Ugly Betty/The Office -Betty Suarez Land and Baby Showers

Ah! The return of Freddy Rodriguez to Ugly Betty...Could Gio end up giving Jesse a run for his money in the weeks to come? Hmm--I don't think Gio's up for another love triangle. Actually, at the beginning of the episode Gio wasn't up for any kind of geometric figure when it came to Betty Suarez--he banned her from his deli and his life.

But by the end of the show, Betty had regained Gio's friendship via an abject apology, an adventure at Coney Island and some rare cheese that Gio calls "heaven from a cow." Amanda even offers to trade her (PRODUCT PLACEMENT!!!) Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers for the scarmoza donato.

In addition to trying to get back into Gio's good graces, Betty spends the episode trying to help Daniel keep D.J. out of the hands of his grandparents. Alexis reveals that she's D.J.'s father to Daniel but in relinquishing her parental rights, she opens the door for D.J.'s parents to take custody. Daniel tries to hide D.J., but Betty helps him realize that it's foolhardy to prevent the grandparents who love D.J. and who are nice people from having custody of their daughter's son.

So we had a touching emotional moment between D.J. and Daniel and later between Daniel and Alexis. After Claire cuts a deal with Wilhelmina, Alexis is released from prison and decides to take some time off in Provence. Of course we all know the real reason is that Rebecca Romijn is about to give birth to quintuplets. Actually, I think it's twins--but seriously the girl is as big as a house!

The deal that Willie agrees to gives her a 50% share of Meade Publications, with Daniel getting the other 50%. Co-owners, co-editors--it's a recipe for continued conflict. What would the show be without it? Hopefully Wilhelmina's coup with give her enough money to afford something better than the hideous outfit she was wearing tonight. Willie in purple and green? La Slater doing matchy-matchy with her obsequious assistant? I think the wardrobe stylist was smoking crack for this week's episode...

In addition to Julian De La Celle and Rebecca Romijn's exit from the show tonight, this may be the last we see of Eddie Cibrian as Hilda decided to call it quits with Coach Diaz after his distraught wife pleads with her to ask Betty to back off. She assumed that Betty was the other woman when she saw her husband exiting Betty's apartment after a tryst with Hilda. Hilda decided she didn't want to be the reason for their marriage breaking up.

But with the departure of those three cast members (and who knows how much we'll see of Freddy Rodriguez), we've got the return of Lindsay Lohan.

I don't know if I can stand it...

The Office opened with a hilarious sequence of Michael preparing for the birth of Jan's baby by practicing using Dwight and a watermelon.

Dwight: Babies are one of my many areas of expertise. Growing up I performed my own circumcision.

In addition, the office preps for Michael's (uh, I mean Jan's) baby shower. Michael confides to Holly that "to pay respect to her [Jan's] bloated feelings," he will be acting coldly toward her.

(Okay, I like to pride myself on knowing my actors but it completely escaped me until last night that the fabulously geeky Holly Flax was played by Oscar nominated Amy Ryan who was so amazing in Gone Baby Gone. Just goes to show what a chameleon she is. Give the girl an Emmy!)

Then Jan (in the form of the marvelous Melora Hardin) arrives--along with the newborn Astrid. Michael is more than a little put out that she went and had the baby without him and while Jan crashes, hands off the baby to Phyllis. By the time Jan wakes up, Angela and Andy are using Astrid to make their own Anne Geddes portrait.

Too funny...

Michael seeks out Darryl to figure out why he isn't bonding with the baby. Because it's not your baby, Darryl tells him.

Dwight performs crash tests on Jan's $1,200 stroller.

Jan asks Michael not to date Holly. Michael agrees and then walks back into the office and goes straight to Holly and hugs her. Then he asks her out saying later, "I didn't feel much when I held Astrid, but I got a good feeling from Holly."

Jim and Pam are at odds with trying to catch up with each other. At the end of the episode, their out-of-sync communication efforts synchronize to the point where they call each other at the same time and get each other's voice mail. Even their messages match up with them reminiscing about the same incident.

Very sweet.