This should be fun, Betty has outside interests which mean’s she’ll probally leave Sally in charge of Gene. What’s the fallout from last weeks tragic accident with the office tractor? What price will Ken pay? Is a client making Peggy and office she’ll have a hard time refusing, but Joan probally accept?
I don’t know if anyone obsesses over the dates of the episodes like I do…but a total solar eclipse occurred on July 20, 1963.
When did Don get so consistently prickly and unlikeable? It’s like his temporary hiatus from having affairs is crimping his style. Appropriately enough, this show is becoming more and more (character-wise) like the Sopranos.
And Don dates his contract 7/23/63. It’s late July and the kids are still in school? 
That exchange between Don and Sally’s teacher was fun. Yeah, she could be fired if one of the mothers heard her talk like that (especially in a small town/suburb of that class). There were still a few school districts that required female teachers to retire if they married around.
Peggy and DUCK?! :eek: I thought it was Pete in those first shots we saw of Peggy in bed and thought that was shocking. Are Duck’s job offers legit? Even if they are Peggy taking them after fucking Duck is not a good idea. Or it’s a great idea.
I think it’s been since his falling-out with Roger.
Honestly, between Don and Peggy this episode, my eyebrows were up around my hairline, and my jaw on the floor. Sheesh.
… although Betty’s storyline again fails to catch my interest.
Hee hee, July 20, 1963 was my parent’s wedding day! Their pictures look really really strange and that had to stop taking them outdoors due to this eclipse.
Cablevision sucks and it kept pixellating for the first 20 minutes, so I had no idea about anything for the while and didn’t get the flashbacks.
My favorite quote from the TWOP Man Men forums
I think he feels trapped, and as Alan Sepinwall says in his blog, we have to remember – the guy’s a bastard.
This episode was jangly for me, maybe because nothing went as planned for Don, Betty, and Peggy. They expected things to be one way but they went the other way, and I’m stressed out on their behalf.
I never thought I’d say this about Don, but watching him dancing in the motel room with that young girl totally skeeved me out. Guys? That’s what you look like when you’re putting the moves on somebody 20 years younger. Gross. Ew. 
Sally’s teacher appears to be a bit unstable. This should be fun.
Damn it, Don & Roger need to kiss and make up. Their banter in seasons 1 & 2 was too awesome to have to deal with Sterlingless Draper.
I laughed at the juxtaposition between these two scenes:
(#1) Don & Father in field. Father: “I stare at the sun all the time!” Don, giving Father a look as though Father is a complete moron… “You stare at the sun?”
(#2) Betty & Governor Aide see couple with carboard thingie. Lady says “There’s an eclipse!”
Betty immediately stares at the sun.
Don is being a friggin’ dick lately. I don’t imagine that being made to wear a collar by SC is going to improve his mood any.
Was Cooper blackmailing Don or saying “Shit, it’s not as though you can’t get out of it anyway”? Couldn’t tell. Blackmail doesn’t seem like Cooper’s thing but the old guy didn’t get to be rich by being soft.
From the conversation between Don and the teacher, I got the impression that the kids were in some sort of day camp program. (Or perhaps this was a special thing she did for the eclipse.)
She did mention that she only gets August off, so it does appear to be a summer camp or something similar.
I think so, but do you think it was necessary? I think Don was ready to come around. But maybe not. It definitely made for better drama, Bert bringing Don back to reality.
Well, the thing is, Don’s accusations to both Peggy and Betty can be used just as accurately to describe him.
I was amused at the way that Conrad Hilton strolled right in and sat at Don’s desk, and then asked Don why he had no family photos or a Bible. I think it threw Don off a little.
Seemed pretty clearly to be blackmail to me.
Agreed. Bert Cooper even says something like, who’s really even signing this thing anyway.
Was that in reference to the season one revelation that Don Draper isn’t really Don Draper or just the general power imbalance in the firm that has Sterling and Cooper begging Don to do something rather than ordering him.
I took it as the former.
I have to say, I like how emasculating it was for Don to have both Connie and Bert sit in his chair. No doubt he’s going to get his mojo back by sleeping with some broad.
I loved that moment. I loved how Cooper started out saying it in this half-joking, half-apologetic way, and then his face fell and became somber. That was some lovely acting from Robert Morse.
Isn’t he, though. Even though everything he said to everyone during his various vicious tirades was true.
Just last week I was thinking about poor Joan’s dream life crumbling, and thinking about how Peggy and Don managed to get what they wanted, but this episode did a really good job of showing that you are never so high that you can’t be knocked down a notch. I am constantly amazed by the childishness and lack of judgment displayed by the characters, but this week was a doozy.
I read an EW recap that talked about Don being bored, as implied by Ms. Farrell, and secretly disgusted with himself as to the reason for it. I think entitlement plays a lot into the mindsets here, and when folks don’t get what they want they throw fits like children.
Missed Joan this week.