Mad Men Recap - Person to Person or; THE FINALE

Well, guys, we made it through the end. And now I'm here to recap both the episode and my myriad feelings both during and after the actual episode because - ALL THE FEELS!

Feelings such as:

Bewilderment - oh wow, so you can just do coke on vacation just like that?

Don-Draper-is-crying crying - Because is there anything in the world sadder than a man you love crying? Your dad? Your husband? No, no there's not.

Surprise routing for the guy you've hated for years - Yeah! You jump on that jet with Trudy in her kickass hat, Pete!

A good dash of rolling your eyes(or whatever the emotional equivalent is?) - Really, Stephanie? Does anyone actually like Stephanie?

Uninhibited tears of happiness - Because Stan and Peggy's scene over the phone was one of the best romantic scenes I've ever seen!

A good Roger laugh for old time's sake - Because Du Maurier cigarettes really are "le shit".

Genuine anger at Don - For the Love Don!! You can't keep going forward!!!! Have we learned nothing!!

Heartbreaking empathy - You never thought you'd experience that emotion through a group therapy session on television, did you? Just saying it seems bizarre. Bravo, Matthew Weiner.

My feelings about the finale really came down to the final ten minutes. As I was watching the minutes of the episode flash by, and I realized there were ten minutes in the show left I didn't know how the show would wrap up. But then that soul-barring confession phone call of Don to Peggy, then that almost visible moment of grace moving within Don as he accepts himself in the form of refrigerator guy, then the wrap of the other characters, then Don smiling and meditating in the California sun, then the famous Coke ad.

At first I was dissatisfied and pretty disappointed.

Let me explain. I really thought there should be more tangible connections to Don finding his personal redemption between him and his family. I felt his offer to move to California to help Stephanie really dismissed all ties to his family in New York. Then the last scene with Betty looking close to death while smoking in their depressingly dark kitchen while Sally washed dishes contrasted against Don smiling serenely while basking in his new found glow seemed jarringly insensitive and dismissive of any connection Don should have had with his family. That's all there is? Don's smiling while they suffer? It felt really awful to me at first.

Then the ad. Upon my first watching I felt that it must have had no connection to Don. Was this ad rubbing Don's nose in it? Was it the brainchild of those identical lackeys at McCann? Or did Don hatch this idea out of his newly found tidbit of hippy-dippy, feel-good, yoga enlightenment? Does spiritual credibility mean nothing to Don that he is just using it to pump the wheels of capitalism? It left me at loose ends, until I started thinking about things and discussing this with people much smarter than myself, (hi, Kathryn and Karen!).

There's really a lot to say about the finale and how it relates to so much that has already occurred, especially for Don, but as usual I'll just gloss over the bits that hit me the most.

As the episode opens with Don literally trying to get away from himself as fast as possible, by driving some crazy car in the middle of the desert, it becomes obviously fairly quickly that whatever knowledge he's gained of himself through the simplicity and clean living of the last episode has left him with nothing. Nothing to help him move forward, nothing to believe in, and most importantly no hope for his future. The first person to person phone call of the episode is to Sally who breaks to him the news that Betty's dying. Sally is the mature voice of the conversation, pleading with her father to listen to her because she knows the situation, while again he is so far from them and removed that he really can't know what's going on. Here Sally is switching roles with a parent once again, she's proving to have more maturity in handling a terribly difficult situation. She's really proving that she is already on the path to becoming more insightful about herself and her family, and more sacrificial as well, than both her parents have been in the past. But in contrast to Sally is Don, left alone again with terrible news in an empty hotel room.

Don's enforced isolation becomes worse during his second person to person call to Betty where she tells him to not rush home - to not come home at all, that he hasn't even been present enough to register as a normal part of their sons lives for him to come back. It's doubly heartbreaking to watch. Don then tailspins by getting drunk and somehow winds up in California, his destination for starting anew when he himself has no direction. A whole post could be dedicated to Don and California - how he has gone there so many times in the past looking for renewal of some kind, a new answer, a new distraction, but that is very different than finding true meaning and a home. Don somehow winds up at Stephanie's house and we learn she does not live with her son and is headed to a retreat in Big Sur.

Don ends up getting dragged to the hippy-dippy retreat centre where he is obviously not impressed, but seems to stay just to see what it is all about. Stephanie confronts her issues with being separated from her son which propels Don to spew a line when trying to get her to stay, "You never grew up with Jesus. You don't know what these people believe. You can move forward from here." Followed by a plea to move out to California to help her out. The whole dialogue from Don was so rife with what he has clung to for so long, it's been his life motto which has led him down a path of emptiness. He's believed he can just move forward from being Dick Whitman, he can move forward from his traumatic childhood, his mistakes, his broken vows, his failures as a father. He believes he can move forward so easily because he doesn't truly believe in anything, not himself, his job, his family. Don is still grasping onto the remnants of this mistaken philosophy, and Stephanie sees right through him.

Don's next person to person call is to Peggy and here is where things get interesting! Don is clearly at the end of his rope and near despair, and calls to say goodbye to Peggy and confesses all the things that he has done wrong. This confession is so poignant and important to what follows for Don I think, he's truly remorseful and confessing this to the only person who has understood him for so long, and it is so needed for him. Peggy rightly reassures Don that although he's done terrible things, he's also done good things. He has done things of worth and real value. He may have broken his marriage vows but he has three beautiful children, he may have taken another man's identity but with it he has mentored and helped others, and he is loved even if he doesn't recognize it. This conversation is very emblematic of confession. Here is Peggy welcoming back the sinner, telling the sinner to indeed come home, reminding him of his worth and that no matter what he has done he is still loved.

It is exactly this confession to another person that is what Don has needed in order to deal with his life. It's this wholehearted, sincere, and heart wrenching confession that opens up Don to the movings of grace within himself. Don has been such an individual. Always isolating himself from those around him, especially his wives and family. He has never confessed the fullness of his culpability to anyone before, maybe this kind of confession, has been what he has been running from for so very long. It's amazing how the act of physically and vocally expressing our sins truly opens our hearts to letting go of the wrong we have done, and becomes the first step towards reparation and wholeness. As Catholics we believe this wholeheartedly and have access to the Sacrament of Confession, but it is so true from a human and psychological level that this need to confess our wrongs is the first step to better understanding ourselves, experiencing love, and experiencing real change.

Then Don is sitting in a group therapy session where each person is invited to share. When a nondescript, middle aged man with crappy clothes and a combover talks about working in an office being invisible and unseen by even his family, how this makes it impossible to know real love it's as if Don is broken open. He sees himself in this everyman, he understands that what he has been running from - even to the extent of creating a glamorous, outwardly successful career, while pursuing his every desire, that this fundamental wound inside his heart has kept him from wholeness and from understanding love. Don's actual embrace of the man is a beautiful image of him embracing himself in his woundedness. Grace is moving within him to acknowledge and understand himself and to, in effect, forgive himself and love himself.

The next we see Don is after a wrap-up of the other characters, he's sitting cross-legged on that gorgeous hill overlooking the ocean, sun bouncing off his amazing bone structure, the ding of meditation, and then -- Don Draper smiles. We're then shown the famous Coke commercial with the iconic song that's big on the words "love" and "the real thing". At first I was so put off by the insertion of the commercial, it immediately felt as if whatever real epiphany or spiritual insight Don had must have been on only a slight, shallow level that could easily be pawned into a commercial for soda. But the ad is really the hope and future of Don Draper. The ad shows us that Don has hope for the future, he has gone back to New York to a real home with a solid foundation for the future because he has become more whole. And Don creating such a successful ad is proof that he is in a good place again, because his creativity is dependent on the stability of his personal life. Over the years as his private life has imploded again and again, his love for his job and what he has such a gift for has waned. Putting to work his creative genius to such effect shows us that he has gone back home to recover, change, and live life with a purpose. He has been redeemed to live a new life with hope.

I will say that I was especially jarred by the image of Sally and Betty in the dank kitchen shown right before Don glimmering in the California sun. It seems to show that domestic darkness of Don's life, to the stark contrast of Don smiling in the sunlight of newfound enlightenment. I always wanted there to be a deeper connection with Don's redemption to his family. But because of the hope of the ad, maybe there is hope that there may be room in the life of his family when he returns? Maybe Sally in her sacrificial love for her family will have empathy, and most importantly, forgiveness to offer her father? And maybe because of Don's fierce independence and trouble with intimacy he was never meant to find redemption in those closest to him, but in the strangers he always dealt with with charm?

Catching up with the rest of the characters briefly, I think Joan has come a long way from the beginning of the show. I caught a couple episodes of season one last week during the marathon, and Joan was far from the feminist up-and-comer in the office at the beginning. She also didn't get along with Peggy at all, so I so appreciated how far their friendship has come in the show, it was a really cool moment to think about Joan and Peggy starting their own company and setting their own rules, and hopefully putting up with less sexist crap. Joan has also learned a lot about compromising for men and she wasn't willing to let go of this new opportunity to please her boyfriend. She wraps up as a feminist character who never was a feminist, but a woman who really loved her job. I love Joan, and I think she probably went on to be successful while being a mom and getting along with her mom more than she'd like to admit.

Pete even got a scene saying goodbye to Peggy minus animosity or bitterness which I thought was a nice touch. I'm still surprised that I don't despise Pete anymore, that I honestly wish him the best as a character and believe his change of heart to be genuine. I also was completely in love with Trudy's hair, coat, and hat.

Then of course Peggy and Stan. I've been so hoping for them to get together since he began working there and she began driving him crazy. It's a quirky relationship based on honest friendship and the telephone scene was played to such perfection I still swoon thinking about it. Peggy so richly deserved a happy ending. She chose the tough road of remaining in advertising where she has a real gift and drive to succeed, even though it will be challenging, and it leaves us with great images of her future with Stan supporting her in the crazy world of advertising.

Roger made me laugh until the end and I think that's where we all wanted him to end up. He may not have changed drastically, but he's getting married again and this time to a woman who knows what she's getting herself into and who is around the same decade in age. Every Roger scene in the finale was enjoyable and even though Marie is somewhat bat-shit-crazy, she'll keep him interested much longer than any young secretary could. And it was a very nice gesture seeing him leave lil'Kevin in his will.

I have to give a shout out to one of my faves - Ken! So glad he and the patch made it in the finale and with Joan no less! I also love him a bit more for calling his son "weird".

And finally, Meredith....you may be my favourite secretary, and not just because you always land on your feet!

Thank you all for reading this extremely long novella dedicated to my favourite tv show of all time. There is still so much to say about it and I will still think about it and enjoy wondering where the characters have gone. What has been proven by this final season however, is that this really is a show that tells the story of human nature in a very careful and honest way. The human soul is restless until it rests with God, but what is so evident within Mad Men is the varying ways that our individual experiences, wounds, and sins can close our souls off from that love, especially in a society that encourages us to run as far as we can from the Truth. But no matter how far we may run, the call of love and the reaches of mercy are always waiting, even for Don Draper.

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Mad Men Recap - The Milk and Honey Route

 Another amazing episode has led us to the finale with all the beauty, poignancy, and precise storytelling that has been the calling card of this series. What's becoming more beautifully evident however, is that by telling such a real story with such psychological accuracy, that Mad Men is telling a deeply human story and one that can't help but reflect Christian truths.

We find Don calling Sally from the road, somewhere in Kansas after seeing a two headed cow in Wyoming and headed south. Don rolls through Oklahoma but encounters car trouble which leaves him stranded at a small town motel. Here in the motel he is stripped of so much. He is no longer confined by his job, his romantic relationships, or his money (he has left possible millions at McCann by walking out), even his car has broken down and he is left with only himself. Here he is alone with his own heart and conscience and the pride which he has clung to for so many years is finally gone.

Not only has he been stripped of the outer worldly idols he has chased for so long, he is willingly choosing this simplicity, this poverty. He may notice a foxy bikini-clad mom at the pool, but he isn't acting on or feeling the usual instinctive lust for conquest, he is living chastely. (I notice the glaring lack of the virtue of obedience, but I don't think it's far behind, check with me next week.)

How interesting to think that Don Draper, the quintessential man of his era - the sexual revolution - a man who has lived with sexual abandon, become professionally successful, wealthy beyond his dreams, envied by all, yet in order to understand himself and this deep yearning for true meaning he is drawn back to the very basic spiritual tenants of poverty and chastity. His road to conversion, or to finding true meaning to his life, is being explored through these two evangelical counsels.

Don also encounters a teenage boy, Andy, who is clearly on the path to becoming a huckster and general con man very reminiscent of Don's own youth. Don at first humours him, but when Don is accused of stealing money from the local veterans Don confronts Andy's criminal efforts with the cutting plea to leave town so he doesn't have a place he can never return to. Don is explaining how even though he thought he could get away from the pain and troubles of his childhood by becoming someone else, not being able to return to a place, to your roots does leave one with a heavy burden.

But Betty! As a character much maligned and disliked for her cold and vain childishness it is somehow fitting that she get a tragic ending, not because I wished her any harm, but because her character was so well-drawn that the drama of her demise seems apt.

Betty is wheezing her way around college, still catching the good-looking boy's eye, and again lung cancer rears it's ugly head. Don has already lost Anna, his pseudo-wife, to lung cancer, and as Don has been a creative head of companies who made fortunes from selling cigarettes, it's an insight into the moral complications of corporate America. Betty doesn't collapse in hysterics however, she remains true to her character of approaching her diagnosis with a grim acceptance. Sally and Henry are rightly shaken and desperate, yet Betty still remains so true to her character neither dissolving into a puddle of sentimentality, nor becoming the fawning mother comforting her child in need. It's a testament to how realistic this show is, and how psychologically astute the writers are to make these characters so true to what life really looks like.

The tragedy of Betty being fitting, we have the surprising happy ending for Pete Campbell. Pete and Trudy's relationship has always been one that aspired to Don and Betty greatness. The viewers see that the sacramental bonds that remain between Betty and Don also remain between Pete and Trudy. Pete is caught off-guard as Duck Phillips lands him a prime job with Lear Jets, he'll keep his SC&P buyout millions, while being able to start again in Wichita. He only has to convince Trudy to forgive him, to risk trusting him again and put faith in his change of heart being sincere.

I found Pete's change of heart a realization of his past behaviour and what it's consequences have really been. Pete has tried to do whatever it takes to get to the top, follow his sexual prowess in affairs, let his marriage fall apart, tried to live the lie of divorce healing all ills and being true freedom. It's at dinner with his brother that he shows such insight into the folly of his past ways. He has been doing what he has been doing not because he was assured he was making good choices but because his father did the exact same thing and that's the only example he has had in life of what it means to be a man. I thought it was especially touching how this short conversation between brothers was enough to get his brother to get up and cancel a date with a woman who was not his wife.

After so many years of seeing Pete as the little shit of the office, I was caught off guard with how genuinely happy I was for Pete and Trudy's reuniting. Pete wanted to be Don, but now he's shown that he's found the personal insight much earlier in life than Don. He's now ahead of Don in realizing what really matters in his life enough to risk his pride and ask his wife to take him back, to rebuild his fractured family, to begin again with integrity. That's not to say they'll have a fairytale second marriage, but it does show so much hope and beauty in the power of marriage as a lifelong tie that bonds people together.

Who ever thought I'd be crying happy tears for Pete?! Not me!!

The Milk and Honey Route" may just be the desert where Don is finally finding God. He may finally be making choices that facilitate discovering the truth about himself, his family, and love. And if my hunches are right, the final episode will involve self-sacrifice, obedience, and redemption for the man who has looked for meaning in his life for a long time.

Ah!! Guys! I'm so excited and full of emotions for the finale!

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Mad Men Recap - Lost Horizon

Ahh!! Guys! This episode was so great. On so many levels. If these last two episodes are of this calibre we are in for such a satisfying conclusion, and I am in for so many tears come May 18th.

Let's dive right in.

Don's entering McCann and is being celebrated by Jim Hobart as his white whale, but Don is chaffing with having to declare his newly beholden status to McCann Ericsson. Don is getting comfortable in his office, freshly furnished by my fave Meredith, and as he peers out the window of the high-rise -- what's that we see below?? Oh, only ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL!!! I honestly had to pause the episode so I could audibly squeal in delight at such a crafty touch of brilliance as we see that the One calling to Don, the answer to his many questions regarding his purpose, is waiting for him outside the legendary high rise of the opening credits. Simply brilliant.

We go on to see that all of Don's individualist instincts are being suffocated as he is one face among the crowd of creatives in a research meeting with Miller Beer. Don glances out the window and sees a plane flying across the sky and his desire to escape is palpable. First Don goes to take Sally back to school, but upon finding she's already left and that Betty is knee-deep in her new BFF Freud, he decides to drive not back to New York but to Racine, Wisconsin home of the infamous Diana.

Don's encounter with Diana's ex-husband and his wife is excellently paced and directed so that at once it seems cautionary yet jarring. Diana's ex-husband doesn't fall for Don's smooth rouse as a representative giving away a fridge, nor a collections agent, but sniffs out that he is another piece of collateral damage left in the wake of Diana and her life now sadly condemned to emotional destruction. The ex-husband's declaration to Don "I lost my daughter to God and my wife to the devil." and his direct appeal for Jesus' mercy is reminiscent to me of Flannery O'Connor. A jarringly blunt telling of spiritual truth. Finally this dramatic moment of Don confronted with the fact of Christ directly dealt with in the dialogue of the show.

Don gets back in his car and we see him driving in the middle of America not knowing in which direction he is going until he stops to pick up a hitchhiker. When the the hitchhiker asks to go to St. Paul with Don responding that he could do that, the imagery of possible conversion on the road is complete.

Will the scales finally fall off Don's eyes? Will he finally recognize his need for redemption that cannot be found on earth through money, success, and women?

Kathryn and I discussed the possibility of Don staying on the road until he returns to his beloved California, the place where he so often finds renewal and epiphanies of one sort or another, but he has never found true conversion in California. We both think that for Don to find that essential knowledge of himself and the meaning of love that he needs to find his way back to Sally. Maybe his roadside conversion like St. Paul could bring him back to Sally with a stable and real love to offer her, and guidance as she reaches adulthood. The possibilities become so tantalizing in this episode for Don's final redemption that I couldn't be more pleased with the direction the plot seems to be going.

But while Don is still travelling to his destination, it appears that Joan has reached the end of the road for her career. McCann has turned out to be completely disrespectful to her position, capabilities, and role she had at SC&P. The complete douche-bag Ferg Connolly makes continuing to work accounts impossible for Joan. She threatens Jim Hobart with legal action in a marvellous scene in his office. She threatens him with the ACLU, and the fact that all the woman of his staff are likely to want to have legal help in dealing with the myriad sexual harassments that happen in the office. Hobart is so loathsome as to offer Joan 50 cents on the dollar to pay her off out of the company. She is owed half a million, she cannot garner the respect to deserve to be paid off in full. It is all so deeply humiliating to her who has worked her way up from the bottom with tenacity, perseverance, hard work, and even the selling of her body. Her rise to the top hasn't been easy, it's required every part of her, and yet she is faced with being pushed out because of the same ill treatment she has risen above time and time again. Roger is the one to finally convince her that she isn't in it for the politics, which is true, she's in it for the respect, so she decides to walk out with the deal. It's tough to watch someone we've seen work so hard to get to where she is be so callously defeated by such reprehensible characters.

This of course doesn't bode well for Peggy who also is a woman in a senior position from SC&P transferring to McCann. Peggy is already getting short shift by not having an office ready for her by the time they have to clear out of the SC&P offices. She hangs around the office for a few days trying to get things done as best she can alone, until she hears Roger woefully playing an organ in the empty offices. (Where the organ came from I still haven't figured out, but it's pretty awesome that it was there, and that Roger is going all Phantom of the Opera on it!)

And here we see Roger showing Peggy how to get day-drunk on sweet vermouth at the office with all the pluck and humour we love him for. He also is of course saying that business doesn't care about feelings, when he very clearly does feel disappointment and sadness at the dissolution of his company and the loss of his employees. Roger does have a heart no matter how much he likes to ignore it and make a good joke about it. It's in this strange interlude of the two characters together that Roger in a way mentors Peggy in the art of exuding the confidence of not caring, while at the same time making sure you're good at your job. Roger has also mentored Joan along the way and it's touching here that in a storyline where women in the workplace are taking such a beating at McCann where systemic, company wide harassment is the norm, that one man can offer kindness, respect, and mentorship to a woman and clearly make an impact.

Because Roger does make an impact on Peggy-- which we see as she finally struts into McCann. A complete badass, Peggy looks like she's ready to go to war at McCann, or at least stand up for herself because she knows how things work, and she's got an erotic octopus painting to prove that she's ready for the challenge. It was one of the show's best moments, and we all hope that Peggy will prove with confidence and smarts, that she's a force to be reckoned with at McCann.

There's so much to say! The roller skating was one of those fabulous moments you want to watch again and again. Shirley-I just love Shirley, and she's obviously a smart cookie who's moving to a different industry where she'll be afforded a bit more respect than advertising. Meredith's an interior designer?! Yay! And I wanted to jump through the screen at how awful Ferg and Jim Hobart were...so awful...

Ok, I'm making myself stop. Tell me what you thought!

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Mad Men Recap - Time & Life

It was the end of SC&P in this week's episode of Mad Men; the end of Don and Roger's dreams of running their own successful and creative ad agency, the end of Joan's hard earned position as a partner, the end of what we've watched grow and change and experience such unexpected twists and turns. "Time & Life" felt like the end of the ad agency's story in many ways, the partners are finally faced with the reality that although they've cashed in on their agency, they've also given away their independence and that they have no control over what happens to the staff they've built, their own creative aesthetic, and clients. We've witnessed so many deals, and hair-brained plans to control the company in the past that we assumed Don's last grasp to head to California would pan out, but no, this is the end.

And yet Don is left literally alone as the rest of the partners go home to cry on the shoulder of their boyfriend/kooky-French-Megan's mom/college girlfriend/slightly, less bitter ex-wife. It is a contrast that each of the partners except Don leave to a slightly better personal situation than they had before, while Don is left with no one. Startling as well, was Roger's drunken and impassioned assurance to Don: "You are okay."

But does Don have any personal integrity, strength of character, or courage to pick up the pieces of his life now that his creative independence has vanished? Is he okay if he is alone? Don couldn't even find solace or a diversion in a move to California where he has gone time and time again in his life to recreate himself and re-spark his desire for importance in his field,  and sometimes even find the courage to reevaluate the mistakes he had made towards his family. Not even the hope of California is an option to him anymore. No more SC&P, no California, Don is very much alone.

But seen alongside of Don's loneliness we gain a window into Pete's relationship with Trudy. Surprisingly, Pete wasn't his usual vindictive self, he even came to Trudy's defence with the crazy principal of a prospective school for Tammy. Another absolutely perfect Pete punching scene! It was also very heartwarming that as both Pete and Trudy opened up to each other about the difficulties they have faced since separating, sharing that divorce has not been the promised land of freedom and new beginnings it's obvious they thought it would be. They are both maturing and at the same time recognizing their bond of marriage. It was nice to see that Pete had affection and care towards Trudy, and even went to check on her after their terrible day at McCann.

But the scene that had me in tears this week was Peggy's beautiful opening up to Stan. Peggy gets into a heated argument with a stage mom after the precocious young daughter staples herself with Peggy's stapler. The stage mom yells at Peggy that she can do what she likes with her kids, and Peggy can do what she likes with hers. It's very evident that the woman believes Peggy has no children. And so Peggy explains to Stan that she isn't a coldhearted person who just doesn't like kids, no -- she followed her heart and ended up in trouble, has since moved on with her life, but still cares deeply for her child who now lives with another family.

Now I know that her revelation is given through the lens that she continues to suffer for giving up her child so that she could have a career, and that she cannot move on like a man could. But that is precisely what brought me to tears. No, Peggy couldn't just walk away from her unintended pregnancy. Yes, her decision to give her child a family has cost her dearly. Yes, she still cares. And it is exactly because she cares still, after all these years, that makes her a mother. It is an indelible mark, an inimitable gift, that women's hearts are branded and changed by carrying life, and no matter how hard society, feminist ideology, and equal pay try to irradiate this fact, it remains that women are meant to be mother's and that motherhood changes you.

The scene to me was so powerful because it has been so long in coming. Peggy has never spoken of her child to anyone. None of her former boyfriends, even Ted Chaugh, were ever intimate enough with Peggy to be given the honour of this knowledge. It happened with such emotional power by being shared with Stan in the office. She said it in a dignified yet completely heartbreaking way.

Peggy has become a successful woman, but also a mature woman who acknowledges and accepts her past. Her acknowledgement is so honest that it can't help but betray everything the sexual revolution promised the young, teenage Peggy who started out as a secretary. But it's the honesty that may provide Peggy with healing, she is a mother, she does deeply care that she has a child.

And so Mad Men has shown that business ventures may end, the times may change, yet the fundamental truths of life return to family and these essential relationships that define us. Motherhood is one of these essential things.


Some quick things:

- Does anyone really think Roger and Marie are a match?? She's no Mona.
- "Meredith, we should get you a bell."
- I'm still laughing at the hilarious principal scene!
- And Lou, another hilarious tie-up of a much hated character.
- Ken's moment to shut Pete and Roger down was perfect.

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Mad Men Recap - The Forecast

Oh, hello there, I'm finally here with a recap to Sunday's Mad Men episode! It's literally taken me four days to unbefuddle myself about this week's episode and come to some conclusions. I've also consulted my experts, Kathryn and Matthew Weiner. So we should be good to go now. I hope.

Firstly: ALL OF JOAN'S OUTFITS. I was loving this episode solely because of the variety of killer Joan outfits. From long nightgowns, to polka dots; it was perfection! I'm still thinking about that stunning brocade affair she wore out on her New York date with Richard because it was a feat of costume design!

Ok. I got that out of the way -- let's get to the serious stuff.

At face value this episode almost appears like deja vu all over again instead of a portent of the future like it's title "The Forecast" describes. Here we have Don again flat on his face, he's completely unfulfilled and to put the cherry on top he is living in an empty apartment he can't get rid. We continue feeling the deja vu as creepy Glen returns to surprise Betty with his sideburns and general manliness. Then Joan hitting it off with another rich silver fox.

Don's getting told be everyone in his life that he's a big loser. First, it's the spunky blonde realtor who makes no bones about how depressing and sad his life appears when looking at his apartment. Then, after giving some very misconstrued advice to Mathias, Don is told by Mathias in an angry tell-off that he is nothing but a handsome face, devoid of character. I think it's extremely important that the word "character" was used because that's the source of Don's current listlessness and wandering. Few people in his life have pointed to the lack of character, because they're usually pointing out the terrible things he has done, but now it is the essential lack of substance that Matthias points out and you can tell it hits home with Don.

Don then takes Sally and her friends out for Chinese before they leave on a bus trip and Sally deftly watches on as Don pours his charm on her very young friends and in return the girls eat it up. As Sally gets on the bus she confronts him for not even being able to help his "ooze", or in other words the fact that he only relates to people sexually. She's disgusted that this shallow way of relating seems to be the only way her parents are able to deal with people, (she just witnessed Betty ooze with the appearance of Glen at their door). But it's Don's response to this teenage outburst tell Sally that she is just like them because she is beautiful but that she has to do more with her beauty. I think what this is foretelling is Don's acknowledgement that character is needed to understand how to deal with that beauty, that sexuality, that is present in Don and Betty, but also burgeoning in Sally.

I love that this beautiful, human truth is coming to the light in Don's relationship with Sally. I feel like Sally is really the guide to Don becoming a whole person and it's evidenced again here in this episode. Sally's storyline was really exceptional throughout. Her dealing with Glen and Betty, then her heartbreaking phone call to Glen's mother, begging to talk to him before she leaves and he ships out.

Mirroring Don in this episode is Betty and her encounter with Glen. She's surprised by Glen being grown and joining up, but she approaches him with the compassion and understanding just as she did when Glen was a boy. Their relationship is so different from Betty's relationship with Sally, she treats Glen with a tenderness and respect that is much more close to real motherly love than her dealings with her own children. It comes from Glen seeing her as a type of goddess of beauty, he values her for her beauty in a purely idolizing way which is what she has always craved and which the love of her husbands has never quite live up to, let alone the love of her children which is far more demanding than any other love she experiences. Betty again shows that she doesn't know how to accept or give love unconditionally, but with Glen in this episode she does project a certain introspection that lets on the fact that she has influenced Glen in a way which makes her somewhat responsible for joining the army, and going into harm's way. I am hoping that this is a forecast of Betty realizing that her love means a responsibility to her children, that something is required of her, a sacrifice that she has resisted from the very beginning.

But now back to Joan! She's quickly fallen for rich, divorced, older man who seems charming and gallant while in LA on business. He surprises her by coming to New York, and it is on there next date that Joan tells her about her son. Richard is upfront and says he's got no interest in helping raise a child, or let a child ruin his jet-setting, divorced with money lifestyle. Joan walks out, but we then see her voice her frustration as she leaves her son on her way out to work by saying "You're ruining my life!" But then before she closes the door she hears a little "I love you" from Kevin. It was heartbreaking and to be honest, all to relatable. That is why the next scene with Joan when she is at the office and Richard brings her flowers as a peace offering she tells him she thinks she's going to send Kevin away. The way that Joan delivers these few quick statements seems almost flippant and sarcastic. They did indeed leave me confused for the last couple days on whether or not Joan really meant she'd give up her son for a man, but I've since watched this clip with Matthew Weiner and I'm taking it to mean that in light of Joan's exit from her apartment in the morning, her remarks of sending Kevin away are meant sarcastically - almost as a taunt towards Richard, another man who wants her to give up her dreams and what is really important to her but in a way that promises she'll crush him if that is what he demands. Weiner says that he loves the way Joan stands up for herself in that scene, and that's why I feel that Joan is placing her son first and that the remark was a sarcastic one and not something she'd seriously follow through on. Richard then apologizes and realizes his mistake of potentially giving up a wonderful woman because he's too selfish to welcome her son into his life. Here Richard is doing a very un-Roger thing in both apologizing to Joan, and admitting his own selfishness. I think we're going to see that Richard is the second coming of Roger, and is an older man who values and respects Joan completely while at the same time giving up his own selfish ways.

I think this basically covers what I wanted to cover although there is plenty to talk about especially when we look at Don trying to come up with anything when it comes to looking into the future. He sees no future at work, even Peggy can't rally hope for him in that aspect, nor at home as he's shoved out of his own apartment at then end of the episode. I think this may show that the change Don desires for the future won't come from without, but from within, even if he doesn't know yet how to make it happen.

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Mad Men Recap - New Business

Since I was out of town this week I'm woefully behind in giving my little Mad Men updates. I should almost rewatch last week's episode to have a better handle on it, it was a very tightly written episode and after some discussion with Kathryn this episode was saying a lot about Don. Let's hop to it.

This episode entitled "New Business" centres around whether or not Don is ready for new business in his personal life or whether he's going to continue to spin on the merry-go-round of misery he's been on for so long. This episode also has great hints and insights towards psychology -- the jumping off point being Betty's declaration that she's pursuing a masters degree in psychology come fall, because people just love talking to her! All of her visits to the psychologists offices from the first couple of seasons have pushed her into that direction it would seem. Unfortunately, her interest in psychology has failed her in her relationships with Don and her children time and time again, but maybe for Betty this is a case of "If you can't do - teach"?

Either way this hinting at psychology has us looking at Don's actions in this episode and especially his actions towards both Diana and Megan. (As Kathryn pointed out to me!) With one woman he's seeing a reflection of his own attitudes and underlying psychology with how he deals with life, with another woman he's come to the conclusion that the only way he can make up for past marital failings is a million dollar cheque.

As the episode continues Don further pursues Diana, she comes to his apartment, they sleep together again and we begin to hear part of her story. Diana is still giving off that Rachel vibe, and this episode cements the idea of Diana as another Rachel in Don's life. She's left her family in Racine, Wisconsin and as we find out, a daughter who died two years previous. Diana is grieving, looking to start again in New York, but cannot rid herself of her past and now the added shame of leaving her other daughter at home as well. This is eerily similar to Don. Don also ran away from his previous life, he sought out a new identity, and has plunged himself into the self-destructive cycle of searching for love and comfort in sex.

What I saw within this interaction with Diana, and especially as she pushes him away saying she doesn't want anything from Don, is a glimmer of Don realizing that the cycle of searching for comfort and love in random sexual encounters has not given him the intimacy and love that he has been continually searching for his whole life.

In Diana we also see that she's lost her family, her children; through death and in leaving her leaving home. Don has lost his home, twice over now, but his children are still here - will this be the revelation to him that this is where he will find the real love he has been seeking? I found the scene with Don making milkshakes with Bobby and Gene so sweet, yet so painful as he longingly looks at Betty and Francis carrying on as a normal family as he goes to leave. Real family is still within his grasp in his relationship with his children.

As Don is trying to begin again as he claims with Diana, he is also wrapping up the divorce to Megan. I found this storyline with Megan to be the final unmasking of Megan as someone completely opposite of Betty as she has been set up through the past seasons. Megan's career has tanked, she's out of money and dependent on Don financially (I think most of her money must be going to her fake hair!), yet she views their marriage breakdown as something completely Don's fault. Megan's own selfish choices were present at every step of their marriage, which makes their marriage breakdown worse in a way than Betty and Don's marriage. Betty didn't have as many choices and opportunities to pursue her own interests and passions, Betty didn't know the truth about Don from the beginning. Megan has always been very similar to Betty; dependent on Don, yet completely self-serving in their marriage. In her interactions with her mother Megan reveals that she's completely altered her view of her own marriage to conform with outside presumptions of what must surely have happened, which is very similar to Betty's past stubborn ideas regarding Don.

I thought Megan's mom Marie and her clearing out the apartment after Megan left to be hilarious. Although her own attitudes about marriage are obviously very toxic and she's now run out on her children and husband as well by the end of the episode.

What was also interesting about the divorce was the ways in which Roger and Pete talk to Don about it. Roger of course is still dismissive of his past experiences with divorce, claiming that Jane gave up nothing to be married to him and only reaped financial rewards. Pete however is showing a little more insight into his experience with divorce, alluding to the false idea that divorce promises a whole new life when really he's only found "new beginnings" and not a new life since his divorce. Pete's few scenes in these two episodes have been so great, the writing has been impeccable and Pete still figures large within the Mad Men world with only a few important lines.

Meanwhile Peggy and Stan are creating a photo shoot with Pima, a photographer who is known as an "artist" instead of the usual photographers who work in advertising. This storyline is interesting in what becomes a sexual power play as Pima seduces Stan in the dark room, then makes a pass at Peggy. Pima obviously isn't just an "artist" but is someone who is willing to use sex for power and gain in business. It's especially jarring as Peggy instantly recognizes this, but Stan falls hook, line, and sinker. It's a switch up from the usual seduction of women in the workplace that's been with Mad Men since the beginning, and speaks to how far Peggy has come to instantly realize it as such instead of part of normal business practice. I also like how it speaks to the myth that art is simply art or somehow different than the art that is necessary for advertising. It's an interesting comment on how there is no black and white in the business or art world but that they mess much more fluidly than both sides would admit.

I better stop here, but I'd love to hear what you all thought of the Megan fall-out and Diana's rise in importance. I also could have gone into the amazing elevator scene with Don and Diana and Arnold and Sylvia -- it was again a meticulously written scene full of tension and parallels between Don's past encounters and what's currently happening. I really loved it!

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Mad Men's Back!

Oh, I love Mad Men. I can't describe how it's impending ending makes me feel. I'm definitely overly attached. But I thought I'd just leave some thoughts here because what are blogs for, amiright? I wish I could say I have all the answers or understand all the underlying themes and ideas, but I don't have the time of a film student in a master's program, nor the weird mind of Matthew Weiner himself. But I do love talking about it, and warning for spoilers ahead!

Hitting the road running in this episode we're back with philandering Don, splashy swingin' 60's dresses, and Roger's hilarious moustache. The foreshadowing is also strong in this episode as Don dreams about Rachael - Rachael from the first season!! I had to hit pause to scream that Rachael was back just like all the conspiracy theorists had warned. She's modelling fur coats, and leave's with the ever so ominous "I'm supposed to tell you you missed your flight."

The next day Don wants to get in touch with her under the auspices of selling cheap department store pantyhose and dear ditzy Meredith has to break the bad news that she had just died last week. Ominous!! Foreboding!! Death!! Is this the warning that Don's death is approaching?? I can't help but feel that the ultimate ending of this series has to end with his death/possible redemption. It's been headed in that direction since the beginning, but how will it happen and what will it mean is what's killing all of us right now. Will Don figure out what is important in life? What real love is?? I know...we just have six more episodes to go...

On to Ken. I've always loved, loved, loved Ken. He's been my one of my favourites from the very beginning and the seasons where his character is largely ignored alway pain me. In this episode his father in law from Dow is retiring, his wife is imploring him to quit the job he hates and finally write his sad, sweet novel, while Roger is giving him the axe because McCann hates him. I was so routing for his introspective moment in the telephone booth to come to fruition, that he'd leave the torrid world of advertising with a clean break, but in the final scene he ever so perfectly shows up to announce how he's screwing Roger and Pete by becoming head of advertising for Dow. Fairly awesome, but the novel!!

Pete wasn't a major figure in this episode, but the lines he did have were so perfectly Pete that I watched them and laughed with relish. Poor Pete and his apartment building.

Peggy and Joan and their parallel yet disparate rise in the business has always been one of the best story lines of the show and last night's episode played it up perfectly. Peggy and Joan endure a torturous meeting with some McCann asses who say some truly reprehensible things to Joan. I thought she was going to leap across the boardroom table and rip them all new ones, but she makes it through the meeting only to say to Peggy in a perfect elevator scene that she wants to burn the place down. Peggy tries to commiserate but can't help but say what she really thinks: that Joan can't have it both ways. She can't rise in the business because she's a beautiful woman, become a partner and recently extremely wealthy, while not putting up with the catcalls of the piggish men they work with. Peggy also goes on to remind Joan that she's now filthy rich because of the recent takeover, and she doesn't have to do anything now. But it's also fairly obvious that Joan is frustrated and disappointed that her job title and wealth don't even affect the way men treat her, even these things she's long aspired towards don't get her the respect that she deserves.

It's always interesting to see how although Peggy and Joan should be on the same side because they're both extremely smart women, they face the sexist working world in completely different ways. Although Joan is an office and advertising genius, would she have been so valued by the partners if she wasn't beautiful? Would she have had to crawl up the ladder the same as Peggy? Would Peggy have become a wunderkind a la Megan if she had been more curvy? It's another reminder that the world is unfair in a myriad of ways.

And then goes Joan goes shopping. And it was awesome. I hope she's going to use those new boots to walk all over someone in an upcoming episode!

We also got to see Peggy go out on a really weird date. But I have to say that I was so cheered by the fact that Peggy stopped the date when she did. Maybe her smarts about men are finally coming to fruition. Maybe she's finally getting it! Maybe this is a foreshadowing of her happy ending!! (Maybe I'm deluding myself?)

Can someone remind me if Ted Chaugh got divorced while he was in California? He seemed really eager for that Vogue party and those rising hemlines! His moustache was also amazing.

I don't really want to get into the weird waitress situation. I have a feeling that it was yet another weird prophetess sexual encounter for Don. I would really love to read someone flesh out the idea that Don comes to personal realizations through women and some kind of sexual encounter. I'm sure this has to do with his past and his mother, but it's an idea that I'd like to see completely fleshed out in a linear way so I could wrap my head around it a little better. Because it's been seven seasons and it's still really weird.

Other than that I thought it was an almost perfect episode. Crisp, spot-on writing that moved quickly through the office. There is of course much to find out about all those we didn't see in the episode, and Don's empty sad apartment which I'm sure was symbolic of his inner life.

My baby's almost up from her nap, I'm leaving now.

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Mad Men Recap - Waterloo

If you had told me two episodes ago that this mini-season of Mad Men was going to end with the hopeful, whimsical, after-death, song and dance number by Bert I would never have believed you. And that ladies and gentlemen is why Mad Men is one of the greatest tv shows ever. I rest my case.

But there is still so much to talk about in this episode!

It's hard to see in obvious ways where the themes of this season are present in more than one episode because the writers are so good at weaving in small ideas in small places. But when we break the themes down to brass tacks we can see general recurrences. There is the hope versus scepticism idea that is present in almost all the story lines, but plays out most dramatically at the office as Jim plots the overthrow of all creativity, art, and the human element of advertising for the number crunching, impersonal touch of the IBM. The idea of family, what binds a character's family together and how they have failed in many aspects of family life, comes out again at the office where surprisingly Roger and Don fight for the preservation of each other and the common goal of everyone in the office. As the unknown consequences of technology have everyone tentative or frightened at some level this season, most noticeably sending Ginsberg off the edge, in this episode the moon landing has the surprising effect of bringing the whole country together and creating a human connection through shared experience of something inspiring and wonderful.

The episode's overarching hopeful tone was one that has been so missed in this season and most of last season as well. It felt satisfying to finally see genuine growth in positive directions especially in our main characters. Peggy and her odd relationship with Julio is such a sweet, intimate scene where Peggy's maternal instinct hits the right note; a skill she has such difficulty with when it comes to men or at the office. It's interesting that this is the first positive moment of a maternal nature she's experienced, and after she asked what she could be doing wrong last episode. There has been a lot of discussion about the idea of Mad Men redefining the family last week, but in another light I think of it more as a rediscovering of what family really means since every character has had such bad experiences involving family. Peggy hasn't dealt with her motherhood for almost ten years, to finally have a glimpse of maternal feeling may be a step to a deeper realization about the fact she is a mother, even though she isn't raising her child. I can't help but feel this was an important episode for Peggy both professionally and personally. She even capitalizes on this maternal view in her poignant pitch for Burger Chef, jumping in to deliver the pitch with panache and confidence, thanks to Don's selfless act of giving her the pitch.

This passing off of the pitch to Peggy is the first thing Don has done for someone else when times get tough. He usually is reactive, searching out people to stomp with his advertising genius, flexing his creative muscle, or finding another woman to sleep with, or bottle to empty. But an act of selflessness is completely contrary to his earlier behaviour. It's this selflessness not only towards Peggy, but to the whole agency to which he now recognizes loyalty towards; even though they have been actively trying to push him out, that signals personal change for Don Draper.

As Roger tries to defend Don to Bert, Bert comments that Roger is no leader. It's a stinging remark even though it was meant in Bert's trademark kindly sage/uncle manner. Roger has never really shown leadership, he's cruises merrily through life and even psychedelic orgies; at work he likes to go where the money is and does what it takes to keep his name on the door. But after Bert's death Roger springs into action to save SC&P from the soulless agency of Jim Cutler's dreams. Roger's genuine friendship with Don is the impetus for him to pursue a takeover from McCann, and he finely crafts a subsidiary agency of which he'll be president and Jim only a lowly partner. The catch is everyone must sign a 5 year contract, including Ted Chaough, who is clearly going a bit off his rocker when he cuts the engine in his plane while flying with Sunkist. Don quickly smooths things over with Ted, promising the creativity both he and Ted can't live without with none of the hassles of running the company.

After this seemingly happy conclusion of winning Burger Chef and saving the company by selling to McCann, Don turns to see a Bert apparition standing be-socked in the office, calling Don "my boy". Bert's lilt into "The Best Things in Life Are Free" complete with dancing secretaries was one of the best moment in tv ever. I thought it was a hilarious, whimsical ode to a character the show has always valued, if used sparingly. To have Bert come to Don singing the praises of a life not built around material wealth and Don so visibly touched was a moment that was revealed to contain so much meaning. Don must recognize this truth spoken to him from beyond the grave, and yet he has just signed up for more money and 5 more years of work. Is his happiness to be found through his work? Can he find and maintain hope for ever really knowing love? Will the office continue to find human connection in each other or does this hopeful mid-season ending spell doom and destruction for the finale?

Even though this show has great writing, fantastic acting, and impeccable costume and set design, I believe that what makes the show inherently great is Matthew Weiner's creation of a truly human story. Don is journeying through the question of "Who Am I?" but also "Who Are These People in My Life?" These are the questions we've been asking throughout history and in every great story and piece of art. As a Catholic I believe that this human story ends in hope, but we will have to wait yet another year to see if that is how Mad Men will finish.

Wrapping up with some quick notes:

• Sally and the older shirtless boy. I don't really buy what has been floating through the blogosphere about Sally wanting to be Betty and trying to find a test subject of a boyfriend.  I think it was more of Sally flexing her teenage charms, but then realizing the nerdy boy with the telescope may be more interesting than the boy she wants to impress. All the domestic scenes of the families watching the moon landing were perfectly done, I really appreciated the glimpse of awe and wonder.
• Joan! I don't think Joan got good shift with the writing this season because her anger to Don just because he's costing her money doesn't seem to warrant her cold reactions. I believe that she's a good business woman, that she deserves all that she gets, but it's harder to believe that she can so easily toss Don under the bus. 
• Harry Crane - No millions for you! Muahaha!
• Megan - I was somewhat disappointed she wasn't the one dying this episode. Just because I was so tired of her I hoped for a dramatic ending to redeem having to sit through her storyline all season. And the shameless last scene in a bikini?!? Really?!? If all she does all day is sit around in the California sun in a bikini then the writers never really wanted us to feel bad about this breakup. Let's all collectively cross our fingers she doesn't come back when she hears about Don's new millions.
• Meredith was so hilarious. How she beckoned Don to sit next to her on the couch? I may have been laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face.

Well, thanks for putting up with me. I wish I could have written better, deeper recaps but then they wouldn't get posted until next season! Maybe next year I'll give it another whirl!

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Mad Men Recap - The Strategy

A good dose of friendly reuniting and Frank Sinatra can cure a whole host of Mad Men woes...at least for me! This week's episode had the in-and-out theme of family working it's way through the characters and even through the agency's "Burger Chef" pitch. Whether the characters know it or not, they're all looking for family and the love you find within it.

We'll jump in with Don who seems to be on the up-and-up work wise as he's actually listening to Peggy, contributing to the team pitch, and staying quiet in meetings. But on the home front Megan comes to New York for a visit, (Gah, Megan again?! Why?!?), she's still way behind the curve when it comes to Don's work situation and even though she's up early making breakfast on the Balcony of Doom and Foreboding in a flouncy nightgown, she's not really home. She's scouring for her possessions in closets, and desperately searching for her fondue pot telling Don she'd rather they next rendezvous on neutral ground and not L.A. Don's look of dismal introspection shows that they both know this relationship is over. This second attempt of his to create a family hasn't panned out. The idea that two people could come together under the assumption that they were solely working and pursuing their own goals has been a bust. With no mutual sacrifice, or even sacrifice from one side - like Betty sacrificing at least in having children, there is no hope for a family.

Next there's Pete. The depths of Pete's slimy-ness apparently have yet to be fully mined! He's smartly set up with his blonde Californian girlfriend, free from the responsibility and commitment he always loathed in his marriage, and comes to visit little Tammy. His daughter hids behind her nanny at the sight of him and doesn't have the ability to even speak to him when he arrives. To Pete, who always wants everything because he feels it's owed to him, this seems like a terrible slight that he can't preserve his fatherhood with the absolute barest amount of time and effort put in. When Trudy returns to find him drunk and angry in their kitchen, (the literal heart of their home), he spews awful, hypocritical vitriol at her. His sense of entitlement runs so deep that he accuses her of the very things he himself is doing. Trudy responds to his ranting by saying, "You are no longer part of this family." Which was true even when he was living in the same house and not the other side of the country. Again, the lack of sacrificial love, of putting another ahead of oneself is nowhere in Pete's relationship with his ruptured family.

The idea of family is again seen with Joan and her interaction with Bob Benson this episode. Bob, in New York with the Chevy execs, waltzes in for a visit with Joan, her mother and little Kevin. His friendship with Joan is still going strong from last season. But when Bob proposes getting married to Joan as some kind of arrangement, Joan immediately stands up for the truth that no good can come of such an setup. She says Bob shouldn't be with a woman and then that she still lives with the hope of finding real love, both truths come as a complete shock to Bob. I wasn't a fan of Bob Benson last year - his cold ambition was so off-putting, but I couldn't help feeling so sorry for him this episode. His offensive proposal to Joan was done out of fear and ambition, possibly out of the belief that love is impossible for him, but it was done in such a way that you couldn't help feel compassion for him. I think Joan shows that she's been through enough tragedy when it comes to love and marriage to know that the pain is real and, in a way, a testament to the real, self-giving reality of love actually existing.

Then we wind back around to the idea of family back at the office. Peggy has pulled off a successful pitch to the rest of the office, but when Don casually tosses another idea at her, she is thrown into her customary whirlwind of self-doubt. Many have pointed to this as a female response to always being beholden to the male leadership in the office, but I also think it speaks to Peggy's artistic personality and how she truly strives for creative integrity in her work. It's her own powerful driving force, and while you can't ignore that she's always been pushed around on the job, she is her own worst critic and harshest task master. Finally Don and Peggy begin working together again. Their working together has been one of the best facets of the whole show, and it always makes good viewing, this episode included. Peggy gradually thaws as she knows only Don can quite understand her desire for creative expression through the work. Don in turn feels on equal footing with Peggy in a casual, familial sense over their work and when it comes to how they accept each other and their personalities. Peggy also sadly asks what she's done wrong, why she hasn't been able to find love and family, and yet Don hasn't either and has nothing to say to her deep yearnings.

Peggy and Don are finally reunited in their friendship and office camaraderie. The sweet dance to Frank Sinatra may be my favourite scenes on tv ever - I kinda swoon just thinking about it! Then as they sit casually in a booth at Burger Chef discussing the pitch, it's ideas of creating a sense of home and family the show comes full circle. Don, Pete and Peggy share burgers, showing that the only relationships close to real family, honesty, and acceptance may be the ones they have with each other. Their brokenness on display for years creating a shared yet unintended intimacy that stills binds them together.

Quick notes:

• I am in full belief that Roger is on top of Jim Cutler's plan to Take Over the World. His scheming demeanour when Joan railed him for Harry Crane's partnership makes me confident.
• Ugh. Harry Crane! He's the worst!
• Is this the last we'll ever see of Bob Benson?
• Stan's beard gets better every episode I think.
• I'm beginning to think I want Megan's demise at almost Andrea-from-The-Walking-Dead levels. So, we're talking momentous proportions people!
• Next week is the last episode of this horrible split season! Tell me your predictions!

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Mad Men Recap - The Runaways

For an exceedingly shocking episode, this week's Mad Men felt a bit stunted and frustrated. Or at least brought frustration for the viewer. I feel as if we're still waiting, and hoping desperately for some development in a positive direction from, well, anyone really, but that carrot just keeps dangling in front of us.

If last week's episode was an ode to the time's a-changin while characters remain in stasis, or a circular pattern of non-development, this week took that to a further level of revealing that even though we've watched these characters over years, they do not so much change as become more like themselves.

Let's start with Megan. Oh, why oh why did Megan have to remain in this season?! I'm really over her and feel as if she's most definitely not adding anything interesting to the dynamic. People complain about Betty all the time, but I feel that she's a compelling character in that she is so vigorously superficial, but also so firmly planted in a reality completely of her own making in which everyone revolves that it's entertaining to see how people collide with her understanding of the world.  Megan on the other hand we know everything about: she's manipulative in a cutting, intelligent, emotional manner and has really always been looking out for herself in everything she's touched along the way. To see her move to California and loose her grip over Don isn't a surprise but an inevitability. She claims to be independent but depends upon being able to maneuver those around her like chess pieces for her own comfort.

Enter Anna Draper's knocked-up niece Stephanie who calls Don for help. Megan appears at first welcoming and benevolent but prickles as soon as Stephanie references her relationship and knowledge of Don. Not only does this hit all the insecurity buttons, but Megan is also taken aback by Stephanie's maternity. I'm sure no secular tv critic would ever acknowledge the fact that Megan sees motherhood and maternity as the one thing she has no control over, especially after her pregnancy loss of last season, and why it could be a serious factor in her insecurities, but let's think about it for a moment. Megan is supposed to be the quintessential "modern" woman who steers her own career and life, she didn't want her pregnancy last season but was shaken at her miscarriage, now to be confronted with the beauty of motherhood in the face of her increasingly shallow, Californian image of selfish female ambition she is challenged. Megan doesn't usually respond badly, she usually takes an apt temperature of those she encounters to determine how to deal with them, but here Megan wanted to be rid of Stephanie as soon as possible. It's the impact and encounter with motherhood that has Megan reeling. Megan continues to respond badly to the pressure she feels in being unable to rekindle intimacy with Don; drugs and a threesome happen. It's all a desperate attempt and use of sexuality to somehow create a rise or any spark of interest from Don. An attempt that appears fruitless as Don won't even spend the next day with her.

I'm not quite sure if Don's attempt at a coup with Lou and Jim with Commander Cigarettes will pay off. He seems willing to change his previous alliances to not deal with tobacco, so to gain an upper hand over the partners who have cuck-holded him. Lou was especially slimy this episode, with his dreams to become a famous cartoonist discovered and made office fodder, power tripping by not letting anyone go home Friday night, and meeting clandestinely with Jim in the air conditioned computer room on Saturday.

Which brings us to poor Ginsberg. His mental illness was something that fit in, or at least be tolerated, with the rest of the crazy that is the office of SC&P. Stan seemed aware that it was more serious than simple ranting and raving, and Peggy had glimpses of it as well. His increased paranoia of the last episode where he claimed that the computer would destroy them all was foreboding as it's the sound of the air conditioning which cools the giant computer that drives him over the edge. His going to Peggy's apartment was at first strange, then touching, then really awkward. Peggy reading the situation completely wrong of course, thinks Ginsberg has romantic feelings for her so when he comes into her office to apologize everything seems much more normal. Maybe Ginsberg has turned it around? But no, Peggy opens the small box he hands her to see - his nipple in a box. I think this may have been the most shocking moment in Mad Men history, and there have been a few doozies. It was heartbreaking seeing Peggy's reaction as she calls for help, and the men in white haul him away on a gurney.

The general theme of runaways - be it Don from Megan, Stephanie living on the streets, even Bobby wanting to leave the Francis haunted house, comes full circle in Ginsberg. You can't runaway from facets of yourself, especially mental illness. We can change or not change as the world around us shifts at varying speeds but is there really any running away from who we really are?

Case in point, Betty. She's basically the cover girl of "I'm Never Changing Magazine". She collides with Henry at a dinner party over talking politics. He's outraged that she dared voice an opinion, especially one contrary to his pro-Nixon stance. I was just pleased she was making connections between events at a federal level and the kids writing graffiti in the neighbourhood! She responds in her trademark childish retaliation just like during her marriage with Don as soon as the men in her life denigrate her to the point where she's not allowed opinions or information. All of which is fairly awful, maybe we wouldn't respond quite so off the handle as Betty, but her relationships don't allow much growth as a woman, or really any intellectual life as her own person. When Henry made the remark that she should run for office to be able to express her opinion I thought "Yes!" she is the perfect politico! Hard outer shell that reveals nothing, yet exudes perfection and beauty, killer instincts to take no prisoners as she's only out for herself --  basically Betty is Hilary Clinton's role model.

Some short tidbits:

• Harry Crane....I guess I should sorta almost kinda like him for this episode and his spilling the beans about Commander, but it's just. so. hard.
• Sally broke her nose! Boy, I find her scenes with Betty to be beyond entertaining. They're both so heated and perfectly matched in their passion although from completely contrary views. I'm glad that Dr. could see her on a Saturday!
• Peggy and Julio and Ginsberg was almost my favourite scene all year. But how cute/pathetic is it to see Peggy spending her Saturday nights watching tv with the boy from upstairs?
• I liked the juxtaposition of the two parties in this episode. One; the suburban, white collar, conservative, wealthy party with silver and cocktail wieners, the other a bombastic, hippy bash with weed and a jazz clarinet! The fashion for both was fun to watch, and to compare hemlines!
• That Amy woman. Anyone else think she's the one who'll end up murdered and not Megan like all the speculation from last season??

I know I'm forgetting things, so what did you think? And remember, I gave you that nose!

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Mad Men Recap - The Monolith

This episode was so fraught with metaphor and drenched in foreboding that I won't even attempt to get to it all, because much more brilliant people will talk about it. 

Let's get to it.

Firstly, I had so much personal expectation, or rather personal preferences, for Don going back to work. I wanted him to metaphorically punch Lou with a smart witticism, tell Peggy he respects her and she's a genius, and generally kick creative ass. Did any of that happen? No, of course not, because it's Mad Men. Don doesn't really attempt to work, drinks coke, then vodka, ends up drunk dialling Freddy Rumsen. We've all seen it before. And as much as I love Don Draper and everything that is Mad Men, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD PLEASE START TO SHAPE UP DON! 

Don being assigned Lane's old office was a fairly heavy-handed symbol of the collective desire of SC&P for Don's death since it's too expensive to buy him out of the company. Burt eschews Don's attempt to bag a new account with the computer company that is setting up a behemoth computer in what was previously the writer's lounge. Don is frustrated by the lack of acknowledgement of his business foresight. The literal metaphor of the computer killing the creative side of the company doesn't sit well with Don, or Peggy, or all of creative for that matter either. It's becoming a battle between the integrity and personal aspect of the creative work of advertising versus the number crunching, computer-using, mediocrity that is becoming the calling card for the agency now.

I especially like the idea of the computer making these people, mainly Peggy and Don, wonder about the future of their jobs in the workplace. For people who's sole identity is found in their work and status in the business environment dealing with something completely unknown with unknown power would be intimidating. Don brushes it off in his trademark philosophical want when Computer Guy notes the computers ability to count stars in minutes compared to a lifetime of human effort, "But who looks at the stars and thinks of a number?" Don, in a way, is standing up for the personal and human over the giant digital revolution. Creativity is one thing computers will never be able to take over, and Don realizes it in 1969.

Meanwhile, Peggy is dumped with Don by Lou, who is both a cowardly weasel and a plotting general hoping his two thorns in his sides will somehow destroy each other. Any grand illusions we had of Peggy being Don's boss, asserting herself as a competent and gifted creative director, are dashed as she snidely grins when doling out Don's assignment. Peggy is miserable and realizes she's caught between two pompous jerks both of whom don't care a fig about her work. Which isn't such a new situation for her, let's be honest, but this season she's coming off as bitter and mean. If we're forced to watch Don endlessly never change and Peggy be bitter everyday at work it's going to force us to head to the commune!

Speaking of commune, just as we all thought, Roger's daughter has joined a cult/commune and left her family for upstate New York where the showers are few but the joints are a-plenty. I was thrilled that Mona found a way back into the story because she's one of my all-time favourite Mad Men characters. She just oozes mid-century glamour with the big hair and furs and gold jewelry, and her chemistry with Roger is unmatched.

The conflict comes down to Margaret walking out on her 4 year old son. Mona refuses to even consider Margaret's response that she's found happiness at the expense of her son and leaves Roger at the commune. Roger seems at first enticed, because he's spent his whole life looking for a place where there are no consequences, no standards, the ability to freely pursue each and every passion to the fullest. His daughter is right in thinking they can somehow relate to one another because they find apparent happiness in a world with no morality or constraints. But Roger is changed at the sight of his own daughter's sexual behaviour that isn't all the different from his own. Be it hypocrisy or twinges of conscience, Roger insists it's time for her to leave. Marigold's response to his pleading for her to be a mother to her son, that she is needed, is that he'll be fine because she's just fine for having grown up with a very absent father and a mother who hid her unhappiness in the bathroom alongside a pint of gin. It's a horrible cycle of unhappiness, poor parenting decisions, and the inability to deal with one's own issues come back again in a different guise. Roger is punched in the stomach with the consequences to his own careless disregard for his daughter. I'm not sure if this will change anything in Roger who seems so unmoved and unwilling to see his own weaknesses. He operates on a base level that there is no point in correcting himself, or seeking a higher good than his own whims and passions. The damage he has done to his daughter may not be salvageable, and now the effects of his actions are reaching another innocent generation.

Some short snippets:

• Pete showing concern for his father-in-law's death? What?! I love seeing a glimmer of a heart beneath the slimy-Pete exterior. The acting is so good. I wonder how this information will play out, not just for the Vicks account but for Pete's marriage and family.
• Jim and Harry were two peas in a pod - loving the construction/destruction of creative. 
• Could I love Meredith anymore? I don't think so. 
• Joan letting Peggy know that there were stipulations on Don's coming back may bring about some difference in how Peggy deals with Don? 
• Freddy Rumsen is pretty awesome.
• I wish Don broke the window when he threw the typewriter. 
• How funny was Pregnant Hippie?! 

Ok, what did I miss? Let me know, because we make all decisions together around here.

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