Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 635 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Oh, Canada
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 7 | Aired on 2012.04.29
In a very Graduate-like shot from the side of the bed, as Megan opens the door, we see Marie's limp hand in the foreground, a lit cigarette between two fingers. Megan, sadly looking like she expected this, removes the cigarette, folds Marie's hand safely over her, and turns off the light before exiting. And I doubt you need me to provide commentary on that, which is good because I'm not going to.
The next day, at SCDP, Abe is hanging out and eating with Peggy, Stan and Ginzo, so I guess he no longer needs to pretend to be a delivery guy to gain access to the place. I bet he and Peggy still play that game on his birthday, though. Ginzo is asking Peggy about Raymond ("Mr. Heinz," he calls him), and Peggy sighs that he's boring, adding that he's got a daughter, with her slightly sardonic edge hilariously letting us know that she's probably all the guy talks about. Stan adds that she's likely the source of all his shitty ideas, and then talk turns to brassiere-sales philosophy. Although Ginzo tries to pull Abe in on his side, Abe says he has to take off; whether he's uncomfortable with a conversation topic that gets so close to his girlfriend's rack is unclear, but he says he's on deadline and needs to head home, which isn't completely unimportant if you think about it. When he's gone, Stan singsongs, "He's too good-looking for you." But Peggy just smiles, because even if it were true, which it's not, who cares?
In bed, Megan lightly teases Don for reading a James Bond book, and then Don starts to lay out all the free babysitting Megan's parents are going to have to do now that the kids are staying with them. When Don gets to the cancer dinner, though, Megan balks, as she claims her parents came down to see him get the award. A brief discussion leads Don to put his arm around her and opine that nothing is going to make Emile like him, and Megan doesn't bother disagreeing, instead explaining it's because she's his favorite. "Why do you think my mother's so competitive?" Oh, man, but Megan isn't done, as she goes on that that's why Marie was so flirtatious with Don. Don legit doesn't know what to say to that...
...but surprisingly, the next day, his enthusiasm for learning French hasn't waned, as he's got a Berlitz book in hand as he lies on his office couch. Megan then enters and nervously asks Don if she can pitch him an idea, and Don, noting that she's established "a firm bed of insecurity" (heh), sits up to listen. It's a sign of how good the idea is that she's only five seconds into it before you can not only envision where she's going but wonder how no one thought of it before, but here it is: The talk about how her mother cooked spaghetti for her made her think of her mother becoming her via a movie dissolve, and that gave her the idea of going all the way back to cavemen, and then showing the tradition being handed down from mother to daughter throughout time, not just to the present but to the future, with a moon colony. Don rather stupidly points out that SCDP doesn't sell spaghetti, and the only explanation I can think of for him being so slow on the uptake is that he's still thinking in French, so Megan has to tell him the idea is for Heinz. Once he's caught up to the rest of the class, he's thrilled, and quickly orders the unseen Dawn to have Stan and Ginzo join him. Megan's worried they're going to hate her for this eleventh-hour change-up, but given that the words used to describe the pitch they were originally going to do were "human" and "cannonball," I can only imagine they're going to thank her from the bottom of their hearts. While they're waiting, Megan even one-ups Don on the slogan, and then Stan and Ginzo turn up, hear the news that they're changing Heinz, and look about as thrilled as Pauline hearing she's already used up her quota of morphine for the day.