Wasn’t it mentioned that Roger took someone else to the hospital because that person thought their heart stopped? Maybe Wendy played the stethoscope trick on him too…
How hair-raising was the opening scene with Ken at the wheel? If there was a crash, was anyone else injured? The whole business seems strange; hire an agency, reject anything they propose, and consequently abuse the rep until they produce…did this kind of thing really go on?
Also, does anyone have a theory about Don’s associating the weekend with his brothel days? Was it just the cough that triggered it?
I guess he woke up Monday and realized his drug-induced insight was garbage(?).
How is Jon Hamm not in movies with a half dozen Oscars on his bookshelf? When Gleason’s daughter holds the stethascope to Don’s chest and says “It’s broken”, he thinks she means his heart and says “You can hear that?” while his voice broke, wow, so much emotion.
So, Don was sick, with a fever, and the only thinkg that kept him going was the shot. I think he wanted Sylvia to comfort him through it the same way the prostitute did for him when he was a boy. Then he couldn’t go to her door because of everything going on at his place. But, what snapped him out of it? The next morning on the elevator with her, there were icicles hanging from the ceiling and he appreared to be totally done with her.
After Don left the conference room to talk to Dr Rosen, Jim Cutler said, “Maybe I should call my doctor.” I thought he was being sarcastic about Don abandoning the meeting, but on a second viewing, he was being sincere, and that’s why Dr Feelgood showed up.
I forgot to add. I loved loved this episode. It made me laugh (ken tap dancing, Cutler flying up the staircase, Betty talking about the casting couch) and cry (Don/Sylvia) all in the same hour. I like being surprised by this show and this episode certainly didn’t disappoint.
Yet another drug day at the office and nobody seems to mind or complain.
100% lack of originality - both with the characters trying to come up with ideas for Chevy and the writers who wrote this piece of crap.
I hate flashbacks in TV shows…so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see all of this back story be vomited back up. Boring. Plus, I think we can all sort of guess that Don was perhaps influenced by the fact he spent some of his youth growing up in a brothel.
Speaking of Don, after last week and this week, I now officially don’t care if he does jump off the top of the building in the very last episode…he has lost any sympathy and caring from me whatsoever.
My SO expressed it nicely after this episode ended:
“Good thing this wasn’t the first episode of the show, or we would never have watched it again.”
Perhaps that’s the goal the creator and writers are striving for. Usually main characters grow and develop for the better; In this case the hero frays and breaks down because of fundamental flaws from his past.
Can’t all be sunshine, lollypops and happily ever after.
I hate that they make us hate Don in one episode (his shenanigans with Sylvia, cheating again on Megan) and then turn around and make us try to feel sorry for him! They were really trying to punch us in the face with Don’s whole inspiration being not for an ad but for a speech to Sylvia.
Of course, maybe that’s why this is a good show?
Whatever the case I am over the moon with the resolution of the Sylvia storyline (I mean, hopefully the scene in the elevator is the resolution?) and good job to Linda Cardellini on her eeeeeeeever so slight smile when Don got off the elevator. It was good acting IMHO.
I can forgive the office drug stuff, and enjoy the weirdness of that. But the woman in the apartment? Jesus, that was way out in left field!
I’m surprised by how many people loved this episode. It was pretentious & self-indulgent. Maybe it just went over my head, but I’m generally not a fan of episodes where I’m thinking “What the fuck?” the whole bloody time.
I’ve defended this show to people who complain that nothing ever really happens, but it’s getting tiresome. I get Weiner’s thesis: “people don’t change,” but this does not make for good drama. Give us something, dude.
Was Sylvia smiling (even if eeeeever so subtly)? I saw her more as a little upset. Almost as though she was trying to get her foot in the door by joining Don on the elevator and asking how he’s been and him responding by shutting her down.
By that point my attention was more on the clock than the show so I could very well be wrong.
I took it that there were mixed emotions during the ride (she smiles a bit as they descend). When he gets out of the elevator without saying a word she is definitely not frowning. I suppose maybe she is not smiling whatsoever but my reaction to the scene was “Don’t be sad, don’t be sad, don’t be sad…aha! Not sad!” so I was satisfied that she wasn’t going to try to get him back and she was good with how it ended up.
I think I’ve mentioned before (not that anyone would remember, just thinking outloud) that I hate when women give in to Don and my favorite thing is when they give him the what-for.
I thought this episode was pretty much a waste. But I actually did like how it revealed a little bit of what an ad huckster Don is. He is mad at Chevy because they don’t like his ideas, but in his mind it is all because he can’t go in there and be his smooth talking self, but the fact is Don doesn’t seem to be creating much at all that the clients like these days and Don’s response has always been defensive or dismissive.
“Are we negroes” was the only really great thing about this episode.
I think that Don’s tripping balls weekend obsessing over Sylvia and then getting smacked in the face with how his entire family on a multitude different levels is effected by his behavior, is what led him to be ice king to Sylvia in the elevator. No that he’s done with playing around, but that he’s done “falling love.”
I can tell your observation is correct since I have to pick up the remote more often towards the end of the show. I’m sure they do it because you are more hooked near the end than at the beginning.
I could kind of see Don, who came in late, not knowing who she was but the guy who had sex with her should, and you’d think they’d have introduced her.
I could see Don’s decline if this were the last season - but he is really going to be in bad shape at this point next season if things continue.
