Mad Men returns. Thumbs up or down?

The boarding room school stuff was very, very good. Sally knows she can now manipulate Glen, and did you catch the sly look she had while he was "beating up" Rolo?

 

Exact same look Betty had when Henry stared down the guy who was hitting on her.

 

Let's not forget the poster of Moshe Dayan in Stan Rizzo's room last week, and then Kenny shows up in an eyepatch this week.

 

That was an episode with layers.

Holy cow, was that uncomfortable in the meeting with St. Joseph's. Don was right, but he did it for the wrong reasons.

Pete is the most interesting one on the show. He has no real identity and is basically playing the role of a grown up, but he is jealous of those who can invent themselves from whole cloth.

 

I think Pete has one of the most clear-cut identities, and he's jealous because try as he might, he can't shed his tightly-wound demeanor. Pete Campbell is a rich WASP who works hard but cries when that's not enough and breaks down when the standards he's come to respect are not upheld properly. He's desperate to be cool, but it's not really in his nature.

That was shown so beautifully in this episode's pivotal Pete scene. He had to penalize Bob Benson for breaking the rules, but he also knows that making a big fuss out of it only will make him look worse for it. He lets Benson slide not because he's matured internally but because he better understands the external ramifications of his actions.

 

I think Pete has an identity formed by external forces -- his family name, the prettiness of his wife, his job at the firm. But he both doesn't feel that he's earned them and yet he wants to be validated at the same time. I thought that the episode where his father died was one of the strongest ones in the series.

 

That makes sense. Pete's identity was handed to him at birth, then by marriage, then by actions he now regrets. All he wants is to overcome that identity. That's why he even made a pass at Joan, knowing Joan would never have given Peter Campbell, WASPY bitch, a shot. And she didn't give funny, almost debonair Pete a shot, either.

 

I am not sure where we go in the last episode -- other than Megan finding out about Sylvia, leaving him for whomever was on the phone, moving to California or some combination, there isn't really a storyline was is truly on the cusp of a resolution.

I hope no more flashbacks.

 

I predict the next episode will set up the rest of the season nicely.

 

I could see Don somehow torpedoing Chevy. That would be an interesting twist. He's been tap dancing on a glass table all season long.

 

Too bad Weiner's kid can't act a lick, and we're supposed to endure it as if it's Business As Usual . . . because it is.

 

Matthew Weiner's son's middle name is "Holden." At first, this only occurred to me as "Of course Matthew Weiner loves Catcher in the Rye." Then I realized his son's name is Holden Weiner.