I thought the issue was more that the slept together and the next day he gives her a card with cash. My impression is her puzzlement was from feeling like a whore who just got bought off.
Well...how excited would you be if you got a $700 Christmas bonus this year? And besides, I didn't say it was a pittance. In fact, I'd guess that she only makes about $50 a week to begin with. (I remember Pete Campbell saying his weekly salary during Season One was $75.) So it's fairly generous, enough to make Don's statement that the agency might not be able to cover bonuses (figure $50 x 20 or so office workers) all the more indicative of how they're hurting for business. I think it was a pretty decent thing of Don to promise her a bonus, even before he fucked her on his couch.
"You know what's going on here don't you? Handjobs." Once again the preview from last week is diffused within 5 minutes. It is fucking heartbreaking, just soul crushing that Mrs. Whitman has cancer. Jesus Christ. I love their relationship, it is truly an interesting thing to explore.
I was thinking that Don is going to spiral out of control when his only legitimate backbone is dying but he tried to hook up with a 17 year old (or whatever her age was) that he knew since she was a little girl. That is all kinds of depraved. Not saying I wouldn't hit that though.
This show continues to amaze me. Course, I can't talk about it with any of my friends because they only watch it so they can tell other people they watch it.
I think the fact that they were able to use the cancer card and not have it be lame and melodramatic is a true testament to how amazing this show was. I think that Don and (Anna?)'s relationship is one of the most interesting parts of the show. It's always so weird, but such a relief, to see Don actually caring about someone. When the bomb dropped that she had cancer and didn't even know about it, I cried like a baby. I didn't know who I felt worse for, her or Don. He is going to fall apart even more, and it is going to be a shitshow to watch. He makes me so uncomfortable now every time he's on screen. Watching his character unravel has been one of the most fascinating and true to life things I've ever seen on a show. On a lighter note, drunk Lane was hilarious. I didn't care at all about his character until this episode. I love how none of their characters are one-dimensional archetypes. There are always things that you love and hate about all of them, and they change from season to season and episode to episode. One of the things that I've been waiting for, being a lady and all, is to see which female character gets swept up in the feminist/sexual revolution first. In the earlier seasons, everyone assumed they were going to use Betty for that, since she was playing the angry, cooped up housewife. But I'm not so sure anymore, she seems too concerned with status and security. My bets are on Joan. She's the one who's learning that landing a husband and all that doesn't guarantee a happy life. And unlike Peggy, who's been pretty successful at work, she keeps getting no recognition beyond a glorified secretary even though she's been with the company forever. Her blowup at Lane was awesome, and I think she's getting so fed up with everything. Hopefully it happens when her husband goes off to Vietnam (and that guy needs to go soon because I find him extremely irritating).
*Retroactive edit: Mrs. Anna Draper. The subtle sledgehammers of this show are the hardest hitting I've seen on television. "This actually happened." Is in beautiful contrast to Don's killer line. "This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened." I don't want Allison to go, she killed in this episode. When she closed that door and confronted Don it was great. Peggy peaking her head over the wall through the window made me giggle like a girl. Hilarious. Also Peggy takes another step in Don's shadow. She went from comforting to snapping in seconds, flipped the switch just like Don did right after Allison described it. Then the tension between Peggy and Pete was just flawless. It was amazing how well they did that. I love how well everything has stacked up through the seasons to make that scene hit as well as it did. I'm trying to figure out where they are taking Peggy with her social life. The lesbian/feminism wrinkle is interesting, but then throwing the guy in there killed the curiosity. Anyone else notice how the episode was directed by John Slattery? I have to say, he did a fine fucking job.
That sight gag was fantastic, for no other reason than "Mad Men" doesn't normally resort to overt humor like that. But that wasn't the only bit of background humor in this episode; another scene showed Bert Cooper sitting out in the reception area eating an apple with his socked feet up on the coffee table and no one seemed to notice or care. Welcome to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, people...we appreciate your business. As for Peggy, the reason flipped out so quickly was because she realized (after several years) that there are people in the office that think she fucked Don Draper, with the likely implication that's how she ended up as a copywriter. For a woman that's trying so hard to be taken seriously, that can be pretty disheartening. I think it's pretty clear that Peggy doesn't even realize that Joyce is a lesbian, so I wouldn't get too excited about that development (Peggy clearly likes dick, anyway). That whole scene only reinforced the theme that for all of her success to date Peggy is still relatively sheltered and naive. (See: asking for a beer at a party where everyone is smoking weed.) Although, she finally got some closure with the news that Pete and Trudy are expecting; I don't think she was necessarily "hurt" by the news in the sense most of us would imagine but I do think it opened up an old wound. If the focus group showed us anything, it's that women Peggy's age in that era tended to internalize a lot of shit. I was sorry to see Allison go, too and I suspect she's not coming back. Characters on this show tend to stay gone when they leave. It's too bad, since she almost got Don to the point of admitting out loud that his life is completely fucked at the moment. Thank goodness Joan as always is there to figure out what's up; that was a pure command decision to park a boner-killer at Don's desk until he can get his shit straight. In less emotional developments, I was glad to see a glimpse of the old Pete Campbell again. After leveraging his father-in-law's guilt over spoiling the baby news into a multi-million dollar account, he also appears ready to poach the Mountain Dew account from the ever-oblivious Ken Cosgrove. Welcome back, Pete. He managed to direct an episode completely free of Betty Draper. Give the man an Emmy.
And if there is a god, she won't be in any episode ever again. This episode was amazing, I really don't know what else to say about it. "Uh oh, it looks like there's a fire, we better go." It started out so light-hearted and went on to be one of the weightiest (emotionally speaking) episodes I think I've seen so far, not as far as overt emotions go but just the way everyone hides what they are thinking. Damn wonderful.
With all the Betty bashing. You know fucking Weinert is going to find some subtle fucking way to make her a hero again. That's how this show goes. No one can be a villain or a hero. He's going to flip it and I'm going to hate him for it. I also read how Slattery put a few of sight gags into the camera work. When Don was talking about the new regulations about not shooting commercials from below to not make people look more powerful, he was being shot from that angle. I think every episode from here on out is going to have Don in front of a window drinking from here on out. And hell I wouldn't even mind it. Oh Slattery you sly silver fox. I couldn't fucking agree more. He's been too good and emotional end of last season. I remember when he tried to blackmail Don, thats the Pete I know and love.
I found the party/art film showing scene pretty funny because it's hard to tell whether it's set in 1960s Manhattan or 2000s Williamsburg. It had all the makings o a hipster party, even the guy wearing the bear wall mounting.
Yeah, I'm that loser that is quoting himself. But, after a second viewing and reading TWoP's recap I'm not sure I believe the bolded sentence anymore. It's hard to be certain whether Peggy thinks Joyce is a lesbian (she probably does) or whether she's aware that Joyce is digging her (she might not; she's bright but not normally suspicious), so credit Elisabeth Moss for playing the moment well enough to keep us guessing. Regardless of that, it IS clear that Peggy likes dick. And ironically, there's no greater evidence of that than her questionable taste in men.
Interesting episode. Damn Betty Draper is a cruel woman, thats the only thing I can think of to describe her. This show is not usually uncomfortable but the scene with Roger in the Honda meeting, closely followed by Sally, ahem, "playing with herself" both made me squirm a bit.
Yeah, I saw that Sally scene coming from miles away, and it made me squirm like a little bitch. So uncomfortable. I'm upset they killed the competition so quickly. A rivalry for Don/SCDP would be a nice storyline all the characters could participate in. I really liked Roger freaking out, it fleshed him out a little more. And I'm pretty sure we haven't missed an episode with Don and someone else in front of a window. Let's keep this trend going. And jesus, as much as I want to hate Betty Draper, January Jones is still fucking hot as hell. Well, her past is freaky and hilarious.