# Mad-Men: 5.13 "Phantom" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774 "2012-06-11T01:15:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/41 "2012-06-11T15:51:45Z")
I figured it would be hard to top the last two episodes, and I was right. This was a “meh” if ever I saw one. Not horrible, but nothing all that riveting. When Don walked into the theater, I thought it was a porn theater (I lived in NYC too long). Pete story kinda boring. Nobody has noticed the $50,000 advance that Lane took out, but now with the $175,000 (minus $50,000) it is probably a moot point. Megan is nice enough, and a pretty woman, but how clueless is she? She has been auditioning for what, two months? And she is SHOCKED that she doesn’t have a starring role or any big parts yet! What are the odds of an actress in NYC not finding work after 10 auditions? Geez - at this rate it could take 6 months to a year to become a star…bummer. Unemployment in the acting industry - whodathunk? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/42 "2012-06-11T15:55:22Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Speaking of, my wife says Don’s gonna cheat in the last scene. I said he’d say he was with someone. Obviously one of us is wrong. But Don’s kept it in his pants all season and seemed once-again smitten when watching the reel. Don cheated. He started treating Megan like a child: he manipulated things to ensure her success. And then walked away. It’s the same pattern he used to follow with Betty. So he’s gone back to his old ways. As has Roger, having an affair with Megan’s mom. And Pete’s sorta moved back to the city, and will be just as unhappy. Peggy isn’t around, Joan is back ruling the roost, and the firm is doing well even though there’s no finance person to be seen. In a lot of ways, they’ve come back full circle. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/43 "2012-06-11T15:56:55Z")
Yeah, I don’t get the Trudy hate. Her list of faults starts and ends with: chose to marry the biggest shitheel in history. I was reading some other discussion of this episode on Slate, where they posit that Don is upset that Megan is fully pursuing her acting and that he can’t handle an equal partner and wants a new Betty (like Megan’s mom thinks he wants). Err, no. He’s lost respect for her for cashing in on her connections to get a crappy commercial gig. He was happiest when they were both working advertising together. I wonder if next season they’ll explore the idea that Megan sucks at what she loves (acting) but is great at what she doesn’t enjoy (advertising). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/44 "2012-06-11T16:10:36Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Nobody has noticed the $50,000 advance that Lane took out, but now with the $175,000 (minus $50,000) it is probably a moot point. Again, it wasn’t an “advance.” It was an extension of their already existing line of credit. All it would show up is as a larger debit on their account. And even if anyone noticed, it would just be paid down as a part of their routine accounting practices. The only anomaly is the $7,500 check made out to Pryce and that doesn’t appear on the Chemical Bank line of credit. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/45 "2012-06-11T16:15:28Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I was kinda hoping the last scene would be Peggy going all Draper on the Virginia Slims pitch, mimicking the pitch in the first episode. And was I the only thinking “The planes gonna crash” when she talked about flying to Virginia to see the pitch? > > Also, my kingdom to whoever can get me a hi-res picture of the partners in front of the window of their new office. I need a new wallpaper. I think my screenshot might be a little better than the others judging from how they looked as my desktop background. [![](https://i.imgur.com/iN7kX.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/iN7kX.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/46 "2012-06-11T16:25:13Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > I think my screenshot might be a little better than the others judging from how they looked as my desktop background. > > [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](http://i.imgur.com/iN7kX.jpg) That’s nice, but looks exactly like JpnDude’s to me. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/47 "2012-06-11T16:47:37Z")
Every conductor I’ve met on a Metro North train is a feisty Irishman. I remember the train rides home after a night at the clubs or at a concert. They needed the muscle to handle all those drunken teens. They were all friendly as hell, but they meant business. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/48 "2012-06-11T16:50:08Z")
What to make (if anything) of the two Jame Bond references? Peggy and Don watch the original Casino Royale in the theater and the show closes with the theme song from You Only Live Twice. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/49 "2012-06-11T16:51:07Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I know I’ve missed some episodes; how is Trudy a bitch? I remember thinking as I watched the episode that she is far, far too good for Pete. Trudy doesn’t deserve an idiot like Pete. Giving him the green light for a city apartment! I wonder if on some level she knows they’re going to grow further and further apart, but that’s the price she’ll have to pay to live the life she wants. Someday it’ll all explode. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/50 "2012-06-11T16:57:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > That’s nice, but looks exactly like JpnDude’s to me. There’s fewer decompression artifacts. Especially noticeable around Joan’s legs and the AMC bug. Not that I need a reason to stare at her legs. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/51 "2012-06-11T17:14:36Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > What to make (if anything) of the two Jame Bond references? Peggy and Don watch the original Casino Royale in the theater and the show closes with the theme song from You Only Live Twice. When I considered that song choice, the first thing that came to mind was nepotism. Nancy and Megan wouldn’t be without their connections. Also, that intro just sounds cool. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/52 "2012-06-11T17:51:57Z")
[Matt Weiner inner dialog] I am thoroughly sick and tired of every two-bit columnist and smartass message board poster in America picking apart every word and glance and pause on the show for what it really means. I’ll show them. I’ll give them an episode in which none of it means anything! They want metaphors? How about the stupidest one in the book? Tooth decay! Rotting from the inside! And dream sequences. Hah. Don will see his dead brother while breathing nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide doesn’t work that way at all, of course. I know that. That’s why his delirium will be so banal. Wait. I’ve got a great idea. I’ll pair that with electroshock losing Beth her memories. Fake memories against tricked-up memory loss. Meaningless but it’ll seem like something to the suckers. Just like Megan’s audition role. Acting is done in b&w and silence. Just like the real thing! That’ll be my commentary on acting. Interpret that, losers. You expected drama? You get Weiner. Weiner. Weiner dogs. Dogs. Fuck you. There’s my commentary. Outside your window is the real world. Sex? Love? Relationships? Nah, just two dogs going into heat. Pete’s a dog. Don’s a dog. Roger’s a dog. The late Lane was a dog. What you see is what you get. Now pant for next year’s shows. Good audience, beg. Beg, I tell you! Beg me for more! [/Matt Weiner inner dialog] ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/53 "2012-06-11T17:52:02Z")
Yeah, that and Don has lived twice, once as Dick Whitman. I just thought it was odd that there were two references to James Bond movies in the episode. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/54 "2012-06-11T18:25:37Z")
When Don walks away from Megan as she’s on the set of the Beauty & the Beast ad, was the distance he walks from her intentionally surreal or are regular studios (the type where an ad would be shot) really that huge? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/55 "2012-06-11T18:38:28Z")
I thought that episode was a pile of crap, terrible ending to a season that had some great episodes. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/56 "2012-06-11T19:32:56Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > …I thought for one giddy moment Trudy was going to say to Pete that it was time for them all to move back to Manhattan - which is ridiculous, as she is planning to have a swimming pool put in at her suburban dream house. But she gave her approval for him to get an apartment. Lot of good that’s going to do him now!.. Pete will have other girls, maybe even a regular mistress. That could be an interesting subplot; especially if his mistress get’s pregnant with his child (again ;)). > [@hajario](#): > > There is no way for the audience to know. It depends on how they set up the company. We know that SCDP had six years to pay back the $50k but that Don gave it all back right away. Presumably she doesn’t have any ownership and his stake went to the remaining partners proportionally. It’s surprising to me that she hasn’t left NY and gone back to England. Lane’s only been dead a few weeks right? Still it’s odd that Rebecca’s shipping her mother over from England rather than having everything packed up. She has absolutely no connection with the US or reason to go back home, unless she’s planning some kind of lawsuit. > [@Jophiel](#): > > It was sort of monotone throughout. I think there was one line that made me laugh out loud (Don’s incredulous “We can DO that?” to Pete giving him proxy power for the meeting; you can just imagine these meetings dropping in attendance)… Eventually it’s Joan and Burt sitting in a rooming make all the important decisions. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/57 "2012-06-11T19:53:31Z")
Considering that the two episodes leading up to the finale were incredibly dramatic, I was expecting the final episode to be more subdued. I like that it was, actually, because we got to actually explore some of the heavy stuff that has happened recently, in nice scenes between Don & Peggy, Joan & Don, and Don & Mrs. Pryce. My interpretation of the final scene was similar to many here. I read it as Don having lost respect for Megan as the result of her actions re: pursuing the commercial, and as a result he’s back to his old ways. The fact that he ordered an “old fashioned” at the bar seemed particularly anvil-y to me. I will say that the entire storyline with Pete and Rory Gilmore fell sort of flat with me. I was just never that interested in it, though I do appreciate seeing Pete take blows to the face, of course, and I liked Trudy’s “_Another_ car accident?” I also don’t see how Trudy is a bitch. Maybe she should be more open toward Pete’s dislike of the country, but it’s not like she’s doing it just to spite him. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/58 "2012-06-11T19:54:05Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > When Don walks away from Megan as she’s on the set of the Beauty & the Beast ad, was the distance he walks from her intentionally surreal or are regular studios (the type where an ad would be shot) really that huge? Yes, a studio can be much larger than any individual set. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/59 "2012-06-11T20:04:49Z")
I don’t get the vehemence towards Trudy either. Not that she’s a total angel, I remember her going to her parents for their old apartment which Pete felt he couldn’t afford and things like that. But her wanting to move out to the suburbs for the baby doesn’t sound all that evil even if it’s not what Pete wanted. In a situation like that, someone is going to have to make a sacrifice. Pete dislikes his commute but his reason for wanting the apartment was so he can have a bang-pad for all the chippies he hopes to collect. Kind of hard to side with him there. And this is coming from someone who usually gave Pete some benefit of the doubt or tried to see what was making him that way (up until this season where he started to become a bit cartoonish in my opinion). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774/60 "2012-06-11T20:10:55Z")
Vincent Kartheiser isn’t drop dead gorgeous by any means, but away from this show he can be really cute, but when playing Pete he seems pasty and weaselly and the last guy you’d ever want to have sex with. I wonder if it’s the acting or the styling that removes any kind of sexiness (at least to me, others mileage may vary). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-5-13-phantom-open-spoilers/624774.md?page=4)