Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 6 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Beyond The Veil
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 1-2 | Aired on 04.07.2013
At SCDP, Caroline gives Roger some more bad news - "Giorgio" died, and his family sent over his shoeshine kit because Roger was the only one who ever called about him. That's touching as far as Roger's actions go, but a second death in the same episode that involves the same character? What is this, amateur hour? Roger takes the box into his office, opens it, and promptly breaks down, and no offense to John Slattery but let's just say this is not playing for me like it's supposed to. But Roger, there are some words of Joan's that may have faded from your memory, so allow me to remind you: One day, you'll lose someone who's important to you. You'll see. It's very painful.
It's New Year's Eve, I presume, and Don and Megan, the Rosens, and another couple are sitting around a low table in the Draper sunken living room having fondue (of course) as we see snow falling steadily outside. The third couple is already sounding a little slurry as they talk about staggering downstairs at the end of the evening, which makes me think they're competing against each other for the Petra Colson Drunk Of The Party Award. A mention of Bloomingdale's as the place from which Megan got the fondue pot leads to Boozy Husband telling a story about a "flamboyant" co-worker of his who got arrested in the men's room for some stall-shielded oral sex. Apparently the Bloomingdale's men's room is known for this, in case you were still thinking of potential ways to reintroduce Sal. There's some talk of kids and the Rosens' empty-nest syndrome before Megan, looking pointedly at Don, tells the room it's time to take a trip to Hawaii, to which Don sighs. "We were having such a good time." Heh. Megan, however, gets sufficient support from the room to get the slideshow going...
...while Stan is on the phone catching Peggy (both of them still at work) up on the goings-on at SCDP Creative (you won't be surprised to learn it involves a disastrous meeting between Ginzo and a client), which is adorable and also proves my earlier contention that Peggy has no friends wrong. Stan then wonders if Peggy thinks Joan and Roger are still sleeping together, "because his mother croaked and she completely ignored him." She did, didn't she? Considering how much slack Mona cut him, that is pretty telling. Stan then goes to grab some coffee while leaving the phone off the hook, and then who should appear in the doorway but Chaough himself, dressed in formalwear with that usual vaguely impish smile on his face. She asks what he's doing there, so he explains that when he heard he had four people working on New Year's Eve, he figured he owed it to the team at least to stop by. Peggy starts to explain about the crisis, but aborts in favor of asking if he got her "message," and he dryly replies that he got "them all" (heh), but he and his wife were on a retreat motivated by the notion that he works too much, so she can see how answering business calls might have defeated the purpose. He asks if she's found a solution to the problem, and she says she has one idea before showing him outtakes of their subject (in close-up, rendering the wardrobe issue irrelevant) listening to music via the headphones and just clowning around in much the same way Abe was earlier. She suggests that they show him making those faces with no music, with the tagline something like this: "Koss Headphones: Sound so sharp and clear you can actually see it." It's pretty brilliant, using one sensory medium to sell another, and Chaough gives it the high praise it deserves, but does chide Peggy for not letting her staff go if she knew she had something. Peggy tells him they know they're free to leave, but Chaough cures her cluelessness: "No. They don't." Peggy's face falls, but Chaough smiles again and leaves things on a positive note, telling her she's good in a crisis before heading back out. When he's gone, she basks in the glow of having a boss who genuinely appreciates her...and then, from the phone she never hung up, Stan's voice singsongs, "He likes you!" HA! He chuckles, but while Peggy's momentarily embarrassed, her praise-derived pleasure quickly eradicates that feeling.
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