<p>Very thoughtful insights Lergnom. </p>
<p>The tie-in I’d like to add was when Joan admitted to Don that she never gave, “the one thing that Lane wanted”. I immediately thought what that was. But, isn’t is possible that, when later Don helped Megan get the acting part, that that was the one thing she really wanted?</p>
<p>What a sad turn for Pete. Yikes, when did shock treatments stop being a “normal” treatments?</p>
<p>It was Joan, not Peggy that Lane wanted. And I do not think it is pathetic for even an average/funny looking guy to have lustful aspirations he knows are out of his reach. Even ugly guys find physical beauty very attractive. Their burden is that they know it will never happen.</p>
<p>I don’t either - but keeping a picture of someone whose wallet you found is a little weird - IMHO.</p>
<p>It was a plot device that summed up his longing very quickly and then allowed his wife to find it–without the pix she would never have had that moment of knowing.</p>
<p>I think Lane’s wife was letting Don know that the $50,000 he presented her was not a kind gesture on his or the firm’s part, but was owed to Lane, as it was the amount he put into the firm after Lucky Strike was lost. Actually that is the reason he owed the $7500 in taxes. It was the tax bill from selling shares from his portfolio so he could put $50k into the firm. She was telling him this is what Lane was owed and nothing more and it should not serve to make him (Don or the firm) feel better. She was basically saying, “Thanks for nothing!”</p>
<p>“Their burden is that they know it will never happen.”</p>
<p>Not necessarily true. I’ve seen many unattractive men with very attractive women. Of course, they have to possess some attractive quality, power, personality, etc. But it doesn’t have to be looks. Remember Henry Kissinger? Lane, on the other hand did not have the confidence, although is wife was an attractive woman herself.</p>
<p>In the days before SSRIs, such as Prozac, shock treatments were quite common, and they’re still done today, rarely and under very controlled circumstances. I still think they’re creepy, though.
I wonder why Lane’s wife didn’t just pack up and move back to London? There was no need for anyone back there to know what really happened - they could have given it out that it was a heart attack or stroke. He wouldn’t have been the first middle-aged businessman to just up and die. And it bothers me that she though he was "frequenting brothels. Aside from when they were separated and he truly thought they were divorcing, he was a faithful husband.
Which leads me to another thing: how come Don, Roger, Pete and the other “man-skanks” never get VD, as they called it in those days? They’re prime candidates.</p>
<p>For some reason, what stood out to me in this episode was Beth’s peignoir set worn in her hospital bed. Loved this detail.</p>
<p>Your VD comment reminds me of Marcus Welby, M.D in the early 70s. There was an episode where a teenage girl has VD. I was pretty young and it was the first time I’d heard of it on TV or IRL Must have been ground breaking TV at the time.</p>
<p>OhioMom: I had lunch (when I was a teenager…legal age) with Henry Kissinger. He was SEXY. And yes, old enough to have been my grandfather. </p>
<p>And hasn’t anyone heard: The richer and more powerful a man becomes the more attractive he is to women. (My own mother told me that when I was a wee lass…and she was right.)</p>
<p>Great posts–better than the Slate reviewers! The cinematography was fantastic in this episode. I loved the repeating images of opening and closing doors. And the shot of Don walking away from Megan’s commercial shoot was great.</p>
<p>@familyof3boys - I loved the peignoir set too - it kind of underlined the fact that even though she was hospitalized, she wasn’t really sick, even though her husband had convinced her otherwise.</p>
<p>Lane was neither rich (yet) nor Henry K, nor are most men.</p>
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<p>She was, until she got screwed out of a audition and in her mind a sure shot at a good commercial gig. (And I think she was right). Introducing her girlfriend at the end of the bar as the sex bait was a nice twist to what will no doubt prove a truly evil revenge plan. </p>
<p>Blaine’s widow telling Don he had no business introducing “ambition” to her dead husband was spot-on. </p>
<p>Also good was the NYT’s interview with Jon Hamm. He let on the Blaine,s suggestion of a partnership to Joan, in lieu of money for services rendered, was not so much a thoughtful gesture but rather a self-serving delaying plan. Blaine knew the firm did not have the money to pay her any money because of his embezzlement and he needed time. I completely missed that angle while trying to be sympathetic to Blaine. Good stuff. </p>
<p>Overall a good ending to weak season.</p>
<p>Don and Peggy’s chance meeting at the movies was the feel good scene of the finale.
Tickled pinked about running into each other and the jaunty theme of the movie Casino Royale was worth a smile in an otherwise grim show.</p>
<p>I’ve always liked that song - I have it on my iPod. It was strange hearing it as it would have been heard in a movie theatre of the era, in mono and kind of scratchy.</p>
<p>The blog posts at Slate are abominable. I can give them credit only for being intentionally bad. It’s Bad Criticism 101. </p>
<p>I think that for Beth’s nightgown, if you go back to the era, it was relatively common for people to spend days in the hospital for relatively minor operations. I’ve seen movie shorts designed to “prepare” families for an operation, getting used to the food, bringing in the right clothes. But in this case, since it was a mental ward or the like, she would have been encouraged to dress in normal clothes. As a child back then, I had surgery more than once and wore my own pj’s and the like.</p>
<p>I think that Beth wanted electro-shock. She mentions feeling suicidal, the door that she wants to walk through. We’ve seen Howard through Pete’s eyes. Howard is a pig but Beth suffers from real depression. She sees that in Pete. He has trouble realizing it’s true, that his thrashing about is “A bandage on a permanent wound.” </p>
<p>I know that Carrie Fisher gets shock treatment. Some people do. Not many.</p>
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<p>The blonde at the bar wasn’t Megan’s friend. I read another review that discussed some viewers’ confusion about this and it was stated that the credits showed that there were two separate actresses, two separate characters (but who can read those credits anyway? They shoot by so fast and they’re so tiny!).</p>
<p>By the way, Blaine is on Glee. Lane is the character on Mad Men who committed suicide.;)</p>
<p>Thank you Patsmom, I suffer from some dyslexia when it come to like sounding names. </p>
<p>I still believe Don is being set up by the girlfriend of Megan. (Megan? did I get that one right?)</p>
<p>And such is : I have never heard of a “peignoir set”. Googling now.</p>
<p>Pats mom, thanks for that info. I was sure it was a set-up., coming from spite.</p>