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The transition is complete for House (Fox) from what used to be a drama, which then became a dramedy, and now appears to be a full-blown comedy show with House as head clown. I have to admit that I did laugh quite a few times during this episode, but I also lost interest a little too quickly in the patient of the week, Abbey, being played by an unrecognizable Jennifer Grey. (I still can’t get used to her “new” nose.)
It seems that Abbey had a baby who immediately experiences problems at birth. The staff tries to work through the case, their first hurdle is that House (Hugh Laurie) immediately fires the female doctor that Dr. Foreman (Omar Epps) hired without her even getting a chance to give input. House then dispatches Dr. Taub (Peter Jacobson) to do the hiring, and Taub seems set on the very capable Dr. Cheng (Keiko Agena). Even House seems to find her a credible candidate. But when Taub acts wimpy about hiring her, she turns him down flat when he finally does get around to making the offer because Taub acted like "a paranoid scared little kid." The doctors find that Abbey has two forms of cancer, and her lung cancer is actually helping her battle her melanoma, the latter already being passed along to the baby in utero. Abbey’s blood can help the baby survive so rather than go through chemo, Abbey decides to continue with transfusing her blood to the baby, a process which later causes an embolism and Abbey’s death.
But this is all a backdrop for House’s latest problem – Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) needs a babysitter and, using her cleavage and tempting House with the promise of sex, she gets him to watch Rachel (played by Kayla Colbert & Rylie Colbert) for the evening while she attends a board meeting. It’s an act of desperation as she can’t get her normal sitter. House finally agrees and when he seems to tire of the process, he calls Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) over and has every intention of dumping Rachel on Wilson so House would be free to leave. Wilson calls his bluff, and before you know it, both of them are back watching Rachel. The problem is that while they were outside both trying to leave, Rachel made a mess of the food that House and Wilson left out, and worse yet, it appears she’s eaten some of the coins that Wilson got in change when he brought over some Chinese food.
House and Wilson do everything to determine what she ate, and believe, based on the Chinese food bill, there is a dime in change unaccounted for. They sneak her into the hospital to do an ultrasound and Wilson is sure he sees a dime. They later try laxatives to get the dime to pass with no luck. House even creates a diversion which causes Cuddy to have to work one more evening so House can continue to tend Rachel and make sure that she passes the dime. But when Wilson realizes that House ordered an extra item with their original carryout Chinese food, they recalculate the change and think there was no extra dime for Rachel to swallow. Later, House seems relieved and satisfied in bed with Cuddy, until Rachel makes a slight noise and Cuddy races to check on her, and finds that Rachel has a dime in her diaper. I found it odd that Cuddy would feel the need to race to Rachel when the sound Rachel made was so slight. Rachel is quick to point the finger at House when Cuddy wonders how she could have eaten a dime.
The episode did have a few worthwhile chuckles, but as far as the medical end of the show, it was completely devoid of drama. As House continues to be domesticated by Cuddy, he’s getting a funnier side, but his edginess is disappearing. It’s nice to see a happy and apparently healthy House, but I lament the disappearance of a character who always seemed to be on the cusp of disaster. The medical cases are also failing to engage. The show is going through the motions, and I feel that I too am going through the motions in watching it. Hugh Laurie still does a fine job in his role and without him this show would be nothing. Still, I would think it would be far better if they gave him something more than just being the hospital clown.
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Don’s big decision comes after spending time with his three children in California where they visit Disneyland. Betty (January Jones) has fired the maid/nanny Carla (Deborah Lacey) because she allowed Glen to say his goodbyes to Sally (Kiernan Shipka). This means Don no longer has Carla to take with him to watch the kids while on the trip. Lucky for Don, his secretary Megan was ready and willing to take her place. It was plain to see the writing on the wall when Megan comes into Don’s room to let him know she’s going out with a female friend to the Whiskey A Go-Go, and she is in a spectacular dress and looks fabulous. I think Don's eyes would have popped out of his head had his kids not been there. He also sees she has a wonderful way with the kids. He later takes the kids to visit Anna Draper’s home, and sees the "Dick + Anna '64" message he painted on the wall, admitting to Sally that Dick is a nickname. There, he is given the diamond ring the real Don Draper gave to Anna. You can see that the gears are working in his head.
Meanwhile, back at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) gets a lead on a possible account in Topaz pantyhose. She and Ken (Aaron Staton) work to land the account, which they later get because Peggy has a good understanding of the product and how women use it. By the way, earlier in the episode, the SCDP partners approach Ken about leveraging his father in law to help them get the Dow Chemical account, and Ken flatly refuses, somehow trying to give them the impression it’s not like him to take that low road.
Back home at the Francis household, Henry (Christopher Stanley) has heard about Betty's firing pf Carla from Carla, who tells him Betty refused a letter of recommendation. Henry has a beer in his hand and clearly looks like he’s already had a few. (Betty is an expert in driving men to drink.) Betty's rationale is that she "...wanted a fresh start" but Henry is irate, saying "There is no fresh start…lives carry on.” It may be a sign that while the season is over and that people may expect a fresh start next season, things will likely be the same for everyone, especially Don, who seems to be looking at his upcoming marriage as a new, and clean, beginning.
Lane (Jared Harris) promotes Joan (Christina Hendricks) to Director of Agency Operations, but there is no money for a raise at that time. She says, "Well, it's almost an honor," and goes back to delivering mail, something she must do since most of the office seems to have been fired to keep down costs. Later, we hear her talking to her husband Greg (Sam Page) via phone and is telling him she is pregnant. Oh boy, is Roger in for a surprise; it seems Joan didn’t really get that abortion.
Back in California, Don leaves the kids in the hotel room alone and heads over to Megan’s room. (I kept waiting for something bad to happen to one of those kids while they were alone in the room, but nothing did.) When Don and Megan spend the night, it’s clear that she has him on the ropes. I laughed when Megan was clearly self-conscious about her teeth and Don was not bothered by them at all, seeing that some fans of the show have made Megan’s teeth a point of ridicule. Don is roped in even further when, in a restaurant, Sally knocks over a milkshake and spills it. Don’s response is to get angry, and Megan stays cool and calm and quickly handles the matter. She’s got him now, hook, line, and sinker.
When they return home and after Megan spends the night at Don’s place, he asks her to marry him, the ring that the real Don Draper gave to Anna serving as the engagement ring. She seem speechless at first but then quickly agrees. I find myself getting more suspicions that he played right into Megan’s master manipulations, and his desire to be happy and to have someone love the kids has clouded his judgment.
When he gets to the office the next day, he gives the news to a stunned Roger (John Slattery), Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), Lane, and Joan. He later gives the news to a shocked Peggy, who came in to tell him he landed the Topaz account. Don tells Peggy that Megan has the same “spark” as Peggy, and that Megan admires Peggy as much as he does. Later, Peggy and Joan bemoan the developments: Peggy has a new client yet her news was overshadowed by Don’s engagement and Joan tells her she got a promotion – in title only. The both share a laugh over it.
But Don’s not laughing, as now he has to give Faye (Cara Buono) the news that he has found someone and is engaged. Faye is clearly devastated by this news, and tells Don that she hopes his fiancée knows he only likes “the beginnings of things” before she slams down the phone.
Later, Don stops by the empty Ossining house in order to meet with his real estate agent, and sees Betty there getting a box of items that were left behind. They share some memories about the house, and Betty adds "things aren't perfect" at the new home. She seems shocked when he tells her about his engagement to Megan, and then gives him gracious congratulations and also the Ossining house key.
As the episode closes, back in his apartment, Megan sleeps as Don lies awake, staring out the window.
While the episode was anticlimactic, Don’s impulsive engagement to Megan may have more serious repercussions than he thinks. Faye knows who he really is, and will her anger over his impending marriage cause her to use that information against him? Is Megan as harmless as she seems, or is she using Don as a means to an end? Will his marriage make his life more stable and help Don to purge himself of his demons and his past, or is he just buying himself a little happy time? Did Don have subconscious reservations about Faye, a career woman who seemed uncomfortable - and useless - with his kids, and did he not want to get into a relationship with another cold fish like Betty? Was Faye getting fired from her job and her telling him they were now free to have an open relationship the thing that made him feel like he was not in control of the relationship and being pressure by her? Was Megan just in the right place at the right time, the person that Don could feel like he could control and would be a wife to him and a better role model as a mother for his children than Betty? Or, does Megan have a master plan all her own and is she using Don? Have he and Betty finally buried the hatchet? Has Don really learned from all his past mistakes, and does he genuinely want to change his drinking and philandering ways in order to settle down? Has Don found his own version of Tomorrowland or, like Disneyland, is he just in a life that can only work in a fantasy? Don staring out the window at the end of the episode gives me the feeling that he’s still unsure. And that’s the genius of the episode. Even with no real shocking dramatic event taking place, we are still left with more questions than answers, and still find ourselves, like Don, roped in for more.
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Walter, meanwhile, is at Massive Dynamic and close to bringing enough life into Van Horn in order to find out what Van Horn knows. They enlist the aid of his wife Patricia, and she is able to get a response. Van Horn sits up and begins to rattle off numbers and places. His wife recognizes the information as their anniversary date and hotels where they were planning to stay to celebrate. They stop the test, and Olivia convinces them to all take a break – Newton has sent her a message to get everyone out of the lab. She needs them out of the lab so Ray can enter and get the shapeshifting device.
the problem is that Astrid (Jasika Nicole) – who Walter oddly calls her by her actual name Astrid and attributes it to him being on LSD – lets Walter head back to the lab alone. They don’t know that Walter has stepped into the elevator with Ray, the shapeshifter. Ray follows Walter to the lab and, shooting a guard, gets into the lab and gets the shapeshifting device out of Van Horn. Walter, not wanting the device to be lost, stabs Ray with a scalpel but Ray slams Walter against a beam, knocking him out.
When Peter realizes Walter is in the lab alone, he races there and steps into the elevator as Ray is stepping out. When Peter sees mercury on the elevator buttons, he knows it was a shapeshifter who just got out of the elevator and he stops the doors from closing. Olivia tells him to head up to Walter and she’ll go after the shapeshifter – of course she has no intention of doing so.
When Peter gets to the lab, he finds Walter down and out, but Walter comes to and Peter calls for medical help. Olivia returns and says she lost the shapeshifter. Peter works to get his identity from surveillance cameras.
Ray returns home and finds Newton waiting there. Newton is not happy that Ray went to the lab as his normal self, and then tells Ray he “took care” of his family, and when Ray reacts badly, Newton tells him he lied, he just wanted to see Ray’s reaction. Newton kills Ray and is putting the body in his trunk as Olivia and Peter drive up. Olivia shoots at the car and purposely misses. Newton wrecks his car in a tunnel and when Olivia catches up with the injured Newton, he gives her the shapeshifting device.
Afterwards, Newton is in a Federal Detention Center and Olivia comes to visit. He continues to question her ability. She hands him what looks like a computer chip, which Newton later ingests, killing himself.
Olivia texts Peter saying they need to talk. But when he gets to her place, she tells him she lied, she doesn’t want to talk – and she kisses him. Clearly she wants him to distract him into thinking she’s different but in a good way for Peter.
With Newton out of the way, Olivia now has free reign to run the operation as she sees fit. The problem is, does she know anyone else from the other side who is there to help her? With Olivia entering into a sexual relationship with Peter, is it enough to keep his mind away from the fact that he knows she’s different since she “came back” from the other side? And now, with Walter having full access to massive Dynamic and all its technology, will he still be the same Walter or will his mad scientist side return? How much did Van Horn know and how many more shapeshifters have infiltrated key positions? Were those words that Van Horn rattled off really what his wife thought? We’ll have to wait until the show returns with new episodes in November to begin to find out.
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House and Cuddy are still going through growing pains from their relationship, with House waking up in bed alone because Cuddy doesn’t spend the night. But when House calls in his regular masseuse, who is also a hooker, Cuddy draws the line and demands he stop. His answer is to get her a male masseuse all of her own, and she is somewhat quick to strip naked for a stranger in her own office. Yes, sure, nothing like someone who is in charge of a hospital removing all her clothes for someone she doesn’t even know while she’s at work. I am convinced that Cuddy is a dumb as a post and doesn’t have respect for her position at the hospital. When she finds out the masseuse is a male (gay) hooker, she aborts the process and confronts House about it. He eventually caves and agrees to get rid of his hooker masseuse, and she agrees to have House spend some time at her place and with her daughter, Rachel, who chews on his cane. He thinks she’s adorable and it looks like House and Cuddy have overcome another hurdle.
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With Sally, it looks like her counseling is having some positive effects, and she and her mother Betty seem to be getting along much better. Dr. Edna Keener (Patricia Bethune) tells Sally she is proud at how well Sally is coping, yet when Betty comes in for a progress report, Betty tells Keener that Sally is not better. Keener wants Betty to start seeing her own psychiatrist, and Betty resists the idea. Meanwhile, Sally continues to cement her friendship with neighborhood friend (and I think a stalker in the making) Glen Bishop (Marten Weiner). During one of the conversations she has with Glen, she tells him she doesn’t think there is a heaven, and doesn’t like the idea of doing something for eternity. She makes a very interesting observation about it, comparing eternity to the lady on the Land O Lakes box who is holding a box with a picture of herself holding a box which has the same picture on it, ad infinitum. This is a deep observation for such a young child; some may say it’s troubling that Sally doesn’t see anything positive in her life or death.
When Betty sees that it looks like Sally and Glen are going off to do something inappropriate, she chases Glen away and takes Sally home. When Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) comes home early for a rare dinner with the family, Betty announces that she doesn’t like the neighborhood anymore and wants to move. This makes Henry happy but causes Sally to run away from the table to cry in bed.
Meanwhile, Don Draper is trying to drum up business, and the meeting that Faye (Cara Buono) arranged with Heinz turns out to be a bust, as they want to wait 6 months before making any more to SCDP. Fyae’s boss Geoffrey Atherton (John Aylward) encourages SCDP to stick with what they do best – tobacco. He says he has an in to get them a meeting with Phillip Morris about a new women’s cigarette line – and this later falls through. They find that Philip Morris just used the threat of meeting to cut a better deal with someone else. It’s as if a pall of death is hanging over the company. Lane is working with the bank but each of the partners must come up with some money in order to help secure a bigger loan, but Pete doesn’t have the money and Trudy (Alison Brie) refuses to let her use any of theirs.
As he leaves for work, Don has what seems like a chance encounter with Midge Daniels (Rosemarie DeWitt), and he later finds that she tracked him down in order to sell him one of her paintings to feed her heroin habit. At home, while Don looks at the painting, he also seems to be thinking about what Peggy told him about changing the conversation, and he rips out the pages in his journal and starts writing something else. It’s a new full page ad that he places in the New York Times about “Why I’m Quitting Tobacco.” Needless to say, it rocks the company and the partners are furious, with Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) taking his shoes and quitting on the spot. Megan (Jessica Paré), however, applauds Don in private for his actions, saying she knows the purpose of the ad was to make it look like "he didn't dump me, I dumped him." Peggy is also pleased with what Don did, and seemed to recognize that Don really may have listened to her. Frankly, I’m not sure why none of the other partners could see Don’s point of view, but as Don is part of Creative, it’s not surprising. Of course, viewers have the benefit of hindsight and know that tobacco will soon be scorned and a highly unattractive account to have. It was a risky move on Don’s part, but it was also another look into his genius as an ad man.
Later, as they get ready to fire employees in order to keep the company afloat, they find that they may have a legitimate lead with the American Cancer Society because of Don’s anti-smoking statement. This may bring them additional contacts and leads. Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) finds that Don has ponied up Pete’s share of the money they need to keep afloat. Faye also gets fired from her job, seeing that Don’s actions have alienated tobacco so much that Atherton is severing ties with SCDP to avoid alienating his own potential cigarette accounts. Don is sorry but Faye sees this as an opportunity: they can now date openly. Somehow, I have this feeling that Faye has an inkling that Don and Megan have had a fling and Faye may think that dating openly may keep Don’s attention on her. We all know Don, and I suspect that Faye wanting more relationship time with Don may only serve to smother him.
As they fire people, Don looks back on the scene with people crying. We can only wonder what Don is thinking. Does he have regrets? Does he not care, and just sees this as a means to an end? Did his encounter with heroin addict Midge make him realize that he has to get off the tobacco accounts and kept the agency “clean”” and this is all part of the process? Somehow, I think Don Draper and SCDP could come out better and stronger. Don’s big risk may have been the best gamble that Don ever made and it may have the biggest payoff. Sally. However, seems to be headed for disaster. Any progress she may have made with her counseling may take a huge step back if Betty gets her way and moves the family. While Sally may have been trying to understand her mother’s perspective, Betty’s actions tell Sally that nothing with Betty has really changed.
“Blowing Smoke” was an interesting look into life through Sally’s eyes. Maybe both Sally and Betty have being blowing smoke about making their relationship work. This has been exposed as just a thin veneer that is cracking at the slightest hint of stress. Don, however, uses his desperation to blow smoke at the ad world through his full page ad, making people think he’s taken the high road by blowing away the tobacco companies. It all makes for an interesting set up for next week’s finale, “Tomorrowland,” where anything can happen.
Inside Mad Men “Blowing Smoke”
Mad Men “Blowing Smoke” Video Recap
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