![]()
The title "This Old Spouse" refers to both this weekly plot and to Don's reappearance. Interesting that the exact same amount of time has gone by: four months. Here, the ex-con would represent Don and the wife may represent Denby, who is associated with Don in order to support his drug habit in some way, or Jill, who is associated with Don because she can't help herself (another kind of addiction). The man who comes in is Diane, who was the one fooled into believing in Don's death originally, and is now becoming suspicious of Denby's involvement. She doesn't want to believe Denby is guilty (she mentions to Andy that she wonders if he and Don could be undercover, and Andy suggests otherwise). However, what she really refuses to believe for the entire episode is that Jill might have known all along that Don was alive and had been in contact with him - giving credence to the wife representing Jill. Possibly both Denby and Jill are represented by the wife.
Weekly plot 2:
Obviously Diane is the one who has been conned by Don and Denby, and now may be conned by Denby, who is trying to make her think he's drunk when he's not. But when she finds out Don is alive, she doesn't directly confront Denby, instead trying to con him into believing that she doesn't know about it - until the very last scene, where she tips her hand.
Diane: What's going on Denby?
Denby: I like to think of this as our spot.
He's obviously come to find out if she saw Don, but can't come out and ask, so he's making small talk and see if she brings it up.
Diane: Boy. You don't let a day go by.
Denby: Referring to what? 'I don't let a day go by...?'
Diane: To you looking bagged.
Denby: Ahhh. Well...a day missed loaded is a day wasted.
She notices that he's apparently been drinking. He's sucking on a mint, presumably to cover the booze on his breath. Later when Diane reports the meeting to Andy, she says she doesn't believe he was drinking but had only meant her to think he was. This statement has been interpreted by some to indicate that he's always faked being drunk.
Diane: Why'd you call me?
Denby: I had this sudden urge. I don't do good resisting those.
He, typically, evades a direct answer.
Diane: Now what?
Denby: Now? I ask you how you've been, what you've been up to.
He actually admits he's there to make small talk.
Diane: Pass.
Denby: (Spits out mint) Okay. I ask was that you across the street this morning at Freddie's?
Realizing she isn't going to give anything up, he decides to prompt her.
Diane: Yeah, I was at Freddie's. You were across the street?
Denby: Yeah. I saw you from across the street.
Diane: Is that when you got this sudden impulse?
Denby: That's what brought it on.
She won't deny being at Freddie's since he obviously saw her (and a denial would give away that she saw him). He's actually on relatively safe ground, theoretically, with his sudden impulse being brought on by seeing her - could be that seeing her made him think of her which made him want to call her.
Diane: Denby, you know how stupid this conversation is?
It's stupid because while he might have thought of her and wanted to talk to her, he obviously has nothing to say.
Denby: I liked it when you watched me drink.
He's really lost for a topic of conversation, which is unusual, indicating he's unprepared for the meeting, or at least that her seeing him threw him - he'd never anticipated that she would. Somewhat significant that he mentions her watching him drink before reiterating - again - that he'd like her to drink with him. And he says that's what he liked - maybe seeing her resist?
Diane: You should work on being embarrassed.
Denby: If you were drawing up a list though, wouldn't you put that pretty low?
If she's going to start talking about his faults, he has no trouble joining in. He is aware that his faults are faults, at least, and that he has many worse ones than, as he puts it, slowness to shame.
Diane: I'm not watching you drink.
Denby: And drinking with me, I guess that's still out of the question?
He actually doesn't directly ask her to drink with him, instead acknowledging in advance that he knows she won't. But he still leaves her the opening to agree if she wishes. What this part of the conversation is for (this whole last section about his faults, on his part) is to keep the conversation continuing. He's finally found a topic - his faults - she's willing to go on about, so of course he'll display some of them.
Diane: You're a self-centered prick.
Denby: Before my slowness to shame, my self-centeredness? Things you'd like me to work on?
He's asking it the self-centeredness is worse than not being embarrassed. Obviously she's right, since what he finally can carry a conversation on about is himself.
Diane: Don't do anything for me, Denby. Don't even move if a car comes.
She has such a good last line that it kind of overshadows what she said right before it: "Don't do anything for me, Denby." She's answering the question he last asked - did she want him to work on his faults? Her answer is no, that he shouldn't do that for her, answering as if he had asked it seriously (which he may or may not have done - but it did come out of his mouth). She knows that if he wants to change, he has to do it for himself, not to please someone else. The last line just drives the point home as well as giving her a good exit.
end of scene
Denby: What - summarizing Diane in a nutshell - can we say about life? It becomes more tawdry. Dangerous. Filled with more stupidity. Our eyes go. Faculties in general decline. We keep an interest in sex but we begin to shoot blanks. What we cannot say Diane, is that life gets less interesting. We can't say that and look at ourselves in the face as honest men and women.
He is not talking about life, per se, but his own life. This is actually a history, from his point of view, of what has happened to him. So his life has become tawdry, more dangerous (must be really bad since he was a narc before), and that he's acted stupidly. He can't tell what's going on anymore, and he finds it difficult to tell which course he should take. He's still interested in doing something constructive with his life, but while he can go through the motions (he still has his job as a detective), it has no effect, i.e. he's not really doing his job. But he has too much interest in his own life and freedom to turn himself in and face life in prison.
Diane: Could you stand a drug toss Denby?
Denby: Taking that as I do as some weird form of sexual overture; to hear you make that only now that I shoot blanks is sickening and tragic.
Diane: Coke, huh Denby? Got a romance going now with coke?
Diane's response, again, implies that "shooting blanks" refers to a cocaine hit. Harry's response to her question implies that he sees her suggestion of a drug toss as an effort to save him, but that he believes it's too late for that, which implies further that he knows he's done much worse than get himself hooked on drugs.
Denby: Offering two ways more of describing life, Diane. Am I right?
Diane: You stopped caring if the Job catches you?
Denby: (trying to pull her back on his wavelength) Two more ways would be sickening and tragic.
She is desperately trying to get him to see what he's doing to himself. He ignores her (he's already said it's too late for him) and continues describing his life as having become sickening and tragic. His use of the word 'tragic' implies that he knows he's responsible.
Diane: Or maybe you think you're bullet-proof.
Denby: No, no man is bullet-proof, Diane. No person of either sex. No primate can defy the well aimed shell.
Diane: (She slaps him) What are you doing? What are you doing, Denby?
She really cannot stand to watch what he's doing to himself, and it seems that nothing she is saying is getting through - even when he appears to hear her, he's so negative about his situation that he rejects any attempt she makes to shake him up. This, however, is the first reference he makes, however veiled, to death being a way out; far from feeling immortal, as she accuses him of feeling, he is a little too completely aware of his own mortality. Diane is so taken aback that she slaps him.
Denby: (hesitates a moment, vaguely surprised by her reaction) Before you struck me I was gonna say...given tawdriness, given our tendency to fall apart - what we could call moral and personal entropy - but acknowledging simultaneously that life keeps its interest...how about, as we decline, having comfort as a goal? For example; what is there to hate in some person or persons unnamed, having lots of money to drink with and to otherwise piss away in some exotic locale?
The slap nearly works. He is surprised by the vehemence of her feelings, and this in fact is what does get through. He didn't know Diane cared about him until now, and while she doesn't in the romantic sense, only from the point of view that he's a fellow human being, from his present point of view, as she's a beautiful woman, he interprets her caring as interest. The impression given is that she is the only one who does care.
Diane: You come into money, Denby?
Denby: I have had this vision of unbearable intensity that I am destined to win the lottery.
Diane: Right. That's how all those cartel boys got rich.
She has finally figured out what he was admitting to from the start of the scene - that he is much more deeply involved in the drug trade than simply as a user. His reference to the lottery is actually a delusion that surely luck must be coming up since his life has gone so wrong. He is, however, willing to accept that this 'luck' may be only financial, or - now - at best might include Diane as a companion.
Denby: (looking around the bar uncomfortably) Say I did come into money, Diane. Would you consider the two of us scarring our livers 'til they were masses of useless fat in Sirinam or the Falkland Islands, called by the Argentineans by some different name that presently escapes me, or anywhere else of your choice which - like them - does not extradite to Uncle Sam?
He becomes uncomfortable when she mentions the word 'cartel'. Might someone in the cartel be in the bar listening in, giving him yet another reason for such cryptic speech? Or, it could be the IAB who are investigating him ... But, for what he says, since he now knows Diane cares about him, he invites her along. His reasoning being that it's too late for him to join her, but he's perfectly happy to have her company if she'll join him.
Diane: I promise you Denby - hurt anyone I care about and I am going to ruin your party. I'll put a bullet in that brain you wasted.
She has reached the conclusion here that he is in whatever mess Don is in, which may affect her partner Jill, whom she cares very much about. By the same token, she also seems to be saying she won't turn him in unless he steps over her invisible line. Her last line acknowledges his obvious vast intelligence and how awful she thinks it is that it's being wasted by drugs and alcohol.
Denby: For God's sake Diane, let's not lose decorum at this late juncture. Like friends we both know, let's not lose our 'heads'.
She is going on about shooting him, and generally talking openly about stuff he might be doing to hurt someone. Up until now, their conversation hasn't really revealed that she's a cop, but he's afraid now that it might be. He references the body in the dumpster, who he still refers to as a "mutual friend" (Don), as an example of what could happen to them both if they start talking openly (lose decorum). This tends to support the contention that it's the cartel he doesn't want overhearing them and not the IAB.
Diane: Yeah, who was that guy you showed me in the dumpster that lost his head?
She tells him here that she knows it wasn't Don.
Denby: (sadly) Oh Diane. There's so much doubt in life. I thought that was the one thing we were sure about.
Strangely, he's not really surprised at her knowledge. His answer indicates that he apparently doesn't know - or that he has some idea, but isn't sure.
Diane: (seething with anger) Oh, I'd like to drink. I wish I was drunk so I could shoot you right now.
Yes, she's angry. He's just basically admitted to her that he set the scene by the dumpster up deliberately to fool her into thinking it was Don. She's angry because she thinks he really is endangering Jill, and using her as a tool to do it; angry enough to shoot him if she were out of control, and she says so.
Denby: It would thrill me so much to see you drink, Diane. I believe I'll roll those dice. We could even leave on some cruise ship, if I was discreet about where it docked...
It would thrill him because it would take the decision out of his hands. If she agreed to go with him, he'd no longer be in his quandary of whether or not he should in fact go. He is, in effect, using her to be the voice of his conscience in this entire scene.
Diane: I'll kill you. Look in my eyes, see if I'm kidding.
She thinks he's still not paying attention or taking what she said seriously. But her passion now is coming from a protection instinct she feels for Jill - she thinks that whatever he is doing, it's probably going to hurt Jill and she won't allow that.
Denby: (despondently) Do you really think I'd care?
Okay, here's the crux - Harry Denby is no "Total Slimeball". If he were, he wouldn't be this suicidal (and his voice is so despondent it can't be interpreted any other way). He may not be ready to blow his own brains out, but he truly does not care if he lives or dies. A "Total Slimeball" would care - especially since nothing has so far gone wrong with the illegal setup he's got going with Don. Everything he has so far said to Diane in this scene has been in little 'what if' remarks, like he's bouncing the idea of running away with his ill-gotten gains off her to see how it sounds. He's been trying to convince not Diane, but himself that it's okay to just take the drug money and run, but he simply can't justify it to himself, no matter that he sees the attraction: a lot of money to provide a life of ease. But his conscience bothers him so badly that he can't even think of any use for this money other than to keep himself drugged to a stupor so he doesn't have to think about how he got it.
Many people have interpreted this scene as just one more where Harry tries to tempt Diane into drinking and in going over to the 'dark side.' By studying the script, we can see that's not really what's going on here, but in effect, Harry gets hoist by his own vocabulary: Most of what he says is so cryptic it's impossible to decipher in real time.
end of scene
Theories:
Is Harry a "Total Slimeball"?
Is Harry a disillusioned cop?
Is Harry being blackmailed?
![]()
12 steps | related links | background | E-mail the webmistress | transcripts | students of denby | fanfiction |