True, but she didn’t seem all that upset about it, and actually seemed a bit relieved after the initial shock.
I thought Megan dissed the ice cream because she had specifically asked for pie but Don completely ignored her and just ordered the ice cream. I would be really pissed if someone did that to me.
You gotta admit that her “Why don’t YOU call YOUR mother?” was way, way, way over the line. And not in that “you’re not allowed to talk about that” sense, in the “holy shit that is a nuclear escalation and you just said that to hurt me” sense.
I thought the whole HoJo scene was meant to be a callback to when Don decided to ask Megan to marry him when they had the kids at Disneyland in a diner and Sally spilled a milkshake and Megan didn’t pull a Betty freakout.
You may have to buy it on iTunes - I think that’s the only other option.
Definitely. I thought the same thing; even the placement of the booth and the angle from which it was shot were similar.
What Megan said was definitely super hurtful, but she was also dealing with months of living with a husband who doesn’t treat her like a real person, whose desires automatically override hers, who doesn’t take her career seriously, and who most recently denied her pie (which is the point at which, if I were Megan, the HoJo’s staff would have been cleaning bits of Don’s skull off the linoleum).
I’m surprised she didn’t snap sooner. Apart from his constantly subjecting her schedule to his whims, Don has turned into a pouty asshole every time something has come up this season that he hasn’t wanted to do (Fire Island with Megan’s friends, dinner at Pete & Trudy’s), and Megan has to bear the brunt of that.
So yeah, she definitely shouldn’t have said it, but in comparison to Don acting like a total clod all season, I can’t get too worked up (especially since his response was something that literally could have wound up with Megan dead).
Did Peggy’s movie house adventure strike a false note with anyone but me? I know nothing about the show’s writers, but this looks like what happens when a gay writer tries to write a straight sex scene.
No, Megan’s response was something that could have wound up with Megan dead. Had she just gone to the paid-for room like a sane person instead of hitching rides with strange men, she would have reduced her chances of being dead dramatically. It’s not as though she feared for her life – she went home, not to her parents or some shelter or something – she just wanted to make the statement of going home on her own. That’s 100% on her.
While it was over the line I don’t see it as way way over the line. He was chastising her about her mother and going on and on about it, so she basically is saying "How convenient, you can talk about my mother, but god forbid we talk about yours. Being Don’s spouse is a pain in the ass to be honest. And then he tries to shut her up with some ice cream like she’s a little girl, how demeaning. I’m sorry, Don was cruel, while Megan was just trying to be heard.
I disagree. He was being an asshole, and she was right to be upset, but she stuck that right where it would hurt the most, knowing that, and she did it to be intentionally cruel. I know, 'cause I used to do that to my ex sometimes and it was never, ever right.
I thought this episode was a masterpiece, a mini movie. I was riveted throughout.
Jane Siegel. We’ve known she was Jewish from the beginning.
As others have said, I think Roger was just making a sarcastic reference to Leary, not addressing the guy in the room as “Doctor Leary.”
I think there were three names on the door – Peggy, Stan, and Ginsberg.
In that business, “professional” is whatever sells. There are no strict definitions regarding what Don is allowed to say to a client and what Peggy is allowed to say. They are both creative ad pitchmen. They have their tactics. This particular one just didn’t work for Peggy.
Yes. Howard Johnson’s was one of the few places that had dozens of different flavors of ice cream.
I 100 percent agree with this. Ginsberg doesn’t actually believe he’s a Martian.
Spiegelman.
No, Don never meant to go to Montreal. Seeing that it was close to Montreal just gave him the idea of taking Megan. When Megan suggested going to Montreal, Don reminded her that her parents were going to visit soon.
People say far worse stuff during arguments. Words can be forgiven. Regardless, you don’t abandon someone like that.
I really don’t follow your line of reasoning. Megan was acting like a normal person in a fight. Don’s anger was way over the top. That’s what makes Don scary.
There’s a difference between expecting someone to act like an adult and socialize in a routine adult setting on the one hand and on the other hand on a day-to-day basis disregard a person’s dignity in the workplace. Megan has to deal with a big problem at work every day that Don just doesn’t acknowledge or perceive. He can’t just pull her out of school like she’s his playmate at the drop of a hat. That’s very different from having to suffer through one surprise party on one occasion.
Yes.
Going out for dinner is a “routine adult setting”. A surprise birthday party, pretty much by definition, is not “routine”. She was told that Don wouldn’t like it, she was told by Don that Don didn’t want it but she shoved ahead because it was what SHE wanted and dreamed in her head as the perfect event. And then got pissy when it wasn’t.
Megan then got pissy when Don didn’t want to go to Fire Island. Maybe she failed to understand she was marrying a 40 year old divorcee/father and not a 22 year old hep cat who wants to play with the college kids when she said “yes”. I don’t think it’s “one occasion” but rather two people who haven’t worked through the differences in their partner’s personalities. Except some people fall all over themselves to point to everything Don does as “asshole” and everything Megan does as “Aw, that’s not so bad. Now Don…” even when she committing the exact same sins.
I thought the movie house sequence was ridiculous. Was it supposed to be about the woman wanting to be in control, somewhere, anywhere? Could someone who has watched this show more closely than I have explain, or venture a thought please?
I saw it more as Peggy being pissed at her boyfriend and getting her petty personal revenge that way, which she internally felt wasn’t as bad as letting the guy touch her. I’m sure you can add more to it than that (work stuff, etc) but she intentionally went to see the movie her boyfriend had wanted to see with her that evening.
At first I found it odd that Don was so excited by Howard Johnsons…even back then they were just a gaudy diner with ice cream that was so-so and a place people stopped to visit on the way from point A to point B. Kids thought it was cool - and then I realized, Don was sort of re-living the childhood he wished he had had - staying where there is an indoor pool and lots of ice cream.
Peggy in the movie theater- brought back memories of a return visit to NYC in the 80’s and went to see a summer blockbuster film in Times Square area, and just as the movie started there was a guy going up and down the aisle selling “loose joints”…had forgotten about those days.
I know it was the 60’s, but one nitpick about the ad agency is that their ideas have all been so poorly conceived; pretty horrible artwork and text that is lame. Even that would be acceptable if you didn’t know they had spent days/weeks coming up with this. Amazing that they made money for that crap back then.
Peggy’s behavior in the movie was Don’s or Roger’s of seasons past: she likes sex, and she ignores social rules to satisfy herself. Don and Roger used to blow off work to go pick up women for sex. Peggy just blew off work and decided to have a tawdry thing in the movie theater.
Then she went home and called up her boyfriend. Just like Don used to go home to Betty.
I don’t think she really wanted sex (she could have taken the guy to a hotel), but she asserted her power over a man by giving him a handjob, and she’d probably been feeling like she had no power. And she’s seen from Joan how you can hold power over men.
You know, this really bothered me, too. The whole rest of the issues aside. He dismissed her pie order just like he dismisses her in general. I saw it as a perfect example of how he treats her.
True, there was a glowing orange substance in both scenes.
Jophiel, you are absolutely right in correcting me that it was Megan’s response to Don’s actions that put her at risk. I had forgotten that they had a room at the Howard Johnson’s (to be honest, I have no real idea what a Howard Johnson’s is; I thought it was a Denny’s-type place and not a hotel until Don had the conversation with the concierge). And of course, Megan could have gotten a room even if they hadn’t. I don’t blame Megan for leaving (I’m kind of surprised she didn’t go to her parents’), but you’re right, that was all her.
I disagree that Megan was engaging in the same type of behavior as Don when she organized his party, however. She was certainly naive in organizing the party and dismissing everyone’s sensible warning that Don would hate it, but it wasn’t symptomatic of a systematic disregard for Don’s personhood. She just made a bad call.
Don’s behavior, on the other hand, was just the latest manifestation of a complete lack of regard for Megan’s needs and desires as a person. He expects her to conform to his whims entirely, and when she didn’t, he absolutely blew a gasket. He engaged in behavior that was emotionally abusive at a minimum. Indeed, this is the first episode I’ve realized that Betty wasn’t the only child in that marriage. Don is just as emotionally stunted, just in a different way.
I just can’t see any equivalence in their behaviors, and the power structure of the relationship is certainly tilted entirely in Don’s favor. In fact, the minute Megan exercised some power of her own, Don threw a colossal temper tantrum.
I disagree but since we’re both working with the same limited data I don’t see it going anywhere but circles. Time will tell. Or not.
Time has already told. That’s what this episode was about.