Pete finally reaches his peak disgustingness.
So last night's episode was a vast improvement on the insultingly literal dream sequence from last week. It had everything most audiences want in television these days: sex, infidelity, a fight, and a sexy John Hamm sink fixing!
Pete
Source: media.amctv.com
Pete is an insult to the male gender. One thing that saved him from being negatively likeable this week is the beating Lane inflicted on him. Because while he was definitely the most odious character last night, at least in that scene he kind of started to get what he deserved. (Although what he deserves more than anything at this point is for Trudy to beat the crap out of him with a hot iron before leaving him for someone infinitely more attractive and nicer.) His lowest moment of the whole series — aside from impregnating and abandoning Peggy — may have been when he blatantly hit on the high schooler in his driver’s ed class. Since that other hot high school student cock-blocked him, he took his frustration out on the drunk prostitute in a supremely creepy way: after telling the poor girl he’s not that easy, he refuses to acquiesce to her advances (which he's paying for) until she says, “You’re my king.” It was a complete role reversal from the driver’s ed girl, who he had to hit on so hard it was just as embarrassing as what that prostitute endured when she got on her knees in her underpants and said that to him.
The other thing that made Pete not negatively likeable is the pea-sized amount of self-awareness he possesses. In the car ride on the way home after the brothel he gets defensive as soon as he’s alone with Don. “Why do I feel like I’m riding with a nun?” he says, as though he’s transferring his disgust for himself to Don. “You of all people.” Pete assumes that since Don was a huge infidel before Megan, he’ll let his behavior slide. But for some reason Don holds Pete in higher esteem than his old self, and Roger, who also paid for sex that night. “Roger is miserable. I didn’t know you were,” Don says. He warns Pete that he could ruin everything he has with Trudy and his baby and his house, and says that now he’s got Megan, he’s not going to “throw her away.” Pete is so caught up in his breathless self-defense you wonder if he hears Don at all. Don’t be like me — unless you’re fixing a sink. That’s Don’s message, but Pete still seems to want so much to be like Don, he completely blocks out the wisdom of his words, which is probably what Don would have done when he was Pete’s age.
Likeability score: 0%
Don
Source: media.amctv.com
