Hmm, Joan & Peggy get left in charge of the office? I wonder if “I’m not a janitor” boy will get his comeuppance. 
Someone on the writing staff is a swimmer, for sure. What Don was doing and describing was very familiar – particularly the “I’m not swimming fast until the hotshot in the next lane tries to pass” thing.
Actually, this whole episode was full of good stuff… even with the irritation of Betty. Don looking to get his groove back. Peggy feeling her oats. Only Joan’s plot was a downer.
It’s hard to know how objectively I’m treating this episode–after last week, an average Mad Men episode is bound to look a little bit lackluster, and that’s how I felt about this one. If it had been on last week, I might’ve liked it just fine.
Good to see that Don is starting to take stock and think about turning the corner–and maybe so is Betty. On the other hand, I spent the whole episode wondering why Joan had the kid gloves on. Nor did her scene with Peggy in the elevator help make any sense of it for me–while she’s probably right about it leaving her (Joan) in a position of less perceived power, it’s not like Joanie was keeping order before Peggy made her move. In fact, thinking back on it, the other boys were getting worse–Joan’s authority was eroding because whatizsname was walking all over her and getting away with it. So what was Joan’s plan, and how did she think she had dealt with it?
Well, I was a little disappointed that the brief nudity was just a quick mooning (but at least it was male). Especially considering the number of scenes set at a downtown men’s athletic club, but this is AMC, not HBO.
Joan was right in the elevator. Peggy did make her look weak and herself look like an uptight bitch. It doesn’t really matter. If Peggy’s ever goint to get ahead she needs to be able to excercise authority whether people think she’s a bitch or not. Betty actually came off well this episode. I can’t blame her for being upset at finding Don that the same eatery, but Henry was right. She has to learn to just ignore him. She handled Don showing up at Gene’s party (& he had every right to be there) well.
LawMonkey, I think Joan’s starting to mentally check out like she did last season when she thought she’d be able to stop working when Greg got his promotion. She has so much other shit going on in her life right now she just doesn’t really care about what’s happening at work.
I liked her Vietnam comment. Joey’s definitely of draft age (IIRC he’s only 22/23), he’s already graduated from college so no student deferment (unless he goes to grad school), he has no fulltime job let alone a reserved occupation, and it doesn’t seem like he has any useful family connections. The other two look over 26, but getting a student deferment extended a man’s liabilty until he was 34 so it’s still something for them to worry about.
Peggy did what a supervisor is paid to do, although back then a woman doing it was unusual. Joan only has that kind of power over secretaries, but would like to have much more. She thinks she’s on a par with Lane because she knows the ins and outs of the business, but in reality she’s just an admin manager. The guy had it coming for many reasons, including insubordination, and if Peggy wants to rise any farther, she needs to become more hard-nosed.
The scene with the psychologist consultant in the cab was hot. They’ve built a sexual tension leading up to some sort of encounter between them and this was a great tease for some hot monkey sex later.
Is it just me, or was this episode eye-candy for the feet-ishists? Seriously, I think Matt Weiner is either very canny on monetizing a safer version of skin merchandising, or is really, really into men’s feet.
“Sorry to barge in, she’s still patting around for the buzzer.”
Joey should have been taken out by a trio of Joan’s male friends and or relatives and given some ‘sensitivity training’.
Harry Crane’s not really gay is he? Because I can understand why Joey felt he was coming onto him.
Harry Crane’s not really gay. He’s just boorish.
I thought Joan was out of line, in large part because she was working on limited information. If Joey had never done that drawing there was ample reason to fire him. I can’t help but think that even by 1965 standards he was a complete dick; while chauvinism and sexism were tolerated there was such a thing as being gentlemanly or just showing respect.
The scene where Henry was mowing the lawn: were non-motorized lawn mowers still frequently used then? I would have thought gas powered mowers would be more common in the suburbs. I thought Henry was a jerk about the boxes but in general I like him and think he’s probably a better day-to-day father for the kids than Don. Liked Betty’s surprise maturity at the birthday party.
I’m hardly in a position to comment on body fat, but then I don’t take my shirt off on TV: has anybody noticed that Don/Jon Hamm is getting pretty paunchy? I’ve wondered if it’s middle aged spread for the actor of if it’s a deliberate weight gain to make the character less attractive.
I was hoping somebody would show the drawing to Lane (who now that I know the actor is Richard Harris’s son notice the resemblance). It would have been interesting to see his reaction which could have been anything from a boisterous laugh to sending his manservant to challenge Joey to a duel. I’ve wondered a couple of times if there’s going to be a Joan:Lane hookup while the doctor is in Vietnam.
Not nearly as good as last week’s but I a worthy episode.
I’ve gotta think that’s a deliberate choice to show the toll that drinking and emotional problems are taking on the character, Sampiro.
What’s Peggy’s position/job title, by the way? It never even occurred to me that she could fire someone until Don told her to get out there and do it.
Oh–anyone else think that Joan’s comment about the live fire is a Chekov’s gun hinting that Doc Rape may not even make it through basic? Training accidents did and do happen in the military…
I don’t think it’s ever said; it doesn’t even give one on the wiki. I doubt she’s the Creative Director as she hasn’t really done the time in the trenches and I think that’s still Don’s title even though he’s a partner, but she’s apparently his Number 2 in Creative.
Do you think they’ve heard the last of Joey?
I thought that was more an attempt to get on Henry’s nerves (and a piece of smugness: “We have everything”) than an act of genuine magnanimity.
I noticed something similar with Joan in this episode - not with regard to weight gain, but more her general appearance. In the elevator scene, she awkwardly towered over Peggy and it seemed like they might even have done her makeup to make her look a bit haggard.
I thought so too. At the very end, the way Betty was staring at Don and Gene made me think she’s still quite jealous and resentful, while at the same time she probably misses him more than she’d like to admit.
Boring episode. Don’s inner monologue and diary-writing came off as cheesy.
I agree that the narration wasn’t the best choice. It would have been stronger if we saw him writing but didn’t get it eord for word.
Pros: Loved Joan and Peggy in the elevator. Joan is right, but she is also so wrong. Peggy is in a tough spot for the times, responsibility, no real authority.
Also. “I’m going to park my boat in your garage.” Could it be any more symbolically Freudian? Heh.
Cons: Don, keeping a dairy? Voice-over is a weak narrative device. It’s one thing for Don to listen to Roger’s tapes, but Don sitting there writing his thoughts seemed kind of lame.
I think the writer’s used up a lot of their narrative juices last week and didn’t have time to replenish.
Eh, I gave it a “meh”. Wasn’t a fan of the voice over, too many shots of Don staring longingly as the booze, Bethany’s backseat antics seemed gratuitous, and both don & Joan seemed to have lost their spine since last week. Seriously, Joan? “You’re going to get drafted and I don’t like you”? That was handling it? And Don? the proper response was “You mean MY garage attached to MY house that you’ve been living in for the last eight months like a couple of squatters?”
Not many highs, not many lows… just a bunch of stuff. Hopefully building to something more interesting.
Peggy is a Copy Writer, or Copywriter. An Mad Gal, if you will.
In Don’s voiceover he says that he never finished high school, but in a previous episode he said that he went to City College at night. More dissembling?
The Hitchcock Zoom on the midday booze was a bit much.
On a shallow note: Peggy’s purple dress was so beautiful I was distracted in all of her scenes by my covetousness.
Joan wasn’t close to being right. Peggy fired Idiot Boy as much because he consciously and deliberately disregarded an instruction from his immediate superior as in feminine solidarity. As Don pointed out, he would have fired IB in the same situation; the only question was whether Peggy should make HERSELF look weak by sloughing said dismissal onto him.
I enjoyed the way Don & Peggy interacted her. He was actually being a good boss and mentor to her for the first time in a long while.
As for Joan feeling that Peggy made her look weak: I call bullshit. Joan WAS weak.