Is Lane’s wife Rebecca a new wife? I thought his wife left him last season and returned to England. And what did the SCDP ad in paper say? It flashed by so quickly I couldn’t read it.
When “no means no”, it means no. But when “no means yes”, it means yes. She was looking for attention from him even though she was going on about cleaning, but she stripped down to sexy bra & panties and purposely moved from the hearth to the middle of the room so she could turn her back to him, get on all fours, and present her ass to him. The meaning was clear- it was an invitation, and he accepted.
It’s all part of their game. In his office, he tells her “open your blouse”, and she does. He’s acting like a teenager, but the honeymoon’s nearly over.
Terrific! Meagan’s character is turning out to be a lot more interesting that I thought. I don’t know how much of Don’s birthday anxiety is related to his double identity, but I think Meagan might just be the woman to get him over that. I get the impression that she actually is up to the task at work.
As much as I hate Pete, I thought his joke on Roger at the end was a hoot.
I didn’t understand the big deal what’s-his-name made about trying to put the 4-some together. That’s SOP even today. Was there some issue about him not wanting to ride his FIL’s coattails? Still, a rather petty response when the firm just flat out needs the business.
Does everyone in real life do what they should do? It’s an illustration of culture clash, naivete, and social missteps. Actually, Megan wasn’t doing anything you wouldn’t have seen in a Pink Panther movie. And it was also the kind of misunderstanding that happens in real life too. Neither Megan nor Harry is malicious. They’re each just kind of dumb sometimes in very realistic ways.
And, of course, it’s a spirit of the times kind of thing. In today’s workplace, you would be very careful about having a sexually explicit conversation like that in the workplace about a co-worker. In the show, it’s only a problem for Harry because he happened to be talking about the boss’s wife. If it had been “just” a receptionist or secretary, Harry would have had nothing to worry about.
Pete is willing to beg his wife’s father for business. There are people who aren’t willing to mix family and business. It totally makes sense to me. It changes your relationship; in this case, it changes your relationship with your father-in-law, and also with your wife.
It just had the SCDP logo and “An Equal Opportunity Employer”
I didn’t see Lane’s “obsession” with Delores as much more than the theme of relationship strife in the episode: Don/Megan, Roger/Jane, Pete/Trudy’s Housecoat, Joan/Mother/Absent Husband, etc. Of course now, ten episodes later it’ll be some huge point.
If I learned anything, it’s that no one from Mad Men should sing, ever. Not with accordions, not in slinky dresses and certainly not in black-face. Just leaving the singing to the end credits, SCDP, as it only causes problems.
Oh, I agree completely.
How is Joannie going to explain the way-too-young, white-haired, cocktail-swilling baby to her husband? And are we going to be treated to more extreme closeups of baby balls?
OK, but then I’m perplexed at how matte- of-factly the others reacted to it. I would expect such an attitude to be grounds for dismissal or demotion in a firm that small and in need of clients.
Because maybe they realize that they can’t reasonably expect everyone to be as ruthless and without principle as Pete. And maybe they don’t want to force everyone to be like that. Maybe they don’t want to be that kind of firm. Even people like this might have some degree of moral or ethical qualms.
The Don-Megan scene: After Don’s rejection of her that evening, and his explanation of never having had birthdays, she seems to have tapped into his need to be punished. The cleaning scene smacked of S&M, with Megan acting the dominatrix, treating Don like a ‘bad boy’ and trying to make him look but don’t touch. This of course turned him on completely.
Any idea why Lane is having money problems (re: his kid’s tuition, the request his wife not write checks)? The firm took a big hit but the partners personal fortunes seem safe; was he not as rich as the others?
Does Burt have an office at SCDP? I was wondering because of his comment in Pete’s office- did he want an office or just a nicer one?
“Scarlett and Clara couldn’t work a parking meter! They are imbeciles!”
Pete may be whiny and petulant but man does he have cause. He’s turned out to be the only grown-up in the room. (In the partner’s room. Ken is a grown-up but he’s so minor a character I had to look up his name because I forgot it since last night.)
And he got the stunt played on Roger and the couch gag. Two funny scenes, which I think is two more than he had in the first four seasons. Weiner is doing something with that character that we need to watch. Especially since neither Sterling nor Cooper seem to have any business function at all. A firm that can’t afford to hire a secretary can’t afford two partners doing nothing. Look for a giant implosion later in the year.
Probably several. That’s what I meant earlier about the whole endless episode being nothing but set-up without any payoff. Maybe we’ll look back and think at how great the season was because of all the bombs exploding. The problem is that after all that waiting I think everybody wanted something definitive to happen right away. Instead we got the biggest anticlimax since the Comet Kohoutek.
They are partners because they put their capital into the business. It’s not a question of “affording” them. If the business doesn’t profit, they don’t get a share of the profits either, but that doesn’t change their ownership status.
Ah ha! Thank you. I was really confused.
Ahh I see. I actually do clean the house that way in July and August. I like the explanation for impressing Don too.
I think Pete is reviled because he isn’t smooth and suave like the others. He’s so clearly a go-getter, an in-the-trenches kinda guy. He wants money – and while the others like what money can do, they don’t like the dirty business of looking eager or getting their hands dirty. I like Pete overall. He is the only one who looked at the hiring of black people as an opportunity to set the firm apart (possibly Cooper too), as an overall positive aspect. But the way he treats Trudy is awful. I think a lot of that has to do with leaving the city. Pete really resents that train ride and the suburbs.
Any takers on if Dick Whitman was revealed to Megan last season? Or if it happened while on hiatus and she referred to it this season to let us know they’d talked about it?
Pete has been a dick to Trudy since the beginning. If anything, he’s slightly less obnoxious now than he has been in the past.
I thought Don/Dick told her while they were in California. Didn’t she go with him to see his platonic ex-wife’s house which had a reference to the name?
I missed something, by the way. What happened to Pete’s eye 10 minutes into the episode that had him in such pain?
Another question or actually criticism. Pete is a junior partner; Roger is a senior partner; Harry is just an employee though a department head. Why did Harry have a better office in the first place? For that matter, why would Roger have to convince Harry to switch offices with Pete, much less bribe him? It was clear in the Harry-Roger scene that Roger has the power to fire Harry at will. Seemed silly, though the scene was still funny.
I’m pretty sure Don didn’t reveal it last season. We didn’t see Don and Megan together that much and I think we were all surprised when Don proposed to her. All I remember was the trip to the theme park, and that Megan was really good with Sally.
Matt Weiner is on Fresh Air right now – it’ll be archived later at the NPR website Great interview. He doesn’t give much away, except to say that all the conflicts in this season have their start in the first episode. He also says that Don and Megan are the center of the conflict, that we’ve been told what it is but that “it isn’t what you think”. How cryptic!
He bumped into that supporting column in his office.
Thank you.
Yeah… that scene read as borderline sub/dom. It’s their thing.
I don’t understand the complaints about this episode. I thought it was a great way to start the year. There were AMAZINGLY uncomfortable moments, which I think is just as important to this show as anything else.
The whole scene with Price on the phone with Delores. Pete’s subdued panic when he saw Peggy with the baby. The entire zooby dance.
What’s amazing is how people seem to l"like" Don and Roger and “dislike” Pete, when in reality Pete, though far from perfect, seems to be the one who understands the world around them is changing and that the old school Madison Avenue ways are not going to work. Drinking on the job, silly pranks, his distaste for Don and Megan’s work and personal relationship being all muddled. He also seems to be the one at the moment with the most normal home life.
Yet we gravitate toward Don and Roger because cool drinking and dress snappy and be assured etc. But they are womanizers, with limited social awareness and represent an old school way of thinking. Pete is whiny and obnoxious, but he is also the only one who sees whats coming.