It was more than just frosting Sylvia…he actually half-apologized to his daughter (not much but IMO a new step for Don), and by extricating himself from the day-to-day creative on GM he decisively moved away from his usual work role as a savior–something Joan criticized him for just two episodes ago.
I think we’ve seen Don hit rock-bottom, and just saw the start of him taking control of his life rather than chasing after an elusive happiness. Peggy told him to “move forward” last week; the last five minutes of this episode may have been the start of that.
Don obviously wants to get caught. It can’t be that difficult even for a tripping ad exec to pick up some of his cigarette butts.
We saw his stepmother in this episode, but did we see his aunt? Perhaps this is after she took up with his ‘uncle’. She’s rather judgmental for a woman who lives in a whorehouse and is committing adultery with her sister’s husband, but far more egregious cases are not that rare.
I assumed his younger brother was a paternal half-brother, but apparently he was the son of the “uncle” and the stepmother and thus no biological relationship to Don at all.
I already said that I don’t know. I was just pointing out that the likely effects of such a coacktail would be closer to drinking a shit-ton of coffee than to dropping LSD.
I assumed his younger brother was a paternal half-brother, but apparently he was the son of the “uncle” and the stepmother and thus no biological relationship to Don at all.
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I’m pretty sure Adam was his paternal half-brother. Wasn’t his stepmother pregnant when they arrived at the whorehouse, after Don’s father died? I presume that was Adam. His stepmom didn’t appear to still be pregnant in this episode so the baby was apparently off-screen somewhere.
Unless your suggesting that Mack impregnated her sometime before their arrival?
No, she was a con artist. All she had to go on was the name “Don Draper”, and I was surprised she even had that. She cold read Sally and gave really generic answers that could apply to anyone like “is his wife still a piece of work”. What I can’t believe is that I actually took Betty’s side over something. She had every right to be pissed at Don & Megan. I’m surprised she had as much self-control as she did.
What was the point of making Betty look like Henry’s mother in the first place if she just turns back into herself with no payoff? Bobby’s line was one of the few things I liked about this episode. Are we on Bobby#5 or 6 now?
Betty lost a shit ton of weight in a pretty short amount of time, considering that last season she was celebrating losing a half pound at her weekly Weight Watcher’s meeting.
Couldn’t they have found a kid less dour-looking to play the teenaged Don Draper/Dick Whitman.
I think I would have preferred an episode of nothing but Ken tap dancing.
This season has been noticeably off. Only one true MM episode so far. This one was especially awful. It only seemed to fill the hour. I don’t see how it linked well to previous episodes or will help future story lines. So, some people did a bunch of goofy stuff. Big whoop. I watch MM for the story, not the tap dancing. Well, okay, and the retro stuff. Shame about the cocktail set.
Davenia McFadden, who played Grandma Ida hasn’t previously appeared on MM. I took her to be an ex-maid who was targeting apartments of people she didn’t necessarily know much about, hence, not all were former employers but maybe neighbors of employers.
Brandon Killham, the young Dick, has had that role since the beginning. (Ditto Brynn Horrocks, Abigail Whitman.) Unlike the actors that play Bobby. As he is getting older, I think his likeness to Don holds up. Except for that idiotic haircut.
FYIY: The Mama Cass Elliot version of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” was released in June 1968 and peaked in August.
Note that Bobby Kennedy was shot on June 4 and died two days later. Stan says his cousin died March 4th, “3 months ago”. Given all that has happened with Chevy and such since the last episode, I don’t see 3 months being right even in round numbers. (We also got a bleeped F-bomb during Stan’s bit about this.) Then again, this was a guy playing William Tell with pens and may not be able to do Math well.
Still no word on the name of the new company. Even Dr. Feelgood was wondering about that. Shouldn’t this have been resolved by now? Maybe they were waiting out the death of Ted’s mentor.
I liked the delayed payoff generated by withholding the I-Ching girl’s identity. When you see Harry Hamlin blithely staring at Stan and I-Ching doing it, you think, “Wow, what a creep.” Then you later find out she’s the daughter of his just-deceased partner and he was supposed to be looking after her. Now we’re in Norman Bates territory. I thought it was a neat, disturbing trick.
Best line was Ted Chaough’s: “Half of this work is gibberish. ‘Chevy’ is spelled wrong.”
Also, I think that while the episode title “The Crash” was obviously supposed to reference Don hitting rock bottom (begging at Silvia’s back door) and the amphetamine crash after the shots wore off, I think the literal reference was to the car crash that happened in the first minute of the episode and injured Cosgrove. That was an amazing scene, especially when they stated pointing the gun out the window.
I must be pretty slow because it took me way too long to figure out that the dingy hallway was supposed to be the back door of Arnie and Silvia’s apartment. I was thinking, “When did they move to this shitty apartment?” For such nice apartments it was surprisingly gross looking.
Is it really that big of deal to leave a 14-year-old at home alone with her siblings? That sounds plenty old to me, assuming the door is locked. I think part of what shocked Don out of his Silviamania was the realization that his stalking of her caused him to leave the back door unlocked which endangered his own kids. It was nice to see him take a modicum of responsibility.
