Episode 6 of 7


Next week is the season finale.

I guess between Betty's friend working part-time in real estate, and after last weeks proclamation that she thinks for herself - I guess Betty will soon be out on her own in the working world.

Bob Benson!

Looks like we know how SC&P avoids the Chevy Vega

Great episode. The stuff with Don and Peggy was great.

It took a couple of years, but Don finally won Peggy back. Sure wasn't a whole lot of Trudy this year. It was barely worth Allison Brie's time.

I think the entire preview for next week was made up of clips from earlier in the season

Yes it was. With the caption "On the next Mad Men" no less!

I liked this episode a lot. I almost rolled my eyes when "My Way" started playing, then Don notes that the song is playing and how absurdly on-the-nose the song was. It totally redeemed the scene. Great stuff.

Also liked the Joan and Bob stuff. Very telling for both characters.
Why is Joan so down on Harry Crane? If anything I'd think it would be Don who was dismissive of him.

Thanks for helping me sell my I Am Curious... set on eBay, Mad Men!

Wow, the last scene with the "family" at the table really got me. That's the new agency right there.

I loved the stuff with Don and Peggy as well. I hate how Don is taking it on the chin. Why not remind everyone that he still owes part of the company.

Don is loyal to Harry because Harry tipped him off about the big tobacco meeting.

I love how Pete is clueless about Don.

Did he?
Did he ever lost her?
Peggy is the female Don. There will always be conflict between them. And affection. Hopefully they don't make them a couple, they are too similar to work as a couple.

Because he dismiss her. In a previous episode he said something along the lines "who do I need to fuck to become a partner?" While looking at Joan.

Yup.

Great episode overall.

They basically came up with the Olive Garden's ad campaign ten or twenty years before anyone came up with the Olive Garden.

Too bad it didn't start some space time continuum issue that resulted in the Olive Garden never being created.

Though for all we know, Burger Chef might have been worse.

I hope the AMC execs that decided to cut this final season in half know great misery and pain. Argh! It's really just got one more episode, then another year? Argh! Argh! ARGH!

Seems like it literally just started two weeks ago. I feel like I just freaking watched Don enjoying an airplane sammich. I don't know how those AMC execs can sleep at night. Breaking Bad, when they pulled this, you didn't feel it like here - the first part of that final season had the Hank thing, a ton of other plots advanced/insanity. There, it really felt like each half was a full season... and more. Here, not so much - this is the Netflix type of show, binge watching central, and best enjoyed in mass quantities.

As far as next week's preview... strange. At first, hearing the conversations about 'Don is finished! 'I'm willing to leave the Agency'' had me thinking retread. Then, obviously, it was a montage of the first six. Definitely rather odd.

This episode in particular? God damn did it point out/remind me how badly missed Pete has been this entire season. He belongs in NY, with Don, Peggy, et. al. It really brought a breath of fresh air back, reinvigorating the NY dynamics. Loved the stuff with Trudy, too, who I was concerned we might have never seen again before... The End! (Ominous music plays)

Let's see... I'm disappointed with how little of Betty has been seen this half-season. I was looking for payoff to all that ruckus and arguing, especially the off-hand remark about her running for office if she thinks she's so smart. Sally deserves more screentime, and Bobby is like a bloody ghost - invisible, haunting the palatial halls of Castle Francis.

Finally, but damn if that closing scene couldn't have worked as the finale. I could totally live with the show having closed on that note, with resolutions elsewhere, but of course. I mean... it just was the show, the essence of Mad Men. Don's marriages are just disasters. Peggy is going to be the old crone forever single, having given up her freaking kid already as it is. And then poor Pete... poor Pete. That scene summarized everything - for these hopelessly broken souls, they're each others family. Love or hate each other, they stick by one another through thick and thin. Their careers are the only things that give their lives meaning - shit, Don has three kids who he never freaking sees, so he certainly doesn't see Bobby or Gene as the Draper heir apparent. The pan out shot with all those loving families enjoying a Burger Shack meal together, and then our three lovable losers, it was poetic.

Plus, as the finale closing shot? Oh, come on, that would've been goddamned genius. Not just for the above - Sopranos. I would have ****ing loved it, summarizing Mad Men perfectly while also playing off the Sopranos finale. I really wish they'd have done that, just for that Sopranos shtick - the 'family' eating together in a restaurant, fade to black as music plays.

I suspect they won't be able to resist, seeing as how this show is set forty years prior, doing a "where are they now/what happened to them/Sterling Cooper & Partners: 2015." It might not do the whole Six Feet Under character thing, in fact, I halfway suspect what we'll get are a few minutes at Sterling Cooper & Partners: 2015, seeing that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Maybe Pete's still lurking the halls as a modern-day Burt, but otherwise you'll see a modern young ambitious woman (Peggy), the brilliant and career obsessed adman (Don), and so on and so forth.

To give you some perspective, Burger Chef got acquired by Hardee's (aka Carl's Jr.). No wonder they were worried about mothers feeling guilty about feeding Burger Chef to their kids.

I'm okay with it. Puts off the inevitable a little longer. Like Hospice care that promises you a few more happy weeks.
Besides it gives Hamm one more shot at the Emmy -- a shot where he's not competing against Cranston or McConaughey. If he wins that Emmy (because we know he ain't winning this one), the extra year will certainly be worth it.

The final scenes were great.

I too thought it was great a episode and felt the same sentiments Coladar 1...

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Great episode.

Loved the Don/Peggy stuff. Once again they avoid the stupid cliche of having them hook up.

The closing shot was great.

It seemed like the theme of the episode was Family. Pete losing his, a work-family re-established in NYC (ie. final shot), the Burger Chef pitch changing focus from Mom to Family, Bob needing a family for appearance, Joan rejecting to settle into an instant-family.

Is there significance to seeing Megan and Pete's chick on the plane, and then the stewardess closing the curtains? The end of those relationships?

Don's secretary: "Do you want me to get you in 5 minutes?"

There's also the parallel of Bob once again being good at something and Pete sucking at it: with Joan's son running to him, whereas Pete's daughter was too shy to approach him.

Burger Chef was the bomb with their Star Wars fun meals back in the day. And all the monster themed stuff at Halloween put McDonald's to shame.

Well ....