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Early in the episode, Roger tries to hit on Joan, but after she leaves his office in an even less amused mood than normal, Caroline tells him that Greg is going straight to Vietnam from basic training. To make his ill-timed insensitivity up to her, Roger sends her two women to give her a massage and manicure, which makes me wish he were around to hurt my feelings sometime. The day, Miss Blankenship dies in the office in an extremely unceremonious way even for someone who wasn't the Queen of Perversions, and even though the whole thing kind of turns into Weekend At Miss Blankenship's, which I assume is evocative enough to obviate any further explanation, Roger takes the whole thing very hard, and before you know it he and Joan are going out for dinner, after which the two of them get mugged for everything they have, including Joan's wedding ring, and the raw emotion of the incident prompts them to have sex right then and there. The day, Joan tells Roger she has no regrets, but that doesn't change the fact that they're married to other people. Roger, however, informs her that he's interested in seeing where this goes, and I said at the end of last season that I thought the two of them might be headed back into each other's arms, but now that Greg really is gone and we haven't seen Jane in ages, the possibility seems a lot more tangible.
Joyce and Peggy go out for a drink, and soon, Abe, that cute guy that ended up in the closet with Peggy during the police raid, turns up, and Joyce does a girl a solid and leaves the two of them alone. In talking business, Abe drops the bomb that SCDP client Fillmore Auto Parts won't hire African-Americans, but when Peggy compares that discrimination to the kind she endures as a woman, Abe takes issue with it, which leads to a quick end to their impromptu date. The day, with Fillmore execs in attendance for a pitch meeting, Abe shows up to see Peggy with a piece he wrote entitled "Nuremberg On Madison Avenue," which Peggy begs him not to publish as she thinks it could get her fired. However, when she pitches Harry Belafonte as a potential spokes-singer for Fillmore and gets shot down in a "They're racists, honey" way, it leaves her something to think about. Like, in a "Is this the career path I want?" way.
Last week's discretion has been abandoned with extreme prejudice as Don and Faye are enjoying some rather energetic nooners, but the fun ends when Sally turns up at SCDP in the hands of a stranger who found her on the train into the city with no money, and when Don calls Betty to chew her out, Betty tells him he can see what it's like to deal with her for a change. Don asks Faye to take Sally to his apartment while he deals with the Miss Blankenship fiasco, and when he gets home, Sally has cottoned on to the fact that there's something between Don and Faye, and Don later seems happy that Sally has a reasonably decent opinion of her. Also, Sally, who even with the jaunt into the city seems to be a lot more together thanks to the psychiatry, tells Don she wants to live with him full-time, and although he tells her that can't happen I wonder if his mind is really completely closed to the idea, especially not after he wakes up to find that Sally has made him French toast for breakfast. In return, he takes her to the zoo before going to work, but when it comes time for her to leave, she flips out and causes a scene, and even though Don tries to get Faye to help, only Megan, who's temporarily taken over for Miss Blankenship, is able to calm Sally down so she can be delivered into Betty's arms. After she's gone, Faye freaks out on Don for putting her in such a difficult position with his kid, and he apologizes, but after she leaves, he takes a sip of the drink she made for herself. Well, AA might frown on it, but I'm inclined to let it go.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We open on Don forcefully telling someone on the other end of the phone that no, they are getting together today, and he's going to clear lunch plus one hour so they can discuss things face to face. However, when we cut to his living room and hear some rhythmic pounding and loud female grunting, you realize that the first bit was all about scheduling a nooner, and since the woman being pleasured is Faye, it seems it didn't take that long for Don to be ready for the full trip around the bases. After cutting to his bedroom, we see that he knocked over a lamp in his ardor, and when Faye amusedly asks if it's broken, Don asks, "The lamp?" Don, you may think it's funny, but can you imagine how different this show would be if Don Draper's dick didn't function? He should take out an insurance policy on that thing.
After a bit of pillow talk, Faye wonders which of them is going to look at the clock first, and Don admits that he caught a view of it when he was picking the lamp up, and he's already late for a Secor meeting. Faye tells him she has a four o'clock at "Erwin Wasey," but declines to share the specifics, and when Don tries to get her to spill what she's working on over there, she asks him if he knows what a Chinese wall is. Well, if he doesn't, I have a feeling he will soon. But I'm guessing he does, as he gives up asking, instead saying he should go, and when Faye asks if she can get in the bathroom first, he encourages her to take her time, and it's clear from the way he gets dressed that he's leaving immediately. Reading people as well as she does, she probably is too savvy to be surprised that he's returning to the office with the smell of sex all over him, but she does raise an eyebrow at the fact that he's willing to leave her alone in his place. He playfully replies that he's taking all the interesting stuff with him, and the fact that he's still got no shirt on kind of emphasizes the truth of that statement. Faye giggles, and Don heads out...
...while at SCDP, Roger is on the phone heatedly asking if whoever it is really doesn't think his book is better than Ogilvy's. "Mine's got a story!" That's hilarious, considering a large bit of what we heard had to do with his thoughts on comedy duos and the ice cream he was allowed to eat as a child. Roger adds that his book has actual examples of how to sell things, which makes me wonder if this is a book about him or Don, and then when the buzzer rings, he puts whoever it is on hold. Caroline informs him that Jane is on the phone and she's leaving for the weekend, and Roger barks that it's only Wednesday and they have phones in Southampton besides. When he tries to go back to the phone conversation, however, the person is gone, either because Roger disconnected him or, far more likely, the person was like, "Wait, I'm HOLDING to hear more of this bullshit why, exactly?" and hung up.
Joan comes in, and after enduring Roger hitting on her in his usual gross yet witty way ("I was just giving her a hard time. Can I interest you in the same?"), Joan informs him that she was instructed to tell him in person that Pryce is taking the last two weeks in August off for his son's visit. Roger wonders why Joan had to run this information to him, and she explains that Pryce didn't want a memo going around, as he was afraid people would stop working. Well, it's an understandable sentiment, but unless you're going to have a Pryce-shaped mannequin sitting in his office while he's away while a recording of stock British-isms plays, I'm guessing people will catch on. I do like the idea that Pryce is obsessed with making sure people are working, though. I wonder if he hides around corners and times people's trips to the restroom. Roger returns to hitting on Joan, and she leaves, but not before telling him his behavior isn't cute, like, at all. Roger calls after her that he's sorry, prompting Caroline to come in and chew him out, as they just got the news that Greg is going to Vietnam straight from basic training. Roger: "Vietnam. That's not good." Indeed. Caroline adds that they've all been walking on eggshells, declining to add that his come-ons would have been exceptionally ill-timed even if they were possessed of any subtlety. However, the chastened look on Roger's face indicates that message was received regardless.
When Don returns, Peggy accosts him in front of his office and tells him that Fillmore and Secor are both coming in the day, and she worked through lunch on stuff for both that she needs him to sign off on before she can do anything else. Hilariously, Don's like, come back in an hour because I'm taking a nap now, and I probably should have quoted him directly to make it clear that I wasn't engaging in hyperbole there. Peggy understandably gapes at how preposterous that was, but Miss Blankenship has words for the situation: "It's a business of sadists and masochists, and you know which one you are." I was hoping the Queen of Perversions would mention S&M before she kicked off! Peggy stomps away...
...but her mood improves when she finds Joyce waiting for her. As they hug, Stan, who's working in Peggy's office, announces, "Your boyfriend's here!" It's not the same without Joey around, is it, Stan? Joyce invites her for a drink that night while Stan continues to make an ass of himself, and after Peggy accepts Joyce's invitation, Stan amusedly says he's fine with Joyce's "lesbian hijinx," but she can never do what a man can do. In response, Joyce licks Peggy's cheek, which causes a smile to appear on her face as quickly as it wipes Stan's off. Joyce then leaves, and Peggy gets back to business as she tells Stan there's bad news -- Don showed up. "We're on at four." And Faye has a meeting that time as well, so we know Don's not going to leave unexpectedly!
Don, bleary-eyed, emerges from his office, and after Miss Blankenship inquires if his "siesta" refreshed him, she tells him that Faye returned his call -- "she got the message and you're gonna have to wait." Heh. Don smirks in not-so-subtle enjoyment before walking away, prompting Miss Blankenship to call after him, "Are you going to the toilet?" I'm going to miss the old gal.
In the bar, Peggy is telling Joyce that she has to hire more copywriters, but it's tricky because "the better they are, the more my job's in danger." Oh, Peggy, I respect your commitment to your work, but stop talking about it for five seconds. The good news is Joyce isn't listening anyway; instead, she's focused on the fact that Abe, the guy Peggy kissed in the closet during the police raid of that stupid happening, has arrived, and Joyce (who from her reaction pretty clearly arranged this) leaves the two of them to make googly eyes at each other in short order. And Peggy's even officially single now!
Joan's in her pajamas and glasses watching TV when there's a knock at her door; when she opens it, she sees two Scandinavian masseuses with a table who say they're from "Madame Inga's," and that they've been commissioned to give her a massage, manicure, and pedicure. Hmpf, the only unexpected knocks I get on my door these days are from the UPS guy, and I can't remember the last time he offered me a massage. Joan tells the speaking masseuse that she didn't order it, but the woman tells her it's from "a friend" and includes tip. Joan shows them in, and the sly smile on her face seems to indicate she knows exactly which "friend" it's from. Hey, when it comes in that form, his money's good around here.
Back in the bar, Abe is off on a rant about corporations that I would normally just react to with "pinko" except for the part where it scores some neat then-and-now points by referencing a crisis in Greece. He goes on that it's an illusion that a coup could never happen here, and after an uncertain pause, Peggy asks, "Are you from Brooklyn?" Heh. He says yes, and when she tells him she is too, he offers that he doesn't hear an accent. Peggy: "One more drink and it'll come out." That sounds like a verbal contract to me. Anyway, it's clear that they quite like each other, so it's a shame when Peggy starts listing SCDP's clients, because when she gets to Fillmore Auto Parts, Abe tells her that they're worse than a corporation, as their Southern stores won't hire "Negroes." Peggy's surprised, given what she's seen of them, but Abe tells her he's sure they're "perfectly nice, for racists," and adds that SCDP certainly has a vested interest in looking the other way. Peggy claims that as an ad agency, they try to help their clients look better, and as such would counsel them against their racist position as being bad for their business. Abe doesn't even know how to respond to that, and asks if she would have done a campaign for Goldwater, and Peggy says that would have been amazing. Oh, Peggy. Abe tries to tell her that civil rights aren't something to be fixed with a mere PR campaign, and Peggy concedes that she agrees, but opines that a lot of the things African-Americans can't do, she can't do either, and nobody seems to care -- for example, in her industry, a lot of business takes place at golf and tennis clubs where women aren't even allowed to enter, much less join. "The University Club said the only way I could eat dinner there was if I arrived in a cake." Frankly, I'd be surprised if you'd get the dinner even then.
Abe, his Brooklyn accent nicely coming to the surface, subtly indicating that maybe he's getting a little lubricated, tells her there aren't any African-American copywriters, but Peggy thinks they could have fought their way in like she did. "Believe me, nobody wanted me there." I'm not going to say either of them is entirely wrong; it's a tough debate even to frame rationally, but on top of the fact that there's an argument to be made here, she clearly feels strongly about her position as a woman in the working world, so the point is that his dismissive response of "All right, Peggy, we'll have a civil-rights march for women" is both ill-advised and uncalled for. Peggy takes this as the cue to end their impromptu date, and although Abe does a lot better with his argument by telling her he only meant that women aren't currently being shot to keep them from voting, the damage is done, as she tells him he's opinionated and he's criticizing her. He tries to claim it was just discourse, and moans, "I shouldn't have let Joyce leave." Heh. Peggy does nod to let him know she doesn't hate him or anything, but that doesn't mean she's not out the door right after.
Bertram is sitting out with Miss Blankenship as they both do the Times crossword; he asks for a three-letter word for a flightless bird, and when she supplies "emu," he tells her it starts with an "L." Miss Blankenship: "The hell it does." Couldn't have said it better myself. Don arrives and asks for coffee and for her to let him know when Faye arrives, getting this reply: "It's hard the way she breezes past me." I'd suggest Miss Blankenship come back to haunt the place, except with the things that go on here I think any ghost would be the one that would end up traumatized. When Don heads inside without replying to that comment, Miss Blankenship tells Bertram in reference to Faye, "She's pushy, that one. I guess that's what it takes." Bertram looks around all, "You say something?" and he's always been one of my favorites but if this is all they're going to give him to do it's time to ship him off to a Japanese pasture somewhere.
Joan comes in to see Roger, looking quite relaxed, and thanks him for his thoughtful way of apologizing. After some characteristic banter, he seriously tells her that it'll be okay, but she replies, "People love to say that!" Fair. Roger suggests they go out to dinner, but this only gets Joan's hackles up about how he must be expecting something, which seems perhaps a little unfair but is still understandable given where her head is. I'll leave any jokes about Roger's head to him -- I'm sure he's made them all before. Joan exits...
...while Peggy comes out to Reception to find Abe waiting for her. Turns out he wrote a piece for her that he claims expresses what he was trying to say the night before without his "abrasive tone," but given that it's entitled "Nuremberg On Madison Avenue," I'm not sure quite how smoothly it's going to be received. He says he'll wait while she reads it, so with a somewhat puzzled but pleased smile, she heads back into the office...
...while in the conference room, Faye is giving a presentation to none other than three people from Fillmore, with Don and Ken, who you'll remember brought the account to SCDP, also in attendance. The pitch is that men have the desire to get their hands dirty, but some of them have become so domesticated out in the suburbs that they don't know how to fix their cars. She goes on that her research shows that men will spend a good amount of money for the satisfaction of doing manual labor, and "ladies love a man who's good with his hands." I'm seeing Roger Sterling lines everywhere now.
One of the Fillmore guys, a douche with a thick Boston accent, doesn't like it, saying that if he saw suits (or "jokiz," as he calls them) like Ken and Don in one of their stores, he'd figure their prices went up, while the youngest of the bunch disagrees just as vehemently, hilariously addressing the douche, also in a Boston accent, as "salt of the earth," as he says they can't depend on auto mechanics for their entire business. "Don't we have enough problems with the boycott?" Well, and with being racists, too. Don't forget that part! Don tells them they're at a standstill until they agree on a strategy, but Ken pipes up that they could market to both groups -- "Where the pros go, and everyone's welcome." Don retorts that that's not a strategy, "that's two strategies connected by the word 'and'," but Ken tells him he certainly can do both, and the Boston guys lean forward in anticipation of seeing two New York suits fight. It'll surely be more satisfying than Clay-Liston, right?
Before things escalate to that degree, however, a concerned-looking Megan enters, and no sooner has Don told the three of them to make up their minds and vote, Megan whispers something in his ear that gets him out of there immediately. The guy in the middle, who it turns out has a severe stutter, asks why it is that they have to convince Don, and it's too bad that no one in the room was present for the first episode, or they'd be able to supply the obvious answer: "So you don't end up like Jantzen."
When Don comes out to Reception, we see the reason for his chagrin -- Sally is there, accompanied by a grandmotherly woman we've never seen before. We quickly get the story -- Sal
ly hopped the train to New York because she wanted to see Don, but she didn't have enough money, so she tried to hide from the conductor between carriages until the woman here found her. Don has Megan take Sally to his office so he can deal with the woman's disapproval in front of fewer people; he offers to pay her for the ticket and her time, but she only says that someone should be keeping track of Sally, adding that the types on that train are a most unsavory lot. I wonder if one of them is the guy that runs into Roger and Joan later. Don tells the woman he didn't know, garnering this response: "Men never know what's going on." For someone who wandered into the episode for two minutes, she's certainly got a strong grasp of its theme. Abe, who's still sitting out there waiting for Peggy, seems amused, as if he's not a prime example of what she's talking about, and then the woman and Don exit the scene...
...and then we cut to Don returning to his office, with Miss Blankenship smiling, "She looks so chubby in the pictures!" Heh, nice nod to Kiernan Shipka's newfound beanpole-ness. Don orders her to get Betty on the phone immediately, and then notices that the participants in the meeting are looking at him. They really need some curtains for that damn conference room, and you'll know if you've seen the episode already that this won't be the last demonstration of that need either. Miss Blankenship gets to dialing...
...and inside, Don asks Sally what she was thinking. Sally, calmly enough, tells him she wanted to see him without having to wait two weekends, but he's unimpressed, and then Miss Blankenship buzzes that Betty is on the line. When Don tells her what happened, she's surprised but not overly so, and explains that Dr. Keener thought it would be good for Sally to walk from camp to her appointment by herself. Hmm, so I guess Sally wasn't overly concerned about letting down her therapist. But at least they won't have to figure out what to talk about session. Don sarcastically puts down the psychiatric institution, but Betty counters that Sally needs to learn responsibility, and when Don half-snarls that Betty's the one that needs that lesson, Betty doesn't even bother bringing up the numerous ways he's failed on that front this season. Instead, she informs Don that he can keep Sally until she meets Henry in the city the evening, and hangs up. I know people hate her, but I have to admire the way she just refuses to take even one iota of shit from Don Draper these days. It's especially refreshing in this episode, where women are getting dump trucks full of it from men. Thwarted, Don tells Sally not to touch anything and then warns Miss Blankenship not to let Sally leave the room before rejoining the meeting. As last words you ever say to a person go, they could be worse but overall leave something to be desired.
Peggy returns to Reception, pulls Abe out to the elevator area so as not to be overheard, and although she doesn't explain to us exactly what he wrote, you can infer that it portrayed Fillmore in a bad light and also mentioned their ad agency, and as Peggy points out, everyone knows that SCDP is the agency of record for Fillmore, and especially since he's throwing around comparisons to war criminals, she could lose her job if he publishes the story. It's not clear to me if he made specific allusions to her in the story, or if she thinks she'll get canned because people know of her connection to Abe, or both, but he offers that maybe she's better than the industry in which she works, albeit in the abrasive way he claimed he was trying to avoid. In response, she rips up the story and says she's not a political person, but he tells her she's political whether she likes it or not, and he certainly has a point there, given her own description of the hardships she's faced to get where she is today. However, he loses ground when he goes on that she should be flattered, not insulted, and that she inspired him. "You look so earnest." And cute! Don't forget cute! Oy. Peggy is not impressed with his attempts to explain, and tells him she needs his word that he'll destroy the story, and, defeated, he agrees. "I won't bother you again." I'm thinking that this is why some couples agree not to talk about politics. Abe looks severely bummed as Peggy stomps away, and whatever else you can say about him, it's clear he really likes her...
...and I think she likes him too, still, so I'm not surprised that when she sees Miss Blankenship apparently sleeping in her chair, she hisses at her to wake up. However, when she marches over to her, she gets more than she bargained for when she taps her arm and she falls forward like a rag doll. Peggy gasps in horror, and after unsuccessfully trying to get Caroline off the phone, she rushes into Don's office, but only finds Sally there. Hilariously, she sternly tells Sally not to come out of Don's office, to which Sally irritatedly replies, "I know!" Heh.
The thing we know, Megan is interrupting the meeting again, and when she leads Don over to his office, we see Joan, Peggy, and Caroline all standing in tears over Miss Blankenship's corpse. Don takes a moment to express some confused sympathy, and then after Peggy asks if they should call an ambulance, Joan corrects her that it should be the coroner, and then Don wonders what they're going to do about the people in the conference room. Joan tells him she'll take care of the Blankenship situation, but when Don tells her Sally's in his office, it's the last Jenga move, especially given that that eliminates Don's office as a makeshift morgue, and she breathes, "Why?" Megan pipes up that Sally is "visiting," and this reflexive covering for Don will serve her well if she's going to replace Miss Blankenship for any length of time. Joan, recovering herself, tells Megan to get a man and a blanket -- "there's an afghan on Mr. Crane's couch" -- and when she leaves to carry out those orders, Don bemusedly offers that Miss Blankenship seemed fine just a bit earlier. Having no answer to that, Joan can only shake her head, so Don heads back into the meeting...
...in which Faye sums up their current position, that being that by holding onto Fillmore's reputation as a place for professionals, they can still attract men of all types. "Something like, 'Fillmore Auto Parts: For The Mechanic In Every Man.'" Although that still sounds like two strategies to me, they're at least married smoothly now, not that that's Ken's point when he rather sassily adds that "although it seems immaterial to you, the Fillmore brothers like it." Normally, I'd expect a smackdown both now and later for that, but Don is way too distracted by the awesomely hilarious stuff that's going on outside, as Megan has enlisted Pete's help, and he and Joan cover Miss Blankenship up with the afghan and then awkwardly manhandle her out of there while still in her chair, and the whole thing is just edited so deftly, with a terrific WTF reaction shot from Ken and then a total Mona Lisa smile from Faye when they see what's going on, and then after the group is out of view, Harry appears and whines, "My mother made that!" HA! This was certainly the funniest scene about an old lady's death you'll see this season, although if someone wanted to cut together a YouTube version with a vaudeville score, I can personally guarantee about fifty hits.
Don gets the Fillmore brothers to sign while behind them, the joke's not over, as Megan, now wearing prim white gloves, returns to the scene and gingerly carries Miss Blankenship's leather desk protector out of there, and then Don asks Ken to show the guys out, and Ken is certainly on the qui vive enough to use the door that doesn't go in Miss Blankenship's general direction. Faye follows Don out the other way, and when they're out of earshot, Faye expresses her disbelief, as she was just talking to Miss Blankenship. After Don takes a moment to close his eyes and massage his forehead in quite a Pryce-like manner, he asks Faye if she could do him a big favor: Take his keys from his bag, bring
Sally to his apartment, and sit with her until he gets there. "I would have my secretary do it, but she's dead." Faye agrees out of necessity, but is clearly unnerved by the prospect, and asks if he wants to introduce her and what she should say, but Don can't hold her hand right now beyond just telling her that she's Faye.
He then barks at Megan to find Bertram and Roger at lunch and stop them from bringing Secor back to the office, and there's a joke about Secor shitting their pants to be made but once again, I'll leave that to Roger. Don then takes Faye into his office, introduces her to Sally, and informs his wayward daughter that Faye will be taking her to his place, declining to explain further. When he's gone, Faye re-introduces herself far too formally, and when Sally's like, "I got your name the first time," we know just how far Faye's in over her head here. But maybe she can teach Sally how to speak in a true Noo Yawk accent. Wouldn't Betty just love that?
Sometime later, the coroner's people are wheeling a sheet-covered Miss Blankenship out when Bertram stops them, saying she's not going to the morgue but to "Frank E. Campbell," who I assume is a funeral director. Roger sympathetically pats Bertram on the back as Megan touchingly places Miss Blankenship's handbag on top of her, and it's always the little things that get you, you know? Don appears and asks if anyone tracked down her family, and Bertram offers that she has a niece, and he'll make the call. Roger watches in despair as the coroner's people resume taking Miss Blankenship out, and he then shuffles out of the room, with Joan following in concern. Megan, who's being kind of a rock here, then tells Don that he should go home, patting his arm as she does, and after taking a moment to process the awful events of the last couple hours, Don agrees.
Elsewhere, Joan follows Roger into his office, on the way ignoring the people in the break room who shockingly have decided to commemorate Miss Blankenship's death by drinking, and once inside, Roger flops down in a chair and tells Joan he doesn't want to die in this office. "I almost have, twice." Well, technically, that was another office, unless he's had a couple episodes since that we haven't heard about. But his point is taken, and Joan assures him that won't happen before sighing, "Poor Ida," and Roger agrees: "She died like she lived. Surrounded by the people she answered phones for." Wow. That's the most depressing line in the entire episode, bar none. Roger then begs Joan to have dinner with him, even saying he'll meet her in the lobby, I'm assuming for the purposes of discretion, and even though the look on Joan's face says she knows this is a bad idea any way you slice it, I'm pretty sure she's in. I mean, any excuse to get out of that office at this point, right?
Faye and Sally are sitting on the couch watching television, and if I were Faye I'd be thanking the Lord above for the miracle of that invention, when Don arrives home. Faye tells him it was fine -- they watched TV, and "one of us took a nap." Heh. Don asks if she wants to stay, but his offer of "You're gonna need to eat" is not particularly romantic, not that he's in a position to slobber all over her at the moment with his child there. Besides which, Faye surely does not want to be present for whatever disciplinary hearing is upcoming, so, true or not, she cites dinner plans and heads for the door. Before she's gone, however, Don thanks her, and she says she was glad she could help before raising her voice to tell Sally good night. Sally returns the sentiment, even smiling at her, and Faye, you may not have felt comfortable taking care of her but if you knew this kid you'd be aware that you did just fine. When she's gone, Sally asks if they can order a pizza, but before he entertains dinner requests, Don tells Sally to promise him that she's never going to pull a stunt like that again. Sally promises, so Don heads into the other room, perhaps to call for dinner. Too bad Faye didn't stay -- she could probably have hooked him up with some awesome pizza. And free candy for dessert!
Roger and Joan are in what appears to be a diner, and Joan wonders why they always used to go here: "The clientele is older than I remember." Well, that's a good sign. It's when they're younger than you remember that you're in trouble. Roger asks why she never talks to him, and when she replies that Greg doesn't like it, he points out that she had to know him being shipped off was a possibility when he signed up. Joan, with a trace of bitterness, admits she wasn't consulted there, but guesses that Roger doesn't tell Jane about all his decisions either. "She's the woman behind the man, isn't she?" Not that signing up for potential wartime duty is remotely the same thing as whatever petty things Roger may hide from Jane, but Joan's merely needling him playfully, and he smiles before asking if she's listened to his memoirs. She tells him she just has them transcribed and then recycles the tapes, so there's the answer as to how Don got his hands on the, um, Dr. Lyle Evans section, and when he asks if she isn't a little curious if there's a chapter about her, she warns, "There better not be." Heh. But I'm pretty sure if he were going to mention her, we wouldn't have been subject to his thoughts and feelings about vanilla ice cream, and he sort of agrees with me by telling her that's the problem: "Every time I look back, all the good stuff was with you." Joan enjoys that admission, much as she tries not to, and this emboldens him to apologize "if" he keeps "pestering" her, and even though he can't help himself, he doesn't expect anything to happen, and she replies that she appreciates that. Well, they seem to have reached an understanding!
On the couch, Sally inquires if she can ask Don something, and Don replies, "Yes, I'm still mad at you." Heh. However, Sally wants to know what Don's involvement with Faye is, astutely pointing out that Faye knew Don had peanut butter in his cabinet and also that she said she wanted to meet Sally, so Don explains that he does like Faye, but they also work together and he mentions Sally a lot. He then asks if she likes Faye, and Sally tells him she seems nice, but when Don offers that maybe she'll get to see her again sometime, Sally's like, "Oh," in a "Great, another step-parent" tone. Before any further awkward discussion can ensue, however, the pizza arrives, and I'll leave it to you to decide which of them is the happier to see it.
Joan and Roger are walking because Roger thought it was such a nice night, but Joan warily says she doesn't like the neighborhood so much anymore, and her instincts are proven correct when a guy comes out of nowhere and pulls a gun on them. Roger proves he can be pretty smart sometimes when he looks at the sidewalk and gestures for Joan to do the same, and then hands over all their valuables, with the only significant and understandable pause coming when Joan has to give up her wedding ring. She goes through with it, however, and when the mugger is gone, Joan says she wants to scream in a voice that sounds like she's going to hyperventilate, which would make for an interesting on-screen performance indeed. However, we get a different type of audiovisual entertainment, as Roger hurries her around a corner so she can calm down, and after he assures her that everything can be replaced, she kisses him. Once they pull away, they take a moment to process that, but then he goes for it and she tells him not to stop, and soon they are adding their names to the long list of people who have had public sex in New York City. Good thing she got mugged for her ring so the symbolism would be spot-on!
Don, tucking Sally in, asks if she doesn't wan
t to call her mother or her brothers, but Sally tells them that as it's nine-thirty, they're asleep, and either she's calling Betty super-boring or she's saying that wanting to talk to her is beyond the realm of possibility; either way, I'd anticipate a scene tomorrow even if I hadn't seen the episode already. Pursuant to that, Sally tells Don she loves him so much and wants to live with him all the time, and Don at least tries to employ logic, pointing out that she'd need a place to go to school, and what about her friends and her brothers? Sally considers this for a moment and then says they could live there too and she'd take care of them, which is really touching, as long as she's just talking about the brothers and not twenty of her snot-nosed friends. Don tells her to go to sleep, but whether he knows it or not, this conversation isn't done. After he leaves her, he goes to write in his journal, but finds he has nothing to say, and after the day he's had it's hardly surprising.
In the morning, Don, wearing white pajamas that I don't have to tell you he fills out rather nicely, gets out of bed to find that Sally has made both of them French toast. Don mildly chastises her for using the stove, but she breezes that she does it all the time, and she learned how from Carla. However, as it turns out, Sally inadvertently put a spin on it that churchgoer Carla would never do by mistakenly making it with rum instead of Mrs. Butterworth's, but when Sally asks if it's bad, he replies, "Not really!" Heh. Sally Draper: Bringing a new meaning to "on the sauce." Don tells her to get dressed and they'll go to the office, but Sally asks if they can't do something together, so Don tells her he'll push everything back to noon and they'll go to the Central Park Zoo. Aw. I mean, I'd rather he take the whole day off and go to the Bronx version, but this will do just fine.
Roger and Bertram are trying to come up with an appropriate obituary for Miss Blankenship; after Roger buzzes for Caroline to ask Joan to join them, Bertram flagellates himself for being unable to come up with anything, and then bitches about how he has no place to "ruminate" since he doesn't have an office. Well, that explains why he's been popping up in random spots like Waldo, but really, what does he do anymore other than hold the hand of aged accounts like Secor? Anyway, Joan comes in and starts capably and efficiently dashing off ideas, but Bertram gets the last word: "She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the thirty-seventh floor of a skyscraper. She's an astronaut." It's a lovely sentiment, fanciful though it may be, so it's no wonder that Bertram leaves on that note, although where he's going isn't particularly clear to me. Maybe he'll do me a solid and bother Harry for a while. When he's gone, Roger apologizes for what happened, but even though Joan regards him inscrutably for a good bit, in the end she says she's not actually sorry but she is still married, and so is he. She starts to leave, but he tells her he feels something, and he knows she does too. She doesn't bother denying it, true as it obviously is, but whether it ends up being relevant is something the rest of the season will have to answer.
Don brings a happy Sally into the office, wherein he introduces her to Megan. Sally wonders where Miss Blankenship is, and Megan, without really missing a beat, says she "went away," so she's helping out for a bit. Probably best not to mention that she went to a place where she can do naughty things to Grandpa Gene. Don tells Megan that Betty should be by at five o'clock, and then leaves Sally with Megan for a bit while he goes to get coffee and check in. When he passes by the conference room, Stan grits out his chagrin that now they can't leave, and then Ken tells them Harry said that on the coroner's report, they listed the cause of death as "Don Draper." Honestly, as bad as Don's been this season, I still can't imagine he's even in the same league as Roger in his heyday, or even worse, from what we've heard, Roger's father. But they all chuckle, even Peggy, and then Stan wonders how long "Yvette Mimieux" will last in the Spinal Tap drummer position, and Ken offers that they should start a pool on whether Megan quits, dies, or is fired. Having worked around boys like this before, I'm surprised such pools aren't in existence already.
Don enters the room and wonders where Faye is, and after Peggy tells him she didn't know if she was even coming in, Ken makes fun of the Fillmore guy's stutter, for which Don reproves him, and then Ken goes on that they don't want anything rock-and-roll-based, and he was pushing Perry Como, Pat Boone, and some other selections from the inoffensive white singer catalogue. Peggy, seeing an opportunity to check out Abe's accusations about Fillmore, suggests Harry Belafonte, which results in uncomfortable cringing and then condescending "Here's how things are, sweetie" explanations from Ken and Stan about why that won't work, while Don keeps his eyes fixated on Peggy to see how far she's going to take this. And Peggy does take it further, asking why they're doing business with a company with discriminatory practices, and when Ken and Stan don't have a ready answer for her, Don pipes up: "Our job is to make men like Fillmore Auto, not make Fillmore Auto like Negroes." Roger: "Well, that's it in black and white!" Okay, he's not in the scene, but I feel like it's what he would have said. That, and I don't want to take credit for it myself. Peggy nods in submission, and then Megan executes what's apparently her primary job responsibility by waving Don out of the meeting. When he's gone, Stan laughs that they should pick Dean Martin, as he's friends with Sammy Davis Jr. "Does that work for you, Peggy?" Peggy's "Eat shit and die" expression suggests the answer is "no," and she leaves...
...while outside, Megan informs Don that Betty is going to be arriving any minute, and she has to cover Reception "per Joan's orders." Don, more respectful of Joan's authority than the departed Joey, tells her to go ahead, but when he enters his office and tells Sally to get her things, she informs him she wants to stay, and she doesn't know why she can't. Unwilling and unable to discuss this further, he tries to take her by the hand and lead her out, but she pulls away and yells that she's not going and that she hates it there, and then Faye comes in and asks if everything is okay. Oh, Faye, with your loose connection to the Mafia you should know how not to get involved in ugly scenes like this. Don takes Faye outside and asks if she could calm Sally down, and although Faye says she doesn't have much child psychology expertise, she gives in. Once again, though, her effort is a bit stilted and seems to be geared toward someone a fair bit younger than Sally, although it's not like Sally's acting so mature when she tells Faye to shut up and that she doesn't need her help. Her lashing out at Faye is the last straw for Don, and despite the exceedingly loud tantrum she starts pitching, Don grabs her by the arm and manhandles her out of the chair. Sally, however, is more slippery than he gives her credit for, and she breaks free of his grasp and runs down the hallway until she trips and falls flat on her face. As Don and Faye, accompanied by a suddenly-appearing Joan and Peggy, catch up, Megan rushes over from Reception and picks Sally up off the floor into a kindly hug, but when she tries to tell Sally it'll be all right, Sally demurs: "No. It won't."
Joan, Peggy, and Faye watch silently as Megan tells Sally she falls all the time, and it's a really poignant scene, because obviously Megan must know that that isn't what Sally's upset about, but what she is upset about is something they can't discuss now, and the way she's being forced to endure the situation strikes an awfully resonant chord with the women. I've been hard on the show a couple times this season for reaching too hard to make an episodic theme work, so I think it's only fair to ho
ld this up as an example of such a theme coming together without any of the characters' actions seeming inorganic or feeling like the show is hitting us over the head. Megan tells Don that she was on her way to see him because Betty has arrived, so Sally, the fight gone from her, walks out with Don...
...to Reception, in which Betty is waiting, and they must have some decent soundproofing for her not to have heard anything from within. Betty rubs Sally's chin and says she was worried about her, and Joan, Peggy, and Faye can't help coming out to see if everything's all right, although Joan characteristically quickly recovers herself and tells the others they should go. After Betty mildly complains that they've made her late, she tells Sally to say goodbye to Don, and I expected Sally to give him the silent treatment as punishment for not letting her stay, but somehow the flat "Goodbye" she gives him is orders of magnitude worse. Kid's a pro, I'm telling you. Betty and Sally cross paths with Joyce on their way out, and Don at least takes the time to thank Megan, who I don't want to forget has had something of a rough couple of days herself. When he's gone, Megan definitely seems a little sniffly, and I have to say, Jessica Paré is doing quite a bit with the little they've given her so far. She pulls it together to give Joyce a smile and ask if she's there to see Peggy...
...while inside, Don comes back into his office to find Faye sipping a drink. He asks if she can make him one of those, and he's probably wrestling with sobriety issues so it's not surprising it wouldn't occur to him that that's perhaps the Wrong Thing To Say, but she turns to tell him no, she can't -- in fact, she won't do anything for him, because he shouldn't have put her in that position with Sally. Don blurts that there was no one else to watch her, and it's not like he wasn't in a shitty position but he's not grasping the fact that it still wasn't her responsibility, not to mention the fact, as she puts it, that she's not good with kids, and the fact that Sally flipped out after she tried to talk to her makes it feel "like there was a test and I failed it." She goes on that sure, it occurred to her that she might someday meet his children, but she doesn't have any, and he bows his head, finally getting what she's saying, before coming to her and whispering that he's sorry. Faye clarifies further that she loves kids, but she chose to be where she is, and she doesn't view being childless as a failure. He tells her it doesn't matter, meaning I guess that he's admitting he screwed up here and she doesn't need to be anyone other than who she is, and then pulls her into an embrace as he mutters about what a mess the whole situation has been. She hopefully offers, however, that part of it has been good, and after he sincerely agrees, they kiss briefly. Things aren't completely fixed yet, though, as she tells him she's going to go home because she didn't really sleep, which sounds to me like she was stressing over Don and Sally, and says that they can have dinner on the weekend. He agrees, and she leaves, giving him a somewhat watery smile on the way. When she's gone, he picks up the drink she left and takes a sip, and considering how much I wanted some booze just watching this episode, it's hard to blame him.
Meanwhile, Joyce catches Peggy also drinking and suggests they take it someplace else, but Peggy wonders what new surprise Joyce might be getting ready to spring on her. Joyce takes the opportunity to opine that men always want a woman to be "their girl," which explains why the Abe thing didn't work out. "Maybe it's biology. It's like men are this vegetable soup, and you can't put 'em on a plate or eat 'em off the counter, so women are the pot. They heat 'em up, they hold 'em; they contain 'em." Ah, so tortured metaphors are the surprise du jour. Joyce adds that she wouldn't have helped set Peggy up with Abe if she didn't think he was "very interesting soup," but while Peggy smiles, she still tells Joyce she'll take a rain check. Joyce asks if she's angry or lovesick, and Peggy admits she doesn't know. When Joyce is gone, Peggy takes one more sip and gets ready to leave herself...
...and then outside, after Joyce disappears into an elevator, Joan comes out, followed by Faye. The two of them get on, and then Peggy rushes out and joins them. We close in on a beauty shot of the three of them staring into space, women whose outer beauty is all men see but whose inner beauty is by far the more radiant, and then the doors close. And even though it's not in keeping with the episode, I hope the three of them end up getting wasted and having a pot party just like in 9 To 5. See you week!
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. You can email him at couchbaron@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/couchbaron and https://twitter.com/eastfifthbliss.
Discuss this episode in our forums, and see why vloggrs Val and Beth think Sally Draper should get her own spin-off show, below!
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Discuss this episode in our forums, and see why vloggrs Val and Beth think Sally Draper should get her own spin-off show, below!
Watch an interview with Trudy Campbell, herself, Alison Brie.
Want to immediately access TWoP content no matter where you are online? Download the free TWoP toolbar for your web browser. Already have a customized toolbar? Then just add our free toolbar app to get updated on our content as soon it's published.