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Once upon a time, I think Joan really loved Roger. Now, it seems she can easily see through him.
Roger: “We created a baby!” Joan: “Yes, and now it’s some other lucky girl’s turn!”
Unsurprisingly for a woman trying to make it on her own in the 60′s, things aren’t going so hot for Joan, She goes out to reception expecting to get flowers, and instead is served with divorce papers by Greg. Naturally, she FLIPS at that dumb receptionist, even throwing a model plane at her face!
“you wouldn’t like me angry…”
Don sweeps in before Joan fully bites her head off, and takes her out for a comforting visit to the Jaguar showroom. When the dealer won’t let them take it for a test drive alone – it only seats two – Don whips out the checkbook and buys it. Don and Joan then hit the bar, in what is by far the best scene of the episode. It’s very strange to see Don being so gentle and kind. I guess that’s how he is with women he hasn’t slept with. He tells her how lovely she still is, and how she’ll start over the find someone new like he did, and reminisces about when he first came to the office and she ran it with an iron first.
This scene is sweet, but I felt an unspoken question from Joan the entire time they were talking about marriage and divorce and affairs: Why didn’t Don pick Joan, instead of Megan? This is the same question she confronted when Roger chose to marry Jane. Always a secretary, but never the bride. I’m not sure that Don entirely gets that Joan feels that way. I imagine he would never even consider Joan, both because of Roger and because she’s not pliable enough for him.
premium, 100% sexual tension
When Don gets home, Megan’s not in the most pliable mood herself. He was already a douche the night before, when they went to see a weird abstract play her friend was in which just happened to describe advertising as puke-worthy.
i couldn’t get a shot of all the black turtlenecks, but oh, they’re there.
Megan is PISSED that he is coming home late, and drunk, and without calling.
sally also taught megan a few new faces.
She obviously thought he was out cheating. Megan even throws a plate of spaghetti at the wall. Don reacts in that way that makes me want to kick him in the balls, and completely erases on all the sweetness from the Joan scenes: “You like to get mad, that’s what gets you going.” Ewww. Yes, they do have hot angry sex from time to time, but I’m not ready to say Megan is making up excuses to get mad. Don is clearly still angry that she left the agency, as though he lack of passion for advertising reflects badly on him. Megan points out that Don loved advertising long before she met him, and then he sits like a naughty little boy to eat the other plate of spaghetti while Megan watches. This statement seems to be what turns things around for Don, and gets him inspired about Jaguar again.
The next day, Joan does get flowers – delivered by Roger, but from Don. He signs the card “Ali Khan,” which makes little sense to me. Ali Khan married Rita Hayworth, the hottest redhead movie star of the time.
However, by the late sixties they were long divorced. I get that Don’s calling Joan a movie star, but given that every cultural reference on this show tends to have deeper metaphorical meaning, I’m not sure what’s going on beneath.
I couldn’ t give two shits about the Harry and Paul storyline, and I don’t even know why it was included. Harry and Paul have both proved themselves disgusting selfish pigs. Don’t remember Paul? He used to work at the firm before it was rebooted. He did it with Joan and told everyone, and later dated a black lady and became a pretentious hipster. Don didn’t bring him along to the new agency, choosing Peggy instead.
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I swear, I spent most of the episode convinced that was Juliette Lewis.
They don’t have vwry many episodes left in the season, so I’m not sure how they plan to tie up any of these hanging storylines. At this point, I’m just waiting to see whether Don or Megan will bail on that misery first.
Great recap! I’ve said it before but I really like that you go storyline by storyline instead of real-time fragments, it must be more work but makes the recap so legible!
I agree that this episode and this season have had extremely high intensity drama and tension but low low low on actual action. Also I have a hard time even remembering who Paul is and Harry is barely a blip. Where is Betty!!??
I agree too that Joan will discover Harry’s blunder-but I’m hoping he goes more extreme before this is all over-he does still need to find cash for the school… As for Don and Megan, I still think she will be the one to leave him or cheat this time-he actually seems to have settled down but she is not going to accept his silence and domineering like Betty did.
And THANK YOU for the Juliette Lewis pic, I KNEW that chick reminded me of someone!
It’s hard to see the trees for the forest in an episode like this. The overarching symbolism does push the plot forward but reliance on it makes individual conversations extremely clunky and obviously hard to act. Even Peggy was struggling with her lines, I thought. One “symbolic” thing that “happened” was that Don used Mao’s famous “Great Leap Forward” line in his motivational speech. This lets us know, I guess, that the Jaguar campaign is going to bomb. But mainly what’s “happening” is The Sixties! and I have to say I’m not thrilled by this. I know all about the damn sixties. They’ve been shoved down my throat since I was a tiny child. I know that it was The Greatest Decade Ever and that Change Happened and Megan represents this and Don better Get With the Program and find some Enlightenment. Ok so there was a little irony about the Hare Krishna girl being a hard-headed business exec but at heart I think the writers believe in the damn sixties and want to take us there. AGAIN.
@MaryEdith – AMEN!
I did not realize it until you pointed it out but the main thing that has me drifting away from this show is the era shift. This show started with a time period that is not often explored the way they did and showed us a unique perspective of Americana culture. The shift is going in an old familiar and beaten to death direction and I could not be less interested.
I am for one am glad that there is less Betty this season what is the point of showing her she is not married to Don anymore. They can still have Sally on and not show Betty. The two worst episodes of this season were the ones that featured her there is really nothing left to say about her. Plus if they get rid of that terrible actress January Jones they could use the money on stuff like better sets. This show being leisurely pace is the one of the many things i like about it along with the acting and writing it reminds me of reading a great book.
The card on the flowers was signed Aly Khan because when they were at the bar Don mentioned that during his first week at Sterling Cooper Joan received so many flowers he thought she was dating Aly Khan.
@ maryedith and mrsmiawallace–think how it was for us who lived in the sixties and had to ride from one era into the next at breakneck speed.
@emily–the sets are perfect replicas of sixties decor. If they get rid of them, then the show has lept to another era. It’s okay if you hate sixties decor…some of it was ugly– obviously drugs weren’t the only things the sixties was experimenting with!
I like the sets especially the cool looking furniture in Roger’s office i really should have said with the money they save on firing her they could use it towards the show.
McWeanis – Lane owes so much money because of the British tax rates on his expatriate earnings. Since he hasn’t become an American citizen yet, he’s having to pay on both sides of the pond. I was curious about this too, but I read the Mad Men recaps on Tom And Lorenzo (originally Project Rungay) and they’re pretty informative about details like that.
If Joan doesn’t find out about it first, Don will when the forged check goes through. If anything, Lane would be lucky if it’s either of them. Joan didn’t tattle on Roger when he confessed to losing Lucky Strike, she just wished she’d known earlier so she could have fixed the situation like a boss. I don’t think Don would tattle either, he would actually most likely be sympathetic once the whole situation came out.
Yeah, I’ve been spending awhile thinking about how this one might play out because I really like Lane and I don’t like seeing where this arc is going (even though I’m totally intrigued).
What happens to Lane will probably depend on how it goes with Jaguar. I’m a little confused, though. It looked like Lane’s story was going to be about following bored, slutty housewives around, didn’t it? Then he disappeared. Then he punched Pete. Then he disappeared. Now he’s forging checks. Or — cheques.