Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 6 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Beyond The Veil
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 1-2 | Aired on 04.07.2013
The crazy aunt then pipes up that she's got a few words to say, so Roger invites her to "roll on over here" just as Mona and her current husband turn up. After they greet Margaret and her husband Brooks, Roger introduces "Mrs. Hazel Tinsley" - so much for the Aunt Jessica theory, and WHERE IS SHE - who flew up from Palm Beach for the occasion. Hazel launches into a speech about how Roger's mother spent her life "devoting herself to one man but loving another," and goes on that when Roger Sr.'s "brief life" ended, it was Roger Jr. to whom his mother devoted her existence; her friends counseled her to find another man, but she told them her heart was full, "because my son is my sunshine." And with that, Don's stomach gives up the ghost, and he horks right into a nearby umbrella stand. Well, at least they're built for this kind of thing. The SCDP boys hurriedly get Don out of there as he mumbles a drunken but sincere apology, but while all the death and mother talk may have been difficult subjects for him to hear discussed, I think "my son is my sunshine" has to accept its share of blame for this mess. Roger invites Hazel to resume (by the way, you'd never recognize her, but the actress, Barbara Tarbuck, recently played Mother Superior Claudia on American Horror Story: Asylum), but she wonders if Don's all right, and then Roger decides that he's not done with scenes, as he decides to call Mona's husband "Bruce Pike" out for showing his face there. He barks that the gathering is supposed to be for family only, and I guess it's convenient for his argument that the SCDP people just bailed, but no one supports him, so he pulls the ultimate acting-out move and yells for everyone to depart. When no one moves, he runs out himself, leaving everyone to wonder how ugly that would have gotten if he'd actually been lubricated.
Betty is in the Village, apparently having gone to the intersection about which Sandy told her, using the photo to inquire if anyone's seen her. No one's particularly helpful, and all that ice on the ground doesn't look fun, but Betty doesn't appear like she's going to be dissuaded...
...while, speaking of determination in the face of unpleasant errands, Mona enters Roger's bedroom and tells him everyone has left. Roger, face down on the bed, sulks that not everyone is gone, but Mona lightly remarks on the "touching tribute" before saying how Don "never tires of embarrassing himself." Roger: "He was just saying what everybody else was thinking." Hee, but it's a fairly telling comment - Roger may have acted out due to embarrassment over Hazel's speech more than anything else. Roger petulantly tells Mona she shouldn't have brought her husband, and she admits to that before offering, her eyes sympathetically filling a bit, that the loss must be very difficult for him. He claims not to feel anything, but Mona ignores this to tell him that his mother lived a long time, and she knew Roger loved her. Roger feels like she always wanted to spend time with him and he never granted that, but Mona suggests he could consider that in the context of his family. He complains that he looked at the crowd and only saw the faces of women he's disappointed, but Mona brightens as she tells him that no matter what he does, everyone loves him. "What you're seeing is them worried about how you feel about them." And this episode may be uneven and heavy-handed in spots, but the Roger-Mona relationship has always been extremely strongly written, and this scene is no exception; it's amazing to see the depth of caring the two characters have for each other even with everything he's put her through. Plus, Talia Balsam just rules. Mona explicitly counsels him to spend more time with Margaret, and when he then not-very-subtly invites her to bed, adding that it would be "soothing," she once again shows why she's the best: "Soothe yourself." She tells him he's going to clean up, and leaves the room...
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