Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 1483 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT The Man-Boy Becomes A Man
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2010.08.15
..as at Reception, Joyce is chatting with the Megan. Honey, she wasn't the one with the man trouble. Peggy comes out and asks if Joyce would like to see her office, but Joyce is in a bit of a hurry -- she just wanted to invite Peggy to a thing (well, a happening, although she doesn't call it that) that her friend the reject photographer is having downtown. After grabbing a pencil and paper off Megan's desk and thanking and calling her "sweetheart," she tells Peggy, "It starts at nine. I'll be there at ten." Might as well tell her when you're planning to kiss her, too, just so she has all the relevant information. When she's gone, Megan offers, "She's kind of pretentious," and honey, you're not kidding, but that's apparently what Peggy's looking for, as she dreamily replies, "I know," before heading back inside. Well, she's got bad taste in guys, too, so at least she's consistent. By the way, Bertram was just sitting out there on the couch, which I think is the first time we've seen him since he was being a crotchety coot at the Christmas party, and I love the old guy, but for all they're using him for they might as well just have him stuffed.
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.