Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 465 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT I Am Become Death
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2012.05.06
Some dude in a lab coat is droning on about, if you can believe it, the order in which they're supposed to taste the different samples and then he asks the three of them (Ken is there as well) to go ahead and give their reactions. Ken's response is expectedly positive and beige and then the Head of Desserts (played by Saved by the Bell's Dennis Haskins a.k.a. Mr. Belding) enters and hears Peggy give a canned speech about the product, whereupon he looks expectantly at Don, expecting him to do the married bit, as he's under the impression that Peggy is his wife. Lab Coat disabuses HOD of that notion and HOD is hilariously disappointed, but Lab Coat assures him it'll be "just as good." In much the same way, I'm sure that Cool Whip is "just as good" as actual whipped cream. Peggy screws up right out of the gate, biffing a line and mistakenly handing Don the samples too early and then asking him to "just try it." Don sharply asks if she doesn't want him to "just TASTE it," and the way she bit that line out in the earlier scene makes it much harder to defend her fucking it up now. Peggy's performance doesn't improve and HOD is like "Thanks for coming" in just the way an unimpressed casting director would be. He walks out, again acting hilariously crestfallen about the whole thing and after Lab Coat goes after him to try to talk him down from the ledge, I'm guessing, Ken grabs a glass of water and sips it with such extreme prejudice it looks like he's trying to turn it to booze with his mind. He does, however, put a brave face on things by saying the clients know they're going to cast it, but when Don sarcastically asks if the actors will be able to remember the word "taste" instead of "try," Peggy fires back that he didn't want to rehearse with her and before you know it, they're fighting about Megan, with Don saying that Peggy didn't want her in Creative, and Peggy contending that she spent more time training Megan than Don did. It's kind of amazing to see them fight as equals, not least because Peggy obviously cares about Megan too and isn't just coming from a defensive position and she ends things with "You know what? You are not mad at me, so SHUT UP!" Don grimaces but doesn't seem to have an appetite to contest things further; instead, he reaches for a cigarette, whereupon a female lab coat who's been silent witness to this whole scene informs him he can't smoke in there. Heh. The three SCDP people stare at her like they're wondering how the day could get any worse...