Mad Men 7x07 Reaction
Comments (34)
Mike Nichols was a friend of the show, and an amazing director of plays and films
No man has ever come back from leave, even Napoleon. He staged a coup, but he ended up back on the island. ... Every time an old man starts talking about Napoleon, you know they're gonna die.
Matthew Weiner said he likes to showcase the talents of the actors. That's why we had Bert doing the musical, Joan playing accordion, Ken doing tap and Pete and Trudy dancing.
I love that
a little Severance and Artemis 2 crossover
https://x.com/lumonsindustry/status/2039762430117413316
I didn’t really get the harry hate from you guys at the start of the show, but he really ends up being irritating and a general POS. I think the way he talked about Megan in the s5 premiere was the tipping point for me. He does get some hilarious moments though
I really want a compilation of all the showbiz moments. Specifically, Pete and Trudy dancing, Roger juggling, Ken tap dancing and Cooper's song
I lament that we no longer have Don and Joan’s friendship anymore. It’s been over for awhile now and certainly justifiably so but I am sad that we no longer have that rapport
You have some amazing prediction talents! I never saw that coming... these last two episodes are lovely and really full in the way I feel Season 4 episodes are. Lots of delightful moments with people that are tiny and perfect - and perfect mostly because we have come to know them so so well. Don coming out of the tunnel, so to speak, gets me every time. Can step outside himself for Peggy, for Megan, for Pete, for Roger - and in many ways, for Bert. Don't the one who runs to take Lane down, and is here to allow the perfect Bert moment happen. Don stays for me the archetype of: when you're cut down the middle, daily life is a mess and brutal but it leaves you open for all the deeper parts of the human existence. Anna's suitcase, Bert's wisdom. Anyway, I am sad you're nearly at the end.... but here we go!
I know they're good at picking up on twists before they happen, but I'm starting to think Lola is an actual psychic.
Easily one of the best episodes in the show IMO. Very satisfying conclusion to the Burger Chef pitch and Don's shaky position in the company. 1.5m in 1969 is 13.3m in today's money, according to the inflation calculator, so you can understand why everyone was quickly willing to let bygones be bygones. Pete's got ten percent! I love Don being encouraging to Peggy and Sally. Just a very positive feeling episode all round.
It's not really a spoiler, so yes there is a timeskip. Next episode picks up in April of 1970.
What is the purpose of telling them this
Watching this a few hours after I watched the launch of Artemis II....whoa. It's magical. Building off my comment from last episode, we continue to see Don treat Peggy like an equal. It's not just that he respects her. He respects a lot of people. It's that he respects her ON THE SAME LEVEL as himself. That wasn't there last season or earlier, but it's there now. I love the look into Bert's morality (so to speak) here, especially when he breaks it down for Roger. Bert also wants Don gone, but not at the whim of Jim Cutler, and not as an end-run around the rest of the partners or behind his own back. If Don broke the rules and they had a Partners Meeting about it, I think Bert likely would have voted to get rid of him. But not out in the open in front of the employees, not without weighing it seriously in his mind, and not without planning for how it would be handled afterwards. Jim's...pettiness...is an affront to what Bert believes. It hurts to see Joan's bitterness at Don, but I can't blame her or disagree with her about it. Don hasn't MEANT it, but he has undermined her and sabotaged her on several occasions, and caused her both personal AND professional pain. It would take a bigger person than I am to let that go philosophically (although the giant pile of money at the end of the episode probably helped). I have seen a theory that it was ACTUALLY Bert's ghost at the end, and not Don's imagination. Full-on supernatural occurence. I never thought that myself, and neither do most people, but it's A Thought. By the way, when it comes to all of the money poured into space exploration, it's miniscule compared to overall government expenditures, and it actually leads to SIGNIFICANT reinvestment into the "earth" economy. The last figure I checked (which is several years out of date by now so it's probably different today), is that for every $1 that the USA spent on space, $6 was introduced into the active US economy. So whatever else you want to say about about government spending, this actually put more money back for the people who need it than plenty of other government projects.
Oh, reminder, Newark (Where Julio is moving) is "Sopranos territory". That's where Tony lived as a child, which we see in several flashbacks. His parents moved their family out of the city right around this time, partly in response to the growing influx of non-white residents who were moving into the area. Tony still had a lot of business connections to the city in the present day, and we spent a lot of time seeing different aspects of the city in the late-'90s/early-'00s.
Pete and Joan at the end were me when I was 11 and learned on, like, December 23rd that I was getting a PlayStation 2 for Christmas
The 'ghost' of Bert Cooper, the single most capitalist libertarian character in the show, telling Don Draper, a man who just spent a year grinding away to get his corporate job back writing adverts to sell products, that "the best things in life are free"... is so perfect. Yeah, this is a great episode. Been looking forward to it for weeks. I watched the ending scene like ten times after downloading the episode in preparation. I'm so glad you remembered "she was an astronaut", it was the first thing I thought of too. I knew we'd reach the other side on Pete but it's nice to be here, he's just such a cartoon character in his mid-30s. Funnily enough Pete is now around the same age Don was when we started the show. The times are indeed a-changing. Can't believe we only have 3 and a half weeks left. I might cry again just thinking about it. What a journey.
You know it's a figment of Don's imagination and not the real ghost of Bert Cooper because he's dancing with a Black woman.
Pete being Don's hype man never gets old
For your consideration: This is the best Mad Men season finale? Bert's song & dance, Don handing off the pitch to Peggy, Harry getting *screwed* out of a partnership, "the clients want to live too, Ted!", Peggy hugging and crying over Julio, Meredith being Don's strength... One of my favourite smaller moments is Don telling Sally to dial back her cynicism. It's part of growing up that she's going to get cynical and contrary about stuff. It's so nice how Don -- let's face it, a pretty cynical & contrary guy himself -- shows her that you don't have to feel that way all time, especially about going to the fucking moon. What I love about this ending is how it's kind of tricky to unpack. Don just got his job back, but part of that equation was literally talking Ted off the ledge and convincing him to sign a contract that (he thinks) is going to be his death warrant. Is this really a victory? Does it matter? Why is Don having this vision, which is so antithetical to the real Bert's thinking? Can Napoleon really come back from exile? Terrific performance from Jon Hamm at the end, capturing all of those competing emotions. V guvax gurer'f fbzrguvat ernyyl vagrerfgvat urer va gur jnl Oreg vzzrqvngryl erpbtavmrf Arvy Nezfgebat'f "bar fznyy fgrc" yvar gb or n ovg bs oevyyvnag nq pbcl, naq gur jnl gung gvrf vagb Qba obggyvat (yvgrenyyl) naq fryyvat gur srryvat ur svaqf ng Rfnyra va gur frevrf svanyr. Guvf fubj qbrfa'g ernyyl fgrre vagb gur fhcreangheny, fb V thrff jr'er zrnag gb haqrefgnaq Oreg'f fbat gb or Qba'f fhopbafpvbhf jneavat uvz nobhg gur obggbzyrff cvg bs nqiregvfvat. Ur qbrfa'g ernyyl gnxr vg gb urneg, qbrf ur?
THAT IS A VERY SENSITIVE PIECE OF HORSEFLESH I love that Pete perceives Don as this wild stallion that can only be tamed not reasoned with in order to make use of.
I'VE GOT TEN PERCENT!!! 😀😀🤪
YOU'RE NOT JUST PATHETIC YOU'RE SELFISH.
RIP Bert Cooper, RIP Robert Morse. Very excited to watch this final stretch. Little more divisive than 7A maybe but I loved it first time around.
Good lord you two should start an Etsy Witch side business with your accidental Bert prediction lol
Perfect timing on the episode. Watched Artemis II just an hour ago. "Don, my boy!" will live in my head forever.
The actor who played Bert Cooper, Robert Morse, is a multi-time Tony award winner who spent over 60 years performing in musical theater. Absolutely perfect sendoff for both his character & the actor himself.
ohhh, thats why it looked like the performance suited him perfectly
Bert’s final performance, might just be my favourite moment in the entire show.
Will always remember watching it for the first time. With the show heading into hiatus before the final episodes... That it could conjure a moment like that out of thin air, and knowing that there were only a handful of episodes left. Really bittersweet.
Don, my boy
Perfect timing on this one. Shout out to Artemis II.
Amazing timing