Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A+ | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT "Mr. Campbell. Who Cares?"
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 12 | Aired on 10.10.2007
Pete approaches Don's door with the rewrapped package under his arm; he again blows by Peggy, and she in turn again asks him where he thinks he's going. This time, though, he imperiously (well, that's what he tries for, at least) turns and informs her she should take care in the way she speaks to him. Big words from a guy who's returning his ace in the hole because his wife called him "peculiar." Inside, Don's reading the paper, when Pete enters, he echoes Peggy's "Can I help you?" Heh, nice. Pete "explains" that the package is Don's and came to him by mistake; he carefully omits the "two weeks ago or so" that should end that sentence. He then asks if Don's reconsidered his qualifications. Don: "Would it disappoint you if I told you it hadn't crossed my mind?" I'll take Pete's quivering lower lip as a yes. He turns to go, but reconsiders for a long moment and then closes the office door; after some quick preliminaries, he gets to the point -- he knows that Don's name is really Dick Whitman; also, his friend at the Department of Defense told him that according to their records, Dick Whitman died in Korea in 1950, and Donald Draper "dropped off the map, although he's forty-three years old, in which case you look remarkably good." Of course, this doesn't explain how it is that no one ever came inquiring about the real Don Draper, but I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Don has kept silent up to this point, probably because he knows his voice would betray the fear that's clearly been mounting behind his eyes, but he pulls himself together, first trying to pooh-pooh the story, and then attempting to kick Pete out with a display of ersatz boredom and irritation. Pete, however, isn't fooled, and he warns Don he should think about Bertram's reaction when he hears this news. Don rises and says that it sounds like Pete is blackmailing him, which Pete denies. "I'm hoping you'll realize that this all can be forgotten." Sorry, Pete, but this still sounds like the dictionary definition of "blackmail" to me. If this is indicative of your handle on the English language, no wonder the New Yorker doesn't want you. Realizing that Pete isn't backing down, Don goes for implied menace, saying that such powerful information might be enough to get him to do something else. If he'd led with this, he might have gotten somewhere, especially given how he's just towering over Pete in this shot, but Pete has smelled too much of Don's desperation up to this point to be intimidated now. He urges Don once more to think about the proffered way out, and leaves. When he's gone, Don looks panicked, and gets even more so when he opens the box and sees all the photographic evidence. We linger on a shot of his back rather than his face, as if to emphasize his loss of identity...