The penultimate episode of the season and all hell is breaking out at SCDP, much like it did about this point in previous seasons. With news about Lucky Strike leaving getting out, the future for the agency is looking increasingly bleak. Although I think we can assume that the agency will survive in some form or another – after all what’s the point of a workplace-based show if the characters no longer have a workplace – the fun lies in seeing just how Don and co are going to get out of it (and who gets left by the wayside).
Opening on Don’s secret meeting with Heinz’s beans division, Mad Men somehow managed to keep its class while still alluding to fart jokes (as the guy from Heinz pointed out you can’t use humour to advertise beans, I’m not sure why he thought that pickles were intrinsically funny though? Is it because they look quite phallic, as I wouldn’t have thought that that could be used in an acceptable, let alone successful, advertising strategy). It was all going so well (Don even managed to sell me on a plate of beans on toast) until the Heinz guy started going on about how keen he’d be to talk about this in six months, and so we were introduced catch-22 situation the agency found itself facing this episode, SCDP needed to get new business to recover from Lucky Strike, but couldn’t get any precisely because of that – as the Heinz guy said ‘How do I know your agency will be here in six months’. Dr Atherton arranged a meeting with Philip Morris about a new cigarette for women, an ideal opportunity despite it being quite a small account as Atherton pointed out SCDP was ‘a certain kind of girl’ and ‘tobacco would be your ideal boyfriend’, but that turned out to be a bust – the company were merely using the SCDP meeting to get a better deal out of their current agency.
If all the stresses of the workplace weren’t enough, Don was also visited by old flame Midge – a welcome reminder of the days way back in season one when Don was only cheating on his wife and not, as he is now, divorced but somehow piling mistress on mistress. Spinning some story about being in his building for an interview with ‘a magazine affiliated with Time-Life’ and having lost her purse, she got him back to the flat to meet her husband (but not in a romantic way) and to ‘buy a painting’. Of course it all turned out to be a scam, as Midge’s ‘playwright’ husband very quickly let on – it turns out that the two had become hooked on heroin and were desperate for cash. But it must be said that they looked absolutely fantastic for down and out junkies – their clumsy attempts to get money out of Don were excruciatingly desperate, and Don’s response of ‘Does it even matter?’ to Midge’s question if he liked the painting was desperately sad, but the show didn’t resort to ramming home how bad drugs can be, after all their dank Village apartment didn’t look that much different to Don’s. And the painting was ok, not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, and I expect quite out of date even in 1965, but it reminded me a little of Paul Klee (although I imagine a proper art historian will be able to come up with a better point of comparison), and it did provide Don with a useful push. Looking at the painting as an emblem of Midge and her husband’s unpleasant situation, Don was inspired to get out his journal again and write an article on ‘Why I’m Quitting Tobacco’ (not cigarettes themselves of course, just advertising for the product that ‘never improves’ and ’spreads disease and misery’), which he then boldly published as a full page ad in the New York Times – without informing the rest of the SCDP about it. Needless to say everyone was livid, and it looked like it had been another huge mistake for SCDP (especially after Ted Chaough phoned doing a terrible Bobby Kennedy impression to take the piss – I was annoyed to have to put up with seeing/hearing him again, but I was slightly relieved as well as I was beginning to think that the Mad Men crew had dropped the ball and the bad Kennedy impression was actually meant to be the real guy, like the awful Richard Nixon in Zack Snyder’s film of Watchmen), but it eventually allowed things to look a bit brighter for the company as they received some interest from the American Cancer Association about doing an anti-tobacco campaign. In a nice touch Don was phoned by ’some guy called Emerson Foote’ – in reality a top ad man, who once headed the McCann-Erikson agency (who have been mentioned several times in the series) and whose anti-smoking stance clearly inspired the writers to come up with Don’s letter. Still, it was a shame that this glimmer of hope came so late on as the partners were still required to get rid of a sizable chunk of their workforce – as Pete said ‘Don’s saved the company, now let’s get rid of half of it’, ending the episode on several grim and teary scenes as staff were let go, including poor, tiny Danny.
While all this was going on Roger got plenty of opportunity to drop in his usual witticisms (‘I’m going to go and learn a bunch of people’s names before I fire them.’), Pete very nearly hung onto his heroic status from last week – facing, as he did with dignity, a difficult decision between supporting his family or investing further in the business – which he only lost when he started to whine again about being punished (and when he ironically accused Don of being childish), and Bert was pretty much useless. He may have shooed Harry out of the office following the Philip Morris no-show but I expect Harry would have been more useful in that room than Bert, who pretty much just threw his toys out of the pram. Bert’s strop at Don’s letter, where he was mainly annoyed at not being named himself resulted in him leaving the agency, was declared in the manner of a child picking up their football and going home as they don’t want to play anymore. I can’t say I’ll be sorry to see the back of Bert, or Dr Atherton for that matter who quit the agency (and forced Dr Miller out with him, much to Peggy’s dismay as she was losing a valuable role model) as he wanted another tobacco account. Atheton’s departure means that SCDP will already be making a valuable saving as it’s not like he was doing anything much of use anyway – Roger’s assessment of him as ‘an asshole’ was well-deserved. As an added bonus, Dr Miller’s resignation from the agency means that she and Don can now date openly, so hopefully there won’t be any more uncomfortable scenes like the one where he was left alone with both her and his other current squeeze Megan (not that either of them suspected anything, but there was a weird tension in the room).
Elsewhere, Sally was continuing to make the most of her miserable existence, having become close to psycho-Glen (who, in his football uniform, made the least convincing-looking sportsman ever) and her psychiatrist. I’ve definitely warmed to Dr Keener, to the extent that I no longer picture her nude scenes in True Blood anymore (thankfully) – probably because I identify with Sally (that speech Sally gave about thinking about forever as depicted on butter packets definitely rang a bell) and so tend to side with the characters who warm to her, with the exception of Glen who just remains creepy – and the scene of her playing Go Fish with Sally was rather sweet, it was as if Sally had finally gotten the kind, motherly figure she needed. While this was going on, Betty remained her usual self – although she wasn’t so much hateful as she was sad. Back in the very first episode of the show Don and her then psychiatrist discussed Betty as being like a child and that was really brought home this episode – not only did all of her scenes feature, or were about, the kids, but there was also her discussion with Dr Keener, where the child psychiatrist tried to convince her to see a specialist of her own and Betty couldn’t see why she couldn’t just keep things as they were, before Betty clumsily attempted to talk like an adult when discussing Sally’s well being. I do wonder if her dislike of Glen, though not unmotivated (although definitely taken to extremes – she didn’t need to make the decision to move house just to keep Sally and Glen apart), is based in part on jealousy as he shifted his attentions from her to her daughter. Anyway, I didn’t know what to think about Betty’s plans to separate the two – obviously Sally was devastated, but on the other hand, I don’t think Glen ‘I’m smarter than your shrink’ Bishop is good company for the already troubled girl.
As my wish in the last season for Lee Garner Jr. to go came true (albeit with devastating consequences for SCDP), I’m going to now make a couple for the next season. First of all Ted Chaough gets killed off, preferably in the most slow, painful and gory way possible, after all he’s a man so irritatingly self-centred that he didn’t even pick up on the fact that Don’s mention of his firm in the New York Times letter was meant to be an insult. And, now that Lee Garner Jr.’s gone, Sal gets brought back in to the series, I miss his sense of unknowing campness and suave dress-sense. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed (but of course not holding my breath).
Season finale next time! See you all then.
