Wow.
This was another genius episode, full of plot points both huge and
tiny, countless character revelations, and endlessly competing views on
ethics, loyalty and the right thing to do.
We start with a party
at Paul's apartment in an "artsy" section of New Jersey, because
apparently Greenwich Village just doesn't cut it anymore. With his
beard and pipe and with-it attitude, Paul is trying so hard to be hip
that he actually comes off as square. Which ex-girlfriend Joan
calls him on, but not before telling his new squeeze, an
African-American checkout clerk at the local supermarket, that she's
just part of the hipster package. (Which may be true, but still.)
Although Joan's always been a snob, we later find out that she's been
extra-bitchy lately because she recently turned 31 -- which is clearly
over the hill for a single career gal.
In the city the next day,
everyone's commute is fouled up by the ticker-tape parade honoring John
Glenn's early space flight. (Image-conscious Don, of course,
immediately senses how popular Glenn will be.) But that's not what
they're all talking about at the office: According to the radio, an
American Airlines flight from New York has crashed into Jamaica Bay for
no apparent reason. (This is based on real life -- both events actually
happened on the same day in 1962.) After shocked responses quickly give
way to sick jokes, news of the crash leads to the main action of the
episode:
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