Juvenile Cinephile

Now last week, I told you that I knew of a certain spoiler that I discovered reading details of a clip that circulated on the show’s carrier in the UK.  It was the scene where Pete gives the proposition to Joan.  Now I did not know she would accept it or how the partners would deal with the news or that Joan would ultimately fulfill my aspirations for her being the first female partner of the company.  But still, I think knowing that beforehand led to me not really having a severe, projecting, judgmental reaction to it like some viewers and critics (**cough** Linda Holmes **cough**) of the event.  This week there seems to be a more ominous and obvious turn coming from the previews for a few characters.  Let’s break down the promo for ‘Next Week on Mad Men’:

MAD MEN #5.12

“COMMISSION AND FEES”

Scarlett dictating a partners meeting that Joan is now apart of with a unanimous iraise of hands.  Scarlett has replaced Joan in her role given that Joan is now married to the company with 5% of the stake in SCDP.  You can bet she will not be silent or an easy push to get a vote.  

“You can’t tell anyone about this”- Don to Megan

-Is this work-related?  Or home-related?  Either way, that Don is imploring Megan to hide something is interesting given that they really do not cross-over into each other’s worlds at all anymore.  This pretty much stands by the idea that nothing leaves The Draper Love Nest without Don’s control.  But why would Don want Megan to keep a secret?  Is it regarding his identity get forged by Lane Pryce?  Is it that Don is so frustrated by the turn of events at the company that he tells her about the Joan incident?  Or is it something inter-personally about them?  The third option seems like the highest chance among the other categories since it is expected that whatever news is going on with them they both are in the position of power to tell whomever the want, except Don wants to control the message.  Megan looks a bit surprised and anxious about whatever he wants her to keep as a secret.  Is it their health?  

Will not say the p-word.  WILL NOT SAY THE P-WORD.   It could easily be Don’s health being an issue.  His smoking only seemed apparent in two episodes, “Far Away Places” (Megan hated his smoking in the car) and “The Other Woman” (stress with the Jaguar account turned him into a chimney for that period) whereas the man is drinking alcohol like a fish and it has come up more as a concern for Megan and Don before, even before they were even a thing.  

I do hope it is Don who finds out about the forgery and that maybe Megan, staying at home in The Draper Love Nest gets a call regarding the check.  Could that be the straw that broke the camel’s back?  Don may have no will to live in that agency any longer if they are letting it bleed in his name.  Sally is going to be in this episode but I do not see how it could involve her and why it would effect Megan or her having secrecy being asked of in that situation.  I think she knows well enough by this point that telling Betty anything that goes on at their place is a bad idea.  

“I’m sure there are others more deserving.”-Lane Pryce

-I am thinking Lane is out there about talking to some tax lawyer or banker with the interest of the company’s credit.  Could also be a client or it could be with his wife, Rebecca.  There is an air of unease to him as this could be a really be the character-defining episode for him and I am on pins and needles to see if he will go down like a coward or swinging.  Yep, I do not even think he can recover from the forgery. 

 “Were you celebrating with Don?”- Joan

There is a bit of sardonic side to her when she says that.  She could be talking to Pete, Roger, or Lane.   But I am thinking she and Roger are now on a strictly professional relationship, partner-to-partner with little cuteness.  Pete, oddly for a guy who put her into the position she was last episode he appeared to be most comfortable with her in the room at the partners meeting but I do not think they are suddenly talking to each other in that manner, Joan is a professional.  Since this appears to be a Lane episode I am thinking she is talking to Lane because I really hope that a Lane-Don drink talk has a lot of potential in fallout.  Don may not even know beforehand, it could just be Lane spilling and Don (understandably) freaking out.  

Also want to note that Joan’s outfit is what she is wearing in Inside Mad Men shorts on AMC’s website.  Usually, the characters are wearing what they wore for the finale/last episode.  I know Joan re-wears clothes but that red, white, and blue number is note for note what she wears in the shorts.  So, I do not think we will see any Joan for the finale.  With that said, I really hope she hope her screen-time regardless of length is significant this episode.  

“I don’t like what we’re doing.”-Don

-Don seems completely broken creatively after his Jaguar pitch got tainted by Joan’s tryst.  He may also be stuck on an account with a room of free-lancers and Ginsberg that is going nowhere.  Note, those free-lancers last week in the end were useless since Ginzo came up with the idea for the campaign and Don nailing the message.  He is hitting the bottle and as another life-line in his office leaves, he seems more alone than before, probably not trusting the partners or Joan in the same way again.

“So you’re drinking with a purpose.”-Roger

Could be Roger just being observant and trying to give Don advice since the Jaguar account or it could be that Don is working on an alcohol-related account, hence ‘drinking with a purpose’.  Not much time has past since the ‘incident’; it is still winter with the snow coming down in the background window of Don’s office.   Roger has also lost his existential breakthrough LSD afterglow and things could be returning to normal, for Roger, but not Don who probably wants to get more clients to move on from the stink of the Jaguar account.  

Don is leaving the office late at night and it should be noted that all of these shots in the promo have him in the same suit and tie, including his talk with Megan.  It would make sense that she could get a call from a bank, an accountant, the doctor, or wherever about ‘the secret’ while he is at work or it could be early morning.   Don has a lot  on his plate that day.   

“You know you can’t keep being the good little boy while the adults run this business.”-Bert

Looks like this will be another talk with Don.  Invokes both the love-leave comment from ‘”Far Away Places” and Pete’s comment in “Signal 30” that Don suddenly acts like he has the moral high-ground.  That Bert is having another talk with Don makes me think this has become serious.   Don is still rankled by the ‘incident’ or the continued behavior of the firm has defeated Don with Pete rising and while he is getting marginalized.  

Other Stuff in the Original Promo:

Don is answering the phone but says something to the effect that he finds this conversation to not be at the right time.  Could be Sally, could be Betty, could be Megan; I just think anybody on the other end of that phone conversation is family-related as he is trying to be work-focused.  But since he is in the same suit and tie as the rest of the promos, the call could easily have gotten forwarded to his home on his insistance knowing that Megan is there who tells him later that night.  

Also a shot of Rebecca Pryce telling Lane that they should ‘celebrate’.  I am assuming this is work-related with the company that Rebecca wants to treat him but this could be on false pretenses with Lane holding the bolt in the company and probably is too guilty of a man that he has to be pushed into celebrating.  

How were My Predictions Last Week, You Ask?

-Nailed the Jaguar stuff with a little help from Sky Atlantic HD and very dedicated viewers.

-Nailed that Don and Megan were going to have kinky sex in his office.  Did not realize it would be as much of a break for her as it was for him.  

-Knew Peggy would triumph in something related to a pitch but not that Don would have his mind elsewhere, again, that finally pushes Peggy out of the agency.  

-Knew Lane would not be revealed but did not realize the depths he would go to cover his tracks.  

Predictions:

Lane finally does get discovered.

Don’s issues are health-related and something he prefers to be discreet about.

Don is going to have thoughts of where he is within the company that may make him seriously contemplate his mortality with the company.  To echo Roger’s unease in “The Beautiful Girls” episode from season 4, Don does “not want to die in this office”.

Sally’s presence at The Draper Love Nest is going to make Betty freak out in some way that is just going to annoy the Drapers.  She may not be the subject of the secret but Sally may just get in on the secret based on her curiosity and precociousness.  

Pete is clearly becoming a rainmaker.

Joan’s assertion of power is going to bowl over one of the male partners, if not already with Don.

Some junior employee is going to put two and two together with how Joan became a partner.  It may be a Pete Campbell revealing ‘Dick Whitman’ to Bert Cooper in a season 1 type of blackmail that falls on deaf ears or it could lead to somebody leaving because of the grossness of it.  

I feel like since the previews show many of the characters in the same outfits, most notably Don Draper, that either this episode is going the “Far Away Places” route where the episode is in a day or something big is being withheld.  The end of Lane?  The end of somebody’s time at SCDP?

MAD MEN

“THE OTHER WOMAN”

#5.11

Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway Harris.  We saw them in the beginning as secretaries with Joan navigating Peggy how to play the game.  But Joan’s passive aggressive queen-bee status and Peggy’s earnestness were just a mismatch.  They are not the same kind of woman in a variety of different ways, and the different eras of the workplace each one represents reappears time and time again.  Joan never thought of herself beyond being a secretary, even though it is proven and spoken how she could easily do the work of the male partners at SCDP.  Peggy went from secretary to copy-writer and is still willing to kick in the glass ceiling even though I would say she is pre-second-wave feminism at this point.  The moment after the news of winning the Jaguar account, Joan gives an exiting Peggy a look.  Joan might not know off the bat that she is gone for good from the agency, but there is a sense of Joan can never leave the agency.  She is the personified organ of the agency and ever the more indispensable after this episode. Peggy is moving on, she has outgrown the agency and the shadow cast by her boss and ‘older brother’ figure Don.  We saw in “Lady Lazarus” that the empty elevator shaft that Don sees after Megan leaves seems to point how he can never really leave.  Peggy leaving of course is horizontal at this point; same field, different agency.  Can she move up vertically?  Let’s hope Mad Men gives us the privilege to see that.  

Prior to Peggy leaving SCDP, we have seen in little bits each episode that she has plateaued in her work there.  From getting buried in an account that she got thrown off of, getting phased out of working on accounts because of her gender, and her work being under Michael Ginsberg’s name had to unnerve her as she was practically living in the office re-doing and re-viewing work for the day.  Don throwing money in her face, who has ignored a lot of her situation this season be it with his marriage or being anxious over the Jaguar account, was the breaking point. Peggy has never given a thought with a career outside of advertising but her wings at SCDP seemed clipped and her pact with Ken Cosgrove appeared to just be in name only.    But she realizes she can walk away, realizing money cannot solve her problem with her and the agency.  There is no price for her creativity.  

Joan also did not put a price on the asset that has gotten her most attention at the agency but that response was ambiguous enough for Pete Campbell to twist to the partners that she could do a proposition from an important Jaguar exec.  Money will not do, for many reasons, but Lane Pryce plants a seed in Joan’s head that a 5% stake and partnership in the company will do.  Now people think that Joan rejecting Roger offering to pay for Kevin seems like a much better option when weighing the two but for Joan, the Roger option still has her dependent on somebody else’s money.  That is just not Joan.  Yes, she is giving away her agency for the night but her reward is something in her control and not in a control of a man she knows far too well.  It is heartbreaking to see Joan willingly let go of that agency with the Jaguar exec and even more perverse that the glass ceiling has somewhat cracked at SCDP based on this with Joan as the first female partner but, even if Joan does not know the whole story from all of them, the male partners at the firm have all been involved in ethically questionable and heinous acts with clients.  Joan is not ashamed about it but even with her vertical rise through the agency, it is this agency and something she cannot walk away from.   

I think for both Joan and Peggy, their options are completely in character.  Peggy may have been raised through the agency but she is a woman who realizes she can walk away and not have to follow the path expected of woman at that time.   Joan does follow the path expected of her and if anything, the path has been very disappointing and destructive to her.  Joan relishes the power she has at the agency and there is something to note that with Greg out of the picture, but in the picture enough that he is seen as Kevin’s father, getting control back comes through the agency that not only helps her but the agency— as backwards as that is given what she has to do for both her and the SCDP.  

People seemed surprised that Don was against Joan doing it or rather, the only one against it.  I think in a way, he wants the Jaguar account for himself rather than Pete, Lane, Roger, and Bert openly pimping out Joan.  Last episode, Don made it his mission to get the Jaguar account and his pitch, via the ever perceptive Michael Ginsberg, seemed like the one pitch to officially get him back in the saddle.  However, we find out that his 11th hour trip to tell Joan not to go through with it was too late and that the account is tainted.  And by the end of that day, he loses the thrill of winning the account, his protege, and the woman he could never have but respected.  Work is no longer fun for Don already and a day like that may have done more long-term damage for him professionally at the agency. Don is removed from love-leave but also work, frightened that Megan was the one that would ‘run away’ when it stood true for Peggy.  He does not really understand it, Peggy wanting to leave, but it makes him uneasy with what he is left with.  Can he ever leave?  Or is his exit that empty elevator shaft, that he can never leave?  

Among the season 5 episodes, “The Other Woman” stands out in not just its all-around quality and balance but plot-wise it could be a real game-changer for the season and perhaps the series overall.  My only real complaint is the lack of Roger, and not just for zingers, but the fact that we saw no dilemma going through his head about Joan getting propositioned and that he trusted Pete Campbell’s word.  This season has been accused of being too “obvious” with its themes and the theme of women compartmentalized, objectified, and used as objects may scream out on paper as ‘try hard’ but it underscores that nothing has really changed.  There may be more ways and options for women to walk away but I think it says a lot that the briefest but most on-the-noise (in a good way) sub-plot was Megan’s audition because I am certain that for Matthew Weiner and the like in the industry, that is kicking the hornet’s nest.  

Other Thoughts:

Yes, I definitely was in tears at the end of this episode with the way Don, Joan, and Peggy gave each other heartbreaking looks.  This should easily be the Emmy submission episode for Christina Hendricks.  

A show of hands: Who recoiled in abject terror when they saw Pete turn his head and smirk after talking to Joan?

I do not think this is Elisabeth Moss’ last episode of the season, let alone the series, though her beaming exit into the elevator as The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” was stupendous.  A much needed lift from all of the sadness.  

My only negative response to Peggy leaving is that it is to work for Ted Chaough.  I hate that guy!  Why did Freddy have to direct her to him?  

Don and Megan seem to need each other as escapes and breaks from their careers sexually.  I think it has dawned on Megan that returning to acting is not easy but their talk about the Jaguar pitch at home after work showed she is not giving into the temptation of critiquing the ‘mistress’ pitch, leaving the bedroom to look at a script.  But hell, even her late night visit to Don when she shoots down Stan and the free-lancers asking for any ideas had her give a dismissive statement that was still more interesting than what they were coming up with, with the exception to Ginsberg’s pitch- but he was on Mars anyway.

Now Ginsberg looking at Don’s office contemplating Don and Megan brings into question what he sees as who is getting ‘owned’, that most certainly inspired his pitch.  At first, I thought for sure Megan was ‘the Jaguar’ (certainly not ‘the Buick in the garage’) but rethinking his phrase that she ‘comes and goes as she pleases’ makes me think it speaks to how she has Don wrapped around her finger.  Given that he knew her as the boss’ wife, I think for him he easily sees that she is the one who won in this union and not the other way around and that is not necessarily her as the one ‘owned’.  

Pete never answered Joan’s hypothetical of how he would react if Trudy got propositioned.  I think we all know the answer to that question.  

Joan’s mother flirts with plumbers, is casually racist toward people of color, and now wants Greg to die in Vietnam.  I think we know what part of her personality she is fan-servicing as a character.  

I note that Peggy’s realization that there is nothing for her at SCDP is pre-second-wave feminism.  The fact that her biggest champions are Freddy Rumsen and Ken Cosgrove, not to mention Harry Crane speaking fondly of her to Don, shows that although the feminist streak in Mad Men in terms of plot and character arc is still in developing stages it is not going to be a random showcase of ‘The 60s!’.  

Will Jaguar ever want their product on the show ever again?  Now I just think all of their execs look like Antonin Scalia.  

This took place in mid-January but close enough to Valentines Day in 1967.  Did Super Bowl I already happen?  The game was not really taken seriously as an event so I can imagine it goes under the radar in the zeitgeist whereas the Ali-Liston fight in Season 4’s “The Suitcase” was must-see, must-hear, must-watch.  

This episode was co-written by Matthew Weiner and Semi Chellas who co-wrote this season’s “Far Away Places” and you got that feel of “Far Away Places” with the ‘return’ to Joan’s apartment to realize her tryst with the Jaguar exec already happened and Don’s quest to change her mind was too little, too late dramatic irony.  

Janie Bryant style callback.  Not just Joan wearing the black fur Roger gave her but a callback to her likeness to Rita Hayworth by going Gilda with the Black cocktail dress.  

That montage of Joan’s tryst and the pitch was gold and would make Eisenstein cry if he did not hate capitalism and consumerism so much.  Also helped the Jaguar models in Stan’s art work were hot red.  

People are wondering why Don would be concerned with Joan using her body but not Sal with Lee Garner Jr. in Season 3.  Beyond the homophobia and Joan being a woman, he admires Joan way more than Sal.  For Don, Joan is the indispensable, living incarnate of the agency.  Sal was a dispensable creative type who was a dime a dozen.  

MAD MEN 

#5.11

“THE OTHER WOMAN” 

Let’s begin by me saying I am partially withholding information as I have known from a couple of spoilers that have been readily available to UK viewers of Mad Men on the channel that carries it, Sky Atlantic HD, about what is going to happen with a couple of characters this episode.  Although I did not see a clip that is pretty integral to the plot, there was also a Radio Times preview summary of the episode there were many savvy UK viewers that each gave the in-depth description of said preview scene.  As you can imagine nothing shown in that preview scene was available for us viewers in the ‘Next Week on Mad Men’ clip at all.  Still with that information in the back of my mind, I am willing to decipher the clip without spoiling it.

Jaguar is still obviously in the game with Don giving a previous pep talk that this is essentially what SCDP is going to be working on for the remainder of the holidays through the New Year.   But what to say about the preview clip?

Don looking out the window of his office just smoking a cigarette.  Immediately it appears this in the same time frame as the next clip of Pete calling all of the senior and junior partners into a closed-door meeting in Pete’s office.  

Judging by Don’s facial reaction to being asked to close the door, this looks very impromptu and perhaps involves the sensitive nature in the tactics of how to win the Jaguar account, according to Pete Campbell.  

“You have to stop being afraid.”- Joan

Clearly she is serving as the office’s Lucy van Pelt and is giving Lane advice.  Given that Lane forged Don’s signature on a check and that Joan was phased out of the partner meetings regarding the Christmas bonuses, perhaps she knows what is up.  She has to know by the books that Lane’s push for bonuses even before the Mohawk Airlines account stalling was probably something that should not be on the table.  Or he could be opening up to her on a personal matter.  She does not seem mad at him but warm and encouraging so I think at first she does not know about the forgery or his very interesting math about the Christmas bonuses.  

“Let’s stop playing games.”-Trudy Campbell

Uh-oh.  Does Trudy know about Beth?  Does she know at least something is up with her husband’s behavior recently?  Is she tired of his persistence in looking for new clients which seems to border on stalker-ish by his own admission?  This seems like a different kind of Trudy than we have ever seen, especially this season.  Something is up and she is not taking Pete’s BS at all.  Go Trudy!

“We want to know why you want to pull the ad?”-Ken Cosgrove

It appears Ken is talking over an inter-com at the SCDP offices.  Is it a client or somebody within the company?  Is it Jaguar or some other account that they cannot afford to have problems with at that point?

Peggy is there and I am sure as a part of creative who needs to know what was wrong with it  to fix it and I guess it is good to see her on an account again after her work with both Mohawk under Ginsberg’s name got stalled and getting buried in Heinz beans.  So even in what seems to be a bit of a distressing situation, Peggy is there with Ken and not physically near a client to strangle him for not liking the ad a la “Far Away Places” Peggy.  

“He just came right out and said that?”- Bert Cooper

This seems to be the closed-door meeting in Pete’s office given that in the background of where Cooper is sitting, there appears to be a photo of Trudy.  

Something seems to be going on with Jaguar where Pete has the most direct-line of communication than anybody else in the company so I am guessing he is the one giving this news.  Bert sounds a bit surprised.  What could it be?  I do not think the account itself is in danger but there is something very specific that involves the account that was communicated to Pete about what the company needs to do to win the account.  

A woman’s hands cover Don’s face who appears to have falling asleep and gets awakened.

Now given that this episode is called “The Other Woman”, everybody was guessing/fearing/theorizing that somebody in the office is having an affair and given the direction of the Calvet-Draper union, could Don possibly cheat again remains an interesting question.  But this appears to be innocent.  

You notice that he is at the SCDP office and that this Don is working overnight with creative.  You can tell he is with creative because there are boxes of chinese food all over the table and we have already seen creative with Chinese and they are total night owls.  I think it is Peggy covering his eyes to wake him.  For her this has been her everyday life for months where work is her home.  You notice somebody in the background there and I believe it is Ken (Ginsburg would have to have a fashion makeover and Stan’s linebacker build does not fit the description either) since he and Peggy are buds so he is also working late to fix the pitch or brainstorm the Jaguar account.  

It could also be Megan surprising Don since the blouse does look a bit like the paisley number she had on for “Dark Shadows”.  She could be getting out of class and visiting knowing that her husband is working late and quite possibly be giving him a ‘break’ with a little relaxation.  **cue the train going into the tunnel and fade to black**

“A wife is like a Buick in the garage”- Megan Draper

Now people are speculating that could Megan already be so defeated by not getting any acting gigs that she could be giving him another pitch a la Heinz Beans.  

But I just sense that this pitch will annoy her.  In fact, I can probably finish the pitch she is reciting, “A wife is like a Buick in the garage.  The Jaguar is like ‘the other woman’ you take on the road”, or something of that nature.  That has to annoy her in my mind, giving that she knows the man she married.  Unless she is trying to help him and what would make her husband happier than her helping him out like the Heinz pitch?  Again, these two have the strangest aphrodisiacs.  Babies, cleaning, breaking things, fixing things, and successful business pitches.  Maybe these two can make it?  

But a part of me loves that they are calling back a Roger Sterling neologism when he hit on Betty in the Draper home and when is confronted by Don he says, “Sometimes you park the car in the wrong garage” and that John Slattery and Jon Hamm both do car ads.  So a callback and being meta.  Love it.  

But back to Megan saying this.  She looks like she is in nightwear talking to Don before they go to sleep.   Given their last advertising-related discussion went off like a led balloon, I think this could also lead to a bit of friction.  It might not even be Don’s pitch but something he green-lit but Megan could easily see this as Betty Draper Poisonous Smog Monster level of passive aggression.  

“What are you hoping I can do for you?”- Don Draper

The look on Don’s face makes me think, “This is a woman he is talking with!”.  He would never talk like that to a guy.  He has that stupid flirty smile on his face with that leading question.  I believe he is in his office and that this is during his ‘living in the office’ night given he has on the same neck tie as the previous clip after being awoken.  So I can easily see the woman who wakes him being Megan with him being surprised and they go into his office and then….. **cue train going into the tunnel and fade to black**

What Also in the Original Airing Promo:

Ken and Pete at a dinner together which can mean either Cynthia and Trudy are friends or they are at a client dinner.  Guessing by their exchange, I believe it is the latter.  Ken says, “Was that what I think it was?” to Pete’s “Yes it was!”.  Pete’s uncomfortable smile means it is business.  Lane also has a clip in the partners meeting where he gives a pep talk saying, “Go on!”  That this fell on deaf ears in all likelihood could point to his little meeting with Joan.  There is also Pete knocking on Joan’s door?  Have we ever really seen those two interact?  Hmm…

Prediction:

The Jaguar account will have conditions that I am not sure people will be comfortable with.  Peggy may have some rescuing to do on an account that finally lets her out of her creative abyss.  There is a photo of Don and Peggy with him appearing to look happy for her and she is not dressed like a Catholic school-girl so she appears to be dressed to impress so I am hoping Peggy is victorious in some fashion this episode.  

Lane will not be found out and exposed… yet.  

Pete will be in trouble with a lot of people.  

Megan and Don will have some alone time in his office but she will be looking at the ads and be colored unimpressed by the message of the Jaguar ad and challenge Don on it.  

Jaguar is never going to want to having their product on Mad Men ever again.   

How did I do last week, you ask?

It was not Christmas but around early December/Pearl Harbor Day.  

Megan did take Don to a play which insulted him and he made a jab at her for leaving the agency for being against advertising with him looking miserable and while their Christmas dinner was not ruined, we did have Megan’s sad spaghetti.  

Harry is not leaving but we saw Paul again and I guess to see Kinsey again we needed more Harry.  Whatever.  Nobody saw that Krishna turn coming, however.  

Very little Peggy this episode as the clip was her only scene discussing Paul’s fanfic… I mean spec script for Star Trek.  

Nailed Joan’s relationship with Greg coming to a conclusion and that she would open up about it.  It turned out to be Don.  

Now Don and Joan did pose as a couple but nothing happened so I will not eat any hats but he did make that sardonic couple line to Pete.  Don was talking about the bonuses but he wanted them withheld until the party but nobody is sure who he was talking about.  Joan?  Peggy?  Megan?  

Lane is in deep shit, indeed. 

…. I have to say I was a little skeptical of the HBO comedy Veep and how accurately they could portray the Hill.  After 3 episodes, I love this freaking show.  All the awards to Julie Louis-Dreyfus and Anna Chlumsky.  It is like Parks & Rec with an office of Ron Swansons and Donnas who say whatever is on their mind.

And seriously, the obesity sub-plot with Selina Myer having a meltdown that ended this past week’s episode is amazing and a reminder of what happened in the office I was in DC when a major legislation got killed and we were stuck looking for ‘safe’ stuff to work on.  

Mad Men 

“Christmas Waltz”

#5.10

Despite Mad Men’s Season 5 partly being about moving to the future there have been constant reminders of the past, from Megan and Peggy checking off names of side-characters from the earlier seasons for Don’s birthday party in “A Little Kiss” to even just ‘the past’ of characters literally and figuratively creeping up on them.  But then you have the actual physical characters from the show’s past showing up on your television that can only give you a ‘WTF?’ reaction.   Midge and Duck Phillips were last season’s instances of ‘Where are they now?’.  This past episode it was Paul Kinsey and boy, does he have a whole story to tell. 

The Harry helps Paul get the fuck out of Hare Krishna and dodge to California was one of the weaker sub-plots because of the ridiculousness beginning and ending with Hare Krishna (and just the visual of Paul Kinsey in Hare Krishna).  But the sub-plot made Harry seem caring if still very horndog-ish (getting caught in a web of weirdness and possible STD transmitting with a gal name Lakshmi), out of his element, unaware and naive as he has always been.  His kindheartedness probably still scratches the surface of Paul’s existential problems of needing to be in the in-crowd and throwing money at it a la Roger Sterling makes me wonder if Paul can be saved.  But the gesture for a character like Harry and the way he has been portrayed the last two seasons does make me think the act does come from a good place of where the character was in the first two seasons.  

We move on from characters out of the past coming back to characters who are growingly showing how of the past they look and feel.  Roger’s ridiculousness in relation to Pearl Harbor Day, and that it fell to mostly blank stares, shows he is still of a different generation and experience, particularly the trauma of his Navy days, and that he is beginning to use the LSD trip as a crutch to prove his sudden, better worldview.  For people like Don and Joan who have known him for years, and appearing to have heard many different iterations and pronouncements of this trip, it has gotten old.  Roger’s control in this episode post-trip seems to be gone and for Don and Joan they experience, or are still experiencing, the loss of their control.  

For Don it is the post-Megan SCDP where even she is not buying that ‘it is not the same without her’ when she knew he loved working in advertising before they even met much less saw each other in a romantic light.  She takes him to the play America Hurrah, a real play that makes advertising its punching bag, figuring he has said worse things about his own job but she still finds a wounded child mad that she left the advertising world and a void in their marriage.  He says the office misses Megan at the bar (and note Joan’s silence to that declaration) but really, he misses her.  I am guessing they work around a schedule that Roger planted the seed in him coming home quite early, another indicator was with Pete being ever the concern-troll telling Don he may have to work past 5:30, before she went to auditions or classes.  For Megan this seems like a ticking time-bomb, and her physically violent reaction to their dinner as he comes home drunk extremely late shows her heightened anxieties about that, as when they met she saw a brilliant but volatile man who had issues with control and alcoholism (remember, he told her as his secretary to count the glasses).  Given that he did this with Joan and that they played the game of husband and wife with Jaguar yet none of this was thrown back at Don by Megan, because he was being honest, and that it was about work makes me think the issues of fidelity are not the point of contention.  It is the fact that Megan also wants Don of the past back.  The guy who loved work, won the Clio, and earned his creative director reputation instead of getting eye-rolls and side-eyes from the copy-writers in creative because he sleeps in his office, has half-assed pitches, or leaves the office early.  

For Joan’s past it is something that points to her femininity and changing role as the dame of the office.  Last season her voluptuousness seemed to be forgotten with the sexist copy-writers and even the long-stays who once saluted her bending over.  The issues with Joan and control is that she often does not take the route we often associate with her reputation as a character.  Having Kevin pointed to what is still expected of her just as marrying Greg and she willingly gave into those choices.  Yet in both situations, she found herself itching to go back to the office because she had no such control.  No matter how terrible the workplace was for women, especially for her, she earned a reputation as a no-nonsense gal who got respect and fear from both sexes.  But when Greg turns the tables and becomes the first to file for divorce, it crashes down on Joan that those choices she made were terrible and even before that news, she refuses to cave into Roger’s idea of supporting Kevin because she has no control over that either.  

So when my television nearly exploded with the amount of chemistry between Don and Joan at the bar, I found myself believing this was not even fan-service or turning into something more than just this moment.  It was two kindred spirits trying to find their standing in the present while reflecting on their pasts.  And they definitely looked like people from the past.  Don’s fedora definitely aged him.

Don is a bit of a romantic, especially drunk, quoting the infamous Bobbie Barrett, putting on a fedora, and reminding Joan of her beauty of a certain time period by mentioning Aly Khan, the husband of the great redhead sexpot of the 40s and 50s, Rita Hayworth, because of all of the flowers she received from admirers.  The last bit was the most heartfelt and kind, topped off with Don finally giving Joan his admiration with flowers, but Don also mentioned his respect and fear of her at work because of how she carried herself.  Joan needed that talk after nearly murdering the clueless receptionist but she maintains a realistic outlook when Don is trying to help find her ‘a date’.  She knows it is very unrealistic for a woman her age, with a kid no less, to start looking for that special someone.  

And no, I do not think Don and Joan are going there because I am pretty sure cities and households will explode because that chemistry is TOO MUCH.  Moments like the ones they shared are not too far off the Peggy-Don moments.  I like when the show is not too incestuous with their ensemble and I think Don knows not to touch either Joan or Peggy, especially if he ever realizes that both Roger and Pete marked that territory.  He almost is too brother to both of them for me to feel comfortable with that.  

The end of the episode marked that old Don has risen again with a pep talk to get Jaguar.  Was it more Joan or Megan who pushed this new Don back into the spotlight?  Was it both?  I think somewhat.  With the Mohawk account stalled, getting Jaguar becomes all the more imperative for SCDP.  But can this Don last or is this a New Years Resolution Don?  

Overall, this episode was an old-school, inviting breather of the past even though now for one of our characters, Lane Pryce, we now have a possible incendiary situation that could catch more fire over time that possibly takes more than one person down.  But that is just speculation on my part.  It is good to see relationships and work-place stunts be apart of the program again.

Other Thoughts:

I wonder on what grounds did Greg file for divorce.  Did the math finally add up to Kevin not being his child?  

Scarlett, the secretary.  I don’t think she is going to be that significant even though speculation ran wild why they were suddenly showing her because new secretaries always seem to be involved in everything.  Seriously, if there were a secretary that deserves major stories it is Dawn.  

It is not that Hare Krishna itself is ridiculous (except it kinda is).  Paul in a priest collar is a ridiculous enough thought.  Paul being devout in any religion much less a cult is a joke that just writes itself.  

Between Joan’s outbreak and Megan’s spaghetti splatter, no prop was safe this episode.

So Megan and Don having role-playing angry sex is a thing.  Their neighbors must love that.  Now if Don, although he was very sauced, got confused by her smashing food possibly meaning this was foreplay then I am very curious about how dark, dirty, and deep their games got.  Still convinced Don leaving work early meant going home to a lot of that.  Megan needs to hone her acting in some way, I guess.  

Peggy had maybe one little appearance with Harry but what we have now learned is that she is surrounded by current and former co-workers heavily invested in Sci-Fi.  

Speaking of Sci-Fi, Paul’s Star Trek script in retrospect is terrible and insensitive (much prefer Ben Hargove) but for the time period even the people who supported diversity as Gene Rodenberry and other sci-fi writers had….. interesting takes on racism allegories about space.  

The next episode being called “The Other Woman” alone is giving me shivers.  More than “Lady Lazarus”.

In many ways Don’s pep talk further enflames Pete’s Don envy.  He seems to be the only guy going after clients and yet he can never have that much control or believability in that room.  

Lane forging checks through Don’s name.  An excellent twist on the Don Draper avatar but now I am doubly concern for both Lane and Don being found out.  Hell, Don finding Lane out may possibly bring out the “Mystery Date” side of him.  Lane better hope this only reaches Joan.  

Come on, the moment you realized it was Paul you realized that a certain part of the Mad Men viewing population is demanding the return of Sal Romano next.  

That’s Chekhov’s Jaguar XKE cum red herring that I thought for sure Don would wreck in a drunk driving accident.  But then he returned it and it was just him acting even more pathetic in The Draper Love Nest.  The man is of many contradictions and him saying a car doesn’t do it for him is a stone-cold lie.  

Obligatory Joan as Hulk Smash gif:

MAD MEN

“CHRISTMAS WALTZ”

#5.10

You can bet Sally and Bobby #4 were watching this and Gene was off in the distance playing alone with his toys.  

“Someone’s not going to be happy and I would rather not stare at it for a month?”-Don Draper

-Is somebody getting fired?  Was two weeks notice (and I am guessing Christmas vacation could play a role in this) a whole lot longer back then?  Is is a really bad pitch idea before going to Christmas break?  Or is somebody just choosing a terrible Christmas/Holiday decoration?  This looks like Sardonic Don Draper talking to either the partners or even creative.  His body language suggests let’s just put this situation under the rug.  Since Don really seems out of his element in work, talking to either Roger or Bert or Lane or the creative team are equally plausible.  

“Your promise was to EXTRICATE me from this situation altogether!”- Lane Pryce

-Why, hello again, Lane!  What the hell have you done since we last saw you?  Is this calling back to his stolen photo of Dolores in “A Little Kiss” that led to him meeting a shady as hell boyfriend?  The phone conversation is at night in his darkened apartment so it is either a really big secret that Lane is keeping from Rebecca or it may involve him back in his home country since the other line on the phone may very well be calling him in the morning from London.  

Either way it is good to see Lane back on camera again since his last appearance in “Signal 30” was one of the best episodes of the season and his story seems to hold a lot of the focus and most mystery.  Like Don last week, we see him in the office in the very odd, possible late hours, as well as look bitter, and not just from the cold, as he leaves the offices of SCDP.  I am not even going to bother to guess on this one, I want to be surprised.  

“He’s sorta been threatening to stop by.”- Unknown Secretary

Harry Crane still being at SCDP has been a real surprise.  He seemed to be in a Hollywood haze for all of Season 4 and there are many indications to suggest he wants to get out.  His only real job has been to get Don with The Rolling Stones and that failed.  He has mostly sat in Pete’s old office after taking $1,100 bribe from Roger and hanging out around the office, like talk to Pete when they are not even on the same wave-length.  Very little of Harry this season but that appears to change since he has been placed in the vague plot summary as, ‘Harry helps out of a friend’.  So is this “friend” the one who is threatening to stop by?  I say yes but since I not too involved in the Harry Crane universe, I have no idea who this person could be.  Maybe from Hollywood?  Last episode, very subtly, Harry openly expressed his discontent for his work as head of the Media Department being nothing but a “bunch of empty promises” which got a response out of Peggy in addition to Ken Cosgrove informing him that at least his office is in the same building.  I think Harry could be a candidate to leave the agency and hey, if that in some bizarre way in the Mad Men universe saves Ken or Peggy or even Pete from leaving as in also possibly leaving the show, I am okay with that.  

“You may have to stay until 5:30!”- Pete Campbell

-Is there a bigger concern troll in the offices of SCDP than Pete Campbell?  He is, of course, telling this to Don who may still actually need this push.  I am guessing Don followed Roger’s advise on him and Mona’s relationship that things need to be on a schedule now that Megan is out of his work-life.  Is Don taking off early before Megan leaves for acting classes for some afternoon delight?  I am going to imagine that this comes as surprise to Don given the holiday season happening but Pete’s tough love may be reflecting the different economic state of SCDP from Season 4 with that elaborate Christmas party to now post-Lucky Strike where it is all about business.

“I couldn’t care less!”- Joan Holloway Harris

I am not really paying attention to what Joan said but her outfit caught my eye.  She has worn this before and the rose-patterns are very much apart of her character’s relationship with Greg.  As Tom and Lorenzo have pointed out in their Mad Styles review of the “Lady Lazarus” episode, the dress may be seasonally appropriate but it looks like a bunch of dead roses on her dress that reflect her relationship with Greg.  Remember, in that episode she confided to Peggy that the marriage with Greg was essentially over in that outfit.  Joan’s body language in the scene comes off with a certain ease and casualness versus the front she usually puts on in the office.  I feel like only two people in the office are allowed to see Joan act this way and those two are Peggy and Lane.  I am guessing Peggy is at the other end of this conversation.  But the conversation also shows a bit of deflection, that she should care about something.  But what?  

She also wore that outfit when Don told her that Megan was quitting and spitting out venom to Peggy that she believes Megan, like Jane, follows the ‘second-wife playbook’.  Is there something with Roger or even Don that she could be talking about?  I think it may have something to do with the fact that her husband is not home for Christmas or more specifically, for Kevin’s first Christmas.  Joan not being too upset makes sense in her dress as she believes the relationship is dead and perhaps she has come to terms with the fact that she is not even going to bother to deny that Kevin’s father is not Greg.  But perhaps to somebody like Peggy who like the rest of the office only sees the surface of her relationship, the idea that Joan’s husband is not home for Christmas or to see his son’s first Christmas is very unusual.  I hope Joan can confide more about her personal life to somebody not named Roger in this episode.  More Joan in general is always good and it looks like she is spending the holiday at a bar, notably with a flower pendant that further minimizes the Greg relationship.  

“Maybe you and I should go as a couple.”- Don Draper

This again could be Sardonic Don and this clips wreaks of audience misdirection.  If this is Joan or even Peggy at the other end of this and that it will go anywhere, I will eat my hat!  He could very well be telling this to Roger Sterling or Pete Campbell.  He sounds a bit exhausted but not desperate, very casual, so I am thinking this is being dryly sarcastic and that Don is not being serious.  He could be answering advice to somebody like Lane or Roger about going to dinner without their spouse since one’s marriage is destroyed and the other’s marriage does not appear to be in good shape either.  Don and Lane last season bonded over their singles status so I could believe Lane would ask such a thing to Don.  But if this is Joan, oh boy, may it just be for posing…. which hopefully leads to absolutely no misunderstandings.  

“That’s a twist.”-Peggy Olson

Again pushing the misdirection by having Peggy follow the Don clip.  Who is she talking to.  Judging by the blazer that seems to try to be festive but looks out of date seasonally, I will eliminate Pete, Roger, and Bert from the blazer candidates.   The blazer in fact looks like the blazers Ken, Pete, and Don wore for “Signal 30” but looking again and the print patterns do not match.  But looking back at “Dark Shadows” it appears to be Harry Crane’s winter coat and that Peggy sounds happy for him.  Please, oh please, may this be him leaving SCDP!  

Other scenes and stuff only shown after the airing of “Dark Shadows”: There is a dialogue-free scene of Megan in a formal gown soaking in what I am going to guess is Don acting like a child about going out.  I am assuming she dragged him to see it because he seems very dressed down compared to Megan, just from work and does not look like he wants to be there as Megan’s looks for his reaction and it does not match hers.  I am assuming they are at a play for either one of her friends or a work by somebody that she is hoping will get her a gig with in future instances.  

Then there’s Harry saying, “They’re derived from reality but there are hopes and dreams.”  With him sitting down at an office of a higher-up.  Not sure if that is him a new agency or talking to the friend.  

Predictions:

Joan is going to open up to more people about the downfall of her relationship with Greg and perhaps the details as far as the paternity of her child, though stopping at Kevin not being Greg’s.  This seems like it could be Joan’s “The Suitcase” with opening up to somebody on a professional level about her personal life right down to the bar.  

Lane is in trouble and this will last more than a single episode whether he likes it or not. Why?  I want more Lane Pryce.    

Don is up to his neck at work to the point he and Megan can not have a holiday exhale which leads to a misunderstanding where Megan’s ‘orange sherbet’ is not well-received by Don and we have a reversal of ‘Far Away Places’, except no chasing around each other in the apartment but just a bitter Christmas.  

Harry has a lifeline to leave SCDP but that leads to the question of who now will be the head of Media.  The politicking begins.  

How did I do last week, you ask?

I nailed Betty getting jealous but I had no idea she would be the ‘Anna card’ on Sally.  I did get the chain of events wrong.  Her revelation to Don that Sally knows about Anna came after Sally and her were alone after Don took Gene and Bobby out to someplace we will never know about.  

I knew Megan was reading from a script but it was not for her but her theater-kid earnest friend Julia as Megan dismisses the script.

The smog did play into things on a literal, on-the-nose, 

Peggy was responding to Harry’s very woe is me ‘empty promises’ quip but that weirdly went nowhere that episode but could go further this coming episode.  

Peggy was really ignored this episode to the point her pitch got phased out like her dress on the couch when it became Ginzo vs. Don.  

Don does consider Ginsberg a creative lifeline but not somebody to put under his wing as Ginsberg does not operate in such a way and neither did Don by looking through his stream of consciousness ideas and pulling together an ad and dropping Ginzo’s ad.  

Pete was fantasizing about Beth but his sensitive, ‘you can’t be here’ was also in his fantasy.  That creep…..

Howard nor Beth died but Pete really wanted gave a truth-telling tongue-lashing to Howard that was so ridiculous out of context that there was no way Howard could believe Pete would dare sleep with his wife.  

Don was indeed working up a storm and he is very much off his game.  

Roger did invite Jane out for dinner and this deal required Roger to pull out Jane’s J-card that in Season 1 seemed like a suicidal task.  

The smog happened but the kids were not at Don’s for Thanksgiving so they were not in harm’s way from the smog although I will still refer to Betty as the Smog Monster.  

MAD MEN

“DARK SHADOWS”

#5.09

This episode was not on the level of “Mystery Date”, “Signal 30”, “Far Away Places” or “At the Codfish Ball” but I loved this episode’s Betty-ness a lot more than “Tea Leaves”.  That episode had a lot of interesting stuff around it, Peggy shaking down Roger and the introduction of Michael Ginsberg while the center story was of Betty’s uninteresting, rushed story line explaining her weight gain and anxieties.  This episode is about trying to overcome the anxieties of trying to lose the weight, and the prosthetics have either become more subtle or she has lost some weight since the summer, by joining Weight Watchers that I guess at the time was more of an Overeaters Anonymous for Women.  She seems sympathetic and totally buying what WW is selling including delivering spiel to Henry that made me take pause at how kind Betty seems the way Peggy was disturbed by Don’s kindness in “A Little Kiss”.  But that did not last long.  The claws came out and Betty, and this seems underplayed in many recaps I have read, did one of the most evil things she has ever done on the show.  Ever.    

Sally is doing her family tree that she was mostly doing in the Draper Love-Nest and she with Bobby and Gene brought back a lot of scraps of paper they drew on, including on paper that was not meant to leave the Love-Nest, mainly a love note that Don and Megan seem to have a thing for since she has left SCDP.  Betty reads it in Don’s voice and something triggers.

I am not sure if it is a reminder of what she had with Don or that this was a completely different man, as in a kinder, romantic man, who treated her poorly but is now with a younger, thinner woman who she catches an accidental glimpse of changing into a paisley shirt before their awkward first ever interaction on the show.  Either way, Betty is pissed by the note and drops the nuclear bomb on unsuspecting Sally Draper.  She tells her about his ‘first’ wife, Anna Draper.  This is all new information to Sally, of course, but considering that Megan is the one helping Sally with the family tree, I am pretty certain Betty’s aims were to also drop the bomb on Megan about the Anna stuff which would lead into the Dick Whitman stuff which caused her marriage for Don to end and would surely in her mind really shake the foundation of the Don-Megan marriage.  

Seriously, the revelation and what it could have done in terms of damage far exceeds Betty moving out of Ossining or firing Carla.  But of course, Megan already knew off-screen and refers to Don as Dick Whitman in “A Little Kiss”.  Betty is not aware of their union being more honest and open from the start than her marriage to Don ever was.  Still, Sally feels some level of betrayal.  She is entering teenage-dom and finding out how much adults lie and it bothers her a lot.  So when Megan knows a secret about her father, she feels betrayed on a friend-level.  Remember she has been in a friendship with her stepmother that existed before Don even had the male gaze for Megan (and remember, that was when Sally felt her father failed her in trying to escape her mother and Megan was her should to cry on in Season 4’s “The Beautiful Girls”).  Sally does not really see Megan as her mother but a lifeline into adulthood the way Don saw Megan as a lifeline into youthfulness.   She ambushes Megan in full Betty mode (and to a certain extent, Don at his worst) calling her ‘phony’ (how Holden Caulfield) and projecting a Disney Evil Stepmother to her and the deceased Anna.  

Megan tells Don what has happened and basically can read what exactly Betty wants to happen.  I mentioned in “At the Codfish Ball”, I see more Megan as an older Sally who has dealt with the drama of her parents bickering.  She calms down Don before ever trying to make that phone call, with the awoken Sally hearing through the walls realizing that Megan cares about Sally’s feelings and that this needs to be talked about but not in an argument-driven, accusatory phone call to Rye, New York’s haunted mansion.  Sally gets part of the story, but mainly the Anna Draper story without hearing about the Dick Whitman revelation.   When Betty asks Sally, after hearing how good her grade was with her family tree, she asks if she included Anna, Sally responds lovingly with how much Don and Megan spoke admiringly of her and she ever saw photos.  In one flail swoop, Sally tells her mother she knows more about Anna than she ever did, note how it was a complete 180 from Sally calling her and Megan insignificant.  Sally ain’t stupid, she finds out she was a pawn and Don diffused her anxieties about hearing her father had another wife by saying he wished he had the chance for her to meet Anna and that it was the sweet California home he once took her to see.  Betty’s plan gets foiled with great passive aggression goal-keeping by somebody who witnessed way too much of it in her childhood.  

We move from Don’s very lovey-dovey marriage that seems to still be going fine if into mushy territory, not just the letters but him immediately realizing she is right about not falling into Betty’s trap, into him getting ahead in work, including stepping on the copy-writing golden boy, Michael Ginsberg.  Don is no longer relationship-cheating, just work-cheating and it is indeed as pathetic as the reversal seasons ago.  He skims through Ginsberg’s work after going into the empty SCDP office after realizing how much he screwed over Peggy and himself with the Heinz account fiasco.  Everything interesting has been done by Michael, who goes against Don and Pete revealing ‘nobody chooses advertising as a profession’ in “Signal 30”.  The guy is a savant but he gets cut down to size by Don, much like taking some of Peggy’s idea for the Glo-Coat ad, taking some of the general idea of Ginzo’s hundreds of pitches in his pocket for Sno-Ball and makes his own, which I personally think has appeal but Ginsberg’s was just better and more accessible.  Peggy and Don had it out in “The Suitcase”, largely because Peggy had it pent up in her for a long time while being stuck working late with him (and amazingly at that time hated working late while now has made her office a surrogate home).  Ginsberg is too blunt to keep his frustrations inside by telling Don he knows he left his ad in the cab and did not even present it.  In many ways Don is correct but there was a lack of ‘That’s what the money is for!’ type of clarity Ginsberg needs versus ‘I don’t think about you at all!’.  Instead it is childish and a little cruel because Ginsberg can always go to another agency.  But Don wants his mojo back and gets a little bit of it even if he stepped on the wunderkind of the agency.  He is the boss but is his agency hip or ‘hep’ as Bert Cooper says it?  

While this episode was about Don getting a successful pitch account and Roger charming new business, suddenly using Jane’s once hidden Judaism as a plus, it is undercut by Pete realizing that this agency just is not up to par with the fresh faced agencies of the period like the real Wells Rich Greene aka Peter, Paul and Mary ad agency.  It may not be wise for Don to bask in the glow of outdoing an underling with promise when that guy is the future.  But cruel Don, or Devil Don (with Jon Hamm’s ludicrous devil voice affectation), can now only seem to function outside of the Draper Love-Nest because Megan is not tolerating it there and not just the smog monster of Betty Hofstadt Draper Francis trying to drop bombs from Rye, New York, as Alan Sepinwall notes in his recap.  

Overall, the episode is getting undeserved flak for not being up to par with the other episodes but it shows SCDP actually functioning with new work and accounts showing the new talent as well as showing how old habits die hard with Don and Roger.  

Other Thoughts:

Sepinwall also nailed that maybe Don is still not completely in work-mode as the best pitch is his love letter to Megan that could easily be an ad pitch.  I hope they find an electric light bulb company and fast.  

Pete Campbell has a BUtterfield 8 fantasy of Beth Dawes (aka Rory Gilmore) that was somehow creepier than Don’s fever dream of strangling an evil ex.  

Pete’s fantasies about the affair have become so overt it cannot sound ridiculous without the context, telling Howard on the train point blank he would have sex with his wife.  Howard almost interprets it as Pete either upset he cheats on his wife or that Pete simply cannot take the idea that Howard snagged a beautiful 24 year-old woman.  But Pete was asking to get caught in the previous episode with Beth.  Again, this seems like a story-line moving along to bad things.  

My mother told me nothing in those Weight Watchers meetings have changed in 50 years.  That really depresses me.  

I am ignoring the Roger story-line because it seems like he did feel empathy for Jane by ‘defiling’ her new apartment by being her first lay there.  At first I thought Roger was regretting ever letting her go by her charms to the Rosenberg wine-magnate son but he was just jealous and their encounter held no meeting other than feeling empowered.  Jane knew it and Roger knew it.  Did Roger really change?  Jane feels like she missed out on something in that LSD trip to the point I feel really bad for her and wonder if she is a candidate for the death-pool.  I actually just hope she schtups the Rosenberg kid.

Kiernan Shipka during her act-out with Megan felt a little too much Betty, to the point where it felt like a horror movie when another person’s personality takes over a new body.  

I normally do not say this but January Jones as Betty Draper was good tonight such as the Weight Watchers meeting, the passive aggression, and counting her points and bites.  I feel like Fat Betty was the best thing that happened to her.  Her Thanksgiving plate was so grotesque, darkly funny, and depressing at the same time.  In all but 10 seconds, I laughed, clapped, and felt depressed by her eating and spitting out whipped cream.  

So is there more to Megan teaching Sally how to act-cry?  Should I start re-looking at all previous Mad Men episodes that featured Megan crying?  Maybe I am too naive but I think she is just an earnest Canadian who wants to be away from the cynical world of advertising and using children as pawns.  

So Megan’s actress friend is trying out for “Dark Shadows” and Megan dismisses it, except it does portray how for many actors, soap opera appearances are a **GET**.  I think that Megan is choosy and snobbish toward soap operas, a carry-over from her father hating advertising and probably promoting high-culture into her education.  I know “Dark Shadows” was/is a beloved soap opera, but the genre is pretty low-culture. So what can Megan find to do?  I still think acting will not be her long-term profession.  

Roger admits he should not carry around that much cash.  Do not even look at the inflation index of what he has paid out to the likes of Harry, Peggy, and Michael in 2012 money.  Do not even include how much he put into Jane’s new apartment.  

I will finally get my Lane Pryce fix next week.  A Christmas present, indeed.  

I feel like the Mothers Day theme is more tied to this episode than “Dark Shadows”.  

Some theories that the creative team will be leaving Don, even before this episode, and seeing the sight of Wells Rich Greene did feel like a foreshadowing of a triage that people are certain Peggy will be apart of, because she is having a rough season work-wise and is bitching about loyalty.  She has a pact with Ken and I consider Stan Rizzo to be her work-boyfriend, so those three immediately stick out.  Ginsberg is an X-factor but I cannot see Rizzo staying and Peggy going.  

Next week episode is indeed Christmas themed and it looks like it will be Harry-heavy in addition to Lane and it looks like Don and Megan are going out to see something that I am certain Megan put Don up to.  But that means deciphering another ‘Next Week on Mad Men’.  

Betty inhales whipped cream gif:

“Dark Shadows”

#5.09

NEXT WEEK ON MAD MEN FOR DARK SHADOWS

Time:

It’s Thanksgiving of 1966.  New York City has a smog issue.  It killed 169 people.  

Draper Love Nest:

Don gets the kids for the weekend (since it is November is it Thanksgiving weekend?) and takes Bobby and Gene out while Megan and Sally appear to be spending their time entirely at the Draper Love Nest.  Baseball season’s over, not sure if the Garden with Rangers or Knicks games would be appropriate for two little kids (Bobby #4 is super short) nor would Yankee or Shea Stadium for a Jets or Giants game.  Maybe a movie?  Only kids-related films I could find that could fit is the Adam West Batman film or the family comedy The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming!   Would he take them to the parade?  Would Sally and Megan not go?  Screw it, Don is totally taking the boys to see Fantastic Voyage or 10,000 B.C. to keep up with the Raquel Welch quotient.  

Megan appears to be doing a table reading of a script she has.  It sounds very Betty.  Is she having Sally or Don do a table reading with her?   I believe it has to be a script because it seems un-Megan, especially given the context of her previous rapports with Don, Sally, or any of the kids.  

Henry and Betty have driven to the city.  Their conversation seems a bit too open to have the kids sitting in the back.  So are the going into the city for something?  Are they seeing somebody?  Or are they just picking up the kids for the Francis version of Thanksgiving?  Henry seems to be in a hurry while stuck in traffic.  This drive also seems to be all about Betty the way Harry talks to her in an exasperated manner and it does not seem like the first time she is having this little moment.  They’re going to some place she wants to that Henry is not too enthused about.  

Crackpot theory: Did Megan do the unthinkable and invite those two over for Thanksgiving dinner?  Surprise again, Don!   She does it because she got a TV or theater call back to play an evil mother.  She slyly invites Betty because Sally remarks how much the part is like her mother.  Betty is there to be studied!

Don does indeed appear to be surprised by something Megan tells him in a very Don, “Are you kidding me?!?” way.  Is it something to do with her new acting career or is it something as simple as the kids are coming at last second?  I notice that Don and Megan are in the same clothes as they are shown when Don kisses Megan goodbye when he takes the boys out (although it is not very noticeable with Don in an overcoat) which seems to take place after the news.  Given Betty’s propensity for such shenanigans, such as inadvertently planting the seed for Don’s second marriage by firing Carla for the Disneyland trip, this is believable.  But boy how I would love for some legit Betty-Megan interactions.  Betty last referred to her as the 20 year-old girlfriend.

I noticed that on the original promo telecast there was Sally remarking, “How did you do that?” or something in that vein.  I think she was talking to Megan.  So I am guessing there is going to be a little bit of girl time between those two.  Betty’s going to hate that.  

Prediction: Don and Megan get the kids for Thanksgiving weekend thanks to Henry’s tight schedule but Betty demands that on their way to what I assume is his political operative functions she wants to go to the Draper Love Nest to check in on Sally or just specifically, Sally and ‘that good for nuthin’ skinny French-Canadian harlot who stole my first husband when I was prepping to win him back with booze and angry sex in an empty house who has now also stolen my daughter’.   Megan is actually doing a table reading with Sally who will also be interested in acting and they watch the vampire soap opera Dark Shadows that Sally is OBSESSED with since neither of them want to even think about going out in the smog.  Also note, Megan still barefoot and in jeans (**gasp**).  Maybe Megan gets a Dark Shadows script.  Like many soap operas it was shot in New York and since the days of yore soap opera appearances provided a steady pay check to stage actors.  Dark Shadows, however, may be a little too pop history but it could just be the script.   

Now moving onto SCDP:  

Much like Don’s lonely exit from the office of SCDP after Megan left.  Did he pull an all-nighter (Megan’s acting classes are at night) or did he just go into an empty office on a holiday?  He does have a lot of catching up to do.  

Bert Cooper is telling who we presume is Roger that ‘This requires your finesse’.  Another feather in the cap for ‘Roger’s got his groove back!’.   Does Don’s fall mean Roger’s rise from the ashes?  Roger is also calling somebody to have dinner.  Is it Mona?  It cannot be Joan, since I think Roger would just go into her office to ask.  Or is it Jane’s pseudo-intellectual psychologist who introduced him to LSD?  Or is it a client/account?  

Harry Crane once again appears to project himself onto a situation because when he says ‘empty promises’, Peggy’s sarcastically inquisitive ‘What were you promised?’ seems like a line any character would ask to Harry in that situation because of what a total buffoon he has become.  Seems that the creative team may be getting a pep talk from Harry as Head of Media and Peggy acting out since really, when was the last time Harry was specifically involved in anything work-related besides him smoking pot at a Rolling Stones concert?  

Joan’s “It’s something to talk about.”  I notice her hair is less put together.  She may be talking about a current event, I guess.  Too oblique for even me to try and decipher.  

Pete is in Loveland over Beth, the poster girl for Mother’s Little Helper.  What else could he be laying down in his office looking stupid for?   But wait, who is this unexpected person in his office?  Is it Beth?  Pete’s tone makes me think it has to be a woman and a very vulnerable situation about to unfold.

Crackpot prediction:

Pete has been stalking Beth and she gives him a tearfully depressing piece of her mind to him before she splatters it while falling into Chekhov’s empty elevator shaft… or she just kills herself at SDCP.  Her death leads Howard to suspect the affair and as does Trudy who immediately wants a divorce that causes her father to take away the accounts he has given Pete through Clearosil.   The PR damage to the SCDP makes Don’s letter to Lucky Strike a distant memory and Pete has to be put on leave if not quit/fired from his position.  I could go on and on.  SCDP’s competition has to deal with dropping balloons on civil rights activists, they have to deal with dropping liaisons off buildings.  Either way, Pete is destroyed professionally, ethically, psychologically, and romantically.  

Transition into “You wonder who is going to get hit next!” by Don at a pitch meeting (Ginzo is beside him).  Okay now even the promos have the illusions to violence and death and given this comes off a Pete clip…. Nah, it could be Don trying to get his groove back too.  

Also missing from the original promo after episode is a scene of Pete with Bert Cooper, Don, and I think Roger all on an elevator telling all of them to be patient (But sadly no Lane Pryce).  Pete would be the first one to be neurotic about an account so I am pretty sure people catch on to his weird behavior.  In fact, I think he gets a look from Bert and Don.  They are all on an elevator in their trench-coats either all going to see a client are just had a rough time with a client. Side-eyes could mean latter.  

Prediction:

It’s back to work time at SCDP.  Don will finally try to be serious and the copy-writers are moving on to media with an account (oh no, are we back to the Heinz Beans account?).  Peggy’s work relations continue to be rocky while Ginsberg’s prospects are on the up with Don having him as his new ear to youth culture.  Roger definitely gets his groove back with a client.  Pete does indeed get a visit from Beth to cut it out and she probably is not long for this world but not as dramatic as my crackpot theory (coming back to the city was hard enough, I am thinking if there is a suicide it is in Howard’s love nest to spite him).   Pete Campbell is also probably gone from even reasonable work productivity, suicide or not.  Hopefully there is some Lane Pryce.  Maybe that is who Joan was talking to!  

MAD MEN

“LADY LAZARUS”

#5.08

Sometimes I try to think of how SCDP would operate under 20th-21st century HR in the workplace. Megan quitting, to try again to become an actress, is one of those times.  Only two people seem to support her next endeavor, Don and Peggy for different reasons, though both are a bit flummoxed when she reveals she does not like advertising as she originally stated in Season 4.  Did she ever love advertising?  Was it to get closer to Don?  Or was it like Stan (who has quickly become one of my favorite side characters) talked about how it can be monotonous that despite all of the labor and creativity you get one major result: Heinz Baked Beans.   The only bad words that the copy-writers can say is Ginsberg mentioning she never had money on her for lunch (calling back to Megan asking Don for cash on behalf of her parents last episode) but they move on accepting that Megan was not in an enviable position for herself or for any of them.  

The rest of SCDP have a different view and it seems to reflect the fan divide about Megan.  It did not help that the marriage isolated her to where she was only comfortable giving Don the ideas and not being seen as a joke when it was just too much of a Catch-22.  Harry and Pete were always sure she has always complained to Don about them when, in fact, she never told Don about their interactions with her including Harry’s sexually lewd comments about her from the premiere episode.  Joan is also pretty cynical about Megan with the passive aggressive move of having her last lunch be with the secretaries than with creative or just the copy-writers (Peggy for her part wants them to just have lunch together informally in the future).  Megan always seemed a bit afraid of her, such as when she actively was trying to avoid Joan’s return to the office with her baby.  But her fears seemed a bit earned when Joan has pegged her as Betty 2.0 or another Jane, in one of many meta moments in the episode, while Peggy believes Megan can succeed as one of ‘those’ girls.  Peggy defends Megan even as we saw her so angry about the fact that Megan was stepping out of work and lying to make play auditions.   

Some people believe Peggy sees Megan in Don’s image but the Don-Peggy relationship this season is so different as shown in their argument after their failed ‘performance’ for the Cool Whip account.  The argument shows how they view Megan from completely different perspectives. I fully believe that Peggy is being truly honest with her opinion on Megan just as much as how proud she was when Megan saved the Heinz account.  Don came into advertising thanks to some cunning and skills that got his foot in the door when it would otherwise have been impossible and Peggy pretty much grew up in the business and still has a lot of growing up to do.  It is a shock to both of them that somebody would find their work boring, especially in the case of Don when he built his new marriage around work.  This episode feels like a beginning of a test for Don’s tolerance for the relationship.  

Don wants to make this marriage work.  That means it cannot be like anything the Betty relationship was.  So Megan knows his whole history and she already knew about his reputation for adultery and boozing, Don has remained faithful.  This is a marriage trying to be about honesty and openness to the point where Megan, after being prodded by Peggy and to a certain degree that conversation with her father at the ball, tells him her actual feelings about work and her aspirations.  It is shockingly honest, such as believing her failure at the audition felt more right than the triumph of the Heinz account (which I think she was so willing to save because it did make Don look good).  Don accepts it but he is a bit skeptical about how much this can work for her, but he just wants her to be happy.  But what happens when there are no call-backs, no Megan at work, and that Don’s distaste for “Tomorrow Never Knows” is akin to Megan’s distaste for orange sherbet?  I am still not sure Megan’s fulfilling occupation will ultimately be in acting but how long will it take to have her be fulfilled and whether or not her fulfillment will wither her marriage or make it stronger.  Was Don staring at the empty elevator shaft for real or was it simply his imagination?  Can he really chase her around ever again after he let her go in this instance?  Or should he just alert maintenance about that elevator shaft issue?  

We jump to the Pete story that mirrors not so much the leftovers 50s suburban anxiety that Mad Men started with but more in the proto-70s The Ice Storm suburban anxiety where there were swingers and key parties.   Pete and Peggy have mirrored Don this season but in the way Don was dangerously projecting onto Megan the look of an angel in “Mystery Date”, Pete is gazing at the depressed housewife Beth, inexplicably married to the bumbling Howard, with a feeling there can be something more, further exacerbated by the fact she closed the door on an affair.  And then she just seemed to reel him in for more when she made that heart in the foggy window to him.  Considering the darkness of the character the previous seasons and now there is just seems to be dread with any story involving him.  There is also his moment with Harry that shows a man really in a bad state of mind beyond just having somebody on the side.  Is he the falling man?  It seems too obvious for Pete to be the one to go but maybe his yearning for control will further make him not in control which will be his undoing that does not necessarily make him the one who is ‘gone’.   I am not sure about Beth’s deal, her introduction into Pete’s life was a little too perfect, but I definitely think she is not long for this world.  Then again, there are several candidates in the Mad Men Death Pool.  

Is this season all a red herring about death?  Is it just the symbol of how the 60s bottomed out?  I do not mind the heavy-handed symbolism of the season as the decade became more transparent and open than subtle and hidden.  The firm is working with an account where its representative would have made Sal Romano look straight.  I wouldn’t be surprised that for the firm to live, survive, and maybe even thrive that they are going for more of the alternative accounts than just the regular bread and butter.  But it feels like with the changing times, somebody is left behind whether by their own doing or somebody else.  There has not been a major character in the show who has fallen beyond Sal getting fired and retiring to a gay club.  But will somebody die?  Actually die or symbolically die?  Is Don the symbolic falling man because he seems lost and over his head at the agency becoming modern and that his one life-line at work who would have his ear is now gone? I feel like this episode is going to be a call back to everything that is going to happen next.  

Other Thoughts:

In other meta-related themes of the episode.  AMC and Mad Men had a well-publicized dispute over costs.  SCDP was trying to get a jingle to sound like The Beatles because they could not afford the real thing.  Megan tells Don, who cannot tell The Beatles for a 30 year old song, to play the trippiest song on Revolver to show how different they sound from A Hard Day’s Night (or 1965 at Shea Stadium for that matter).  The residuals for that alone now provides us with why a lot of the episodes are at SCDP and the Draper love-shack.  

Third straight episode with no Lane Pryce.  This needs to change.

Betty and Henry make an appearance next episode.  Are we finally going to get a Betty-Megan interaction?  

I want this episode to be Elisabeth Moss’ ‘For Your Consideration’ episode.  Just for ‘Pizza Town!’.  

I keep on thinking that making Ken’s father-in-law Leland Palmer, his wife be Alex Mack, that my next TV nostalgia callback would be his mother-in-law be an awesome TV sitcom mom (I’m thinking Joanna Kearns).  However, I was not expecting Rory Gilmore or Mr. Belding making appearances.  

Very little Roger, though his moment with giving Pete the skis was perfect, and the darkness of the episode showed through though Peggy obviously had the most comic moments of the show.  

Michael Ginsberg became the second character to say the F-Word on the show followed by Roger last season getting very angry with Pete who is taking the fall for Don over their deal falling through with a defense contractor.     

Another episode callback.  Don lying awake looking away as Megan rests on him after telling him about her aspirations.  It felt like the end to ‘Tomorrowland’ where Don still felt a little anxious and uncertain after taking the big step to marry her.  This is another step minus the lavender haze of newlyweds.  

Thinking we are in late October to early November on the show.  It feels like an early onset on winter with a cold monsoon.  

THE AVENGERS

DIRECTED BY JOSS WHEDON

It is impossible to have The Avengers live up to its expectations of an all-star lineup of Marvel superheroes being nothing but awesome without people getting upset.  It also could have been an incoherent mess.  The film is handled with a lot of discipline, light heartedness, and an eye for action that actually feels like a man who knows comics actually made this movie.   

So if you have not seen the other Marvel movies, the details within the film do just enough without glibly omitting important stuff.  With some exposition, brief flashbacks, and re-introductions why Hulk is in hiding, what Captain America left behind 70 years ago, Thor’s issues with Loki and vice versa, and Tony Stark being the snarkiest, richest, SOB of a superhero of all-time.  The most background given are characters we have seen the briefest with Hawkeye and Black Widow, who are pretty much the romantic couple of the S.H.I.E.L.D. and I could easily see getting their own movie together.   Again this is done with exposition but does not feel shoe-horned in just to further Marvel’s ridiculous cash-cow of a franchise.  Whedon who also co-wrote this film knows about featuring who ensembles be it on television, film or during his run in comics with Astonishing X-Men and Runaways.   He also knows how to write women and although there are three female characters (Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill, and Pepper Potts) with a considerable amount of screen-time, they all fit into their surroundings and their gender is something that does not come up.  The bitchiness and cattiness actually involves the men of the S.H.I.E.L.D. be it moody Bruce Banner, Tony Stark vs. Steve Rogers, and Nick Fury having a lot more secrets about why he needs The Avengers.  

Loki has come back to Earth and in a villain cliche wants to take over the world.  Thor comes back to take Loki out and the road to assemble begins.  Thus begins the bitchfest between Stark’s cynical realist libertarianism vs. Rogers’ earnest New Deal Democrat, shared sacrifice.  Loki escapes S.H.I.E.L.D. custody thanks to his mind control that includes Hawkeye and Dr. Erik Selvig.  The mind control is temporary but damage is done.  But then Loki starts unleashing extraterrestrial beasts to Earth thanks to the precious Tessarect that opens the door between these two worlds.  The Tessarect’s potential is unlimited hence why everybody, and I mean everybody, covets it.  

I won’t say anymore.  Think of this movie like those Indiana Jones films.  Obviously you know to hate the villain and love the protagonist, it is clear who wins in the end.  The Avengers does not go into a nihilistic power-trip and gray area like the Nolan Batman movies, though Nick Fury’s arc in the story comes close.   The film is incredibly entertaining to watch in its action scenes done in a way that is unabashedly comic book in the best sense.  The tracking shots and fluidity from scene to scene is like scanning a bunch of panels in a comic book.  It is all done quickly, seldom are there slo-mo Zack Snyder action shots that make me dread their appearances in the Man of Steel film.   One of the more shocking revelations of this film is just how action-driven Whedon made it and just how successful the film is at doing it.  

Not shocking is the good dialogue that has Whedon’s finger printers all over it.  It is not the Tony Stark show per se but it is in Robert Downey Jr.’s wheelhouse as a character but many of the other characters get excellent lines and quips that do not feel out of the ordinary.  All of the characters get a good amount of screen time that does not betray their origins and in small doses, arguably, some characters are served most well in this instance.  The Hulk, especially.  The third act is all about him.

I won’t say The Avengers a re-defining genre work but it is a film that actually is not pretentious nor patronizing toward its genre.  It gets everything just right from the script to the acting to the action scenes.  Now I wish the  eye-roll inducing montage of people reacting to the group was left out (I hate this in any superhero film), but this film is definitely worth the long wait for fans of the comics and characters.  For the outsiders, the populists who just want a good time the film has that too.  

FAVORITE QUOTES WITH NO CONTEXT:

“Shakespeare in the park”

“He’s adopted”

“Puny God”

“I watched you sleeping”

“I don’t think that’s what a party looks like”

“Son, you’ve got a condition”