Episode Report Card Couch Baron: C- | 24 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT Through the Looking Glass
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 8 | Aired on 05.19.2013
...and then we cut back to Don staring at the woman in the drawing, and I think it is fair to say at this point that we get it. Doesn't mean we're not going to linger here for like ten more seconds, though. This is why every episode this season is four minutes longer?
Back at the Draper apartment, now that Sally has eaten most of the eggs Ida made for her, her suspicions are once again on the rise as she asks Ida what she's doing looking through all the cupboards. Ida distracts her with the promise of presents, as she does to Bobby when he sleepily emerges all WTF before feeding him a cock-and-bull story about a gold watch she bought Don for which she got a new band -- has Bobby seen it? Bobby points Ida to Don's bedroom, but when she's gone, Sally picks up the phone, saying she thinks Ida's lying. As she dials, Bobby earnestly asks Sally, "Are we Negroes?" Seems a little much, but it's nothing compared to Chris "Mike Made Huevos Rancheros" Brody over on Homeland, so I'll let it slide. Sally calls the police, and I'd think just buzzing down to the doorman would be more efficacious and less dangerous, as whoever answers the phone is obviously wary of kids playing pranks, so she hasn't given all her relevant information before Ida returns, grabs the phone, and tells the person in a sugary voice that the kids are supposed to be in bed, and they're not so well-behaved. Sally and Bobby exchange a fearful look, which proves to be well-founded when Ida puts down the phone and glares at them with at least a few toes in Lake Crazy. However, presumably sensing that she can't risk overstaying her "welcome," she settles for telling the kids they hurt her feelings, so she's going to go get some air, and when she returns, they'd better be in bed. Ida heads out through the back, whereupon Sally follows in that direction, presumably to secure the entrance. Ida, if you're looking for greener pastures, I can tell you to skip the Rosen apartment, since that back door is definitely locked.
Don's typing away in his office; he then pulls a sheet of paper out of the machine and after reading some disjointed phrases from it calls Peggy in. She and Ginzo appear, and Don, with that dippy smile we've seen from him when he's high on love or other drugs, tells them he's got it. Taking him at his word, Peggy expresses enthusiasm, so he hands her the drawing of Swenson Oatmeal and tells her it says it all. Ginzo peers at him with a healthy amount of skepticism, that being "total," but Don babbles on that it's all about what holds people together and it's a history that people don't even have to have shared and if their strategy is successful it'll be way bigger than a car! He then starts analyzing advertising in general, and Ginzo, surprisingly, goes along in encouraging Don's prattle, although maybe he decided he couldn't get through this weekend playing the straight man and got a "serum" shot of his own. When Ginzo concludes that the answer people are looking for is a Chevy, though, and Don tells him it isn't, he deflates: "Then it's oatmeal?" Hee. Peggy, for her part, got off at the last spastic lurch of Don's train of thought, and as Don continues to make no sense, she finally asks him what the hell he's been doing all weekend, but with that same punchable smile, he tells her he has to go and bails. Ginzo, unfazed, wonders if Don will care if he takes a nap in there, but Peggy steps out into the hallway to call after Don. He doesn't break stride, but she does see Cutler standing by an office whose door is ajar, and he silently beckons to her to join him. When she walks over, she sees Wendy grinding away atop Stan, and she walks away in disgust as Cutler, entranced, continues to watch. I'll admit I kind of enjoy how unapologetically weird Cutler is, but still: I know I can't get Twin Peaks out of my mind, but when did SCDP become the Black Lodge? Has it always been?