Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 490 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Giving Up The Ghost
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 13 | Aired on 2012.06.10
Megan hands Don a drink, for which he thanks her and then apologizes that he would help her if he could. She smiles tightly and says she's going to take a bath before dinner, but as soon as the door's closed and the water's running, she breaks down into sobs...
...while Marie is asking how Roger knew she was there. Roger: "Because Don was complaining you were drinking all his liquor." Marie, God love her, just laughs musically before they enter into a little verbal dance that ends in her promising to try to visit him at the Stanhope, his current temporary residence, "on the condition that you lower your expectations." In other words, chance of blowjob? Slim.
Don's resting his eyes and tooth, still on the bed, as the water continuing to run suggests that Megan is letting more frustrations out than have to do with this one commercial. And given the ghosts of Lane and Adam swirling around, shouldn't he, like, check on her?
Oh, speaking of which, when Don walks through SCDP the next day, which is bustling with far more employees than we've ever seen, he sees Adam again and I think we've all made the connection at this point? When he reaches Dawn, he requests some ice and she goes to get it for him, but not before informing him that Joan has been waiting inside to see him for some time. He enters and after the morning greetings, she tells him she'd like to reopen the conversation about more space -- you see, she's been trying very hard to be responsible and careful on behalf of the company, yet the money keeps pouring in. She hands over a check to Don, whose eyes go wide and the only time I've ever seen that is when Roger told him how much he stood to make from the PPL merger, so you know this is no chump change we're dealing with. And indeed, Joan tells him that it's the benefit from the company's insurance policy in compensation for Lane's death (and they did work in not only the company being the beneficiary but also the fact that it covered suicide to one of Pete's storylines earlier in the season), to the tune of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. Recovered from the number of figures on the check, Don wonders what Joan's question is, so she simply asks why Lane did what he did, going on that she can't help thinking about what she could have done to stop him. "Why didn't I give him what he wanted?" Don doesn't get what that might have been at first, but Joan meets his gaze pointedly and Don's reaction is like, "even I am not witty enough to come up with a pithy comment about the marriage of Lane's desperation and your loaded sexuality, so I'm just going to sit here and wallow in tooth pain."