Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 677 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT The Man-Boy Becomes A Man
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2010.08.15
Pete arrives home to find his parents-in-law on the living-room couch, and when Trudy joins them, she pinchedly and pointedly tells Peter she's "a little behind." So, not quite so easy to leverage the bun in your oven as you thought? She tries to arrange a socially acceptable scenario to get her father alone so she can dump the bad news in his lap, but Pete tells her to go off with her mother, and she obliges him. When they're alone, Pete starts once again to break the news, but Tom interrupts to say that he gets it -- they need a bigger apartment. Pete: "Every time you jump to conclusions, Tom, you make me respect you less." HA! If this episode had just been the Pete parts, it would have been an A-plus. Pete goes on that "we" are grateful for Clearasil, but there's only so much business it's going to do. Tom's demeanor cools noticeably as he opines that's in SCDP's, and Pete's, hands, but Pete says he's done auditioning. Tom asks if Pete is mad at him, but Pete is beyond such petty indulgences -- he's trying to build a business, and since Clearasil is being conflicted out, he wants all of Tom's Vicks business. "Who's doing a better job for you than I have?" Tom fakely tells Pete he's given him something to think about, but Pete thinks the situation is actually quite simple. Tom: "You son of a bitch." So, they've had an in-law get-together? But this is just awesome -- instead of using the baby news to soften the blow about Clearasil, Pete built a better mousetrap by using it to get a bigger piece of the Vicks pie. And I like that it's not spelled out, in true high WASP fashion, but I think the idea is now that Pete has cemented his relationship with Trudy by giving her a child and being positive about it, it would be easy for him to turn her against her father were he not to play along with this business request. Regardless, Tom obviously feels like he has no choice here, which means that Pete can look forward to having his picture up on the SCDP Employee Of The Month wall.
Don's drinking alone in his office when he hears the janitor doing the floors outside. God, Don, with Lucky Strike line-iteming everything, how can the firm afford your liquor bills? He heads out, but not before exchanging a nod with the guy that's probably fairly awkward for both sides.