Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 329 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT California, Here I Come…
By Couch Baron | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 2008.10.05
Judy has arrived, and she, Gene, and Don are working on a jigsaw puzzle together. After Gene and Don discuss the Yankees for a moment, we learn that Judy's family guilt trumpet is well-oiled as she says they were "sure" Don and Betty were going to make it to Cape May, although she does soften it by adding that without Betty there, other people had a chance to win at cards. Gene agrees that "Elizabeth" has a mind for cards, which kind of makes me want to see Betty go clean out Vegas and never come back.
But right now, she's too busy staring at a portrait of her mother when her brother pops in through one of the large windows. Betty asks where he was, and he tells her he was hiding in the tree house. Indicating the room in which the jigsaw festivities are occurring, he opines, "It's like a tomb in there. I don't know how Don's standing it." I'd imagine the car ride there had a hand in inuring him to such things. We get a good look at the portrait, in which Ruth looks rather more like a peasant girl than I would have imagined, and then Betty somewhat snappishly asks about some items she can't seem to find, including "the ottoman with the birds," which of course would be important to her given her nickname. William sighs that you can't blame Gloria for getting rid of some stuff. "I wouldn't want to live with Mom's ghost." Betty scornfully says that Gloria is a silly woman. "All that talk about her underthings. Daddy used to fine us for small talk, remember?" Maybe with Gloria, he's just taking it out in trade. William, not overly fondly, does remember: "Conversation is an art," and suddenly Betty's attraction to Don makes a million times more sense. Betty asks bluntly how long Gene has been like this, and William sighs that he was acting "queer" on the golf course a month earlier. William then testily points out that Gloria's presence is a help to him, and he doesn't want to get stuck with Gene just because he didn't move away. Betty shuts down that line of discussion quickly in favor of going back to complaining about all the things that are gone, and when William confesses he has one of those items, she seethes, "Do I have to go around and write my name on all the things that I want?" He accuses her of being drunk, which: Nice work, Sam Spade. Gloria then bustles in and tells them dinner will be ready in a few, and wonders aloud why the window is open. Betty looks at William like, "You see? She's talking about the window! That would have been two bits when we were kids!"