Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 5 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Oh, Canada
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.29.2012
...while Roger has wasted no time in going out with an absolutely gorgeous woman... OH SHIT, that's Mona! Good Lord, Talia Balsam looks amazing. Anyway, they're in some upscale piano lounge with a view, and they've apparently gotten together because Mona's uncle Arnold died. "No one went to the funeral, but I knew you always liked him." Yes, I can somehow see Roger providing a contrarian viewpoint when it comes to in-laws. Roger good-naturedly asks if Margaret has "stopped dancing on Jane's grave," and Mona's answering chuckle rather obviates her response of, "She hardly hid her feelings." Roger notes that Mona didn't give in to such a tempting response, but Mona does playfully admit it's a little unsatisfying that Roger is in such a good mood. "I always thought she'd leave you." No offense, Mona, but I can't say I ever wanted to look closely enough to form an opinion either way. I understand, though, that you had little choice in the matter. Roger tells his ex-wife (and actual one in real life, in case I've never mentioned that one before) that he now thinks maybe Jane was just an excuse to blow up his life, and Mona, rather delighted even though she surely came to that revelation like two seconds after he broke the news he was leaving, asks if he's been seeing a shrink. In response, Roger loudly sings the praises of LSD in an all-too-believably evangelical way, and his babbling about euphoria and insight and how he now understands how other people think is enough to get Mona to wonder if maybe she should try it too. And there's some jest in her tone, but I still have to tell you I would LOVE to see that. Roger then gets down to his real mission here, handing Mona a piece of paper with the names of four members of the American Cancer Society, an organization that just so happens to be honoring Don for his breakup letter to Lucky Strike. Mona asks what she's supposed to do with the names in a tone that suggests she already knows the answer, but Roger still verbalizes it, asking if she remembers the way she used to go to luncheons and come back with stories of all the powerful men he could meet. Roger then goes back to the acid and tortures a metaphor, the gist of which is that his vision of the Black Sox represented his own regret that everything he has was handed to him, and Mona, probably having heard this revelation many times without it being induced by psychedelic drugs, sighs that Roger shouldn't feel guilty about his advantages. "I, for one, am not going to let some dirty teenagers in the paper disrupt the order of things." It'll be a while, but I still can't wait to see what Mona will make of Amy Carter. Roger, however, says he's just trying to meet with Firestone, and he knows it's a huge favor, but he lost everything when Lucky Strike went away. Mona fixes him with a thoughtful look, and after a good pause, replies, "I thought you married Jane because I had gotten old. And then I realized it was because you had." May be tough to hear, Roger, but if you want the favor you're going to have to give her that one. To his credit, he simply smiles that he hasn't had a heart attack since, and Mona generously replies that she doesn't see what the harm could be. "You are still supporting all of us." Nice, but I wonder -- is she still married to her second husband? Of course she'd be getting money from Roger either way, but the use of the word "supporting" without qualification sends my right eyebrow skyward. Unless she means he's supporting the husband as well, and given Roger's offhand remark about his net worth dropping by half, that's not that farfetched. Either way, I appreciate Mona's practical attitude and so does Roger, as he encourages her to find out whatever she can by that Friday, which is, I assume, when the honor will be bestowed. Mona favors him with a fond smile and a "You'd be surprised," and that's it, if she is single, I want these two back together, even if she has to hold him on a leash so short it's completely invisible.