The theme of this weeks, Mad Men was relationships both old and new. From the very first scene with Don and his two boys, he got a glimpse of the life that he could’ve had, making milkshakes and chatting it up with his wife after some event. Side note I’m always a fan of seeing January Jones on screen, I’ve enjoyed her as Betty, sure she’s had moments of pure insanity but any cooped up housewife might. I just hope that we see her a bit more, the argument against that is the fact we don’t have many episodes left. Directly after the scene with his old family we got to see a moment with Megan, the woman who was supposed to be different for him, and change everything. But apparently the divorce is still in limbo.
We got to see Diana the waitress again, from last weeks “Everything gets mixed up” monolog to getting to know her and why she looks so sad all the time. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to see her again but she was an intriguing part of this episode, she lied twice kind of. First she told Don she had no kids and then she said she had a child die and then she brought up the fact that she abandoned the still living one, so you can kinda see why she might hate herself and want to make herself suffer. A large part of this episode was reflecting on past relationships even outside of Don. Roger chimed in about divorce, sounding quite bitter. Pete brought it up while driving with Don in his ridiculous golf outfit. And even the story around Megan’s family was about previous relationships.
“I need to vacuum my carpet”
Roger and Marie sleeping together in Don’s empty apartment is classic Mad Men, even more so the fact that Megan herself caught them. It was a rough week for Megan in a lot of ways; that’s why she lashed out at Don unnecessarily towards the end. And then she completely ignored her sister crying in her hotel room. Megan’s entire family is interesting to me, her mother hates Don for what she did to her daughter but then sleeps with Roger in Don’s home after she steals all his furniture. Then Megan’s sister is a woman stuck in a relationship she doesn’t enjoy with two kids living in a more conservative France. And to bring it all home was Megan is being paid for by Don, living out in California. Trying to get back into acting after she quit her perfectly fine job. And then after she gets done yelling at Don for being a horrible person, she takes his million dollar check. This subplot was one of the most interesting ones in my eyes, lots of moving parts.
The other subplot I was less interested in was Stan, Peggy, and Pima, working together on a commercial. Pima is a very different looking and acting character than anyone in the office, and she knows that. After sizing both Peggy and Stan up at the shoot. She has sex with Stan and Flirts with Peggy; I thought the end of this plot was interesting but I was far more captivated in Megan’s family and Don’s Waitress to care about this commercial. But in the end when Peggy realizes that Pima slept with Stan and then flirted with her, she goes to classic Peggy mode and becomes a bit of a buzz kill. Not that it isn’t warranted, Pima probably is a hustler, and using Peggy for some nefarious reason. But it’s certainly something we’ve seen Peggy do before.
“Sir, there is a mogwai in your office.”
Some final notes about this episode, oh my god Harry is a monster. Sure he’s always been a bit of a scumbag, but seriously flirting with a coworkers ex-wife, insulting her and then telling the coworker that she’s crazy! That’s insane. Don’s secretary is adorable, trying to carry those golf clubs out of his office was funny. But the biggest tidbit of them all was the elevator scene. Any chance to see Linda Cardellini is always a treat. Of every sleeping buddy that Don has had over the years, she may be my favorite, but Abigail Spencer is up there too. Don and Diana meeting the Roses in the elevator was Awesome, Diana calling out Don once they left was also a funny moment. I don’t remember Mr. Rosen being such a dick but maybe it as because he was drunk that he made those weird comments. I certainly hope we see more of them or at least her in these final episodes.
The final scene in Diana’s Apartment was sad, she hates herself for leaving her child and wants to suffer, as she said she doesn’t want anything, and she can’t be with Don because she doesn’t want to be happy that would feel too much like betrayal towards the family she already left. Almost every episode of mad men has a few memorable lines but the most famous of this episode to me was when Don told her that he had a worse day than her, and she responded with “You’ve never had a worse day than me.” that kind of comment is the reason Don hates himself sometimes times. Realizing that he is better off than most and still isn’t happy. This episode can be best summed up by the relationships surrounding these characters. Almost none of them are real, but they all have a significant impact on the characters they have become in over seven years.
