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
Roger and Marie burst through some French doors and fall onto the bed and they make out and exchange some light flirtation until Roger gets serious, telling him that one of his business partners ended it all and he could never do that unless he was sure he was going someplace better. "But then I think, maybe that place is here." Marie wonders what he's getting at, so he tells her -- he needs to drop acid again to really appreciate life and he'd like her to take it with him. Marie, however, recognizes how intimate a request this really is and begs him not to ask her to take care of him. He visibly deflates, but when she asks if there's anything else she can do, he kisses her and... well, you know, reinflates.
Don comes home to find Megan, not to put too fine a point on it, piss-ass drunk and he helps her to bed, on the way learning that Marie "abandoned" her. In the effort to haul her into bed, he falls on top of her and she tries for a kiss but he gives her the Hot Tooth Face, and she's not too wasted to tell him to go to the dentist, although it's because she wants to be able to do him. "It's the only thing I'm good for." Don wonders what happened to make her think something so ugly, but Megan goes on that this is what he wants, for her to be waiting for him when he gets home, which is why he won't give her a chance. If that's the case, it's pretty clever of her to illustrate the ugly side of that scenario. (And I may not have given the show enough credit at the time, but in retrospect, Megan feeling like she's supposed to be home for Don makes her pasta-hurling freakout over his late drinks with Joan make a lot more sense.) He tells her that's not true, but, half-crying, she tells him it's either that or she's terrible. "But how the hell would you know?" It's a good point, made all the more impressive by the fact that she's presenting it to four of him. Hearing Marie come in, Don tells Megan to sleep it off...
...and then he's asking Marie how she could leave Megan all wasted. Instead of pointing out that she probably was quite so trashed when she left, Marie tells him it's his job to take care of her and adds that she knows it's difficult to watch, but this is what happens when someone has an artistic temperament without the talent to back it up. "Take my advice. Nurse her through this defeat and you shall have the life you desire." Given Megan's earlier comment, it seems clear that Marie is speaking from experience; I'm not sure if Don realizes this, but if he does, he must not love the idea that he's going to grow up to be the Emile of the piece. Marie, not unkindly, excuses herself to write some postcards and then Don's tooth acts up enough to send him into a chair...