Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 298 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT No Good Deed Goes Unsexed
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 11 | Aired on 2013.06.09
THIS SCENE. Benson appears in Pete's doorway and asks if they're going to lunch, but Pete seethes for him to get in there and close the door. Yes, sir! Pete barks that he asked for a nurse and Benson sent him a "rapist," to which Benson tells him in no uncertain terms to calm down and have a seat. He goes to Pete's bar and starts making them both a drink as Pete complains that Dot has the mind of a child, prompting Benson to point out that her story might not be completely reliable. Pete doesn't see it that way, though, so Benson tells him, a bit more pointedly, that he doesn't think Manolo's interests "turn that way." Pete grumbles about him being a "degenerate," and Benson inhales for a moment, looking like he's committing to a course of action, before sitting on the coffee table in front of Pete and ordering him to drink his cocktail down, after which Pete admits he feels better. Benson asks if Dot seemed happy and Pete has to confess that she did. From here, James Wolk makes a serious play for a guest actor Emmy as he steels himself by downing his own drink, donning a beatific smile, and launching into a Socratic speech about the possibility of falling in love with a person who takes care of you and would do anything for you. "If your well-being was his only thought, is it impossible that you might begin to feel something for him?"
Pete looks uncomprehending, so Benson goes on that if there's true love, it doesn't matter who it is -- and then lightly presses his knee into Pete's. Pete looks down, and then back up at Benson, and there's a second where it seems like Pete might smile, but his face eventually -- the moment is allowed to unfold -- reverts to the sour expression his mother knows so well as he pulls his knee away and says he'll give Manolo a month's pay. "And tell him it's disgusting." Clever of both the show and Pete to use Manolo as the surrogate object of Pete's scorn; it means he can reserve actual judgment on Benson. Benson holds his vulnerable, pleading expression for a moment longer, but then is back to his normal chipper, somewhat ersatz self as he tells Pete of course! No problem! When he turns to walk out, though, his smile appears more frozen than it was, so he's got to be worried about his job. Pete, for his part, looks upset, though I read it as more of a "why did he pick me" face than general disgust with homosexuality. I mean, Pete went to boarding school, right? Great work by both actors, but like I said, this is Wolk's Emmy-reel moment.