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JethroMcB posted:And of course, there was speculation that he was a serial killer, because yet again some people still thought they were watching a very different show six years in. The only thing like this that I rolled with was Megan getting murdered, because "someone gets murdered" is about the only dramatic plot point that doesn't come up over the course of the show. There's rape, suicide, all of the others, but murder? Pete's mom, notwithstanding, because I'm not entirely sure it was an actual homicide.
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Apr 11, 2022 18:50
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Sash! posted:The only thing like this that I rolled with was Megan getting murdered, because "someone gets murdered" is about the only dramatic plot point that doesn't come up over the course of the show. There's rape, suicide, all of the others, but murder? Pete's mom, notwithstanding, because I'm not entirely sure it was an actual homicide. Going back through the Tom & Lorenzo Mad Style blogs they noted that a T-shirt that Megan wore in one scene earlier this season was exact same design that Sharon Tate wore in a 1968 Esquire pictorial - and that Janie Bryant confirmed on Twitter that it was "intentional." Seems like there was a deliberate effort to put that possibility in viewers' minds.
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Apr 11, 2022 19:25
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Mover posted:We are now officially one episode away from the greatest line reading in the history of TV "Not great, Bob!"
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Apr 11, 2022 19:54
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Cat Army 
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Jerusalem posted:But I think it’s distinct from that, or at least the major aspect of it. I think Don is angry that Ted had one over on him, even if that “one over on him” was Ted doing Don a huge favor. Ted’s cost for helping save Mitchell’s life was one that Don in the moment thought was a complete non-factor: he didn’t think he was at war with Ted, so he agreed to a ceasefire because he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I think it goes even deeper than that. He's not resentful of Ted, he's jealous. Because Ted and Peggy have what Don wanted so desperately for himself and Megan. In Peggy, Ted has a romantic partner who also energizes and engages him creatively. Don spent the entirety of the previous season trying to push Megan into that box, and when it didn't work, he allowed his marriage to decay. Now, seeing Ted so happy and fulfilled the way Don yearned to be seems like a cruel joke. At the same time, it's possible Don does resent how vulnerable Ted appears to everyone else with his blatant affection towards his protege. Maybe it's causing Don to ponder how he looked when Megan was in the office. There's very likely a mixture of jealously and self-resentment; "I hate that he has what I was denied" plus "I hate that I want this thing that makes me look and act like that." Another angle is that, having recently destroyed his relationship with his daughter, Don is probably quite resentful of Ted's open philandering because it reminds him too much of his own behavior. So how does he deal with this mixture of envy and resentment-projection? He cruelly twists Ted and attempts to humiliate him, to force him to reckon with the vulnerability he's exposed. In a way, he's using Ted as a proxy for punishing himself. kalel fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Apr 12, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2022 00:19
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kalel posted:In a way, he's using Ted as a proxy for punishing himself. And in that sense, Don does what he always does, which is to make other people eat poo poo while still considering himself somehow the person getting the raw end of the deal. I definitely see the (excellent) points people are making in regards to Don's thinking around Ted, Sally, and of course Peggy and Megan tangential to those. I think it's part of what makes Mad Men so strong: there is no simplistic answer (beyond Don DESPERATELY needing therapy), no one way or looking at things. Because Don, like real people, is a volatile mixture of past mistakes, issues stemming from childhood, conscious and subconscious choices, conflicting self-images and the potential to let himself get caught up in the emotion of the moment and then have to deal with the sticky aftermath. Part of my early struggle with this season was just how unlikable Don had become, even moreso than some of the atrocious things he has done in the past. But it is definitely helped by the fact that it all built to Don curled up on his couch, miserable, after being called a monster by a former protege who was previously one of the only positive non-sexual female relationships he's ever had in his life. We've all known that Don Draper can be a giant piece of poo poo over the last six seasons, and that he destroys relationships, but the utter contempt in Peggy's reaction to him is something new. She's dealt with him as an underling, then a peer, but there has always been an underlying respect or need for his approval. That's gone now. Don is just another piece of poo poo male in her eyes now, one she has learned all she can from and now can't even bear to stand to be in the same room with, either from a professional or personal point of view. Mad Men is, you'll be shocked to learn, a very good show!
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Apr 12, 2022 00:37
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kalel posted:I think we need to start by discussing the most important moment of the episode Ultimately, Don shows his true self in this clip. A big baby who expects everyone around him to cater to his every need constantly.
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Apr 12, 2022 01:15
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when j-ru posts another paragraph calling don a bad person
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Apr 12, 2022 04:40
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Jerusalem posted:Part of my early struggle with this season was just how unlikable Don had become, even moreso than some of the atrocious things he has done in the past. But it is definitely helped by the fact that it all built to Don curled up on his couch, miserable, after being called a monster by a former protege who was previously one of the only positive non-sexual female relationships he's ever had in his life. We've all known that Don Draper can be a giant piece of poo poo over the last six seasons, and that he destroys relationships, but the utter contempt in Peggy's reaction to him is something new. She's dealt with him as an underling, then a peer, but there has always been an underlying respect or need for his approval. That's gone now. Don is just another piece of poo poo male in her eyes now, one she has learned all she can from and now can't even bear to stand to be in the same room with, either from a professional or personal point of view. My issue with S6, although it all eventually works out as you're seeing towards the end of the season, is also how unlikeable Don is. That's why I haven't been posting along as much this season because I would just be saying that sort of thing over and over. I also really don't like Peggy anymore, because now that she's fully established in her workplace role, she's turned into a stodgy landlord who is preoccupied with her love affair with her boss. It's just not a sympathetic position, compared to her in earlier seasons when she was on the rise and then in s4 when she was developing herself personally. She's calcifying into a self-obsessed member of the upper class, still carrying the chip on her shoulder from when she got no respect. So when she calls Don a monster I think, eh, he's broken, and you're becoming pretty unpleasant too, so y'know...gently caress the both of you a bit. It's not a bad season or anything it's just, when I don't have sympathy with the lead character, or Peggy who is maybe the second most important character, and even dislike them for most of the episodes, it's not something I really want to revisit that much. Everything else is still cool but I sort of forget what happens in s6 and what happens elsewhere just because I don't think about it that much. roomtone fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Apr 12, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2022 04:56
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https://mobile.twitter.com/hereliesthighs/status/1514428436961443841?t=5tRUKleTF6K17TJbPZbgjw&s=19
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Apr 14, 2022 19:42
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https://twitter.com/DCpierson/status/474965993798643712?s=20&t=KXAIDLeY4Vk_WsgnW1npbw
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Apr 14, 2022 21:33
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roomtone posted:My issue with S6 (…), so y'know...gently caress the both of you a bit. pretty much everyone except the kids, Megan, Ken and possibly Ginsberg ends up on the “oh, do gently caress off” list by the end of s6, just by how self-righteous they all are and act e: Dr Rosen and the doorman are exempted too ulvir fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Apr 14, 2022 |
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Apr 14, 2022 22:30
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Ken seems like a prick tbh
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Apr 14, 2022 22:49
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He's a one eyed monster
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Apr 14, 2022 22:58
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Mover posted:https://mobile.twitter.com/hereliesthighs/status/1514428436961443841?t=5tRUKleTF6K17TJbPZbgjw&s=19 Jesus Christ burn it in a fire  Bismack Billabongo posted:https://twitter.com/DCpierson/status/474965993798643712?s=20&t=KXAIDLeY4Vk_WsgnW1npbw This on the other hand 
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Apr 15, 2022 00:17
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Give me all the "Mad Men characters making pitches for modern day products" jokes/memes. I'll always laugh
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Apr 15, 2022 00:57
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My favorite was Don in bed at the beginning of citizen Kane. A single chalupa falls from his hands as he whispers “FOURTHMEAL”
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Apr 15, 2022 02:59
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As soon as I saw that vape Don, I went right to the FOURTHMEAL one. It is so perfect.
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Apr 15, 2022 05:34
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insideoutsider posted:Give me all the "Mad Men characters making pitches for modern day products" jokes/memes. I'll always laugh This
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Apr 15, 2022 05:34
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J-Ru, if this were still the Web 1.0 days when people went to websites to read things, you could've easily made these posts you do into a career. They're just wonderful.
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Apr 18, 2022 21:34
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the rare megan pog
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Apr 19, 2022 07:30
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I just checked out the PaleyFest 2014 panel for the first time (takes place right before the last season aired I guess?); the audience questions are kind of dull but it's fun to see the majority of the cast outside of their characters. Kartheiser in particular is way more of a goof than I was expecting
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Apr 19, 2022 20:06
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lol @ Kartheiser's weird "Don't have to shave this back for the role at the moment" hairline in that video
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Apr 19, 2022 20:22
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Jon Hamm absolutely looks like a Dating Game contestant in that video.
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Apr 20, 2022 05:39
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Season 6, Episode 13 - In Care Of Written by Carly Wray & Matthew Weiner, Directed by Matthew Weiner Don Draper posted:It's an opportunity. Don arrives to work in the morning and is surprised to see Stan waiting for him in reception, even more-so because Stan is... well-dressed!?! He's in a suit and tie, he's carefully groomed his hair, and he is obviously looking to make an impression. They walk and talk, passing the recently designed and installed SC&P sign which is EXACTLY what you'd think a logo designed in the 70s (well, late 1968) would look like. Stan of course wants something, though Don suspects what he thinks he wants isn't what he is going to get even if they give it to him. Much like Chevy needs somebody largely based in Detroit to handle the day-to-day of their advertising, the Sunkist account needs somebody in California to avoid the time delay difference and to maintain the face of SC&P to the clients... and Stan wants to be that somebody. Surprised, Don points out that this would be a demotion, and far from the glamour that Stan might be expecting from the movies. He'll be one man, in one office, sitting around and doing little apart from dealing with people who sell oranges. Except Stan - who only recently happily told Don that working alone in a dark office in secret was the most fun and creatively fulfilling he'd felt in a long time - doesn't see it that way. He sees "exile" to California as an opportunity, the chance to be on the frontier (he doesn't even need running water, he insists!) and to have the chance to build something, to develop his own "shop" from nothing. It is a mindset that appeals to Don even if it surprises. He himself had that same dream, and he realized it (albeit with somewhat of a significant leg-up) when he plotted the escape from Sterling Cooper and the creation of SCDP. But it is both to his credit and rather hypocritical of him to now warn Stan of the dangers inherent in such a move: if it fails, he won't just be done with SC&P, he'll probably be done in advertising itself, because nobody will take him seriously anymore, especially not out in California where they appear to have a low opinion of advertising already (while eagerly making use of it). He admits he never saw Stan that way, but Stan simply sees that another challenge, telling Don that he WILL see him that way now, before leaving with a smile, convinced that he has planted the idea successfully. After all, they need SOMEBODY in California, and now they have a volunteer, and one who has some status in the Agency as well as a strong resume (did you guys know he worked the LBJ Campaign in 1964? It doesn't come up very often!). Another Partner is finishing up just a moment with another awkward large man who looks uncomfortable in a suit: Roger and his son-in-law Brooks. As they leave his office, Roger is cheerfully tells Brooks that you learn more from disappointment than success, and Brooks puts as brave a face on this as possible by noting that he is becoming a very wise man indeed. Margaret was waiting outside for them, and happily greets her father and passes him a drawing Ellery made of his grandfather, Roger quipping that "he got my good side." The drawing, by the way, features Roger wearing a crown and clutching onto moneybags, which she laughs shows his generous side. Margaret laughs that it shows his generous side, and it doesn't seem like too much of a stress to suspect it was made with the gentle prodding/suggestions of Margaret. But when Margaret offers to take him out to lunch and Brooks quietly notes they've taken up enough of his time already, she grasps immediately what this means: Roger isn't giving them the money they wanted. Immediately her demeanor changes and she turns cold, especially when Roger insists that it is simply prudent for him to pause investing in Brooks' business for the time being, and isn't anything personal. On that Margaret angrily disagrees, hissing that it IS personal because she's his daughter, and Roger is taking food of their family's table. Bitterly she asks what SHE has to do to get on the list of women that Roger happily forks over cash to, offending him, but she's past caring about that. She warns him not to come to Thanksgiving Dinner because there won't be a place set for him, and storms off. Brooks awkwardly tells Roger she doesn't mean it and then chases after his wife, caught between his desire not to offend his extremely wealthy father-in-law and wanting to support his wife. Roger watches them go, upset but even now seemingly not quite taking it seriously, the last thing he says being to call out after her that he intends to bring a turkey. Margaret is in that awkward state where as a viewer I both feel sympathy for her as well as recognizing that she's incredibly entitled. I imagine that her idea of having no food on the table is VERY different from the experience of most Americans, and that she probably lives a rather luxurious life. But she's also an adult who has long since recognized that her father is far from a perfect man, and is in fact a very selfish one. It's not hard to understand her bitterness over how he appears to happily throw money around to everybody while feeling like they have to jump through hoops to get anything from him (while ignoring or not really thinking about how much she has already gotten), or that Roger himself bears significant responsibility for her growing up associating the handing out of money as being synonymous with love. As an side, I wonder if this investment opportunity was the refrigerated trucks idea or something new? If the former, Roger really is missing out not being in on the ground floor, which will bring scant satisfaction to Margaret if they also miss out. If the latter than Brooks may simply be one of those guys who constantly jumps between get-rich quick schemes, believing that with just a little money he can get in and make something of it all... only for things to quick fall apart and he moves on to something else. We simply don't have enough information to say for sure, but either way like Stan Rizzo he does appear to be a man in pursuit of a dream.   Don pours a hefty dose of whiskey into his SC&P mug, another far from healthy sign that his drinking has gotten bad enough that he's masking it by pouring it into coffee mugs instead of a glass now. Dawn calls in over the intercom to let him know that Mr. Cosgrove is here, and after quickly setting the bottle down and stepping away from the drinks tray he calls him in. Ken enters along with Jim Cutler, taking a moment to beam with satisfaction after he asks Don to name a chocolate and he immediately responds with Hershey's. Jim lets him bask for a moment and then hurries him along, reminding him they're there for a reason, and Ken excitedly explains that Hershey's Chocolate has sent out an RFP - Request For Proposal Advertising - to the top 30 Advertising Agencies in America. This has caused some excitement in the Agency, but Ken can't believe that the excitement is based around the fact SC&P was included in that Top 30 rather than that they might have a shot at Hershey's. Despite his recent horrible experience at Chevy and the complicated issues with Dow Chemical, Ken has always and continues to chase the thrill of being the Account Man for one of the big prestige companies: Coca-Cola, Pepsi... and now Hershey's. But as Don notes, the reason nobody is seriously considering following up on the RFP is because Hershey's doesn't advertise... they've never had to, their chocolate basically sells itself. On this though, Jim Cutler smells money, even if he knows it may come to nothing. Mars generates advertising billings of ten million dollars annually, and an excited Ken thinks Hershey's might be open to being convinced to spend a similar amount. Don considers this for a moment, asking what Ted's take on this is, and Cutler explains Ted's plate is full but Don's isn't (he is careful to explain it was Ted who said this)... and he thinks if Don pursues it, Ted will be convinced to jump onboard to. "I love Hershey's," muses Don, and then offers Ken the same mantra he has often repeated: get him in the room. An excited Ken offers to go get everything Hershey's has sent him, and he and a satisfied Cutler leave. The moment they're gone though, Don's thoughtful expression disappears and he moves straight to collect his mug, taking a deep, sustained drink of the whiskey inside, unwilling to forgo his booze a moment longer. Roger is coming down the stairs from the Account floor when he spots Pete coming up the other way. He asks how Detroit is and Pete - a born New Yorker - explains the first thing he did was find a reasonable Deli to eat at, and notes things should get easier once he has an apartment there and doesn't have to commute so frequently. All thoughts of Pete and what he has saying have faded though as Roger spots Bob Benson chatting happily with Joan nearby Ted's office (which I believe was Roger's old office?), she holding a gift-wrapped toy car. He offers Pete a generic,"It's a hell of an Account" and heads on down the stairs, injecting himself into Bob and Joan's conversation to ask what the gift is. "It's a racehorse," smiles Joan, giving the stupid question the stupid answer it deserves, and when Roger "jokingly" warns that they shouldn't given one to Kevin because he'll just want a real one, doesn't like that Joan admiringly points out that Chevy already gave Bob a real one of his own! Doing his best to mask his alarm at the fact that Bob seems to have become such an integral part of Joan's life, Roger grins that Detroit is a hell of a town... till they shoot you in the face. With that he turns and parts, acting like the ever-jaunty and not particularly worried Roger Sterling, moving around without a care in the world... but his face falls and the concern raises: he already had one rough encounter with Marget earlier today, now he's getting a reminder of another failed relationship with an important woman in his life. That evening, Don is - of course - pouring himself a drink in the apartment when Megan steps out of the bedroom and reminds him they're supposed to be going out to dinner tonight. "Eventually," Don agrees, as if the very notion of going an hour without a drink is ridiculous. Megan sets that aside though to pass him an envelope, explaining that he needs to get on to Sally about this, as the next step is a subpoena. ! With a sigh, Don says he'll talk to her at Thanksgiving, but she reminds him that they're just having the boys this year, as Miss Porter's doesn't have a Thanksgiving holiday. That makes Don frown, because he knows Sally is probably perfectly happy with this situation, avoiding the torture of both Thanksgiving with Henry's family and also having to see her father. Still, he maintains his composure, and grins at Megan gently warning him he can have ONE drink but then nothing else till dinner, acting as if it isn't a big deal. Once she's gone though, he takes a longer look at the envelope, which has come from the District Attorney's office. Presumably this has to do with the burglar who broke into the apartment when she was home alone, with the letters requesting she come in to make a statement (or testify?) going unanswered from Sally to this point... and he probably suspects he knows why, because that would entail coming into the city... which would mean having to see HIM. The next day at SC&P, Roger steps into his office calling grumpily to Caroline to get him Bob Benson. He shuts the door but has barely made it a couple of steps before she buzzes in to let him know that Bob Benson is here to see him! Throwing his arms wide is disbelief, he orders him in, sarcastically asking if he has been circling Roger's office, Bob of course just putting on that eternal grin and saying he doesn't know what Roger means. They take a seat across from each other and Roger explains that he hasn't had a performance review yet, and when Bob starts to explain that he actually HAS had one just recently Roger cuts him off to say he doesn't give a poo poo, and then comes right out with it: what the hell kind of game is he playing with Joan Harris? Startled, Bob again insists he doesn't understand, and when Roger doesn't buy that for a second and points out that he is is playing with the affections of a woman by buying her child presents - and that child is another man's (not Greg's though!). Acting like the idea of it appearing this way never occurred to him, Bob assures Roger that he and Joan are just "buddies", and Roger sneers that Joan has a lot of buddies and they like to go fishing together. Of course we don't know the extent of Bob's relationship with Joan. He's gay - or at least it appears that he is, I've given up assuming I have figured out what Bob's true state of being is - but does that mean he isn't willing to have Joan as a beard? Or to try and seduce her for professional gain? Does Joan herself know that Bob is gay and thus a "safe" male to have in and around her life? How much have they spoken and shared with each other? Does Joan think this relationship is going anywhere or is she just happy to have a male friend around? In Roger's mind though, aside from the very obvious personal interest he has in Joan, he figures that Bob's motivations are clear enough: he is probably eager to look like a family man to Chevy, and sees a pre-built family he can inject himself into, and it isn't fair of him to toy with "Mrs. Harris" in that way. At least, this is how Roger justifies to Bob - and perhaps himself - why he has any say in who Joan has in her life or what Bob does in his personal time. Bob, ever eager to appear friendly and accommodating and most importantly compliant, immediately agrees with Roger that he is right and he needs to be more careful. Roger grumpily warns him that he doesn't WANT to be right, which is why he's warning Bob off in the first place. They stand, the meeting and this "performance review" over, and Roger shakes Bob's offered hand, telling him that he is looking forward to having him out in Detroit, a not-particularly subtle gently caress-you that Bob of course can't help but understand... and also of course absolutely will pretend not to get and simply take at face value as a compliment. He leaves, and Roger grumpily stubs out his cigarette in an ash-tray absolutely jam-packing with them. That isn't a sign of stress, simply a reminder that these guys smoke a LOT, and that office, the floor and most of New York of the time absolutely reeked of cigarettes, and would continue to do so for close to another 3 decades.   At Miss Porter's, Sally takes a call at the corridor phone, answering with formal politeness that turns cold when she hears Don - calling from his apartment - telling her that "it's Daddy." She grumpily asks what he wants, and when he tells her he wanted to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving she simply responds she has to go and prepares to hang up. He stops her though to explain that he has some unpleasant news, but she has to arrange to be out of school on December 1st so she can give a statement regarding the burglar. As he suspected, the last thing she wants to do is come in to the city and have to spend any time with him. She grunts that her calendar is full, and when he explains that she HAS to, that it is a legal requirement, she sardonically notes that she wouldn't want to do anything immoral before noting bitterly that HE can just tell them what she saw. She hangs up without a goodbye, and for once Don is the recipient of a withering one-liner that has completely taken the wind out of his sails. She didn't have to say anything explicit, and if it wasn't already obvious from the fact she's at Miss Porter's in the first place, that line completely cements that his bullshit gaslighting didn't fool either of them, and she knows EXACTLY what she saw in the Rosens' apartment. Ted is working in his office when Jim Cutler pops in with a "personal plea". "Is it about Hershey's again?" sighs Ted, but gives over his full attention when Cutler explains it is about Sheraton Hotels and in particular Royal Hawaiian... they're in the lobby, and Don Draper is nowhere to be found. "AGAIN!?" he gasps, realizing that the personal plea is not only for Ted to step in for Don, but presumably to present work or at least a progress report on a campaign Ted himself hasn't actually been involved in at all. Where is Don? At a bar of course. He's not deliberately ducking Sheraton, more like that he has simply forgotten he had a meeting today, or that all thought of work in general simply never entered his mind, everything wrapped up in himself and his own current awful (and self-inflicted!) predicament. If he was hoping for quiet to drink and half-watch the fuzzy reception on an episode of Bewitched though, he's out of luck. An Evangelical has decided the bar is the perfect place to "witness" and spread the good word about Jesus, inflicting himself on another middle-aged man who doesn't offer the slightest response and just continues to drink unabated as the religious man insists that Christianity is a fellowship greater than any drink. Don makes the rookie alcoholic mistake of acknowledging anything exists outside of booze, complaining across the bar to the evangelizing man to keep it down because he's trying to drink. That of course brings him over to Don like a fly to poo poo, and Don - despite wincing and trying not to make eye contact - simply can't help but respond, far too used to being able to win arguments with his withering one-liners, his smooth voice and his authoritative presence. That won't work here though, he's dealing with somebody whose entire identity is wrapped up around the idea that he not only should spread the good word, but that he HAS to. You can be cynical and assume he's doing this for selfish reasons - you have to spread the word or else you don't get into heaven - or take the more charitable view that he has a real, deep and abiding concern for helping those who need it. In either case though, what it means is that Don is confronted with somebody who won't go away, who keeps pressing at a sore spot, and also is stomping around in vaguely psychological areas that frighten Don who has tried to actively avoid therapy at all costs for most of the time we've known him. But when Don sarcastically remarks that Nixon winning the Presidency means Jesus put everything back in its right place (he has clearly long since lost the admiration he had for Nixon), then bitterly complains that Jesus had a "bad year" given the deaths of Kennedy and Martin Luther King, or the entire debacle that is Vietnam, the evangelical finally pushes too far back by affecting a sad face and admitting that the truth is there was not one true believer on that list. THAT is too much, a line that drives Don into a rage: Jesus LET those men be murdered or killed because they didn't believe in the exact right minor-deviation of the broad scope of Christianity? The REVEREND Dr. Martin Luther King wasn't a true believer? Crusading former Attorney General Bobby Kennedy wasn't a true believer? All those poor kids drafted and forced into a country many had never heard of to kill or die horribly (or kill and die horribly anyway) somehow deserved to die or Jesus simply refused to intercede because they weren't "true" believers? But of course, Don's rage stems from a deeper source, one that goes far further back even than his misery over how he has wrecked his relationship with Sally. Don avoids therapy like the plague, but he desperately needs it, and we get another reminder of that as we flashback in time to Don's youth once more, and another encounter with an evangelical... or rather, him witnessing Uncle Mack's encounter with one. At the whorehouse, young Dick Whitman stands in the kitchen watching as Uncle Mack physically manhandles a tattered, sweaty and somewhat desperate looking man who has visited the brothel to try and set the prostitutes there on the "righteous path". Uncle Mack sneers at him that he only pushes religion because he can't get his dick hard, warning the man that he's told him before not to come around. When the evangelical protests - grabbing his hat as he's hauled out - that these girls "belong to the Lord" Uncle Mack scoffs that he's wrong on that, leaving it unsaid that they "belong" to HIM. "I'd tell you to go to hell, but I don't want to see you again!" declares Uncle Mack, both a joke and an admission that he is under no illusions that he himself is NOT a good person, even if he clearly enjoys and takes great pride in being who he is. The religious man stumbles down the steps, clutching his bible, and turns to look back at Dick who followed them out onto the porch and stayed behind after Uncle Mack returned inside. "The only unpardonable sin is to believe that God can't forgive you!" the man cries out, then gathering what dignity he can buttons up his tattered shirt and continues to limp down the steps. Dick Whitman, a young man whose male influences have been far from positive and constructive role models, watches him go as we get our first look at the exterior of the brothel. What is he thinking as he watches him go? Does he long for the salvation the man suggests is on offer? Does that vulnerability (and cynically, that naivety?) in turn still burn at the older, more "sophisticated" Don Draper? Is part of his rage towards this current evangelical that he dismisses good men and innocents as somehow guilty when the other offered at least a more inclusive approach that ALL were capable of forgiveness? Does Don both long for forgiveness and suspect that it isn't possible? That Uncle Mack was right and that there is no hope for people like him? That his selfish and self-destructive habits have put him beyond salvation? Not from Jesus but from those he loves: Megan perhaps, but definitely Sally. She offered him one of the few female relationships in his life where she loved him uncritically and believed in him as a person, a role model, a hero, an inspiration. He wrecked that, and forgiveness for him is not something he wants from Jesus, but from his daughter. This evangelical has brought to the surface feelings - even if not consciously understood - he was trying to bury beneath booze... and so it is no great surprise that when the flashback ends we find Don waking bleary-eyed in a jail cell. He has no idea how he got there, but when he calls out that he shouldn't be in here, the policeman on duty calls back that he's right... he SHOULD be in Rikers for punching a minister. "Sleep it off!" demands the policeman, and a surprised Don gives up on trying to argue his case, sinking back onto the hard surface of the bench, multiple other drunks also crammed into the room. It seems the minister "turned the other cheek" (and probably took great satisfaction in doing so), deciding not to press charges for his assault - never-mind that he was in Don's face and wouldn't leave him alone - and so the cops just dumped the blacked out Don into the drunk tank for the evening.   Peggy is leaving work for the day when suddenly two young boys race past to the vending machine, and Ted calls out a warning to them that they'll get candy in the theater. She looks over and sees to his deep distress Ted walking alongside his wife Nan, who is all dressed up and offers a warm,"Oh, hello!" to her as she passes by, Ted staring back nervously at Peggy as they go. Peggy manages her own smiling greeting, her face dropping once they're past, an unhappy reminder that the man she wants - and that she knows wants her - is with somebody else, not just as a girlfriend but a wife, with children, and a happy social life, and all the things she wants with him but knows she cannot have. Pete is also leaving, letting Clara know as she returns to her desk that he is going to give his keys to his sub-letter and asking if she got him a room at the Roosevelt like he asked. She has, but lets him know he just got a telegram as well, so he has her open it and read the contents. She begins, and then freezes, gasping in shock before blurting out she fell of a ship! She passes the telegram to Pete, it's from a Cruise Company, informing Pete that his mother is missing and presumed overboard, they have not been able to find her, and it is assumed she is dead. Deepest Condolences. Holy poo poo. "Get Bud on the phone," he manages after a moment, staring in shock at the telegram, wrapping his head around the fact that for the second time in his life he has lost a parent... and once again to the sea. The next morning, Megan emerges from the bedroom to the sound of pouring liquid, and finds a disheveled, unshaven Don pouring bottles of booze not down his throat but the sink. "I assume this has something to do with last night?" she asks wearily, having hit that dangerous stage of simply being bored/numb to her husband's awful behavior. Don turns to stare at her, his face haggard, and finally says,"Yes," before starting to try to explain, then stopping and asking her to come over and join them. She takes a moment to glare at him, then moves around the kitchen island, removing the physical barrier between them. She asks where he was and he can't help but laugh, admitting he spent the night in jail. This angers her, why is he laughing about such a horrible thing? He admits because it made him realize that it had gotten out of control, meaning his drinking, before in a rare moment of accepting blame he corrects him that HE has gotten out of control. Some of his resistance slips at that, she gently strokes his face and tells him she is sorry he had to find out that way, leaving it unsaid that she obviously knew long before this. But he realized something else too... he doesn't want to be here anymore. At first she thinks he means he doesn't want to be that drunk/out of control again, but he explains he means it literally: he wants to move to California. She's of course thrown for a loop by this, not really believing it at first, but he keeps going, talking quietly but persuasively about how he doesn't want her to give up her career, but he just can't be in New York anymore. Slowly realization starts to sink in for her that he's being serious, and with it comes her own whirling thoughts. There have been offers, her work on To Have and To Hold got her noticed and she has had chances to go to Hollywood, but never really considered them seriously because she assumed Don would hate it out there. She knows he loves California as a place to visit, but to live? To work? Wouldn't it drive him crazy? The opposite, he insists, it would bring him a calmness and serenity he has been lacking. Whether consciously or not, he lifts almost wholesale Stan's pitch to him: it would be an opportunity for him, they could be homesteaders (Stan called it the Frontier), a chance to take a single desk operating as a local SC&P representative for Sunkist and turn it into a working Agency: his own shop, essentially. But there are other considerations? What about the kids? Don hesitates there, because of course part of this radical idea is that he is seeking distance to escape his past much as he has done or suggested in the past (remember his eagerness to take Midge to Europe, or Rachel to California?). But he sets that aside, figuring Sally will probably take the chance to escape from excuses not to visit him on weekends, and simply telling her the kids in general will probably be happy to trade in odd weekend visits to the city for an entire summer in Los Angeles. The full enormity starts to sink in for Megan, and when Don quietly, longingly reminds her that they were happy together in LA and they have a chance to be happy again... she breaks. Because of course she has been fighting a deep unhappiness for so long now, the knowledge that something is wrong with their marriage and she doesn't understand what, why or how to fix it. And now here it is, Don offering them both a fresh start, acknowledging the unspoken truth that their marriage was failing, offering a chance for them both to renew the something special they once had. She bursts into tears, a fantastic bit of acting from Jessica Pare, and collapses into Don's arms, all the weight and stress she has been feeling finally being released in a flood. "Is that a yes?" he asks, and nodding and smiling as she cries, she wraps herself up in his arms. More importantly, Don returns the embrace, finally there to comfort her, after far too long making her feel safe and loved once more. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/WhimsicalRealAnole-mobile.mp4 Of course, just because Don has said he wants to go to California, doesn't mean he just can. So it is that at a full Partners' meeting at SC&P, the other Partners listen in horror as he explains that HE wants to be the one to fill the position in California working with Sunkist. But he is, of course, Don Draper, and now that he's not boozed up AND he's motivated to sell his idea, he pitches with all the authoritative smoothness that has made him such a success: yes it was meant to be a Junior Position, but he believes they're thinking too small. When Ted grumpily points out they can spare him, he doesn't get defensive but simply apologizes for the mix-up with Sheraton, assuring him it won't happen again (especially if he's in California!). Then he stands, points out that this is his recommendation but he welcomes a vote on the matter, and with that simply walks out. Bitterly, Ted asks why everything that happens in SC&P requires 10 different opinions on the matter EXCEPT for when Don Draper declares he wants something? Roger doesn't defend his friend, simply stands and leaves, perhaps to follow him and demand to know in private what the hell is going on, maybe because he simply can't wrap his head around this bizarre decision. Seeing Roger is gone, Cutler figures any real argument is probably over, standing and reminding Ted that telephones and airplanes exist so if they NEED Don they can always get him back to New York fast enough... but Ted is already doing the heavy lifting so the departure of Don to California can only be a good thing for him - perhaps that Co-Creative Director position will lose that prefix. He leaves too, and Pete sighs that he has bigger problems on his mind at the moment than this, though whether he's told anybody about his mother's death is left unclear. Instead, Ted, Pete, Joan and a VERY unhappy Cooper sit in the conference room, staring at the empty chairs and in particular the one at the head of table so recently occupied by Don Draper, wondering just how the hell to deal with this unprecedented situation. In Don's office, with Sunkist documents scattered over his desk as he gets up to speed, Don requests over the intercom for Dawn to bring him a carton of cigarettes. But the person who walks through the door isn't Dawn, it's Stan Rizzo. Clutching a piece of paper in his hand, a smile on his face but clearly holding back a deep rage, he points out that Don really hasn't thought ahead by getting her go but then still needing something from her. Bewildered, Don points out that Dawn isn't going anywhere, and Stan shakes his head in disbelief at the utter selfishness of this man that he hasn't even considered the wider implications of his actions. Because the piece of paper in his hand is a memo that was left in Dawn's typewriter in her currently empty desk... a memo Don dictated to her announcing his intention to go to California, without presumably considering that he was dictating this to a secretary whose job is to work for him here in New York City. Grasping too late that Stan knows about his decision, Don tries to settle him down, explaining that he intended to talk to him. "Why?" asks Stan, pointing out that Don doesn't owe him anything, and when Don promises him that he can "probably" eventually get Stan out to California too, his disgust is palpable. His dream has been stolen by Don, and now Don is offering him the chance to come out there eventually to WORK for him as Don does the thing Stan literally told him was his own dream? No, he'd rather continue to work here in New York over that. With that he declares he has to get back to his desk, there is a sandwich he left there and he's worried Don will try and grab that too before he has a chance. With his disdain expressed, Stan stalks out of the office, leaving Don behind feeling upset and somehow surprised that Stan would be upset at Don stealing his idea, or that Dawn might be off somewhere crying because the rich white man she works for has without a single thought for her decided to uproot his life and leave her potentially unemployed once more in an industry where women find it hard enough, let alone black ones. Upstairs, another Partner is dealing with surprising revelations, those these ones are genuinely surprising and not something anybody who isn't a selfish, self-absorbed piece of poo poo would have seen coming. Pete Campbell is learning that there is more to the story of his mother's ill-fated cruise than simply falling to her death... it seems Manolo was also on the cruise... and they got married! Oh dear, perhaps Manolo was the predator Pete assumed he was?  He roars down the phone that "those Panamanian criminals" need to arrest Manolo immediately, listening for a second confused and then grumpily yelling,"Fine, the brig!" after having it explained to him how suspects are detained while on a ship. Carla slips into his office, letting him know he has to get going, and when he orders her to bring him Bob Benson immediately she reminds him that Bob had been waiting for him but had to leave because they're late for their flight to Detroit. Cursing at the realization he has to go and also it's going to be on trip with Bob, he grabs his things and storms out of the office, calling for the elevator to be held when he sees one open... and discovers that it's Bob inside, who cheerfully holds it for him and asks how things are going. "NOT GREAT, BOB!" he bellows as the doors shut, and then spits out his accusations, believing that Bob was aware that Manolo married Pete's mother "at gunpoint" and then "threw her off a ship!". For once Bob's confusion is utterly genuine, as he insists he has no idea what is going on and also assumes that Pete is wildly exaggerating. He promises that "Manny" wouldn't hurt a fly, but when Pete sneers back about whether that would count if he thought the fly was rich, Bob has a moment of hesitation and seemingly genuine concern as he considers at least for a moment if Manolo might do something that reckless. Their argument is broken up by two women getting into the elevator, Pete's insistence hanging in the air that in contrast to last episode, now he insists Bob better go on the run after all because he's an accessory to murder, and Pete will NEVER forget Bob's "part" in this. Under his breath Bob insists that he had no idea, and Pete whispers back that ignorance will NOT be a good defense, obviously intending to bring charges. The women get out and Pete follows, snarling at Bob to get his own cab to the airport. Bob is left behind, mind racing as he considers the implications of everything. Whether Manolo killed Dorothy or not, Pete believes he did, and if it comes to a court case, if Bob gets questioned, a lot of poo poo is going to come to light he does NOT want to be revealed: his faked employment history, his history of minor crime, probably his homosexuality, and he can forget all about his cushy gig with Chevy, and certainly his employment at SC&P, and probably any chance of ever working in the advertising industry again... if he somehow doesn't end up getting charged as an accessory himself.   While Pete is considering the implication that his mother was murdered (but is still heading off to Detroit on business alongside a man he believes played some part in it!), Peggy Olson is also looking to kill... Ted Chaough's mental equilibrium. Having poured herself into a very tight, very small dress showing a LOT of cleavage, she shimmies her way to the conference room and pops boobs first inside to let Ted, Cutler and Harry know that she has plans for the evening so is leaving a little early, is that okay? All three men stare agog at the usually sensibly dressed, sometimes severe Peggy Olson dressed up with a ribbon around her midsection like she was a gift to be unwrapped. Finally Jim Cutler speaks to state that of course it's fine, then queries if she's wearing Chanel No. 5. "It's all I wear," she grins, turning to leave and making sure they get a good look at her from behind as well, turning a look over her shoulder Ted's way with a little grin before leaving and closing the door behind her. "Vixen by night," Harry finally chuckles, returning to his work as does Cutler. Ted though remains stunned, the thought of her, the shape of her, the smell of her, the look of her, HER, all running through his head, throwing every other thought and feeling out the window so she is everything... just as she intended. Pete and Bob arrive at the GM Building, all professional front once more as they walk through the showroom with Chevy Execs doing the typical Account Man schmoozing. Pete admits he's been looking forward to going to The London Chop House, but when one Exec chuckles about how much Bob loves it there, Pete simply states that unfortunately Bob isn't feeling well. Bob's grin never wavers, of course, but his own fear of being caught up in whatever Manolo was up to hasn't affected his ability to spot an attempt to crowd him out... and the knowledge that his own position relies heavily on being indispensable to Chevy. So he hangs back a moment and then loudly calls out to Pete, asking if he has seen "this beauty", gesturing to one of the showroom cars. Pete of course HAS to acknowledge the car now, to do otherwise would be folly in front of Chevy Execs, so he eyes it up and down appreciatively and admits he hasn't seen one in the flesh, before correctly identifying it as a Camaro Z28, demonstrating an awareness of the product that makes him seem like a keen enthusiast, somebody with a genuine love and knowledge of what Chevy makes, which of course they all appreciate. But Bob isn't done, and Pete has basically been forced into a trap there is no easy way out of... as he suggests Pete get in and give it a drive. Pretending amusement, Pete points out that this really isn't the appropriate place to drive a car, but Bob points out he has already, just last week! The Chevy guys all agree, after all this is THEIR showroom in THEIR building, if Pete wants to drive in there, he can! Pete, of course, does NOT want to drive in there! He can't admit that though, and so knowing he is going to his doom he hops into the car and takes the keys from under the visor, all under the beaming smiles of the proud Chevy men who think Pete has "gasoline in his veins" and are enjoying that "Bobby" likes to get into trouble, assuming Pete will be the same and enjoy the chance to feel the power of the car. "It's standard," Bob offers "helpfully" to Pete as he stares in dismay at the stick shift, before grinning back at the Chevy guys and offering some more informative tidbits about the engine to demonstrate his own knowledge/interest. To Pete's relief, he's able to get the engine started, and he revs it, the Chevy guys declaring it "music", Pete thinking that just maybe he can get away with this, pretending to enjoy the sound of the engine gunning, declaring that this is good enough for him. It's not to be though, as they laugh that he should "take it out" and they step back to give him room to actually drive the car right there on the floor. Bob once again "helpfully" points out that if he's looking for first, it's written right there on the gear stick. Pete growls back at him that he's got this, and manages to manuever the stick without grinding the gears, which is a good sign. Releasing the brake, he tries to apply some gentle pressure to the gas to move forward enough space to get away with having "enjoyed" a drive... and immediately jumps backwards as the car reverses and bangs into the GM sign behind it, knocking it over and crashing to the floor as people moving through the floor cry out in surprise. "Jesus, you can't drive a stick!?!" asks one of the Chevy Execs, disgusted, having no idea that Pete "gasoline in his veins" Campbell only got his driver's license a couple of years earlier. "We'll pay for that!" promises Bob, looking concerned but secretly rejoicing, because now Pete has likely irreversibly painted himself as unworthy in their eyes of working the Chevy Account... which means Bob remains in place, which means he remains indispensable, which means Pete might be convinced or forced to hold back on his threat to name him as an accessory to Manolo's actions, whatever they might have actually been.   In New York, Peggy arrives home and to her building and is surprised (but perhaps not TOO surprised) to find Ted Chaough waiting inside the first floor corridor. "What are you doing here?" she asks, but not HOW he got in, information he offers when he explains he was waiting for her and told her neighbors he was a cop, presumably to get through the front door in the first place? Peggy grunts he should probably leave then before they kill him, clearly still not happy about living in this location but not having made the move out yet. He follows her inside after she gets through the multiple locks on the door and she doesn't protest, and when he asks how her date was and notes she didn't bring him home, the only complaint she makes is that it really isn't his business... but does admit the date - yes, the date was real - was terrible: he was in Finance and ate with his hands. With a look on anguish, Ted admits he doesn't know what "we" are doing, and now she gets a little more fired up, suggesting he has his wife drop by again because Peggy REALLY loved that experience! He insists that wasn't planned, she just dropped by with the kids and it's not like he could order her out, but when Peggy demands to know what was with the look Nan gave her on the way out and whether Ted has told her anything about the two of them, he complains that he doesn't know why women do ANYTHING! She isn't interested in his protests, or his complaint that she paraded her rear end in front of his door on her way out, reminding him that she's simply following HIS lead and pointing out that he really doesn't have any say in her personal life given he let Don Draper terrify him into ignoring her. Ted ignores that slap at his masculinity, insisting that what he wants is her, and on top of that he doesn't want ANYBODY else to have her... and then proclaims he is leaving his wife. Jesus Christ, Ted, aren't Creatives supposed to avoid cliches? Peggy treats that statement with the disdain it deserves, shaking her head and telling him not to say that, insisting she is not THAT girl. She isn't some doe-eyed innocent, arguably she never was, just inexperienced, and unlike so many secretaries (poor Allison, poor Hildy) she isn't looking for or willing to accept proclamations that their wannabe lovers are totally going to leave their wives any minute now. How long from there to,"But you know... it would hurt the kids so that's why we have to continue to bang in secret...."? But when he says,"I love you"? THAT breaks through her defenses. She tries to hold up her guard, but they're the words she has longed to hear, and when he leans in to kiss her, she reciprocates passionately. Still, she IS Peggy Olson, so as he slips off her dress and kisses her and pulls her close to his body just like they've both dreamed and fantasized about for so long and oh God it's finally happening it's real it's a dream come true... she makes sure to lock her door! Don is woken in bed by the ringing of the phone, a late night call NEVER a good sign. He picks up and blearily mutters,"Hello?" and is immediately assailed by Betty angrily informing him that Sally was suspended from Miss Porter's! "What did she do?" he mumbles, still not quite fully awake, but that changes when she lets him know that Sally bought beer with a fake ID she had made under the name Beth Francis. Somehow for Betty, it seems the fact she used her stepfather's surname (and her own middle name) is insult added to injury, while for Don it might suggest something even worse: that she doesn't want to associate herself with his surname any more. Betty's anger drains out now that she has vented, replaced by a deep sadness as she explains Henry is already in Albany and she can't bear the thought of having to explain to her mother-in-law Pauline why she would show up with Sally in tow: she knows he's only supposed to have the boys, but can he please pick her up tomorrow? Sitting up in bed, Megan awake now and turning on her bedside lamp, Don explains that he has a big meeting tomorrow and can't come pick her up, which is technically true but also hides the fact that he also fears seeing his daughter in person, both because of the pain of it and out of fear of what she might expose now he's so close to another successful running away from his problems. But Betty's pain trumps his, as she admits that she has done everything she can think of and everything her own (abusive in a way that Betty and her father idealized) mother might have done, and none of it has worked. She was drunk, she got other girls drunk, and the fact is that the bad in her is outweighing the good, and Betty clearly blames herself because Sally comes from a "broken home". That's extra guilt added on to Don's pre-existing, though for once Betty isn't trying to lay it on deliberately: she clearly blames herself for this, because after all it was HER choice to divorce Don (legitimately one of the smartest decisions she ever made) and she assumes that given Sally's ongoing years of disdain for her all stem from that, rather than the unknown fact that Sally caught her father having an affair with a neighborhood woman and had her image of him irrevocably crushed. If anything, while she still has obvious issues with her mother and her personality, Sally probably understands on some level now that Don was in some way she can probably easily guess now responsible for that divorce. So Don, who still at times longs to be the loving husband and father even as he so often puts those roles at risk or appears to lose interest in them, sinks his head into his hand, considers his guilt and sin and makes the decision to spare Betty this indignity at least. He will collect the boys on Thanksgiving morning as planned, then drive up to Miss Porter's and collect Sally, and risk a Thanksgiving with an angry daughter who might lash out and expose his own immorality at any time. Relieved but still miserable, Betty hangs up and so does Don. Megan asks if everything is okay and he admits it isn't, but when she asks if she can do anything to help he simply stares at her for a moment before sliding back into bed. It isn't a dismissal or denouncement, she knows what he needs, so she turns off the lamp and slides up beside him: he doesn't want to share at the moment, but he does need her, and so she is there for him, lying beside him prepared to give comfort and support, because that's what a good spouse does. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Apr 20, 2022 |
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Apr 20, 2022 18:22
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Speaking of bad spouses, Ted Chaough! He lies blissfully besides Peggy Olson in bed, their affair finally consummated after dancing around it for so long. Peggy rests her head against his chest, similarly blissful, and when he declares they should go to Hawaii she giggles, asking if he means for work and pleased when he says for Christmas so they can come back to New York with tans. He promises her that they won't have to sneak around, but Peggy - happy in this moment and wanting to believe she can be "smart" about this affair - tells him she has no problem with waiting for them to be able to be openly together. She even suggests he go home now, reminding him that he always makes a point of going home no matter how late he works after he suggests he could remain and blame his absence on having to work on Hershey's. He agrees, but then kisses her and can't stop kissing her. Giggling, happy, loving that he can't resist her, she firmly tells him no again and stops him from getting a second round in bed she wants too. He departs a happy man and her a happy woman, both of them finally having what they want, knowing this will last forever. It lasts about an hour. Ted returns home and creeps into his bedroom, where his wife Nan lies sleeping in peaceful ignorance in their bed. She wakes and rolls over, mumbling,"Good, you're home," as he slips out of clothes. When he carefully replies that he didn't want to wake her she simply smiles sleepily and tells him to come to bed. He hops in and she lays her head against his chest just like Peggy was doing do recently, and mumbles that he is working too hard as she drifts back to sleep. NOW the regret sets in for Ted, the guilt, the realization (as if he didn't already know) that he was cheating on a woman he genuinely loves and who genuinely loves him, that he has children with, who he has made a happy life with. This is NOT going to end well.   The next morning, Pete Campbell trudges suitcase in hand in defeat up the stairs to the Account Floor, surprising Clara who wasn't expecting him back. He asks in some surprise if she hasn't heard (Bob at least appears to have not crowed about Pete's disgrace) and then explains he needs a place to live, and he doesn't mean in Detroit... the new tenant has moved into his New York apartment so now he needs another, he's done with Detroit. She isn't quite sure what to make of all this but agrees to get it all done, then lets him know his brother has been trying to reach him. Hopefully he asks if they've found his mother, but the look on her face tells him that isn't it, and so with a sigh he tells her to let Bud know he's back and then trudges on into his office: a week that was supposed to be a professional triumph has turned into a professional and personal disaster. He's not the only one. Caroline pops by the break room to let Joan know she's stepping out for a couple of hours to run bank errands for Roger, but she doesn't need anybody on his desk because she doesn't think he's coming in today. She admits she's worried about him, Margaret and Brooks are "bleeding him dry", a statement that amuses Joan who assures Caroline that Roger LOVES that attention and that people (especially loved ones) want something from him. But when Caroline admits that she had considered inviting him to Thanksgiving at her place (except her husband Ralph stopped drinking and "little Ralphie's a spastic"  and both are too much for Roger to handle) before leaving, Joan realizes that there is more to this than she thought: if Caroline was considering having Roger over for Thanksgiving, that means that Roger has nowhere to go for Thanksgiving - and Caroline would know, she'd make the arrangements! Don is looking over Sunkist paperwork in his office when he realizes his hands are trembling. He takes a moment, looking at them, presumably understanding that he is suffering alcohol withdrawal and possibly even the onset for something worse. Dawn - who is still at her desk even if her future is now uncertain, not that she has much choice in the matter - buzzes in to let him know that Mr. Chaough is here to see him. Taking an effort to get his trembling under control, he tells her to send him in. Ted steps in and Don opens by pointing out that as he is going to California, maybe Ted should come over to the Hershey's proposal (one they're only doing because Don agreed to after Ted said he was too busy!). But Ted explains that isn't what he wants to discuss, and when Don offers to pour him a drink, Ted can't help but notice the minor tremors in Don's hand. He declines the drink and they take a seat, and Ted gets right to it. HE wants to be the one to go to California. Don points out they can't BOTH go, and Ted understands that. He wants to go and for Don to remain, putting his newfound energy and enthusiasm into their existing client base, because it is Ted who needs the fresh start. Don considers this for a second, including the look of mixed guilt, shame and intense need on Ted's face that he probably recognizes from his own mirror, and makes an educated guess: he wants a fresh start... with Peggy. "No," says Ted, and now the shame and guilt far outweigh any desire,"With my family." Oh you unconscionable piece of poo poo. Don tells Ted he doesn't understand, but Ted counters that he does understand... this is Ted's only chance, bemoaning that he's got kids (he had them 12 hours ago when he was putting his dick in Peggy Olson, too!) and he NEEDS to go to California, he has to have 3000 miles between him and Peggy because it is the only chance he has. I mean, the other thing he could do is just not cheat on his wife, you know. Stunned, Don admits that he feels bad for Ted... but he didn't just decide himself to go to California on a whim (yes he did!). Ted pleads with him that he doesn't know what he's done to make Don dislike him so much, but he knows that somewhere inside of him is a good man and he needs his help. But this doesn't change the fact that Don has already set into motion irrevocable changes in his life... not least of which is that HIS wife is getting written off of her successful television role in order to move that same 3000 miles for a fresh start with him. It's simply too late. Despairing, Ted stands and walks forlornly towards the door, a dead man walking. Don offers what panacea he can, promising Ted that this feeling will fade: does he mean desire for his mistress or the guilt of cheating on his wife? Perhaps both, but neither give Ted any solace. Instead, Ted offers some practical advice that is laced with bitterness: Don needs to take a drink before the Hershey Presentation, because Ted's own father was an alcoholic and he knows from bitter experience that you can't just simply stop cold like this. He leaves, and of course this is one of the few times Don takes somebody else's advice. He pours himself a stiff drink and gulps it down, not wanting to but unable to help savoring the taste, of letting that familiar warmth wash over him, and the question now is whether he'll be able to stop at just this one and slowly wean himself off alcohol over a long period of time, or whether he'll crash and burn at the next inevitable disaster in his life.   But for now, it's the masterful Creative Visionary Don Draper who shows up to the Hershey Presentation, attended also by Ted, Cutler and Roger. It is the inspirational Don Draper who lays out his concept for an advertising campaign in the hopes of capturing a prestige client who arguably doesn't need ANY Agency and has all the power in this relationship. He starts by telling them what they already know, but also how this differentiates SC&P from other Agencies: they aren't going to tell Hershey's how to advertise. Because of course Hershey's already knows that: their own iconic wrapper design is one of the most successful "billboards" of all time, and they have an existing customer base that spans the length of America who have almost universally positive associations with it. So what can Don offer them then? A story. HIS story. It is unique to him, but shared by many. For some the association with Hershey's come from wartime rations, or a snack eaten in a movie theater on a first date, but for most the association goes back to childhood, and so it is for Don. With genuine warmth he thinks back longingly to his own father rewarding him with any one item he wanted from a drugstore after he'd mowed the lawns for him one long ago beautiful summer's day. Don could have picked anything, but he chose a Hershey's bar, and as he ate it his father tousled his hair (Archibald!?!)... and forever that association has remained, the taste of the chocolate and the love of his father, all combined into one image seared into his brain. "Hershey's is the currency of affection," Don finishes,"The childhood symbol of love." There are beaming smiles from all in the room except for a clearly distracted Ted Chaough, and as Don returns to his seat one Hershey exec chuckles that Don was a lucky little boy. Cutler - eager to sell television of course - explains that is where SC&P excels and they'll be able to offer expertise in when and where to place ads for maximum effect. Roger cheerfully reminds the execs they'll need to pay SC&P before they can use Don's childhood story, getting a big laugh from Jim and the execs as they imagine the possibilities Don's advertising strategy is opening up for them. But instead of feeling triumph, Don - hand shaking once again - can't stop looking at the despondent Ted Chaough, and makes a decision. He interrupts Cutler to apologize, explaining he doesn't know if he'll ever get the chance to tell Hershey's this again. Everybody goes silent, and Don takes a moment before he offers them a different story, one that for one of the few times in his life is the truth: the real story of how he came to have a positive association with Hershey's... and it isn't pretty. "I was an orphan," he explains,"I grew up in Pennsylvania. In a whorehouse." The room is full of uncomfortable silence now, and everybody - including Ted - listens in horrified fascination as Don tells them something he has presumably never told anybody: not Betty, not Megan, perhaps not even Anna. He read about Milton Hershey in one of the prostitute's magazines, learned that some orphans didn't have the miserable life that he did. That knowledge allowed him to dream about being wanted, a feeling he'd never had and certainly not from the woman who was forced to raise him. No, the closest he ever got to feeling wanted was one prostitute there who had him rifle through her Johns' clothing while they were having sex. And if he he could steal more than a dollar? She would buy him a Hershey's. He would sit alone in his room in a house where there was plenty of sex but no love, and he would eat a Hershey's chocolate bar. It was the ONLY time in his childhood where he ever felt anything remotely close to normal. The only time he could for a moment pretend that his life wasn't the misery it was, that he was just another American kid enjoying a Hershey chocolate bar, perfectly normal in every way. He fights back tears as he tells them this, dropping his head, feeling no real relief but still unburdening himself of a great weight regardless. He's not really talking to them, but more to the idea of Hershey's itself, that symbolic strength it held for him as a child, the positive association even if it was wrapped around so many negative things. When the shocked Hershey exec asks him if he wants to advertise THAT, Don simply responds that if he had his way they would NEVER advertise at all, and certainly he isn't the one who should tell him how to do so: a kid like him doesn't need Don Draper telling them how to feel about Hershey's... they already know. Nobody knows quite how to react, Cutler finally finding words to proclaim that this kind of theater is the kind of dynamic and creative thing that SC&P are known for. Roger follows suit as the meeting comes to its close, only half-jokingly offering to buy them a meal so they can cause them to miss their other meetings. Everybody shakes hands and speaks warmly, but all of them know this is the end, they won't be hiring SC&P after that. It was beautiful, it was sweet (like it says on the wrapper), and it was some great acting from Jon Hamm, but it was an anti-pitch. It was designed to sell NOT picking SC&P as a client... or rather, that will be the end result, it was really about Don finally getting a physical representation to express his feelings about a symbolic ideal to its face. The room empties till only Don and Ted are left, and Don declares that it is Ted who will be going to California. "Are you sure," gasps Ted, who can't quite believe it, and Don tells him firmly that he wants him to before leaving himself. Why make this decision? Perhaps because in spite of everything he has told Peggy, he recognizes that Ted - for all that he is clearly a flawed person and has just done something incredibly lovely - is NOT like him... at least not yet. There is a chance for Ted, even after the mistake he made. Don has frequently looked for opportunities to run away, to start over and avoid facing up to the consequences of his actions. He has succeeded in doing this only twice - his escape from Dick Whitman's life, and his escape from Sterling Cooper - and botched many other attempts... but here is a chance to for once do something somewhat selfless (he's STILL loving over Stan, not to mention Megan!): maybe Ted actually CAN escape consequences this one time and use that chance to fix the problem of his own making and be the good father and husband that Don never managed to be? It won't come without pain or without cost, to Ted, to Peggy, and to Don himself... but it's something he can offer here and now to help a man avoid going down the same path Don plunged recklessly down long ago. Walking to Dawn's desk, he asks her to fetch his things (he couldn't take the 3 steps to get them himself?). Roger approaches him, mad as hell, asking if he knows he poo poo the bed. Don does and he doesn't care, and when Roger demands to know if any of that story was true Don for once doesn't hesitate to admit that yes it was. Dawn returns with his things and he takes them from her, taking a moment to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving that she - startled - reciprocates. He walks away without a backwards look, a confused Dawn and a worried and upset Roger watching him go.   Upstairs, Pete and his brother Bud sit in Pete's office on the line with either an official or an investigator, trying to get as much information as possible about their mother's disappearance. It appears she went missing during the Roaring 20s dance and they suspect she fell off the promenade, or else she would have hit a deck on the way down. What Pete actually wanted to know though was where in the ocean it happened, not where on the ship. The official explains it was somewhere off the coast of Martinique, but when Bud asks if they've checked the beaches he offers back as matter-of-factly as possible that there are a lot of sharks in those waters. Pete is beside himself when told that there is no impetus for either Government to conduct any kind of search for an elderly woman who disappeared days earlier on a cruise ship in shark-infested waters, and that the cruise company itself has fulfilled all contractual obligations by informing them of her disappearance. It can't just be left at that, Pete insists, in the modern (some might say futuristic!) year of 1968 it can't be possible that there is some international jurisdiction where murder is legal! The official calmly explains that he does have a private investigator that he can send to look deeper into what happened, including interrogating Manolo - alias Marcus Constantine - and greasing wheels in Panama to make sure that no stone is left un-turned, and no expense spared. And suddenly the brothers go silent. They share a look, a knowing exchange of a horrible idea between brothers, and then Pete gently inquires just how much the "best of everything" would cost. "To bring your mother's killer to justice?" asks the nonplussed official, and Bud offers a blackly comic,"Ballpark?" response. The answer is that there is no number, it depends on how long things take... and they WILL take time, especially if Manolo - now that he knows Dorothy didn't actually have any money - decides to run for it rather than stick around and face awkward questions about how he went from (fired!) nurse to husband to a woman with dementia multiple decades older than him who then mysteriously disappeared. Who even knows what Manolo's involvement is. Did he ever actually sleep with her like Dorothy said? The fact they married indicates there might have been something going on, but could even that have been Manolo taking advantage of learning a confused Dorothy thought they were lovers? He certainly wasn't the innocent party fired unfairly by Pete that he first appeared to be... but did he actually take sexual advantage of her? More than that, did he ACTUALLY murder her? We'll probably never know, because now that the brothers have realized they'll have to actually pay to find these answers out... the questions don't seem quite as burning. Picking up the phone, Pete asks "Alvin" if he can call back as he has a meeting, then hangs up, and he and Bud sit considering in silence for a few moments, each waiting for the other to be the first to say it. "When you think about it..." Bud finally ventures,"It won't bring her back." He lets that sit for a second, and then in another blackly comic moment adds that she's in the water now... with father. "She loved the sea," agrees Pete after a moment, and then they sit there, neither quite coming right out and saying it but both knowing and agreeing: they're just going to forget about it and move on with their lives, whether their mother was murdered or not. The dark comedy aside, it's hard to really know where sympathy should lie in this case. What Bud and Pete have done (or rather, not done) is horrifying... but is it all that surprising? Dorothy, for all that I sympathize with an older woman whose mind was failing being taken advantage of, was a terrible mother and a rather horrible person to boot. She was better than their father, but both were complicit in a mindset of withholding affection, forcing their will on their children, holding them financial hostage as adults, psychologically berating them for not meeting some impossible standard from a bygone era, and then not even being able to deliver on the promise that all that would be worth it when they finally inherited. Bud had it better than Pete, but both clearly suffered under cold parents who were purely self-interested and viewed their children - even as adults - as simply extensions of themselves, and inferior ones at that. Their father died before the chickens could come home to roost, as he enjoyed a lavish lifestyle right up to his final moments and left his wife with only property and her possessions but very little cash (most of which came from whatever excess property the sons were able to sell to at least keep her living in comfort), and his children with no inheritance at all. Dorothy herself we mostly got to see in the latter stages of her life when her mind was failing and Pete's treatment of her bordered on the abusive. But those brief scenes with her in the first couple of seasons when her mind was still sharp showcased a severe and demanding woman who expected certain things from her sons and that her authority would never be questioned for as long as she lived. Trudy warned Peter that he wouldn't find love from this mother no matter how desperately he wanted it to be there, and even when her mind was going Dorothy still acted in a way that showcased she thought she could impose her will on others. So it is in some ways fitting that their ultimate legacy would be this utter abandonment by their children. Their reaction to their father's death was shock followed by the discovery that his contempt for business (Pete's at least) belied his own complete financial ineptitude. Their reaction to their mother's death is shock and outrage at the circumstances followed by the unspoken agreement that she isn't worth spending their money (and it is THEIR money, they got nothing from either parent's death) on. Was Dorothy murdered? They wanted to know until they found out it would cost them. Will there be justice for her to death? There might have been (or vengeance at least), but not once it came with a price tag. So instead they threw out a pathetic little excuse about their parents being reunited in the sea and how this is somehow a good thing, and seem willing to leave it at that. The ultimate legacy of the Dyckman-Campbells is that they had two terrible, selfish boys... because that is exactly how they raised them to be.   Peggy is working in her office when Ted pops in and startles her by speaking up to say he didn't want to disturb her. She's pleased to see him though, face lighting up with pleasure the moment she registers who it is, before she sees the look on his face and asks in concern what happened, then figures out what it might have been and warningly asks if he has said something to Nan about her? "I told you to wait!" she complains, getting up and coming around the table, but he quickly explains that this hasn't happened... and then just blurts it out: he is going to California. She recoils slightly, a confused smile crossing her face because he's just said something utterly alien to her. But then it starts to sink in as - with a sad voice that somehow tries to pitch this as him doing the noble thing for HER - he explains this way she can stay in New York and have her life and career and leave this affair in the past. But even now she can't think the worst of him, gasping that she can't believe Don would do this. She complains that she knew he wouldn't REALLY be going to California like he said, that he knows it is "Siberia" and obviously orchestrated all this so he could do away with his rival Co-Creative Director. "I can fix this!" she declares and tries to move past him to go have a showdown with her former mentor, but Ted blocks her, explaining that Don didn't arrange this, in fact he gave up the spot in California FOR Ted. She doesn't understand, but then he just comes right out and says it, he WANTS to go out there, he NEEDS to go so he can keep his wife and family. He insists again that this is the best thing, that he's doing it because he loves her that much, but he can't lose his family, especially in the chaos the world is currently in. "....oh..." she says quietly, and still in that quiet and sincere voice he continues on explaining how this is actually a good thing, and the right thing, painting himself as some kind of hero for bravely doing this for her. He takes her hand.... and she snatches it away, fury etched on her face as she hisses at him not to touch her and to get out of her office. With a long sigh, like he wishes she would understand why he's somehow the good guy here, he tells her that one day she'll be glad he made this decision, and that sets her off even more. "Well aren't you lucky?" she spits savagely at him,"To have decisions." He stands for a moment, then leaves without a word. I mentioned earlier that Don arguably saw a chance to help Ted stop from falling down the same path he went down, and I stand by that. But that isn't mutually exclusive with the fact this he's still been a giant piece of poo poo in all this. Because his sad little voice and the longing looks and justifications don't disguise the fact that these things only became more important than being with her AFTER he got to gently caress her. Ironically, it was the wealthy, intellectual, sophisticated Ted Chaough who proved Peggy's mother's warning right: that a man wouldn't feel the need to be with her if he could just have sex without marrying her first. Her previous lovers, apart from Pete who did at least hope they could continue to have one night stands, were all committed to being with her, some wanting far more than that: to partner up with her in work AND love, to eventually marry her, or in Abe's case to just be together and have a family without going through the farce of making their marriage a legal case. But it was Ted, good-guy Ted, warm and encouraging and thoughtful Ted, who had sex with her and then immediately decided NOW was the time to put distance between them to avoid temptation, rather than before. I don't doubt that he meant it when he told Don he wouldn't be able to stop himself if Peggy was in proximity, and that he knew this would cost him his marriage even if Peggy insisted she didn't mind waiting for him to move through that at his own pace. But he could have made this monumental decision to uproot his life and go BEFORE indulging in it. He didn't, and Peggy is perfectly justified in despising him, because as she said, he gets to have decisions. He gets to sleep with a woman despite being married, then just move on with his life and keep his family and all his status. He gets to have his cake and eat it, and regardless of the morality or otherwise, it simply isn't fair. Meanwhile, Don Draper is returning home to the opposite problem: he has to explain to Megan - who quit her job and is being written out of her successful television role - that they are NOT going to California after all. But she's unaware of all that, greeting him happily when he walks through the door, telling him that Dawn called to let him know there is a MANDATORY meeting at 9am tomorrow about the California move, and if they're having a meeting on Thanksgiving they must REALLY be keen to move Don and Megan out of New York, which she is perfectly fine with. But he rains on her parade, extricating himself from her embrace to give her the news. He tells her to sit down, which immediately puts her guard up, and when he explains it's something that came up and it's not just about Sally, she gets more concerned, still not moving. So he simply comes out with it: they're not going to California. She refuses to accept it, reminding him that train has already left the station: she's told Mel she is going, they're writing her out, her agent has lined up meetings in Los Angeles. "The Agency decid-" starts Don, lying that the decision was made for him rather than by him. "gently caress THE AGENCY!" she roars,"I QUIT MY JOB!" He has the temerity to chide her for her language, but what she has to say next is a lot darker and disturbing than a simple "gently caress". She doesn't know why they're bothering with "this" anymore, because she no longer knows what it is. They don't have kids, why are they trying to make this work when it's clear what Don REALLY wants is to be left alone with his liquor, his ex-wife, and his screwed-up kids. She immediately regrets that, or at least the last part, Don at least not getting angry because he understands she's justifiably outraged, even though she just insulted his children and suggested for the first time that she wants out of a marriage he has often only begrudgingly remained in. “I love them to death,” she recovers, but admits that she has felt pity for them in the past... but now she understands she’s in the exact same boat as them. In other words, she’s trapped loving an enigma of a man - even with her privileged insight into his past that the kids don’t share - who does things, acts in strange ways, makes bizarre decisions and leaves her unsure if he loves her, cares for her, or simply begrudgingly accepts that he can’t get her out of his life? Don, much like Ted, tries to put a loving face on this, insisting that she can still go and he’ll be out to see her as often as possible. “We’ll be bi-coastal!” he offers, which unsurprisingly fails to inspire her. Instead she simply walks to the closet, collects a coat and tells him that she can’t do this and she can’t be here in this apartment right now. She walks out, and though he offers a quiet, despairing,”....Megan...” he doesn’t follow her, or demand she stay, or try to order her back. It’s a long way from the season 1 Don Draper who dictated his wife’s every movement and questioned suspiciously even the barest suggestion of infidelity even as he reveled in multiple affairs himself, perhaps because when you’re as at fault as he currently is no amount of self-delusion can prevent you from understanding that YOU are the bad guy.   In Cos Cob, Pete walks through the door of what technically remains his home but is really simply Trudy’s place now. A pile of Dorothy’s furniture is in the living room, apparently this visit is to drop this stuff off, and when Trudy steps in and reminds him that she doesn’t actually want ANY of Dorothy’s stuff, Pete’s response is perfectly Pete: he simply doesn’t want Bud to get ALL of it, even if none of it has any actual value... certainly none sentimental at least. He can’t use it, especially in California, and Trudy nods and asks when he’ll be going, and he admits he hopes to go as soon as possible. Wait... does Pete think HE is going to California? Has he just decided this for himself or has he spoken to the other Partners about this? Holy poo poo if Ted finds out he’s stuck in New York with a furious Peggy Olson! But that’s for later, in this moment Trudy offers that she would invite Pete to join her and Tammy at her parents but she feels it is best he is alone right now. Thinking this is a jibe at him not having parents of his own anymore, he tells her not to be cruel, but she is being sincere: he needs solitude because it is going to take him a moment to realize where he is.... and that is free. He’s free of Dorothy, free of his father, free of both his terrible parents but also free of EVERYTHING. Everything he does now is a chance for him to operate without the expectations or binding ties of a family that was both his passport to life’s advantages and a miserable weight around his neck. That last bit about being free of everything, however, is a reminder that this includes being free of her too, and he admits he didn’t want freedom “this way”. She doesn’t judge him on that, simply observes that now he knows this too. That in its own way is freeing, he made mistakes and faced the consequences for his actions, when he was married he longed for the “freedom” of sex with various women, and once that cost him his marriage he realized only then what he’d lost, but at least now he isn’t trapped in a marriage wishing he could have something else instead. He asks to look in on Tammy, promising not to wake her from her nap. Trudy agrees, and can’t help but slip into the bedroom doorway not long after to watch her husband (technically) staring with love down at their daughter. Trudy is free too, but in spite of not regretting her decision to kick him out of the house and knowing it was ultimately the right thing to do... part of her still loves the man who made her feel at least for a little while like a princess in a storybook. Thanksgiving morning arrives and Don Draper arrives for the mandatory 9am meeting, with plans to pick up the boys from Rye afterwards and then drive to Miss Porter’s to collect Sally, before a stressful Thanksgiving including a wife who has every reason to be enraged at him right now. But as he heads up to the Account Floor, to his surprise he finds Joan, Cutler, Cooper and Roger already sitting around waiting on him, and points out he was told 9am. Indeed he was, Cooper noting with some sarcasm that for once Don is right on time. Finally grasping that this is more than just a standard Partner’s meeting, Don asks if this is about Hershey’s and insists he can explain, but Cutler notes that the Hershey's meeting AND some of his recent behavior are beyond explanation. Getting defensive now, Don bites back, snapping that he won’t defend himself when he’s had to handle plenty of their own individual crap at times before too. But Cooper, seated between the standing Cutler and Roger like a king of old, with Joan across from him uncharacteristically not quite able to meet Don’s gaze, tells him he should relax because this isn’t a trial.... because the verdict has already been reached. It starts to sink in at last for Don that this is more than a dressing down, that something bigger is on the cards here. He doesn’t sit down, his height and physical presence one of the few tools left at his disposal, though it is obviously useless here against the combined unified front of Cooper, Roger and Cutler. It’s Roger, his closest friend out of all of them, who delivers the bad news: it has been decided that it is best for everybody is Don takes some time off. How much time? A few months, Cutler simply says, with the holidays coming up that should take up most of it. He’s dead. The twitching corpse of Don Draper flails out weak protests, asking if they’ve told Ted since he’ll need to stay here in New York is Don isn’t around to run things. Joan speaks up here, quietly stating a simple fact: Ted knows and is confident he can supervise from LA Peggy filling in for Don in New York. Don tries to hold his poker face but this is a body blow. How much actual supervision Ted will do given is irrelevant, and it will probably be very little considering the current situation between those two.... but Don knows that Peggy can and will excel in place as Creative Director, she was his protege after all, and CGC’s very successful Copy Chief who retained that same position as part of the merger. So what does he do? He bargains, already close to acceptance of his fate, insisting on a return date and already knowing the answer. “We can’t give you that,” Cooper simply states, and when Don bitterly asks if they all agree with this he looks directly to Roger, who for all the stresses and even falling-outs they’ve had he has always held a special connection with. Roger though simply tells him to try and see things from their side, and Don knows it is over. His face fixed and determined, trying to preserve some dignity, he turns and walks out without a word, only briefly pausing on the stairs before continuing. He is being kicked out of his own Agency, and it’s hard to say if the worst thing is that he knows they’ll survive just fine without him or that he really has nobody to blame but himself. Hershey’s was bad enough, but it was latest in a long line of screw-ups. Much like he did with his first marriage (and a significant chunk of his second so far), Don took SC&P for granted. The hailed Creative Genius, he seemed to believe he was so entrenched and vital to the success of the Agency that he could do whatever he wanted. But he screwed up his pitch for Sheraton after taking a very expensive working holiday to Hawaii. He didn’t read memos and created Client conflicts. He would disappear for long stretches without explanation. He masterminded the merger of SCDP with CGC in order to win Chevy - a client he had actively wanted them to win as far back as the Sterling Cooper days - and then promptly announced he wasn’t going to work on Chevy for several years until it was time to actually roll out the advertising campaigns. Only a few days earlier he announced out of the blue he was going to take the role in California intended for a junior to serve as a satellite office for Sunkist, then botched Hershey’s and appeared to convince fellow Partner Ted Chaough - who he’d clashed with multiple times - to go to California instead. So no, it is no great surprise that eventually the Partners realized they were big enough now that they could shunt Don aside and not really suffer for it, or possibly even do better. It isn’t even all that great a surprise when he reaches the elevators and the doors open to reveal Duck Phillips with another man Don recognizes. “You’re early,” Don smiles, pretending like all this is something he’s an active part of. Duck at least doesn’t revel in this minor victory over Don though, simply offering a polite apology because he knows how awkward this encounter is, before introducing him to Lou Avery from Dancer Fitzgerald. Peggy Olson can take Don’s place for now, but clearly the Partners are interested in the possibility of bringing in another long established Creative Director to retain status appeal. “Going down?” asks Avery, unable to restrain a little smirk as he asks, knowing that Don is out and clearly enjoying seeing him taken down a peg or too. This is the same man who mocked Don and Roger at the airport when they were heading for what was assumed to be a doomed bid for Chevy, but now he’s more than happy to take over Don’s role at SC&P, which as noted earlier is now among the top 30 agencies in America. Don steps into the lift, the doors close, and he makes his exit from SC&P for season 6... and who knows what season 7 may bring? https://thumbs.gfycat.com/FarflungLargeFugu-mobile.mp4 But life rolls on, as does Thanksgiving. Joan has taken pity on Roger Sterling, and invites him into her home to spend the holiday with them, laughing that his addition to the meal is a big box of Cranberry sauces. He does pause once through the door though as he spots Bob - complete with apron - hovering over the turkey at the table. Bob calls out a cheerful hello and Roger quietly - not TOO quietly - asks Joan what HE is doing there. “I’m inviting you into Kevin’s life, not mine,” she reminds him sweetly, and he accepts that even though he doesn’t like it. Walking into the dining room he finally returns Bob’s greeting, and when Joan calls out to her mother that Roger has arrived, Bob grins and lets Roger know that she had her hair done when she learned he was coming to dinner. Roger takes a knee next to Kevin in his high chair, popping his hat onto his secret son’s head and asking if he’s ready for turkey? “YES!” agrees Kevin happily, and Roger helps clear up his tray so the food is on the plate and not necessarily everywhere else. Joan beams down at the scene, pleased to see Roger bonding with Kevin even if she remains steadfast that Roger won’t be acknowledged as his father. As for Roger himself? It’s nice to see him in Kevin’s life, it’s nice to see he doesn’t have to be alone on Thanksgiving. But it’s also... well, he made his bed. He’s the one who wanted her to have an abortion, who suggested that if she did keep the baby he couldn’t and wouldn’t acknowledge it, who recommended she pretend the baby was Greg’s in the first place. He was largely happy to keep up the pretense that the baby was of no interest to him.... until Margaret first cut him out of being able to see Ellery (again, largely Roger’s own fault) and now uninvited him from Thanksgiving. Roger has gotten his own way his entire life, and while Margaret was engaging in some emotional blackmail, it’s understandable why she has acted the way she has, especially given how much poo poo she had to take from a father who always got to do what he wanted, when he wanted and everybody else just had to live with it. Even now, abandoned by his daughter, denied his grandson... Roger still ends up getting to enjoy Thanksgiving, and to start giving attention to his son now that it is his only outlet. At SC&P, despite the holiday there is work going on. Stan is on his way out when he spots Peggy looking over paperwork in Don’s office, and notes that he thought she left. Of course she didn’t, there is too much work to do, though Stan can’t help but point out she’s decided to do it in Don’s office. “It’s where everything is,” she notes, and Stan’s grin grows wider. He has every reason to be happy, he’s one of the few wronged by Don Draper who has gotten to see (or at least hear about) him getting his comeuppance, and he loves that Peggy has just taken over his office. He tells her he’ll see her on Monday and heads out, ready to enjoy his holiday, the weekend, and then a NEW Don Draper-less SC&P the next week. Peggy takes her paperwork and settles down in Don’s seat, behind Don’s desk, and drinks Don’s whiskey. She doesn’t look like a kid playing at doing Daddy’s job. She doesn’t look like a secretary taking advantage of a boss’ absence. She doesn’t look like a junior employee taking a moment to sit in the “big” chair. No. She looks like she belongs there, and she clearly feels it. Don was right that Ted simply didn’t make her feel bad like he does YET, but Peggy has once again found a truth she once knew: she may not be able to rely on men to get what she wants, but she can absolutely rely on herself.   For Don though, things have come back around again. As promised he has collected the boys from Betty and then Sally from Miss Porter’s. But instead of returning directly to New York, he has taken them to Pennsylvania, an intrigued Bobby asking if the town is named Hershey after the chocolate or if it was the other way around. Don explains it was a man named Hershey who made enough money to build a town all of his own. Sally has been sitting in the back doing the best to ignore her father, reading a book. But when they pull over she asks why they’re stopping, and an equally confused Bobby points out this is a bad neighborhood. Don ignores that, telling them to come along as he exits the car, and leads them across the road to see something. “This is where I grew up,” he explains, and for the second time this episode we see the building that once held a brothel and was ruled over firmly by “Uncle Mack”. Now it is rundown, the wood rotting, the paint faded, rust and mold present. The lawns - though never lush - are now reduced to practically bare ground, littered with trash, boxes and tires. A small black child stands eating candy on the same steps Uncle Mack once shoved a preacher down, staring down at the well-dressed white people staring up at his house, no idea who they are or what they want. The boys stare, Bobby utterly confused, looking up at his father who simply stares at the place that once made up his whole world, a miserable life he hated and couldn’t run away from fast enough. Sally stares at the building too, then turns to look at her father. He looks back at her, then returns his gaze to the house, and after a moment she does too. It’s hard to say what goes through her mind in this moment, but there is something there. Because for the first time ever in her life, her father has offered her a glimpse into his past. She admitted after the burglary that she hadn’t been able to catch the burglar out in a lie because she simply didn’t know her father at all. She still doesn’t, and she still detests him for what she caught him doing... but as season 6 of Mad Men ends - a season that I struggled with in part because of just how monstrous Don had become in parts - she gets the barest inkling of a past that doesn’t justify his many transgressions, but at least suggests there is a reason for why he is the way he is. There is one season left of this remarkable show, and though this one never hit the highs of season 5, it remains one of the best television shows of the last 20 years.   Episode Index Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Apr 21, 2022 |
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Apr 20, 2022 18:22
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I'm finding this season very difficult to talk about outside of spoilers since a lot of it acts as the "act 1" to season 7 part 1's "act 2." It is really a slog to get through, watching Don constantly one-up himself in shittiness without knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, if you were watching this for the first time after the show ended, you could reasonably intuit that things get better since you have the pre-knowledge of season 7 existing. Plus the fact that the season 6 finale does end on the tiniest of bright spots. you just know they're not gonna let the show be such a downer for so long. It's a bold risk to make as a showrunner, and it puts a lot of trust in the audience to have to faith required to see it through to the end. I'm going to wait for Jerusalem's full season review before commenting further. kalel fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Apr 20, 2022 |
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Apr 20, 2022 19:25
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What a climax. Jon Hamm is such an underrated actor. he has an unexpected amount of range in his other roles too! Either he's an rear end in a top hat to work with or he needs to fire his agent
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Apr 20, 2022 19:27
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This was an extremely touching ending to the season for me. I know Don hosed up his work and married life, but just like in season 4, he’s actually trying again to be better. He’s opening up in a way he frankly never has. This is huge.
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Apr 20, 2022 20:26
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This is the first time Peggy wears a pantsuit at work and it’s a very good one. More thoughts later
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Apr 20, 2022 20:31
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It took 6 seasons but Don finally experienced growth as a character lol
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Apr 20, 2022 21:42
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I totally forgot all about this Price is Right rear end logo, lmao
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Apr 20, 2022 21:42
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What an episode. The Hershey pitch alone...it's a drat travesty that Hamm didn't win the Emmy for this, doubly so that he lost to Jeff Daniels for "Aaron Sorkin turning out some lukewarm MSNBC takes about 4 year old news stories." "Not great, Bob!" gets all the love, but on my rewatch this was the line that jumped out at me as the episode's standout...maybe the funniest single line of the series. Just the speed with which they go from utter contempt to "Well...what are you going to do?"
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Apr 20, 2022 22:20
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I gave a "hell yeah" at my TV when Peggy sat at Don's desk she absolutely belongs there. I also hate everything about Lou Avery and I will not spoiler that
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Apr 20, 2022 22:34
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So many great lines in this episode. I have a fond affection for when Bob says he's "buddies" with Joan. "Vixen by night" is good too
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Apr 20, 2022 22:53
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I was waiting two weeks for this
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Apr 20, 2022 23:38
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kalel posted:What a climax. Jon Hamm is such an underrated actor. he has an unexpected amount of range in his other roles too! He was one of the saving graces of Baby Driver for me, a movie I expected to love and found utterly unengaging... but Hamm as the unexpected main antagonist was a welcome surprise. Lady Radia posted:This was an extremely touching ending to the season for me. I know Don hosed up his work and married life, but just like in season 4, he’s actually trying again to be better. He’s opening up in a way he frankly never has. This is huge. I feel like this marks his last chance, and not just because we're going into the final season. By this point, Don is a borderline alcoholic approaching his mid-40s on his third marriage still committing multiple infidelities. If he doesn't actually start to change and grow at this point, it's unlikely he ever will, and his best case scenario is ending up a less obscenely rich version of Roger Sterling... and Roger at least started going to therapy!
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Apr 20, 2022 23:50
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"borderline"
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Apr 21, 2022 00:07
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Gaius Marius posted:"borderline" It's the 60s, I'm grading on a curve! That shot of Roger's overloaded ashtray really got to me since it brought back memories of being a kid in the 80s and every adult I knew apart from my mom being a smoker, and how we were just used to the idea of filthy ash-trays stuffed with cigarette butts being a completely normal thing, including inside. Best thing my dad ever did was quit, getting that stink out of the house was a blessing.
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Apr 21, 2022 00:10
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GoutPatrol posted:
it gets better and better every time I hear it. honestly though Pete gets a lot of great hits in this episode. Like bud breaking the silence after the call and Pete just slowly, grimly raising his gaze makes me lmao every time
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Apr 21, 2022 00:47
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Jerusalem posted:He was one of the saving graces of Baby Driver for me, a movie I expected to love and found utterly unengaging... but Hamm as the unexpected main antagonist was a welcome surprise. I really liked Baby Driver, and I agree he was great in it. he was also the best part of Bad Times at the El Royale. Christ that movie was such a disappointment
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Apr 21, 2022 00:57
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