Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 762 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT The Cat is Out of the Bag…
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 2009.10.25
In the car, Suzanne is saying it's about four hours to Norwich. Two things: One, if this is the one in Connecticut, it's nowhere near four hours away, or if it is, Don should still be on that trip to Massachusetts from last episode. Two, a reader wrote in to tell me that Norwich is a dump and always has been, and if Suzanne thinks it's so nice she's got no business slagging off Mystic, even though it's touristy. I've never been to either, but I thought I'd convey the information. Anyway, they've stopped at the Draper home for Don to pick up a suitcase, presumably, and as Don tells her he'll be right out, Suzanne jokingly slinks down in the seat so no one in the neighborhood will see her, which is a move that I bet is going to start to seem a lot less funny in about fifteen minutes or so. Inside, Don finds the lights off (it's just starting to get dark), but when he flips them on, he's shocked when Sally comes running out to greet him. Thinking fast, he tries to tell her he forgot something, but then Bobby and Betty appear as well, and I'll leave it to you to guess which of them is happy to see him. He tries his best again, nonchalantly telling Betty he left his hat in the car, but Betty is not letting him out of her sight as she orders him to get it later. "I need to talk to you." He looks uncertain, but even after she sends the kids upstairs, he doesn't guess what's going on, saying he just came home to feed the dog and change shirts before he heads back to a client dinner in the city. Betty, however, tells him she needs to show him something...
...and she leads him into the study and orders him to open the locked drawer. When he refuses, she produces a set of keys -- seems like she had a copy made after all -- and tells him either to open it, or she will. His fear is palpable, but not aware that she's already been inside it (which he probably should be; she's acting pretty steely here), he tries for righteous indignation, saying his desk is private, and asking where she got the keys. She tells him about finding them in the bathrobe, and Hamm does some beautiful work as he digests the realization that his own carelessness led to this moment, but she adds that she could have had a locksmith in there at any point, were she so inclined. "I respected your privacy, too long. Open it!" More weakly, he refuses, but her determination is overwhelming, and when she says he must be aware that she already knows what's in it, all resistance crumbles as he whispers, "I can explain. You didn't have to look at my things." She takes the keys back and gets the box out before asking which things he's referring to -- "The pictures, covered with other people's names? Is that you? Dick? Is that your name?" He still can't really give her a straight answer, only vaguely saying that people change their names and offering again that he can explain, and real emotion finally enters her answer: "I know you can. You're a very, very gifted storyteller." He casts about for a reply and then, shaken to his core, says he needs a drink. My last thought before getting up to go to the kitchen: Good idea.