Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 6 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Tit For Splat
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 7 | Aired on 2007.08.30
An establishing shot of the outside of the building suggests that Sterling Cooper, with its name right by the front door, occupies the whole building, which hardly seems to jibe with where I thought the firm's place in the ad-agency pecking order was. Inside, Pete, carrying a large blue box (maybe from Bergdorf's?), leads Ken and Paul into his office, telling them about dinner with the in-laws at the Four Seasons. In response to Ken's question, he tells them that the box contains a wedding present, a "chip and dip" of which they happened to receive two. He opens up the box and shows them the TACKIEST little thing: a glazed ceramic bowl in the shape of two cabbage leaves to hold the chips, and a small "tomato" in the middle for the dip. I could, and in fact did, make better-looking stuff in a pottery class I took when I was eight. Ken and Paul rightly laugh, but they're jumping the gun, because the real hilarity is that the thing cost twenty-two dollars. Now, I seem to remember a couple episodes back that Pete makes seventy-five dollars a week; we're really to believe that that piece of tack-ola costs well more than what he makes in a day? I know Pete's not really worth all that much, but come on. I mean, I suppose if you guess what Pete would be making these days, the math isn't that far off, if you ignore the fact that I wouldn't even pay twenty-two bucks for that hiddy thing today. Pete says he's going to return the spare, which is the smartest thing I've ever heard him say, but the boys are planning on taking advantage of a free lunch from Freddy's cousin, and suggest that Pete's whipped when he refuses to do the same. Of course, since the wife isn't behind the return, I'm not sure what the hurry is, but maybe Pete's really feeling a financial crunch. The boys leave, but not without Paul calling Pete "Mildred." After he's gone, Pete's face is like, "I'll Mildred you!" He really should have a waiting period on his firearm purchases.
Don's in his office when Peggy buzzes and tells him that Roger is there to see him, and Don takes a moment to brace himself before telling her to send him in. Roger enters with a smile and a bottle (rye, Don's favorite, I think) in his hand, and good God, man, do you never stop? But the booze is to replace the one from Don's golf bag, and Roger exposits that he slept in his car before telling Don this: "When a man gets to the point when his name's on the building, he can get an unnatural sense of entitlement." Don asks what that means, and I admit it's vague, but I'm guessing he's not apologizing for bogarting all your wine. Roger tells Don about one time he was extremely drunk -- he drove home, went up to his floor, and tried to open the door, only to realize that it wasn't his building. "I guess what I'm saying is at some point, we've all parked in the wrong garage." I suppose that's why Don rents space all over town. Don neutrally thanks Roger for the bottle, but when that doesn't get rid of him, takes a more conciliatory tone in saying that Betty's going to want the glass back that Roger took. That satisfies Roger, and on his way out, he wink-winkingly says that maybe he should get a case of those. I'm assuming he's referring to the glasses, which would be an apology to Betty, and not the booze, which would be the catalyst to repeat the whole mess.