Jenn recaps 4.09 "The Beautiful Girls"

The best thing about this show is that you never know what you're going to get. I've never seen such ironclad previews that leave you so desperately hanging, yet never reveal a thing about what actually is going to happen.

Episode 8 starts out with Don hurrying to meet someone and it turns out to be Dr. Faye Miller for a lunchtime shag. The 'ole Draper is back in the saddle with his mid afternoon love affairs!

Back at the office, Don makes it in time for his Auto meeting but is diverted twice with drama, the first being Sally has run away from home and taken the train to Manhattan to live with Don. The second, Peggy finds poor Miss Blankenship finally typed her last note and has passed away at her desk. While the Auto meeting is still on in the conference room, they have to quickly remove Blankenship in what ensues in utter hilarity at moving the body from the desk with an afghan that Harry's mother made. Despite all that Don manages to close the deal really showing how well he can handle a cut and dry meeting yet is totally lacking when it comes to showing comfort to his daughter or real regret for his secretary. "I would ask my secretary to do it - but she's dead!"

It was interesting to see the coupling of Joan and Roger's reactions to Blankenship. It struck them both hard, Joan because she saw herself as an older woman in Miss Blankenship, and Roger who too, is scared he will meet that same fate. The trauma causes them to rekindle the closeness and chemistry they have always shared. I had been wondering when they might reconnect, it's so obvious that they both love each other. Roger is able to really be himself around Joan without having to crack jokes all the time just to fill in the gaps. I thought the mugging scene could have been shot much better, but still shows how easy it was for them to tell the truth to one another about their feelings after being stripped down of both their possessions and guard. This is only the beginning I think of what is to come for them. Is she going to get pregnant with Roger's baby? Is Greg going to die in Vietnam? It seems that Roger will surely be single again with Jane Siegal Sterling off to the Hamptons for the weekend on a Wednesday. The fact that Joan's ring was taken was a clear sign of foreshadowing.

Poor Sally Draper. She is the direct casualty of her parent's irresponsible parenting and divorce. She is getting so grown up looking, but is starving for attention and love. She is such a good actress too, her scene with Don when he was tucking her in asking to live with him was so tender and real. Then in the morning proving how responsible she can be by making French toast with Rum on top for her father and then going to the Central Park Zoo. I want that day too!

I thought this episode really demonstrated the weakness of men and how they constantly rely on women especially in times of trouble. Don cannot leave his business meeting even though he has a child in trouble and a dead secretary, so he enlists Faye to take care of his daughter for the rest of the day. Roger needs Joan for comfort even though she has a much larger worry going on in her own life. The receptionist is now having to shuffle between Don's desk and the waiting room. Joan has to write the obituary for Miss Blankenship even though Bert clearly knows much more about her evidenced by Roger's tapes about her being a hellcat and sleeping with Bert.

The only woman not giving comfort is Betty. We see her as not too fazed that Sally has run away from home and was in potential danger, but rather sees it as an opportunity to punish Don by making him keep her for the night just so he can see what it's like. Toward the end when Betty comes to pick up Sally at the office, I love how the women of the office hover in the doorway staring at Betty like a pack of wolves. It is as if they are saying, "We can see everything that is going on here even though we don't know you. What is wrong with you, your child needs your love." Betty ignores it and seems more worried about the fact that Sally has made her late.

Perhaps much more trouble is on the horizon with Sally and whatever it is will bring Betty and Don together and he'll have to choose his family or Faye.
Although I should stop predicting because this show is brilliantly unpredictable!

Details:

1. I just loved the snippet of Joan answering the door for her massage in those awesome glasses and pink PJ's. She's just so sexy even when lounging around. I want her to wear those glasses to the office, let her hair down and wear pants one day. That would be so fierce.

2. I always wonder when I see people having an afternoon shag during work hours in movies and TV about how many people in real life are actually doing this. I know it goes on a lot, but how does it work especially for the ladies? Wouldn't it be obvious by mussed hair...buttons missing or buttoned wrong? Must be stressful. Just something I've always wondered. I really cannot imagine myself with my kind of crazy hair showing up after all that and carrying on!