Mad Men 7x12 Reaction
Comments (22)
Roger disappoints once again.
Joan's situation sucks but I've had a lot of time and rewatches to sit with it and I do think it's the best thing for her. If you reframe it from "she loses half the money she deserves" to "she gets half her payouts instantly then walks out that office and never looks back" it's an amazing deal, the interest alone from investing the money she has sets her up for life or she can spend it to enrich her life etc. The other option is like, a 5+ year legal slog which she probably loses, it destroys her career (asshole sexist men won't hire "the loud woman who sued her employer") and/or she has to tank walking into that sexist office every day so she doesn't get fired for cause. It stings in the moment but once it's done... she's free. One small missed detail is when Don walks into the meeting, he overhears someone telling Ted "So are you here to 'bring things up a notch' too?" and Ted replies "So they tell me". This is what Jim Hobart said in his meeting with Don, meaning he said the exact same thing to Ted too. This adds to Don's dissilusionment - while Jim is saying Don is 'the golden child', and that's true to an extent (he's been after him for 10 years), he's also saying the same thing to everyone. There are no golden children at mccann, there's like 30 Creative Directors of which Don is but one. Even if he's a star, he's just one player on a team with a deep bench and his leverage is greatly reduced. It was hard to comment on the Diana plotline in earlier discussions because you obviously need to see this episode to understand why it happened at all, and it makes a lot more sense in retrospect. I'm sure they could have written it different but for my money, we needed this crash-and-burn to lead us here. We needed Don to see the damage left behind in first-person. Betty's moved on, Megan is gone, Rachel is dead, Diana is a not-real person who abandoned her kid and if just gone now... Bonus thoughts: Roger/Peggy scenes iconic obviously, but the little details elevate it even moreso; Peggy is like the daughter Roger never had lol, someone he can actually impart wisdom to + who can talk back to him. Don walks into a room filled with copy-paste men-in-suits all with the same boxed lunch and drinks and feels he doesn't belong. In one episode they do an amazing job of explaining why Don and Ken and others were soooo right about Mccann.
Yeah, to be clear I don't think its GOOD (what she wanted was to do her job and be an account services person while getting paid loads and respect, like at her old job) but its defo the best choice for her in the moment, even if it feels like a loss spiritually, societally etc. She has a *great* decade ahead of her though, she will OWN the 70s no matter what happens.
Poor Joan, the writers had to take down her IQ a couple of notches for the conflicts in this episode then both her boyfriend and Roger gave her terrible advice. It's so weird to me because out of anyone, I'd think Joan would have had the insight to not rock any boats and try to throw her weight around with the little stake she had as a partner on literally the first week. She was like a deer in the headlights the entire episode as if it was her first time dealing with assholes in positions of power. Not saying I wanted her to stay there her whole life and not grow but I suppose with only 2 episodes left, they needed to speed up the process of booting her out.
You have to go a long way to see the issues that Joan initially brings up to Dennis, Ferg, Jim as rocking the boat. "Can you please read the brief" after souring a client and "these clients would be served better if I had more independence" couldn't be more fair. She says earlier in the season that she got the job she always wanted so it makes sense that she was never going to accept a demotion in the most demeaning way possible. It isn't until it gets to that point that she threatens legal action.
Don's scene in the boardroom is one of my favourites. McCann is the sausage factory he never wanted to go to, Joan pushed out, Peggy in limbo, and him 'just one of a hundred colours in a box' just another man to 'bring things up a notch'. The presentation of the beer drinking man is a patronising caricature, it's the opposite of how Don has described his approach to Peggy - 'you are the product, you feeling something', 'you can't tell people what they want, it has to be what you want'. Ths Miller pitch is the opposite of the Burger Chef presentation. I love seeing him leave one more time, and seeing him connect with Betty. Great episode
And Ted watching him with a bittersweet smile. Perfect
The end of the agency being a Roger/Peggy story where she's in a haunted house with the ghost of Sterling Cooper is perfect storytelling.
I love that shot of Peggy in the thumbnail.
You should watch The Leftovers
They've seen it sadly, the react would have been peak.
“I’m supposed to tell you you missed your flight.” In my head, when Don is watching that plane flying out the window, Rachel’s words are playing in his mind.
So MANY emotions in this episode, going Up and Down and All Over The Place. Roger and Peggy saying goodbye to the old offices is Fun and Charming, with a hint of Sadness, and ultimately Peggy emerges in a better place than she started. Joan's deal actually isn't a horrible deal in-and-of-itself from a financial perspective. Yes, she got a smaller total payout, but she got it NOW instead of four years from now, and it also ends her contract with McCann so she can get another job tomorrow if she wants to. After this merger happened, Roger & Don would both LOVE to get that deal. But the circumstances around it is just acid in the eyes, because the money isn't the POINT. She doesn't want a "good deal", she wants Respect and Fair Treatment, and that can't be replaced with a pile of cash. Don's scene with Betty just might be the healthiest exchange we've ever seen the two of them have together. It tooks years to get to this point -- and it comes as Don is having a whole other collapse -- but they finally made it. The beer that they're talking about developing with Miller is "Miller Lite", which will be released in 1973. It was one of the first successful 'lite beers' and is credited with kicking off many other brands introducing their own versions in the following years.
+1 on Joan: the payout structure requires her to work in this sexist hell-hole for 4 years to get her payouts (if she's owed 500k, she'll get like 125k per year, only if she doesn't quit). It's counter-intuitive but if she gets half the payouts right now and invests them at a (low estimate) 10% return, she'll have a huge amount from compounding or she can live off the interest. And like you say she can still do extra work and make money - her noncompete will end etc - and she'll be happier.
Once Mad Men is over, I hope Interview with the Vampire is next, especially since season 3 is releasing soon.
I think a lot of people misread the guy giving the monologue during the Miller Beer meeting as being a very Don speech but it feels like everything Don would hate. There's nothing that resonates emotionally about what he says, he paints a picture of a very generic man as their target. Don doesn't think that way. He also gives us a peak at exactly what he thought of it when he says to Laura Bauer as Bill Phillips "well, I also give a lot of boring presentations". That and seeing himself (someone with a huge ego) as one of many where he could just fade into the background is his worst nightmare. The look on Ted's face when he sees Don walk out says it all. That look of like, "yeah this isn't for this guy".
His presentation is written very specifically, he says: "I'm going to describe a man to you of very specific qualities" and then IMMEDIATELY says "He lives in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania..." as if those three are completely interchangeable. His researched has crunched millions of different, interesting men into one archetype. Don's approach does use research and does use 'cohorts' but his best work speaks to something that defies this sort of generalization. Ted absolutely knew what Don was doing imo, or strongly sensed it.
the only show that affects me as much as MM is Peaky Blinders. Even if one of you has seen some, the show is about deep themes and not just about the plot - just like MM. Please consider! There is a top 5 of literary/art TV and these two are in it - and have the same impact on me!
+1 for Peaky Blinders.
Badass ending lol
Now that we're rounding out MM, im not sure if you girls (or anyone else) have come across this BTS moment: https://s3.amazonaws.com/production.mediajoint.prx.org/public/piece_images/230566/jon-hamm-and-bryan-cranston-together-in-costume-18914-1311109316-56_small.jpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDfzTcill6I
now it's time to leave the capsule, if you dare