Looks like we’ll see Sal again.
Poor Sal!!!
Good Lord, Don is such a little bitch when he’s not getting any. Hopefully the school tart will fix all that.
… On the plus side, Sal appears to be getting some now, too. But they’d better get Joan and everyone back together. damnit.
I’m really digging the shift in tone on Don. He’s gone from a fingerbanging superstar to a sloppy bigot without changing a thing. This season has been absolutely brutal, and it’s a great contrast to the “wink and a nudge” first season.
“How do you say ‘More of these tiny bottles of scotch in Room 307!’ in Moonese?
– Hilton”
:dubious:
I’m glad the Betty/Wots-name-from-the-Guv’s-Office thing peaked and ended (heaven’s willing) tonight. Betty arcs just bore the hell out of me.
Poor Sal. I wasn’t surprised to see some bigotry from Don. His ‘cool about everything’ nature seems to be cracking a bit this season and it would have been stranger in a way for him to just Sal in stride. I suppose he did until it turned into a problem at work – even worse, one that Don was told he had to fix.
Peggy had about 2 lines in the entire episode and did most of her acting with her expression.
Poor Sal, is right. He behaved himself, and that’s the thanks he gets?.. And Don? I’m shocked - shocked, I tell you!
Sal must send out some pretty strong vibes. My goodness.
“you people”. Creepiest line in a long time.
I wonder if Connie Hilton was as much of a wackjob as he’s being portrayed. Calling his ad guy at all hours of the night, insisting on a campaign for a Hilton on the moon?
It seems to me that most of this episode could be summed up by Betty’s description of little Gene: “I want what I want when I want it.”
Connie Hilton wants to talk to Don at all hours of the night, so Don better get in the car and go. He wants an ad for Hilton on the moon, and throws a hissy fit when he doesn’t get it.
The Lucky Strike Guy first wants to change the commercial, then wants Sal to put out, then wants Harry to fire Sal without telling anybody why (even though Harry doesn’t have that power). He keeps going up the chain until he gets what he wants.
Unfortunately, Betty doesn’t know what she wants. Or she thinks she does, and then when she gets it, she doesn’t want it anymore.
Yeah, but upon later reflection, I’m not exactly sure to whom Don was referring: Sal (and other gays)? Sal and Peggy (who’ve been annoying him)? All of Creative (who’ve been annoying him)?
Such a good line to concisely portray Don as an unctuous bastard, though.
When Don reached over in bed and touched Betty’s arm, I thought “Oh good, he’s going to talk to her about this”. But nope, Don doesn’t see Betty that way, as a partner. She’s just an appurtenance. He can’t let his guard down. It almost makes me feel sorry for him.
I loved “Give me more ideas I can reject.”
If Lucky Strike hadn’t been such an important client, I’d like to think Don would have told Lee Garner to stuff it. Harry was wrong not to say something about the call but it probably wouldn’t have ended any differently.
Did ya hear the sirens in the background? Sal’s life as he knows it is about to end. He just lost his job, he’s about to be arrested for being a sex pervert (no prosecution, but his name will be printed in the paper), his wife (who already suspects something) will probally leave him (even pre-Vatican II I’m fairly certain she could get an annulment under the circumstances). Things do no look good for him. I agree we need Joan back. It’s funny how pissed Sterling is considering he has no real power. He’s just sharing “Honoray Co-Chairman” with Cooper. At least Don still has an actual job with actual power and responsibilities.
Thinking about it, I think Don was also annoyed by Sal’s protests that he was innocent because he “was married!” when Don had already seen him with the bell hop in the hotel. It sounded like an incredibly weak excuse and Sal still trying to deny being a homosexual to Don.
Not that Don couldn’t just believe (as many others) that homosexuals were just deviants but, again, at least Sal being a deviant wasn’t affecting the workplace. Until it did.
I wonder if Sal would have been better saying “I would never do anything like that at work or with a client” than the lame “I’m married” excuse.
“Now that I can understand you, I’m a lot less impressed.” 
Maybe if Harry had informed Don sooner, something could have been done. At least, he could have taken Sal off the account & kept him out of Lucky Strike Jr’s sight. Too bad Harry doesn’t have anybody on his team who knows how to handle people. Who knows how to be discreet. And who can do the actual TV watching stuff that Harry finds too difficult.
Like Joan, who Harry was too stupid to realize would have made a great team member last season.
Of course it would have ended differently. Roger would have kept Sal on the payroll, hired or assigned another director to replace Sal on the commercial, and simply never mentioned it to Lucky Strike; it’s exactly parallel to his plan for keeping Emo!Rapist out of sight after he offended the city fathers.
Though Lucky Strike is the clear villain here, Harry was in the wrong as well. It didn’t matter that Lucky Strike told him to keep everyone else out of the loop; he had a duty to inform his bosses and the account managers of the situation, trusting them to handle the situation. It only became a problem because he stupidly kept his mouth shut. He should have been fired, not Sal. (Though they would still have had to keep Sal out of sight.)
Yeah, that was my thought, too. Why the hell did he have Sal in the meeting? Just stupid. It will be interesting to see what the writers do with Sal’s character now. I have a feeling they’ll find a way to bring him back, since he adds a key dimension to the cast that no on else does.
I like the episodes where we are reminded what a jackass Don really is. And just once I would like a woman who says no to Don.
What was his line? “I’m not going to panic and screw everything up”? Ah, Harry…
That whole exchange with Don made my blood boil. (Kind of an interesting coincidence that the episode aired on the same day as the March for Equality in DC, and had MLK’s March on Washington as a background event!) I really feel for Sal, and watching him hit that express spiral downward just saddens me.
I don’t think it would have ended all that differently for Sal if Don had been in on the fiasco as soon as Harry took the call. Don’s clearly not an enlightened sort of fellow, and we’re still six years away from Stonewall here. Had Roger fielded the matter instead of foisting it off on Don, even pre-meeting, maybe Sal would have stayed on - only because Roger has no idea. Don knows and doesn’t want to; even if Sal had said “I’d never do that at work or with a client” it wouldn’t have been good enough back then. Even Peggy might have gotten by on that in 1963, but not a gay man. For me, this particular plot point expands on Sam’s post from last week; some characters have a very good idea of what would make them happy but they are constrained by social conditions from pursuing it. Just as problematic for those involved as not knowing what would make them happy, or not being happy with what they have that’s supposed to make them happy.
Skald, are you referring to Kinsey as “Emo!Rapist”? Who’d he rape, or am I missing something else entirely?
Actually I was thinking of the Vincent Kartheiser character, who was, at best, something other than gallant to the German au pair a week or so back; I only just now remembered that the character’s name is Pete. Upon further thought I’m fairly sure it was one of the other account guys who so vexed the city fathers over Madison Square Garden. Nonetheless I am going to continue to call Pete Emo!Rapist because, well, he is.