Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 2 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT To The Moon, Connie!
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 10.11.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Connie calls Don in the middle of the night and demands a proposal by noon the next day, so Don heads into the office before the sun comes up and happens to come across Sally's teacher, who's out for a run. Don confesses to being fascinated by her, but she turns him down when he asks her to have coffee with him. However, when he shows up to her house late on another night, despite the fact that she points out how reckless it is to do this so close to home, she takes him to bed, which probably will obviate the need for her morning run.
All the work Hilton's demanding is making Don even crabbier than usual with Creative, as well as an insomniac. Hilton then calls Don to his hotel for a late-night meeting and tells him it's his dream and duty to bring America to the rest of the world, and says he wants goodness and confidence to be part of his ad campaign. He drunkenly tells Don that he's like a son to him, even more so than his own, and Don seems genuinely touched. He's less so, however, when after a pitch meeting Don thought was great, Connie clears out the room and chews Don out for not taking something he said about going to the moon literally and incorporating it into the campaign. Roger later comes in to Don and tells him he needs help from Accounts to keep the clients happy, despite his apparent belief that he can do it all.
Betty's dreaming about Francis, and she starts a mail correspondence with him that leads to him impetuously coming to her house. When Carla catches them, he covers with a story about how the Draper house would be great for a fundraiser, but Carla's mother didn't raise a fool, even though Betty keeps up the charade and actually goes through with the event. She's disappointed, though, when Francis sends a proxy in his stead, and the next day, she petulantly takes the strongbox with the contributions and literally throws it at him, but when she realizes that having her come to him on this exact errand was his plan, they kiss, but she then tells him it can't go any further than that, and ends things, this time for good, I think.
Finally, Sal's directing a commercial for Lucky Strike, and the younger client from the pilot, Lee Garner Jr., is on hand to make a pass at him. Sal tries to tell Lee he's got the wrong idea, but Lee is very assured in his assessment of Sal's true orientation, causing Sal quite a bit of consternation, and that's without knowing that Lee then drunkenly calls Harry and tells him he needs to get Sal off the commercial. Harry decides to do nothing, hoping that Lee was so drunk he either didn't mean it or won't remember, but when Lee shows up to see the finished product, he takes one look at Sal and heads for the door, and the result is that Roger fires Sal on the spot, which is a lot worse than just being taken off the commercial. Roger then sends Harry in to Don to tell him to fix the whole thing, after which Sal confesses the truth to Don, but, rather upsettingly, Don tells Sal he should have submitted to Lee's advances before shaking his hand and telling him he'll do fine outside of SC. In the end, Sal calls his wife and tells her he won't be home, which I can only assume means he's either going to sleep with Lee or kill him. Not sure which would be the better option for Sal, but I know which one I'd prefer.
Want more? The full recap starts right below! So last week, I said there was a continuity error involving Francis and Betty's car door. However, as was kindly pointed out to me by a couple readers, he actually leaned in front of the door, which was significant because it served to prevent her from leaving, putting a somewhat different tone on the whole thing. And speaking of Francis......Betty dreams of lying on the awful monstrosity and having Francis (since I can't see his face, I'm not sure it's actually the actor, but it's certainly meant to be the character) open her dress and run his finger down her chest. However, she's unceremoniously yanked into consciousness by the phone ringing, and I have to thank Connie for his timing, as he spared me having to regard the pink behemoth any longer. We see that it's night, and Don reaches across Betty and clumsily grabs the phone, which has awoken not only the two of them but also the baby, and as I mentioned, it's Connie, who asks, "Do you ever pray on a difficult problem?" Well, it wouldn't surprise me if he were currently seeking guidance from above on the problem of getting through this conversation without cursing you out. Betty gets up to attend to the baby, leaving Don to fumblingly grab pencil and paper to jot down Connie's further ruminations, and Connie doesn't disappoint, saying that New York City isn't a domestic destination. There are a couple ways he could mean that, neither of which I'd agree with even back then, but since Don still hasn't woken up enough to do anything other than mumble "What?" it hardly seems worth spending any time on. Connie waits for no sleepy man and moves on to ask how we know to follow our impulses, and when Don suggests it's instinct, Connie replies, "So you're just like a dog." It has been said. Connie then says the "patina" of the Waldorf has shined over all his domestic properties, but it hasn't worked with the international ones, and I feel like I'm the one that just was awoken in the middle of the night for all the sense he's making, but the point is, he says he knows he only gave him New York (...okay, true in the beginning, but what was with all the trips he was taking as of last episode?), but he'd like his help with this. Don says he'll think about some ideas, and Connie tells him it may sound like pride (I assume the disclaimer comes from a seven-deadly-sins place), but he wants Hiltons all over the world. "I want a Hilton on the moon, that's where we're headed." When Don doesn't include this later, at least we know it's not because he didn't write it down. Connie then offers some proto-neocon wisdom, saying that America is "wherever we're going to be," and when Don compliments his turn of phrase, Connie tells him he actually got it from him. Don: "Well, I guess it's not that memorable." This is why coffee is needed for society to run smoothly. That, and turning off your phone at night. Betty returns with the baby as Connie says he wants a proposal from Don "for the New York Hiltons as convention spaces" sent over to him by noon so he can take it on the plane, and Don agrees, probably so he can finally get off the damn phone. He hangs his head and then lies back, exhausted, before apologizing to Betty, who's fine with it, especially since the "four A.M. feedings" (seriously, Hilton?) apparently aren't over yet: "I want what I want when I want it." She's referring to the baby's thought process, but since several characters over the hour, including Don and Betty themselves, will repeat that sentiment almost verbatim, I think it's fair to deem it the Catchphrase Of The Episode. Betty as much as says that Connie's behavior loudly announces the COTE, and Don jokes that babies cry every three hours, while Connie only calls every four. Heh. Betty smiles, but also opines that Don likes Connie's attentions, extreme as they may be. By way of answering, Don gets up, saying he won't get back to sleep and might as well head into the office. He'd probably have a better chance of getting more rest if he hadn't already smoked half a cigarette since Connie called, but in an era when he was holding said cigarette about six inches from his infant's face, why even bring up such things?