It’s also a Republican firm. If you remember, Pete was the only Kennedy supporter, and Pete was also the only firm exec. who was upset about Kennedy’s death and the firm’s reaction to it.
Good point. [del]Don[/del] Dick is still an army deserter. I guess Don could try to run again, but he’s changed alot since Korea. He has 3 children that he actualy does care for. Would he abandon them? He did consider it in LA, but came back home in the end.
I think she was getting back at Don, and there was the whole The World Is Coming To an End vibe from the Cuban missile crisis. She was never going to see that guy again, so it didn’t matter.
Henry, however, is an emotional thing. I think if she does want to marry him, she won’t sully it with tawdry and sleep with him before the wedding.
I highly doubt Betty was a virgin before she marred Don (she was the “muse” of an Italian fashion designer) and I don’t think she and Don waited until their wedding night either.
Yeah, but she’s married NOW.
One thing I keep wondering with these characters is whether they will ever have a comeuppance. I feel zero pity for Don, in reading the TWOP board’s Mad Men forums and this one I’m continuously amazed that people (esp women) keep going “poor Don”. This man is an absolute hound. People keep putting this behaviour on the fact that he’s “conflicted”. He’s not conflicted at all. He loves extra marital pussy and lots of it.
He’s an amazingly arrogant SOB. Taking the dead guy’s identity was desperate but it was also arrogant and (typical Don) he could care less about the impact on other people. And now he’s at the point that this dump truck full of bullshit he has concocted over time has caught up with him, and we’re supposed to feel sorry for him? Man I want to be model handsome, women will forgive me anything.
Re Betty she is the unsexiest beautiful women I have ever seen on screen. She deserves some sympathy for being shined on by Don, but she is an astoundingly childish person, and has (IMO) almost zero personal warmth. She is also maliciously manipulative when the mood strikes her. It will be interesting to see how the show handles her becoming a liberated woman because I get the impression she really likes being kept and admired on a certain level.
Honestly the real problem with these two is that I just don’t feel that either one has much integrity. At least weaselly little Pete and screw the boss Joan have a point at which they will say “no more”.
There are no redeeming characters on the show. It’s like watching a trainwreck (albeit a beautifully costumed and appropriately decorated trainwreck.)
I was Sally’s age (I think - I was 10), but I listened to adults speaking quite a bit, and that rung my bell, too. I’m almost positive that was not a phrase at the time. Back in 2007, in the pilot, I caught a similar phrasal anomaly -
But generally the writers have been pretty good about keeping it in the sixties.
Ken Cosgrove. He hasn’t taken a moral misstep in three seasons, and by all accounts (no pun) is good at what he does. I was going to say Harry Crane, but they had him cheat on his wife.
Sorry, he brought in the John Deere account. 
Peggy is dead to me now that she’s screwing the loathesome dog-killer Duck. WTF? What is his attraction? Either he’s going to give her a high-faluting job, or his wrinkly old member is of porn star proportions. I mean, he looks like his liver is failing, and I just know his thin greasy grey hair is full of dandruff. Plus he more or less killed his dog…I kind of disagree that Don is ‘just’ an arrogant pussyhound, I think he is, but I also think he IS conflicted. Or compulsive - his behavior is not making him happy far as I can see, none of his women mean anything to him. It would be most satisfying to see him get his ass kicked by Betty. All those lovey-dovey smoochy scenes with the schoolteacher, as if they were on a honeymoon, as if they were true, true soulmates finding a quiet moment in a demanding world - go home to your family, idiot! And hippy dippy schoolteacher SO needed to be found out she screws her kids dads and FIRED!
But he is a mystery man. IIRC we havent seen him in action at all re handling clients.
I disagree re Don I think some of his women mean LOTS to him to the point he was ready to run away with beatnik girl, and then run away with dept store heiress girl. Betty gets the leftover scraps of his affection.
Re Betty I think Duck probably does have some mad skillz compared to the fumbling boys Peggy has been with. She’s positively eager for her duck loving.
RE Duck I really don’t hold a huge animus towards him. He’s (apparently) beaten his alcoholism, and has come back from a crushing divorce, and his kids were pretty god awful little shits they way they were portrayed. I can easily imagine the writers will make him seem like a terrible human being, but so far he just a guy struggling to get his life on track and succeed.
I’m not surprised by the poll. This was a good episode, in the sense that it had the emotional power that has been missing all season long.
How could Weiner not have pointed the season toward the assassination? It was 1963. The assassination gave people the sense that nothing would ever be the same.
And it certainly was true, although probably not because of the changeover to Johnson. (People liked that he acted as an uber-Kennedy and got all of the programs that Kennedy could never pass through Congress. While he was never the favorite of the Kennedy crowd he did wonders in 1964 and 1965 and that gave him an aura that would last at least until Vietnam crushed everything in 1967.) The decade was destined to change no matter what. As a psychological event there’s nothing remotely comparable. I’ve been amazed that people could think Weiner could somehow avoid it. (Notice how yet another campaign goes down the drain, following the theme of failed advertising mirroring the failures in peoples’ lives.)
But that does put all the weight on the finale. It’s been a hugely disappointing season, static and emotionally vague, with too many of the interesting characters slighted for the boring non-drama of Betty’s home life. The metaphor of the advertising agency did amazingly well to illuminate the early 60s. A disintegrating marriage can be seen anywhere and in any time. Unless the next episode gives some hope that the office will the main character again, I’m betting a lot of people will quietly fade away.
True enough, but his real sin was one of omission rather than commission; he thought saying “Put that back!” while dandling a secretary on his knee would be enough to get the other folks to stop playing with the lawnmower.
Although now that I think about it, I have to wonder what, exactly, constitutes the ‘extra mile’ in seeing that the clients aren’t even aware of their needs… is he off scaring up call girls or something?
I am kind of tuckered with his home dramas. The office is far more interesting. And while it is unfair I really just don’t like the January Jones character. While JJ may be playing Betty to perfection she (the character) is so low affect, and such a generally miserable person overall she sucks the life and energy out of too many scenes. It’s enervating just watching her. Even her romantic trysting scenes with Henry whatshisname are almost anti-sexual.
Judging from past seasons, I’m betting that the season finale leaves us with the impression that Sterling-Cooper is falling apart, with Joan and Sal still MIA, Pete and Peggy maybe leaving, and Don trapped and trying to get out of that contract.
Next season will start after a jump forward in time, and we’ll have to play catchup as to why Joan, Sal, Pete, Peggy, and Don are still at or back at Sterling-Cooper.
Yes. In season two, he and the boys are out with a client and the call girl they’ve arranged for him. When Sterling walks in, she pretends to be the client’s wife. Later, Sterling is let in on the open secret and buys a night with her.
Betty’s little scream when Oswald got shot was the most unvarnished emotion I’ve seen from her the whole series. So refreshing I had to watch it again!
I think out of all his liaisons, Don seems to have the most genuine affection for the school teacher. Or maybe I think that because she’s the most recent.
As for the finale, there’s always Roger’s heart acting up that can throw a wrench in things.
I’d forgotten about that… seemed like just a ‘local color’ scene at the time. Now I’m going to be wondering what’s going to get dug up on him in future.