<p>I’m surprised that people are surprised that Peggy is angry at Don. He interfered in her relationship with the guy who went to CA (blanking on his name) and humiliated them in a meeting. There was some ugly stuff that went on around that and she probably blames Don. </p>
<p>Don’s return to his office was painful to watch. He was truly a " man outside in the cold" just as he was sitting alone on the cold patio.
His discomfort was palpable- and viewing this was also stressful. Guess the writers made Their point- don is ostracized by all. ( except Ginsberg) </p>
<p>Betty on the " field trip" was another wretched scene. All the scenes seems edited poorly, clumsy with terrible pacing.
All the women are finding their voices and speaking up. It’s the 60s, the secretaries standing up, Joan being vocal, Peggy letting Don know how she feels, a shift. In the power at all levels, from Don all the way down,</p>
<p>Peggy has been desperate and irrational ever since Ted left for the west coast. If anything, Don saved her and Ted from making public fools of themselves in front of the entire agency and the St Josephs aspirin executives. Ted had the maturity to wake up from his infatuation dream and persuade Don to let him take the LA job instead, saving his own marriage but unknowingly causing the final destruction of Don’s.</p>
<p>I’m really interested in Peggy’s arc this season. This is the first time in the series she’s been truly spiraling out of control in both her professional and personal lives and she clearly can’t continue on her current path so I’m expecting that Don’s return will at least be a catalyst for change. It does make me sad that their personal and professional relationship is at such a low point.</p>
<p>I’m having trouble understanding Cutler, apart from the fact that he’s ruthless in his effort to destroy everything that remains of SCDP. So far, Roger seems to have given up caring about the company and Bert Cooper seems to have passively bought in to Cutler’s strategy. Pete’s gone, both physically and emotionally and Joan seems to be so pleased that Cutler suggested her move upstairs, she actually thinks the current setup is working.</p>
<p>I’m not surprised that Don took their deal (although I wish he hadn’t.) He’s pretty lost right now- lost his wife, has no job, and wants to get things back to where they were- wants to fix it. He believes he can overcome the obstacles that are put in his way in time, believes he can win them over.<br>
He has another offer, so it’s not about the money, or just a job. It’s about redemption. </p>
<p>I’m still not certain that the entire office episode wasn’t imaginary.</p>
<p>I can’t stand even the sight of Peggy these days. I do think Don is just so lost he was willing to do anything to get back, even spend the whole day at the creative table acting like a dog waiting to be let inside. His comments to Megan came across as very raw and honest to me even if they sounded delusional-- he didn’t want how Megan saw him to change, or the way he saw himself through Megan’s eyes really, and he wanted to “fix it” before she ever found out-- even though it’s been a YEAR and any sane person would have realized by now that it wouldn’t work that way. But Don is desperately clinging to that big man he thinks he used to be and wants to “fix it.” I think this is the most real we have ever seen Don. He was honest with himself and with Hershey about who he is, there were severe consequences, and now he wants to claw his way back out and put everything back together again no matter what it takes. Meanwhile everyone around him is dumbfounded by his behavior. He is still a man in a spiral.</p>
<p>I don’t disagree with anything being said about Betty, but I did feel sorry for her after “why don’t they love me.” I think Bobby really does love her and just doesn’t understand how to relate to her at all, because Betty doesn’t really know how to be a mother-- which she thinks is her sole job in life and she has no idea how to do it. It’s sad. I was struck by the fact that it never occurred to Bobby that she would be eating the sandwich-- and then she skipped dinner. I did wonder if she might have an eating disorder, but with so little left in the series I wonder if they’d open that can of worms and what would be the point with how little the show does with Betty these days. Did she ever get those diet pills she was after? But more poignant in the field trip scene was that she didn’t seem to realize how genuinely sorry Bobby was and how he wanted to fix it, and she wouldn’t let him try. Bobby does still love her, but she does not know how to accept love and love him back. She really is childish. It’s like she thought she’d scored all these points coming on the field trip and drinking the cows milk only to be “punished” when Bobby was so thoughtless as to trade her sandwich-- but he didn’t seem to have a clue she’d even care and clearly felt sorry when he found out she did, but she sabotaged the whole day with that one mistake. It was the reaction of a child, not a mother. I feel sorry for the whole family.</p>
<p>I am curious about the sandwich theme. Last week, Don ordered a sandwich for Sally she didn’t ask for but she ate it anyway. The meal date concluded with Sally telling her father that she loved him. This week the sandwich makes an appearance twice when Don tried to eat it alone in the office and when Bobby traded Betty’s sandwich for gumdrops he didn’t even like. The picnic concluded with Betty questioning her children’s love for her. </p>
<p>It was kind of funny to see Bobby reserve a picnic seat for Betty but he gave away her sandwich. If I were the mom I’d prefer the lunch over the seat. But he’s a kid so you let it go. How hard is it to look for food in a farm? I’m sure the farmer can spare her PBJ sandwich or more cow’s milk. The fact that Bobby gave the sandwich away does make me think Bobby has observed his mother skipping meals at home. The mother of Bobby’s friend worries me too. What mother packs gumdrops for her kid’s lunch?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I thought the same thing. He seemed surprised that the sandwich would have been for her at all. I also think he might have a little crush on the girl that he traded the sandwich with, since he didn’t actually even want (or seem to like) the candy.</p>
<p>I don’t think the mother packed gumdrops for lunch. She packed them for dessert. I remember lots of kids having Hostess Ding Dongs or sugary sweets in their lunches. It was a special field trip day. In that era, a mom might easily have packed a nice treat. (Remembering second grade when we drew numbers to pick our partner and I for first choice and picked the nicest guy in the class and he brought an extra Hostess cupcake for me.) We are now around 1970 right? Parents were not smoking on field trips at that point. People knew cigarette smoking was a health issue. And I went to school in an upscale school district but no mother ever would have shown up to chaperone a field trip dressed like Betty Draper. And I don’t think at that point would a teacher have gone braless. We had just moved to teachers being allowed to wear pants to work. </p>
<p>Bobby did say the girl didn’t have a sandwich to trade, I wasn’t sure if he meant she had nothing but gum drops or she just had some other lunch. My first thought was that he traded the sandwich thinking Betty wouldn’t eat it anyway and the poor girl needed one, and poor, poor Bobby is a nice kid getting browbeaten for nothing. I didn’t think this was important, though, and didn’t dwell on it at the time.</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like 1970 to me. I wold have thought it was around 1966. I agree that the teacher not wearing a bra is unrealistic, as is the parents smoking on a school bus.</p>
<p>Bobby had a banana. If Betty wanted something healthier to eat than gum drops, she could have eaten that.</p>
<p>Perhaps Betty wanted an excuse not to eat but wanted someone to blame. Eating disorders can create strange drama.
Betty is a mess. I hope Don is rehabilitated and the kids go live with him. </p>
<p>I agree that it often doesn’t look like 1970… who in 1970 wore a hat the way Don does? </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Lol, when watching this episode with my husband I said “apparently Don Draper was the last man in America to wear a hat”. I think his doing this is one more way to show that Don is a man who isn’t changing with the times and in many ways is still a man of the '50s. He hasn’t changed his hairstyle (no stupid sideburns, thank God!), still wears the same kind of conservative suits and isn’t really interested in the music explosion of the 1960s. Even Roger, who hasn’t changed his personal appearance to be au courant, is certainly dipping in the counterculture far more than Don is.</p>
<p>BTW, isn’t it still 1969 in Mad Men world? I can’t imagine that Woodstock would have happened without being mentioned. In fact, I fully expect Sally to run off to experience all sorts of new things there causing Betty to have the biggest cow ever.</p>
<p>It’s 1969. I believe that Mad Men will take place entirely within the 1960s. And I’ve also been picturing Sally at Woodstock. </p>
<p>Hats were out after the JFK presidency – I continue to be amazed that someone like Don, in a creative field, wouldn’t at least try to be fashionable and ditch the hat. </p>
<p>Sally at Woodstock … and Sal at Stonewall!</p>
<p>1969- the year of my high school graduation. ;)<br>
No, no one I knew wore hats, but gentlemen of a certain age and economic means did still dress conservatively, wear their hair conservatively, and did not adopt the changing clothing and hair styles. My step-father was an advertising executive, and the generational divide in styles that is evident in the show is very much how it was. College students and those in their 20s, along with a minority of older people who might be artists, musicians, writers, academics, embraced the new styles and ideology, but not those over 30, generally, especially not businessmen. Even through 70s, when I was working in publishing in NYC, office attire was still very conservative.<br>
The person who is the most dated in her appearance in the show is Betty. She is still living in the 50s, imo. But that’s fitting, I guess. She hasn’t grown in any way since her first appearance in the show.</p>
<p>I remember my dad wearing a hat to work well into the 1970s. Don isn’t a teenager, or a 20-something. I’m not sure what his age is supposed to be as he never grows any older. But he would look stupid with sideburns.</p>
<p>I grew up in Southern Fairfield County and graduated from HS in 1971, so Sally is about my age in roughly the same place/milieu. My father, and a large percentage of the other men, commuted to NYC. If this is supposed to be 1969, they are definitely pitching Don and Betty backwards, stylistically. There was a huge difference between 1966, when my sib graduated, and 1969. That’s why I say this looks more like 1965 or 6.</p>
<p>My dad did too … but he still grew sideburns and wore some brightly colored shirts. A little like Harry Crane but not as gaudy. As for Betty, I remember seeing her early last season with dark hair and still a little heavy, wearing a conservative paisley dress and I though - Wow! That’s how I remember everybody’s mom looking in 1968!</p>