Great episode, but I felt like everything fell into place too well. Hilton tells Don to take control of his life. Sterling tells Don that he doesn't value relationships enough. So Don takes control and tries to value/pretends to value relationships and everything works out. I really liked the format of the episode; nearly every scene began with some variation of "close the door and sit down" like a chorus for a song about conspiracy -- to go along with the conspiracy theories that arose after the JFK assassination. I feel bad for those kids, though. I'm terrible with judging a kid's age, and also what maturity level goes along with that age, but not once did Betty or Don actually explain what happened, even superficially. "Your mother and I fell out of love. It happens sometimes, but we still love you. I'll see you on weekends." Cry cry hug hug, move on. I don't know. Maybe they were too young to understand that. I wonder, though, if that was meant to imply that Don and Betty never really loved each other. They framed it in terms of living together, instead of in terms of loving each other. I don't know if that was intentional. It's not the most intense cliff-hanger season finale, but it still leaves a lot of questions. Are all the people leftover just let go from the cast, or will they be incorporated somehow into the next season? How pissed is Duck going to be that Peg chose to go with Don to a new agency instead of hopping over to his? Is Burt going to have to actually work now? It was cool to see where Don's disconnect from other people started. I can imagine that seeing your Dad get hoofed to death would make you weary of forming relationships with people and would make you obsessive about maintaining control.
The title of the episode is actually "Shut the door. Have a seat." so that makes sense. Although this season meandered a bit (ok, a lot) I think that it had a larger goal in mind; mainly one hell of a shotgun open for season 4. If I had to make a daring guess I'd say that since the producers knew the show was going to be so well received they decided to take an entire season to set up an even bigger next season because they were almost surely going to be renewed.
Goddamn that was an awesome episode. A little convenient the way everything worked out but I'll give them a pass on it because this was the perfect way to wrap up a season. Very happy they brought Peter and Joan back into the thick of it. I'm really hoping they keep with the small start-up feel for the whole show, I really like it.
What's great about this show is that next season could start three years from where they just left off, Sterling could be dead of a coronary and Ken could be the new partner. The way they play with time in between seasons is great. Don is really hard to unravel. I had the impression that he was a meek, "aw shucks" country boy when he left for Korea. I have always maintained that his confidence and Alpha Male personality was purely a result of his repression of Dick Whitman. He was so miserable, he became the opposite of what he had been his whole life. Now, we see him actually become a character we can empathize with and root for to be morally courageous. The way he opened up and told the truth to Betty a few episodes ago, and the way he reached out to Peggy showed up more Whitman than Draper. It's like flashes of how he was in California with Mrs. Draper - a genuine, down to earth, but confident and capable man. If he figures out a way to balance his psychic-like insight into other's motivation, the genuine do-goodery of Whitman, and the Machismo of Draper, the guy will be the personality equivalent of Superman in the advertising world. I feel bad for the Kids, and Betty's shittiness was further exposed when we see her leaving for Reno for six weeks and leaving the kids behind. In the past two weeks, the kids have seen the President assassinated, and there parents split up. Oh wait, now sit here on the couch for six weeks, watch TV, and mind the Maid.
What's lost in that comment is how many young kids went through a very similar situation in the same time frame. I know my mom was pretty young when Kennedy was assassinated and her parents were divorcing (when divorce still had a stigma). Also, my mom still talks about how traumatic the Kennedy assassination was, which I think the show did a good job of reflecting through the female characters' reactions to it. I loved Don's line to Cooper early in the episode. Something along the lines of, "I'll let you go back to sleep." It should be interesting to see if Cooper gets more involved in the business going forward, instead of obsessing over "Shoes off" and obscure artwork.
Yep. They were going to turn all of it back in +12% to buy the company back from PPL and when that didn't work they decided to essentially start over on their own. Side note: My favorite scene of the whole show was when Sterling and Draper were shutting off the lights and Sterling asked how long Draper thought it would be until they were in another building/office like the one they were leaving. Draper responds by saying he never envisioned himself working in a place like that in the first place.
It was interesting to see them scramble over the weekend to grab all of the client files, considering nowadays it would take just a couple backup CD's. Is it really within their legal right to ransack the office like that and just walk away with the top accounts?
One little flash drive would do it. I'm 99% sure what they did was illegal but who could prove anything? As they showed when Jane came in, no one knew where anything was. I think they were entitled to clear out their offices and without Price there to reprimand them, the Brits are completely up shits creek. I think Ken(?) would technically be in charge since every other management person left.
Didn't Price's wife keep complaining about how dreadful NYC has been for her? Does the separation and Mr. Harris' eventual death in 'Nam mean that Joan and Don are going to bone? First two questions that come to mind. I don't mind that the fat-liberal-one is gone, he was funny but useless. Ken I liked, but he also seemed useless.
Yep, she mentioned it a couple times. Agreed, the fat-liberal had his moments and Ken really didn't do much for me. I can understand why he made sense within the team, but as far as acting talent...meh.
They wouldn't do that, I think the people who love Sterling and the people who hate Sterling are split right down the middle. It would be stupid for the writers not to play into that. How many partners are there? I think it's Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price and then Pete said he'd only sign on if he was made partner but I don't remember what they said to him about it. Also, I wonder how the narrative of next season is going to play out. Will the first couple of episodes be split between SCDP and the former Sterling Cooper or what? I'm thinking that there has to be a way to tie the two together because I haven't heard anything about Mad Men firing half of its cast.
Pete wanted to be partner and have his "name in the lobby". Draper was a partner at Sterling-Cooper but he didn't have his name if the lobby so I expect the same thing to happen to Pete. To keep the show interesting I think they'll need to pull from the people left behind at Sterling-Cooper. Employees that want to jump ship, interactions between the two companies as they battle for clients. All of it could make for very compelling shows. I expect Kinsey to come crawling to Draper & Co for a job before long. He won't fit in at a place like McCann.
Here's the crazy thing, the creator and head writer doesn't even know. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and- ... -laid-bare It's a pretty good article, reveals that the creator only storyboards from season to season. There is no overarching plot design. Pretty heady if you ask me.
Kinsey will definitely be featured somehow next season. He's too interesting not to. Plus to me he seems to represent the changing sentiment of America where he's quite progressive and liberal in thinking, but every now and then still has that old boys' club mentality. I wonder what will happen to Ken. Pete's not exactly a fan anymore and would presumably be his boss. I wonder if perhaps he gets promoted to a high level position at the old office and is featured going head-to-head with his old bosses and colleagues. He doesn't seem like the adversarial type though. I still don't think they'd be able to bring back Sal unfortunately. The American Tobacco account is more important now than ever before. SCDP still doesn't have any art people though so somehow has to fill that position. I envision Betty trying to go off into the sunset and live a perfect life like she always envisions, only to have reality crash down on her again. Overall I thought it was a pretty good season finale. Plenty of stuff left up in the air but you have a general feeling of where things are headed. I like the addition of Price. Sure his wife hates NYC, but I'm guessing he finds it more agreeable there than India. Plus with the company being sold it was likely that his career was going to stall out as companies like McCann tend to prefer to promote their own people. I always think it's odd to see Trudy in her 60's garb on Mad Men then see her in Community a few nights later.