Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 709 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT My Left Foot…
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 6 | Aired on 2009.09.20
In the aftermath, there's still blood on the walls, although you can see evidence of some mopping having occurred, and Harry is berating Smitty for allowing this to happen, with Ken, Pete, and Paul in attendance. Incidentally, Harry and Paul have stripped down to their undershirts so as not to have MacEndrick's blood quite so close at hand, but the figurative bloodletting continues, as Harry basically opines that MacEndrick would have made the place so much more enjoyable (probably true, from what we saw) and Smitty ruined the whole thing. Roger then turns up and, the events of that day having no doubt exceeded even his wildest fantasies, jovially notes, "It's like Iwo Jima out there!" Leave it to him to come up with a culturally sensitive reference. Paul adds that MacEndrick might lose his foot, and Roger faux-sadly replies, "Right when he got it in the door." Hee. The boys can't help but crack up at that, probably not least because Roger's attitude suggests that they're not all getting fired, and Roger drives (ooh, sorry) that home before leaving: "Believe me, somewhere in this business, this has happened before." Anytime you want to screen archival footage of that, Roger, I'll bring the popcorn.
Joan gets a soda out of a machine in the hospital waiting room (for ten cents, and by the way, you can tell how much more popular the show's gotten by the numerous product placements scattered throughout the episode) when Don turns up. Even apart from the fact that the lower part of her dress is covered in blood, she looks like hell, at least for her, and in a somewhat hoarse voice, she tells him there really was no need for him to make a personal appearance, although when she called him, she really thought MacEndrick might die. But while he's out of danger, he's lost the foot, and Pryce apparently yanked Powell and Ford out of dinner to talk to the doctors. I just hope that when they see MacEndrick, they let him pout over his predicament for at least a little while. In a nicely framed shot, Don and Joan take seats with Joan's bag of presents in between them, and Don tells her that apart from all the mayhem, she's going to be missed. She replies that's nice to hear, especially coming from him (and she addresses him by his given name for the first and only time that I remember), and then, after a pause, Joan speculates that MacEndrick probably felt great when he woke up that morning, "but that's life. One minute you're on top of the world, next minute some secretary's running you over with a lawnmower." Like we didn't know Joan was capable of writing copy. Despite the parallel to Joan's situation (or perhaps because of it), she and Don laugh, but they recover themselves when the three Brits emerge from inside. Ford thanks Joan for her quick thinking, and Pryce adds that she may well have saved MacEndrick's life, but Powell somberly intones, "Such as it is." I'm thinking the company just saved a fare to Bombay. Yes, they pronounce his career over, and although Don doesn't quite see that, Ford points out that he can't walk, and Powell adds, "He'll never golf again." Hee. The new plan is that Pryce will remain in his current position indefinitely, and after Pryce tells Joan they'll reimburse her for the dress, Ford and Powell head in to break the news to MacEndrick, who will probably take it fairly well given all the drugs he must currently be on. But it's just too bad Roger wasn't around, or you know we would have been treated to a snappy joke about MacEndrick's severance package. When the two visiting Brits are gone, Joan and Don share a long look of mutual admiration, and she finally allows herself to give Don a kiss on the cheek, which almost -- almost -- causes him to blush before Joan shakes Pryce's hand and hits the road. Once she's left, Pryce gets a Dr. Pepper for the two of them before remarking to Don that he's been reading a lot of American literature lately, and quoting Tom Sawyer: "I feel like I just went to my own funeral. I didn't like the eulogy." Hopefully this is his way of telling Don that all the penny-pinching and general wet-blanketing he's been perpetrating is going to stop, although a tiny part of me wonders if he's also confessing that he slipped Lois a hundred to drive the Deere like Mr. Magoo.