MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "The Other Woman" & "Commissions and Fees"

Welcome to the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"The Other Woman" & "Commissions and Fees"

Season 5, Episodes 11 & 12

airdates: May 27th and June 3rd, 2012

Jon: Hey, hey! Long time no talk. My vaycay was great, thanks for asking. But we have more important items to discuss: the two most recent episodes! Since we've been behind recently, I'm gonna combine the most recent two into a single post to expedite things for Sunday's season finale. Some great items will be overlooked in the name of speed and the greater good of the further adventures of the Partners' Meeting.

First up, a look at "The Other Woman." This episode's focus was on three of the most important ladies in Don Draper's life - Megan, Peggy and Joan - and SCDP's continued pursuit of the Jaguar account. All along their angle was to sell the Jaguar brand as the equivalent of a man's mistress. Which leads us to first to discuss  Joan, who despite always being one of the strongest female characters on the show, if not all of television, is routinely reduced to a slab of flesh. Part of this is because she has never been shy at using her looks to command what she wants; it works more often than not, but the events of this episode are an explicit reminder of the cost of that tactic. One of the key decision-makers on the British luxury brand's side proves himself to be an even sleazier car magnate than what the other characters on the show led the audience to believe (and they didn't exactly mince words on this topic), and all but demands to Pete and Ken during a dinner that if he doesn't get a night with Joan then SCDP won't have a prayer of getting the account. She immediate shuts down Pete's shameless broach of the subject, but ultimately Lane's suggestion of demanding partnership and 5% of the account's profits as a reward for the dirty deed end up being enough to sway her. But I think the real reason Joan agrees to sleep with the Jag-off is because she is led to believe that all the other partners are on board with this decision, even Lane and Roger, her "champions" at the office. Who can blame her if she begins to believe she really is just a pretty face and a set of dynamite curves tasked with being a divorced single mother at time when that was considered downright immoral by society. There must have seemed as if she really didn't have a better option. Of course, what she doesn't know is Don was one dissenting voice who was so disturbed by the idea that he left the room after Pete brought it up, which only allowed them to vote without his counter-point to dissuade them from going forward with the distasteful proposition. Majority rules, after all. When Don finds out that she was planning on going through with it, he rushes to her apartment to tell her she's better than that. He thinks he's made it to her before she met with the dealership owner, but after some crafty editing, we learn before the close of the episode that Joan had only just returned from her rendezvous with the creepazoid before Don arrived. After his speech, she says, "You're a good one, aren't you?" which was just beyond heartbreaking. (More on Don in a bit.) Ultimately, SCDP gets the Jaguar account the next day and a shocked Don learns that Joan, in fact, did her part in reeling them in.

Meanwhile, Megan has continued with her acting plans while the grumbling Don remains reluctantly supportive. That is until Megan reveals that her new possible gig will take her to Boston for a couple of months of rehearsal if she lands it. Don is absolutely furious. Not only is his bride no longer working side-by-side with him, now the very real possibility of her leaving town to pursue her dreams has arrived as well, and that is more than he's able to handle. They have a spat over it, but the issue remains unresolved since Megan has yet to actually land the part. But, much like Joan, Megan can do little more than turn around for the male casting trio for her role in the play, and she is passed over for it; one of the other cutlets looked better on display, I suppose.

Then there's Peggy, who's continuously fought against being just a pretty face, a pawn in the workplace or even seen as a woman working in a man's world. She's always just tried to be an equal through intelligence and hard work. So while she took charge of all SCDP's creative business while Don and his team obsessed over nothing but Jaguar, you can understand her frustration when Don (frustrated by the Joan and Megan developments) treats her inhumanely by tossing money at her face during an argument. That was her final straw. And a couple of meetings with good ol' Freddy Rumsen and a SCDP competitor later, she gave her notice to Don, and there was nothing he could do in that moment to win her back. He lost her days before.


So, is Don one of the good ones as Joan attests? In her experience, absolutely. He's worlds above the other partners and just about any other man she's been in the company of that we've been privy to on the show. And we've seen him be amazing to lots of characters. But Don continues to treat Megan and Peggy atrociously whenever that infamous Draper temper flares up. So... I guess he is sometimes? It's such a hard question to answer, which is why it's so fascinating to contemplate.

And it's a subject that was similarly broached in "Commissions and Fees." While checking the books to see how Jaguar's unique payment request would effect business, Bert Cooper discovers Lane's forged check from "Christmas Waltz." However, since Don's name is on it, he accuses Don of having given Lane a bonus behind everyone's back and being "the good little boy while the adults run this business." And he may have a point, because even though Don cleans up the Lane mess a heartbeat later, he does so in about the most decent way possible by giving Lane an opportunity to devise a story for his resignation. Unfortunately things unravel quickly from that point for Lane, and he ultimately decides to hang himself in his office over the weekend. Continuing with the Don is a good guy evidence, he refuses to let Lane hang there any longer once he learns the body has yet to be moved, enlisting Pete and Roger to help him cut him down. The easy thing would have been to leave him there as Pete, Ken and Harry decided to do (hard to blame Joan or Bert for it though). And he also treated Glen surprisingly well considering the day he had, not only giving the youngster a ride back to school but letting the boy drive the car there himself.

I don't know. Maybe I'm looking too hard for reasons to like Don right now after all the sadness the Joan and Lane stories brought and the prospect of no more Peggy in our lives. He's obviously a complicated man who cannot be easily classified as a villain or a hero in any traditional sense. There does seem to be more good in him now than we've seen in some time, perhaps ever, and I think it's worth putting a spotlight on that for a moment.

Shifting back to Lane for a sec... ugh, that was so depressing. I guess I don't have a lot to say about his suicide. Ever since Joan rejected his advances after the fight with Pete, things have been going downhill for him, and life wasn't particularly rosy for him before that to boot. Once we saw him reduced to embezzlement, it was a good guess his time at SCDP was likely coming to a close and

So many questions are lingering now. Will Joan hold any form of resentment against Pete, Roger and Bert for what they pushed her into? Don't see how you could blame her if she did. How does SCDP deal with Lane's suicide? Practically speaking, Joan will be able to slide into his duties rather seamlessly (there's been a running joke much of this season that she really did all he was responsible for), but this is not Mrs. Blankenship were talking about. The man was a partner and killed himself in his office; there will be constant reminders for all of those characters. Will it drive someone like Pete to change their outlook on what they have in life? And have we seen the last of Peggy Olson? She could easily join the ranks of Kinsey, Rumsen and Sal, the former key members of this group of ad men barely ever seen again after stepping outside their inner circle. Like Joan replacing Lane, Ginsberg could fill the void she'll leave, but at what cost? His volatility may get the better of him. These may not be addressed in the finale, but I'm sure they'll continue to be relevant down the line.

Man. These last two episodes were big downers, but had so much great material packed in. I haven't even talked about really major stuff with Sally, some interesting tidbits on Betty, or even my homeboy Glen! Mark, any thoughts on those characters or were you as consumed with Joan, Peggy and Lane as I was?

Mark: Hey, Jon! Glad you had a good vacation. Geez, where to begin? Well, you know I always have something to say about Sally. It doesn't take much for this kid to break my heart, so you can imagine my reaction to her in this episode. Things are never easy for Sally, so it was appropriate that she would experience her first period while playing hooky at the Natural History Museum with Glen. This show is so adept at portraying the rollercoaster of confusion that is adolescence, and Kiernan Shipka is turning out to be quite a thoughtful actress. I thought the whole subplot, from Sally's reticent crush on Glen "Holden Caulfield" Bishop to her panicked dash back home to Betty, was handled very well. It was also touching to see Betty have a rare moment of selflessness and compassion for her daughter in a moment when Sally desperately needed her mother to put these scary things into perspective. Betty's speech about the life-affirming nature of menstruation was an uncharacteristically upbeat moment for Mad Men. For once this show wasn't convincing me that life is a meaningless nightmare.



And God knows I needed it these last two weeks, as this sweet story was surrounded by the destruction or near-moral-destruction of one of my favorite characters (Joan) and the one I most wanted to pat on the back and tell to calm the fuck down and smell the roses (Lane). First off, Lane. I agree, Jon, this was so depressing, and even though it was laced with some traditional Mad Men gallows humor, the death of Lane Pryce hit me hard. I feel like it is something that is going to irrevocably change the landscape of this show. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything else like this that has hit the SCDP crew so close to their own turf. Even though his reasons were not made clear to the rest of the partners, and I doubt Don will make them clear, I think each character will see what they want in themselves through Lane's suicide and won't be able to help being changed by it for better or worse. I've read elsewhere the theory that Lane gave too much and never claimed anything for himself. I don't know if I agree with that, at least not in the literal sense. I think the problem with Lane is that he allowed himself to be a shadow that the rest of the world passed through. He sat on the sidelines of his own life, and like Pete he daydreamed about being Don Draper, a big bold American bad-ass, until he got backed into a desperate corner, and the only way out was to swallow his pride and take a long look at himself and where he was. And Lane couldn't do that. He couldn't admit to himself that he needed help or that he made a mistake, and he certainly couldn't bear the humiliation of Don (being relatively compassionate, in a Don way) calling him on his actions. Don gave Lane the option of starting over, but that's where Lane and Don differ. That's why Don is the ultimate ad man. He is able to believe in some pie-in-the-sky ideal so strongly that it becomes a reality. Lane hated himself to the very core. He could never be Don Draper, because Dick Whitman would always be there eating away at him from the inside.









Lane snapping his glasses in half right before doing the deed was such a powerful physicalization of that self-hatred. Now the gallows humor I was talking about. I did love Lane as a character, but he is one of those Coen Brothers-esque heroes where its kind of fun and cathartic to see him be endless shit upon as a result of his own stupidity and bad luck. When Lane's wife surprised him with that Jaguar. Damn it. Jared Harris totally nailed the sinking dread of the situation. And after hearing so much about Jaguar's being substandard vehicles, I have to admit I did not see the punchline coming of Lane being unable to start the car and asphyxiate himself with the exhaust. It feels a little weird to say that was a great moment, but it was thematically on-point, it was totally appropriate for the character, and the subtext of the Jaguar-as-mistress being unreliable in a show filled with desperately unhappy philanderers was not lost on me. Just good writing.




I would say poor Joan, but I almost feel like I should be saying poor Don. Sure, Don is essentially our main character, but it almost seems like Don is suffering more for Joan's (and Lane's) decisions than they are. As gross as the SCDP partners were for entertaining the sleazebag Jaguar guy's offer... Well, let's face it, Pete is the gross one, although for as much as the others protested they didn't exactly stop it from happening. I feel like Lane was at least looking out for Joan in his own fucked-up way by suggesting that she get some financial leverage in the negotiation, and ultimately Joan made her own decision. I worry that this is one of those things that Mad Men characters carry around all of their lives that poison them slowly, but as a single divorced mother in the mid-1960s Joan is a stigmatized, ostracized figure. And with Greg off playing GI Joe in the Mekong Delta, Joan only has herself on which to rely when the bills start rolling in and the fridge goes on the fritz. It is horrible and depressing, such is the Gospel According to Weiner, to have to compromise yourself and give up pieces of your soul each and every day in order to stay afloat, and this was an extreme illustration of that in Mad Men's short-story mold. I'm glad to see Joan claiming some more power for herself, but at what cost? I just hope that some day down the line Joan doesn't have to suffer the indignity of being reminded of how she got to where she is by some pigheaded and petty SCDP shithead (I'm looking at you, Pete.)

This whole thing really gives some mileage to Don's downward spiral. Jon, it's interesting to try to pin Don down as being either a good or bad person. He's a complicated guy, definitely flawed and hypocritical, but not evil. Like anyone, I think Don is a good person when he wants to be. It's not easy to be good. It's downright impossible to be good all the time. I think Don is a good person who has been scarred by his experiences. He was discarded as a child and taught to disappear if things aren't going his way. There is an emptiness to him, a fluidity to his identity and how he perceives the world that others don't share. He's a bit of a sociopath in that way. We've joked before about Don being capable of murder. He does have a psycho tinge to him in his ability to disappear or change on a dime when things get too real, but more and more I feel like Don is just a kid who is trying to embody a childish ideal. And in accordance, he definitely acts childish. He is overflowing with respect and admiration for Joan, but when she compromises his idealized vision of her, he is crestfallen. I believe he is genuinely hurt and saddened that Joan was taken advantage of, but I also think there is an element of him feeling let down by her. The same with Peggy. He gets wrapped up in his own stuff and treats Peggy like garbage, and completely disrespects her by throwing money in her face. And when she stops taking it and seeks a new opportunity, he begs her to stay, in a touching scene that has just enough of a dash of "abusive boyfriend swearing he'll never do it again" to make it that special brand of "Mad Men complicated". Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe that Don respects Peggy and cherishes their professional chemistry and history, but I also think it is important to him that he always remain the mentor and she remain the adoring pupil. But I think Don can be a great person in the moments that he chooses to be kind, which you're right, Jon, these moments seem to be more plentiful these days (credit to Megan, whom I didn't get to discuss much), whether it's paying some respect to Lane's body or taking it easy on the scared and stranded Glen. But Don always gets something out of it. In his night drive with Glen, Don was able to escape from the complications and compromises of living in the world and experience the optimism of childhood. As confusing and scary as adolescence can be, it's amazing how all of those fears can be washed away (at least temporarily) by something as simple as a grown-up letting you take the wheel.

Again, this may just be me not wanting to let go of Peggy, but I don't see this as her exit from the show. I think this is just the next chapter in Peggy's evolution as a young woman in the career world, which has provided such a nice spine for the show. It was great to see her step into a whole new world of possibilities as the Kinks tore down a few more shreds of the good-old-boy business tactics of SCDP. Maybe I'm selfish, but I don't want Peggy to stray to far from us.

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"
Episode 7 - "At The Codfish Ball"
Episode 8 - "Lady Lazarus"
Episode 9 - "Dark Shadows"
Episode 10 - "Christmas Waltz"

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "Dark Shadows"

Welcome to the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"Dark Shadows"

Season 5, Episode 9

airdate: May 13th, 2012

Mark: Oh, Betty. Despite Ms. Francis doing the epically shitty thing of using her daughter as a pawn against her ex-husband, I think some of that season one sympathy that she instilled in me is creeping its way back in. Who, like Betty, wouldn’t be a little peeved to witness Don and Megan’s swinging Manhattan pad and genuine affection for each other when all they had to go back home to was a dark, empty house and a distant daddy-husband? You know you don’t mess with Sally if you want to stay in my good graces, but damned if I didn’t feel for Betty that her greatest source of pleasure in her life currently is a meticulously portioned glob of sweet potatoes. I’m definitely sensitive to weight issues, so maybe that has something to do with it. But I also know how deeply it hurts to be jilted, and although she does not process her feelings in anywhere near a healthy way, there is something to Betty’s anger and disappointment over Megan somehow having access to a sensitive, loving Don Draper that Betty herself never knew. Don’t get me wrong, Betty can be such a dope. After all, she is thankful because “I have everything I want, and no one has anything better”. It’s important to her that everyone else be on a lower rung. That line actually made me laugh out loud and exclaim “What a Betty thing to say!” Yes, I’m an obnoxious TV watcher sometimes. Well, anyway, chalk another one up for Sally’s dying innocence. Sorry, Sal, not even the grown-ups have it figured out. Good luck!

Now that Megan has flown the Sterling Coop to pursue guest spots on Dark Shadows (in theaters now!), Don has no choice but to reengage with his work. And he’s a little rusty. Not only does his cartoon devil pitch lack that Don Draper feeling, it looks downright quaint next to Ginsberg’s literally in-your-face Snoball campaign. It was painful to hear Don have to justify – TWICE – that his devil ad will work if you hear the scary devil voice in your head. When it comes down to it, Don predicates his idea entirely on the fact that kids like cartoon devils, which to paraphrase Roger Sterling, sounds like a client’s idea if I’ve ever heard one. Like Betty, Don feels jilted and passed up, in this case by the changing world of advertising. He has been checked out for a while (Ginsberg condescendingly congratulates Don on being able to write after not doing it for so long), and is jealous of the new kid on the block. Shades of Betty and Megan. And like Betty, Don takes the petty route and ditches Ginsberg’s mock-up in the cab ride to the presentation, and he sells the client on his cartoon devil after Ginsberg’s work was unanimously chosen as the stronger pitch by the SCDP partners. Maybe Don and Betty are more alike than we thought, and as genuinely supportive as Don is of Megan’s choice to pursue acting, maybe Don can only go so far. As Joan reminded us, Don was once this smitten with Betty back when she was a bright-eyed model plucked from a casting call. As Roger says (I’m quoting him a lot today), it’s every man for himself, and who’s to say Don won’t jump ship the minute he tires of his worldview being challenged? Megan, Ginsberg and the entire world aren’t going to stop moving forward, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Don just ripped the needle off the record in frustration and walked away from it all. Don vacillates between being with and behind the times, but ultimately I’m afraid he just can’t handle all those sitars and tape loops. By the way, I missed the last couple of weeks, but I can’t believe this show was able to license “Tomorrow Never Knows”. How expensive must that have been?

Gratuitous side-boob image brought to you by the good people of LowBrowMedia.

Continuing the theme of “Everybody’s Selfish!” is Mr. Pete Campbell and his dogged pursuit of Beth. This is more from last week’s episode, since I didn’t have a chance to weigh in, but gosh... It’s the same with Betty. Weiner and pals have a special talent of making their characters act like utter scumbags but having them still somehow be sympathetic. Pete’s motivations come from the most selfish and petty of places, all from his thwarted sense of superiority and unfulfilled need to be seen as important and to guide the narrative of his life, but damn his depression is palpable. He is the saddest little fuck I’ve ever seen, and his need to turn the tables on Beth in order to correct some misplaced idea that women shouldn’t have the ability to guide the course of action if a man believes things should go another way is just mindblowing. Wait a minute, Pete! That tiny speck of ground you have to stand on is crumbling! Watch out below!

I also appreciated that the fog of dread that has been hanging over this entire series became literal this week, in the form of the poisonous smog which apparently was a real thing and killed 169 people in 1966. I feel like that’s the kind of metaphor that causes Matthew Weiner to literally drool. After that and the incredibly ominous open elevator shaft from two weeks ago, I’m really starting to feel the cold hand of death hanging over this show. Or perhaps it’s the cold hand of Satan gripping his ice cold Snoball treat!

Jon: Ask and you shall receive! Last week I petitioned for some overdue Betty action and, man alive, did I get it this time. She's been busy trying to lose some of that excess weight we were introduced to earlier this season by engaging in some serious portion-controlled meals and attending some therapy sessions (also known as Weight Watchers). Things seem to be on the upswing for her, but the combination of getting glimpses of Don's swanky new apartment, his new wife's banging physique and their lovey-dovey correspondence prove to be too much, and she immediately regresses into the childlike behavior that drove her into this mess in the first place. But as awful as it was of her to spill some of Don's secret past to Sally, it was probably the most fun thing I've seen her do since she was gunning down birds with a ciggy hanging out of the side of her mouth. As much as her character drives me bonkers, "Dark Shadows" was a wonderful reminder how necessary Betty is to the show. She makes almost everything around her more interesting. A lot of trouble was caused this week, as she accelerated a lot of things into motion involving Don and Megan, as well as Don and Sally for the final episodes of season 5.

In addition to Betty's return, there were a couple of important shifts with other characters that occurred this week, namely the rest of the Drapers -- Megan, Sally and Don -- and young, enigmatic Michael Ginsberg.

Megan continues to buy into her father's disappointment in her life, with this week bringing us a peek at a similar sentiment from her acting friend we last saw at the "Zou Bisou Bisou" party. As her lovely ginger friend points out, Megan's pretty far away from the struggling actress reduced to reading for a cheesy gothic soap opera. At this point, I'm wondering if she'll leave Don to pursue her stage dreams just to struggle for the point of struggling, or if he'll become completely disenchanted with her before she has the chance.

But cute redheaded actresses aren't the only ones giving Megan a hard time this week, as Sally cuts deep at her with Betty's claws. The revelation of her father's dark secrets hurt Sally immensely, shattering her idealistic view she's allowed herself to build of him as an absentee parent, an image very unlike what Sally's cultivated for Betty. Soon enough, she'll be free of any simple vision of either one of her parents. But Sally's further ascent into adolescence does stop there. This week has shown us she is an absolute master at manipulating every adult in her proximity. She circles around each of Betty, Don and Megan with amazing tact, and one can only marvel at what she'll be able to pull off next season.

After having spent most of the season avoiding work at such an astonishing rate Roger has probably been the more productive SCDP employee this season, Don finally heads back into full workaholic mode. Bert's chastization from a few weeks back has finally become undeniable, so Don spends part of the weekend alone in the office brainstorming on the pitch for a new client. Really though, this is little more than a residual effect of Megan's decision to leave the advertising industry, as Don's physical and creative wanderings around the office seem a result of escaping his homelife now that it's no longer intertwined with his work.


And this new-found immersion in work brings him head to head with rising creative supernova Michael Ginsberg. A few weeks ago, Mark mentioned that we weren't talking enough about Ginsberg, and he was completely right. Season 5 has been peppering tidbits of information on the newest copywriter almost every week, but I never felt I had enough to really sink my teeth into with him until now. As great at their jobs as we've seen Peggy and Don be, Ginsberg has a wild, unpredictable streak that allows for his work to possibly reach another level of greatness. He's incredibly young and knows he's supremely talented, a difficult combination to harness. When he learns Don never brought his Snoball idea to the client -- one that was clearly superior to his boss's idea -- he goes berserk, partly because he knows Don did it intentionally and also because he has no filter. Ginsberg confronts Don in the elevator the following morning. As much as my hearts goes out to the kid for calling him out, Don so effectively swats him away that I'm immediately sent back into his corner. Ginsberg will receive his due accolades if he swallows a smidgen of pride. It just may not be within the offices of SCDP.

The only other major event that happened this week was Roger hooked up with Jane in her new apartment basically because he decided he wanted to. Not sure if anything significant will come of that, but it gobbled up enough of the episode that it's worth mentioning.

On a closing note (and also because it actually worked last time with Betty), I'm calling for the return of Lane. I miss that crazy British bastard! Did Pete mess up his face so much, he's gone into hiding? I need to know. And also please more sideboob. See you all again in a few days!

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"
Episode 7 - "At The Codfish Ball"
Episode 8 - "Lady Lazarus"

Peggy wasn't a big player this week, but we couldn't bring ourselves to leave this shot on the cutting room floor.

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "At The Codfish Ball"

Welcome to the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"At The Codfish Ball"

Season 5, Episode 7

airdate: April 29th, 2012

Jon: Welcome back to another installment of the Partners' Meeting where someday you can spread your legs and fly away.

This week we start our trip to the codfish ball (whatever that is) by checking in on my homeboy Glen, who is now even extra worldly with a hint of a crustache and post-breakup scars marking his soul. Sally has continued to keep in touch with him via phone since they last parted ways, talking about what pre-teens talk about, which is pretty much nothing. But since she must take the phone from across the hall into her bedroom in order to gab comfortably in private, the outstretched phone cord leads to a sloshed Grandma Pauline to trip over it and be even more unfit than usual to care for Sally and Bobby. However, Grandma Pauline's misfortune is Sally's gain, and now she gets to spend a few days with her father.

But it's not just Don she has the pleasure to join this week as Megan's intellectual French-Canadian parents have come to New York for a visit. Their marriage is hanging on by a thread, with her hitting on a suprisingly unsuspecting Don at every opportunity while Megan's father seeks solace in a phone call from his publisher's rejection from his latest grad student tryst. The kids arrive downtown in time for dinner, but Sally doesn't like the fish the rest are having, so Megan makes her some spaghetti. The next day at the office, Megan finally cracks the Heinz account after being inspired by her and her family's past with spaghetti and applies it to baked beans. During the usual SCDP dinner courting of the visiting Heinz executive and his wife before their morning pitch, Megan learns that they're about to lose their account after all the lackluster work we've seen over the course of the season (bean ballet, anyone?). She warns Don about it and then prods him to make the new pitch here and now before he flips out and they're fired on the spot. It was vintage Don Draper, enhanced by Megan's presence, and it worked. Everyone's ecstatic over this grand success. Except for Megan, who is horrified to learn from Peggy that this is as good as this job gets.

Meanwhile, Peggy's relationship with Abe takes a turn for the more serious with a big decision. Unfortunately for him, Joan has psyched Peggy up for a marriage proposal, not the "let's move in together" one he nervously offers. She accepts with concealed disappointment, then invites her mother over for a meal at their new abode to break the news of them shacking up in sin. That goes predictably awful, so badly in fact that they don't even get any cake out of the deal.

But they weren't the only ones left cakeless. The other big event of the episode was Don receiving an award from the American Cancer Society for his previous work at a hoity-toity dinner, accompanied by Megan and her parents. Sally asks her daddy to be included and he agrees, so long as she leaves the make-up and go-go boots at home. She may finally be allowed to sit at the grown-up's table, but she's still his little girl, after all. Roger, who has been telling everyone under the sun about how great his LSD experience was, is her date and adds to the masquerade by treating her like a Mona in training by bouncing business party etiquette off her and handing out a Shirley Temple when she's showing signs of needing to taper off. All of these moves are incredibly charming to Megan's mother, who finally has a willing partner in Roger to flirt with. Those flirtations quickly escalate to something far more adult than Sally was prepared for after she walks in on them. By the time a dazed Sally makes her way back to the table, she's forever finished with those Shirley Temples and later that night tells Glen that the city is simply dirty. Whether or not she meant dirty in a good or bad way is yet to be seen, but she's officially primed for a new level of trouble to get into.

Just before that, we also learn why Megan isn't excited as everyone else for her big Heinz win. Her father taught her that "giving up" and selling your soul is the worst offense possible in this world, because Karl Marx said so. She's viewed as being handed all of her successes, even the ones she's illegitimately earned, for no other reason than because she's married Don. Apparently being a secretary by day and a struggling actress by night is the path to a more righteous existence. Has she given up or has she found what makes her happy? Her father certainly has shamed her into thinking she's failing at life, but who is he to talk? She and Don may not be together forever, but when they're on, they're amazing together. But I think Megan's rearing is the latest clue these two won't be able to make it work in the end.

And with my final observation about this week, I'd like to point out how wonderful the score of the episode was in "At The Codfish Ball." Outside of something overt like "Bye-Bye, Birdie" and this season's use of "Zou Bisou Bisou" being integral to the plot and unlike the bell-ringing that the inclusion of "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" induced last week, the music on Mad Men (and most other shows, really) is often something that rarely makes itself known while residing in the background. But there were multiple times this week where a classical riff from a clarinet (or was it an oboe?) and a piano struck me. It's not necessarily important to the episode, but is indicative of the show's subtle qualities I appreciate from week to week and it was especially nicely done this week to counteract the silence of the characters in those moments.

Enough about boring background music. What say you, Mike?

Mike: I’m not as good at recapping events like my cohorts Jon and Mark here, but I do want to look at a bunch of stuff in this episode that really resonated with me.  So, here goes:  Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sally Draper really fucking scares me.

No -- not her, so much as what she could become, so much of which is completely out of her control.  For an entire episode which could actually be summed up as “how to screw your daughter up, sometimes without even knowing it or meaning to,” we saw time and time again how circumstances have created the Peggy and Megan that we know and love, and also got some terrifying glimpses of what might be going on inside Sally’s head.

It’s a credit to the young actress Kiernan Shipka that her portrayal of Sally is so well-rounded.  We can see the all-but-seething discontent with her life in that huge mansion in upstate New York somewhere, the only respite being her flirtatious, precocious conversations with good ol’ creepy Glenn who, lest we forget, in times past had shared in an emotional affair with Sally’s own mother.  Now, Sally has what really in all truth seems like a loving, caring father in Don, especially the seemingly more well-adjusted “Season Five Don,” but he’s also kept at a distance because she does not live with him.  Her everyday life is filled with what seems like an absentee mother and father figure, two ciphers as brothers, and a domineering (but plucky) stepgrandmother whose respect she still has yet to earn.  With this living situation, alongside the serial killings and the brewing cultural-societal tumult of the ‘60s, it’s no wonder that she’s starting to feel a lot of pressure that she might not even be able to give a name to yet.

That said, we also see another side of Sally in this episode that I also buy into -- the girl who loves shopping with her cool young stepmom and showing off her short-skirted dress, who wants her daddy to think she looks pretty in it, and who wants to go watch that same guy, the apple of her eye, win a prestigious award with all of the other adults.  Too bad everyone but Sally’s aforementioned dad and stepmom are determined to behave like children all night.  If it’s not Megan’s constantly warring parents, it’s Roger taking full advantage of his newly hippified, freethinking outlook on life and also, as coincidence may hold, full advantage of Megan’s mom too.

Full disclosure time: I have a gorgeous, funny, brilliant, insane and creative two-and-a-half-year-old daughter who’s got me eating out of the palm of her hand.  (I’ve got an infant son, too, but I’ve only just begun to fear for his future.)  Like I hope most parents do of their own children, I think the world my daughter, and simultaneously balance the thought that I can’t believe how lucky we are to have her with the desperate desire for the sacred and sweet relief of her 8:00pm bedtime.  Maybe those of you out there who are parents can relate.

Anyway, when I see Sally, through virtually no fault of her own, embarking upon the process of losing faith in humanity at such a young age, it terrifies me to think that as much as I would like to protect my own daughter from such experiences, there isn’t any honest way to guarantee her safety.  And does it really do you any good to have faith in humanity in the first place?  Well, this probably isn’t the right place for that discussion.  I guess, at the very least, I would like my kids to have the opportunity to give humanity the chance to prove itself.  And for a child of her temperament, and who has gone through the things that she has, I’m afraid that poor Sally Draper may have already cast her vote.

In other developments this episode, we also saw Peggy seek out a truthful relationship with her mother, who hasn’t been around for a while, at least not onscreen.  From the outset, I knew the whole dinner thing was not going to go well, and I spent some tense moments waiting for what was surely to be the elder Mrs. Olson’s reaction to Abe and Peggy shacking up.  It takes a pretty nuanced hand to show a child you still love them while perhaps not completely agreeing with the path they have chosen in life, and Peggy’s mother has none of it.  As a young father, I (perhaps naively) have a hard time believing that I will ever find myself in that kind of situation with my children, but should that ever be the case, I hope I handle it a whole lot better than Mrs. Olson did.

Finally, I wanted to mention that this may have been the episode where Megan finally won me over for good.  I’ve been so focused on watching the warning signs in Don’s behavior and predicting what tragic turns her and Don’s relationship might (still) take that I might have missed all the good there, too.  Especially in comparison to Megan's parents!  Simply put, the copywriting and advertising magic that the Don and Megan team create in this episode really show that she’s not just some arm candy who humped herself out of a secretary job and into the creative field.  She, like Peggy before her, has really got some talent in the ad arena, and it’s beginning to bear fruit.  I really enjoyed the masterful interplay between Don and Megan as they used every trick in the book to snare a client.  I saw a lot of mutual respect and depth in their relationship, with both Don and Megan knowing when it was time to act and when it was time to step back and let the instincts of the other partner take control.  It was a thing of beauty to see unfold, and I hope there’s more of this kind of success for them in store.

Now, last episode, Burt criticized Don for being on “love leave” in recent times and urged him not-so-gently to get his shit together.  Could it be, though, that this very same love will be the key to his creative resurgence?  Or will Megan’s burgeoning talent begin to outshine Don’s, resulting in an ugly display of bruised pride?  I’m really hoping for the former, to be honest, but as usual I’m intrigued to see what comes next.

Jon: Hey, I'm back! Aren't you excited? Anyway, while trying to find that wonderful piece of piano and clarinet/oboe music I mentioned above (btw, I'm still looking), I figured out what this episode's title is in reference to. Turns out there's a Shirley Temple number in 1936's Captain January called, you guessed it, "At The Codfish Ball." So to know one's surprise, Sally's nibbling on that giant fish while at a "ball" wasn't to be taken literally. Obviously Roger's line about cutting her off from her glass of Shirley Temple had another layer to it. Here's the song if you're curious:


Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "Mystery Date"

Welcome to the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"Mystery Date"

Season 5, Episode 4

airdate: April 8th, 2012

Mark: You know, despite its title and the amount of time it spends focusing on Don, Roger, Pete and all the other mixed-up dudes in the ad biz, I feel more and more that Mad Men is secretly (or not so secretly) a show about women. Actually, maybe the title is appropriate along those lines, as I believe that Weiner and the other writers do some of their most powerful work when they explore what it means to be a woman in a Mad Mad Mad Man's world.

For the last couple of seasons, Joan has been reaping the whirlwind of female oppression in the Mad Men universe. She hitched her wagon to Dr. Greg even though he was a petty, useless little rapist, because she was told she needed stability and couldn’t have it on her own. Greg was going to be a doctor and provide for Joan, but he couldn’t cut the mustard. After a series of professional humiliations, being the scumbag he is, Greg asserted his dominance on Joan to make himself feel like a man. I thought Mad Men would go the rest of its run without having Joan or Greg reference the rape in Don’s office, so needless to say I was very satisfied to witness Joan throwing Greg out on his ass. Greg turning his back on his family (sure, it’s not really his kid, but he doesn’t know that!) so that he can voluntarily run off to play the big man in Vietnam was really the last straw, and I am relieved and excited for Joan that she took a stand. The final overhead shot of her lying on the bed with the baby and her ridiculous mother was equal parts funny, sad and unnerving. I’m worried for Joan. She’s still living in the patriarchal shell game of 1960s America, but change is on its way, and she is free to take control of her own life when she’s ready. I couldn’t help but be reminded of one of the final shots of the Kill Bill saga, another graceful overhead shot, of Uma Thurman weeping/laughing with joy having completed her bloody journey.

Like Joan, many characters this week were second-guessing the motives of those around them. As the news breaks of the Richard Speck murders in Chicago, a tense undercurrent of paranoia starts to run through the episode. On a side note, I have to say I’m really loving Michael Ginsberg. He’s a hot shot, and he went over Don’s head to a client (a definite no-no), but this guy’s got layers right off the bat. Maybe he’s just a normal person, compared to the callused copywriters of Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce, for not wanting to see the gruesome pictures Joyce brings of the slain nurses, but this deliberate contrast seems to hint at something in Michael’s past. What happened to him? Or are Weiner and co. just trying to show that Michael comes from a place that the relatively-privileged SCDP-ers are disconnected from, a place where violence is very real. Anyway, he seemed extremely uncomfortable and brought that energy to his mesmerizing Cinderella pitch. Great performance from Ben Feldman. Michael Ginsberg understands women. Maybe I just have Richard Speck on the brain, but could Michael be a secret murderer just like Don? Just kidding, but more on that below.

Anyway, Peggy has Richard Speck on the brain too. After bilking Roger for $400 when he needs someone to pull an all-nighter on the Mohawk Airlines image campaign, Peggy finds herself alone in the dark office. She hears a pounding sound, and when she goes to investigate, the normally bright and welcoming corridors of SCDP suddenly look very creepy. The sound ends up not being a murderer, just Dawn. She can’t get a cab uptown because of the riots in Harlem. It’s interesting to note that Peggy initially thinks Dawn won’t ride the subway because she’s scared of a Richard Speck copycat. This is a parallel to the situation with Ginsberg. The riots present a very real, immediate threat to Dawn, not to mention her day-to-day of just being who she is. She doesn’t have time to get wound up about the murders that happened hundreds of miles away. Peggy, still feeling pretty proud of herself for putting one over on Roger, invites Dawn to stay at her apartment and tries to connect with her as a fellow female trying to make it in a man’s world. Unfortunately, Peggy is too caught up in her own narrative and never really listens to Dawn, who unsurprisingly doesn’t seem to care about being a copywriter. And in a few agonizing seconds as Peggy hesitates to leave her purse alone in the living room with Dawn, it seems like the door has been closed on any friendship that may develop between them. Peggy started out questioning the motives of the people around her, and ended up questioning herself.

I’ve made some tongue-in-cheek pronouncements about Sally’s importance to the series, but I’m really kind of serious about that. The ongoing slaughter of Sally’s innocence has been one of the most compelling aspects of the show for me. And just as she found herself drawn to the coverage of JFK’s assassination, poor little Sally can’t help but seek to satisfy her morbid curiosity about the Speck murders. Locked in the house with Grandma Pauline on a long, hot summer day, Sally too learns the hard lesson that she is in danger, in this case from men simply because she is a woman. Puberty is going to be brutal for Sally. While it was nice to see Pauline humanized a little bit and taking it easy on the young Ms. Draper, I sure hope Sally doesn’t think Secanol is the cure for what ails her.

I won’t say too much about Don’s storyline. This show has a problem with corny dream sequences, but I think this one was probably the least problematic of the series for me. I thought it captured the logic of dreams very well, and Madchen Amick continually showing up evoked the anxiety within a dream when you just can’t stop something from happening no matter how you try. Don attempting to wrestle with and kill his own predatory side was interesting, and gives credence to Jon’s theory that he is a changed man, but... I don’t know, it’s also starting to feel that the writers are just sidelining Don as a character quite a bit this season. I’ll reserve judgment on that one.

So what do you guys think? Are you happy Joan got rid of Greg? Will it stick?

Mike: Okay, first off, let's talk about the elephant in the room. A lot of people have been looking at me strangely in the streets and hallways this week because of the -- let's be honest -- wholly prescient comments I made in our last installment about Don becoming a Tony Soprano-esque murderer. I don't have any connections at AMC in the script department or any special knowledge of the upcoming season, but if there's one thing I know, it's Don Draper. It was only a matter of time until he took another step towards becoming the next Hannibal Lecter or Dexter Morgan. C'mon, guys, you just need to watch the show a little bit closer. It's all there, you just need to start paying attention, like I clearly have been.

BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, I thought it was pretty funny that, even though a post-coital Don squeezing the life out "Twin Peaks" alumna Madchen Amick was just a fever dream at best, there was definitely a part of me that wouldn't have been all that surprised to see the next scene be in a morgue or arraignment room. Don't get me wrong. I'm definitely rooting for Don (and company) to come out on top by the end of season seven. That said, this dream of his once again, for me, underscores again the bleak pragmatism of the Don Draper persona. To become the man he is today, and to remain that man in public and in private, Don has had to step over a lot of bodies, both in the figurative sense as well as literally in the case of the man whose name and life he stole. We've seen a more relaxed and personable Don this season and last (he even did some journaling!) but it's little grace notes like this dream and his behavior after the ill-fated birthday party that remind us that his other side is still in existence.

I like what you're saying, Mark, about "Mad Men" and its women. Yes, we are ostensibly tuning in each week to see what kind of hijinks Don is going to be pulling this episode. But the stories of the show's women, when the focus is turned there, can be just as compelling. If I had to pick just one for some reason, I've always identified more profoundly with eternal (but scrappy) underdog Peggy than with Joan, and it's not just because my office sexpot days are over. This week, I enjoyed the delicious tension ("Should I take my purse full of Roger's money off the coffee table or not, because it might look like I'm a racist? Because, you know, it does kind of mean that I am one if I do!") between Dawn and Peggy during the impromptu sleepover, and I hope to see more interaction between the two nascent friends as the season continues.

On the other side of town, we witness some pretty explosive events in Joan's life that, I'm sure, will only serve to pave the way towards her inevitable return to the SCDP offices. Her decision to sever ties with (as the Internet has deigned to name him) "Dr. Rapenstein" can only be described as brave. She still has a potential benefactor in Roger, who after all has been throwing a lot of money around lately and, even more importantly, is almost definitely the father of her child. In kicking Greg out, though, how much closer did she come to becoming just like her mother, who she can barely stand even in small doses and is on the verge of kicking out herself?

I enjoyed the throughline of the serial killer news story as it ran through the various environments and ecosystems of the show, too. From once again giving Megan an excuse to be disgusted with her workmates, to Don's dream which surely had at least something to do with his hearing about the elements of the story, to Sally cracking the stony exterior of Grandma Pauline, that huge butcher knife, and certainly not the last pill that young Ms. Draper will ever pop... what a great bunch of scenes.

Meanwhile at SCDP, Mike Ginsberg is busy letting Don down and proving that he's maybe not the golden boy that everyone thought he might be, Roger is losing his touch, and was Lane even in this one? Anyways, allergies and work pressures are going to make me cut this one short this week, but all in all I thought "Mystery Date" was a pretty darn fine episode.

Jon: I dug this week a lot too, Mike, even though I felt it was rather obvious from its beginnings that Don's murderous tirade was little more than a fever-induced dream. But there were plenty of other juicy bits throughout "Mystery Date" that more than made up for it.



The Joan/Greg breakup was unpleasant to watch, but wholly necessary. However, I fear things may get worse for Joanie before they turn around -- Roger may be that kiddo's pop but he's not going to be admitting that any time soon (if ever), reinserting herself back into life at SCDP likely won't go as well as she expects, and her mother is probably going to be around to bother me as much as Joan. But I also expect Greg to come back in a box before the divorce is able to be finalized, thus saving her from the dire straights I expect in the coming weeks.

As far as the Mad Wo-Men (betcha no one's ever thought of that one before!), yes, yes and yes. I've long loved our principal ladies (aside from Betty, as I brought up last time). To illustrate this, I will now tell a brief tale that you'll have to take my word on, but I swear it's a true story. Being a single fella in these modern times, I've had myself an online dating profile or two over the years. Having listed Mad Men as one of my favorite shows in some of those, one interested party asked me during a wonderfully awkward email exchange which character I related to most on the show, or maybe it was some other similarly pompous English major-esque inquiry, but I'm pretty sure this potential mystery date just wanted to know which misogynist I would compare myself to. But I was super bored that day and decided to answer her question honestly -- for my own curiosity more than hers. After a bit of deliberation, like Mike, I too realized it was Peggy Olsen that I best fit the mold of, being that she's forging her way through the workplace to find herself in the world, among other things (this was a few seasons ago before she'd established herself as an ace copywriter). So while Don's exploits generally take center stage week after week for me, I rarely am disappointed to share time with Ms. Blankenship and company.

And this was a particularly great week for the ladies to step into the spotlight since Don was hallucinating and bedridden for much of the hour. In his absence we were still treated to his two most prominent protegees displaying his power-play techniques. Peggy railroaded Roger's weak resolve as well as his wallet in record time during their negotiation, and while nowhere near as successful, Sally did her best to outwit Grandma Pauline by utilizing a couple of different tactics.

Speaking of which, Sally and Pauline impromptu sleepover was my favorite part of the week. I'm probably in the minority on this one, and it's the one tidbit I forgot to mention last week, but I've always liked the elder Mrs. Francis. Going back to last season, she sees through everyone's bullshit and is not shy about calling it out to those who need to hear it. Her frank conversation with Betty in "Tea Leaves" was marvelous. This week, she continued that stern manner with Sally only to have the Draper charm pulled on her, getting her to admit that perhaps she was a bit harsh. From there, the two begin to come to an understanding, if not a full-fledged bonding. Can't wait to see what she teaches Sally next time.

Now, I know I essentially dismissed Don's segment briskly at the start of my recap here, but I suspect there was something to be gained from it for future episodes. The dream was clearly a manifestation of his true nature, and it'll be interesting to see if he'll actually try to change that behavior to keep his marriage with Megan intact or if this is merely a sign of things to come. Personally, I'd like them to stay together happily for a while, but expect it's all but inevitable that their relationship will ultimately collapse. Any way, there's still plenty of time until that happens! See you guys back here next week.

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "Tea Leaves"

Welcome to the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"Tea Leaves"

Season 5, Episode 3

airdate: April 1st, 2012

Mark: The times they are a-changin’ on Mad Men, and as the 60s are starting to become the real 60s, our favorite WASPy white folks at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are starting to feel the pinch. Don has brought in a new African-American secretary named... uh, Dawn, an ambitious Jewish copywriter named Michael Ginsberg is gunning for Peggy’s spot as the firm’s rising star, Pete is pushing Roger further into the scrap heap over the Mohawk Airlines deal, and Megan Draper and the rest of the young folks are grooving to the crazy sound of the Rolling Stones. Roger and Don are struggling to understand what happened as the world continues to evolve beyond them, and they are bitterly coming to grips with the fact that they are no longer the coolest guys in the room.

That fear of being passed by and the subsequent search for meaning is an overarching theme of the episode, and it is especially prevalent in the main storyline. Betty has put on a bit of weight since we last saw her (January Jones was pregnant for the first half of the season, and her extra pounds are augmented here by an awkward neck prosthesis and an even more awkward body double). She is encouraged by her awful mother-in-law to get prescription diet pills from her doctor, but the doctor ends up finding a tumor on Betty’s thyroid. With her death possibly imminent, Betty reflects on her place in the world as she waits for the biopsy results Cleo from 5 to 7-style, and she finds her suffocating, unexpected life of quiet desperation lacking. This is a heavily Betty-centric episode, so your enjoyment of this week’s Mad Men installment really comes down to how you feel about her.

In the earlier seasons of the show, I found Betty to be an extremely sympathetic and deeply sad character. A jet-setting model who suddenly found herself as a suburban housewife with two kids, Betty’s struggle to cope with absolutely no coping skills was touching. No matter how awful she was to Sally (who, let’s not forget, is the fulcrum on which the entire show pivots), she was also being taken advantage of by Don, he was eavesdropping on her therapy sessions by proxy, and she was carrying on a very creepy and very sad friendship with that little weirdo Glen down the street. She was a confused child. But at some point, my sympathy dried up and Betty became just awful. Jones has always been a limited actress. I feel like detached, depressive sullenness is right in her wheelhouse, and any note that she is asked to play beyond that exceeds her grasp, but I also think the writers aren’t doing her any favors. But really, who wouldn’t want to give up and have a second ice cream sundae if they were in Betty’s shoes? She’s shut off from the world in a giant, musty Addams Family house with only a horrible ghoul of a mother-in-law around to remind her that her expiration date is approaching, and she’s doomed if she doesn’t do all she can to preserve her only value, her attractiveness to her husband. That’s a pretty sympathetic situation, but I don’t know. I can’t relate to Betty anymore. Something has changed. Ultimately, her tumor is benign, but she is still deeply depressed and wearing that depression with Bugles and hot fudge. Not sure what’s going to happen there, but at least Sally got some ice cream and sparklers. Phew!

If I’m not making myself clear, I didn’t really like this episode. It was a step down from the premiere, which I thought was very strong and entertaining. This episode was stylistically strange. I didn't care for the overtly symbolic dream sequence, and there were a few jarring dissolves that didn’t quite work for me and a few moments I felt were too on the nose. The civility between Don and Betty was interesting, as was the fact that Don was so gutted by the possibility of losing his ex-wife, and the ways in which Don and Betty’s new spouses react to that continuing connection will be fun to observe. But the phone call between Don and Betty where she asks him to tell her everything would be okay seemed very un-Mad Men to me.

Shit, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Betty. I’m eager to hear what you guys think, so I’ll wrap it up. I liked Don’s interaction with the backstage teenybopper, which was pitched somewhere between a concerned parent, an old man envious of her youth and a market research coordinator, but I thought the rest of the business with the Rolling Stones was a little too goofy. At least Don didn't have sex with her. Harry doesn’t want to go home. He’s definitely headed for Divorce Town, USA. Lowbrow has its roots in the great state of Pennsylvania, so I was glad to hear Pittsburgh get a shout-out from the Heinz guy. Of course he is painted as an out-of-touch boob who thinks the Rolling Stones will shill for baked beans, but I’ll take what I can get. Anyway, we’re the new Portland now, so Pittsburgh gets the last laugh.

What did you think, Jon/Mike? Where do you stand on Betty? Did you like “Harry and Don go to White Castle”? How about Ginsberg? As long as he doesn’t get in Peggy’s way, I actually like this guy a lot. And I thought it was hilarious that he and Roger bonded over wanting to throw things out of the window.

Mike: Betty, Betty, Betty. Look, I dunno, man. I'm going to spend this whole time talking about her, too. But where to begin? As I courageously and iconoclastically stated in last week's installment, I'm kind of a fan. I like Skylar on "Breaking Bad" way less than I like Betty Hofstadt Draper Francis, even though both can be a real shrew. I want Betty to be happy, despite the fact that she is selfish, and has made a lot of bad decisions, and has undoubtedly poisoned her own children as a result. It's not completely her fault, but she's got at least one failed marriage under her belt, and her looks ain't what they used to be (thanks to some real-life circumstances and a little help from Peggy's season one fat suit). Things could go either way for her at this point.

[Side note: Mark keeps insisting, with maybe his tongue in his cheek and maybe not, that Sally's going to be important, that she's important even now. Well, I think Kiernan Shipka's portrayal of her is great, and I hope Sally the character can pull through with minimal permanent damage, but I keep coming back to feeling that she, even more so than little Gene or Bobby, is going to reap what her parents have sown.]

Now, with "Mad Men," we're ostensibly supposed to be rooting for Don. It's his animated representation, after all, that has been committing suicide in the credits each week for five seasons now. He's no Tony Soprano-level sociopath -- while he has shadings of it, and if he ever does end up committing murder onscreen (for, I'm sure, an excellent reason and with nothing but the best of intentions) I wouldn't be all that surprised.

This week, though, it's Betty's episode, and everything that Don does is either focused on, or filtered by, his feelings over whatever relationship remains between them. His cruel, cold side (let's go ahead and call it his "Don Draper" construct), who maintains absolute control of the meeting room, who can be so terrifying to me when he rears his ugly head, takes a backseat this week to some genuinely warm feelings and sentiment toward his ex-wife. Is Dick Whitman actually the one who shares empathy with others, who is starting to really concern Peggy with his kindness and patience in the office, and who is genuinely worried about Betty's physical well-being? Or does this cognitive dissonance theory of mine just sound incredibly stupid?

Anyway, a while back when Betty and Don traveled to Italy and a magical time was had by all, I thought that there might have been some hope, however slim, for sustaining their marriage. But as it turns out, that's been over for a while now. Both Don and Betty have moved on, with their children still providing a lasting tie between them. As that distance from their sustained everyday struggle produces a kind of memorial fondness, and as they fall back into familiar patterns of relying on each other for support, I'm forced to ask the question: is this really over?

(Yeah, I think it is, mostly.)

I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you, Mark, about the scene where Betty begs Don to reassure her. When he calls her "Birdie," and she asks him to say that everything was going to be okay like he used to do, it broke my heart a little bit. Am I just a big romantic at heart? Has Matthew Weiner lost his touch? Nah. It's interesting, really, to see how unguarded both Don and Betty can be with each other now that there is relatively little at stake, at least relationship-wise, between them. In a lot of ways, Megan Draper and Henry Francis will always be on the outside of these matters. Henry's palpable frustration at the end of the episode was telling. Though he keeps up a front of negligible civility with Don, as far as this New York State governor's advisor is concerned, the less of that guy in their lives, the better. Don will always be a threat to whatever the perceived stability is in that big, drafty mansion of theirs. For that matter, though, I don't think that what Don and Megan have is actually all that stable or permanent, either.

Okay, I've successfully avoided talking about everything else that went on in this episode, but the above is what stuck with me the most. Yeah, I'm pretty certain that this will not end up being my favorite episode of the new season. That said, I trust Weiner et al, and they've more than proven that they're capable long-form storytellers of the highest caliber. Wait and see, guys. This is gonna be a good one.

Jon: Sorry for lagging so behind on this article this week, fellas. I'm still basking in the sheer awesome that was the Spartacus finale a few days before.

I'm totally with you guys on not being particularly wild about this episode. And you know why? Too much Betty for my taste. She was entirely absent from the two-hour debut last week, so she was due a bit of screen time to keep us up to date with where she's at, but I'd be happy if she was off spending these episodes at a party with Sal Romano, Freddie Rumsen, Duck Phillips, that douche who got his foot hacked apart by the lawnmower, and the other members of Mad Men's past now lost to the abyss of disregarded characters.

Okay, I admit that was a little overboard and somewhat exaggerated, but I've never been a big fan of Betty's. Her immediate reaction after learning her tumor was benign says it all to me: "I may be cancer-free, but I'm still fat. Pass the Bugles." Perhaps I'm nothing more than a heartless bastard, but knowing that she's emotionally equipped as a third-grader to deal with the trials and tragedies of adulthood has engendered giant swaths of disinterest from me. Plus, now that she's on the periphery of the lives of the actual centerpieces of the show (Don and Sally*), I suspect her character will continue to fail to excite me until she snaps herself out of this funk.

* Is Sally Draper really the nexus of Mad Men as Mark asserts? I'm highly skeptical, but I've yet to derive a convincing counterpoint, so I'll roll with it for now.

Since you two covered just about everything there is to analyse about Mrs. Francis in episode 3, I'll branch out into an area I believe will be one of the more intriguing aspects of season 5 going forward - the unlikely alliance of Roger and Peggy in the coming weeks.

Mark, I think you're spot on with Ginsberg. He's great in his manic honesty, but the moment near the end of the hour with his father illustrates the potential that he'll be more than just SCDP's Jewish Stan, magically pulling resumes from his sleeves from his stupendous blazer on command. Speaking of Stan, I believe his warning Peggy to stick to hiring mediocre talent will prove to be prophetic, because although none of us wants to see Ginsberg get in Peggy's way, it seems crystal clear to me these two are headed for a major collision in a few weeks, assuming she doesn't find a way to oust him before it gets to that stage.

Of course, Roger is already embroiled in an ultra-competitive workplace showdown. Pete once again proves himself as being far more valuable than Roger in this post-Lucky Strike world, and has become increasingly brazen in rubbing Roger's nose in it to boot. After the embarrassing Mohawk presentation, a defeated Roger asks Don when will it all get back to normal -- a line that speaks to his (and his compadres, for that matter) reluctance to see the cultural upheaval of the times swirling around him has already become the norm as much as he intends it for he and Don's immediate troubles -- and it's hard to say for sure if this conflict with Mr. Campbell is a dead end or merely a speed bump for him. My guess is Roger's still got some fight left. Whether or not he's still a contender is yet to be seen.

And even if this Roger/Peggy partnership fails to come to fruition, I think the similarities between their storylines will still be ripe for dissection.

A few other bits that crossed my mind this week:
-- Ah, White Castle. Home to cinematic potheads since 1966.
-- "Who was it?" "Nobody." Harsh, bro. Even that clown Romney wouldn't have gone that far.
-- Mark, I was also relieved Don didn't sleep with the Stones' groupie, which is probably a first. When she stole his tie, I was swept in a mild panic. I'm usually all for his philandering as it's often coupled with some brash decision-making in other areas in his life. Nothing of the sort this time around on either front.
-- David Letterman would have a field day with Don/Dawn.
-- Judging by Betty's dream/nightmare this week, I think we can ascertain that Matthew Weiner played a large role in those similarly forced sequences during his time with The Sopranos. He did not learn his lesson.
-- Mike, Skyler White and Betty Francis may be shrews, but they ain't got shit on AMC's queen biotch, Lori Grimes.

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"