Marc St. James is one of the strongest presences in the main cast of Ugly Betty, particularly impressive given how little his in-story paycheck presumably reflected that contribution.

For most of the series, Marc served as the personal assistant to Wilhelmina Slater, the formidable figure at Mode who, by all reasonable expectations, should have become editor in chief following the death of Faye Sommers. That plan fell apart when Bradford Meade decided to install his inexperienced son in the position instead.

A large part of what makes Marc work as a character is his dynamic with Amanda Tanen. The two of them together have a specific kind of chemistry that is hard to manufacture, even when they are using their combined talents for purposes that are not exactly admirable. There is also something genuinely funny about Marc using Amanda as a beard around his mother, trying to maintain the pretense of a straight relationship when he is so obviously and enthusiastically gay that his mother must have been working very hard not to see what was directly in front of her.

He establishes himself as a bully toward Betty almost immediately, and the show does not shy away from making it clear that this reflects his actual character. There is a certain irony in it, given that even New York City in the 2000s still had plenty of people who would have made his life difficult for being gay. That said, nobody in the entire series had a better Halloween costume than Marc, and he deserves full credit for nailing it.

His romantic life does not get a great deal of screen time. He has hookups and eventually gets a proper boyfriend, a photographer who was not a particularly natural fit for him personality-wise. I was not invested in the relationship, but I was genuinely a little let down when it came out that Marc had cheated on him. What made it worse was how quickly the whole storyline disappeared afterward, as if it had never happened.

He does show some genuine growth over the course of the series. His mentorship of Betty’s nephew Justin, who is also gay, is one of the more quietly touching storylines in the show. He makes some real progress in how he treats Betty too, even if he still manages to pull a dirty move when they find themselves competing for the same editorial position. Karma has the last word on that one: Betty ends up with a prestigious editing job in London, while Marc remains at Mode under Wilhelmina. He does at least get a meaningful step forward when Wilhelmina finally becomes editor in chief after Daniel steps away from the role.