Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT No Good Deed Goes Unsexed
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 11 | Aired on 06.09.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Manolo the Spanish-from-Spain nurse brings Pete's mother by the office, and Peggy chats with her only to find she's mistaken her for Trudy – and that she's getting some action. When Pete learns that his mom is apparently banging the nurse, he tells her he's going to let him go, to which she tells Pete that he's always been unlovable. Pete calls Benson in to chew him out for his recommendation, but Benson tells him that Manolo isn't in love with his mother – because, apparently, he's into dudes, and so is Benson. Sadly, Benson's in love with Pete, who is not quite ready to return the sentiment. None of that matters, though, because I was right about the shorts. Also, Pete, Peggy, and Ted go out and get sloppy after an Ocean Spray meeting, and Pete clues in that Peggy and Ted have the mutual hots for each other, not that he disapproves. When Ted sees the rapport Pete and Peggy have, not knowing it's borne of their history together, he seems jealous; not only that, his wife tells him he's too focused on work even when he's not in the office. In the end, though, Ted seems to make the choice to stay with what he's got, which likely means Peggy's going to give Stan an even harder sell the next time she has a rat problem, which will probably be tomorrow.
Mitchell, Sylvia and Arnold's son, is in the apartment when Don comes home, and Megan tells Don the kid sent back his draft card in protest and now wants to run to Canada to avoid possible prison time. Don tells her from experience that the kid can't spend his life on the run, but soon a fit-to-be-tied Arnold shows up at their door, and he and Don go out for a drink, whereupon Don reiterates the sentiment we've heard from him before that he's against the war. Feeling a sympathy for the kid he probably didn't know he was capable of, Don goes to Pete and asks him to get hold of his old DoD friend (the one that buried the investigation into Don's past when they were courting -- I think -- Northrop Grumman) to see if he can get Mitchell a deferment. Pete suggests Don turn to GM, but when Don feels them out at a dinner, the reaction is frosty, to say the least. Ted initially chews Don out for this, but when he hears the problem, he offers to make a call to a highly-place military officer to get the kid into a pilot program – in exchange for Don working with him in the future. Don sincerely agrees, and then calls a grateful and tearful Sylvia, which is a much better ending to their relationship than anything we saw before. Or it would be, except when Sally sneaks into Sylvia's place to try to retrieve a letter her friend Julie left for Mitchell on her behalf, she catches Don and Sylvia in flagrante and runs off in horror. Later, it's a Dinner O'Awkward, as a drunken Don barely is home for five minutes before Rosen and Mitchell show up to thank him in front of a nauseated Sally. Don lies to her about what she saw, and she tells him she believes it, but her fatherly worship looks like it's gone for good. ABOUT TIME.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Pete, in a T-shirt and still mopping himself up from shaving, answers the door to find Manolo and Dot. He tells them they were supposed to meet him at the restaurant, and Manolo reproves Dot for not letting him manage his calendar, but it seems just as well, as Pete tells Manolo he'd like Dot to himself for the evening. Manolo bids her goodnight with a hand-kiss that doesn't go unnoticed. But Pete, come on -- it's practically an actionable offense for him not to do so. Dot wonders if Manolo really can't join them, but Pete clarifies that he has other plans, so apparently they discussed this in advance. When he's gone -- wouldn't mind knowing exactly where -- Pete offers Dot something, but she tells him Manolo doesn't like her to drink. Okay, this is where I'll admit to Pete it sounds serious. Pete offers that it's nice the way he looks after her, but she does know he's her nurse, right? "You are prone to moments of confusion." Dot: "I suppose there's a way I could mistake your tone for concern." Well, Pete, at least she's not having one of those moments right now. Pete sits with her and, with at least his baseline level of condescension if not more, tells her he's worried she's misconstrued Manolo's attention as affection, but his mother tells him to cut to the chase before confessing that "Manny has awakened a part of me that was long dormant." Rather than let any volcano metaphors, well, erupt further, Pete informs Dot they'll be letting Manolo go, as he's a "pervert." Dot stands and tells Pete he was a sour little boy and he's a sour little man. "How could I expect you to be understanding? You've always been unlovable!" Well, it's good to know his time on this show hasn't been a departure. With as much dignity as she can muster, which given the way she dresses is quite a bit, Dot takes her leave...
...whereupon we cut to a scene that's a bit less dignified, that being the Chevy client dinner, at which Don, Roger, Cutler and Ted are chuckling up a storm. Has Chevy just locked Ken up in a room for their own amusement ever since they learned he could tap-dance? It's his job, I guess. They're discussing fishing venues, and Don asks one of the two Chevy guys where he takes his KID fishing, and then a few people pipe up about KIDS, whereupon Don mentions his friend's kid who just got classified 1-A. I mean, it's obvious to us what Don's doing, and it seems wildly inappropriate given the setting, but on the other hand no one else knows his ulterior motive, so it seems a tad overblown to me for everyone to act like Don just announced he runs a dog-fighting ring in his spare time. Ted tries to make a that's-tough-let's-move-on comment, but Don goes on about his friend being beside himself, and now that I think about it, Don claiming even to have a friend is probably contributing to the dissonance here. He goes on about people "doing things," and one Chevy guy tells him he knows -- and it makes him sick. Cutler and Ted are both gaping at Don now in disbelief, but Roger -- with an assist from Cutler -- reliably succeeds in restoring the light mood. From the way Ted continues to stare at Don, though, he's not about to let this go, which should be fun.