point out that credit belongs to her, Wilhemina brushes her off and says “thank you for turning the pages Betty”. Betty looks at Mark for help but he says nothing and follows Wilhemina out the door.

“Smokin’ Hot” is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy-drama series, Ugly Betty, and the 79th episode overall. It originally aired on ABC in the United States on February 10, 2010.

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