The Rosie Project

Don buys roses on his way to pick Rosie up for dinner. In picking her up in a taxi and handling their arrival at the restaurant—the same restaurant where they attempted to have dinner on their first date—he demonstrates that he has mastered the social niceties and protocol that escaped him before. Rosie notices these changes but does not know how to react. She is impatient to know why Don has brought her to the restaurant.

Don asks her to marry him. Rosie says no because she doesn’t believe that Don loves her. He doesn’t exhibit his understanding of love the same way that she does, by crying at romantic movies, for example. She tells Don that they shouldn’t see each other anymore.

Don gets up and asks for the bill, meeting Claudia and Gene as they arrive to join the celebration Don had planned for the evening. It is Don’s 40th birthday. Gene and Claudia criticize Rosie for not appreciating how much Don has changed, on her orders. Rosie is upset and leaves.

Gene and Claudia are clearly very much back together, and Gene has forgiven Don for giving him a talking-to. Despite his recognition of those positive developments, Don leaves upset about Rosie.