Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 755 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Something Interruptus
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2009.08.16
Downstairs, Pete asks Hildy to get Trudy on the phone. Once inside his office, he does a little dork-ass celebratory dance, and I (a) feel genuinely happy for his good fortune and (b) snicker at what I know is coming. He's the only character that simultaneously brings out the best and worst in me. Anyway, he pours himself a little drink and then gets on the phone with his wife, who says she's meeting with the Docent's Committee from the Met. When Pete asks how they are, she asks with genuine surprise, "Since when do you care?" Since never, Trudy. He's just in a very good mood. He tells her the happy news, and she's overjoyed even to the point where she gives his early drink a big thumbs-up. However, when Pete muses that he should give his mother a call, she replies, "Oh, Peter. Don't go to the well -- there's no water there." Well, I certainly am willing to believe his mother's life has been a constant uphill battle to rehydrate. Anyway, after Pete blurts that he forgot even to ask the new pay, they wrap up their happy call...
...unaware that at that moment, Pryce is offering Ken the Head of Accounts job as well. Ken's the mirror image of Pete, flopping into a chair without even waiting to be asked, so it's no surprise that he keeps his head about him a bit better than his counterpart, and offers that he wouldn't be much of an Account man if he didn't ask what the new position pays. Nice little unwitting jab at Pete, but Pryce is too busy delivering this witty rejoinder to notice: "I wouldn't be much of a financial officer if I wasn't prepared to disappoint you." Heh. He tells Ken it's "twenty-one" (still a big raise from what we last knew Ken got), but they'll reevaluate this year (another nice hidden meaning there). Pryce cautions Ken to keep the news to himself, and when Ken sticks out his hand, regards it for a moment like an anthropological curiosity before shaking it. Once Ken's gone, Pryce shakes his head all, "He's worse than the last one." I don't know, Pryce -- at least Ken wasn't deluded enough to think you'd actually want to hang out with him outside the office.
Sal and Don are on the plane down to Baltimore, and Don grouses about an ad for Fleischmann's vodka in which the bottle is depicted rather...largely. After the two of them amusingly mock the ad for a bit, a blonde stewardess (hey, that's what they called them back then) comes over and offers a quick refill of their drinks before they land, calling Don "Mr. Hofstadt" in the process. Don raises his eyebrows, but thinking he's only taken aback that she knew his name, she explains that she saw that his luggage bears the name "William Hofstadt." Don runs with the mistake, telling her to call him "Bill," and then introducing Sal as "Mr. Fleischmann." One more refill and that lie will become the truth. Sal corrects Don to "Sam," and after verifying that they're headed to Baltimore, Blondie invites the two of them out for dinner at a fancy restaurant with, presumably, some of the other airline staff, one of whom apparently has some pull with the maître d'. When they discover they're all staying at the same hotel, the date is set, and Don regards the girl with an old familiar look. Oh, honey. Don't neutralize last season's amazing character arc twenty minutes into the new one! When she's gone, Sal smirks that now Don has to take someone else's luggage, but he explains that the name she supplied is actually his brother-in-law's. "He borrowed a suitcase to go to Puerto Rico, but he never tires of putting his name on other people's things." Sal then offers that he's never seen a stewardess "that game" as Blondie, but that's probably because the slightest overture from one sends him running into the lavatory for the duration of the ride.