Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 7 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT …Is Sometimes Strained
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 12 | Aired on 06.16.2013
Don lets that hang in the air for a while and the color drains from Ted's face before, smiling like a crazy person, he tells Don he's not sure he knows what he means. Don: "Yes you do." He looks directly at Peggy, although the positioning is such that only the people on his side of the table (Ted, Peggy and Joan) can see, whereupon Ted's expression goes to one of complete panic, while Joan just looks on with interest. I don't blame you at all, Joan -- grab one of those cookies from the table and enjoy the show. The silence is so thick that Byron asks Ted if he's okay, and Don lets him twist some more, even encouraging Ted to tell Byron the reason. I guess it's fitting that Ted looks like he's watching Rosemary's Baby for the first time. Finally, Don says he'll tell Byron, and he leans forward with more of that false struggle for the words -- say what you will about Don, and I do, but this is a master performance from both him and Hamm -- and says it's hard for Ted to say, "but this was Frank Gleason's last idea." Oh. OHHH. Don Draper, FTW! Everyone takes a moment to process that and Peggy looks like she's feeling a grand mal seizure coming on before Cutler runs with it and apologizes that they've all gotten "a little sentimental." Hee. Byron relaxes for the first time as he says they should have told him earlier, and Ted does a good job of remembering English as he chokes out that he "didn't want to lean on that" while looking at Don and almost biting through his lip. Byron stands and ups the budget to twenty-five grand, final offer, and then Joan and Cutler exit to see him out. The action is continuous, but I think we could use a paragraph break before this next bit, don't you?
Peggy turns to Don and asks if that was really necessary, somehow refraining from winging the entire bowl of cookies at him as she does so, but then Ted -- seriously looking like he's right back at Gleason's funeral -- asks her to leave them alone, so with another baleful look at Don, she obliges. Ted then turns to Don and asks what that was, but Don, his eyes narrowed slightly with the superiority that comes with not only the knowledge the facts are on his side but the experience of having been here himself, tells him it was the best he could do. "You want me to tell him the truth?" Ted asks what he's talking about, so Don tells him he's not thinking with his head and has been embarrassing himself: "I know your little girl has beautiful eyes, but that doesn't mean you give her everything." Ted tries to deny it, but Don tells him they've all been there... and then his face completely changes to surprise as he adds, "I mean, not with Peggy." HA! It's the facial expression that kills it; this is my favorite scene from Jon Hamm this season. Also, I think Don is merely stating for the record he has never been smitten with Peggy rather than anything insulting, but Ted gets all "How DARE you, sir" about it, so Don has to grab a bigger bucket of cold water as he tells him that he's kidding himself and everyone sees it. "Just ask your secretary! Your judgment is impaired. You're not thinking with your head." It's the best presentation this room has seen in a while, and Don didn't even bring visual aids. I don't think Don went through this whole production from a place of malice, but I do suspect he enjoyed dangling Ted as far over a precipice as possible in an effort to make him see reason. Ted finally has no response as the scales almost palpably start to fall from his eyes, and having made his point, Don heads out...