Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 755 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Something Interruptus
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2009.08.16
...but his amusement fades in a hurry as when we next cut over, she's obviously very sick, and from her severe shivering and renewed declarations that she's going to cut the guy's dick off, it seems like the childbirth has caused complications that are going to claim her life, as we already knew. The midwife from earlier asks the new mother if she'd like to hold her son, but she merely repeats her violent intentions...
...at which point the milk bubbles over the edge of the pot. Heh. Don snaps out of his little foray into his imagination (last time they set up a flashback like this, it was actually a memory of his) long enough to take the milk off the boil, but moments later he's right back in it, as he hears an urgent knocking. Turning, he sees Abigail answer the door late at night to find the midwife holding his newborn self in a bassinet. Smiling, she reminds Abigail that she said God would give her a child, but when Abigail asks whose it is, she declines to answer, instead asking if Archie's home. When Abigail now fails to respond, the midwife repeats that God is giving her a child, and adds that his name is Dick, "after a wish his mother should have lived to see." Excuse me while I involuntarily cross my legs. It's a guy thing. Without any need for further convincing, Abigail takes the bassinet from the midwife and withdraws back into the house, leaving Don to contemplate this information that he just...saw? Filled in from information Abigail and Uncle Mack gave him? Imagined? Always, on some level, knew? No time to wonder about that, because the milk is done...
...which he brings up to Betty to try to remedy the fact that she's having trouble sleeping, one possible reason for which is that she's very, very pregnant. She sits up and takes the milk from Don as she explains that whenever she's ready to drop off to sleep, the baby wakes up. Betty seems more chipper about that habit than you'd think, but the earlier scene certainly makes it seem like more of a blessing than it otherwise might. Don notes Betty's use of the feminine pronoun in referring to the baby, pointing out that Betty seems awfully sure of the gender, and Betty smiles in response: "She knows what she wants." She then points across the room and says she packed Don's valise, and he turns and sees it lying open. He offers that he could have done that, like, seriously, woman, this is the time you should be waited on hand and foot while you watch twenty-five hours of soap operas a day! Instead of seeing the wisdom of my words, Betty replies that Don will get a chance to pack the thing again, as the clasp is broken, and Carla told her she saw Sally hitting it with a hammer. "She's taken to your tools like a little lesbian." Hmm, was the "lesbians go to Home Depot" stereotype really that prevalent back then? Regardless, it seems like the writers' goal was to have him laugh at the slight on gays so as to make his attitude later seem surprising, but I never thought Don of all people would give a shit what consenting adults do. But moving on, Betty finishes the milk and lies back down as Don crawls into bed with her; she wonders if she'll ever sleep again before saying she just wants everything to be perfect for their new daughter's entrance into their home. He tells her to close her eyes, and after she complies, he relaxes her by having her visualize herself on a warm and sandy beach, the faint smell of coconut oil in the air. Betty notes, "You're good at this." Too good -- I knew I shouldn't have tried to recap this scene after dark. Good night!