Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 425 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Beyond The Veil
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 1-2 | Aired on 2013.04.07
On the second floor of SCDP, Ken passes Benson, who greets him, and it looks like his typical slightly inappropriate enthusiasm is the trigger for Ken to decide that a little come-to-Jesus Accounts Department meeting is warranted, so he turns back to ask Benson what he's doing out in the common area. "You have a meeting with someone important?" Benson either doesn't detect or chooses to ignore Ken's tone, but Ken goes on that maybe Benson is looking for customers "for your catering business," to which a nearby secretary looks up like, "No one told me it was going to be on so early in the morning." Benson, the smile finally draining from his face, stands and asks if Ken is "cross" with him, but Ken doesn't play around, telling him that someone sent "a royal spread" to Roger's, accompanied by a card with his name on it. Called out, Benson tries to claim that "it just seemed like the thing to do," but Ken tells him it was too much: "It was almost like you were invited. But you weren't." How I do love Ken Cosgrove. Benson tries to tell him that when his own father died, any gesture meant something to him, adding that there wasn't supposed to be a card. He'd be better served just to admit to an error in judgment, as he's surely lying and Ken knows it, so Ken tells him to head back to his office. "Sitting out here makes people think you have nothing to do. And I suspect you're hoping it's the opposite." That's pretty hellacious, and when Ken's gone, Benson tries to tell the understandably interested secretary that he'd better catch up on his phone calls. After that little dressing down, maybe one of them should be to Roger's therapist?
Oh, boy, it's time for the Sheraton meeting. The older of the two clients apologizes for the between-holidays timing and says that of course they're not expecting a full presentation, and after some typical Accounts bullshit from Pete and Roger, Don begins: After the requisite compliments to the Sheraton hosts, Don says that since he returned, he's had a feeling he can't shake that feels unique to Hawaii, and goes on that he thinks they're selling not a geographical location but an experience. "It's not just a different place -- you are different." He goes on that you aren't homesick and don't miss anything, and I don't know if this is an acting choice on Jon Hamm's part, but his "organic flow of ideas" faces are coming off to me as uncharacteristically labored and false. He goes on about the sensory experience, and this is all well and good, but now it's time for the artwork, and this isn't the first time it's been said this episode, but I hope you're sitting down. Above a tagline that reads "Hawaii. The jumping off point," we see a man's discarded jacket, shoes, and tie, with footprints next to them leading to the water, only a tiny bit of which is depicted.