Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 488 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT I Went To A Garden Party…
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 3 | Aired on 2009.08.30
Olive is still there (I love that you're not Lola, honey, but go home already) when Peggy returns, and Olive's still all disapproving about the whole pot thing, but there's a new element -- she's worried that Peggy isn't thinking about her future. What she doesn't know, though, is that Peggy has always thought about her future, and now's no exception, as, with a beatific smile, she points out that she has a job and her own office and secretary. "And I am not scared of any of this." I take that to mean that she feels like she's becoming socially equal to the men, and is embracing that development, but just in case it sounds like she's cutting Olive down, her face turns stoner-sympathetic as she realizes Olive is scared -- for her. "Don't worry about me. I am going to get to do everything you want for me. I am going to be fine, Olive. I really am." Mollified by Peggy's intense sincerity, Olive seems to relax, and then brings it back to a normal interaction by telling Peggy her expense reports are ready for her review. Peggy heads into her office, but after dropping something inside, reemerges with a Dictaphone, or at least the pieces of one, in her hands, saying that after Olive sets it up and gets her a glass of water, she can go. Well, she also has to stand uncomfortably while Peggy gets momentarily hypnotized by a piece of jewelry she's wearing, but you're probably not surprised to hear that.
Back above 86th Street, Joan is asking Mrs. Stolich when she's due, and she tells her early December. After some talk about clothes, Joan tells her the name of a friend of hers at Lord and Taylor who could help her out, prompting Mrs. Ettinger to marvel that Joan really knows everything. Well, not everything about her husband, but we'll get to that quite soon. Yes, after Ettinger compliments Stolich's surgical prowess (and it sounds like Stolich is planning to head to Texas the next year), it comes up that Greg recently got a "bad result" on a pneumonectomy, something he didn't share with Joan because he "doesn't like to worry Joanie about those kinds of things." The look on Joan's face says the damage, and a great deal of it, is done, even as Mrs. Ettinger suggests they steer the conversation away from shop talk. Sensing that his guests' affinity for his wife is the best weapon at his disposal, Greg suggests Joan play for them, and even though she clearly doesn't want to, soon she's up there fingering the accordion (I understand that's actually Christina Hendricks playing, which is awesome) and singing the Dario Moreno "C'est Magnifique." She puts on a good show, but when she looks Greg's way, her eyes look like that of a trapped animal (or a caged bird, if you will). On the other hand, the fact that divorce was mentioned so prominently in this episode gives me hope.