Don’s motives in keeping Sylvia held-up in the hotel were definitely about his neediness. Megan doesn’t need him, she has a career. The office is going through changes, and clearly Ted (and likely Peggy) are not going to let him get away with his normal bullshit easily. So Sylvia, with her husband gone, is available for him to control, and he made sure she had access to nothing else so that she would reliably be there for him.
It was nice to finally see some exchange between Peggy and Joan. I had wondered all this time if the two ever spoke since the end of Season 5. Unless I missed something, they seem to be a neutral place.
Thanks, BluePear. You, Thelma, and my wife have outvoted me and Sven. The verdict is in – Don is just a self-absorbed jerk who felt like he needed a dose of adoration from someone in semi-voluntary servitude.
It’s more subtle than that. It was an erotic game, too, which he thought she was also into. And she was at first. It was a huge turn-on for both of them. He wasn’t just being a jerk who needed to keep a woman for his own pleasure. He instinctively zeroed-in on a gut-level need of each of them. He needed to be sexually NEEDED by a woman to the exclusion of everything else in her life, and she said that, “nothing else will do.” She needed to be passionately and recklessly DESIRED by a man who would put his job second, which her husband would never do. She initiated this interlude by calling him and calling TO him, and Don walked out in the middle of a work day and missed an important meeting. Something about this mutual arrangement- and it was quite mutual- resonated with the deepest erotic fantasies of each of them. Until she got bored with it.
There is no way that Joan will ever tell her mother what she did to make partner. Her mom obviously annoys the heck out of her, and she wouldn’t even be around if Joan didn’t need her to take care of Kevin.
Ah, thanks. The buy-out happened at the very ends of S2 or beginning of S3 (it came together while Don was in California). I skimmed episode synopsis lists for S1 & S2 but didn’t bother with S3+ assuming I remembered them well enough.
The devastated look on Don’s face when Sylvia ended it was incredible. When he croaked out “please” to her with tears in his eyes, that destroyed me. Jon Hamm totally nailed that scene.
Was she “bored” though? Or just realizing what both of them were doing and decided that it was not healthy for her. Bored would imply to me that she was just done with that interlude, not done with him altogether.
So, getting Chaough drunk was a plan Don had before he even entered his office? Everyone assumes that’s exactly what he wanted to do. I thought Don was just trying to get to know Chaough’s abilities.
You’re right. Bored isn’t a precise enough term. But I don’t think it was just the realization that it wasn’t healthy. It’s like the way a bar or nightclub looks so glamorous at night with the lights, music, and sparkle, but if you go in the in the daytime with daylight pouring in, you’re conscious of the smell of cigarettes and stale beer. The erotic moment of glamour was over for her, PLUS the realization that it was time for them to go back to their real lives. He has a craving for that dark eroticism that Megan can’t relate to. She’s too legitimate…now. And too young.
One of the things that makes him so sexually attractive is the combination of strength, power, and dominance with woundedness and vulnerability. Besides being drop-dead gorgeous. That look when he said “please” captured it all.
You could write a dissertation on Don and Women. Someone probably will.
ETA. I think she is absolutely done with him. They went to the edge; there’s no place left for them to go.
I think she was just making a joke. Peggy asked “How’s your little boy” and Joan said something close to “He’s the man in my life… and how’s your little boy?”, as in “How is the man in your life?”
Sepinwall’s reviewof last night’s episode has some really interesting insight, especially regarding the theme of duplication. It’s definitely worth a read.
I think that one of the things that Don liked about Sylvia is that it was a game for both of them, and they both knew the rules. They could share conspiratorial looks, secret codes, and stolen moments, but there were boundaries and it worked. I don’t think it even felt much like “cheating” to Don. It was just some fun the grownups had while Megan was busy with her own stuff.
But then, last episode, Sylvia uttered the “L” word, which is something nobody in this situation wants to hear. Then when she calls him at a bad time, saying pretty seriously that she “needs” to hear him, it became clear that it was no longer a game. So, Don decided that if it wasn’t going to be a game, then by golly it wasn’t going to be a game. He started playing games, but just like she did, he quickly made it clear that what was going on wasn’t a tease or a role-play, it was very real. He let her see just what a “real” connection to Don Draper looks like- and it’s dark.
I think his hurt at the end was that he somehow expected her to somehow make the game fun again, and she didn’t. He didn’t actually think he’d lose her, he just thought he could somehow make things change back to how they were with his little demonstration.
Maybe she got hungry? Notice that there was a room service tray there when Don came back, though she was not supposed to eat. Perhaps violating that rule helped her get out of the mindset.
Thank you! All those dumb games and ‘dark eroticism’ happens in moments, and these moments went on too long (how long were they in that hotel, anyway? A day? two days?) The lights have to come on, you have to go grocery shopping for the family, boring real life. Don was holding his secret g/f close to him in mind all during the show, anticipating going back for fun and games. Sylvia most probably DID get bored to death lolling around, having time to think.
So what is the meaning of “The Last Picture Show” (Sylvia’s book)? It means something, I leave it to my betters to explain it to me.
Another vote for Don enjoying the game he set up with Sylvia and was truly upset when it ended–i.e. he wasn’t trying to intentionally drive her away.
For me, a lot of this episode was how Don’s approach to women and work are slowly becoming anachronistic. His moves to prove his dominance over rival Ted are another good example, something that Peggy called him out for. There was an even stronger contrast in Ted/Don discussion about advertising margarine, with Don focused on generic, hearth-and-home images and Ted explaining in terms of a pop-culture reference (Gilligan’s Island, which Don has obviously never watched and considers beneath him). Meanwhile the world is changing around all the characters, and Don’s usual distraction/“don’t think about it” advice is becoming much harder to accept.
The future IMO belongs to characters like Peggy, Ted, and Megan, and Don at some level knows he needs to change to survive that future. But he either doesn’t know how or is too self-centered to do anything about it; that scene of him tuning out Megan then basically ignoring the news about Bobby Kennedy while his wife sobbed spoke volumes. I still expect him to make another patented bold move to regain control, but for me Don’s creeping spiral toward irrelevance has been a fascinating payoff this season.
The story is about how a certain older style of small-town life was withering away in the face of the youth culture. Kinda fits with the theme this season.
At the beginning of the episode, when Don heard Sylvia and Arnie arguing, I thought the look on his face was “Damn, if their marriage is over, what will she want from me”. I sure got that wrong.
Don’s relationship with Sylvia reminded me of his relationship with that woman in season two (?), the one who was married to the comedian. That was also dark and erotic, and different from Rachel and the teacher and the Bohemian chick from season one.
Don getting Chaough drunk reminded me of what Don did to Roger in season one, when Don bribed the elevator operator, and made a drunk Roger walk up a bunch of stairs. Ted did better than Roger though – at least he didn’t puke in front of clients.
Peggy tells Don “Move forward”. I think after this episode, Don might listen.
Note that Ted wasn’t suggesting a Gilligan’s Island based campaign, rather he was using the show’s character’s as a crutch to help him find an idea. Assign each of the competitors to a character and then see who’s left, and then that’s the niche you need to fill with your brand message.
Peggy confirmed that she and her boyfriend- which is to say she- did buy that building. Granted, I doubt any NYC real estate often decreases in value, but what a stupid thing for such a smart woman to do. Does anybody know where in NYC her building is located?