Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A+ | 950 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Are You Gonna Drop The Bomb Or Not?
By Couch Baron | Season 2 | Episode 13 | Aired on 2008.10.26
...wherein she points out a big pile on his desk that she says is only half his correspondence and tells him both Roger and Duck are anxious to speak with him. Don asks Joan to have the copywriters and Sal in to get him up to speed, and to set up a meeting with Roger in an hour. "And Mr. Phillips... maybe I'll run into him in the men's room." I think it's fair to say the chances of that happening have improved greatly of late. After some brief talk about paychecks and Betty, Joan starts to leave, but turns back to tell Don that they have a safety protocol for civil defense. "I don't want to start a panic, but I think people have the right to know." Don blithely says he doesn't think there will be a point to taking to the stairs or diving under a desk, words he probably regrets when Pete enters and is like "So! You're back!" like a lover ready for a spat. Joan looks at Pete, looks at Don, and leaves without a word, shutting the door as she goes, which is why she is the smartest person that's ever lived. Pete demands to know what happened, as he ended up "tap dancing for General Dynamics," and Don amusedly responds, "Sorry I missed that." Who isn't? Pete adds that he can't drive, so it's amazing he made any meetings at all, but Don asks if it never occurred to Pete that he left him there because he thought he could handle it. From the look on Pete's face, it certainly did not occur to him, and while I can only speak for myself I can certainly say that he's not the only one. Don asks how it went, and Pete brightens as he says he's very close to getting North American Aviation. Don praises Pete for handling the situation, and then goes on: "I know you want everything the minute you want it. Sometimes it's better to wait until you're ready." Pete, almost not daring to believe it, asks if that means Don thinks he's ready, (he can only be referring to the Head of Accounts issue), and Don replies that he does. "You proved it." And Don's speech cuts to the heart of Pete's character development this season -- he's no longer a believer in entitlement. The easy acceptance of loss of his inheritance, the seeing his family as a bunch of aristocratic layabouts, the casting off of his nepotistic father-in-law -- they all show his need to be his own man, and Don, the most self-made man there ever was, is the logical choice to see and appreciate that. Don, not unkindly, then says he needs to do some catch-up work, so Pete leaves him to it after welcoming him back. Pete closes the door, so you can't see it, but if you turn the volume up you can hear him skipping down the hallway. Don, however, turns not to the pile on his desk but to the window, as if to contemplate the state of the world...