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
Peggy finds a container of "Quest Feminine Powder" and a folder with some attendant copy on her desk. Cut to her coming in to see Chaough and asking him if it's a new account, as she didn't get the memo. However, when Chaough reads from the paper in the folder that it "kills overly critical bacteria" and that the target audience is "professional women and other Olsons," he laughs that it's someone's idea of a joke. Peggy: "When you want them to be funny, they're useless." Hee, but I have to say that's the best work I've seen from them out of an admittedly small sample size.
Okay, I've been rooting for a Joan scene, but obviously I should have qualified that, as she's reading in her office when a familiarly disgusting voice cuts in: "Hello, gorgeous." I mentioned last week how that word coming out of a stranger's mouth was bad, but now that the speaker is Herb Rennet, the guy from Jaguar who demanded Joan's body, it sounds like oversexed, sweaty nails on a chalkboard. Joan handles his grossness evenly enough, even getting to use her intimate knowledge of him for good instead of evil, as when he tells her he knows part of her is happy to see him, she replies, "And I know there's a part of you you haven't seen in years." This actually shuts him up, and then Pete comes running in like he lost track of a mischievous canine, which feels about right. Herb waddles out, and Joan stares daggers...
...and then she marches into Don's office: "He's here." She heads straight to his bar and keeps her eyes on the drink she's making as Don watches her with wordless concern before eventually leaving. If not for his unwavering respect for Joan, would there be anything left to like about the character?
Pete and Benson are taking care of Herb (Benson has to remind Herb that they've met before; also, Herb is a sweaty mess from climbing one set of internal stairs) when Don enters, whereupon Herb gets down to business: He knows SCDP is going to make "some fancy-schmancy" TV spot, the bill for which is mostly going to be footed by the dealers. Don: "That's how it works." Heh. Unfazed, Herb goes on that he needs foot traffic, and as such needs something that's a little more targeted to his actual dealership in Englewood rather than toward Jaguar in general. Don points out that Herb, as well as the factory guys, have already contractually approved the work and the media buy, but Herb tells them he'd like some retail radio in there as well that will include the phone number of his dealership in spots local to him. Pete's like, great, how much more are we talking here, but Herb, with a tone you'd use on a slow child, tells him there will be no increase - they can just adjust the proportions to, say, 60 percent local radio instead of national. Pete protests that that would take a real bite out of the national campaign, and I'm surprised he's not seeming to sense just how sleazy this guy is, but Herb's like, well, I don't know about that, but it's not really relevant, because SCDP is going to be the one to push for the change, because "you're so damn persuasive." Don stares at Herb like he'd sic a spooked horse on him if he had one handy, but Pete, recovering his usual oily demeanor, assures Herb it'll be taken care of. Herb shakes Pete's hand but probably senses that trying to do the same with Don would be a good way to lose at least a finger, so he grossly tells Benson to show him "the sights," adding that he must be like "a kid in a candy store around here." God, if they let this guy run around loose, SCDP's going to have to take on every woman in the company as a partner, and even Benson looks terrified at the prospect. Don expresses further frustration, and then, getting only Pete's placating platitudes in reply, snaps, "I wish you'd handle the clients as well as you're handling me." And we've found the sentence to deflate Pete's smug, self-important smile. THANK GOD. I didn't think anything could, given that his receding hairline apparently failed.