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
When Beth sees whom Howard has brought home for dinner, you can hardly blame her for looking stunned, not that Howard notices as he rushes off to get his paperwork. Pete takes the opportunity to tell Beth that he'll be at the Hotel Pennsylvania at 12:30 the next day and kisses her over her protests. Wow, this is ugly, but the show is smart in the way it balances out the likability of the characters over time; Pete's descent has coincided with a rehabilitation of sorts for Roger, whom I was just about at the point of not being able to abide by the end of last season. When Howard returns, Beth pulls him aside and Pete can't stop his self-preservation instinct from kicking in as he heads for the door, but Howard returns within a moment and wonders where Pete's going before explaining that Beth has a migraine, but they're only serving baked chicken and he can set a table. Pete, already thinking how spectacularly ill-advised this all is, isn't sure, but Howard prevails upon him to stay and talk insurance. I just hope for the sake of Pete's wallet that he hasn't let Howard see him drive.
Don quietly enters the apartment to find Megan cooking and listening to a radio broadcast about Vietnam and I thought we'd be hearing a lot more of that this season than we have, but there was also a much smaller time jump than I expected. We get a pan up to establish Don's ensuing comment -- that Megan shouldn't cook in bare feet. (I think it's believed you can get electrocuted that way, although that could be an urban legend. Regardless, it seems like good advice anyway to keep your skin covered.) Megan kisses him long before joking that he shouldn't get used to her good mood, as "there's going to be a lot of crying from rejection." And I thought she was the one who was so good at not crying. Further testing the waters, she tells Don she thought he'd come home drunk, but he sincerely tells her that what she's doing is okay and she's thrilled. She invites him to fix himself a drink, but calls him back to tell him she loves him. "You're everything I hoped you'd be." He returns the sentiment and they smile at each other, but if anything, the events of the last day have shown him that moments like this can be taken away by decisions over which you have no say...
...and a cross-fade into the next day suggests that such thoughts are still on his mind, which is too bad because he and Peggy are supposed to be concentrating on Cool Whip.