Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 1 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT There's That Past, Informing the Present Again
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 5 | Aired on 08.22.2010
Ha! Closeup on one of those drinking birds that was almost responsible for blowing up Springfield; Peggy, Joey, Joan, Pete, and that guy who was in with Don and Faye earlier all cheer when it reaches the water in the Dixie cup, and if this is the "it" that happens in the Creative Lounge, Roger did Honda a favor with his little diatribe. Don, just arriving, appears in the doorway, and Joey asks if he's seen the thing before, adding that he's still trying to figure out what makes it work. Don: "I'm still trying to figure out what makes you work." Joey of course could counter that at least he was in the office at a decent hour, but given the mood Don's probably still in I think he's wise to refrain. Don calls for Pete, Peggy, and Joan to follow him, but before she leaves Peggy orders them not to touch the bird. "I want to see how long it goes." Heh. She certainly has gotten a lot more fun lately, hasn't she? Maybe it's not too late for a man to snap her up!
Once Don has led his group into the conference room, he reads a quote from the book: "A man is shamed by being openly ridiculed and rejected. It requires an audience." Jeez. If that's the cultural belief, how do people in Japan ever leave the house? Pete asks if he got that off a fortune cookie, but Don informs him that it's from "that book you were all supposed to read," and, irrespective of happenings and drinking birds, I'm kind of shocked that apple-polisher Peggy didn't crack it open. Anyway, Don's point is that the quote has given him a rather Machiavellian idea: CGC is their approximate size, and as such can't afford to make a commercial any more than they can, but Chaough is clearly so intent on tailgating Don that all they have to do is pretend they're making an expensive commercial, and Chaough will follow suit. Joan, unsurprisingly, is the first one to follow Don's logic, but Pete is worried that if Chaough does something amazing, he'll win the account. Don: "You let me worry about that." I'm enjoying the machinations, to be sure, but Don, before you place your entire financial future on The Chrysanthemum And The Sword, shouldn't someone tell you that many people think that book is horseshit?
Regardless of how well-advised Don's plan is, Joan is playing her part to the hilt, as she has this director who's working for Chaough on the Clearasil commercial in her office and is tempting him with fake storyboards for the fake commercial. Don then knocks, and when Joan answers, we see he's got a red Honda motorcycle, which he says he thought he could put in her office. Joan whispers, "Oh, how impossibly inconvenient your timing is, with this director in my office who's going to go blab to Chaough now!" Well, she actually only says, "Later!" but she conveyed a lot with that one word. Anyway, after Joan informs the director that he didn't see that, she bullshits that it'll be twelve scenes, and he'll need to figure out how to shoot on the Staten Island Ferry and to close Fifth Avenue. Heh. The director tells her he's dying to do it but he's really just too busy at the moment...