Mad Men, episode 4.10, running commentary -- finally!!

[yakalskovich]

• It's not as if Don is unfeeling about women, or cynical. He doesn't always think, but feels all right. Somehow, his embrace with Faye that opens up the recap stresses that point.
• I was spoilered about the thing with Joan by Wikipedia, of all things, just looking up whether episode 10 had been delayed due to the things that sometimes happen on TV, like live sports or other events. Because I didn't find it on Monday evening. Still, the way she tells Roger -- I hadn't even expected her to tell Roger! She does trust him...
• The face Roger makes is priceless, though.
• "Stop being so upset" is not a good thing to say if you want to comfort a woman, Roger. Men!!!
• Finally, Beatles!! Now, why do I suspect Betty is going to say no?
• No, she doesn't! And Sallie's squeal is so cute!! It's the proto-cry of the happy fangirl!
• Poor Lane Pryce was expecting a kid, and instead, there is an old man with a beard!
• Lane Pryce has a black girlfriend who is a professional bunny??
• Don's WTF face is fun to look at!
• Oh, not girlfriend, just one-sided infatuation.
• I don't think we've ever seen Don in a panic before. He gets almost woobie-like qualities.
• Oh dear -- at the idea of running the agency without Don, Pete panics as well.
• 'Greg dying is not a solution to this'?? My dear, it is THE solution to all your problems! Mean as Matt Weiner tends to be, I start suspecting that he's not going to. Instead, he'll come home injured and suffering from PTSD, and find whole new ways of making Joan's life hell.
• Joan is going to handle this alone after all. Because Roger really isn't any help. He's just a big immature white-haired boy looking for an out from this harrowing situation. You can't rely on men. You really can't. At least not when they're called Roger Sterling.
  
• Oh, Faye is still with him! I was sure it would be over after al the dramaz of last episode.
• Oh FFS, is he having a heart attack? I expected Roger to when Lee Garner jr., the damn douchebag, dealt the death blow to SCDP, but intead, Don is getting one over what he thought were FBI agents but turned out not to be?
• What is that? Anxiety attack? Flashback from alcoholism?
• Barf!
• Girlfriend after all. At least where Lane is concerned.
• That revolting, disgusting old man!!
• Don voluntarily tells Faye the truth?? Wow, that must be a first!
• Now, let me get this straight. Roger lost Lucky Strike and is still keeping it under wraps; however, he shouts at Pete Campbell for losing NAA when he really dropped them for Don's sake. Lane Pryce has at least said to his father he'd come home to England when threatened with grievous bodily harm, so he'll have to tell people he's withdrawing from the company. Each of these things is a bit of a showstopper for SCDP. Basically, everybody needs to confess that they screwed up in a rather fatal manner. Except Bert Cooper, but he doesn't even have an office any more. Let alone the Rothko or the shunga print on its walls.
• Well, Lane at least makes his announcement, and he thinks he'll be back. But probably only after the Lucky Strike bomb. Poor Joanie get the responsibility for finances dropped into her lap, and silly Roger laughs his head off because she's inheriting not a prestigious job, but a fucking mess, and he knows it. I hope she'll tear him another one when the Lucky Strike bomb is dropped.
  

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Pete came out the best, I think, in the SCDP clusterfuck. Ohhh, that must have hurt. He'd nursed his little baby account through a lovely growth spurt, and *just* as it was about to become a great, big grownup account, he had to stomp on it because of SOMEONE ELSE'S fuckup. Oooooh, that would have made me furious. And Pete fell on the grenade! I could hear Bert's brain going tick tick tick as he processed the information.

Roger was saying all the horrible things to Pete that he needed to have someone say to him. I think he was speaking to himself as much, if not more, than to Pete.

Don didn't say "My name is Dick Whitman," to Faye, as I'd half-expected, but he was amazingly revelatory. Also a new turn, that he's tired of hiding. Wow.

Joan. Oh god, poor Joan. That was the BEST-case scenario for a woman in an unwanted pregnancy pre-legalized abortion in the US. And people wonder why I'm pro-choice.

[yakalskovich]

Bert doesn't really get to say what goes any more, though. He's relegated to roaming the hallways and reading newspapers, poor guy. They just need him for the name on the stationery. So he was the only one at the partner meeting in the end who didn't have a secret to hide or reveal.

In the old days, it would have been Bert who'd have said these horrible things to Roger, behind closed doors, I guess.-