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Peggy gets flowers at the office; Pete wades through new business politics; Joan faces an awkward situation.
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Happy Easter/420/Hitler’s birthday everyone!
Interesting that Joan is now finding satisfaction since she’s gotten past her need to find a man to take care of her. Whereas Peggy, who was satisfied with her life and wasn’t reliant on a man, is now falling apart because she doesn’t have a man.
Much better than last week. Lou and Peggy are both asses. Peggy made herself look like an crazy bitch, and it’s 100% her fault. It looks like Joan’s finally moved beyond being a glorified office manager, and Dawn got a promotion (yes now she’ll have to deal with all the crap Joan was dealing with, but there’s no question she’s pleased with it). Sally finally lost her funeral virginity and had a delightfully honest exchange with her father. I just hope Lou was only talking to Shirley and he’s still stuck with Meredith. 
That’ll teach him to complain; Joan knew exactly what she was doing when she put her on his desk (& Dawn picked up on it too).
Agree with everything alphaboi wrote. Question: Who is Dawn working for now?
Don continues to be honest with his daughter and it pays off. Who knew?
This seems like it is the first time being honest brought Don closer to someone. He came up with his new identity because he thought no one could love Dick Whitman. He was honest to Betty and they got divorced. He was honest at work and he got fired. Now Don is honest to Sally and she tells him she loves him. That’s big progress for Don.
Dawn is now Head of Personnel. Probably reports to the partners; SCDP doesn’t seem to have a well-defined report structure. Particularly since Joan herself was a junior partner, so didn’t need a supervisor. Regardless, Dawn will surely get her marching orders from Joan.
Cool, thanks! Way to show up Bert Cooper’s neanderthalism.
Joan’s actual title was “Director of Agency Operations”; it was given to her (w/o a raise) after the new firm was formed to recognize that she had broader responsibilities than just being an office manager. Just what all of her responsibilities are has never been defined. Granted most of what we see her doing involved personnel, but at other times she seemed like she was Lane’s Peggy in the Finance Department.
Dawn’s promotion was telegraphed last season. She had falsified another worker’s time card, got caught by Joan and was given the ‘punishment’ of the added responsibility of keeping her worker’s time cards. Or something close to that. Anyway, it was obvious by the episode’s end that Joan was impressed by Dawn’s abilities and her attitude in the face of the additional responsibilities. You knew she had more things coming her way.
Liked this episode more than last week’s. Had some laughs, had some victories for some characters. Nice to see some reconciliation between Don and Sally.
I’m having a hard time with this right now. I’ve heard folks complain that Game of Thrones is basically a bunch of horrible people doing horrible things to each other, and that’s how this felt to me–except everything was also incredibly petty. The only folks I had any sympathy for were the black secretaries (Dawn and ?) and Joan, none of whom had enough screen time or love from the plot to carry it for me. Don is a bit of cypher for right now, and he’s not getting much screen time. Sally, whom I’ve always loved, is turning into Betty Jr. (Plus, her incredibly dark eyebrows are distracting with her blonde mane, and yes, I know that’s petty of me.) Peggy’s cringeworthy now, Pete has lost whatever it was that made him anything other than a ball of slime. Roger didn’t get enough screen time this episode to comment on. Bert, whom I’ve always loved, decided to put his racism on his sleeve. I don’t even know who this Lou character is, but I want to punch him every time I see his stupid face. That’d be fine, if he were just there to be the heel I love to hate, but I’m kinda hating and/or cringing at everyone now.
All of that said, I’m on board for the season. I’ve put in the work for six seasons so far, so I’m not hopping ship now. But I may be gritting my teeth through it.
I’m sure that no one cares but this show is finally at the point where I have actual memories. I was five years old at the time when tonight’s show took place. In the background of the dorm room was a Peanuts calendar that I actually had.
Loved how Dawn and Shirley both effectively got promoted. The expression on Roger’s face when he hung up on Pete was hilarious. Good stuff.
Yeah…I’ve now gotten to the point where I don’t know who did what to who and I just don’t care.
SAD. This show was great in the first few seasons but it’s dead to me now.
(But I’m sure I’ll keep watching just to have something to bitch about!)
I agree that Lou is an uninteresting character, so far. Probably the fault of the writing more than of the acting. (At least this injects some added realism into the show – every workplace has its humdrum folks.) Maybe some surprising thing about him will be revealed in another episode.
About Peggy being perceived as “needing a man” (and her internalizing this perception): I think the show is accurately showing how feminism seeped into US culture rather later then many assume. Black power, hippie culture…all that was more or less mainstream by 1969, but the real acceleration in advances for women didn’t happen until the early 1970s. (I’m generalizing, but I think you know what I mean.) Free to Be You and Me, Gloria Steinam and Ms. Magazine…all that is post-1969.
Here you go – Gloria Steinem’s seminal New York Magazine article, After Black Power, Women’s Liberation?, came out in April 1969 (approximately the next Mad Men episode), and the first issue of Ms. Magazine was in December 1971.
Peggy was not just “needing a man.” Her work life has gone to shit. She misses the chemistry she had with Ted in the office. (Too bad they fell into bed & he had to flee to the Coast.) Don was also a challenging boss & they were close–in a different way. Both those guys are gone now & she’s working for a dullard.
So, on Valentine’s Day, the fact that she doesn’t have a man at home was the final blow. Making her act out inappropriately.
Ted was feeling it from his end–moping around the office & advising Pete to just cash his check. Ted, at least, has the family at home.
Did Joan say that her flowers were from her son? I think he’s about two or three years old now. So is this one of those gifts that a mother buys for her child to give to her?
It’s the writing. Roger was trying to bounce jokes and banter off Lou when he came in (“I got called a kike today!”) and Lou was just a black hole of humor. Roger obviously missed Don being in that office right then.
My understanding is that Roger bought the flowers.
OK. That makes sense. I thought it was hilarious that Peggy just assumed that the flowers on Shirley’s desk were for her.
I did like the bit where Dawn and… Shirley? were calling each other by their own name as an in-joke. Obviously, the white folks can’t tell them apart, but I appreciate that this show is smart enough that it doesn’t have to go through a bunch of laborious set-up scenes to get that across.