Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 8 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Coming To A Boil
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 2007.10.04
…and we cut to Bertram leading Don to Roger's office. The purpose of the shot is so we can see Pete rushing out like an old biddy and asking Hildy to let him know when they reemerge from Bertram's office. Hildy: "Sure! I'll just sit here and watch the door. That's all I'll do." Heh. Pete is in no mood, however, and heatedly asks who the hell she thinks she's talking to. Give it up already, Pete -- no one thinks of you as a man. You'll figure that out when you see catch your wife with a sex belt.
Inside, Don somewhat nervously asks if Roger's dead, but the answer is no -- in fact, the hospital let him go home to convalesce. However, Bertram still wants to make Don a partner. Don thinks making the offer in Roger's office is in poor taste, which signals to me that after everything, he's still got a fair amount of affection for him. However, Bertram says that this is the way it works, and Roger knows that, and he's not adding Don's name to the masthead, just restoring faith to their clients. With that, Don accepts, and Bertram starts him at twelve percent and the promise that they'll see how things go with both him and Roger; also, Don will remain creative director, "and to fill the position of head of Account Services, you're the only member of the Blue Ribbon Committee." Don stipulates his desire not to have a contract, and Bertram chuckles and notes that one is supposed to beware nonconformists. Laughing, he starts to leave, and then turns back: "I'm going to introduce you to Miss Ayn Rand. I think she'll salivate." Well, she certainly did value beauty. Bertram heads out, and Don walks around Roger's desk and picks up his baseball. Pete then comes busting in, no doubt having thrown up a cartoon smoke cloud around poor Hildy, and asks if Roger's dead. Don says no, and then muses about the office being so big. "I might need it if I'm gonna lure in Marty Brennan as head of Account Services." Ha! Pete is unfazed by that remark, though, and smarms that he's a big fan of Don's work (man alive) and that they make a very good team (now I'm speechless). Don doesn't really respond to Pete's toadying, though, as is his wont, although he does try to hose Pete down by saying that Roger would want Don to have the office, because he knows Don would give it back to him. Nothing's turning Pete off, though, which I probably don't have to tell you is one of his grossest modes, and when he says he hopes Don's aware of his interest in the position, Don neutrally replies, "I am now." Had the expression "Don't call us; we'll call you" been coined in 1960?