Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Good Night and Good Luck
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 5 | Aired on 08.16.2007
The ostensible Charlie is showing Trudy to a seat in his office, commenting that he would rather have had lunch with her. Trudy breezes that she has an appointment with the decorator for their new apartment, but promises they can do it another time. She brings the subject around to the story, which Charlie has apparently already read, saying that he said he enjoyed it. Charlie says he did -- "as much as anyone can enjoy that kind of thing." As if it weren't Un!Comfortable! enough in here. Trudy hangs on to her smile for dear life as she asks if that means he liked it or he didn't, and Charlie, who's growing on me quickly, points out that what really matters is whether he publishes it. Trudy agrees, and then asks if Charlie has still been seeing "Laura," and Charlie says yes, and calls her "terrific" and "fun" in the tone of voice you'd use to describe a colonoscopy. A boring colonoscopy. Charlie sits down next to Trudy and tells her he misses her, and misses being with her. In the interest of accurate reporting, he does seem like there's an emotional tie here and not just a creepy lascivious vibe. Anyway, emotional attachment or not, he does proposition her, but she turns him down, although not without some difficulty. He tells her he knows she'll never leave Pete, but he can keep a secret. You can cut the tension with a knife, but Trudy again turns him down. "No, Charlie. Please."
Betty shows up at the office with the kids, and Peggy realizes who she is from her voice. Betty says they're there to pick up Don, as apparently they have an appointment for a family portrait, so Peggy has to uncomfortably tell her that Don's not in at the moment, but she should go inside and wait. She opens the door and shows them in, and then goes running for the only logical person to see in this kind of crisis...
...Joan. Peggy pulls her aside and tells her the whole mess -- she's not supposed to know where Don is, and she would have reminded him about the portrait appointment, but he slipped out before she had the chance. Joan, of course, wants the juicy gossip on where Don is, and playfully refuses to help Peggy unless she gives up the dirt. Peggy tells Joan and her enormous rack about Midge, and that Don went to see her the other day. "He came back all greasy and calm." Hee. Joan inhales her cigarette and gives Peggy a simple plan -- entertain Betty and the kids, tell them Don left and you forgot to remind him about the portraits, and wait for him to return and make his own excuse, which he will. "And then you just start apologizing for...well, just how stupid you are." Peggy: "It's probably what I would have done anyway." Hee, again. These two have such great interactions. Peggy realizes that she really shouldn't have told Joan Don's secret, and Joan agrees. "I'm not gonna tell anybody, but you shouldn't have told anybody that." Let's just hope Peggy never finds out the whole Dick Whitman secret.