Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 497 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Half the Battle
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2010.09.12
Across the room, Betty stiffly sips her cocktail as Ralph thanks Henry for "securing the governor's endorsement for Congressman Lindsay," which he supposes was no small feat. He then goes on that "hypothetically," Lindsay has his eye on '72 (the Presidential race, although he doesn't specify that), and he would want to form his team around Henry. Henry leans back and smiles in the most indescribably smug and irritating way, not that Betty notices, so busy is she downing her cocktail with extreme prejudice and giving Don a psychotic side-eye worthy of a young Pete Campbell. Henry eventually asks her if she knows what she wants, but Betty excuses herself, not even really allowing the guys to get to their feet before she's out the door. Henry covers by saying that Betty gets flushed after one drink, which is hilarious to consider given that she used to be married to Don, but even though Ralph easily admits that his wife has the opposite problem, Henry looks in the direction Betty went and appears displeased. Well, guy, you didn't exactly cover yourself in glory with Don over there. Manners aren't just for the wives to learn, you know?
Upstairs, Betty locks herself in a stall and tries to recover, but even a cigarette doesn't seem to calm her nerves...
...and then later, on the car ride home, Henry is chewing her out for apparently having said she needed a drink, although we didn't hear that, and if he's referring to her suggestion that they get something at the bar, that seems more than a little unfair, especially the part where he asks if she's a "wino." Betty gets off a reasonable comeback when she points out that if he's going to tell her what she can and can't say, no thanks, since she was in a marriage like that before, and it is worth remembering how badly Don often treated her even outside of the cheating. She adds that she hates Don, a sentiment that Henry finds disturbingly strong, adding that he doesn't like seeing his ex-wife either, but he doesn't hate her because he's an adult. Betty starts to try to bring it down, asking who cares about Don, but Henry answers the rhetorical question by saying that she obviously does, and he's taking up too much space in her life and her heart. Betty, sensing the obvious jealousy, says that's ridiculous, but Henry wonders if they rushed into the marriage, like VEGAS WASN'T HIS BRILLIANT IDEA. Betty takes it one step further, pointing out it's a little late to be questioning decisions given that the fact that she was six months pregnant when they met didn't slow him down one bit, and then tells him he can just drop her off at the house, "because you don't want to live there anyway. And you can stay in a hotel, or wherever you were when I met you. In your mansion, with your servants." I just hope if they get divorced, this time she remembers to take what's hers. Henry tells her to shut up, which is a brilliant comeback from the mind that's going to put Lindsay in the White House, but she's got him dead to rights and he knows it...