Many spoilers ahead. Click at your own risk, suckaface.
Season 6 has been a bit of a mixed bag so far. Not bad, but not necessarily firing on all cylinders or perhaps spread too thin across narratives that have drifted further and further away from one another. Then “For Immediate Release” showed up last night to remind us what the show did best in past seasons, and that it’s still capable of taking our breath away.
The big development, of course, is that SCDP and CGC have merged. Watching everything fall to shit for Draper and Co. and then seeing it be salvaged brilliantly was much like watching Season 3 closer, “Shut the Door. Have a Seat.” In that episode, the Sterling Cooper boys found out they were being sold to a larger agency. Things looked bad for them, but by the episode’s close, they had managed to take control of their own destiny by forging a new little agency. Last night, the key to survival was not to break away but to come together. If SCDP and CGC had any hope of being noticed by Chevrolet, they would have to combine their powers to compete with the big boys.
Don was at his least loathsome so far this season. His affair with Sylvia has been on hold (or at least as far as we know) due to circumstances beyond either of their control, and Megan — taking the advice of her mother (Yay! A Julia Ormond episode!) — does her best to repair her ailing marriage. I found it interesting that Megan likens Don to Superman, a comparison that was made last season by Ken’s wife, Cynthia, during the scene in which Don rips his shirt off before repairing the Campbells’ faulty plumbing. Yet, even though Don was more sympathetic than he has been in weeks, at least three characters still had reason to be angry with him. He cut ties with Jaguar, an account that Joanie made the ultimate sacrifice to land, and she was not shy about telling Don exactly what she thought of his actions. Pete too has had just about enough of Don’s impulsive behavior, “Tarzan, swinging from vine to vine.”
And then there’s Peggy, our heroine, who had finally struck out on her own and built a career for herself away from the man who knew her first as secretary. She looked sick upon hearing the news that her agency had merged with SCDP. She finds herself taking a step back: she’ll once again be working beneath Don Draper. Maybe not directly — we don’t yet know what the new company’s dynamic will be — but Don will still be creative director, and Peggy will still be copy chief. Her reaction to Don explaining the merger to her? “I just bought an apartment.” That is, she’s pretty much locked into staying in her job out of financial necessity. She’s trapped.
With all the excitement of the merger, I don’t want to overlook some of the other minor (in comparison) developments that happened last night. The Campbell marriage is donezo at this point, yeah? We still have half a season to see how that will play out, but Trudy is not some Betty Draper style pushover. During the heightened emotion of MLK’s assassination last week, she did not fold and accept Pete’s offer to come spend the night with her and Tammy, and in last night’s episode she seemed damn sure of herself when she told Pete to pack his things and go.
Peggy is not enjoying being an Upper West Side pioneer. Abe may like the diverse, colorful neighborhood, but Peggy is not happy with finding human feces on the apartment stairwell, loud music coming from upstairs, and kids setting off fireworks on the front stoop. Abe tells her everything is changing, getting better, but Peggy says she doesn’t like change, she wants things to be the way they used to be. That’s not entirely true, is it, Peggy? Look at the changes she has gone through in her professional life to get to where she is. Also, there was the kiss telegraphed from miles away: Ted smoooooooched Peggy. Although we’ve suspected for several episodes that Ted was sweet on Peggy, Peggy seemed genuinely surprised by Ted’s actions last night. Though once the idea was planted in her brain, it took hold, and she was soon imagining Ted in Abe’s place. We have several episodes to see where this story will go, but I think we have a pretty good idea.
There’s so much more to talk about, but I’ll stop blathering here, and let’s continue the discussion in the comments. Which recaps are you reading? Check out a few of the usual suspects if you haven’t already: A.V. Club, Collider, HitFix.
Oh, also: