DJariya

Episode 3 of 7

auto

Good episode. Interested to see Don back at work.

stingermck

Good ep. At first I expected Don to say no, but hes just going to do whatever it takes to get back in.

TheStoicPaisano

Don sure knows how to wife up the shallow ladies.

Like that Roger will fight until the end for him.

boogieman03

He's got to report to Lou? That should go well.

Jimmy James

Don Draper has chewed up and spit out better than Lou before. Of course he took those terms. Honestly, they could have totally done without Lou if they had sent him away for a month at the holidays and brought him back with the remaining stipulations. I'm not sure why they felt the need to be such drama queens about it.

Was the computer stuff there just to justify the number of episodes they gave the guy who plays Harry, or is it going to lead somewhere?

Even my wife is now convinced that Megan won't be alive by the time the 2015 episodes hit.

bluetoast

Harry has always been ahead of the curve but is either unnoticed or ignored until he gets insistent, including when he pushed hard for TV spots a few years back. This is another demonstration of that. He'll probably climb further up the ladder this season.

MikahC

I expected Don to say no not just because of ego reasons, but because he's effectively giving up all his leverage. He could stay in his current situation and continue to earn a nice living, and if they ever decide they want to force him out, he has all the protections they brought up in the show. First, they have to pay him his equity worth to get his shares. And then he can take a job competing against them. Now if they fire him, he just loses his shares (they "revert") and they don't have to pay him anything.

It occurred to me that I don't really remember everything bad Don's done to the people in the firm. It's hard for me to believe Peggy and Joan would be so calloused towards him. Out of everyone in that room, Don was the one who didn't want Joan to do what she did to get her share. Even Roger didn't care. Don was the one who saw potential in Peggy. Don was the one who was there for Peggy when Peter wasn't. Tough crowd.

Jimmy James

I think with Joan it's that she literally has skin in the game. She earned her partnership too dearly to see somebody fuck with it like Don did. I expect she still personally likes him but doesn't feel she can trust him. Of all the people who have been there from the start, she's the one who is against keeping him on.

With Peggy, I think she just felt in a Peggy-like fashion that being too friendly would make her seem too vulnerable. That's our Peggy.

mwbmis

As memory serves Joan got pissed at Don last year when he made the unilateral decision to force Jaguar out.

I think Peggy is mad at Don about what happened with Ted.

In truth Don coming back is probably the best thing that could happen to Peggy right now.

andicus

Wow, was that awkward. It was very much how I would picture going back to my last place of lengthy employment after I quit. I found it really effective. I thought the "reporting to Lou" part might have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

As for Peggy, she thinks Don is a "monster." Her words.

I definitely enjoyed this episode, despite the fact that Betty's scenes tried to suck the life out of it.

As an aside, I hate when I get a torrented version of a show and the capper cuts it off immediately at the end of the last scene. Always like the credit music for Mad Men. On that same note, I hate my cable company for not carrying AMC-HD. I can't bear watching it in SD.

HN

Betty, no one loves you because you're a dour fucking ****. Man those field trip scenes were bad

Jackskeleton

Come now, the farmer's daughter wasn't all bad.

Patman

OMG, I don't know why, but the scenes with Betty were just killing me in tonight's episode.

WCChiCubsFan

The shares reverting back is such a total bullshit clause that it is hard to believe Don would agree to it considering it would be so easy for them to fire him with all those restrictions.

Considering the way Lou has been dumping on Peggy it's surprising she is so nasty towards Don.

n.phelge

I thought that the kid who played Bobby was really good - he is a better actor than Megan.

cdoug57

I felt like this episode brought Mad Men back. Really interested to see how Don works by reporting to Lou. I did like how Roger was adamant that Don wasn't fired.

Really enjoyed last nights show.

Doug

ben12

The woman who hit on Don at the restaurant looked like the niece of the real Don Draper's wife. Was her name Stephanie? I can't find a cast list anywhere, though.

Edit: Nevermind, it's not her.

And I don't really get why Don didn't take the offer from the other firm. Maybe he just wants to try and get things back the way they used to be?

mwbmis

Nope, she's the Black Canary. She would have kicked Don's butt.

rocketsauce

I think I missed something with that whole sequence. Did we ever know who "sent" her? Was it Roger? And why?

Raul3

I also expected Don to say no.

I was in awe watching how they were switching between the Don's scenes and Betty's scenes, I was expecting magic to happen in Betty's scene. So at the end, I didn't understand why they did that trick there.

Nausicaa

Okay episode. I don't know, this show just doesn't resonate for me like it used to. The little social commentary vignettes like the scene with Betty and her old friend discussing working vs. child rearing just aren't as affecting as they used to be - maybe that's just Betty though who should have been written off years ago.

I think Don accepted those awful terms because he's reinvented himself before, and he thinks he can do it again. This time, I don't think it's going to work. I mean, they are putting Don in Lane's old office... foreshadowing?? I think Don will find himself ineffectual and shut out in his new position. This episode showed how completely tone deaf he is to how others perceive him. I don't think he even realizes that Megan is pissed because he had nothing to do and chose to stay in NY. Nor does he realize he has lost all gravitas in the eye's of his professional peers.

uteotw

Count me among those who did NOT expect the "OK" at the end. Really disliked Joan, who bought her partnership with her body, ordering Don about the conditions of his return. I guess I don't get why he'd rather be penned in like that at his old firm than go somewhere else or start his own. I truly expected him to say "No thanks" and then roll credits.

Nice to bring Betty back just to show what a despicable person she is. Ugh.

bunkaroo

Speaking of Joan's body, she's looking pretty damn good. Definitely seems to have slimmed down just enough.

Jimmy James

Don couldn't take the other offer without being fired by the firm. He had to get things resolved there. That's the essence of a non-compete (though he might be able to get a LA job). Apparently only the firing would sever the non-compete which is exactly how things worked with the first Sterling Cooper so it's universe-consistent if not consistent with the state of the law in New York in the 60s (who knows).

I have to think the room is actually mostly happy Don is back -- they're also sort of terrified of him. I think that's what we didn't see. Except for Harry Hamlin's character, they all go way back with him. If he can actually follow those rules, I think they'll be glad at where things are and very possibly may non-renew Lou's contract.