<p>This episode was the only one this season written by the executive producers so I think it carries some weight.</p>
<p>Funny but the girls I knew who went to Miss Porter’s would, I think, have agreed with the portrayal. </p>
<p>First, I think Don woke up a bit about the firm though the way that was presented make it feel odd. They see Ted and Peggy at Rosemary’s Baby and then Don calls Harry Crane. My reaction is Don like Megan could see what was going on and that made him see he needed to act for the firm, not just on a personal level for Ted. Remember, Ted thought Don was competing with him, something I didn’t see happening (as in, Sunkist was just a meeting Roger set up to go along with the real goal of landing the huge Carnation account). But as Jim Cutler’s reaction shows, once Sunkist told Harry they’d go to an $8M account with TV that blew Ocean Spray out of the water from the agency’s perspective. If we’re talking a 15% commission, that’s an extra 3/4 of a million dollars. And note Don let Cutler make the call. </p>
<p>As to the St.J’s ad. Don was entirely right. As creative director, he needed to let the client know what the budget was at. Yes, he could see what was going on. Ginsburg saw it too. (BTW, I hated the ad myself because it was creepy.) The proper thing would have been to sit with the client and get a new budget approved, which is what they ended up doing. But it took Don’s invention of a story. Why? All I can see is what’s on screen and what I saw was Ted floundering because he had no reason. That Don chose to come close to the truth was really well done.</p>
<p>Was Peggy right calling Don a monster? Does she really think Ted will leave his family? He won’t. The relationship is doomed. Don shows mercy to Ted and in the end to Peggy but it doesn’t benefit him exactly, just the firm. Remember Joan said Don needed to be more a team player to stop going in a direction and expecting everyone to come along. This is more being a team player. </p>
<p>So the episode opens with Don in a fetal position in Sally’s bed. And it ends with him in a fetal position on his couch. Is he being reborn? Was this giant screwing up of the one relationship that has always meant something to him with the one person he has always loved … was it his rock bottom? We did see some signs of change but this being Don I have to wonder. It looked at times like he was changing but at other times like he was wallowing. Don is actually a baby a 3rd time when he literally plays one for Ted. But in that scene, the baby is the son of the devil - remember the line, “He has his father’s eyes” - which means Don is … except it’s a St. Joseph’s baby aspirin ad. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what to make of Pete except for what he says. He says that Bob is better at being an account man. Maybe that resonates with Pete because, as I noted above, he isn’t a natural account man, coming from a patrician family where that kind of work was considered low class, and of course because he’s worked with Don knowing his entire persona is false. Maybe Bob’s caring for him paid off. But in that it’s hard to connect Bob’s yelling about Pete being a bleep to Manolo in Spanish. I can understand he’s really upset but … maybe there’s more there and it will become more complicated. And I don’t underestimate how unhappy Pete is. They make it obvious. And in this case, the mercy works in a closer Shakespearian sense of benefitting both the giver and the receiver. </p>
<p>I loved the sort of coven scene at Miss Porter’s. It feels wrong at first, even cruel, and the complete division between the oh-so-correct headmistress and the girls was much like Rosemary’s Baby again. But Sally realizes she can take it and that this is a freedom she’s never had and won’t have living with her mother. Boys, alcohol, pot, going out at night, sneaking around. Bad choice for Sally? I don’t know. If Betty was my mother and I was living in that house with Henry’s mother and my dad was running around on my beautiful step-mother then … maybe the best thing is to get away for a while. </p>
<p>My reaction seeing Betty tell Sally she could smoke was that Betty was relieved. She’s relieved Sally will be leaving. She’s relieved she can stop mothering her - something she’s simply not good at doing. She’s relieved she can now start to deal with her daughter on something like the level at which she actually is, which is an overgrown teen. Betty can relate to Sally at boarding school because, remember, Betty essentially bolted to become a model. </p>
<p>I’ll bet the Jacquemetton’s are asked if they put in Glen to make Matt Weiner happy. (Glen is played by his son Marten, if you didn’t know.) But it works and that scene where Glen literally comes to Sally’s defense was great. Foolish adolescent great.</p>