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!Inside, Pete pays Manolo for a little extra time and tells him Benson was right about him, and Manolo agrees that Benson "is a wonderful salesman." Mm-hmm. Pete even gives Manolo a cash tip off the books and Manolo tries to refuse as the work is enough of a reward, but Pete insists. Manolo bows respectfully and withdraws, and while it's all very businesslike and straightforward, I wonder how Pete is going to remember it later.
Betty gets off the phone and calls for Sally in that someone's-in-trouble tone of hers right before Henry's voice announces that he's home. Sally enters the kitchen with attitude to match her mother's, as usual, and when Betty tells her that "Julie's" mom called to inform her she and Sally are the only girls going on an upcoming trip, Sally wonders what the problem is. Betty, however, forbids her from staying in a Midtown hotel "with all those boys," the presence of twenty-five-year-old "Miss O'Shea" notwithstanding. Henry enters and irritably wonders why they have a mansion if everyone's always going to be in the kitchen, and I hope this isn't leading to another role-play situation with Sally still in the room. She's going to be scarred plenty soon enough. Sally tells Betty fine, then -- she won't do Model UN, which by the way was Henry's idea, but Betty still won't give. Sally asks if she and Julie can't stay with Don, which gets a "You mean with no one," so I guess Betty wasn't kidding when she told Don she wasn't changing her life just because they slept together. Sally shoots back that at least Don supports her dreams and "he doesn't think I'm just a pain in the ass!" It's a classic play, pitting one parent against the other, but if I were Betty I'd go for a simple Lisa Simpson-esque "What are you basing that on?" Instead, Betty barks that Don's a real hero before snitting to Henry that diplomacy club is just an excuse to make out. If that were true, I'd think it'd be a lot more popular.
Don arrives home to find Megan sitting on the couch with a long-haired boy in his late teens, whom she introduces as Sylvia and Arnold's oft-mentioned, but never-before-seen son Mitchell. Don stretches out a hand, but the kid doesn't even make eye contact to accompany his cursory shake before thanking Megan and leaving via the back door. Don, you might want to take note of how many people know that trick. When he's gone, Megan sighs uncertainly and says that she's sworn to secrecy, but Mitchell's in a lot of trouble -- he's 1-A. Don points out that the kid is in school, but Megan tells him Mitchell sent back his draft card in protest and he got reclassified as a result. She goes on that Mitchell's thinking of running to Canada, which is why he was there as she could call her brother-in-law to help him out of the country, "but I can't do that to Sylvia and Arnold." Don counsels her to leave it alone, and when she protests that he's so scared, he snaps that he should be, but then softens a bit to speak from experience: "He can't spend the rest of his life on the run." Megan sees his point, but still doesn't want him to go to Vietnam. Don flatly tells her it's not their problem. No need for ice in the drink you're fixing, Don.