Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 11 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Here's a Question For You
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2007.08.10
Soon after, Pete's still lying miserably on his couch when Roger, followed by Don, bursts in and chews Pete out for what he did. With the obvious intention of getting Pete to toe Don's line, he spins a yarn that he and Bertram wanted Pete out, but Don fought for him. Don's plenty smart enough to play along, while Pete's plenty dumb enough actually to believe this. Pete looks to Don and says he doesn't know what to say, but Roger tells him to shut up, and goes on that Don is Pete's commanding officer. "You live and die in his shadow. Understood?" Pete nods his head like a kid in the principal's office who's just been told his parents won't be called, and Roger starts to leave, but Pete tells Don he won't let him down. Roger stops: "Jesus, Campbell! Don't ever say that!" Hee. The men leave, and the boy flops down in relief.
Later, Roger is sitting in Don's office telling him how his generation drinks for the wrong reasons -- Roger's generation drinks because it's good and it's what men do, but Don's drinks to drive away gloomy thoughts and worries. "You're all busy licking some imaginary wound." And once again, the show subtly drives home the point that men and women, gender-identity-wise, were losing their way in this period. Don counters that maybe he's not as comfortable being powerless as Roger is, and Roger, after admonishing Don not to compete with Pete, muses that perhaps every generation thinks the next one is the end of it all. "I bet there were people in the Bible walking around complaining about kids today." Herod the Great comes to mind. Don notes that kids today have no one to look up to. "Because they're looking up to us."
Trudy and Pete are back with the realtor in the new place, and after some small talk, they're joined by a neighbor, who's on the co-op board, and Trudy's parents. The neighbor wastes no time in confirming that Pete is from Dyckman (his mother's maiden name) stock, and is pretty clear in her "we can skip the formalities of co-op approval" attitude, but Pete walks out to the balcony, leaving Trudy to gush some story about one of Pete's relatives. Pete's expression is a mixture of contempt toward his family and happiness that his name counts for something, and Ella Fitzgerald sings "Manhattan" as Pete regards the view, and we fade to black.