Author’s note: This week’s format is just a bit different than the rest of this series this season. I hope you enjoy!
Spoilers ahead!
When was the last time the country sat in front of the television, riveted by a technological advance happening right in front of their eyes? Not something shitty like last year’s Boston Bombing and the subsequent movie-like criminal chase that had everyone glued to their favorite news outlet, but something where we just go, “Holy shit. I just witnessed history.” This week’s mid-season finale of Mad Men took place during the days of the Apollo 11 mission that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. From the beginning of merging SCDP and CGC, there was trouble getting the two agencies to act like they had actually merged. The two joined so they could get a car; that eventually went bust. Don flipped out during an important pitch and instead of the fight being SCDP vs. CGC it was CGC + Benedict Joan vs. Don. And of course only Roger welcomed him back with open arms. This episode saw them finally come together… to hand the reins over.
APieceoftheContinent: After a long and valiant fight, Napoleon Don finally has his Waterloo. He’s pulled every trick in the book to avoid takeover by McCann Erickson. He came back from exile and had a few near-victories but in this episode, turmoil within SC&P finally reached such a furor that in order to save the agency, he had to give it up. It was fitting that Don’s contract ended up being his downfall after so many years of his refusing to sign one with Sterling Cooper. On a brighter note, hopefully this portends the end of Lou, as well. On a not-so-bright note, going with the theory that Don is supposed to represent America, this is a huge slide on the slippery slope towards oligarchy.
MattBlerg: I just had to do a quick Wiki of Waterloo. I know the titles of these episodes have meaning and I meant to look it up last night. Two week’s ago it was early April based on some references to President Eisenhower’s funeral. Now it’s last July, that’s probably about 100 days right? Oh Matthew Weiner.
Say what you will about Don being an asshole and all that, but the man is talented. As awful as he was last season, I found myself rooting for him as hard as ever this season. I just wanted him to get it together. The Don I had been missing all season showed up in the first five minutes when he stormed upstairs for an impromptu partners meeting.
APoTC: Meanwhile, it was a watershed episode for “Neil”s who scored both on the moon and on planet earth. Sean was hot but I was happy to see Sally gravitate towards innocence and hope instead of going for the “too cool for school” older brother. She needs a little bit of that.
MB: I was truly shocked to see Sally kiss Neil. Was she trying to impress him the whole time?
APotC: Peggy finally had her day in the sun! How amazing was that? It was a major development in Don’s character that he was able to mature enough to be able to give that to her. Couldn’t be prouder for both of them!
MB: I was truly thrilled for Peggy to be able to give the Burger Chef presentation. It might have been a little backwards in the way that it happened, but Don was right to realize that if he was out, then him being the one to present was not the best idea. I think it was the vote of confidence that she needed after having to deal with Lou the last 6-8 months.
Side note for Peggy: Do we want to see her with Nick? Do we think he’s even important for the upcoming season. Also, as much as Julio must have been a nuisance that the beginning of the season, it was nice to see that he and Peggy developed a nice little relationship. I loved him asking for a Popsicle. I’d bet anything his mom told him he needs to not eat so many, so he goes to ask Peggy who probably wouldn’t care.
APotC: Benedict Joanie, on the other hand, didn’t fare so well this episode. On the one hand, she’s had her fair share of having her chain jerked around by Don Draper after having made a huge sacrifice for the company herself. On the other hand, Don was never the one who asked her to make that sacrifice. In fact, he made a last ditch effort to try to prevent it. While I understand the ire, I think it’s a little misplaced in this instance.
MB: I never expected to see Joan turn on Don. You’re right that her anger is misplaced. If anything she needs to at least bitch slap Pete for the whole thing.
APotC: Roger finally stood up and took action for something he believed in. He’s always leaned towards pragmatism balancing out Don’s lean towards idealism. In this instance a little pragmatism was needed but we’ll have to see where it goes for the remainder of the season.
MB: Go Roger! I just could not get over how badly Jim wanted to get rid of Don. Shit, I get that he wants it and the outcome was inevitable (until Roger stepped in), but Bert’s body was still warm! I liked him all season up until that point. (I especially liked the part when he told Lou he was just a hired hand at the beginning of the episode.)
APotC: After having a little while to let Bert Cooper’s dance number percolate in the ‘ole noggin, I think I may have finally cracked it. While the dance number seemed misplaced, as Gothamist pointed out in their Unpacking Mad Men series, it was in fact a reference to an advertisement that ran immediately following the moon landing. Still pretty wacky, but… it made me think of the last time Don was “visited” by a recently departed friend, Anna Draper. Bringing it all together, I think the purpose of the skit was to juxtapose Anna Draper and Bert Cooper as two angelic figures in his life- one, Anna, grounding Don in Dick Whitman and the other, Bert Cooper, grounding him in Don Draper (“The Japanese have a saying: a man is whatever room he is in, and right now Donald Draper is in this room.”) while tying in the Moon landing theme of the episode and finally putting to use Robert Morse’s song-and-dance skills which you know Weiner has been dying to pull out the whole series. Or it could be a brain toomah. Who knows with this show.
MB: I’m so glad to see someone else’s take on the song and dance number at the end. I was truly confused. When I jsut re-watched, I thought, “Is Don on drugs and we don’t know it.” I’m glad you pointed out the Gothamist info as well as the last time Don was visited by a recently dead person. It puts that last scene into perspective. I was not expecting to see Bert die before the end of the series, but it makes sense. People don’t live forever and we needed a catalyst to for Don to be able to keep his job.
.@mattzollerseitz My dad Marty Regen’s @Chase TV Ad The Best Things In Life Are Free ran after moon landing 7/20/69 pic.twitter.com/oZahkYjLk4 — Claudia Regen (@cgregen) May 26, 2014
A big thanks to APieceoftheContinent to helping me with these post-mortems every week! Thanks to everyone that stopped by to participate. I truly enjoyed everyone’s insight to this show.
See you in 2015!
