Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 893 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Company Woman
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 11 | Aired on 2012.05.27
Pete comes in to tell Don that the campaign is brilliant and by the way, he can present in the fullest confidence as they've removed "all other impediments." The color goes out of Don's face as realization sets in and he tells Pete to close the door. Pete, however, knows where this is going and tells Don it was four to zero with Don having abstained. "The conversation doesn't end just because you leave the room." I said that before; now I want to take it back, because I hate to get caught agreeing with Pete on any point this episode. After Don hears what Pete promised Joan, knowing it's an offer she probably can't refuse, he yells for Dawn to buzz her and when Pete softly tells him she's not there, he amends the order to her getting him his things. On his way out, Don seethes that he doesn't want it like this, but Pete shrugs his shoulders: "It was her idea." I'm guessing he's referring to the compensation, as we all know Gross Pig conceived of the unspeakable act, but I think Don is leaving with the impression that Joan is a lot more willing than she actually is. It's tragic on a rather epic scale that he's the only one who cares about her enough to stop this and yet the information only he has been privy to about her divorce is making her cooperation seem more likely to him than to anyone else. But hey, maybe he'll sway her yet...
...because he's lost no time in getting up to her place. Gail lets him in and after she's gotten Joan out of the bedroom and withdrawn to the nursery, Joan, wearing a robe, asks what she can do for Don. Don flatly tells her that Jaguar isn't worth what they're asking her to do and adds, "Who wants to be in business with people like that?" Joan comes as close as she ever does to flinching before quietly saying she was told everyone was on board and when Don explains what really happened, she finds a smile through her sadness: "You're a good one, aren't you?" Don asks if that means she understands what he's saying and she says she does before thanking him and telling him she's all right. Relieved, he tells her to have a nice night while he goes to prepare, but she reaches out a hand and silently caresses his cheek in a gesture of affection. He looks a bit bewildered, but leaves without any further comment than a wish that she "say goodnight to your friend" and I'd make a comment about how Gail must be loving being mistaken as a friend of Joan's instead of her mother, but this is so not the time for that.