I like when Peggy suggested the Burger Chef mom could be coming home from work, Don was perplexed by what work she could have been doing. Her response? “You’re surrounded by working mothers!”.
From *The Atlantic *online. Apparently a lot of us have been waiting for the relief this episode brought.
Agreed! Either that or the shot of Don and Peggy dancing would have made fine series closers.
This is the episode that saves Peggy. They’ve spent all season making her such a miserable harridan (not to mention a harridan who was feeling miserable) that her nipple seemed the next to go. (I’ll bet big bucks they couldn’t have shown that on Mad Men, even covered with a gauze bandage.)
How many shows have ever shown a proper balance between the work family and the home family? Rob Petrie had the best of both on The Dick Van Dyke Show - and neither Sally nor Buddy did. Since then, shows are almost always split, one or the other. For six seasons of Mad Men, both work families and home families were dysfunctional. Are they coming down on one side here or just setting us up for another, bigger failure?
Did anyone else bump against the ceiling when Don said that 1955 was a good year because he got married then? Never mind what that says about his feelings for his first marriage – although saying that to your second wife while she’s clearing out the closets to take her stuff to California requires five therapy sessions to unravel.
Worse, one thing we thought we all knew about the timeline was that Sally was born in April 1954. We know she was 8 in the fall of 1962. In earlier we’ve been talking about her having her 15th birthday this spring.
Is this a silly but odd error, a sneaky bit of foreshadowing, or is my hearing failing?
Don said he got married in 1965 – as in remarried to Megan. He married Megan between seasons four and five (fall 1965 and spring 1966) so apparently it was in late 1965 that they wed.
Some image hunting found these:
Burger Chef ad 1968 - slogan: “People on the go - go Burger Chef”
1970 ad - slogan: “Food good enough to leave home for” - and check out Melvin the Monster!
Burger Chef Commercial - We’ll always treat you right - 1970 - emphasis is on kids, not mothers, though a couple of family shots are thrown in; it’s all singing - there aren’t any jingle writers at SCP, and that’s always been a huge hole for the show
Whew! That makes much more sense.
I don’t know if he’s ever out and out stated it, but Joan isn’t a sheltered young woman. As Tom and Lorenzo’s recap points out, she’s lived in the Village for an entire decade. And she’s the type that gay men would flock to, though with different interest than the interest she gets from straight guys. She definitely already knew that Bob was gay, though I don’t know if it’s something she knew immediately or if it’s something she figured out at some point.
Wait…Burger Chef was real? I had no idea. I was born in 1970, grew up near NYC…it seems I just barely missed crossing paths with the chain.
The dance between Don and Peggy was not a father-daughter moment. Don has never been a father to her. A big brother, mentor, coach, teacher, thorn-in-her-side, and a friend-- he’s been and we saw last night, still is, all of those. There is a whiff* of sexual tension between them, but mostly it’s a creative/intellectual chemistry, which can be almost as intoxicating as sexual chemistry.
*To quote Evelyn Waugh in Brideshead Revisited, “a bat squeak of sexuality.”
I remember the line as (in response to someone asking about his son) “He’s crawling around everywhere, you really need to keep an eye on him!”
But yeah, the line and the abashed glances all around after it almost made me pee myself I was laughing so hard.
And thank GOD for that, if they end the show next year with Don and Peggy hooked up as a couple, an ‘At Last!’ ending, I will puke.
I loved how quickly that devolved into “your unwed daughter’s pregnant & your son’s off to Vietnam, but Burger Chef’s there for you”. 
We finally got an episode that really felt like Mad Men and without Don & Peggy being pathetic sad sacks. I even liked kinda liked Pete in this episode. Sure he was a hypocritical ass, but he was dead on about Trudy. They’re both better off without each other. Granted it screwed things up with Bonnie, but that was never going to work out long term.
I just like to point out that depending on exactly when in the year Sally’s birthday is the timeline lines of up perfectly when Don & Betty “having to get married” ;); which would explain a lot.
I think it’s obvious that Joan figured Bob out awhile ago; especially since unlike Sal it appears Bob never tried feigning interest in her (nor was he afraid of her like Don). It speaks volumes about her character that was happy to have “Uncle Bob” in Kevin’s life.
She actually did spend time in mental institution as I recall between seasons when she had Pete’s baby.
“Men and women can be friends and colleagues without ever fucking” five
Also, Bob totally didn’t deny it when Joan said he shouldn’t be with a woman, eh? It seemed pretty iron clad that he’s gay.
Poor Joan, too. “This is the best offer you’ll ever get!” said by a guy who really seemed to be her friend. Yeowch!
I have vague recollections of thinking that Joan had figured out Sal was gay, way back in Season 1. There was an episode where… the office staff stayed late, drinking and partying? Sal may have read from some tragically stereotypical play he’d written.
damnit I’m gonna have to rewatch those before the rest of this season airs.
I prefer to believe that Ken was trolling them all for shooting his eye out, since he’s been rather sad and pathetic lately and that would make that portrayal a little better to take. Ken used to be fun! Writing sci-fi short stories and whatnot. Now it’s like he’s had all the juice pressed out of him.
Great finale scene - perhaps one of the greatest scenes of the series. And it could be the turning point of all their arcs (though Pete didn’t seem to be doing all that poorly out in LA until now). I also enjoyed Roger’s scenes - esp when he calls Cutler on his plan to “win the war” and Cutler pretends that Roger is just being dramatic.
And was it just me or did Pete’s blazer when he visited his daughter look almost identical to the one Don wore when he and Ken went up to Pete and Trudy’s for dinner that one episode a few seasons back?
When Don and Peggy are batting the strategy back and forth, they’re working at night, at least Peggy is drinking, and they seemed to be in weekday work clothes (Don never loosened his tie). Yet they were in Lou’s office (it’s the one with the standup bar). All of this puzzled me.
As a Burger Chef fan from way back, it’s nice to see the chain get some love. I’m dying to know where they found one of the original buildings that could be so easily restored for filming. They even had custom paper cups fabricated with the proper design—or maybe someone on eBay had a box in the garage.
This is the first episode that I can remember that didn’t end with a recognizable, iconic song from the era to take us to the ending credits. As the camera pulled back from the Burger Chef window with the “family” in the center of the frame, we heard a generic instrumental that meant nothing to me. Anyone recognize that song?
A few moments before, we were treated to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” which would have made a great outro song, but no; we got this generic instrumental instead.
I’m not complaining, mind you, it was a nice change of pace. I’m just commenting that it was an interesting break from the formula.
Is there a reason Roger and Joan don’t like Harry?