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
Miss Blankenship is shuffling back toward Don's desk, and her awkward gait is not merely due to her orthopedic shoes -- she's laden down with a refill of Don's liquor supply, and if she's the one who has to fetch the stuff regularly I'm surprised she doesn't have sciatica as well as cataracts. As soon as she's there, though, he tells her to take the bottles back and get him some cigarettes, and while I'm all for him cutting down on his consumption I think it might have been nice to give the blind old lady a heads up before she did her beast of burden impression. Miss Blankenship, however, changes the subject and tells Don that Betty called to remind him he can't have the kids on the upcoming weekend, as Bobby's birthday party is on Sunday. Don corrects her that it's Gene's birthday, prompting this response: "Did you want me to buy him or her a gift?" Hee. I think whoever writes for Miss Blankenship should have to pay the show and not the other way around. Don, out of energy for this conversation, tells her no, so she turns her attention back to the liquor bottles. Mustn't they have a cart around there somewhere? How do they lug around all that ham?
Joan arrives home and finds Greg just out of the shower, and after he smiles about the pleasant surprise, they make out for a bit, and then she asks if he minds that she's home early. I'd be surprised if there weren't some off-camera evidence that he's perfectly happy to see her, but regardless, he points out that she's the one who doesn't want to watch him pack or even to say goodbye, and she admits that's true. He takes her into the bedroom and tries to reassure her that things will be fine, but when she wonders whom she's going to talk to, he suggests that she try her friends at work. I don't know if it's "friends" or "work" that's the more ill-advised thing to mention at the moment, but either way, Joan bursts into tears, and I've already told you how green that Kryptonite is for me, so let's just say Greg finds an enterprising way to get her to stop crying and leave it at that.
Don dishes himself out a can of Dinty Moore beef stew, which reminds me of overnight camping trips when I was ten, and also helps himself to a can of Budweiser, which probably would have made said trips more enjoyable. After taking in a few seconds of a news broadcast about Vietnam, DVO says he hopes it doesn't turn into another Korea (ouch), and after complaining about the little-girlness of writing down the day's experiences, he confesses that he keeps thinking about Gene: "He was conceived in a moment of desperation, and born into a mess." Well, at least his dad knows how that goes. As we cut back to the pool, Don tells us some things he'd like to do, including "climb Mount Kilimanjaro," and that's a worthy goal but I think to pull that off he'd have to quit smoking, and I don't think Lee Garner Jr. will allow that. Don amends that first one to say that he'd be happy going anywhere in Africa, and then goes on that he'd like to "gain a modicum of control over the way I feel." Girlish or not, I think the journal is a step in the right direction. He lets himself sink to the bottom of the pool...