Episode Report Card Couch Baron: C- | 581 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Through the Looking Glass
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2013.05.19
Don's kids are watching The Prisoner, and I'll applaud their good taste, but in the interest of fair reporting I'll point out that the fact that AMC remade the series suggests there may have been some network encouragement there. The phone rings. Megan calls to Sally to get it; it's Don. Megan, dressed to go out, comes to answer. She asks where he is, as she has to leave, but he apologizes and tells her he's not finished. She doesn't know what to do about that and also worries about him working so much, but he tells her he's got a second wind before hanging up. Out of options, Megan offers Sally "some boots to go with that skirt," and Bobby isn't happy, but Megan explains that she's going to see a play, and "Jeff, my agent" (mm-HMM) is going to introduce her to some producers. They wrap up a few logistical details...
...and then we're back to the office, in which Stan is tying a tie around his eyes and standing in front of a poster-board wall; above his head is a drawing of an apple, so you can see where this is going even without Mathis' comment that Stan is "going to look like St. Sebastian." Still, hee. Stan tells them they have to go one at a time, so Ginzo steps up, a cup of writing implements in hand, and says he's going first because Peggy's drunk. "In fact, I believe I am the only person in the Time-Life building who is not out of his mind." Peggy, giggling, "But you hate him." Hee. I didn't think that was necessarily true, but still. Ginzo lets fly, and Stan puts up his arm to cover his face -- and then there's a pen stuck in it just like a hypodermic needle IN CASE YOU DIDN'T GET IT. Stan pops it out, observing the blood flowing from his arm with scientific curiosity, but even though he laughs that he doesn't feel a thing, Peggy drags him off to clean the thing up. After that display, I'm not sure anyone's dying to be the next son of William Tell here.
Don is back at Sylvia's door, again, some more, and he tries a soft knock, but no one is in the kitchen, and the radio playing covers his noise. He presses his ear up to the door like it's his BROKEN HEART. We cut back and forth to close-ups of the radio playing "Goin' Out Of My Head," and speaking of scientific curiosity, I would like to know whether the manipulative camerawork and editing is more or less objectionable than the on-the-nose song choice. Doubt the show's going to answer that one for me, though, especially not given that even after we get off the clock, we stay with a shot of Don leaning against the door for almost twenty seconds. With everything the show's lost recently, why not throw in its economy?