Juvenile Cinephile

MAD MEN #6.10

“A TALE OF TWO CITIES”

Let’s start with the heart of the episode, which was the Peggy and Joan dynamic.  For the show’s entire run, everybody has been rooting for these two to be friends even when the earlier seasons were at the height of the hostilities between those two.  For all the love she gets, Joan operated under a pretty petty dictatorship leading the secretaries that followed the patriarchal structures of early 1960s office culture.  Even if Peggy did not have that out in copy-writing, one can only assume she would have left in not being a secretary there at the agency- mostly because she got it from both sides: the men and from Joan. 

The whole Mad Men letting its female characters have a feminist awakening has gone admittedly slower than I expected, and I say this as somebody who does not think they should cater to the idealized Boomer point of view of the 60s.  Betty still appears to never get there.  Megan may have read the feminist literature but her relationship to her husband seems a little mutually dependable at this point (more on that later).  Peggy has clearly never read the literature (although maybe Abe insisted she read it because he does seem like that asshole who thinks he knows what feminist literature is good for his then girlfriend).  Joan never has and probably never will but both she and Peggy as single women are trying as hard as they can in their success at work being independent of the men in this episode. 

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MAD MEN

#5.13 

“THE PHANTOM”

This was an episode that made time to wrap up things and also indicate that yes, there are still loose ends and there are future mysteries to ponder next season.  But let’s go over what got wrapped up first and start with the after effects from the suicide of Lane Pryce.  

A considerable amount time has past going from the early March, eternal winters in the Northeast (Easter came late in 1967) to the budding spring of late April (Casino Royale played in the movie theater Peggy and Don were in that clued me in on the date).  The effects to the agency see their most successful quarter thanks to Jaguar and perhaps some other, smaller, unnamed accounts brought in.  It is unclear if they got Dow Chemical and some current clients are restless (Topaz) and some have bleaker futures (Mohawk Airlines in June of that year has a plane crash), but the agency’s on the up and up, literally.  They are expanding to a new floor with the five partners gaining that new space, since the other floor is seemingly haunted by Lane Pryce and Ida Blankenship.  Hell, the agency even gets a profit with Lane with the life insurance.  In a bizarre way, Lane leaving puts them in a better position.  But that is not to say there is no guilt still felt.  

The void of Lane was spatial, an empty chair present in scenes but never named.  Joan and Don, the only two who could say had interactions with Lane beyond professional still have a limited mindset for the suicide.  Joan thought offering herself to him romantically could have fulfilled him when there are probably darker issues in Lane’s past that made his trajectory unavoidable.  With Don, following previous behavior in other episodes and other characters this season, tries to do the ‘nice thing’ and give Mrs. Rebecca Pryce money on the agency’s behalf.  She refuses, believing that the agency had poisoned her husband both morally and ethically painfully accepting her husband’s professional limitations were his downfall.  Money cannot buy away that kind of pain and personal agony about a love one and I think the Lane ending was very realistic and in-line with the stiff upper-lip that has clearly boxed in the Pryces.  

We find out that Peggy working at CGC as the creative head has pretty much fully transformed into the female Don Draper with a take no prisoners attitude toward her creative underlings and hanging out in movie theaters while on the job to figure out the questions of the day later.  Her superiors seem to accept this and let her take a personal business trip on behalf of what I believe we are being led to believe are Virginia Slim cigarettes.  Peggy as a creative head taking on a cigarettes account?  Oh my lord, she is Don!  It is not the classiest business trip (even without the dog-humping shot the hotel was a by-the-numbers kind of shabby set-up) but it is something and she is reveling in it where she is trusted to get the account instead of being patronized as ‘the little girl’ by Bert Cooper and under-appreciated by Don at SCDP.  We saw Peggy shine this season when she got to actually tap into her feminine side instead of professionally cross-dressing with the Heinz pitches to be Don-esque.  She was already a Don-type of ad person but the Chevalier Blanc pitch showed a certain promise that makes me think even if she does not get Virginia Slims, her feminist streak is really going to come out next season, picking up the scraps of women products from other agencies and turning them into gold.  It could just be that I am a Peggy fan and this is wish-fulfillment, but her and Don at the theater are equals and given that Don has to give angry, fire-breathing pitches to the big boys, I think Peggy may be in a better position than him come Season 6.  

The last shot of Don Draper seems to be contemplating proposition by a woman at a bar who gets her girlfriend to do it for him.  We never see his answer and it is a pretty blank canvass to project on if he will stray from Megan or cooly reject it like he did at the brothel in “Signal 30”.  But the motif of a Don’s animalistic, carnal, ‘beast’ yearnings when his ‘beauty’ is no longer in his life (Mad Men writers seem to get the original story more than the those blinded by the Disney film) seem to signal ‘DANJA ZONE!!!!’.  We know now that there is a definite possibility for stray Don Draper to happen.  

Megan’s self-worth this episode took a substantial dive in order for her to get what she wanted.  A rejected screen-test, a bitchy mother who is more in town to schtup Roger Sterling than hear about her problems, an acting friend trying to play a game of ‘I scratch your back if you scratch mine’ to appear in a commercial by SCDP, and ultimately deciding to get her major break by using her husband’s connections to appear on that commercial.  Don initially rejects it that it is bad for business but there is a part of him that decides to let her go.  Watching her screen-test, he realizes that for him, she was ‘his discovery’ romantically the way Peggy was his discovery professionally.  But as Peggy tells him, letting them go and watching them succeed has to be something he wants.  Don has kept Megan close in ways that verged on the abusive professionally.  She rejects working in advertising, a major sin since she revealed to be good at it, but wants to be very public face in the crowd and if that includes appearing on a national campaign, then so be it.  We have seen her give performances, from sex games to ‘Zou Bissou Bissou’, but Don has always been in the room and in a way he is in the commercial with his name on it, but she cannot just be his wife for her to be fulfilled and get traction.  He cannot be the only person watching and falling in love with her on camera, others will have to as well.  He has to walk away from the sound stage for her to get what she wants.  That is going to be hard on the marriage and whether or not it lasts (I think there will still be a marriage next season but its strength is another matter) is up in the air.  

In a way that Peggy was Don this season, Megan engineered her wooing of Don advertising a somewhat false avatar very much in the way Don has always advertised himself to others.  He thought she loved advertising and was thrilled at the thought she also wanted to be his work partner.  It is much more transparent now.   She is an actress.  Don knows Megan the way she knows all about him.  She accepts him but does he and can he?  Again more questions for next season.  

The weak point of this episode was the Misadventures of Pete Campbell in Cos Cob.  It was a bit too soapy for Pete to emotionally strip himself naked to a woman who no longer remembers him.  It was also much too quick and resolved that Trudy agree he gets an apartment in Manhattan because his excuses for looking beat up stem from car accidents.  I much more enjoyed professional Pete this season because he is such a ruthless manipulator and at-all-costs type of ad man.  Seeing him distracted by Howard and Beth Dawes, after so much time elapsed, at work just did not feel right when we saw him so power-hungry in the previous episodes. If the episode just cut to the chase and had Howard reveal he had Beth shocked which led to the very strange territory of the audience actually pulling for Pete Campbell in a fight, I would have found his sub-plot a bit more acceptable along with Trudy being more feisty and not so gullible.  Pete is one character I am most curious about going forward.  I would much prefer to see him more business-driven next season if just because I find Roger, Joan (though I loved her authority in the partner meetings), Bert, and Don to still be woefully old-school about business where I think Pete is going to have to find the new blood accounts and finally get the company featured as a hip ad agency.  He can also be despicable at the same time but I want office Pete to be the focus rather than retreading suburbia.  

Overall, this season has been divisive for a lot of people.  But for me a lot of the doom and gloom, the marginalizing of certain characters (Lane and to a certain extent, Peggy), the battling behaviors characters are fighting internally and externally, the yearning for control or maintaining control, the loss of control, and the changing times have made this season almost a prelude, an appetizer for the next two seasons.  The agency is growing but there are still a lot of flaws that could preclude them from reaching their potential.  Relationships seemed to have irrevocably changed on a professional and personal level.  Characters know what can and cannot change them, some are accepting of that and others just do not care or try not to care.  But the world and cultural landscape are going to make things even harder to turn away.  Things are going to be more transparent, more cynical, and a lot more colorful.  This is a show that knows it cannot be the same smoke-filled rooms of biting subtext.  This is where modernism and ends and post-modern begins and I cannot wait to see what the show does moving forward.  

Other Thoughts:

I will be ranking the episodes in the next coming days.  And I do not care what anybody says, “Mystery Date” will be near the top!

I saw the ghost of Adam Whitman coming and Don’s toothache added more opportunity for him to have macabre hallucinations.  It was okay but it spoke more to Don also dealing with his new life leaving an indirect body count that finally hit him after Lane.  Don knows he can never leave him but I am wondering why he wanted Adam to stay.

“You Only Live Twice” by Nancy Sinatra for the music montage and close-out song was a perfect choice considering this season has shown the lives of many characters fulfilling essentially these ‘other lives’ or ‘new lives’.

1968, much like the Kennedy assassination in Season 3, appears very unavoidable. Things start to go to hell immediately in January with Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive but Vietnam is still background noise with only side characters involved at this point.  I think Dow Chemical would have to be under the agency for there to really make the war come out front and center.  

I think Civil Rights are happening next season as well.  Given that there is a lot of dissatisfaction and lack of bodies in creative, could there be a person of color hired?  Or will they actually listen to Topaz and hire a girl (before Peggy clearly steals Topaz from them)?  

I enjoyed the hell out of Julia Ormond as Mrs. Marie Calvet.  She killed her lines both in English and French with a lot of dry wit and tone that was both devastatingly true and really funny.  You get her affair with Roger Sterling as they are a bit of the same kinds of people.

Speaking of Roger, I think his LSD trips are going to be apart of his banality by season 6 and his phone-stalking for Mrs. Calvet was hysterical.  And I am sure that was not the brief nudity people expected on the episode warning last night.   

Shoot me, internet, but I enjoyed Jessica Pare as Megan (the character as well) and thought this episode in particular was a good one for her.  Drunk-driven episodes on Mad Men are always good for characters on this show.  

Excellent job by the people behind Inside Mad Men on misdirection.  We know Jessica Pare had the hair flip wearing an outfit she wore in a previous episode when talked about the episodes but of course her last scene was in the kitschy, sorta Disney’s Snow White outfit.  Christina Hendricks also was still in her costume from “Commissions & Fees” that made me think that episode was her last appearance (until I saw the preview, of course) but wore several different blue outfits this episode.   Same with Jared Harris being in a different suit than he wore in any of the episodes.  No stains and rope burns in sight.  Also served as a good clue Peggy would re-appear since she never wore that red number until the finale.  

Noted Loose-Ends Never Answered and Ones to Contemplate:

What are the partner percentages now after Lane.  Pete seems to be on equal footing along with Joan.  Was it too soon for a name change?  How much does the rest of the agency know about this?  Clearly nobody wants to touch Lane’s office.  

So is Abe like Peggy’s wife sitting in her apartment writing for radical weeklies?  We never returned to Peggy’s home life and now I am siding with her mother that Abe is test-driving her.  I personally always found her dynamics with Stan more interesting and his explicit declaration that he is sick of working with Ginsberg makes me think Peggy will take him with her a la Lady Godiva on a horse.  

Dow Chemical.  Again, will the agency suddenly become politicized beyond doing campaigns?   Will Ken successfully phase Pete out and will Ken’s standing at the agency be hurt or helped if they do get it?  Will his personal life be in any danger?  Will Don’s political apathy be challenged by the younger creatives given that I get a feeling Ginsberg hates war based on his personal history and Stan seems to be a firm believer in the military industrial complex.  Guess they are saving that nugget for next season.  Hopefully it means more Ray Wise.  

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 

#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.