Agreed, but then he’s also exactly my type. Definitely didn’t mind seeing him in those swim trunks.
I didn’t really bat an eye over Don sleeping with Megan, as that transgression (if that’s what it was, and I don’t think so, really) totally pales before the inappropriateness of him asking Faye to violate her profession’s ethical code to bail his ass out. I was disappointed that she actually did come through for him in the end.
I’m also interested in Sampiro’s question of how badly the partners would be affected in the event of a total SCDP collapse. I can’t imagine it would affect Burt that much. He’s older, has presumably been making good money for decades, and has investments in the form of artwork.
I’m not sure how much it would affect Roger. So far, all of his anger/shame over the Lucky Strike thing seems to have revolved around embarrassment and feelings of inadequacy on his part. He doesn’t seem to be worrying that much about money. He did however just go through a costly divorce, and he has a young wife and daughter. Because his claim to fame was essentially maintaining his father’s Lucky Strike account, he could have trouble finding work elsewhere depending on how big a hit his reputation takes.
Don is the least financially stable, but he could probably get a job at any ad agency in Manhattan the minute SCDP goes under. Ditto Pete.
I was born in '66, and my father wasn’t at the hospital. Like you, I was early (a couple days) and no one thought a first baby would come early. So dad had to finish work before he could come to the hospital. Not like he could have done anything there anyway. Expectant dads (even nervous first time dads) just sat around and waited.
I don’t blame Don so much for taking Megan up on her offer. I think he thought Faye was dumping him. He seemed to think she was giving him a “Dear Don” note on an envelope when he saw her at his door. I do think he was a rat for pushing her to violate her professional ethics. Sure, he was desperate and grasping at straws, so asking once I can see. But he kept pushing her and dismissing her responses.
Has Don brought in any big accounts lately? It seems everything is coming from Pete!
It’s not Don’s job to bring in accounts. It’s Don’s job to run the creative department, to create and oversee campaigns, and to poetically persuade people that his ideas are better than anybody else’s. Criticizing Don for not bringing in business (under normal circumstances) is like criticizing Lane for not writing brilliant copy or Pete for not keeping the books balanced.
Roger’s dead weight, though.
The problem with sleeping with Megan has nothing to do with Faye. It’s that Don was violating his own (well-thought) rule, when he has but recently seen evidence that doing so is foolish. Moreover it’s a relapse into his bad pattern of using sex to alleviate tension. I’m just glad he didn’t do Peggy.
(Though Elisabeth Moss nudity would be a good thing.)
I thought for a split-second at the end there that Don was going to tell Faye that he had just slept with Meaghan. Would have been a big step for the character…
You know why I like reading these threads? Because this never occurred to me while watching the show, yet is so blindingly obvious in hindsight that I’m doing one of these now:
:smack:
That’s what I do as well. I watch the show for entertainment and fun the first time. Then read the weekly thread here. And keep mental notes on anything I may have missed. Then I watch the same episode that night and “analyze.”
Might Sal come back? I think it would be cool for him to be The One who saves the firm after he has his epiphany, whilst the rest go about their delusional lives.
Matt Weiner must have some tricks up his sleeve. I think he has been playing us skillfully with our fondness for the “good” characters, such as Don and Peggy, only to character assassinate them later.
Anything can happen, including jumping the shark. Since the series will have a fore-planned termination date, the creator can give us jaw-dropping twists without ruining the show’s nonexistent future. We’re already near the end of the fourth season in a show that might only last five.
I predict a murder or suicide involving a central character that rearranges everyone’s fortunes. Might Roger push Don out that window? I agree that his standing so close to it in that one scene was eerie and a likely foreshadowing.
What improbables have you guys suspected or dreamt up?
I definitely think this is NOT what he’s doing. He’s trying to depict well-rounded, ambiguous human beings. No one in real life is unequivocally good or bad.
I predict the return of Sal. TV is becoming even more important, a budget-conscious agency will want to do it in house, and Sal will be found doing shit work for nickels.
I wouldn’t want to see Sal back. I liked him and all but his time in the show is done and any return would seem contrived. No one’s been saying “Gee, if only we had Sal back…” and Don seems to think Stan (hate him though I may) is doing a good job.
Bringing Sal back would feel to me like breaking the fourth wall. “Here’s a bone in Mad Men World for the real life audience at home.”
God I want Sal back so badly. I was completely consumed when he was onscreen, totally unaware that I was watching TV and not standing right next to him.
But he said before the season premiered that his contract wasn’t renewed. Perhaps next season? This one’s nearly over, after all.
Today we’d call it a firewall. It’s a barrier of information within a firm, in which one department is prevented from knowing what another department is doing to avoid conflicts of interest. In this episode it refers to Roger’s (dishonorable) keeping of the facts about Lucky Strike to himself and to Joan.
A Chinese wall is a conceptual division within some organization that blocks the flow of certain kinds of information.
For example, in the news business, there is traditionally supposed to be a Chinese wall between the editorial department/newsroom (where content is produced) and the advertising department (which solicits advertisments from businesses). The advertising department is not supposed to have any communication with the editorial department regarding what are appropriate subjects for news articles. And the editorial department is not supposed to take into account who is purchasing ads in the publication when deciding what to publish.
In a government agency, say for example the U.S. Department of Commerce, that has some components that regulate certain industries, and some components that work with those industries to promote their goods and services overseas, there is supposed to be Chinese wall between the two, so that considerations of one component agency do not influence the decisions of the other.
In some cases, a large law firm or accounting firm may enter into confidential relationships with clients that might have or develop conflicting interests in some ways. The firm may end up with proprietary information about two parties that the parties could use against each other. A Chinese wall system would be put into place to prevent the exchange of information that would be detrimental to one or the other client.
In some cases, such as Faye’s perhaps, a service is so specialized that there are very few service providers exist in the given market and such potential conflicts become inevitable.
In Faye’s life, there’s a Chinese wall (or actually multiple ones) regarding her numerous clients. Proprietary information she learns from Client A is not to be divulged to Client B.
That would be considered a Chinese wall only in a very loose sense of the term. The actual Chinese wall belongs to Faye, which she breaches when she decides to use knowledge gained from one client to help another client, viz., Don.
In business this is often called a “firewall” today. It keeps information segmented to avoid conflict of interest problems. Faye invoked it once before and Don was asking her to breach it.
Though in fact I still think it’s as much about Roger’s entirely scummy keeping of a firewall than Faye’s dishonorable but excusable breaching of it. Or perhaps there’s a deliberate contrast between the way Roger is presented as unsympathetic for what he does, and Faye as sympathetic (though still unethical).
