Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 3 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT A Lucky Strike
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2007.07.19
When Pete's gone, Peggy moves around Don's desk and, as he looks through his drawers for something, thanks him for a great first day, and then, more haltingly, for standing up for her to Pete. She puts her hand on top of his, and he regards it long and hard before moving it off and telling her sternly that he's her boss, not her boyfriend, and by the way, if she ever lets Pete go through his trash again, she'll get booted back across the East River faster than the subway can take her. Peggy, upset, says that Pete told her he left his fountain pen in Don's office, and she didn't know, and by the way, she hopes that Don doesn't think she's that kind of girl. Don softens and tells her of course not, and she should go home, and they'll get a fresh start the next day. But before she does, he needs her to place a call. The number must be EAT-CROW.
The Slipper Room! The set designers have studied the place, because it looks awfully like the real thing. Ken tells a pink-bunny-costumed cocktail waitress that he wants to see her at their table every fifteen minutes, whether she has drinks or not, and Harry amends that to every five. Sal and Paul are also joining Pete for his night of debauchery, and some women promptly join them. Ken informs the table that they work at the Automat, and he invited them to come. I'm actually old enough to remember the last Automat in New York City, which was on 42nd and 3rd, if I recall correctly. And tokens were fifty cents and the East Village was too dangerous to walk around in even in daylight and good God, is that my thirty-eighth birthday I see staring me in the face? ["Actually, Grandpa, there's a new Automat in town -- in the East Village, no less." -- Sars] Anyway, the girls all think Ken's the cutest, Sal makes another "Gay?" comment, and everyone's having a grand old time until Pete gets too insistently touchy-feely with one of the women, causing her to suggest to her friends that they leave. Faced with being the big pooper at his own party, Pete promises to behave, but the girl still goes and sits down next to Ken as she asks what they all do. Harry slurs that they're the finest ad men in New York. "Hell, the world!" We'll see if he's this confident next time Don's on vacation. The stripper onstage finishes her act, observed with serial-killer eyes by Pete. That'll happen.