Another Mad Men Post

At the risk of this becoming an all Mad Men blog, I have some thoughts on this week’s episode, the best of the season so far.

We had characters burning bridges, be it Don with Jaguar, Pete with Trudy, CGC with the car client they dropped to chase Chevy, or Pete and his father-in-law after their run in at the . . . ummm . . . "hotel".  We also had a lot of characters going behind others' backs - Bert, Pete, and Joan with the IPO; Roger chasing the Chevy executive; Don & Roger scheduling a dinner with Jaguar sans Pete; Don & Teddy with the merger; and of course the usual adultery (Pete as always, his father-in-law, Peggy with Teddy, etc.)  And finally, change has been the most prevailing theme for the whole show, and we see what happens to those who don’t change or aren’t willing to change – they get left behind.  And so it’s really interesting to hear Peggy (really the symbol of change on Mad Men) tell Abe that she doesn’t like change and wants things to stay the same.  Well be careful what you wish for Miss Olson, because by the end of the episode her new firm has merged with her old firm, and her old boss is suddenly back in her life.  Things are pretty much back to the same as they ever were for Peggy.

The moments I particularly enjoyed:

- Pete falling down the stairs
- Roger keeping copies of his memoir “Sterling’s Gold” in his bag
- Bob Benson offering to pay Pete’s hooker for her services (and really why was Bob there in the first 
place, to hold Pete’s pants?)
- A smiling Bob Benson holding two cups of coffee up to Pete and Ken as they discuss the “father-in- law incident" from the night before
- Both Don and Marie in the restaurant scene with Herb and his wife. A drunk Marie insulting them in French was great, as was Don’s “I love puppies” comment.
- Joan telling off Don (isn't it about time someone did?), even though she’s still a partner in the firm so her part in winning Jaguar wasn’t really for nothing
- Peggy’s face when she heard Don’s voice in Teddy’s office - why do I get the feeling she's not super excited to be returning to the old office?


The complications I’m anticipating for the remainder of the season:

- The inevitable Don-Teddy ego clash
- The almost as inevitable Peggy-Don clash
- The potential Roger-Cutler accounts guy clash
- The Peggy-Abe clash after Peggy ends up having an affair with Teddy (even though I really hope they don’t take it any further, as much as I dislike her relationship with Abe)
- The Don-Megan clash after the expected blow-up following Don and Sylvia’s affair coming to light (and with Doctor Rosen having quit his job, it will make it that much harder for Don to continue the affair, right?)