Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 497 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Half the Battle
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2010.09.12
After they enter the anteroom of a fancy restaurant, Henry introduces Betty to a political aide, "Ralph Stuben," who apologizes for interrupting their evening (they had been at the theater) but says that "the Congressman" wanted this done immediately and in person. Henry tells Ralph that Betty, as a political wife, doesn't mind, and hilariously, just as he's assuring Ralph of her discretion, Betty spots Don inside the restaurant with Bethany and looks like she's going to start screaming bloody murder. She valiantly recovers and suggests they get a drink at the bar, which is certainly smart enough given that it will provide a change of venue and that she really, really needs one, and then Henry spots Don himself and catches on, but Ralph says their table will only be a minute...
...so we might as well check in with Don and Bethany, and when we see Don waving the waiter off from pouring him champagne I wonder if the booze industry in the Mad Men universe is about to have its worst quarter since Roger had that heart attack. Bethany tries to bring some pop culture into their conversation by asking if Don's a Felix or an Oscar, and Don admits that while he'd rather be an Oscar, he's probably a Felix. That sounds like a response calculated for his audience rather than one consistent with the picture of a diner waitress's uniform slung over his bureau, but regardless, it fails to have the intended effect, as Bethany tells him that every date feels like the first with him, and not in a good way -- she knows he must be seeing other people. Don points out that they're together now, but Bethany thinks a few dates aren't sufficient to get to know someone -- "it takes intense, prolonged contact." Don doesn't make a lecherous raise-eyebrow comeback to that one, which probably shows as well as anything that he really is cutting down on the sauce, and when she asks if he doesn't want to be close with anyone, he simply says that he does, in fact. She informs him that she's going to need more from him, but he amusedly counters that clearly they are from different generations, because he doesn't remember women pushing this hard, and adds that he's not seeing anyone else -- he's just been working. I believe him when he says he has no other entanglements, but even at his booziest the only woman I think he saw more often than Bethany was his prostitute, so take this with a grain of salt, honey.