Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Say Goodbye To Accounts…
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 10 | Aired on 09.26.2010
In the morning, Don's dressed for work when Pete shows up to his door, saying he didn't want to talk at the office or over the phone. When he and Faye make eye contact, they're both hilariously like "Oh, great," before Faye leaves without a word and Don invites Pete in. Pete tells him that he spoke to "Russ," and Don hasn't been flagged, so if they end things with NAA, the investigation will cease where it is. Don almost collapses with relief, but Pete wonders why it is he has to walk away from a four million dollar account. "Because you can't live in the open? You don't know any other way." He adds that, referring to Faye, he just learned something else he didn't want to know, but Don counsels him to tell NAA that they've decided they want Martin Marietta or Hughes as their defense client. Pete pointedly asks what he should tell the partners, and it's open to interpretation, but I take Don's non-verbal reply as "You're going to have to fall on this bomb, soldier," and the look on Pete's face suggests he reads it the same way as he leaves in a cloud of righteous indignation.
Roger comes in to see Joan, worried because he called her numerous times the night before, but she assures him she's fine. "Everything went fine." And I can't detect any duplicity in her performance, but she did have some time to prepare herself. I mean, I know she wants kids, she's not getting any younger, and she was worried she might not be able to conceive, not to mention the fact that that business in the doctor's offices could only have served to reinforce those concerns. Anyway, Joan doesn't let Roger go on too long about his feelings before she reminds him that they have a partners' meeting, so they head for the conference room, but not before he tells her how beautiful she is. And, of course, there is no argument to be had there.
The partners confer, with Pete looking especially grim, and then when Joan calls them to order, Bertram snaps at her to get on with it, which seems out of character but does at least give him a line before the episode ends. Pete then gets it over with, starting by saying that NAA is moving on and then feeding them a cock-and-bull story about how he overlooked including some names on a document, which insulted a general, and even though he apologized, the damage was done. As Don sits in guilty silence, he adds that the damage is irreparable because he didn't pay enough attention, prompting Roger, who's sitting on a disaster orders of magnitude bigger than this, to take out his frustration on Pete, going off on a tirade that ends in him using the f-word, which prompts Joan to mildly reproach him, Don to leap to Pete's defense, and Bertram to tell him he should apologize. Roger complies, not overly sincerely, and then Don and Pete exchange a side-eye before Pryce announces that he's going to be taking a leave of absence that will last two weeks to a month to tend to his family. However, he assures them that even with the NAA news, "the company is in a state of stability, and all matters financial may be referred to Mrs. Harris." Like Joan hasn't been having a rough enough time lately. Pryce leaves the room, and when he's gone, Roger can't help but laugh at how ridiculous his life has become, although no one else knows the half of it. When Joan goes over the status of their accounts, though, he lies that Lucky Strike is a thumbs-up, and I don't know how he thinks he's going to get out of this one, unless he's just planning not to refill his blood-pressure prescription.