Mad Men 6x12 Reaction

This was a great episode. I can’t wait for the next one.

I like that Betty asks Sally to tell her everything about the day at boarding school. At least she's interested and wants to have a conversation with Sally. I feel like that wouldn't have happened a couple of seasons ago when she always either yelled at her or told her to go watch tv.

Man, if my hair was as pretty as Lola’s, I would have my own reaction channel.

Did anyone else hear a distraction throughout the episode? It sounded like construction people working with a loud jackhammer. It was driving me crazy all episode

So many hilarious lines in this one: "You finally found a hooker who will take traveler's checks? .. Why did I tell you that.." "Did you mention Cran-Prune sounds like a glass of diarrhea?" "Lee Garner Jr made me hold his balls"

The lowest low is finally reached when Don disparages Peggy's physical appearance in his "debrief" with Ted following the St. Joseph's meeting. Aside from this, Don's machinations are explicable by way of the shame he feels after Sally sees him cheating, and the jealousy he feels over Ted and Peggy's relationship. Underhandedly calling Peggy ugly, though? That's pure, senseless, and unadulterated cruelty. It's the act that earns him the title Peggy later bestows on him: monster.

I've been pointing out in multiple comments that Bob Benson's manipulations have all been "good" manipulations compared to what he could have done, but nonetheless they HAVE been manipulations. His smile is always fake and he's constantly lying to everybody around him. He's Don who relies on being Nice instead of being Handsome And Commanding. So I do get a thrill when Pete says that he wanted to see him finally stop smiling. Since we got the reveal about Bob, I'll point back to the start of the season that there were hints he snuck in and hadn't been hired at all. Nobody at the agency knew him, nobody knew what his job was or who hired him. He was working out in the public chairs instead of his office, and always making an excuse for why he wasn't at his desk. Everybody thought his constant optimism and sucking-up was weird and offputting, but Ken Cosgrove thought there was something even more "off" about him. Now it's official that he literally hadn't been hired back then. He just walked into the office and stuck around until everybody got used to him, and slot himself into the role. I think we never see him get assigned any actual work until the merger between the two agencies, where presumably he finally got himself 'officially' hired by saying "I didn't get my paycheck this week, I guess the paperwork got lost in the shuffle, please put me back in the files". Pete's line about being "off limits" is more likely work-related instead of anything sexual. He's telling Bob not to come after his clients, or try to manipulate him anymore. Bob's history that Duck mentioned wasn't OFFICIALLY a sex worker, but it was heavily implied. His job was as a personal servant to one of the executives at that prior company, and attended him throughout his travels, with the implication "He was the exec's kept gigolo, and they covered it up by saying he was a servant". That's possibly also why he hit on Pete last episode instead of any honest attraction, since he was used to supposedly-straight executives taking advantage of him. I've seen a bunch of people refer to Sally's line "My father's never given me anything" as the moment where Betty FINALLY realized just how badly the relationship had fallen apart between Sally & Don. Betty always thought Sally was only mean to her (She even says here that Sally is polite to everybody else), and that she loved Don as the "fun" parent. This was an eye-opening moment when she could possibly realize that Sally doesn't love Don more than her after all. I agree that Sally's smile when Glen stood up for her to his friend was because she finally saw SOMEBODY who defended her with no conditions or expectations or disappointment. It's truly bottom-of-the-barrel protection, but it's still more than she gets anywhere else.

"One never knows how loyalty is born." -Bert. Pete is learning from his past mistakes, learning how to adapt to changing circumstances and going with the flow instead of throwing tantrums every time something doesn't immediately go his way. He's still mostly the same Pete but he seems to be slowly evolving into a wiser (and dare I say, more mature??) version of himself.

Don loses probably the two most important women in his life in these last two episodes with Sally and now Peggy.

I didn't wanna say anything at the time but a few episodes back you said something like "Bob Benson is not a real person" and I laughed my ass off knowing what was coming

I think Don is also jealous of Peggy & Ted because they have what he used to have with Megan... they get to be together every day in the office having a great time, working creatively, running off on little impromptu dates whenever they want. Don was happier than ever with Megan working beside him and I don't think he's ever gotten over losing that.

By "off limits" I think Pete meant more work-wise. He knows how skilled Bob (and Don) are at what they do and he doesn't want to compete with him at work (he tried that with Don and failed).