| The Beautiful Girls | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Production | |
| Season 4 Episode 09 | |
| Air date | 19 September 2010 |
| Written by | Dahvi Waller Matthew Weiner |
| Directed by | Michael Uppendahl |
| Previous The Summer Man |
Next Hands and Knees |
Intro[]
Don and Faye Miller's relationship is taken to the next level, leading Don to trust Faye with an important favor. Peggy and Abe have a run-in with the help of Joyce. Sally runs away from home, causing more problems for Don. Miss Blankenship causes problems during a meeting with Filmore Auto Parts. When Joan receives bad news, Roger to comes to her aid.
Synopsis[]
The episode opens with Don and Faye Miller agreeing to meet up for lunch over the phone. Then, the scene cuts away to Don's apartment where we see two abandoned sandwiches and the sounds of Faye and Don having sex in the other room. Afterwards, the two discuss what lays ahead in terms of their work day, Don later leaves Faye at his apartment while he goes to the office.
Joan demands that Roger correct a mistake he made on a document. He tries to tease her but Joan leaves in a huff and tells him that he is "not cute". Roger's secretary Caroline is livid that Roger is pushing Joan's buttons while she is worried about Greg, who is at basic training. Caroline tells him that everyone has been "walking on eggshells" around Joan. Roger is ashamed of himself.
Joyce surprises Peggy in her office, inviting her for drinks at PJ Clarke's at 7pm, to which Peggy accepts. Stan teases Joyce about her sexuality by singing the song "Downtown", replacing the "Downtown" with "Midtown". He calls Joyce Peggy's boyfriend but the two pay him no mind.
At PJ Clarke's, it is revealed that Joyce invited Peggy just so Abe could conveniently run into the pair. Joyce politely withdraws herself from the gathering leaving Peggy and Abe together. Abe then professes his wanting to run into Peggy just so he could see her again and because he thought showing up to her home address would be "creepy". Peggy is flattered and orders him a drink.
At her apartment, Joan gets a knock at the door with two women standing on the other side, saying that a "friend" had sent them over to give Joan a massage, manicure and pedicure, paid for and tip included. Knowing that they were sent by Roger, she lets them in.
At PJ Clarke's, Abe expresses his liberal and leftist views on corporations, particularly his belief that America is the illusion of organization. Eventually he turns on to the subject of racism in corporations and accuses Fillmore Auto Parts of being especially guilty. Peggy tries to interject that she has had a hard time in business because of her gender. Abe dismisses her and reinforces his view that the issue of Equal Job Opportunity for Negros is more important than Women's Rights. Insulted, Peggy leaves him at the bar.
The next day, Joan enters Roger's office thanking him for the massage. He jokes, "I knew I was rubbing you the wrong way so I thought, why not have someone to rub you the right way." Joan is amused and he offers to take her to dinner. She accepts although she is dismayed that Roger is incapable of "doing something nice, without expecting something nicer in return". Roger assures her that he didn't mean anything by his invitation.
Don and Faye.
Stan teases Joyce.
Peggy arrives to work the next day to find Abe waiting for her at reception and hands her an article he wrote titled "Nuremberg on Madison Avenue". Peggy takes it to read, while Abe waits at reception.
Joan get a knock at the door.
Abe and Peggy disagree on politics.
"Thank you, I'm fine."
During a meeting with Fillmore Auto Parts, Megan calls Don to reception. Sally is with a woman named Vivien Winters who explains she found Sally as a stowaway on the train after she ran away after her therapy session. Sally says she didn't want to "wait two weekends" before she could finally see him. Don commands Megan to take Sally into his office while he offers Vivien money for bringing Sally to him, while Abe stares at Don in disbelief. With Sally in his office Don calls Betty to pick Sally up. However, she wants to wait until she meets Henry in the city the next day, leaving Sally with Don for the night. Frustrated, Don orders Sally to remain in his office so he can resume his meeting.
Peggy is livid.
After reading the article, Peggy furiously confronts Abe because it's about Fillmore Auto Parts' discriminatory hiring practice. She tells him that she could lose her job, due to the fact that SCDP is hired by Fillmore Auto Parts on record. After reminding Abe that she isn't a political person, she makes Abe promise not to publish the article. Abe leaves the office disappointed, thinking that Peggy "looked so earnest" and he "read [her] wrong".
Upon coming back into the office Peggy notices Miss Blankenship is unresponsive. Peggy realizes that she is dead and orders Sally to stay in Don's office. Megan interrupts Don's meeting with Fillmore Auto Parts to inform him of Miss Blankenship's death. Joan tends to the obstacle of getting the body out of the office with the least amount of attention.
Peggy discovers Ida.
Joan and Pete wheeling away Miss Blankenship.
The coroner takes Ida away.
After the meeting is finished, Don pleads with Faye to take Sally back to his apartment to avoid her seeing any of the commotion. Faye reluctantly agrees.
The coroner takes away Ida, while the entire somber office grieves for Ida. Burt instructs them she be taken to Frankie Campbell's funeral home, while he makes a call to her niece. Megan suggests that Don go home, as Roger walks to his office, upset. Following Roger, Joan fixes him a drink and Roger shares the notion with Joan that he "doesn't want to die in the office" and realizes he almost has. Joan reassures him that he isn't going to die, and Roger asks her out to dinner again. Joan hesitantly accepts.
Faye and Sally.
Don arrives at his apartment and thanks Faye for looking after Sally. They appear to have gotten along well so Don invites Faye to stay, but Faye insists she has dinner plans and leaves. Don makes Sally promise to never repeat the day's actions again, Sally agrees and they order a pizza.
At dinner, Joan and Roger share a slice of cherry cheesecake. Roger tells Joan he wishes she would talk to him about things, but Joan reminds him that her husband wouldn't like it. She confides in Roger that Greg never consulted her about his plan to join the army. She then teases him about his marriage to Jane.
Don explains he and Faye are friends.
Roger then asks Joan whether she was curious as to whether there were any mention of her in his autobiography. "There had better not be," Joan says. Roger comments on how good he had it with her. He apologizes for constantly pestering, but he just "can't help [himself]." Joan replies, "I understand."
While waiting for pizza to arrive, Sally bombards Don with questions about Faye. She asks if he is going to marry her, and observes that they must be close if Faye had his keys and knew the contents of his cupboard. Don reassures Sally that they just work together and that since they got along, perhaps Sally will see her again. On that cue, the pizza arrives.
Joan and Roger reconnect.
While walking through a rough part of New York city, Roger and Joan are mugged at gunpoint. As the mugger flees the scene, Roger takes an overly panicked Joan into an alleyway to calm down, reminding her that everything can be replaced and what matters most is that they are both fine. Joan kisses Roger in the heat of the moment, and the two have sex.
Roger tells Joan, he feels something.
Don puts Sally to bed.
Putting Sally to bed, Sally reveals to Don that she wants to live with him and not Betty. He reminds her that it isn't possible and tells her to go to sleep. The next morning, Sally makes French toast for Don but she accidentally uses rum instead of syrup. Don tells her that he'll cancel his morning in order to spend time with her.
Don reminding Peggy what her job is.
Back at the office, Roger and Burt struggle to write Ida's obituary, and call Joan to write it for them. As Burt leaves he states “She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the 37th floor of a skyscraper. She was an astronaut.” Roger apologizes to Joan, claiming that last night was "in the heat of the moment". She replies that while she is not sorry, she reminds him that they are both married. Roger tells her that he feels something between them and he knows she does too, but Joan leaves.
At the office, Don instructs Megan to watch over Sally as he attends a meeting with creative. During the meeting, Peggy raises the subject as to why SCDP does business with people who don't do business with Negroes. Don reminds Peggy that their job is to simply make men like Fillmore Auto Parts, not to make Fillmore Auto Parts like Negros.
Don loses his temper with Sally.
Megan alerts Don that Betty is waiting in reception for Sally, Sally resists being returned to Betty and Don turns to Faye for help. Sally tells Faye to shut up, causing Don to lose his temper with her. He tries to physically drag her to reception, but Sally releases herself from his grip and runs away. She trips and Megan is the first to comfort her. She tries to tell Sally that everything is okay, but Sally sobs, "No, it's not." Betty instructs Sally to say goodbye and Sally reluctantly leaves.
Don goes back into his office to find Faye waiting. Faye is angry at Don for putting her in that position and exclaims that her whole time with Sally felt "like a test" and she "failed". Don tells her that he's sorry and the two embrace.
Sally running naturally into Megan's arm.
"Who the hell says we can't be soup?"
Roger takes Joan to dinner, in The Beautiful Girls.
Joyce and Peggy reflect on men in Peggy's office. Joyce tells Peggy that she thought Peggy and Abe would get along. She compares men to soup, stating "Men are the soup, you can't put them on a plate, women are the pot. They heat them up, they hold them, they contain them. But who wants to be a pot? Who the hell says we can't be the soup?" Although Peggy disagrees with Joyce's view, Joyce goes onto say that she wouldn't have helped Abe out if she didn't think he was "interesting soup". Peggy asks Joyce to go out with her, stating she doesn't know whether she's "angry or lovesick" over Abe.
The episode ends with Joan, Peggy and Faye leaving the office in the same elevator, reflecting on the events that have happened to each of them.
Cast[]
Main Star[]
- Jon Hamm as Don Draper
- Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson
- Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell
- January Jones as Betty Hofstadt
- Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway
- Rich Sommer as Harry Crane
- Aaron Staton as Ken Cosgrove
- Jared Harris as Lane Pryce
- Kiernan Shipka as Sally Draper
- Robert Morse as Bertram Cooper
- John Slattery as Roger Sterling
Guest Star[]
- Christopher Gehrman as Sean Fillmore
- Grinnell Morris as Thomas Fillmore
- Beth Hall as Caroline
- Sarah Benoit as Vivian Winters
- Kevontay Jackson as Man
- Camilla Tar as Younger Woman
Co-Star[]
- Cara Buono as Faye Miller
- Jessica Pare as Megan Calvet
- Jay R. Ferguson as Stan Rizzo
- Zosia Mamet as Joyce Ramsay
- Charlie Hofheimer as Abe Drexler
- Randee Heller as Ida Blankenship
- David Warshofsky as Leonard Fillmore
Quotes[]
Roger: "I wish you would talk to me about things."
Joan: "My husband doesn't like it."
Roger: "Honey I know its tough but, you must've known about the possibilities when he signed up."
Joan: "I wasn't consulted."
Roger: "You're kidding?"
Joan: "Because you always tell Jane about your decisions...she's the woman behind the man, isn't she?"
Roger: "Did you listen to my memoirs?"
Joan: "I just had them transcribed, and recycled the tapes."
Roger: "So you're not even a little curious if there's a chapter called "Joan"?"
Joan: "There better not be."
Roger: "I know. That's the problem. Everytime I think back, all the good stuff was with you."
-- Roger and Joan sneak away for dinner, in The Beautiful Girls.
Roger: "Hey, is this what it took to get you in here? Look, I'm sorry. It was in the heat of the moment. And there was a moment, you know that."
Joan: "I'm not sorry. But I'm married. And so are you."
Roger: "I feel something, and I know you do."
-- Roger apologies to Joan, in The Beautiful Girls
Don: "I'd have my secretary do it, but she's dead."