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. 

Read More

“THE BETTER HALF” EPISODE #6.09

Although this show has proven to be a show all about Don Draper, Matthew Weiner does spread it out in story and with Peggy Olson the show is very much her story too.  This episode showed that Peggy’s work life the moment the merger happened continues to blow up in her face, but that the merger itself reflected an unraveling home life.

Read More

NEW YORK CITY

MAY 17TH, 1968

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE…….

Read More

SEASON #6.05

“THE FLOOD”

This seemed like an inevitable event that Mad Men would have to drop its Updike/Cheever novella episodic storytelling for history to take over.  I am more than fine with that.  “The Flood” is not necessarily Season 3’s “The Grown-Ups” that dealt with the JFK assassination head-on.  Despite the Baby Boomer conflation of the three assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, Mad Men shows that the largely white cast and largely the White America had a different reaction to Martin Luther King’s assassination as opposed to JFK’s assassination. 

Read More

“COLLABORATORS”

Episode #6.03

You know how some Mad Men episodes after the premiere are filler until you get to gems like “The Suitcase”?  While not being on par with heavy-hitters like “The Suitcase”, “The Other Woman, and other pantheon episodes, “Collaborators” was a pretty packed episode in getting through the private and professional lives, their intersections, and the rules that have been set or made up along. 

Read More

“THE DOORWAY”

#6.01

Read More

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.  

MAD MEN

“COMMISSIONS & FEES”

#5.12

There was just far too many anvils and references to not see this coming.  Be it the talk of life insurance, car crashes, drawing of nooses on a notepad, the Richard Speck murders, an empty elevator shaft that is still undefined of whether it was a literal image or an illusion, and the falling man that though always apart of the show had changed this season with advertisements showing the falling man going straight down alone and not through a rabbit hole of retro advertising.   I and many viewers spent this season looking at the possible characters who would die.  It became clear it was going to be somebody at the agency.  It then thinned out to somebody high up in the agency.  Then it became clear that Lane Pryce was our fallen man (though perhaps not the falling man).

Many have written in previous episodes that this fall from grace felt shoe-horned and random, akin to Joan agreeing to the proposition (that I still defend was consistent with her character and people have had this false mythology about Joan even before the transpiring events of the previous episode).  But back to Lane.  The man since Season 3 had already shown a side where he had this inferiority complex and self-loathing that came from an upbringing by a cold, cruel father who re-appeared in Season 4 who caned him and subsequently stepped on his hand when he tried to retrieve his eye-glasses knocked down.  His class had put him at odds with the English toff employees in Season 3 and he never felt an equal to Don, Roger, Bert, or Pete even when he had his name on the door.  Nobody really knew his story with Joan and Don getting very small glimpses.  Lane kept a front of bottling it up, too proud and too stubborn to admit defeat over anything.  It was his fatal flaw that dug himself deeper and deeper to the point his wife had not had a clue. 

I do not think Matthew Weiner set this suicide up as some shocker but rather a dreading event that had been in play for some time.  Nobody knew more about Lane and his situation than the audience.  The discovery of the check by Bert Cooper reflects what would have probably have been the general response from people of the agency, that it was far more likely Don wrote a bad check than Lane forging it.  Don offered to Lane what he thought was mercy, and I am frankly surprised by the reaction toward Don when I thought he was pretty well-mannered given the stakes in the Don Draper avatar.  Don is a shedding snake.  He can adapt.  He can make ‘the elegant exit’.  Lane cannot.  Losing his job means returning to England as a failure which doubles the failure since I am certain him leaving the motherland to America was viewed as a failure for many in his inner circle.  His breakdown in front of Don is heartbreaking because to Don this is not the man he knows but here is a man more emotionally naked than ever before.  Credit to Jon Hamm and Jared Harris in that scene.

When Don finds out about Lane’s suicide, I think the suicide of Adam Whitman immediately crossed his mind.  He kept Adam at a distance and when Adam tried to re-enter his life, Don pushed him away.  Don was never as cruel with Lane but that this was another instance with somebody in the agency leaving his side, in such a violent fashion, certainly effected him.  That scene of Don letting Glenn Bishop drive his car on the State Thruway, though a bit jarring, showed a man trying to be kind, even to somebody practically a stranger to him.  I think Don hearing that Glenn is already in a pessimistic state of mind led him to do it.  He was projecting Adam onto Glenn.  Somebody deserved to be happy that night.

This has been a season of people getting what they want and feeling a bit empty if just perplexed by the fact it turned out to be different.  The other sub-plot of Sally trying to be the assertive, young adult inviting Glenn to spend the day with her, only to have it end with her taking a cab back to Rye in a panic after getting her first period, shows the teenage side of things where on one hand, wanting to be in the adult world but the other implications of that world are a bit frightening.  Sally went for the material things first with the mod clothing shopping with Megan and getting hair and makeup done to look older much to her father’s shock.  Then there came the mannerisms, such as eating the ‘adult food’ of codfish, drinking coffee, and suddenly conversing with Megan like she is one of the gals.  Then there came taking control of getting out of the ski trip, sneaking out of The Draper Love Nest, and having ‘date’ with Glenn.  There were obvious cracks in this development, mainly her bratty nature to Betty, her precocious Holden Caulfield salvos of labeling people as ‘phony’, her gossiping about ‘Bluto’ and the ‘dirty’ city, and the fact that she had a completely different mindset for what a boyfriend meant than Glenn did.  Thankfully it seems these two are just friends. 

Betty getting to have her satisfaction in that her daughter came to her, much to her shock, seemed to be a satisfying moment that she of course, rubbed in the face of Megan, aka Don’s ‘child-bride’ who seems to know not to cave to the passive aggressive smog monster that is Elizabeth Hofstadt Draper Francis.  Of course, her daughter suffering embarrassment caused her to have great new role to brag about.  Fat Betty, you are the best and I hope you stay the way you are- just in limited doses. 

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce at this point may be in a false position of assurance that seems dashed when Lane’s body and letter of resignation is discovered.  Don feels betrayed by the people he works with and who have left him though his deal seems more with who surrounds him as of now be it the partners or even mild-mannered Ken Cosgrove who’s father-in-law could mean hot business for the agency.  Don’s pitch to Dow Chemical (and oh my ain’t napalm going to be the new cigarette?) is one of the most aggressive pitches I have ever seen him give.  I am not sure whether it was too aggressive or hit the right notes, but this is a man taking out his anger in his work but that tunnel-vision determination may have had him miss what has gone on with Lane.  Hell, this whole uneasiness about new business reflects learning about the possible ramifications of ‘The Letter’ and that the Jaguar speech to the office was more desperate than determined at the time.  Realizing that even a good campaign to win Jaguar required prostituting a co-worker turned that desperation into anger. It almost seems spiteful that Don is going for the big guns, to show that the agency is not only better than that but they can get companies that are worth their time and effort.  Damn, Jaguar must really be pissed about their involvement in this season’s dread. 

Whether Don is still angry with the fire and passion to really make SCDP a brand or this Lane incident has put him and the agency in a funk is going to be interesting to watch in the finale.  I have honestly no idea what can is going to go down.  Well, I do have my ideas, but I do not mind being surprised or reminded about what this show is about.  Great episode. 

Other Thoughts:

When Don made a reference to the partners making back-door deals when he leaves the room, the look of hurt on Joan’s face was so palpable.

I think just about everybody shed a tear when Joan cried realizing why Lane’s office was locked and barricaded. 

It would be a shame if their last conversation had Joan kicking Lane out of her office for making a lewd comment about her in a bikini. 

Come on, it crossed your mind that Glenn may have his new sights set on Sally’s stepmom.

I did not really take to Megan’s acting friend Julia in the beginning but I really enjoyed their TMI conversations with each other in front of Sally.

It seems the only person so far who may have put two and two together in terms of why Joan is a partner is Ken and that makes a lot of sense given he knew of the proposition, knew that Pete did not immediately say ‘no’ to the idea, and considered the Jaguar deal DOA.  Major kudos to him for making his negotiation with Roger include not having Pete at any meetings.  Man of integrity right there. 

I enjoyed the hell out of Betty making vague threats about strangling Sally when talking to Don on the phone.  She actually sounded like a mother.

Finding out from Jared Harris that the reaction by Hamm, Slattery, and Kartheiser was actually them seeing his corpse for the first time, is pretty interesting.  Roger’s reaction, when you account his reaction to the Ida Blankenship death, was especially interesting to see. 

Again, Jaguar was such anti-product placement.  From Lane puking at the sight of the E-type and his first botched suicide attempt stemming from the fact the Jaguar did not start. 

I am sort of have hoping the agency cannot land Dow Chemical.  So much shit will hit the fan with napalm and I can only imagine the conflicts within the agency getting super-politicized for representing/defending napalm even though Don is politically apathetic abd unaware of how jingoistic and out of touch it will be, even more than cigarettes. 

No Peggy this episode or even a mention of her.  It appears to be early to mid March so enough time has passed and there was no signs of creative for her presence to even be spoken about in passing.  I hope she is on the finale. 

Really good comparison shots of Don reacting to the Adam and Lane suicides that I found on Alan Sepinwall’s blog:

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.