Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 1 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT There's That Past, Informing the Present Again
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 5 | Aired on 08.22.2010
...but when he storms into Roger's office, he's baldly angry, and seethes that Roger doesn't get to kill this account. Roger: "Well, you know how they are. Maybe it'll kill itself." Sparkling wit even when drunk, angry, and mean? Why is he on the Accounts side again? Don plows on that it's not just about the money -- they could do amazing work on behalf of Honda -- but Roger tells him he does in fact get to decide who they do business with, and reminds Don of his own blow-up with Jantzen. Before Don can do more than counter that Jantzen was "over," though, Pete bursts in and accuses Roger of "wrapping [himself] in the flag" so he can keep Pete from bringing in an account that will make the firm less dependent on Lucky Strike, "and therefore less dependent on you." I think the phrase "them's fighting words" was coined for moments such as this, no? Because seriously, Roger charges at Pete like he's in the middle of a street in Pamplona, even adding an un-ironic "Why, you little..." for good measure, and Don has to get in his way. Roger half-chokes for Don to get Pete out of there, and Pete takes his leave, but not before telling Roger that the rest of them are trying to build something here. When Pete's gone, Don takes a long moment to give Roger's sensitivities some respect, but finally tells him, "He's right." He walks out into a commercial break, which is nice timing, given how intense that scene was. I'm sure the next one is going to be a lot easier to watch, right?
Oh, dear. Sally, apparently having been to the salon, is over at her friend's for that sleepover. Her friend is crashed out on the couch, but the TV is on, and as Sally watches The Man From U.N.C.L.E., she, um, kind of...what I mean to say is, she...okay. She starts playing with herself. It's shot pretty non-explicitly, but that's still clearly what's going on, and Lord, if it was that hard to talk about, I can only imagine what it must have been like to direct. Kiernan Shipka is absolutely amazing, but...she's ten. Anyway, her reverie is interrupted by her friend's mom appearing and rather severely asking what she's doing...
...while Betty and Henry are, um, enjoying their alone time together when the doorbell rings. Henry offers to get it, which is nice of him, but I hope his robe is fairly loose-fitting, especially given what just happened with Sally. Downstairs, Henry asks if Sally's sick, and says he would have come to get her, but the woman stiffly says no, that's not it, and could she speak to Betty for a moment? When Betty appears, the woman dismisses Henry and then informs Betty that Sally was "behaving inappropriately." Betty gets a look of no surprise on her face, and despite the awkwardness of the scene I'm looking forward to seeing that wiped clean. When the woman breaks the news, Betty has to compose herself, but apologizes and says she would have done the same thing with respect to telling her were their positions reversed. The woman softens a bit and says she's sorry about the whole thing, and then Betty sees her out...
...before marching into Sally's room, and kind of heartbreakingly, Sally's sitting on her bed not even having taken her coat off, like, I don't think Betty's going to turn you out on the street quite yet, kid. Well, at least not as long as Henry's around. Betty grabs Sally by the chin and tells her she doesn't do such things, especially not in public, and when Sally denies any wrongdoing Betty threatens to cut her fingers off. Trying to one-up your mother, eh Bets? Betty tells Sally to go to bed...
...and then heads there herself, lighting a cigarette and saying how mortified she is before telling Henry what happened. She throws up her hands and asks what's wrong with the kid, and Henry pushes the idea of therapy for Sally, apparently not for the first time. What is new, however, is that Betty tells him about her stint seeing a psychiatrist, adding that she doesn't think it helps anything. Well, no, not when the shrink is reporting to your husband on the sly and then you find out about it. That truly does not help anything. Henry, however, says his daughter benefitted tremendously from seeing a child psychiatrist he found through her school, and he's not even so convinced that anything's so wrong with Sally, but it's obvious that her recent behavior has been hard on both her and Betty. When he tries to probe a little more about Betty's experience, she shuts that line of questioning down, but she does seem to have heard him about the Sally idea. I should also note that whatever demands are being placed on Henry's time these days, he apparently still works out, because for someone who looks and acts (and we've been there before, but ew) old enough to be Betty's dad, dude is in shape.
In a development that I can't imagine signals any good news, Don asks Miss Blankenship if she's had any luck with a call to California, and Miss Blankenship tells him there was no answer. She then announces "Misters Peters and Pryce" to see him, which means Pete and Pryce, of course, in case you lost your Blankenship-to-English dictionary. Pete's not sure what's going on -- he got a call from his contact Masao saying the meeting was a disaster, but then the guy turned around and called Pryce and set a time for their presentation. However, Bertram and Roger then enter, and Roger, apparently having had a talking-to from the only person he regards as senior to him, apologizes for his behavior and says he realizes he shouldn't limit their potential business in any way. The bad news, however, as Bertram sees it, is that they should have gotten a gift back from the Honda people, and the absence of one suggests they only fixed the meeting with the expectation that SCDP would use it to resign from the competition.
Don learns from Miss Blankenship that he did get a package, but it turns out only to be a taunt from Chaough, which sets off another round of bickering that culminates in Pete putting his hand over his heart: "I'm expecting a child!" Heh. I'm guessing the principals are going to be pretty sick of that line before nine months are up. For his part, Don is not quite ready to commit hara-kiri; he instead suggests they shoot something "outrageous" and "graphic" to get Honda's attention. Pryce, however, points out that the conditions limit them to boards and copy -- "no finished work" -- and besides, the budget they're limited to precludes anything like what Don's talking about anyway. Don wants to go out of pocket, but Pryce tells him doing a spec commercial will severely hinder their ability to pitch new business for the rest of the year, and Pete adds that he'd be willing to take that risk if he didn't think they were already dead in the water. With a baleful look Roger's way, he adds, "But we are," before heading out. Chastened, Roger follows with Bertram in tow, and as we go to commercial I can't help but wonder what Don and Pryce are going to do with each other in the face of this news. Maybe they'll get drunk and go to the movies again!