I think Weiner every once in while feels like he has to hit us over the head about Don not being a good guy. His interactions with Sylvia and Ted of course, but also his comment to Peggy telling her to set up the meeting.
In both cases, with Ted and Sylvia, Don was attempt to assert control, to be the master in the situation. The drinking with Ted was nothing more than show of dominance over Ted, at least in Don’s eyes it was. In both cases his initial successes in that regard were empty wins.
I am surprised no one has mentioned the chair yet. Pete coming in upset there is no chair (and Roger’s jab about how Don was already there, which means Pete was REALLY late) and how Ted ultimately gave up his chair to his assistant. The look on Don’s face was interesting. A literal seat at the table is what is at stake here, but Ted doesn’t play these old fashioned symbolic games. To Pete it is EVERYTHING, to Ted it is simply waste of time.
I can’t feel that bad for Chaough getting drunk. He didn’t have to drink. Don even said “If you don’t feel like drinking…”
Maybe Don intentionally put the pressure on, but Chaough didn’t have the balls to say “None for me”. He wanted to try and match Don drink for drink and failed. He got his revenge on the plane. Just two alpha dogs circling around each other and trying to get the top spot.
Pete felt that he was being belittled because they had not saved a chair for him but then Ted showed that he was the better man by giving up his chair for the secretary (who really needed one so that she could take minutes for the meeting).
You know, I’d initially read Ted’s actions as old-fashioned and perhaps misguided chivalry, but you’re right. I’d missed the fact that the two note-talkers obviously needed chairs more than people who are just talking; Ted was showing that he was not merely a better person than Pete (which, while true enough, is like being taller than Papa Smurf) but more in tune with the actual, practical needs of the situation than Don.
Lately all we ever see of Pete is him being angry and frustrated, so I wonder how he can possibly be the smooth operator I’d expect from an ad agency client executive. So can someone remind me if they ever showed him working well with clients?
And it was also interesting to hear Ted associating each of the margarine brands with a Gilligan’s Island character. Don seemed completely unaware of the show. So Ted is more in touch with pop culture.
Bear in mind that this is happening in 1968. There’s only three channels, and GI has been off the air for a year; it hasn’t been in constant daily syndication for decades. It’s believable to me that Don barely knows what it is. He’d have been working hard to consolidate his position at the various agencies he worked at during its run, and between that and his whoremongering would never have been home watching television while it was on.
He’d probably consider it beneath him in any case. He never seems to watch anything except news coverage of big events and sports.
Which reminds me that in the earlier seasons they seem to have talked about the latest Broadway shows a lot, but not any more. I wonder if this is intentional.
I don’t think he was out of touch with the show necessarily, he just didn’t like the way Ted used it as a creative crutch (not that they don’t all have creative crutches).
IRL, Kevin Rahm (Ted Chaough) is a few months older than Jon Hamm (both born 1971). I don’t know if either is the same age as their characters, but I somehow saw Draper as being a few years older and a sort of big-brother/hero figure in Chaough’s eyes (hence the drinking to impress him). Of course that can still be the case even if they’re the same age.
I can’t imagine that Chaough looks up to Don, or aspires to be like him. The drinking thing was simply a power struggle, in which Don won the first round and Chaough the second.
There’s been (mostly elsewhere, but some here) a lot of speculation about whether Don’s hijinks with the hotel room were calculated to drive whatzername away. I can’t buy that due to his reaction–if he was acting, Don Draper deserves Jon Hamm’s next Emmy. Don did have a bit of a plan when he pulled his alpha male drinking contest shit with Chaough-guh-guh; Ted, in turn, was given a plan when he visited his dying friend and set it in motion on the plane. (Aside: Would Pete have even fit in that thing?) Pete… no, no plans for Pete.
All of this is pretty weak, with Ted being perhaps the best choice for a link.
I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but Tracy Silver who played “Margie Koch” (ex-member of the creative team) has an IMDb entry as “Margie Koch” in Madmen. What little information there is about the latter is odd. It’s Polish? With just two people? And the other actor has also appeared on Mad Men? Something’s fishy here.
But my favorite “Hey, it’s that gal!” moment was spotting Cathy Lind Hayes as Nurse Finnegan. Talk about typcasting. A lot of her roles have been nurses.
A much weaker episode than last week’s. (Which has been the only true MM episode so far this season.) The Ted/Don rivalry is muddled (some people barely noticed it). Don’t like the brown-noser going after Joan. Isn’t Joan smart enough to already know what this guy’s game is?
