<p>Mad Men would be my favorite show, if it weren’t for the on-screen puking, of which I saw another example during the marathon which AMC was running yesterday. When and why did TV vomiting becoming OK? At the very least, I wish there were some kind of warning. On House, I’ve learned the signals and can shut my eyes, although I still get to hear the lovely wretching sounds. Mad Men seems to like to surprise us. </p>
<p>But why is this now considered to be entertainment? Does it add anything to Mad Men, which is otherwise a visual treat, to have the actors spewing pea soup on a regular basis?</p>
<p>I don’t think Pete is heading anywhere. I don’t think Peggy is either. As the actress who plays Sally said - back when she was really a child - the show is about Don Draper’s work life and his home life. We see stuff happen to people and we care (or don’t) but I think the idea is these are a bunch of lives around the central focus of Don’s story. </p>
<p>Pete is younger than Don. Peggy is in her mid 20’s. Roger is - supposedly - older, though his bio is, I gather, that he’s only 6 years older than Don. They all have stories outside the central focus of Don and we get glimpses - more of Peggy, less of Roger or Pete. They have storylines but I don’t know that they’re really heading to a place overall.</p>
<p>The story now shifts from Don and The Inferno to whether he can stay … can he be present with Megan? Can he at least limit infidelity to the occasional one-off? Can he be a father? Or will his attention wander? Is he too damaged? One nice bit of work is they’ve identified Megan at least for now with happiness, with her caring about their marriage and Don as a symbol of what Don could lose. Well done.</p>
<p>I think the rooting interest shifted with this episode. They worked at showing Don as lousy, as a real piece of work, and while doing they revealed another level of the abusive and distorted life he had. He can see that now, at least partly. He can see joy in his kids and in having a wife you can actually be with. That transformation was pulled off without the audience realizing until it was done. And what happens? For all I know, Megan gets killed. </p>
<p>BTW, in the balcony scene where Megan tells Don she’s there but he never is you hear this really loud siren - the sirens have been in the background all episode to show the decay of the city - and it really distracts her but she keeps going as people do. I imagine the director saying to her do the lines and don’t stop even if you’re distracted and then playing the siren noise louder than expected to throw her off just enough to make it real. Or maybe they did it a few times and found the way that worked, since acting is really repeating as though you’ve just discovered what you’ve rehearsed.</p>
<p>I am not enjoying this season as much as others. When did Betty suddenly lose all her weight and get slim and sexy again? Just an episode or two she was still looking like weight was an issue? Did they just drop that storyline? </p>
<p>Everything feels disjointed and weird this season. I understand the symbolism may be there, but it’s just not very enjoyable to watch? I’m finding it hard to care very much about a lot of the characters.</p>
<p>I know exactly when Betty lost all her weight; it was triggered when Henry told her that he was going to be running for office and that he couldn’t wait for all his potential voters to see her. She drew back sharply when he said that and from the look on her face you could tell that she wouldn’t allow herself to be shown to the public as anyone less that the perfect, beautiful trophy wife she has always been. How did she lose the weight so fast? Remember the beginning of last season when she was so heavy and Henry’s mother told her to go to the doctor for diet pills? That attempt was derailed by the cancer scare but Betty certainly remembered the advice and for all her slow and frustrating Weight Watchers efforts, I predict that she went back to the doctor’s office and demanded the pills. In those days, doctors handed out prescriptions for diet pills like they were candy and the pills in the 60’s were pure speed. I’m willing to bet that we will find out that Betty is going to have some new problems as a result of her new little friends.</p>
<p>It’s not Abe who has scenes with his adoptive father; it’s Ginsberg. Personally, I’m thrilled to see the end of Abe, the self-righteous, smug, controlling crusader. I just wish Peggy had gotten to dump him before he dumped her. Oh well, at least she got to stab him first . I did love that when she told Ted about it she said that Abe had been…err, stabbed, without mentioning that she was the…err stabber.</p>
<p>I don’t think that Roger Sterling’s father is one of the “dead as door nails” Pete’s talking about. If you recall, Frank Gleason, the partner in CGC has just died of cancer so it would seem that Pete’s talking about Lane Pryce and Frank Gleason. The Sterling in Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce is very much Roger, who is thankfully very much alive.</p>
<p>Oops. So many characters, so little time. But I agree his brand of idealism is obnoxious. I’d like to say unrealistic, but I know people like that.</p>
<p>I thought the whole Peggy-Abe thread was this episode’s (black) comic relief. </p>
<p>There is this old saw: you’re a conservative until you lose your job, and a liberal until you get mugged.</p>
<p>And I still want to know how Betty made it to breakfast with hubby without being caught.</p>
<p>The implication is that Don wakes up in Betty’s bed but we don’t know that. He could be back in his room. We see him wake up alone with the bed in the same orientation of headboard to the left of shot, but that may be to mislead us so they can set up the view of Betty and Henry together. </p>
<p>It may be that Abe and Peggy’s breakup doesn’t hold. He’s become radicalized by the experience of homesteading on the West Side while she’s become frightened. We never know.</p>
<p>There are only 3 more episodes - for a total of 13, counting the first as a double 1 & 2. There’s room for something to happen to set up the last season.</p>
<p>The review in this week’s Rolling Stone made the point that this week’s episode made many connections between present and past for the characters. Roger visiting Joan as a reminder of their relationship and the fact that they have a child together (today, Roger would have demanded his rights as a father), Don and his fling with Betty, Megan talking about how things used to be in their relationship and wanting to get back to that place. Peggy is struggling with her past with Don and the agency, the brief liason with Ted (now in the past) and her present relationship with the two men. Soon Abe and the Upper West Side apartment will be in the past. Then there was the meeting between Pete and Duck ( a blast from the past) and having the old Betty back the way she was. </p>
<p>Bobby was practically on an adrenaline high when he introduces “my mom and dad” to his camp friend across the room, making a happy connection to their original family and the way things used to be. Closing song “Always Something There to Remind Me.” </p>
<p>My favorite line in Sunday’s episode was Betty’s remark to Don in reference to Megan “That poor girl. She doesn’t know that loving you is the worst way to get to you.” Betty finally has it all figured out and in the process treats Henry the way Don always treated her. Which, as we know is a reflection of his own screwed up past.</p>
<p>Lergnom, Abe did promise Peggy that he would put the place up for sale and move. Of course, that was before she accidentally stabbed him with a spear and he called her out as representing everything he hated (and broke up with her). But I suppose anything could happen.</p>
<p>For sure, the best line of the episode was Abe saying, “Your every waking moment is an offense to me” or something like that. We burst into laughter at the unexpected stabbing. The show could use a little more comic relief. And his character had become unbearable. </p>
<p>Re Betty’s weight loss – Henry decided to run for office during the MLK episode. And now it appears to be June – did RFK die and it was not mentioned? Betty said something about all the Bobbys. Maybe it’s even still before RFK is shot. So she lost all the weight in two short months or less. I guess a lot is happening off screen that we don’t see. </p>
<p>What does the guy who is dating Joan do at the company? He seems to just wander around pointlessly.</p>
<p>mimk6 - RFK was killed in last week’s episode (or maybe the week before?) Pete’s mother wakes him up and says something to the effect that “That poor Kennedy boy was shot” and he, thinking that her mind is altered, says something like “That was years ago.” I thought that there would be more about that in the following episodes, but not much was said about it in the original episode or since. I think at this point they are probably mid-summer of '68.</p>
<p>I don’t see Betty’s weight loss as sudden - she’s been slowly “reducing,” as she said in an earlier episode - but I love the idea of it being speeded up with the help of little friends. Certainly reflective of the time.</p>
<p>Bob Benson is a junior accounts man. He works for Pete.</p>
<p>I expect they’ll come up with a name for the agency, possibly next episode. It’s now been mentioned by a few outsiders - Duck (how is he back again?) and some other guy. That’s a sign. Harry said the firm is viewed as the 27 Yankees, which I took as referring to Don and Ted because they’re both top creative directors and now they’re together (and have figured out how to co-exist, anxieties and all). I can’t see why Bert Cooper’s name remains. Or Roger’s, for that matter but what about Jim Cutler then? Draper and Chaough have to be there. It could be something as basic as Sterling Cutler Draper & Chaough or they may do something out of left field.</p>
<p>“In Sunday’s episode, Draper appeared wearing a white T-shirt with a red star and white panties while ominous sirens blared in the background. The look was identical to what Tate wore in a 1967 Esquire magazine photo shoot, above. A Twitter user claiming to be the daughter of the photographer shared the photo with ‘Mad Men’ costume designer Janie Bryant, who confirmed that Tate ‘inspired’ the look.”</p>
<p>Lots of chatter “speculating that the scene foreshadows Draper’s death.”</p>
<p>Quoting myself: “Why is it that every time I see Don and Megan’s terrace, I think someone is going to go off it?”</p>
<p>(And I reviewed the Don and Betty in bed together scene. It definitely seems that they’re in Betty’s room before her husband shows for breakfast.)</p>
<p>I also was baffled to see Betty having breakfast with hubby when Don walked into the cafe. I had no doubt Don woke up in Betty’s bed and also wondered how Betty would explain that. Maybe Betty just got another room either the night before - planning to seduce Don, or in the morning and moved her stuff to it.</p>
<p>I agree. I would think that Henry would go to Bettys room first rather than going straight to the dining area whether it was a short or long drive from work.</p>
<p>Can’t believe I’m the first one to weigh in on this episode! I love how this show resurrects characters - it was great to see Danny Seigel doing well and Roger getting his. Danny could be annoying but his co-workers seemed to like him and I’m glad he landed on his feet. Now if they’d just catch up with Sal Romano - or are they waiting for the Stonewall riots for that?
Jim Cutler’s remarks about hippies cashing checks from big companies were very pertinent, IMHO. A lot of the so-called counterculture used the very system they villified to live (i.e. food stamps from the “facist” government.")
Loved the scenes between Peggy and Joan. They got a lot of stuff out in the open that had been simmering for years and while they aren’t and never will be good friends, at the end of the day they have each other’s backs and this, I think, is the crux of their relationship.</p>
<p>Re the ending, kind of suspected the new merger would lead to a conflict that will probably lead to a season finale resolution or cliffhanger. Looking back at narrative arc of the serries it seems like the fortunes of the firm–takeover, spinoff, merger–is the dramatic clothesline on which Weiner hangs the characters’ dirty laundry. </p>
<p>Curious juxtaposition of that whole you got us a Ford when we should have a Chevy thing, which was followed immediately by a real-world Lincoln commercial.</p>
At the very least, I wish there were some kind of warning. On House, I’ve learned the signals and can shut my eyes, although I still get to hear the lovely wretching sounds. Mad Men seems to like to surprise us. </p>
. I did love that when she told Ted about it she said that Abe had been…err, stabbed, without mentioning that she was the…err stabber.</p>