Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 5 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT If You Love Someone, Shoot Them With A BB
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 2007.09.13
In the main area of the office, people are having a rather drunken party. The boys see Peggy on her way out (wearing the same outfit as in the scene with Joan, just in case there was any timeline confusion), and Ken and Paul make some dickish comments in the same vein as earlier. However, when Ken says that a girl like Peggy is a lobster, because "all the meat's in the tail," Pete gets a nasty look on his face and stands up and punches Ken. I hope that's not the best he can do, because I'm pretty sure Vincent Kartheiser didn't get cast as Connor The Destroyer throwing girly-assed punches like that. He and Ken wrestle, which is pretty hilarious since Kartheiser comes up to like, Aaron Staton's waist, and as the other boys try to break them up, Roger and Don walk out, and Roger offers to drop Don at the station without either of them sparing a glance at the brawl. Heh. Pete and Ken finally get pulled apart, with Ken (nice touch that he's completely out of breath; he's one of the heaviest smokers on this show) asking why the hell Pete sucker-punched him. Pete doesn't answer, so Paul puts an arm around each of them and orders them to make up, and they shake hands. I'd like to think Pete was defending Peggy's honor, but until I see a little more, I'm going to have to think that he was just drunkenly pissed that Ken was deriding his taste. And don't email me until you at least watch the scene with Hildy again.
Don comes home to find Betty serving dinner for the two of them; the children are already done, and she's just poured some wine. Don asks how it went, and Betty tells him it was great, and McCann is talking about a whole other slew of possibilities for her. Don, rather beautifully, starts to look dismayed, probably because Betty is feeling the need to put on this brave face for him. She tells him that despite the "success," she doesn't want to work any more, as it will hamper her efforts as a housewife, and besides, she doesn't like Manhattan on her own. "What am I going to do, run around the city with my book like some teenager, making a fool of myself?" Well, if it influences your decision, I'm sure you'd have company. Don takes her hand and sincerely tells her that if she wants to, she can. "It's my job to give you what you want." Betty says he does, but he presses the point, calling her "Birdy" (I think I thought it was "Bertie" before, but it's pretty clear from the themes going around in this episode alone that that's not the case) and saying that he doesn't care about stuff like making his dinner or taking in his shirts, as that's nothing compared to motherhood, and she's the best mother in the world. She looks touched at his faith in her, and he goes on that he would have given anything to have had a mother like her -- "beautiful and kind -- filled with love, like an angel." Damn, of all the people on the show I would have thought would make my eyes fill, Don would not have been tops on the list. Betty smiles, and they get down to eating.