Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 373 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT It's a Gi…Boy!
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 5 | Aired on 2009.09.13
Don's asleep on his couch when his girl buzzes that Peggy is there, and he groggily sits up as she enters, gift in hand. After some small talk about how she was the youngest in her family, she picks up on his lack of sleep and nervously wonders if this might not be the best time, but he merely bids her to sit down. She starts to give him a speech about how grateful she is to him that honestly makes it sounds like she's resigning right here, but she only goes on to tell him how little she makes, adding that she only pulls in seventy-one dollars a week more than her secretary. Don: "Maybe we need to get you a cheaper secretary." Although it's probably true Olive makes plenty more than your average typist, Peggy looks like this is one time she'd prefer a less witty boss. She plows on, however, saying that Paul does the same work as she, "and not as well sometimes." That last word was awfully generous of her. Also, she says, there was a law recently passed about women getting equal pay for equal work. Don, however, unceremoniously shoots her down, saying, referring to Pryce's nickel-and-diming, that he's "fighting for paper clips." Honestly, this is another development I don't completely buy. This episode went out of its way to prove that the place couldn't even function without Don, yet he's not going to go to bat for his best employee because Pryce has been nattering at him? Plot-wise, you can probably swing it, but I don't buy it from a character standpoint, really. Peggy sits for a long moment, and then looks at the present she just gave him: "Third time. Must be old hat." I'm thinking Duck's mention of her not being tied to a family now is echoing in her mind. Don pours them both a drink and sits with her much as he sat with Sally: "You're gonna be fine, Peggy." Peggy, however, doesn't have a young girl's emotional resilience, and she confesses that she looks at Don and thinks, "I want what he has." I hear you, Peggy, but seriously: Who doesn't? Don's a bit flippant at first, but when she goes on that he has everything, "and so much of it," he gets pensive and admits that's probably true. Interesting parallel to Betty's dream, no? Don, not happy at having lost some control over the conversation, asks what she wants him to say, and Peggy's never looked quite so hurt and disappointed as she points out she could hardly have been clearer. Don, trying to get her back on his side, asks if she doesn't see what's been going on in the last six months, but Peggy has an answer for that: "What if this is my time?" She leaves, and it just so happens that Pete sees her exiting Don's office. He accosts her and asks where she's going, and she snaps, "To the ladies' room. You want to join me?" There was a time when it would have been about a fifty-fifty shot, I'd say. Pete, in return, half-snarls that Peggy can use the offer from Duck as leverage, but he's sharing his job with Ken, so he hasn't got a leg to stand on. Peggy counters that he at least has relationships with his clients, and by the way, didn't the meeting with Duck teach him anything about jumping to conclusions? Some of that may not have been verbalized. Pete asks if she said anything, and when she points out that's not his decision to make, he, referencing their child, somewhat plaintively replies, "Your decisions affect me." God, Pete, do you want to work at the same company as she does or not? Because you could probably get either eventuality here if you'd get your head out of your progressive ass.