Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 4 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT The Cat is Out of the Bag…
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 10.25.2009
dog-food focus group unfold. Things are going well enough until the administrator tells them the brand name, whereupon all hell breaks loose, with the dog owner in the middle snitting that they make the food "out of ponies" before literally asking, "How could you do this to us?" Meanwhile, the dogs are happier than pigs in shit, not that you'd know it from this hilariously pained announcement: "Bingo looks sad!" Hee hee. Annabelle, probably having been subjected to bullshit like this for quite some time, tells them to turn it off, and the amusement continues, as Peggy responds, "I can't turn it off! It's actually happening!" Hee. Don sharply tells her to turn the sound off, the "...you idiot" being implied, and then Annabelle impatiently says she already knows how people feel -- it's their job to change that. Don, however, lays some truth on her -- the food is great and dogs love it, but the name is forever tainted, and any agency that tells her otherwise is stealing her money. Annabelle, not wanting to hear this, says she's going to wait for a different agency to solve her problem, but Roger tells her to let it go: "It's unfair, but it's over." Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound -- it's Supertext! Offended by the lack of subtlety in drawing the comparison to their relationship, Annabelle stomps off, but Roger follows her into the break room, whereupon he kicks everyone out, and the ensuing scene has some nice moments and is well-enough-acted, but the dialogue is still only explicitly stating what's already been conveyed on more than one occasion, which boils down to this: Annabelle thinks of Roger as The One, but even though she broke his heart in the past, he doesn't feel the same way about her. She takes this as graciously as possible, but I'd imagine this is going to make it an especially bad day to be a pony. After she leaves, Roger wistfully stares after her, but the emotional impact is somewhat tempered when some random girl comes back into the break room, only to see him there, size up the situation, and do a quick about-face. Heh. At least someone around here can deal with change.In the car, Suzanne is saying it's about four hours to Norwich. Two things: One, if this is the one in Connecticut, it's nowhere near four hours away, or if it is, Don should still be on that trip to Massachusetts from last episode. Two, a reader wrote in to tell me that Norwich is a dump and always has been, and if Suzanne thinks it's so nice she's got no business slagging off Mystic, even though it's touristy. I've never been to either, but I thought I'd convey the information. Anyway, they've stopped at the Draper home for Don to pick up a suitcase, presumably, and as Don tells her he'll be right out, Suzanne jokingly slinks down in the seat so no one in the neighborhood will see her, which is a move that I bet is going to start to seem a lot less funny in about fifteen minutes or so. Inside, Don finds the lights off (it's just starting to get dark), but when he flips them on, he's shocked when Sally comes running out to greet him. Thinking fast, he tries to tell her he forgot something, but then Bobby and Betty appear as well, and I'll leave it to you to guess which of them is happy to see him. He tries his best again, nonchalantly telling Betty he left his hat in the car, but Betty is not letting him out of her sight as she orders him to get it later. "I need to talk to you." He looks uncertain, but even after she sends the kids upstairs, he doesn't guess what's going on, saying he just came home to feed the dog and change shirts before he heads back to a client dinner in the city. Betty, however, tells him she needs to show him something...
...and she leads him into the study and orders him to open the locked drawer. When he refuses, she produces a set of keys -- seems like she had a copy made after all -- and tells him either to open it, or she will. His fear is palpable, but not aware that she's already been inside it (which he probably should be; she's acting pretty steely here), he tries for righteous indignation, saying his desk is private, and asking where she got the keys. She tells him about finding them in the bathrobe, and Hamm does some beautiful work as he digests the realization that his own carelessness led to this moment, but she adds that she could have had a locksmith in there at any point, were she so inclined. "I respected your privacy, too long. Open it!" More weakly, he refuses, but her determination is overwhelming, and when she says he must be aware that she already knows what's in it, all resistance crumbles as he whispers, "I can explain. You didn't have to look at my things." She takes the keys back and gets the box out before asking which things he's referring to -- "The pictures, covered with other people's names? Is that you? Dick? Is that your name?" He still can't really give her a straight answer, only vaguely saying that people change their names and offering again that he can explain, and real emotion finally enters her answer: "I know you can. You're a very, very gifted storyteller." He casts about for a reply and then, shaken to his core, says he needs a drink. My last thought before getting up to go to the kitchen: Good idea.
Don unsteadily heads into his own kitchen and splashes some water on his no-doubt-heated face, and as he leans over to try to collect himself, Betty appears and snidely asks if he's thinking of heading for the exits. Sounding a little steadier, he tells her he's not going anywhere, but when he tries to get a cigarette out, his hands shake so much that he drops it. Surprised by how affected he is, she orders him to sit down while she gets him the drink, and he complies. Once they're both seated at the table, she crosses her arms disapprovingly over her chest and accuses him of buying Anna a house. Not wanting to get into that just yet but sensibly letting her dictate what happens, he asks her where she wants him to start, and the questioning begins: What's his name? Donald Draper, but it used to be Dick Whitman. What's the deal with Anna? It wasn't a romantic relationship; he "ended up" married to her because he ran away to join the Army. While enlisted, there was an accident and the real Don Draper was killed and he, Dick, was injured. He goes on that the Army "made a mistake" (obviously not the whole story, but this is just about the only half-truth he tells, so I'll let it go) that enabled him to take Don Draper's identity. This clearly not being what she expected, Betty's determination falters a bit as she asks if that wasn't against the law, and he admits that it was, but says it was easier to take his name than to start over, "but it turned out he was married to that woman, so I took care of her. And then I divorced her the minute I met you." Betty, however, corrects him -- he actually divorced her only three months before they got married, and why couldn't he ever tell her any of this? Reasonably enough, Don asks when exactly would have been an appropriate time to bring this up, but when he pushes on and asks why she needed to know, she snaps that he doesn't get to ask any questions. She grabs the box again and says he has a family, and she ignores his denial, saying all this time she thought he was "some football hero who hated his father," and she always knew he was poor, and ashamed of it. "I see how you are with money -- you don't understand it." Interesting comment -- I think she means he doesn't understand what it can really do for you in terms of social stature, nor does he understand how to go about being rich, and he seems to agree: "I was very poor." She asks if he saw Anna when he was in California, and he admits that too, but adds, "She reminded me that I loved you." Still sounding steely, she straight-up asks what he would do in her position: "Would you love you?" His answer takes you by surprise and yet makes perfect sense: "I was surprised that you ever loved me." Previous 1 2 3 4 5Next