Mad Men Season 5 running thread

Roger got his lit up later in the evening.

 

This episode was fantastic...

At about the 45-minute mark every character was at a high point. Peggy with the BF, Sally becoming a young woman (don't play down how important going big girl shopping and going to that dinner was to her. She even ate the fish.), Don being a good father (no makeup, no boots), Megan landing a big account... And by the end of the show they were all sitting at that table dejected or throwing their mother out of the apartment.

I would love to hear a woman's opinion of this episode as well. The Peggy/Joan scenes I think were a lot better than we think, but as men we are probably missing a lot of the depth going on with these characters.

I am still holding out hope that SCDP lands The Mouse. Disney loved the space age and they kept adding in the Heinz pitch about the space costumes.

 

Roger did a nice job on "closing" Megan's mom. That's how you do it with an ignored, older woman.

 

Does the Roger blowjob come back to bite him at some point? Or is Sally too mortified to ever bring the subject up to Don? I could imagine Don finding out that Roger was getting head from his mother-in-law at that gala would infuriate him.

 

It'd be a perfect spark to set off the powderkeg of financial frustration at SDCP. That episode set the table so perfectly for an epic meltdown that takes down the entire firm.

 

I don't know, Don seems to have disdain enough for his in-laws that he wouldn't let Roger-being-Roger undermine his working life.

 

Well, it won't *really* be about that.

Don's embarrassed that the smoking letter turned out to be a huge career misstep, and he's half mentally checked out of the business anyway.

Roger's feeling like everyone views him as a worthless old man.

Lane's pretty much frustrated about everything.

Pete's (as always) feeling like he doesn't get enough respect for what he does and that his talents might be more valued elsewhere.

The main impetus that's kept them all smiling and working together is the promise of a big whale someday, and they were counting on the ACS contacts to do it.

Sally walking in on Roger/Don's MIL wouldn't be what the blowup was really about, but it'd make a fantastic first domino.

 

I doubt that blowjob ever comes up again.

 

Yeah, this isn't "The Wire" or "LOST." Other than Dick Whitman, rarely do things like this have legs in the narrative. And you can usually tell which ones will, Pete Campbell's rifle excepted.

 

Wasn't it intimated that Megan's dad is involved with his grad assistant. I'm assuming things on the side for both Dr. And Mrs. Calvert are nothing new.

Plus, as Don so wonderfully put it when Megan asked if Don noticed her mother touching his arm six times: "She's French."

THAT's not a marriage that Don is going to blow up his business over.

 

When Heinz was going to hell, Don was off Upstate leaving his wife at a HoJo, Peggy was handling a guy a theater and Roger was tripping. Do I have that timeline correct?

They were all of fucking around when they were needed at the office. That is what Cooper is noticing, and when Roger could have been working clients, he was getting blown behind an unlocked door.

Hasn't it been referenced that Cooper is always on time for the meetings and always there?

 

The blowjob will affect Sally Draper more than Roger Sterling. Whether they're ballsy or edgy enough to put a 12- or 13-year-old on her knees ... I hope not.