An Award Winning Mad Men

SPOILER ALERT!!!


Funny that on the night that Mad Men wins the Emmy for Outstanding Drama for the third year in a row, the episode shows SCDP (and more importantly Don) winning an award of their own, as they take home the Clio for the Glo-Coat ad.

And as we see an obviously no longer sober Duck get kicked out of the Clio awards, we see Don once again go on his own bender leading him to hit bottom. After seeming to regain his swagger a bit last week, Don, like Duck, has fallen off the wagon.

From the high of winning the Clio and running on stage to accept the award, Don quickly descends to one of the lowest points we’ve seen him (and that's saying something this season). First he gives a sloppy drunk version of his nostalgia speech (from the Season 1 finale) to the Life cereal execs, and although it was actually pretty funny (or embarrassing) to watch, it’s not in character for Don to be so out of control with a client. And to top it off, he steals Roger’s nerdy cousin-in-law's idea and pitches it to Life.

Then later we see Don attempt to pick up Faye, and we get to see Faye give him the big ol’ Heisman. Rejected! But the ever resilient Don still ends up in bed with a woman. And then he wakes up . . . with a different woman . . . two days later. And she calls him Dick. Wow. If that isn’t rock bottom for Don, I don’t know what is. Oh yeah, and then Betty calls, and he forgot to get the kids. Finally we get to feel a little sympathy for poor Betty (but just a little).

And if all that wasn’t enough Peggy shows up at Don’s apartment and she isn’t happy with him. She basically tells him to get his act together. And isn’t it interesting that we see Peggy acting as the parent figure as she puts Don in his place. Oh, how the roles have changed in 5 years.

I also enjoyed the flashbacks of Roger finding Don and eventually hiring him. Even if Roger doesn’t remember actually offering him a job. Parallels with Don getting drunk and ending up having to hire the cousin-in-law? Although I can’t imagine this new hire will quite reach Don’s success in the firm. Mrs. also mentioned that perhaps Roger and Don got drunk and Roger never offered the job, but Don just made it up and showed up for work. Hey, I wouldn’t put anything past Dick/Don.

Funny to see both Don and Roger holding Joan’s hand under the table at the Clio’s. And what was up with Don’s full mouthed kiss with Joan? Hopefully that doesn't get back to Faye.

Also liked seeing Ken Cosgrove come back and would have loved to see Pete’s face as Peggy goes into the conference room and gives him a big hug.

One last note, there are now 13 episodes listed for Season 4, so we aren’t getting short changed after all! Crisis averted.