Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 789 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT The Cat is Out of the Bag…
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 2009.10.25
In traveling attire, Betty is closing up her suitcase and calling to the kids, who are downstairs in the kitchen with Don. Sally is trying to land a Minnie Mouse costume, but Don won't hear of it: "You'll wear it once. Plus it's made out of plastic, and it's crap." I can hear Disney's lawyers getting into formation now. Betty enters and after mildly chiding the kids for not listening to her, we learn that the plan is for them to be gone a week, causing Sally to worry that they'll miss Halloween. Betty assures her they have Halloween where they're going (heh) and she'll be trick-or-treating with her cousins, so they say goodbye to Don and then rush off to get their bags. Betty, thinking of the stacks of money in the locked drawer, gets a purposeful look on her face and tells Don she only has forty dollars, so he tells her to swing by the bank, as she's got at least two hundred in there, which should be plenty. Well, unless William is planning to pilfer a twenty or two out of her purse. I wouldn't put it past him. Betty stares at Don: "You have no more money." He just gives a puzzled look in return and then kisses her goodbye, which seems a little more clueless than normal for him, but it is a little early in the episode for the upcoming bomb to drop.
Roger and Don enter Bertram's office, and the former is startled to see a woman of a certain age in there, and from the way he exhibits manufactured trouble in digging up her last name, it's seem likely that (a) he's known her for some time and (b) there was something between them at some point. Not that I haven't already seen the episode as I write this, but the show really is that good at the subtle things. Anyway, the woman's name is "Annabelle Mathis," and after the four of them sit down and Roger gauchely asks if she divorced "what's-his-name," she informs him that what's-his-name is dead, and as a result of her father's will, the company her husband had been running reverted to her. She adds that her husband was only fifty-one when he died of lung cancer, and there's a hilarious cut to the smoking Don, who looks like, "Well, that gives me a few more years, anyway." The mention of the dead husband barely slows either Roger or Annabelle down from making moony eyes at each other, and then she gets down to business, saying she'd like her company, "Caldecott Farms," to return to SC if they can deal with the PR nightmare that recently befell them. Apparently the movie The Misfits prompted an exposé that revealed that Caldecott Farms uses horsemeat in its dog food, and when Annabelle says she's not sure why her company was singled out, Roger tells Don, "She owns a horse farm that makes dog food." Heh. Anyway, after some discussion of how solving the PR issue through advertising will be difficult despite how delicious horses are (no, seriously, that's pretty much what's discussed), Annabelle tells them that she's thrown down the gauntlet to a bunch of firms, and the best idea gets her business. Of course, what passes for the "best idea" from Roger may be different from what she's looking for from everyone else, if the way she giggles at a joke about his dick size is any indication (again, not kidding). The four of them stand, and after she tells them her two simple rules ("Don't change the name, don't change the product," as Don sums them up) she asks Roger to walk her out. Good idea to do it while she still can. When they're gone, Bertram tells Don that SC used to have their account, but "her father was a son of a bitch." He adds that people spend more money on dog food than baby food, and Don needs no further encouragement: "I'll put the fellows on it." Whether that includes Peggy depends on how seriously he's taking Bertram's statement, I'd imagine.