Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 6 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT We're Not Gonna Take It
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 3 | Aired on 04.14.2013
Unsurprisingly, Rosen and Sylvia are already seated when Don arrives, and Sylvia of course doesn't look any too thrilled to hear about Megan's "indisposition." Rosen, however, obliviously brings up the foreign events of the day, one of which is the incident involving the U.S.S. Pueblo in North Korea. Rosen then goes on a weird little rant that manages to be both belittling and respectful toward the Vietnamese and the North Koreans but does end with his correct assessment that the U.S. is losing in Vietnam. Rosen then gets a call from, everyone expects, his service, but rather than stay alone with Don, Sylvia beats a retreat to powder her nose. Well, at least her judgment is better than Don's, not that that's saying much. Don sits back down for a lonely Old Fashioned and smoke...
...while a frustrated Pete informs the women that there's no answer at whatever friend or family member's place he just tried on Wife Number One's behalf. Trudy says in Pete's direction that they should find her a hotel, and then goes to get some ice for Wife Number One's badly swollen face. Once Trudy's out of the room, Pete gets a snarling expression on his face and wonders what Wife Number One said to her husband, while Wife Number One nudges Pete out of the way for the least likable person in the room when she - somewhat playfully, no less - tells him to take her to the city, as she wants to be with him. I mean, not to make light of the domestic violence, but since she's doing it herself, I don't feel too bad in saying I kind of want to slap some sense into her. When Trudy returns, Pete reports that the Old Greenwich Inn has rooms. Wife Number One asks if Pete can take her there, but he suggests a taxi, whereupon Trudy tells him not to be silly - she'll drive Wife Number One (who I think is in her nightgown under a jacket?). Pete of course then backpedals and says he'll do it, but Trudy won't hear of it. "It's best this way." Her tone gives nothing away, which is just as well, because her words contain enough foreshadowing to chill Pete to the bone.
Rosen and Sylvia return to the table with the news that Rosen has to go in to work, but Rosen insists that the two of them stay because he doesn't want to fall out of favor at the place, as if famous heart surgeons generally have trouble with that sort of thing. After last week's glacial, diffuse affair, I appreciate that this one is thematically tight (possibly too much so, if anything), with every storyline related to parties faced with the decision of what to do when someone is pushing the limits of acceptable behavior - even discounting the title, against the wartime events, it's not a stretch to say it's about appeasement versus taking a stand. However, that doesn't excuse flimsy plotting, and Rosen being called away twice in two episodes at just the most convenient time for the plot is a bit much. Regardless, this is happening, so Don persistently tries to engage Sylvia with offers of wine and questions about the Italian menu (the character is Italian, as the casting of Linda Cardellini may have suggested) while she treats him, fittingly enough, like they're on opposite sides of the Cold War. Eventually, he stops screwing around and directly asks what's wrong, so she tells him she doesn't know what they're doing, and, referring to their spouses, she adds, "Just because they cleared their place settings doesn't mean we're alone." She goes on that he loves making them look foolish, but as we all know, there's only so long Don can be denied what he wants before he turns horrible, so he tells her he understands. "You want to feel shitty right up until the point where I take your dress off. Because I'm going to do that. You want to skip dinner? Fine. But don't pretend." This lovely little speech is broken up by cuts to them falling into her apartment intertwined in each other's arms, and again, while the themes of the episode work well enough for me, this is a hackneyed directorial choice done many times before, and given that this is only Jon Hamm's second effort as director of a Mad Men episode, I suppose it's to be expected. But seriously, we even actually get a shot of him unzipping her dress. (I don't recall his first effort, "Tea Leaves," being a standout either.) She wonders what would have happened if their spouses had been there - would it just have been someone else's dress? To clarify, she reminds Don that he told her he and Megan were drifting apart, but he tells her he wants her all the time, and if now she suddenly is looking for something more serious than that, it's news, isn't it? The waiter shows exquisitely convenient timing by appearing and asking, "Have you decided?" and rather than let that level of obviousness speak for itself, Don is like, "HAVE you?" Sylvia replies by ordering for both of them and then adding to the waiter that they're in a bit of a hurry, which I guess goes to prove, in light of the revelation about Sylvia's beliefs, that Don Draper is more powerful than God. Not that most of the viewing audience needed any convincing.