Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 495 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT The Short Goodbye
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 3 | Aired on 2010.08.08
Don, dressed for traveling, finds Anna painting a flower on the newly-colored wall. She invites him to sign his work, and he stoops down as she tells him he should swim as much as he can while he's down there, "but no cliff diving." After the day he's had, I'm not sure he'll agree to that. When he reveals his work, we see it says "Dick + Anna '64," which could just break your heart if you stare at it too long, so instead she pulls him into a long embrace and assures him everything will be fine. Since we're facing him, we get to see how extensively he knows that's not true, but he simply tells her she can call him for anything. Unable to take any more, he heads for the door, but when she turns back to her painting, he takes one more long, last, tragic look at her...
...and then he's on the plane. A stewardess interrupts his reverie with a fresh cocktail and a wish for a Happy New Year; he listlessly returns the sentiment, and when she's gone, contemplates the small party hat on the tray next to his drink. When the props department is getting in on the dramatic irony, you know your emotions are getting trampled.
Greg comes home, apparently the morning after New Year's, to find Joan wearing a lei, and she explains that since they missed midnight together, they can celebrate it on Hawaii time. Seeing the ham and pineapple on the table, he apologizes that he ate already, so she offers him a glass of fresh orange juice; however, when she goes to make it, she cuts her hand badly with a sharp knife. In a higher voice than I've ever heard from her, she tells him it really hurts, and he has her apply pressure to it while he gets his bag. She wants him to take her to the hospital, which shows an obvious if understandable lack of confidence in his skills as a physician, but he doesn't take offense. She does then wonder if there's some "medical ethical law against operating on your wife," but he merely laughs and tells her treating her injury is as natural to him as office work is to her, and he does it all the time. She's still not convinced, but after disinfecting the cut, he employs an old saw by pointing her attention to something behind her and then injecting her with an anesthetic, adding, "I usually save that for kids." Heh. He then tells her a hillbilly joke as he stitches up the wound, and it isn't very good but he's still surprisingly charming and obviously makes her feel a lot better, but then she starts crying, not because of the pain but because his efficacy here is only serving to underscore how much she's going to miss him. He understands, but as if to both explain why he's needed in the Army and re-emphasize that they have no control over the future, he tells her, "I can't fix anything else, but I can fix this." Joan nods sadly, and Don may be having the worse of this episode on paper, but I'd give a lot of money to a charity whose sole purpose is to make sure Joan never has reason to cry.