Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 425 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Beyond The Veil
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 1-2 | Aired on 2013.04.07
Boozy Couple (their names, we'll hear, are "Dave" and "Cathy") have apparently been counted out, so it's just four of them having some Galliano, courtesy of Jonesy. Rosen makes a disparaging remark about Jonesy's "constant bootlicking," for which his wife mildly chides him before making the Italian toast "Cent'anni, and Megan, who you'll remember grew up speaking FRENCH, asks what that means, so I wonder if she drank like another bottle of Galliano when she was getting the fondue ready. Anyway, after some typically New York discussion of the prices of their apartments, the phone rings. Megan notes that they missed midnight - it's one o'clock - and wonders if it's her mother, but no - Rosen's on call, and it's his service. Don't know how doctors do it - forget the alcohol, but it's one AM! How will he keep his eyes open? Don says he needs cigarettes, and moves to accompany Rosen; Megan points out that it's the middle of the night on a Sunday and a holiday, but Sylvia is like, don't bother...
...and we cut to downstairs, with Don and Rosen in the building's storage area - Rosen is going to cross-country ski to the hospital. Well, I suppose that'll wake him up, at least. Don wonders what it's like to have someone's life in his hands, and Rosen, after taking a moment, replies seriously that it's a privilege and an honor. Don opens the door and regards the snowstorm, and Rosen, referencing all the cardio he's about to get, pointedly tells Don it'd be a good New Year's resolution to quit smoking. He goes on to tell Don that "the whole life-and-death thing" doesn't bother him, and that's why he and Don have jobs. "You get paid to think about things they don't want to think about, and I get paid to not think about them. People will do anything to alleviate their anxiety." With that, he steps out into the night and skis away...
...unaware that, presumably to alleviate some kind of anxiety in himself, Don has been having an affair with Sylvia. I'll reserve judgment on this revelation to a point, but a lot of people I know see this as fan service and not character development, and while I've never judged Don, at least not on a blanket basis, for his infidelities, I do think it's a bit morbid to be turned on by them. I think even he would admit that he's not a character people should aspire to be. Regardless, he's on top of her - presumably afterward, if the stillness of movement is any indication - and she asks if he read "my Dante." He tells her it made him think of her, as it was beautiful. After she kisses him, she asks what he wants for the New Year, and he admits, "I want to stop doing this." Tinged with regret, she tells him she knows, and this admission may seem like awareness, but we've lived with the character long enough to know that it's actually weakness. For five-plus seasons now, much like Tony Soprano, Don Draper has been a strongly-portrayed weak man, interrupted by short periods of action that are often ill-advised and always seem to fade away. Maybe in that context, death should be on his mind, as every moment that passes makes his chance to find meaning in his life diminish. But the show is running out of time to make Don Draper truly meaningful too; I only hope it knows it.