Reprinted with permission from www.hautetalk.com
Pete’s mother comes for a visit, with her new nurse, Manolo. Pete pawns her off on Peggy, who Pete’s mother mistakes for Trudy. In her fog, she says that it’s good that they reconciled for their child, which leaves Peggy shaken. Pete then tries to bribe Manolo to…I don’t know what, but I’m hoping it’s not what I’m thinking.
Peggy, Pete, and Ted are drunk after an out-of-town meeting with Ocean Spray. Pete figures out what’s going on with Peggy and Ted because, “I’ve seen that look,” and tells Peggy that Ted is in love with Peggy, too. Peggy then tells Pete about the strange conversation she had with Pete’s mother, but falls short of bringing up the baby.
Roger is waiting for Don in his office. Sterling Cooper & Co. is going to pitch Sunkist. Oranges. Good for drinking, eating, and juggling. Ocean Spray, Sunkist, conflict? Conflict. Ted yells at Don to “join this company and read a memo once in a while.” Jim tries to calm him down, but Ted is taking it very personally and asks Jim to “imagine every time Ginger Rogers jumped in the air, Fred Astaire punched her in the face.” And now that’s all I can think about, so thank you, Ted.
When Don gets home, he finds Megan talking to Sylvia’s son. He’s in trouble. He sent back his draft card early and got a 1-A classification, which means he will be the first to get drafted. He wants to run to Canada, but Don tells Megan, “He can’t spend the rest of his life on the run.” The next day, Don has a private conversation with Pete. He wants to know how to get a deferment, but Pete won’t help. Which, yeah. That was to be expected.
Later that evening, Ted and Don are entertaining the crew from Chevy, which means men in suits eating meat and drinking booze. Don brings up the war in the hopes that someone at the table can help his mistress’s son. The executives shut down the war talk real fast, and Ted saves the conversation with levity. The next morning, Ted accuses Don of trying to poison his relationship with Chevy. Don suggests that he was just taking their temperature, and would not have done it if it wasn’t important to him. Ted realizes that perhaps Don is a human being after all, and in exchange for Don dropping Sunkist, Ted agrees to call one of his contacts in the National Guard to try to get Mitchell one of those sweet, danger-free George W. Bush pilot gigs. When Don calls Sylvia to tell her the good news, she asks, “Did you fix it?” Don just wants to be that man, yet it always seems to be with other peoples’ kids. Their conversation turns to their relationship. She didn’t want him to fall in love, and she wasn’t very good to him, and just like that, it’s back on.
Pete’s mother and Manolo arrive at Pete’s apartment, and Pete sends Manolo away so that the two of them can talk. Pete lets his mother know that Manolo is her nurse, but Pete’s mother is enjoying the male attention just a little too much. “Maddy has awakened a part of me that was long dormant.” When Pete threatens to let Manolo go, his mother tells him, “you were a sour little boy, and you are a sour little man.” And, yeah. That sums up Pete Campbell.
Sally Draper is in trouble because Betty finds out that she is only one of two girls on an overnight trip with a bunch of boys in Manhattan. Because Sally is clever, she diffuses the situation by saying that she will stay at Don’s apartment. Sally and her friend, Julie, arrive in the city and run into Mitchell in the lobby and swoon. That night, Sally and Julie make a list of “Things I Like About Mitchell.” Julie dares her to sneak downstairs to kiss him, and you can tell that Julei is nothing but trouble. The next morning, Megan is rushing to get the kids out the door but Sally is nowhere near ready.
When Sally finally gets dressed, it’s in a slick red and blue plaid mini dress with a red bow at the neck. Julie is looking slightly dorkier in a white dress with a spring green bow with Holly Hobby-esque sleeves. The girls are in a cab on the way to whatever educational school event they used as an excuse to go to New York City, and Julie tells Sally that she slid a love letter from Sally to Mitchell under Mitchell’s back door. That earns a fairly impressive punch in the arm from Sally, who heads back to her father’s apartment. After talking the doorman out of his set of master keys, she listens at the door just like Don used to do. Oh no, oh no, oh no, don’t go in there…Sally spots the note on the kitchen counter and when she walks inside to retrieve it SHE SEES DON SCREWING SYLVIA!!! AND SHE DROPS THE KEYS ON THE LINOLEUM SO THEY SEE HER!!! ZOMG! Don pulls himself together in the elevator, but Sally is long gone in a cab. Don is, understandably, a mess. He doesn’t know which way to go—home? Work? Work, then home?
After spotting a rat in her apartment on the way to the office, Peggy comes home late one night to a trail of blood on the floor, and she hears the telltale squeaking and scratching sounds. She calls Stan and asks him to come over because there’s a “mortally wounded” rat in a trap under the couch. When he tells her that he isn’t the boyfriend so it isn’t his problem, Peggy tries to lure him over with the promise of sex. But Stan has a real live woman with him in bed, plus he doesn’t believe that Peggy is serious about the rat-induced booty call.
Pete calls Bob Benson into his office to yell at him for recommending Manolo The Rapist as a caretaker for his mother. Bob tells Pete that Manolo’s interests aren’t with women, which repulses Pete. But Bob wants to know if his mother seemed happy. And if she’s happy, then what’s the problem? “Couldn’t it be, if someone took care of you, very good care of you, if this person would do anything for you, if his well being was your only thought, is it possible that you might begin to feel something for him. When there’s true love, does it matter who it is?” And with that, Bob Benson all but confesses his love for Pete which, really? Pete? Nobody loves Pete. Even his own mother doesn’t love him. But there it is, their knees touch, and Pete moves his away. “Tell Manolo I will give him a month’s pay, and tell him it’s disgusting.” Bob leaves, and Pete looks like he wants to take a Silkwood shower.
When Pete gets home that night, he pours himself the remnants of a box of Raisin Bran. Aw, Peggy got an orange cat, to kill the giant rat. And Ted goes home to his wife and two kids. Don, however, is less sure about what he will find at home. By all appearances, it’s a happy family. But Sally looks nauseous. She clearly has not told anyone, even Julie. Then, Arnold and Mitchell stop by so that Mitchell can thank Don. Sally finally has her anticipated outburst, “You make me sick!” Don goes to talk to her, but the door is locked. He speaks quietly through the door, the only lies he can muster, “I know you think you saw something, I was, comforting Mrs. Rosen, she was very upset, it’s very, complicated.” But Sally knows what she saw, and it’s just a matter of time before she decides who she will tell. My guess? Betty.
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