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
Time for a little poach-the-client meeting in Don's office, as with Ken and Benson in attendance, a youngish dude (played by Kip Pardue, and between Yale being his alma mater and his naturally oily demeanor, I can't believe it's taken this long for him to be cast on this show) is talking about all the things DDP has done for them in what sounds like an effort to see how high SCDP will jump to try to get him. The power structure becomes clear when we recognize the other guy as Raymond Geiger, the Heinz beans client - you know, the one Peggy yelled at last year - and he's apparently brought the younger guy, who represents Heinz Ketchup, in after he wondered how Beans was making such good numbers. Ken asks what they can do for Ketchup, then - whereupon "Timmy" tells him to let him know. After some subtle WTF side-eyes between Ken and Don, everyone gets to their feet, and Timmy makes it clear that this wasn't an official visit.
Benson goes to walk him out, but Raymond stays behind - whereupon he informs Ken and Don that they are to have no further contact with Timmy. This isn't because he doesn't like their performance - "you guys are doing a bang-up job" - but because he doesn't want "that polished Polack" coming in and taking advantage of all the hard work he did making Beans and Sauces into something. He works up a head of steam about how he taught that kid everything he knows - the fact that I'm not even paraphrasing does suggest your imagination could use some work, Raymond - and has gotten nothing but disrespect in return, so his position is that if SCDP even so much as sends Timmy a Christmas ham, "well, I'd rather retire than watch that guy screw my girlfriend." I wouldn't consider this the most subtle way of getting to the point, but anything to get Don to see that sleeping with his neighbor and friend's wife is a lapse in judgment he from which he might not return. Raymond stomps out of there, refusing Ken's offer to walk him out, whereupon Ken can't believe how weak Raymond is. Don, however, defender of Mohawk Air back in the day, tells Ken that although he knows Ketchup is the Chivas Regal of accounts, Raymond's business was instrumental in saving the company, and as such they're going to need to follow the "dance with the one that brung ya" credo (looks like everything Don knows, he learned at the Best Little Whorehouse in Pennsylvania), and maybe now's a good time to take a little break so we can all push the crushing irony off our shoulders.