Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A- | 3 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Oh, Canada
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.29.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Peggy gets the idea that Abe is going to end their relationship, and goes to Joan in a panic, but Joan suggests he might be planning to propose instead. Peggy's so thrilled at the prospect that it's heartbreaking when Abe merely asks to move in with her, but when Joan gives her blessing and calls her brave, Peggy's happy again, if a little terrified. However, when her mother learns of this news, she tells her in no uncertain terms that Abe is only using her, which may well be true, but the fact that she also tells her to get a cat instead of a man suggests her advice isn't to be trusted.
Another episode, another meeting with Heinz. The good news is that Megan pitches an idea to Don about the past, present, and future of beans, and it's actually really great; the bad news is that at what's supposed to be a casual dinner, Megan gets wind from Mrs. Raymond that Heinz is firing them. So Megan, with some whispered words to Don, gets him to pitch Raymond on her idea right there, which saves the account, and after that, the two of them are closer than ever. On top of that, Peggy isn't jealous in the least and congratulates Megan, but Megan still seems reserved in her reaction to the success, which you'll want to bookmark for later.
Don is being honored by the American Cancer Society, and Megan's parents come for the ceremony. Her anti-capitalist professor father is as casually disapproving of Don as her mother is rather obviously attracted to him and also is JULIA ORMOND. Megan at least is aware that her mother is being demonstrative toward Don in return for her husband's cavalier attitude toward her, and it's hard not to feel bad for Megan, given the horror show she comes from. All seems well, especially when Roger and Sally literally declare that they're on a date, but things go severely pear-shaped: Don finds out from Ken's father-in-law, RAY WISE as you'll remember, that clients far and wide no longer trust him because of the stunt he pulled with the tobacco letter; Megan's father tells her that she's given up on her dreams, and from Megan's mixed reaction to her own success, we can see he's right; and Sally walks in on Roger getting some tête from Megan's mom. Unsurprisingly, there's an unhappy tableau to end the episode, but that unhappiness doesn't extend to the audience, as this was one of the most amazingly-written episodes in quite some time.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Before I start, I just wanted to share with you a link from a reader whose mother-in-law was born in a concentration camp. As Abe told Peggy last week, it happened.
This week, we begin at the supposedly fun kind of camp, which looks like it's housed at a boarding school, and a couple kids are making a lame attempt at practicing... something where they're using lacrosse sticks to bat a volleyball at each other. I'm aware of a little bit about useless white-assed sports, but this is beyond my knowledge. The pay phone on the wall rings, and the far skinnier of the two boys answers and then tells "Face" that it's his father. Face reveals himself to be Glen, but before we can wonder if his dad is calling with some last-minute character motivations, we learn that the caller is actually Sally, and Glen, whose voice has finally changed and who has lost some of his baby fat, gives her props for pulling off the call on a weeknight. He asks if that means "Mrs. Francis" is out, but Sally tells him she and Henry went to Michigan, taking Gene with them, "and left me here with Bluto." I'm assuming that's referring to she of the Ginsu burglar alarm, and confirming that supposition, Glen asks if "she still smell[s] like a toilet." I didn't know toilet cleaners back then had such high proofs, but no one said this show isn't educational. Speaking of new information, Glen apparently recently broke up with his girlfriend and is using that as an excuse not to study his trig (what is this, space camp?), and Sally rightly gives him some shit for his broken heart before wondering if he's not going back to the same camp the next summer. Yes, but by then, my dear, the inevitable romance between you and Glen will have bloomed, and believe me when I say I have no idea how I'm going to get through recapping that. Their conversation is soon interrupted by Pauline yelling for Sally to set the table, and from her slurring to her swaying and lurching like she's the ship in The Perfect Storm, she'll have to forgive me for suggesting the meal should have come a little earlier. Sally, as any good teenager should, completely ignores the call, so Pauline shays she'll jusht eat by hershelf; unfortunately, between her and the kitchen is the phone cord, which thanks to Sally taking the phone into her room is stretched across the hall like a tripwire. Down Pauline goes, pulling the phone right out of Sally's hands, and from her anguished cries, however much of the bag Pauline is in is not enough to dull the pain from her ankle, which may well be broken. You'd think after that story about her dad kicking her, she's be a little more tuned in to things in her path. Sally dispatches Bobby to get Pauline some water (another errand that should have been carried out a little earlier) while she goes to call for help...