<p>^^^ Yes, murdered by Ginsberg, as predicted by a couple of other posters. Maybe? As i mentioned, I am watching for fun some Season 5 re-runs (which are on early on Sunday mornings on AMC where I am), and the 2 episodes where Ginsberg is introduced were on last week - it is pretty creepy watching them now, now that we see where Ginsberg has evolved to up to this point. Peggy was charged with hiring him originally and she has to hold her nose to do it because, as she points out several times, he is completely “crazy” (though brilliant in the advertising vein).</p>
<p>If Megan is dead I do not see Ginsburg as the one. He’s crazy in a creative/eccentric kind of way, but violent? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>About Bob Benson: My son was catching up on old Mad Men episodes and I happened to catch the flashback episode where Don first gets “hired” at Sterling Cooper by showing up and taking Roger out and getting him really drunk. He shows up at the office the next day claiming that Roger hired him - of course Roger was too drunk to remember, so he has to go along with it. Anyway, Bob reminds me very much of the young Don in that episode: a very eager go-getter and kind of a brown noser, willing to be very “creative” in getting ahead.</p>
<p>OK, I can definitely get on the Megan’s dead train. If so, when did she die? Now I have to go back and watch all the episodes I can find from this season. I wondered about that scene with Don in the pool–seemed interesting that she “showed up” in the death scene.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the episode, she and Don were on the phone discussing the news. At one point she said, “But I live here.” She was alive at that point. Then she says “I live here” in the “dream” sequence. It could be he’s remembering what she said, or it could be that she died. But how much time elapsed. Isn’t the pool scene the next day?</p>
<p>These Megan hints – putting her in a murdered woman’s clothing, putting her in black dress to speak with Don from a “long distance” – feel like an effort by the showrunners to inject some of the spooky “Paul is Dead” feeling of the times. Most of us on the parent forum are around the same age and well remember.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, did anyone else register that when Don, who came to the party in a coat and tie, was asked to remove his shoes before smoking hash, he was BAREFOOT!! 
This is fun.</p>
<p>Bob is either a sociopath, a spook, or both.</p>
<p>I thought the line “But I live here” had three purposes:</p>
<ol>
<li>It establishes this isn’t real to the viewers. Maybe Megan did fly out … but the line is something she said on the phone the night before so we know she didn’t.</li>
<li>It confuses Don, who is drifting further into a hashish dream. To him the character, maybe Megan was really there … but then she says something that makes no sense to him as a character.</li>
<li>I thought the line was a good choice to recur because it carries some meaning: Megan cares and she says that even though she’s not a US citizen … and that is more how she is than the false way that Don has been. So to Don and the viewers, that he imagines this particular line feeds directly to Dinkins saying to him “You should see what you like” when you’re dead … because?</li>
</ol>
<p>Oh boy. I felt like throwing up myself watching tonight’s episode. Poor, poor Sally; it was bad enough when she saw Roger and Megan’s mother but seeing Don and Sylvia is going to do some real damage. I’m afraid this situation is setting her up for some seriously dangerous acting out and no one but Don will know why.</p>
<p>I really haven’t paid much attention to the rumors about Megan’s death being foreshadowed. Of course, I could be wrong but it just doesn’t seem to be in keeping with the style of the show to draw such an obvious parallel between her and Sharon Tate and then have her suffer the same fate. Remember the elevator shaft outside the SCDP office a couple of seasons ago? I was sure that someone was going to go down that shaft before the season was over but the foreshadowing there was much more subtle than that so I really don’t think that Megan’s in danger of being physically murdered. Spiritual murder at Don’s hands is another matter.</p>
<p>I guess we all know Bob Benson’s big secret now (Pete certainly does). It’s interesting to contrast his character with poor Sal Romano, who was a man from another era. I wonder if Sal will ever reappear now. It seemed unlikely before but now maybe it’s possible because if they could bring back Paul, then anyone else is fair game.</p>
<p>I can’t wait to hear everyone else’s thoughts on this episode. I don’t think Sally will ever reveal Don’s secret to Megan, Betty, or anyone else but my heart breaks for the trauma I think she’s going to inflict on herself. In this case, the sins of the father are going to be visited on the daughter. Don’s chickens are really coming home to roost now.</p>
<p>I thought the best thing about the episode was the seamless, beautiful direction by Jennifer Getzinger. She’s become the best Mad Men director. The shots are framed better, glide into each other better, carry meaning better and sometimes just linger better. The shot of the blood trails in Peggy’s place. Sally pressed up against the door. The hallway shot at the end - with no music until the credits were well under way. (And that shot sets against the one of Peggy a few episodes earlier stuck in the middle between Don and Ted. Now Don and Sally are apart and what’s in the middle … nothing but hallway and doors.) Even the shot of Don at the typewriter as he calls Sylvia … gives an intimacy we don’t usually see of Don at work and that we know what he’s typing connects another level to the scene. That choice of shot and the actual framing of it just close enough created a different view into the mental/emotional world of the character. Really terrific direction.</p>
<p>And that scene with Bob. Terrific acting by James Wolk letting his face show just the right amounts of meaning as the words began to imply more. Shot with the exact light on his face and framed so he radiated hope and cutting to the right shots of Pete and then the legs and so on. About as well made a scene as I’ve seen on the show, which means on all of TV.</p>
<p>The thing that also struck me was the way Jon Hamm and the direction perfectly caught the out-of-synchness of Don as he tried to help Mitchell. (Funny that. My dad was a Jewish doctor and my middle name is Mitchell, though I’m more Bobby’s age.) The scene with GM was wonderfully just uncomfortable enough. </p>
<p>And the scene with Pete, Ted and Peggy. It was great to see Pete get a chance to show different parts of his personality. But I was struck by how that scene - which was perfectly set-designed for a NE restaurant of the period - was the opposite of how we’ve thought of the show with Don at the center as creative director. He’s becoming less the center of the show. We saw as much of Ted’s family as of Betty and more of Peggy’s apartment than Don’s. </p>
<p>A few things bothered me with the writing but of course the main thing is the way Don lets himself down … and finally gets caught at it by one of the very few people who matter. That he offers the lamest explanation and leaves it at that is of course the real disappointment. Each time he’s offered a second chance, he blows it … even as his drug driven dreams wish for it.</p>
<p>Completely agree with you on the quality of the direction, which maximized the emotional impact of two key scenes: the positioning of Pete’s and Bob’s legs and the almost delicate nudge, and Sally framed at the end of the hallway in Sylvia’s apartment, dropping the keys.</p>
<p>The acting in this episode was incredible. I was especially struck by the scene where Ted confronts Don about the fact that he’s working against Ted when they are supposed to be on the same team. Jon Hamm’s expression showed brief shock and then the recognition that he’s never realized that’s exactly what he’s been doing. I do think/hope that going forward, their relationship will be different. Ted has been utterly obsessed with Don and practically makes himself sick trying to figure out how to get him to engage, while Don barely notices that Ted is there unless he’s right in front of him. The future success of the agency depends on Don and Ted’s collaboration and up till now that’s not happening since they joined forces to win Chevy.</p>
<p>It was great to see that Peggy finally followed her mother’s advice and got a cat ;)</p>
<p>The early episodes this season were so dark and left me feeling somewhat blah about things, but the last few episodes have really picked up the pace. I’ve loved having Peggy back front and center and also seeing a new dimension of Joan. The best thing about last night for me was how Don was so cool and pulled together at the beginning, completely in control. Then everything fell apart and he was sweaty and disheveled as he lost all control once Sally saw him with Sylvia. I thought Jon Hamm was awesome in this episode. </p>
<p>I saw the actor who plays Bob in a promo for a CBS show last night while watching the Tony awards before MM. I initially wondered if that meant he would be exiting MM, but Alison Brie has managed to juggle Community & MM successfully, so it probably means nothing.</p>
<p>I just re-watched last night’s episode - Nan Chaough fell asleep reading Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie in the scene where Ted comes in and greets his boys. A runaway bestseller of the era and one of my favorite books of all time!</p>
<p>It did not look like Megan is dead. </p>
<p>When the show first starts, there is a man falling from a building. Who is that man and why is he falling?</p>
<p>There was a poster of Moshe Dayan above Stan’s bed. The famous shot from the 6 Day War.</p>
<p>I didn’t like some of the writing. Don says something like Mitchell can’t run forever … but Megan knows Don’s real identity and so that line didn’t fit well to me. And then when Sally yells I hate you and runs out her friend makes an excuse about Sally liking Mitchell, a bit that also kind of played false to me. I thought they didn’t need that dialogue.</p>
<p>I watched this episode twice in a row, back to back last night. (Last week I at least waited until early Monday morning to watch that episode a second time). It’s just an intriguing show and I always catch more stuff the second time around. </p>
<p>I don’t think Megan is dead either (at least not yet). Like Lergnom, I loved the Peggy-Pete-Ted scene near the beginning. I also loved, for some odd reason, the scene in the booth at the bar between Don and Arnie Rosen; Don looked so old and world-weary. In addition to the bigger world issues and Arnie/Sylvia’s son/Vietnam, he sits there with the husband of the woman he was/is screwing and has feelings for, AND he really appreciates the friendship he has with Arnie and respects him… so much turmoil. (Loved Ted’s comment about it must mean a lot for Don to be helping his friend’s son, as he {Ted} can’t imagine Don actually has that many friends).</p>
<p>Agree the acting was especially superb. Sally and her friend were both terrific for two such young actresses… but every actor in every scene, just great.</p>
<p>I gasped out loud at the Bob-Pete scene. So very well-done. And if this is Bob’s only real “secret,” I am so relieved! No wonder he is so nice and pleasant and genuine and beautiful – he’s gay!!!</p>
<p>Poor Sally–saw that one coming a mile off. I agree they are setting her up for some acting out. </p>
<p>So is Bob gay or bi? Since he seemed to be dating Joan was that a cover or not? Things will be interesting at the office after that. Peggy and Pete will get together???</p>
<p>Why doesn’t Peggy get a new place since she was planning on doing so and seemed to be the one planning to pay for it–I figured she’d move.</p>
<p>I believe Peggy bought the place. She owns it. She may have it on the market but it’s where she lives now.</p>
<p>I still suspect Bob of having ulterior motives for everything he is doing. </p>
<p>Lergnom, The scene with Sally at Sylvia’s apartment coming in through the maid’s back hallway entrance also reminded me of the hallways and doors of Dick Whitman’s experience in the house of prostitution growing up. Now it’s Sally’s turn to be scarred and we have to wonder if it’s going to be history repeating itself.</p>
<p>I agree this episode was incredibly well directed.</p>
<p>To answer my own question, maybe the falling man in the beginning of the show is Don Draper himself and it reveals how the show will end.</p>
<p>[Beyond</a> Common Knowledge: Mad Men Falling Man](<a href=“http://voxunum.blogspot.com/2012/06/mad-men-falling-man.html]Beyond”>http://voxunum.blogspot.com/2012/06/mad-men-falling-man.html)</p>
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<p>I can see it now in a future episode. </p>
<p>Don catches Sally with her pants down. Later, Don confronts Sally. Sally replies, “He was just comforting me, Dad,” while she casually blows a smoke ring in his face with her slim cigarette.</p>