Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 7 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT …Is Sometimes Strained
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 12 | Aired on 06.16.2013
Speaking of Don, he's sitting in the conference room near the art -- first one there, by the way, just to play up the apparently-supportive image even more -- when Peggy enters and asks with a note of surprise if he's joining them. Don explains that Ted wanted "more firepower," and then Peggy tells him she doesn't get what happened; Don explains about the residuals, but assures her that it'll be fine. "We always win this one." Speaking of sentiments people will disbelieve of themselves later, Peggy looks at him like she's glad he's on her side, and then Joan enters with the client "Byron," Ted, and Cutler in tow. After the usual greetings, Cutler tells Byron that Ted and Peggy will take him through the creative process, but Byron -- who's straight out of Bible Belt Casting -- says he knows the concept and bought it the day it was pitched to him. "I just paid a lot less for it." Ted and Peggy smile in unison, and as Don looks on with intent anticipation, Ted gives a speech about how as concepts evolve, costs can mount, and I'm glad he's in Creative because he's not a producer I'd want to work with. Ted adds that the cost is a fraction of the business they believe the ad will generate, but Byron tells him that with all due respect, his job isn't to promise sales, but to deliver work for the agreed budget. I mean, seriously, Ted, you've been in this business for over twenty years. I'm not sure I even believe that Peggy would think this would fly; it's preposterous for Ted to do so no matter how much blood his brain lacks when he's around Peggy, not to mention the fact that this is a sure way to erode the client trust Ted seemed so concerned about keeping earlier.
As Don looks with the expression of someone who secretly enjoys watching executions, Ted keeps trying to defend himself and the client continues not to have it, eventually settling into a pattern of telling him that Ted isn't giving him "a reason," and further discussion reveals he means a reason he can take back to the top brass at his company, as he caught hell for the new budget and "Mr. Plough" even called him. Of course, it's hard not to start singing "Call Mr. Plough, that's my name," but I'll forego that in saying if you're interested in the corporate history, The Plough Company, which soon after the date of this episode merged with Schering to become Schering-Plough and much more recently reverse-merged with Merck, grew out of a business originally operated from a horse-drawn buggy. Sigh. Don, with ersatz deference, pipes up that he hates to interrupt, but he thinks he knows what Byron wants to hear -- he wants to know why they'd push him like this. Byron agrees that that's what he's after, so Don tells him -- throwing in all manner of manufactured hesitation to make it sound good -- that Ted doesn't want to say the real reason, because it's personal. "In fact, it's very personal."