Mad Men Season 7, Episode 7: Waterloo (Recap)

When we first met Bertram Cooper, in Mad Men Episode 1.02 "Ladies Room," he said, in his own inimitable way, as he left the frat atmosphere in Don's office, "So much yarn, so little time."  Time finally ran out for Bert Cooper on July 20, 1969, just after man first set foot on the moon.  "Bravo," he said of humankind's great accomplishment.  And "Bravo" we all said not just to the founding father of Sterling Cooper but also to the actor who brought him to life - Tony Award-winning Robert Morse.  In Bert Cooper we saw a man spanning two centuries, from the opening of the Eiffel Tower and the painting of Van Gogh's Starry Night in the late 19th Century to men soaring on a rocket beyond that tower, through that night, to place a flag on a distant orb.  He embraced the future while still being a relic of the past, an Ayn Randian iconoclast with a taste for Japanese design, a childless man with strong paternal instincts.  He was the glue that bound the agency through its many incarnations over the near-decade that we've been following it.

So cut him a little slack if he decides to do a song-and-dance number for Don Draper before he shuffles off this mortal coil.

That final image, of the fantasy-reality line being blurred with the former "How to Succeed in Business" Broadway star doing an MGM-themed dance number for his last hurrah, was brilliant and ridiculous, the height of artistry and the nadir of Matt Weiner's hubris.  How you perceived that scene - and I loved it immediately - may depend on whether you took the blue or the red pill when you started your Mad Men ride.  It is a surreal look at a place and time, almost like how our memories ever so slightly skew the story of our lives.  Nothing is quite the way it seems, yet the overall feelings are real.

The feelings brought forth in this episode were very real.  The common experience of all the characters on the show was watching the moon landing on TV.  For that one moment in time, almost everyone in the country was focusing on the same thing, sharing in that pride and wonder.  But how that moment was observed was so different for everyone.  Don, Peggy, Pete, and Harry sharing the experience not with family but in a hotel room, hours before a crucial presentation.  Betty spending it with friends and family including her daughter who alternates between becomingher mother's  doppelgänger to becoming her own person with her own opinions and views.  Roger, not watching with some whacked-out group of hippies higher than the astronauts, but with Mona, their son-in-law, and their grandson.  And Bert, experiencing the moment alone with his housekeeper, beaming with pride and joy.

The news anchor's failure to pick up the second part of the famous quote.  Neil Armstrong's muffing of the first half (leaving out the "a" that makes all the difference).  The scratchy, wiggly black and white picture, so different from the crystal clear images beamed back by the Mars rover decades later.  It gave a sense of being there in that moment.  I was ten at the time and remember it.  It was a moment that the country needed, turning attention away if only briefly from the war in Vietnam, the counter-culture, the disintegration of the family, the growing malaise, and the other turbulent changes the late sixties wrought.

Peggy tapped into the chaos and the need for comfort and togetherness in her Burger Chef presentation. Reminiscent of Don's Carousel pitch that closed out the first season, her story was one borne of nostalgia for the family table of old, full of sentimentality and longing.  She - representing moms everywhere and playing that role by using her neighbor Julio to stand in for the child she could have had but doesn't - takes control of the room and sells the hell out of the pitch while Don looks on, grinning like the proud papa he is.  Yet, it wasn't a passing of the torch so much as a sharing of the light.  Finally, Don is willing to let others shine bright.

The arc of Donald Draper over these past seven episodes has been stunning.  He went from humiliated and debased to triumphant and esteemed.  The pariah who scared away the Hershey clients was the superstar whose presence was the key to closing the McCann Erickson deal.  And how did he accomplish this transformation?  By following Freddy Rumsen's advice and doing the work.  No Superman/Batman moves here, no sleight-of-hand.  Don put his nose down, put his ego aside, and worked.  His growth was earned.

And what growth there was.  Last episode, when Don remarked about how he used to solve problems - abuse the people whose help he needed and then take a nap - was the first real glimpse that Don was admitting what an a-hole he'd been.  The Don of old was so self-absorbed, so keen on developing and maintaining his image and mystique, that he couldn't have let any truth ever slip through like that.  But now he can admit the games he played and how he hurt those around him.  He had a chance to put his own interests first, as he always had in the past.  Make the Burger Chef pitch, win the client, and try to save himself at the firm.  Instead, he gave up all that to Peggy.

Don couldn't be with his kids to watch history being made, but he reached out to them and in that brief exchange with Sally may have helped her steer a path towards happiness.  Rather than embracing the cynical at such a young age, she quickly set herself on a better course.  Rejecting the handsome jock in favor of the nerdy stargazer was another step off of Betty's well-worn path.  

The old Don may have done or said something he regretted almost immediately to Jim Cutler when it became clear his job was in danger, or maybe he would have just run, but instead he stayed and fought for his job.  And he used his experience down at the bottom of the ladder to save Ted from making a similar mistake.

This episode, this season, was about getting what you always wanted and yet finding that it wasn't what was really important.  Ted and Pete got LA and both of them missed what they left back in New York.  Peggy got the big account, but what she really craved is family.  Don got his job and position back, yet he had no one to share it with.  The next half season will hopefully find everyone, with work taken care of, focusing on what will make them truly happy.  Bert has provided the road map for that discovery, "The Best Things in Life Are Free."

OBSERVATIONS:

I don't know why there's so much hate out there for Harry Crane.  I love how he was the one person to tear up at the astronauts landing on the moon.  It was a nice call back to his emotional exit at the end of Season 1's finale when he left the room after the Carousel pitch in tears.

Bert gave a fine tribute to Ida Blankenship after she passed on that made his death after seeing the great achievement of the Apollo astronauts fitting: She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the thirty-seventh floor of a skyscraper. She's an astronaut.

Roger lamented to Don that his final words to Bert were the lyrics to a song, so perhaps Don's hallucination was triggered by that. That song lyric "let's have another cup of coffee and let's have another piece of pie," is from the 1932 musical Face the Music.  It was sung by a now down-on-their-luck group of folks waiting for things to get better. 

The hunky teen visiting the Francis house was wearing the #32 - looks like the jersey of then-Heisman trophy superstar Trojan OJ Simpson.

Julio asks Peggy for a Popsicle.  That brand was one of Peggy's first major pitches (Ep. 2.12 - The Mountain King) and she came up with a sentimental angle tying into the idea of breaking it and sharing it with someone you love. 

There was a fifteen second pause after Don said to Megan that he could finally move out to LA, broken only by him asking if she were still there.  That was all the proof he needed that their relationship was over. Unlike his violent, emotional breakup with Betty, this marriage didn't explode, it died from lack of interest.

Peggy said to Don that he'd never seen her present before and that was true, but it was also true, as he told her, that he had "overheard things."  Specifically, when she presented the Heinz Ketchup pitch right after Don did, he listened in with his ear pressed against the door. 

We knew Meredith had a crush on Don, but watching her "comforting" him after he received his termination letter was priceless: "M: Tell me what I can do. D: You can get my attorney on the phone. And we can't do this. M: You're right. Not right now." 

So much meta-commentary on the show - Lou referring to "Don Draper Dinner Theater," Pete saying "the Don Draper show is back."  Even Jim Cutler talking about being "backstage" to what Don was doing. 

Roger and Don have done everything in their power to avoid going to work at McCann and now their salvation comes from letting themselves be devoured by that same huge company.  Perhaps the deal won't go through.  Don's off-handed comment about Bert's sister still being alive leaves open the possibility the deal could be halted.  But perhaps their surrender is a sign that there are worse things than giving in. Roger valued Don,  Don valued his coworkers, and the rest of the partners valued cold hard cash more than keeping Sterling Cooper small and unencumbered.  This play was a Hail Mary on Roger's part to keep from losing everything - and very possibly to prove Bert wrong.  Because Roger finally acted like a leader.

Don tells Sally not to be so cynical when she mimics the football player's comments about the space program. That harkens back to Bert Cooper calling Don cynical after the latter penned the  New York Times ad that nearly destroyed the company in episode 4.12 Blowing Smoke.  It was in that scene that Bert announced he was leaving the firm and that they had created (in Don) a monster (an accusation repeated the next year by Peggy).

So where do we go from here?  It's possible the purchase doesn't go through and we spend some episodes on the two sides wrestling for control, but I think that's unlikely as there is so little time left.  Instead, with their financial futures secure, I believe Don, Peggy, Pete, and Roger will focus on achieving non-material happiness.

Don has felt unloved since birth and has never let any evidence that he was loved interfere with this deep-rooted self-I loathing.  There was a small crack in this shell when Sally told him she loved him early in Season 7.  Now it's time for Don to explore whether he is capable of accepting love - and giving it.  He did the first selfless thing we'd seen him do when he let Peggy (whom he loves in a way, even if he doesn't realize it) give the presentation and his feelings of pride watching her pitch must have reminded him of the feelings he discovered he had for Bobby after they went to the movies together. The problem with hoping Don also finds romantic love before the series ends is that there doesn't seem to be enough time for him to find and build a new relationship, so that leaves him with repairing an old one.

Peggy has struggled with being at the forefront of a movement that didn't even have a name at the time.  She was blazing a trail for herself as a woman in a man's world and made certain sacrifices along the way.  Now that she's turned thirty and achieved career satisfaction and success, the lack of someone to share that with leaves a huge hole.  With Ted coming back, she might look to him.  But I'm not sure he's emotionally stable enough to give her what she needs, especially if he has to hurt his wife and children in the process.

Pete is free once more and on his way back to New York.  He and Peggy have never actually had a relationship and when they had their fling they were in a different place emotionally and career-wise.  Now they're nearly equals (true, he's a partner and she's not, but the disparity between them is not that great any more).  Pete showed he could be interested in an ambitious career-minded woman, but he has unresolved feelings for Trudy that will have to be worked out.

Roger's true love is Mona.  That's obvious.  He blew it once but perhaps their new role in helping raise their grandchild will bring them back together.  Roger was in an extended childhood until Bert Cooper died.  Before that he had ridden the cushiony coattails of a rich and successful father and an indulgent mother all the way into his fifties without breaking a sweat.  Finally, when Bert called him on not being a leader, and when that failing was about to result in him losing everything that mattered, Roger took the first steps into adulthood.  Maybe he can put away the LSD, hippie girls, and naked parties and be a grownup.

The number one song this week?  In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans.  As the space age hit its apex, thoughts and fears about the future ("some machine doing that for you") were rampant.  

QUOTES:

Ted: Good spot for smoldering wreckage.

Lou:  Shall I invite them to "Don Draper Dinner Theater?"

Meredith:  I know you're feeling vulnerable, but I am your strength.

Jim:  You know, Ted and I, whenever we would hear that your agency was involved, we'd always be so intimidated.  What's that man up to? Such a cloud of mystery. Now that I've been backstage I'm deeply unimpressed, Don. You're just a bully and a drunk. A football player in a suit. The most eloquent I've ever heard you was when you were blubbering like a little girl about your impoverished childhood.

Pete:  That is a very sensitive piece of horseflesh.  He shouldn't be rattled.

Joan: I'm tired of him costing me money.

Julio:  I don't wanna go to Newark.
Peggy:  Nobody does.

Bert: No man has ever come back from leave. Even Napoleon. He staged a coup, but he ended up back on that island.

Bert (to Roger):  I'm a leader and a leader is loyal to his team.  Don doesn't understand that. But I do. And you have talent and skill and experience. But you're not a leader.

Pete:  The Don Draper show is back from its unscheduled interruption.

Don:  Sometimes actions have consequences

Peggy:  I have to talk to people who just touched the face of God about hamburgers!

Jim:  I hope you all realize this is a pathetic ploy and a delusion.
Roger: It is until everybody votes on it.

Don: You don't have to work for us, but you have to work.  You don't wanna see what happens when it's really gone.

Oh how things have changed:

Does anyone still follow the "don't swim within an hour after eating" rule?
 
Suicide count:

Ted cutting the engine, discussing why the astronauts might be better off if they didn't make it, saying that signing a 5 year contract would be for the rest of his life.

Pete refers to Lane Pryce.

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 6: The Strategy

If the strategy behind tonight's episode was to give us one of the best Mad Men episodes in the series' history, mission accomplished.  This episode gave us everything we wanted and more than we dared to dream, from the best Don-Peggy scene since The Suitcase to the most lovable Pete "I'm drinking rum" Campbell has ever been.  Add the return of Bob Benson, a proposal, an arrest, the Mile High Club, shirtless Roger, a secret, and the Cutler/Avery alliance under attack, it was a near-perfect episode (a tenth of a point off for Stan's distractingly unruly beard).

Don hasn't been fired after bursting in unannounced to the secret meeting with American Tobacco, but neither has his stock been raised with Lou "Did you need something, Don?" Avery.  Continuing to look at Don as a stain on his favorite shirt that he can't remove, Lou is noticeably alone in his extreme hatred of Don.  Peggy's working relationship with Don, while still having some growing pains, seems healthy enough and with Pete back in NY, Don is back at the adult table.  He's been working "on the team" to put together the pitch for Burger Chef and he's had a hand in coming up with what looks to be a successful pitch.  

It's saccharine sweet and doesn't seem to come from the same minds who brought you the Glo-Coat prisoner or the Rosemary's Baby pitches, but it is serviceable and on topic and seems to please everyone.  Though it's Peggy leading the charge, and Lou putting the exclamation point on the end, Pete is not used to the new way of doing things in Creative, and so he turns to Don for reassurance that this is the way to go.  Don, towing the line as a team player, no longer the maverick, gives his blessing and everyone is happy.

Still Pete, whose account this is, wants Don to make the presentation rather than Peggy.  While this is great news for Don (notice his fist pump after Peggy leaves with the news), it's hard for Peggy not to take it as a slap in the face.  She's Don's boss, this is her team, and having Don give the pitch rather than her is insulting, demeaning and ignores the new power structure at the firm.  It's bad enough she didn't get Don's job and the firm brought in a man to be her boss, now she has to subordinate herself to her subordinate?  At other agencies, there are women running the business.  But here at SC&P, she is still just used to add a feminine touch after the men do all the heavy lifting.  But Peggy is a good soldier and she will do what she's told and is prepared to do that, until Don makes an offhanded comment that he's been thinking of a different strategy than the one just pitched.

This sends Peggy into a tailspin.  Don wouldn't still be ruminating on another approach if he thought the pitch was a winner. And she wants to come up with the best idea, not a good enough idea (which would be more than satisfactory to Lou).  She drives herself crazy, but luckily not Ginsberg crazy.  She tries to get Stan's help, but he has plans and thinks she's over-thinking things.  She reaches out to Don, finally, not as a damsel in distress but as a peer, a colleague, and, yes, finally, as a friend.  She asks him to tell her "how do you do what you do" (though what was really meant was how did you do what you used to do before your world caved in around you?).  She wants to see the process in action.  And so Don gives her the secrets (abuse the help and take a nap) and most importantly, please yourself.  With that advice, and much brain-storming, Peggy ultimately hits on the perfect pitch.

As Sinatra's version of My Way comes on the radio, Don chuckles for all of us at the obviousness of the song, and yet ultimately embraces it. He reached out to his one-time protege, now superior, and asked her to dance.  It was like a father taking his daughter out on the dance floor after she's said her wedding vows.  She's a grown woman now, not his little girl anymore.  And he held her as she rested her head on his shoulder, seeking comfort not romance, and he gave her a paternal kiss on the head.  That was the emotional payoff for them and for the viewers.   He recognizes the sacrifices she's made for her career and the toll it's taken on her.  He knows that he was part of the problem and that it's not improved with him out of the way.

In the end, Peggy comes up with a new, better strategy which she shares with Pete.  One that's hers, that recognizes where she is in her life -- not living as part of the traditional married-with-children family but instead surrounded by people with whom she has a shared history, a common understanding, and, sometimes, love.  This is the new version of a family that reflects the time -- that family is who you choose to be with.

Since the episode's title is strategy, it's natural to look around at who was executing a strategy aside from the obvious pitch to Burger Chef.  Pete's girlfriend Bonnie had a strategy. Come to New York, meet Pete's co-workers and his daughter and close the deal on their relationship.  That plan backfired when Pete realized that he still had feelings for Trudy and wasn't ready to bail on the marriage.  Megan had a strategy to bring more of her old life out west, to help make California feel like home which only served to highlight that she and Don are not in the same place and don't want the same things.

Bob Benson's strategy was to make Joan his wife so he can present himself as the perfect family man to GM and to the world.  The GM executive's unfortunate run-in with the law opened Bob's eyes and told him that if he wanted to portray the kind of man GM would hire, he needed the wife and kid to create that image.  But Joan, pushing 40 with no prospects, would rather be alone and hope to find love than settle for a marriage of convenience.

Jim Hobart is still trying to execute his company's strategy to reel in Don Draper, but this time because McCann Erickson knows that Buick may be up for grabs and Don might be their best chance for locking down the car giant.  Jim Cutler is focusing his strategy on jettisoning Don so that SC&P can become American Tobacco's new agency and his power position in the company will increase.  Meanwhile, trying to thwart both of their plans is Roger Sterling -- but he is being coy about what his strategy is to both keep Don and make SC&P more successful. 

But possibly lost amidst all the strategy talk was the new Don Draper.  The one devoid of artifice, who wasn't strategizing in his talks with Peggy but was being more forthcoming than ever before.  His acknowledgement of his managerial style (that he'd abuse his underlings then take a nap), his mock surprise at hearing how his pitches come across (like he'd written them on the spot - "I do that?"), his deep-seated fears (that he has done nothing and has no one) and his supreme confidence in Peggy are all laid out for everyone to see. 

OBSERVATIONS:

Back in Season 2, Peggy was shocked to learn that Joan was 31 (after one of the secretaries posted her ID above the copier) and now Peggy finds herself in her thirties.  In that decade of her life, Joan gained a son and a partnership, so hopefully Peggy still has much to look forward to.

The last time Peggy's birthday was mentioned on the show was when her then-boyfriend was waiting at a restaurant with her family for a surprise birthday dinner while she was stuck at the office brainstorming, and bonding, with Don. The episode?  The Suitcase.

Harry Crane being made a partner was long overdue.  One of the few visionaries at Sterling Cooper he created a media department and single-handedly brought the stodgy old firm into the new world. Joan isn't happy - Harry never kept secret his displeasure with how she earned a partnership before him - and Roger also was not behind the promotion.  But the scene was a good one for Don where his position won the day, with none other than Bert Cooper bringing the decision to a quick vote.

Peggy says, of the Burger Chef they visit, "It's a clean, well-lighted place." and ,... jokes, "Okay, Hemingway."  A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is indeed a short story written by Ernest Hemingway about a lonely, depressed old man who bides his time at a diner. One of the two waiters observing the man mentions that he had tried to commit suicide recently.   says, of his  “It was all a nothing and man was a nothing too.” Nothingness, and avoiding the nothingness by being there amongst people, was a major theme and in some way the ad they came up with created a place where people could avoid the nothingness and feel like family.


The newspaper that Don saved with the headline about the JFK assassination is fitting as that was when his marriage to Betty unraveled.

It was surprising to see that a major hit in 1969, arguably the best year in music, was a slow standard by an aging '50s crooner.  My Way, written by Paul Anka, was released by Frank Sinatra in June just before the official Summer of Love.  That this song was on the charts at the same time Woodstock was going on is a bit mind blowing.  It was actually a French song that was rewritten by Anka with Sinatra - someone about to give up the business and leave it to the younger generation - in mind.

The final scene with Don, Pete and Peggy had so many overtones.  They are the only three at the company who know of Pete and Peggy's out-of-wedlock child and they are three people who are separated from their own families.  But together, they are themselves a family - awkward at times, battling, jockeying for position, jealous, bickering, but still, ultimately, supportive. When the final shot pans out to show us the three of them we think back to Lou Avery's line which now fits so perfectly: It's nice to see family happiness again

QUOTES:

Roger (to Jim Hobart): When we grow up, we're going to kill you and marry your wife.

Roger: The New York Athletic Club frowns on people making advances in their steam room.  I was kidding around, but I think you're making eyes at me. I'm gonna go get a massage, relieve some of this tension.

Pete: I'm drinking rum.

Pete:  Don will give authority, you will give emotion.
Peggy: I have authority. And Don has emotion.

Marsha (after being introduced to Megan): I didn't know he was married.

Cutler: Ah, good, you're still here.
Roger: That's your opinion.

Peggy:  But we both know there's a better idea.
Stan:  There's always a better idea.

Peggy: Why are you undermining me?
Don: From now on I won't express myself.
Peggy: Well, now it's tainted. It's poisoned, because you expressed yourself.

Pete (to Trudy):  I know your debutante maneuvers.

Peggy:  Did you park your white horse outside? Spare me the suspense and tell me what your "save the day" plan is.

Don: That's just the job.
Peggy: What's the job?
Don: Living in the "not knowing."

Peggy:  You really want to help me? Show me how you think. Do it out loud.

Don: Well whenever I'm really unsure about an idea, first I abuse the people whose help I need. And then I take a nap.

Bob:  My face doesn't please you?

Joan:  I want love.  And I'd rather die hoping that happens than make some arrangement.

Peggy:  Does this family exist anymore? Are there people who eat dinner and smile at each other instead of watching TV?

Peggy:  I just turned 30, Don.
Don:  Shit. 

Don: I worry about a lot of things, but I don't worry about you.
Peggy: What do you have to worry about?
Don: That I never did anything, and that I don't have anyone.

Peggy: It's a clean, well-lighted place.
Pete: Okay, Hemingway.

Mad Men Season 2, Episode 1: For Those Who Think Young

Let's twist again, like we did last summer.

The second season bursts onto the screen with vibrant music and color and -- while the show is set in the past, it feels fresh and new.  We are reintroduced to some of our favorite people, seeing them ready themselves for the work day.  The first thing we notice -- well, third actually after Joan readjusts in the mirror -- is that Peggy is looking much better than the last time we saw her, hospitalized after giving birth to a baby she didn't even know she was carrying.  Don's office has a new lock and Betty has a new hobby (flirting and holding onto her youth, not horseback riding).  Everything is fresh and new.

Don goes in for a routine insurance physical and if this were on the Lifetime channel there'd be repercussions for his heavy drinking and smoking, but this is AMC so a few pills will take care of his hypertension.  He's given a stop and smell the roses speech, which he'll ignore, and parses out a bit of info that we didn't know - he's 36 and both parents are deceased (childbirth/accident). There is no payoff for this scene, no medical emergency for Don.  More likely it is a sign that Don is no longer young.  Although the doctor refers to him as a "boy," the clear implication is that at the ripe old age of 36, Don can't be so cavalier about his health and needs to start being more careful. You're not young any more, Don.

It's Valentine's Day and Don and Betty have a romantic evening planned.  Betty bumps into an old friend at the hotel where they were about to eat and is shocked to learn that she's now some rich guy's escort.  She can't wait to tell her friend Francine all about it the next day and she naively peppers Don with questions about what it all means and why she's doing it. She seems intrigued by someone using their attractiveness for currency.and it's really not surprising considering how much she values appearance over all else.  Their romantic night turns into a dud when Don can't perform and they end up watching the First Lady's tour of the White House and eating in room instead.  Though the next day, she denies having seen the show, wanting Francine to think she was too "busy" in that hotel room for TV.  (Parenthetically, handing your husband a Valentine's Day card from your daughter is also not the best way to get him in the mood).

There's a new delivery at the office - a copier.  This technological breakthrough is greeted with oohs and aahs by the secretaries and it's a little reminiscent of the Coke bottle among the aborigines in The Gods Must Be Crazy. It's a behemoth and where to put it is a problem that Joan finally resolves by taking over part of Peggy's office.  This will not be the last time that creative has had to make room for technological advances and the tension between the new and the old will be a theme that plays out over and over.

Speaking of new versus old, Don is told he needs to hire some younger people for the firm.  Clients want that hip new perspective and while Peggy herself is just 22, she's not really part of the younger generation.  So Don interviews candidates almost young enough to be his offspring and the contrast between them and the button-downed '50s throwbacks in the office is jarring.  While the copier is a welcome sight, two young admen is scary and the existing Sterling Cooper employees worry (some with good reason) that they will become obsolete.

Don interviews a dynamic duo - 24 and 25, both named Smith - about coming on board to service Duck's coffee client and the rest of the staff is not happy with this change in direction. The one who should be most worried is Kinsey who drew up the list of candidates.  Don is doing what Duck asked - he's interviewing new copy-writing teams, they bought a copier - but it's now up to Duck to perform and actually land the coffee client.  There is tension in this relationship and Duck's look conveys a lot of pent-up anger.

The guys wonder behind Peggy's once again slim back what was the reason for her disappearing for a little while and then returning as a copywriter, with some guessing she had Don's love child and others (notably, Pete, the real reason - even if he doesn't know it - for her unexplained absence) surmising she went to a fat farm.  But regardless, she's now one of the boys writing copy and making pitches. She's very protective of Don and makes sure his new secretary knows what her job entails.

There's an awkward scene after the guys leave to go help Harry celebrate his wife being pregnant.  Pete and Peggy stay behind and Pete - not realizing that Peggy just had a baby and that it's probably his baby - mocks all the attention the father-to-be is getting and asks her if she ever wants children.  Someday, she says.  

The episode is framed by a book of poetry by Frank O'Hara called Meditations in an Emergency.  We first see it as Don is having lunch in a bar rather than be in the office for the staff meeting everyone else is waiting for him at.  The man next to him is reading the book and when Don inquires about it, the man sizes Don up and tells him that he wouldn't like it.  Challenge accepted.  By the end of the episode, Don has not only read the book but liked it enough to send it to an unknown recipient. 

Don feels old, not just because he's forced to hire 20-somethings, but just the overall recognition that he's now part of the older generation. The guy at the bar thinking the book he's reading wouldn't be of interest to Don, his disgust at the two uncouth frat boys in the elevator, even the vast difference in age between him and Peggy, all solidify his position as a grown up.  But his wife is fighting that.  She's enamored of the new young guy at the stables and she flirts blatantly with the car repairman. And then lies about it to Don.  So, see, he's not the only one with secrets.

OBSERVATIONS:

Betty really hammers home what she thinks is important this episode.  She grumbles at the idea that everyone in Sally's class was forced to give everyone else a Valentine's Day card - this should be a meritocracy!  And she encourages her friend's young daughter in skipping meals to stay trim.  Great values as always from Betty!

Don had trouble performing in the hotel room after Betty ran into that old modeling friend of hers who is now a "party girl."  It could be that Madonna-Whore complex thing because he was very interested in being alone with Betty when she was wearing that puff pastry of a pink dress, but when she stripped down to the naughty black nighties (and after showing him their daughter's Valentine) maybe he lost interest.

The mention of Julian Koenig's work being apparent in the book the two young admen brought in refers to a copywriter known to be one of the best ever - responsible for, among other things, the Timex "takes a licking and keeps on ticking" tag and the "Think Small" ads for Volkswagen (which we first saw in episode 1.3).


QUOTES:

Roger (about Don): Just assume that he knows as much about business as you do, but inside there's a child who likes getting his way.

Roger: They say once you start drinking alone, you're an alcoholic.  I'm really trying to avoid that.
Don: So I guess I'm helping both of us.

Don:  Clients don't understand. Their success is related to standing out, not fitting in.

Don: One wants to be the needle in the haystack, not a haystack.

Don:  Young people don't know anything, especially that they're young.

Duck (to Don): You know, there are other ways to think of things than the way you think of them.

Peggy: Sex sells.
Don: Says who? Just so you know, the people who talk that way think that monkeys can do this. And they take all this monkey crap and just stick it in a briefcase, completely unaware that their success depends on something more than their shoe shine. ...  They can't do what we do.  And they hate us for it.


Spoiler-y Observations (DO NOT READ unless you're caught up on the whole series):

The physical seems like a throwaway scene since Don's health has never been an issue in the show. 

The secretaries worry about losing their lunch room for the new copier.  In Season 7, the creative lounge is displaced for the new computer.

Peggy tells Don's secretary: "I want you to imagine, when you talk about Mr. Draper, that he's standing right behind you, and think about that whenever you speak of him" In Season 7, she says something negative about Lou with him standing right behind her. Also, last season it was Joan giving her advice on the proper care and feeding of Don Draper.

Sally makes her Dad a Valentine's card.  One of the most poignant moments in the series comes many years from now, in Season 7, when teenaged Sally tells the father she now really knows "Happy Valentine's Day, I love you."

Roger tells Don, "I had Paul Kinsey make up a list.  He had no idea he was signing his own death warrant."  And, indeed, Paul was replaced (while Pete and Ken are still there).

Ken Cosgrove tells Pete, Sal, Paul and Harry that Don has a rope under his desk that is coiled around Duck's neck and that Duck would run around and around until - thump - he's hanged himself.  Well, it's not Duck that happens to, but it is perhaps foreshadowing of Lane's suicide.  

The book of poetry we later learn was sent to Anna Draper and the passage Don was reading would be particularly apropos as it discusses becoming "myself again," something that he does when he's around her.  The book also contains these line: "I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love."  That is a major theme of Mad Men.  Don claims early in the show that he doesn't believe in love, yet so much of his journey seems to be alternately searching for love and running away from it.

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 5: The Runaways (Recap)

Usually, there's a unifying theme in each Mad Men episode, but Ginsberg's breakdown was such a shocking development, it's hard to connect it with Megan's insecurity, Cutler's power play, Lou's pettiness, Henry's exasperation, and Betty's burgeoning independence.  So let's save it for the end.

Don is at peace with his new role at SC&P; he's cordial with Peggy, he's on time with his work, and he's regained enough swagger that the lower-level employees still think of him as management.  He's patched things up with Megan and even gets a call from the past to remind him of the good old days in California and to make him feel needed and important to someone.

In a scene reminiscent of Season One when Kinsey's unpublished play Death is My Client was a source of much humor and ridicule around the office, it turns out that Lou Avery has aspirations of becoming a rich cartoonist and has a bunch of cartoons based around a military-inspired monkey named Scout.  Stan discovers the artwork and lets his mocking of Lou go too far... all the way to Lou's ears.  Lou will not be challenged and he exerts his power by ruining everyone's evening including Don's. Don handles Lou's petulance surprisingly well.  He get in a jape - telling Lou that if it were up to him, Lou wouldn't be there - but he doesn't implode.  He is on his best behavior.

The call from Anna's niece Stephanie brings a smile to Don's face and he's looking forward to a California reunion as soon as he can hop a plane, and he sends her to Megan to wait for him.  But Stephanie is not a welcome guest in Megan's house.  She mentions, twice, how beautiful Stephanie is, but that only shows how threatened she is by the glowing, expectant hippie for whom Don will drop everything.

Megan clearly has trouble handling the shared history Stephanie and Don have and the fact that Stephanie knows the real Dick Whitman.  When Stephanie reminds her that she knows all of Don's secrets, a switch goes off in Megan and she basically buys Stephanie off, getting her out of the house before Don can get there to see her.  Megan tells Stephanie that the money comes with no strings and that is one truthful statement she made.  She wants no strings because she wants Stephanie - and what she represents - out of her and Don's life forever. Then she lies about it to Don.  Megan's lack of confidence in her relationship with Don manifests itself  further by her trying to make Don jealous at her party via some provocative dancing.  When that doesn't work, she pulls out all the stops and invites her friend Amy from Delaware into their bed for the least sexy threesome I've seen on TV.  Desperation, thy name is Megan.

Sally Draper has an accident at school and busts up her nose.  She comes home and instead of a hug and warm cocoa she's given a lecture about damaging the money maker and knowing the value of a good, aquiline nose.  Betty is as shallow as ever, only concerned with Sally's looks.  Sally has been fed up with Betty for some time and her preferring to slink off to be alone was not surprising, but the visit from Bobby was unexpected and sweet  They haven't spent much time together and their age difference and differences in life experiences create a chasm between them.  But when he tells her how he wants to runaway and how the escalating fights between Betty and Henry are giving him an upset stomach, it's a monumental bonding time for the two of them. Instead of hitching a ride back to school to get away from her toxic mother, Sally stays to support her brother.  Awww.

It seems that Henry's frustration level with Betty has hit DEFCON 1.  He was uncharacteristically harsh with her, but understandably. It can't be easy living with a grown woman who refuses to grow up and then the first time she does speak her mind it's to commit the cardinal sin of discussing politics at what was supposed to be a friendly social outing. The other wife followed the rules - "the rumaki is delicious" was her contribution to the discussion - why couldn't Betty play her role as the dutiful spouse.  This is the tension of the time as the old rules are starting to give way and Henry is nothing if not from the old school.  Betty's retort, "I'm not stupid.  I speak Italian." may be one of the greatest Mad Men lines of all time, but it does remind us that she (unlike her husband #1) is a college graduate and maybe had she been born later, or with a mother who didn't focus on looks, she might have been a career woman.  Maybe it's time for the Betty we saw in Shoot - taking matters into her own heavily armed hands - comes back to take control of the rest of her life.

"Well, I'm going to make sure that you're still important. I don't know how.  It's gonna take some thought.  It's gonna take some major brain power. In fact, you might have to figure it out." - Harry Crane to Don Draper

Harry's conversation with Don at the bar.  Halle-effing-lujah. It's easy to forget that Harry was not always insufferable, that once he and Don got along reasonably well and Harry was a smart, hard-working guy who was just trying to get some respect in the office for what he did.  Somehow, he's become the enemy over the years, and computer-gate landed squarely on his shoulders.  Yet, he has always respected Don and the work he does and part of Harry would like to keep Don around.  So he tells Don what he knows - that Cutler and Avery are secretly meeting with Phillip Morris and trying to land that big tobacco account.  Don knows what that means for his future at the firm.  There's no way a tobacco client will hire the firm where the author of "the letter" still works.

Armed with that information, Don hatches a plan.  If he is forced out of the company he started, it won't be because of these yahoos plotting against him behind his back.  He crashes the meeting Cutler and Avery are having with the Phillip Morris execs and offers himself up - he'll quit so they can get the business.  But then comes Don's real pitch and it's one that's been used before.  How much better for them if the author of the letter was forced to apologize and go to work for them?  Wouldn't that make their competitors a little nervous.  Don is trading off his (old) reputation (as a genius) and hoping he's not now known as the sot who was raised in a bordello.  He's hoping the Don Draper name still means something.

Don walks out of the meeting and strides confidently to the street to hail a cab.  Obviously, his appearance at the meeting had some repercussions as he was followed quickly by Cutler and Avery.  They insult him and snarl, but Don doesn't seem at all worried. And he's right not to worry.  They've been planning on getting rid of him since he was brought back.  Things can't keep going the way they are, so he either rides this out until he's fired or shakes things up.  You know what Don says, if you don't like what's being said, change the conversation.  So now he's in charge of what's being said.

There was no reason to be surprised about Michael Ginsberg's mental breakdown.  We've known from early in Season Five that he was a terribly broken young man and, as discussed below in the foreshadowing section, we had ample evidence that he was headed down this road.  It was a very realistic portrait of someone whose mind was wired to be wickedly creative but also to harbor deeply irrational thoughts.

Ginsberg was an important character for Don Draper's arc.  At first, Don was dazzled by his creativity, possibly seeing a bit of himself in Michael's book of ideas.  But there was an uneasy tension and jealousy that revealed some of the worst of Don.  That moment in the elevator where Ginsberg, not out of anything but honesty, says he feels sorry for Don and Don shoots back that he doesn't think of him at all was not only harsh and hurtful, it was a total lie.  Don was threatened by the young copywriter with the inventive ideas, that's why he didn't pitch Ginsberg's idea for Sno-Ball back then.  Don needed to win.  He needed to prove he was sill the alpha male.  But, if it weren't for Ginsberg, Don may have walked out of SC&P never to return.  Ginsberg was the first person to welcome post-meltdown Don back to the firm and to treat him not like a pariah.

Ginsberg has been under-utilized this season and that may be why for some his break from reality seemed - for lack of a better word - crazy.  But it was completely predictable, even if the manner in which he expressed his inner turmoil was startling.

With Ginsberg gone and Ted checked out mentally in California, there is a bit of a brain drain at SC&P.  Whether that bodes well for the most creative of the people left - Don and Peggy - remains to be seen.  Don's tobacco gambit will either work (in which case, there's no need for the second half of Season 7) or he will flame out brilliantly and have to develop a Plan B.  Whatever happens, it's going to be difficult for the firm hiring new employees in the future now that they can add self-mutilation to the list of awful things that have befallen people at the office. 

OBSERVATIONS:

There were a number of Holocaust references in this episode, which remind us of Ginsberg's origin story.  If we are even to a small part shaped by the story of how we came into this world, no doubt Ginsberg has been marked from day one as a doomed, helpless victim of his time and surroundings.  Born in a concentration camp later found in an orphanage, that identity was sewn into the fabric of his identity.  So we hear him say "That machine came for us. And one by one..." - reminiscent of Martin Niemoller's famous poem ("First they cam for the Socialists...") We have Harry's mention the Cutler-Avery meeting with the tobacco company as the "final solution."  And Wagner's music (Hitler was a big fan) was even played in the background before Henry returned home.

The friend of Megan who was in bed for the threesome was named Amy.  I had my own Mad Men flashback as Megan started seducing Don, despite his protestation, which reminded me of the molestation scene from the whorehouse with Aimee.  I don't know if that was deliberate, but if so I would have expected Don to be more agitated the next morning. 

The song played at the end was Waylon Jenning's "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line" which was a pretty bad ass way to hint that Don is tired of playing nice.

Ginsberg asks if he's Cassandra (as in, what am I a fortune teller).  Interestingly, Cassandra was cursed with never being believed. Perhaps Ginsberg's final message "get out while you can" should be believed.

Last week I extolled the virtues of Caroline, Roger's secretary.  This week let's pause and appreciate Meredith.  Really loved hearing Don dictate to her: "S-T-R-A-T-E-G-Y. Meredith, honey, I don't want that spelled out, I just want it spelled right."  Her comment last week about her weekend - wouldn't you like to know, her confusing having to change his plane reservation with having to cancel her plans.  She is adorable. As sweet as she is clueless, she's one of the few bright spots remaining at what increasingly is a very negative work environment for everyone. 

There is growing discussion of the rift between the anti-war movement and the old guard who believe favoring pulling out of Vietnam to be disloyal and Un-American.  Lou mentions it when he's calling out Stan for insulting his military-themed comic and the husband at the Francis' (and Betty) mention it as well.  Even with a Republican president pushing for withdrawal, there was a huge divide in the country who thought we should stay and fight and those who thought we should cut our increasingly huge losses.

It's ironic that a major plot point comes with the opportunity SC&P has to get back into the tobacco business (and Harry talks about his media plan) right before tobacco ads would be banned from TV.

Two references to someone tucking Don in.  First, Lou says it in a needling/threatening manner, then Amy in a sexually playful manner.

The scene of Bobby crawling into bed with Sally when he was upset was reminiscent of a scene in Season 2, Episode 2 when Bobby was having trouble sleeping - he thought he saw a ghost - and Betty showed him no compassion, just sent him back to bed.  Don took him upstairs and tucked him in, but later found Bobby sleeping in Sally's bed (where he felt safe).

Another parallel to early in the show was the discussion of Sally's nose.  In Season One, Betty's jittery hands led her to a minor car accident with the kids riding in the back (sans seatbelts as was the norm back then).  Betty panics at what could have happened - what if Sally had suffered a tiny scar.  ON HER FACE.  It was inconceivalbe to Betty that something so horrible could befall a girl - what would Sally do or be if she wasn't beautiful?

QUOTES:

Ginsberg:  Stop humming! You're not happy!

Betty: They get so tongue-tied around us.  They can only pretend so long we're just regular neighbors.

Lou: I don't know, Stan. Can you be smug from over there? 

Lou: You know who had a ridiculous dream and people laughed at him?
Stan: You?

Don:  No, I'd let you go, Lou.

Lou: I'm not taking management advice from Don Draper.


Stephanie: I know all of his secrets.
Megan: But you don't know him very well.

Henry: From now on, keep your conversation to how much you hate getting toast crumbs in the butter and leave the thinking to me.

Sally: It's a nose job, not an abortion.

Sally (to Betty):  Don't worry about me finding a man. I already have you to keep me in line.

Bobby:  I have a stomach ache all the time.  

Betty: I'm not stupid.  I speak Italian.

Ginsberg: I'm myself again.

Ginsberg: Get out while you can!

Lou: You're incredible.
Don: Thank you.

Jim: You think this is going to save you, don't you?

FORESHADOWING:

Many people thought Ginsberg was comedic fodder, an odd Woody Allen-ish character, but the signs of mental illness were there from his first scene, in Season 5's Tea Leaves.  He tells Peggy that he didn't pick advertising, it picked him.  That's okay, many people might say that about their career.  But then he adds, "I didn't have any control over it." He goes on to tell her that he's a great employee because he has "no hobbies, no interests, no friends.  I'm one of those people who talks back to the radio."  Peggy even says on that first day, "I thought you were crazy when I met you and you have confirmed it."

A few episodes later, in Far Away Places, Ginsberg and Peggy have the follow exchange and you watch as Peggy goes from thinking he's joking to realizing that he's telling her what he believes to be the truth:

"I'm from Mars. It's fine if you don't believe me, but that's where I'm from. I'm a full-blooded Martian. Don't worry, there's no plot to take over Earth. We're just displaced. I can tell you don't believe me. That's okay. We're a big secret. They even tried to hide it from me. That man, my father, told me a story I was born in a concentration camp. But you know that's impossible. And I never met my mother because she conveniently died there. That's convenient. Next thing I know, Morris there finds me in a Swedish orphanage. I was 5; I remembered. And then I got this one communication. A simple order: Stay where you are."
"Are there others like you?"
"I don't know. I haven't been able to find any."

Last year, in A Tale of Two Cities, we find Ginsberg is sitting on the floor of his office, rocking back and forth, in full blown meltdown.  "I'm a thug, I'm a pig, I'm part of the problem!  Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds!"  Then the most telling line, "I can't turn off the transmissions to do harm. They're beaming 'em right into my head."  This is not open for interpretation, these are not the words of a sane man

So why were the signs missed?  Well, back in the mid-60's we weren't as aware of mental health issues as we are today, especially something as complex as schizophrenia.  It wouldn't be until 2001's A Beautiful Mind that a movie shined a light on the disorder and then the cinematic floodgates were open (Donnie Darko and K-Pax came out that year as well). We viewers suspected that there was something seriously wrong with Ginsberg (claiming to be from Mars, complaining about the transmissions, etc.) but it's not surprising that his co-workers thought he was a little "off" but not seriously mentally ill.

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 4: The Monolith (Recap)

 You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

- Philip Roth, "Portnoy's Complaint"

Like Alexander Portnoy, Don Draper's "sense of himself, his past, and his ridiculous destiny is so fixed." He's nothing if he's not Don Draper -- dashing, successful adman extraordinaire.  Don doesn't know how to be anything else. If he isn't barking at his secretary to get him coffee or making sure the underlings at the office cower in his presence, who is he?  So with his new role as lowly copywriter, Don is lost.  And he handles this loss by checking out, mentally at first, then physically.

Nothing has changed for Peggy since her first few months at Sterling Cooper.  Back then, she was used by a superior to get back at someone they considered a thorn in their side.  In Season One's final episode, Don promoted Peggy and assigned her to her first client to stick it to Pete.  Now, some nine years later, she's being used by Lou to stick it to Don.  Somewhere else, Mary Wells has started her own successful firm and women are burning their bras, but here at SC&P Peggy is still being manipulated by the men around her as a pawn in their giant chess games.

And Roger.  He's been skating by all his life, first thanks to the wealthy upbringing, then to his indulgent mother, to his forgiving (to a point) wives, to the random girls who stroke his ego and other parts, convincing Roger that whatever he is doing is a-okay.  But finally his daughter turns the mirror on him and asks him to take a look at what his selfishness, hedonism, and sense of entitlement has meant for the people in his life.  For her.  Margaret claims (somewhat unreasonably) that abandoning her son to find inner peace is certainly no worse than what Roger did for decades.  Whether they are similar in weight, Margaret's point has been made.  

At the office, it's a brand new world.  Years ago when the first copier came into the office it was hailed as a move towards the future that everyone could embrace and benefit from.  But the behemoth computer that displaced the creative team's brainstorming space is looked upon with awe by some (Harry and Jim) and hatred and fear by those it seems poised to replace (see above).  It's not a metaphor, Harry says.  And he is right.  As Don notes, the computer literally is aimed at making creative obsolete.

But Don has bigger problems than the computer.  The deal he made to come back to SC&P in practice is much worse than it was in theory, and Don can't operate under these conditions. He's used to being the one with the aura of genius, the one who could dismiss an underling with a withering gaze, the one who instilled awe and fear.  It kept him above and apart from everyone else at the office.  He didn't have to learn spouse's names or where you grew up.  He wasn't the everyman, he was Batman. Superman.  Unreasonably, Don thought he'd step right back into that position.  That there would be no further repercussions for his past actions.  This unrealistic, magical thinking that everything can go back to how it was, as if Don never did any if the things that got him exiled in the first place, it's a sign that Don still doesn't understand just how many bridges he burned.  But he is being held accountable, and he is not the only one.

Perhaps Don had been cushioned from this reality by Roger.  But Roger wasn't there to fix things, he had his own problems to deal with.  Marigold.  His daughter has run off to join a commune, an anti-everything group of young people who just want to get high and have sex.  In other words, she's living out his last few years.  Roger is confronted by what an absentee father he's been and how providing money is not all that a child needs from their parent. Like Don, Roger is seeing the consequences of his actions.  While Margaret has no right to abandon her son, Roger isn't exactly the paragon of parenthood who can convince her to go back. His collapse into the mud may have been one of the least subtle moments this show has ever had and it's too bad they went so heavy handed here.  Watching a clean, pristine Roger leaving the filthy shack would have been a more compelling contrast - he looks pure and upstanding yet that's just a façade. 

The main plot point of Episode 7.04 was ostensibly about the transition and move forward for the firm as they embrace computers as a significant part of their business. The monolith of the episode's title could refer to the imposing IBM 360 that is both an eyesore and a source of great sadness to those who value the old ways and it can be a salute to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey which was a touchstone for many obvious references throughout the show.  Usually, the show tips its hat more obliquely but this episode was so heavy-handed that there's no point in noting all the obvious symbolism and allusions to the movie.

Slightly less on the nose was the discussion that Don had with Lloyd about his company:

Lloyd: I saw that they have got a great product, but they don't trust it.  I've worked with these machines.  I know how resilient they are.  I don't want to find them in a junkyard in two years.

That's what's going on with SC&P.  They have a great product - Don - but they don't trust him any more.  Is Don resilient or will he be in on the streets shortly?

If it were up to Bert - if he hadn't gotten Don to sign that contract way back when - Don would be rotting in a junkyard right now. Yes, he's back at the firm, but Bert makes sure that he understands what that does - and doesn't - mean:

Bert:You have a fundamental misunderstanding of what went wrong here.
Don: So, that's it? You want me to be a janitor? Whistle while I work?
Bert: You thought there was going to be a big creative crisis and we'd pull you off the bench, but in fact, we've been doing just fine.
Don: So, why am I even here? I could've gone anywhere.
Bert: Why are you here?
Don: Because I started this agency!
Bert: Along with a dead man-- whose office you now inhabit.

Yeah, Bert's invoking of the late Layne Price was the lowest of low blows and the strongest sign yet that Don was only brought back because it was cheaper than buying him out.  While I'm not entirely sure that Bert's heartless dismissiveness is in character - if Don can come back and make them money, what else matters to Bert - it serves as a sign that Don is much further down and has much farther to climb to get back to where he once was.

Will Don bounce back?  Thanks to his decision to call Freddy, he was saved from imploding and was given one get out of jail free card.  There was another not too subtle hint about a possible outcome for Don.  The Mets banner that he conveniently, if inexplicably, found folded under the couch in Lane's old office, is a reminder that as bleak as their start was, back in 1969 they had a miracle year where the chumps became champs.  I can't see him embracing AA like Freddy, but he's going to have to stop turning to drink - being "in the bag" as Freddy referred to it - whenever things don't go his way if he wants that miracle to happen to him.  Him finding the miracle Mets banner on what could have been his last day at SC&P, maybe it means a turnaround is coming.

Another too-cute, not at all nuanced, moment was the final song, The Hollies' "On a Carousel" which of course harkens back to Don's shining moment as a copywriter.  We can hope that Don is on his way to being that guy again, but let's also hope that the writers of Mad Men bring back a lighter touch next week.

OBSERVATIONS:

Season 7 has been chock-full of callbacks to Season 1, but this episode had a scene that was straight out of the first episode of Season 2 when the new copier is brought into the office.

Joan: I could take out the lockers and use that wall.
Hildy: The break room? Don't take away the break room.
Joan: I'm not taking away anything.  Believe me, this machine is a gift to you girls.

Pete discusses with his real esta-girlfriend Bonnie going to Yosemite.  This was a more subtle approach to the episode's title than the black door and the many 2001 references as Yosemite is home to not one but two monoliths - Half Dome and El Capitan. Speaking of Pete, how disassociated is he from his family by living out on the West Coast.  Sure, he and Trudy may be separated on the way to divorced, but for him not to know that her father, their daughter's grandfather, had a heart attack was surprising.

Interesting conversation between Jim and Lou:

Lou: I thought we had an understanding about Don.
Jim: There's nothing to be afraid of.  He's an exquisite copywriter, if nothing else.
Lou: He's gonna implode.
Jim: That's a distinct possibility, isn't it? On the other hand, you might get some good work.

Lou is threatened by Don and well he should be considering he came in to replace Don.  If Don is back, what is Lou doing there.  But it looks like he was assured that Don would not replace him and that he'd be kept at bay - their "understanding" about Don.  Jim dismisses Don as a copywriter (albeit an exquisite one) and that gives Jim the opening to assign him to the client as Pete and Roger instructed but not at all in the capacity they intended.  Very sly of Lou.

Aside from the many references to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 Sci Fi masterpiece, there are also many nods to Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining.  Lloyd, the bartender who tempts the alcoholic writer, here played by the LeaseTech exec Lloyd tempting Don with the prospect of a new client and a whole new industry.  We have Ellery and his Dutch boy haircut running down the halls a la Danny Torrance.  The movie's theme of isolation and loneliness are two themes that have plagued Don's life since he was the whore child growing up on a farm surrounded by two people who wished he'd never been born.  But unlike Jack Torrance, we don't expect Don to take a murderous path as he faces his demons and we're still hoping this is a story about redemption and acceptance.  Of course, all bets are off if next week Don's 25 tags each start out "all work and no play."

So is Don obsolete?  Has the modern world passed him by as he's spent much of his time at the bottom of a bottle (or a fake out can)?  He went through all that effort to create the perfect package and the perfect pitch and no one is buying it any more.  In the larger picture, is creativity being pushed aside for the newness of the computer age?  Is information -- rather than ideas -- king?

You want more symbolism?  Don helps Ginsberg with the couch, but he is holding his side too high, he has to bring it down.  And Ginsberg - his former underling - is the one barking out orders, where to go, how to hold it.

Peggy should have been more suspicious that mere minutes after she's caught by Lou making a snarky comment about him --  he doesn't believe in creative because he doesn't know how to do it -- he gives her a raise and puts her in charge of a new client.  It wasn't until Joan cued her in at the end that she realized that none of this was about her and it was all about Don.

The scenes between Don and Lloyd were too cartoonish to take seriously.  Lloyd, who looks like a cross between Don and Caesar of Planet of the Apes, comes off like a snake oil salesman whose tonic will cure all ills.  Don's drunken verbal attack, likening him to Satan himself, was out of character for Don and over the top even for someone who'd imbibed that conspicuously. 

How great is Roger's secretary?  From playing with Ellery to her perfect reading of Mona's message, she is the sunshine on a cloudy day.

"Turn On" - the TV show referenced in this episode - is considered one of the biggest flops in TV history.  The filmed sketch comedy show, without a laugh track but with the quick cut aways that are now the post-MTV generation norm, was based on the premise that it was produced by a computer.  It was cancelled after one episode (some stations stopped airing it after the first commercial break) for being both too blue and too unfunny.

Don had watched "Lost Horizon" when he was back in LA with Megan and in this episode there was a reference to Shangri-La the utopian earth-bound paradise from the movie. Since the start of Season 6, with Don reading Dante's Inferno, the focus has been on Don's travels through hell and whether they'll lead him to ultimately to paradise.  His current position in his marriage and at work cerainly seem like the middle ground - purgatory - and we're set up to see if Don rises or falls from here.

Bert's shooting down Don's idea was a flashback to a scene in Season 2, Episode 2. Back then, Duck Phillips shoots down Don's plan to stick with Mohawk Airlines and discusses jettisoning them for a shot at American Airlines.  Duck tells Don that he knows what Don's fantasy was, i.e., that the president of American Airlines would see Don's work, fall in love, and have to hire him.  But that's not how it is going to play out.  Duck has the connection, he's made the first overture, and he'll be the one to land the airline. And we all know just how well that went!

QUOTES:

Peggy: He [Lou] doesn't believe in creative because he doesn't know how to do it.

Roger: We're getting a computer.  It's going to do lots of magical things, like make Harry Crane seem important.

Ginsberg: Harry Crane took a huge dump, and we got flushed down the toilet.

Ginsberg: Let me put this in terms the art department can understand-- they're trying to erase us! But they can't erase this couch!

Pete: Well, I'm glad all agree the client is going to love having a woman's point of view-- or whatever Peggy counts as...

Roger:  He's spent three weeks alone in that cave, and he hasn't clubbed another ape yet.

Mona: I only know one other person who would do something like that.
Roger: How is this my fault? 
Mona: Because she is a perverse child who only thinks of herself.

Don: Who's winning? Who's replacing more humans?

Harry: It's not symbolic.
Don: No, it's quite literal.

Lloyd: It's been my experience these machines can be a metaphor for whatever's on people's minds.

Joan: Well, Peggy, I don't know if this makes you feel better, but I don't think they thought about it at all.

Freddy: Do the work, Don.

Suicide watch:

Harry: Tim Conway plays a guy who's trying to kill himself the whole show.
Don: Probably to get out of his contract.

Freddy: I mean, are you just going to kill yourself?

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 3: Field Trip Recap/Observations

Well, Don's back.  Or some facsimile of Don - de-clawed, de-fanged, and cowed. Possibly more shocking than the lawnmower scene from Season 3 was seeing Don say yes to the partners' offer at the end.  No one-on-one with clients, no drinking, no ad-libbing. Pre-approved scripts and - it's hard to type this - reporting to Lou.  As we all yelled "No!" somehow Don ignored us and said "Okay."

There is a war brewing at SC&P and has been since Jim Cutler decided he wanted to be the top dog. It's a house divided and we're set up for some fireworks as Don tries to reintegrate himself into the firm.  Don is so desperate to right all wrongs that he's not thinking clearly. This new "stay and fix this" obsession of his will likely be as successful as his old "cut and run" attitude.  Don has no wiggle room at SC&P, one mistake and he's over - and likely wearing that "The End Is Near" sandwich board Roger joked about.  He could have gone to California and lived off his money if he really loves Megan or even moved to a new agency if he wants to get back into the game.  But he chose neither.  For some reason, he needs to make it right there, at the place where he started.

So, speaking of starts, where should we? Don is still relying on Dawn to feel less diminished, to retain some sense that he's still "Don Draper," but our new head of personnel does not have the time to keep buoying him.  He needs those nightly visits when he can put on the suit and pretend he's still that guy.  But Dawn is not his gopher anymore and he's losing what little connection he had to his old self.  Added to that sad thought is the mention of Megan's agent as the only call he received today.  Don reluctantly returns the call (after Dawn had to put Don on hold!) and he finds out that Megan's agent is worried about her behavior.  Seems she doesn't deal well with rejection.  She's stalking casting directors and otherwise coming off way too desperate.  So Don flies out to California to help her, give her a pep talk and get her to relax.  Well, that was the plan, anyway.

Instead, his presence only brings their troubled relationship to a head. She knows something is up - she assumes he's cheating.  As if!  The truth, when she finally gets it from Don, is actually worse. He's chosen to stay away from her not to be with anyone else, but just not to be with her.  Don, as he did successfully with Sally on Valentine's Day, comes clean and tells Megan that he was embarrassed for her to see him as a failure.  But this reluctant honesty doesn't bring them closer, it only makes her feel worse.  Finding out that he doesn't even know her well enough to realize that she wouldn't have thought him a failure, that she could have handled the truth, is more than Megan can handle.  He tries apologizing, he tells her he loves her, but Megan is unmoved. She asks him to leave.

SC&P has some good news - Ginsburg and Stan have been nominated for a Clio for their work on Playtex. Harry has calmed a client's nerves with some creative word gymnastics. And Peggy.  Oh, well, things are still not coming up roses for our gal. Not only did she not get a Clio nomination for her inspired Rosemary's Baby-themed commercial, but she found out Jim didn't even submit it for consideration.  Then, in her pitch with Lou, it's more of the same from him - he doesn't like her pitch or the money and time she's wasting trying to sell it.

We get our first glimpse of Betty.  She's looking fine and catching up with our favorite best friend Francine. Betty is still Betty, all wound up with nowhere to go.  But Francine is taking her place in the burgeoning women's movement and finding fulfillment outside of the home. Betty is her condescending self, noting that she still has a young child so can't be as carefree as Francine. Cut from that scene to the truth - where Betty has someone else raising her kids.

Don calls Dave Wooster about that job offer and meets at the Algonquin Hotel to discuss it.  Wells, Rich and Greene make him a nice offer, a pretty blonde he doesn't recognize makes an even nicer one.  But he ends up turning them both down.  Instead, we see Don go see Roger.

The Roger-Don relationship has been at the heart of this show since midway in the first Season.  As we discovered as the show went on, Roger did not exactly discover Don and Don did not exactly get his job through normal channels.  It was a curious and a bit nebulous dance that resulted in Don coming to work at Sterling Cooper in the first place, but what is clear is that Don's creativity helped build it into the company that it was.  There is a fondness between the two, yet there have been rifts in the past.  Not quite a father-son relationship, more older brother-kid brother, with them butting heads at times yet - as against the outside world - they remain united.

Roger may be perpetually in a drug and alcohol infused fog and may not care about anything or anyone anymore - his lunch with daughter Margaret was uncomfortable and devoid of any feeling - but it seemed genuine when he told Don he missed him.  Now, true, Roger may miss not just having someone who gets his jokes and can be a drinking buddy but also having someone on his side at the office.  With Don gone, Roger is alone at SC&P, marginalized to the point of afterthought.  His ex-mistress is now aligned with his arch enemy and even his old partner no longer defers to him.  Roger needs Don as much as Don needs him.  And perhaps that's always been their dynamic.

Don goes to Roger (instead of pursuing the comely stranger/working girl who flirts with him at the dinner) and, armed with an offer from a rival firm, asks him what he's wanted to know since last Thanksgiving.  Why would he let that happen to Don, why didn't he fight for him.  He calls Roger "Judas" (perhaps Don has a Christ complex to go with his other problems?) and admits finally, out loud, that he knew he was being fired - not put on leave.  He's hurt and he's mad, but he's finally ready to find out if there's any hope to fix what is broken.  At first, Roger defends the partners' decision and rightly so.  Don was a wreck, he'd completely fallen apart.  Being put on leave was the best thing they could have done for him, he'd be dead or locked up or wandering the streets if he kept on the path he was on.  So that's it?, Don in effect asks.  There's no place for him at SC&P?

Don: So I have my answer.
Roger: I didn't know the question! You want to come back? Come back. I miss you.

It was great to finally see Betty again even if she's no further along in her personal development than she was in Season One.  Her attempt at being the ideal mother falls flat.  She looks the part - just like how she looked in those Coca Cola ad shoot in Season One.  But inside there's no motherly instinct - just cold detachment and selfishness. She takes everything like a personal attack and to her Bobby trading her sandwich to some girl is just Don cheating on her all over again.  She doesn't see how excited Bobby is to have her there for the field trip, how proud he is that she tried the fresh milk and how devotedly he protected her spot on the blanket. All she knows is he had the nerve to give away her sandwich to some girl!  She can only see it in terms of what it means to her, not that he was being kind or helpful .  She takes everything so personally.    

Henry, poor patient, put-upon Henry, tries to get to the bottom of Bobby's sadness and her pique but there are no answers.  Betty fears that her kids hate her and with Sally musing about her being dead last week and Bobby wishing the whole day away, it's hard to deny her concerns. 

Later, back in New York, Don calls Megan and is hoping his decision to go back to work will show her he's on the right track.  He apologizes and tells her his trying to fix things.  He is as open as Don ever gets, admitting his charade and explaining it as best he can.  But for Megan, right now it's too little too late.  He doesn't get that he made a choice many months ago to live alone in New York with her clear across the country for no reason.  He had no job, no reason to be there, but every day he created this false story of a job he had to be at rather than be with her.  Megan understandably feels that he's been pushing her away and any mea culpas ignore the deep nature of their rift.  He says "I love you," she replies, tersely, "Good night."

The most awkward day at Sterling Cooper (and remember we've had a suicide and a dismemberment) is about to start.  Don comes into work just after nine a.m., but Roger isn't there and hasn't told anyone that Don was coming in.  Don might as well have been gone for ten years - the place is already so changed from when he left in disgrace.  Lou Avery is in his office, Dawn is no longer on the desk, there's a new receptionist, and some new faces.  He seems lost at sea.  An anchor by the name of Ginsberg comes in and rescues him.  Michael immediately starts talking shop with Don, which is just what Don needs.  He's happy to sit down and go over copy - this is something he can do.

The various reactions to Don's appearance are telling.  Michael, Stan and Dawn are happy, if surprised.  Meredith is drooling.  Ken is so excited to share his new baby picture with Don.  But Joan is angry and does nothing to hide her disdain for Don (she's not forgotten Jaguar) and Lou is apoplectic - reminding Jim that he has a contract and that things could get ugly when Don is forced out.  Jim and even Bert do not want Don to be there and had thought they'd never have to see him again.  Only Roger wants him to come back.

Don is powerless, at the mercy of everyone else's response to his existence.  He is a mirror and what he sees is the reflection is the effect he's had on everyone in the office - for good or, mostly, for bad.  Nowhere is that more evident than in Peggy's disgusted (and unnecessary) dig at him. She's resigned to the fact that whether Don comes back is not up to her.  But she makes sure he knows that it's not with her support.  Her "I can't say that we miss you" may be worded just a wee bit too cute - maybe she's in effect saying that they miss Don (at least his creativity and spark) but that she can't say that.  Some part of her has to recognize that Lou is not aiding the creative process and that she's become marginalized, but a bigger part of her resents Don - for not appreciating her more, for Ted, for so many slights over the years.

The agonizingly long wait - for us the viewers as well as for Don - before he's summoned before the partners is just the end to a long, brutal day for Don.  Imagine spending some ten hours at the place you built, the place you were banished from after revealing the darkest part of yourself, and hoping you're given a chance to come back.  The work day continues around you and you're watching other people living your life and wondering if you'll be allowed to step back in.

Then, finally, he walks into the conference room and hears their offer.  And it's awful - emasculating, humiliating, infantilizing.  Who listening to all the restrictive provisions expected Don to do anything but stand up from the table, slowly button his coat, and stride out of the office?  But this job, this company, means something more to Don than we - or they- understand.  And so, with the most offhanded response, he listens to their extraordinarily rigid and restrictive terms and acts as if they're nothing.  "Okay."

OBSERVATIONS:

The movie Don was watching at the beginning was Model Shop starring Gary Lockwood (who also starred in 2001: A Space Odyssey the year before) and French actress Anouk Aimée. New York Times movie reviewer Vincent Canby wrote  at the time that the movie was more about Los Angeles with many scenes involving cars and discussing the "Baroque geometry" of the city than anything else.  His brief description: "[T]he movie covers 24 hours in the life of a disenchanted young man, whose affair with a staggeringly dense, would-be actress is breaking up. He meets a [recently divorced photographer], falls in love with her, and after much coffee house philosophy about war, marriage, love and politics, they part."

Here's a clip of the final scene, where the photographer tells her would-be boyfriend, "I thought you'd make an effort so that things could work out. I really thought it was possible, a simple happy life. I didn't know that you didn't want it, that you didn't love me anymore."

The song at the end was "If 6 Was 9" written and recorded by Jimi Hendrix.  Check it out here.  As you might expect of a song of that time, it's about individualism and marching to your own drum beat.  The lines that seem to resonate for Don's situation:

Don't nobody know what I'm talkin' about
I've got my own life to live
I'm the one that's gonna die when it's time for me to die
So let me live my life the way I want to

The book Jim Cutler held up to Harry was Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death which dealt with the way funeral homes take advantage of those in their time of grief for profit.  The original came out in 1963 and she revisited the topic just before her death in 1996.  You can get the book here.

Not to beat a dead horse, but it was so sad to see how needy Don was at the beginning.  His call to Dawn  where he starts, "glad I caught you" - thinking she was already on her way (and he'd suited up for her visit!).  Then suggesting she come later when she said how busy she was.

So many call backs to Season One:  Francine, picnics, carousel, Betty on a blanket (like the Coke ad), Don being approached by a rival agency and using it with Roger, guy talking about getting married and borrowing money from his parents (shades of Pete), Francine even called Betty "Betty Draper," the "how do you sleep?" question (which Don answered that time with, "on a bed full of money"), Don having a clandestine call about his wife (then with Betty's therapist, now with Megan's agent) even his future at the office (back then, would Bert fire him for not being Don Draper, now, would they not rehire him for being Don Draper).

There was also a call back to Season 4 Episode 6, Waldorf Stories.  In that episode we learned how Don first worked his way into Sterling Cooper, starting by putting his business card in the bottom of the fur box Roger gave to Joan.  In fact, Roger says to Don that he found him in the bottom of a fur box.  In reality, Don went out to lunch with Roger, got him drunk, and used Roger's condition to con his way into a job by just showing up the next day and telling him Roger had hired him during that lunch.  This time, Don shows up at the office because Roger did actually tell him to come in, yet no one else knew about it and Don had to wait an entire day for Roger to come in and make it actually happen.

Notice the thick cloud of smog suspended just above the hills as we look out of the Hollywood agent's office.  Having lived in LA in 1969 I can tell you, it's not an exaggeration.  But it used to make for pretty sunsets. 

Bobby and Betty were "having a conversation" about super heroes.  It harkens back to some of the comments people in the show have made in the past about Don being either Batman (Harry in "Marriage of Figaro") or Superman (Ken Cosgrove's wife in "Signal 30" and Megan in "For Immediate Release").  It also parallels the idea that when he puts on the suit, he becomes this man with super powers - the alliterative Don Draper - not the nebbish Dick Whitman.  For more on the habit of giving superhero alter-egos alliterative names, check out this video.

Also, the phrase itself is reminiscent of Season 2, Episode 4 "Three Sundays" when Sally is visiting the office with her father and she goes up to Paul Kinsey (the only person not "resting" at the moment) and says, "Let's have a conversation."

The "adequate" word was used twice - once to describe Megan's auditions and once to describe Lou as a worker.  Such high praise!  Meanwhile, Don is called a genius.

Don could have been talking to himself, instead of Megan, when he said, of the rejection she'd been receiving "You can't let it erode your confidence. And you can't get angry or desperate."  Desperate Don surely was when he went to see Roger.  He had an offer from a good firm (and hints from at least one other firm that they might be interested).  Yet he ran straight to Roger.  Why?  Why is it that what he needs can only come from SC&P?  It's not enough for him to be a successful adman he has to fix things there.  That seems monumentally more important than anything else. 

If you're trying to keep your wife happy, FYI calling her crazy and a lunatic are not a good idea.

Don was so hush-hush about interviewing with other firms he had a pseudonym, Clarence Birdseye, for when he called.  Birdseye was the spokesman for his own frozen food line of products in some down home commercials back in the day.

Was Harry fired?  In the board meeting, this brief exchange occurs:
"I think it's more important we discuss Harry Crane.  Harry Crane? He's gone."  Last we saw Harry, he was walking out on his conversation with Jim Cutler, telling him to kill the interview he'd set up. Then tension between Harry and the rest of the firm has been around for years, most notably last year when he complained about Joan's partner status when his department was responsible for bringing in so much money to the firm.  Is he finally moving on?  Doubtful, since he's bringing in the lion's share of the money.  But the comment was still strange.

When will Dawn finally have enough of Don treating her like his secretary and pour coffee on his head or assign Meredith to be his new secreitary?  She's put up with his crap for long enough and he can get his own goddamn coffee.  She's the head of personnel now and needs to assert herself.

Lou's mention of Don going all Longfellow Deeds is a reference to the Gary Cooper character who, in the climactic scene of Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, punches an attorney (who's bringing the case to have the man committed for insanity) in the face.  Deeds, like Don, came from nothing and became wealthy, though in the former's case it was from an unexpected inheritance.  Check out the 1936 original, but not the 2002 Adam Sandler remake. 

It was like old home week. Francine! Betty! Bobby 5.0! Henry! Harry!

The Time Magazine cover that Don was looking at had former President Eisenhower on the cover.  That issue came out the week of April 4, 1969, which is less than two months after the original release date of the movie Don was watching. 

Can't ignore the scene with Betty and Francine.  It was so great seeing the power pantsuited Francine, all confident and worldly.  But of course Betty can't even show enough interest to get Francine's new job right (and the little dig about taking the real estate licensing exam again). Francine has come a long way from the woman we saw falling apart on the couch worried her husband Carlton was cheating. She's really adapted to the changing times and is finding her way - and all that is very threatening to Betty. She takes Francine's happiness and fulfillment as a personal affront. She goes home on a mission to prove that she's a great mother and is not wasting her life or missing out on anything.  But, the more she tries to prove something the worse it gets because she's looking for perfection and there is no such thing. She's doomed to fail.

QUOTES:

Michael: But you shouldn't give them the power to decide who shall live and who shall die.

Lou: Who got your pantyhose in a knot?

Michael: That's comforting.  You weren't rejected.  You weren't even considered.

Francine: One of my clients told me that I redefined his definition of first class.

Harry: Did you not call for a fireman?

Jim (to Harry): Are you aware your self-pity is distasteful?

Harry: You know what? This conversation is over.

Megan: I've never, ever admitted that I've wanted this.

Megan:  It's sunny here for everyone but me. I'm walking around in a cloud of "no."

Don: You can't let it erode your confidence.  And you can't get angry or desperate.

Megan:  So you came out here to what? Pull me out of a bathtub where I slit my wrists?

Don:  I don't know if they want me or they don't want me.

Don: I messed up and I didn't want you to know until I fixed it.

Megan: So with a clear head, you got up every day and decided that you didn't want to be with me?

Megan: This is the way it ends.

Jim: You have stiff competition, but I believe you to be the most dishonest man I have ever worked with.

Don (to Roger): How do you sleep at night?

Don: I guess you don't remember I started that company. I had to talk you into it.
Roger: I guess you forgot I found you at the bottom of a fur box.
Don: I would never have done that to you.

Roger: The man who talked to Hershey? I've seen that man wandering the street with a sandwich board saying "The End is Near."

Roger (to Don):  I miss you.

Don (to Megan): I shouldn't have lied to you. I'm sorry and I want everything to be okay.

Don: I can see now that I wasn't thinking clearly and I had this logic to what I did and hopefully now things can be the way we want them to be because I'm going back to the agency.

Don: I don't know if I can undo it, but I think I fixed it.

Don: I thought if you found out what happened, you wouldn't look at me the same way.... I know how I want you to see me.

Megan:  Stop pushing me away with both hands.

Bobby: We were having a conversation.

Bobby: She really likes you.
Betty: Yes, well, that blouse says she likes everyone.

Don: Ready to get back to work.
Lou: Good for you.

Michael (to Don):  Boy, you smell good.

Roger:  I don't have to tell anybody. That's my name on the door out there.

Joan: We were allowing him to preserve his dignity while seeking other employment.

Jim: Lou is adequate.

Roger (to Jim): Since when are you allowed to use the words "long term" in this office?

Roger: Do you want to walk into the room and find Mary Wells sitting on Don’s lap the next time you go in to present?

Bobby: I wish it was yesterday. 

Peggy: Well, I can't say that we miss you. 

Betty: It was a perfect day and he ruined it. 

Betty: Do you think I'm a good mother?

Henry: Of course. 

Betty: Then why don't they love me?

Don: Okay.

Suicide Count:
Megan's comment about slitting her wrist.
Don assigned to Lane's office.
Less likely, Lou's comment about calling security (he's more worried about Don being violent than suicidal).

Whore Count:
The girl at the Algonquin.