Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 6 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT We're Not Gonna Take It
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 3 | Aired on 04.14.2013
Mack graciously welcomes them, but his statement that they "can always use a little help around here" is one we're all familiar enough with this show to be wary of, Abigail included from the look on her face. After an awkward silence - even for Mad Men, we're over quota at this point - Abigail has Dick deal assist Mack with the bags, but before he does, she orders him to keep his eyes down and mind his own business there. Unusually for me, I have not seen the episode in advance of recapping it, but I'm still going to guess Dick's going to live to regret not following that advice. As Mack, who by the way is keeping it classy by wearing an undershirt/suspenders combo, and Dick start to head up the stairs, the blonde from earlier appears and tells Dick that he's a good-looking kid before counseling him thusly: "Find your own sins. Stay away from Mack's." Dick looks puzzled, but Mack's dismissive answering chuckle gives me the chills, as does his assertion, after confirming that Dick grew up on a farm, that he's the rooster of the place. Although I will hand it to Dick for his response: "You help all the hens?"
Present-day Don has just finished his own hen-helping, but it hasn't alleviated Sylvia's anxiety about the upcoming dinner the two of them and their spouses are having, referenced in the elevator by her husband a couple scenes ago. They light up - the recently discovered fact that the maid smokes being their cover, and speaking of keeping it classy, they're doing it in her bed - before Sylvia asks if he doesn't mind sitting across the table at a friendly dinner with his wife and her husband, given their clandestine activities. Don replies, with both the tone and the words of the sociopath he usually is, that he doesn't think about it, and adds that they're both good company. Instead of asking what planet he's from, Sylvia agrees before revealing that she only consented to the dinner because Rosen wants to impress Don. Don counters that he only assented because Megan kept asking, for she likes Sylvia. And Sylvia likes her! We then hear from the radio or TV about some severe destruction in Vietnam, just in case you needed an extra clue by association how legendarily bad an idea this affair is, and then Don gets up to go to work with a smile and a quip that no matter what happens, they at least got something done that day. And on top of that, he hands her a wad of cash, counseling her to say she found it in the cookie jar. I mean, I know she's unaware of the thoughts of the whorehouse he was just having, but still: Of all the things that have ever confounded me on this show, her answering beatific smile has to be in the top ten.