Peggy knows how to make an entrance. #TheMorningAfter #MadMen pic.twitter.com/Qc8LscBnO0
— Mad Men (@MadMen_AMC) May 4, 2015
Thanks for waiting until Thursday for this. Just a couple more episodes to go. As always, spoilers ahead.
Well, it looks like Roger has cut off the nose of SC&P despite its face. Does anyone even remember why he sold to McCann-Erickson in the first place? To save Don?
In the opening scene we see Harry and Roger in the office as the controversial computer gets hauled away. Harry is his generally annoying self and you know Roger must be pissed that he never fired Harry when he had the opportunity. I liked the moment between Roger and Shirley when she quits. “Advertising is not for everyone,” she says, and turns out, she’s very right.
Just when we (ok, I) thought Joan’s storyline was done, we got more of her than we’ve seen in a long time. We should have known from her meeting about Topaz with the McCann peons that the higher ups were slime too. I felt it was a mistake for Joan to keep going higher and higher with her complaints, but what else is she to do? The higher up the ladder Joanie went, the worse attitude she got. I was proud that she stood her ground with Jim Hobart and almost wished she would have taken him all the way to court. But alas, she wanted her money instead. And I couldn’t help but think that all this started when she agreed to sleep with Herb. If it’s in the back of my mind, surely it’s in the back of hers. So she takes her Rolodex, picture of Kevin and quarter of a million dollars (just a little over $1.5 mil in 2015) and gets the hell out of Dodge. I can’t say I blame her. Things probably weren’t going to get better there. I hope we haven’t seen the last of Joan just yet. (Side note: The actor that plays Ferg also played John Sears on 90210. He was creepy then and he’s creepy now.)
But Joan was lucky enough to at least get an office. Though she’s willing to go to McCann-Erickson because it’s just another step on the way to the future she wants, Peggy is stuck at the old SC&P offices due to a mix up. Pegs is no secretary, hasn’t been since the Kennedy administration. She can’t really work at home, so she spends the week at the old SC&P offices with Ed, who won’t be joining them at McCann, but decides to spend his last week at the now-defunct SC&P making long distance calls. Peggy attempts to give him some work to no avail. Who wants to do any kind of meaningful work when you’re a lame duck?
Peggy shows up to the dark offices toward the end of the week to be greeted by strange music – for a second, I thought we were going to see the ghost of Lane Pryce, but it was just Roger playing the organ. For someone who was so eager to sell 51% of the company his dad and Bert built, he’s not quite ready to leave. I have this recurring dream (nightmare?) where I’ve moved the majority of my stuff into a new place, but when I go back to get the little stuff, I get to my room to find large items like my bed and dresser and all my clothes still left behind. Roger is living my nightmare. The movers have come and gone, but he wants to move his own stuff.
Roger coerces Peggy to keep him company while he takes a trip down Memory Lane. Persuaded by a bottle of Vermouth and the prospect of putting off real work for a little while longer, she stays. Aside from when Roger paid Peggy a few hundred bucks for some extra ideas in season 3 (4?), I don’t think we’ve seen them alone together this whole series. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) Seemingly on opposite ends of their careers, Roger only sees what once was yet Peggy sees what still can be. She only hopes to be able to complain about the problems Roger is complaining about. She is coming up on his Lost Horizon.
Don may have been Jim Hobart’s white whale, but when Don steps in the meeting with the other creative directors, he realizes he’s just one of maybe couple dozen white whales. While Ted seems content to have others just like him, Don can’t stand it. At SC&P, he was The Man. Now he’s just a man. Restless in the Miller Lite meeting, he picks up his lunch and coat and walks out. We get maybe the last scene of Don and Betty together. Though they are better like this, ex husband and wife with a teenage daughter and sons who are away at camp, I wonder what if they could have had this kind of relationship had they stayed together.
With Sally already gone to school and the boys not due for a few hours, Don gets on the road to head back to NYC. But he doesn’t. He drives to Wisconsin to award Diana Bower with a fridge full of beer. Why is Don looking for this woman? Does she have a magic vagina? After hanging out at Diana’s husband’s house for too long, her ex chases Don out asking if he think’s he’s the only one to come after her. She must have a magic vagnia. And then, instead of heading back home after leaving Diana’s he picks up a hitchhiker to head to Minnesota. What is Don searching for? Will he ever find it? I doubt we’ll ever know.
