Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 580 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT "I Demand Satisfaction!"
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 5 | Aired on 2012.04.15
The dinner date is in full swing and it's not going great; Lane tries to apply Roger's teachings, but Edwin is proving to be conversationally inscrutable, zigging when Lane thinks he's zagging. Edwin does ask about Lane's service in, I presume, World War II, but Lane confesses that while he volunteered for combat on numerous occasions, he spent most of the war as a supply assistant. After a lot of effort, just when Lane thinks Edwin's coming to a revelation, Edwin tells him he hasn't a complaint in the world, leaving Lane with nothing to do but signal the waiter for another round. I know things look grim, Lane, but Roger's probably already passed out so unless you want to crash a party in Cos Cob, you're going to have to stick it out here.
And speaking of, it's also dinnertime in Cos Cob, which in addition to food comes replete with talk about the origins of the town's name (originally named after the Coe family, which I only mention because it's referenced later). Megan asks Ken "where you and... where you two have made your home," and come on, everyone can't be that drunk that they don't realize the Drapers have forgotten Mulva's name. Ken tells them they're in Jackson Heights; Trudy says she keeps trying to get them to move out where they are, but Mulva replies that she and Ken both work in the city and "my parents aren't like Trudy's. Help from them comes with a lot of strings attached." You'd think this would be a fraught topic for casual conversation, but as I've mentioned we do know Trudy and Mulva are close and besides this is a roomful of people who watched Megan sing "Zou Bisou Bisou," so maybe they feel like boundaries are over. Megan does sigh that it's beautiful out there, with all the fresh air and grass, but Ken laughs that he grew up in rural Vermont and kids tossing their bikes on the front lawn isn't exactly the country to him. Don asks if Ken misses the horseshit and although everyone laughs, Trudy does add a reproving "Don!" so Don explains that he grew up in a rural area too (again, he's a lot freer with this information now) and he doesn't miss trudging to an outhouse in the middle of winter. Pete tells him that where they are is more civilized than that, but as his face falls a bit, he adds, "But there are a lot of varmints." Hee. Ken suggests he bring his rifle home and I don't remember Pete carrying it out of the old SCDP in "Shut The Door, Have A Seat," but logistics aside, Trudy is aghast that he still has it and informs him that there will be no guns in their house. Mulva pipes up that she doesn't like them either, and references the UT shooter, "Charles... Whitmore?" which Don hilariously corrects to "Whitman," probably thinking it's not such a stretch for the culprit to be a relation of his adoptive family.