By golly, it is toasted!

It does seem quite obvious that putting all your eggs into one crrrrrazy basket (Lee) is going to backfire. Wonder what comes next for Our Gang?

Another episode, another major holiday. Next week: Valentine's Day!

Ooooh, Dick Whitman episode!

HOW DO YOU NOT TELL SOMEONE THEY HAVE CANCER?

Jeeeeeesus. Don is just getting kicked in the nuts repeatedly, I think he's gonna go crazy.

Don really, really likes that couch.

Great episode.

Much better than last weeks. Much better.

Still can't believe he left her, Don is just going to go apeshit one day.

Joan's hubby is definitely going to Vietnam, if not this year, soon.

He also won't be coming back.

I liked tonight. Holy crap did I need that crazy Lane tonight. Tonight was depressing.

Right, well maybe. I'm interested to see where the producers go with this. Since we are starting 1965 the mass escalation hasn't happened yet, but it is slowly starting too. I've always wondered how far into the 60s the show would go (because it has to end eventually), and how Vietnam affects everyone should be very interesting. Luckily Don's boy is too young for when the draft hits so he's safe

Tonight was the best episode of the season so far, IMO - except that there wasn't nearly enough John Slattery(Sterling) for my liking, but I'm sure he'll be around more next week.

St. Patrick's Day should be a hoot with this bunch.

I'VE GOT A BIG TEXAS BELT BUCKLE!! YEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAWWWWW!!!

I love Anna.

And you just know Greg's gonna up and get killed in Vietnam while Joan is preggo.

One by one, everyone that Don cared about is leaving him; and the world he understood is turning against him. My thinking is they're going to break him down in order to build him up again. Or maybe not?


Pretty much.

For sure. Well, at least about the breaking-him-down part.

Just going to say that this was much better than last week. Pete Campbell is a bitch, that is all.

How is he a bitch? I like how he turned things around

Oh no doubt he turned it around, I just never liked the guy

Miss Blankenship.

One more kick in the nuts for Donny. Keep 'em coming.

Peeping Peggy

Yes - Peggy's head popping up there was awesome - if I worked next to Don Draper, I'd probably spend my entire day doing that. I kinda wanted him to turn around and see her lol

Peeping Peggy kinda weirded me out for some reason.

I'm sure people picked up on this but Peggy leaving with the group of hipsters while the group of business men were palling around and talking was very telling. That scene wasn't just about Peggy and Pete.

I loved that. Too funny. I think I would also be spying on Don all day. He's never boring. I love the way Joan "punished" him for sleeping with his sec'y and saddled him with Miss Blankenship. She's hilarious.

Weird? It's weird that you thought it was weird.

Yeah, that last scene was all about the generational split about to explode. Pete, slapping backs and shaking hands, and sticking with the old-boys club. Peggy, going in the direction that many in her generation would follow during the 60s. It made me think that we, the audience, would experience those changes and how they impact "the establishment", through Peggy's eyes.

I dunno, it was funny, but something about me gave me the willies. She was kind of just gazing at the back of his head, and the scene was just long enough to be awkward.

I dunno, maybe I'm the only person on the planet who viewed it that way, but it gave me the willies. it doesn't help that in the office Peggy is pretty emotionless compared to how she is out of the office. She was looking at him with those children of the corn eyes just watching him. i don't think there was anything malicious behind her watching him so the children of the corn thing is a horrible example but just the blank stare, it was Peggy reverting back to things quite frankly the show has always shown her being above.

The marriage show. The girls in the room, Peggy with the Ring, Pete's having a baby, Ken getting hitched...and the old couple bickering at the very end.
I think Don goes down the hippie road. Chucks all the bullshit and becomes the person who Anna loves just the way he is: Dick Whitman. Not the person that Allison thinks is a not a good person.
He did make that comment- something about not being tied to the business.

Another thing...Ken and Pete bitching about the same things. Maybe they should team up and create their own agency, Don and Peggy go hippie and start their own place too.

I too liked the way Pete manned up and cut to the chase with the old man. And it all started with Lucky Strike beginning their dive.

Good stuff.

LOVED that episode (sorry everyone, just catching up).

I cackled with glee several times. I would have made out with Joyce, though.

Dear Sally,

I hate your mother, too.


Lisa

So I finally watched Mad Men and it's awesome.

Yes. Yes it is.

1. Don's personal and family life is still a mess.

2. In Don's business life--he knocks another one out of the park. WooHoo!

3. Pete grew a huge pair of balls when he ripped into Roger. Rawr! "The war's over, Roger."

4. Betty's getting her wish, isn't she? She's gradually turning Sally into a neurotic mess, just like she is.
Sally's now in therapy. And she even looks like Betty now that she cut her hair off.

I love the way Betty says that Sally is out-of-control. Really? Like she's some knife-wielding maniac running around burning down buildings? *sigh* Puberty can't come fast enough for her.

First I need to get something out of the way.

I lOVED tonights episode, I'd argue it's one of the best in the series. I love all the drama of the show, but the drama is at it's best when it actually involved advertising and the show tends to get away from that sometimes.

Don telling Roger that Pete's right, well everything with roger really, Don outsmarting his "competition" Pete's "CHRIST ON A CRACKER!!"
everything.

Now that I've made it abundantly clear that I loved last night and I'm not trying to be a contrarian, something seems very wrong with watching a 10 year old girl (and she's 10 in real life as well) start tugging on her dress and biting her lip.

I've been reading some reviews and I'm not the only one who got a little uncomfortable with that. One reviewer questioned how the director possibly directed her in that scene while a few others said it might have been one of the more uncomfortable scenes in television.

My wife pointed out the "directing a 10 y.o. girl" thing to me. It really got me wondering. I'd love to read an interview with the director. Is it possible that she was told something totally different than what her character was doing? I dunno, I guess I'm just hoping that that's how it went down.

As for Betty...Gog, I hate her. She is despicable. EVERYTHING is about her. Her daughter is obviously screaming for attention and all we hear is how it is embarrassing to Betty. I LOLd when Betty told the therapist about Sally masturbating and finished with,

"I'm mortified".
The therapist shot her a look and said,
"This must be so hard for YOU.". In true Betty form, she replied,
"Oh, yes. Yes it is."

I hope that therapist exposes Betty for the self-absorbed bitch that she is and validates Sally's feelings. This being 1964, she'll probably end up on a gurney undergoing shock treatments.

You know...I never thought anything of it. Because little girls really DO that. But now that you mention it...it really is a bit disturbing I guess. I'd have to look at the scene again to see exactly what she did, but I wasn't alarmed watching it, more fascinated that they made this part of the story.

And my wife HATES Betty with the fire of a thousand suns. She really is a self absorbed bitch...and clueless as hell.

Don is starting his climb back to prominence. It's time.

Honestly, I kind of chuckled at first ad thought "wow this is odd" it was my wife who made me realize how disturbing it was when her jaw dropped and she said "what is she...THEY CAN'T SHOW THAT!"

I think someone already said this, but odds are the director just told her to just do the individual actions separately, and she didn't really know what the scene was about - keep in mind she wasn't in the scenes where what she did was actually mentioned.

I know that Stanley Kubrick did this with the boy who played Danny in The Shining- that boy had literally no idea what the movie was about or even what was going on in his scenes - very possible they did the same thing with Sally.

And yeah, it was uncomfortable- but it was supposed to be - Sally is having serious issues and maybe they want us to experience all that with her. I dunno.

"You look like a mongoloid!"

I guess I'm in the minority view here because I didn't feel uncomfortable. I know that little girls will, uh, "act inappropriately". I didn't realize anything was going on until the mother's reaction. OK, I'm probably a little slow.

So Sally has a crush on David McCallum?

But I can't stand Betty. When she threatened to cut Sally's fingers off, I wanted to strangle her. No, I wanted to strangle her when she slapped Sally for cutting her own hair off. The 2nd time, I wanted to finish her off. What a miserable cow! And she's a washing-machine-riding hypocrite. I'm almost starting to like Henry because of her. Then I remember he works in politics and stole another man's wife, so, he got what he deserves.

I would think the director took great care with this scene because he was dealing with a minor, there are laws protecting children in the industry, there are censors to deal with, and this is still television. I would bet he ran it by her parents first, too, to understand her level of awareness regarding sex.


Disclosure: I cut my hair short with scissors, almost bare in some spots, when I was 8 yrs old. I remember that, after her initial shock, my mom calmed down and told me not to worry, it'll grow back. I seem to recall my dad being slightly amused. Slightly. But I know they didn't freak out because I'm not traumatized by the memory of it. My hair grew back and everything was OK.

I can imagine a point when Henry contacts Don and asks....WTF...has she always been this nuts?

Also expecting that Don takes Sally in with him. Wonder if the Nurse/Sitter becomes the next woman in Don's life.

Oooh, Evil Betty episode! I miss her with the air rifle from Season 1, before the writers went completely in the Ice Bitch direction.

I hate betty. Just watched the episode right now and I hope Don goes apeshit on her. No like hitting her, because that's wrong, but like 2 minute long rant on how she's a gigantic self-absorbed fucked up bitch.

I agreed with this at first, but if you think about it, Don is as much at fault here. Sally cut her hair on his watch. She did it to get his attention. And where was he? Out on a date instead of spending the time with his kids. He even confessed to the psych lady that he doesn't know what to do with them when they're together. But I could see Sally insisting on living with Don. Then he'd have to be more responsible, and grow up a little, instead of always running away.

I think he'll hit the wall when Anna dies.

She may have already, I missed it the first time around but he asked blankenship if she got through to california yet and she said she received no answer

Betty is definitely a self-absorbed fucked-up bitch, but how is Don really any better? Just because his character is far more fleshed out, causing us to sympathize with him and even like him, doesn't eradicate his many faults. Like Lisa said, he was out on a date instead of spending his one night a week (or whatever) with the kids. And goodness knows how much he slept around while married to Betty, even though her holier-than-thou attitude made her actions seem more repugnant.

But we see Don's other side. I don't think we've ever seen Betty being loving with her children, patient and attentive. Don at least does that with his kids. Maybe not enough, but we know it's in there.
Don also knows he's a fuck up....Betty has never shown any inkling that she is remorseful.

This.

And I'm not absolving Don of everything. I'm just saying the way Betty has been acting has been deplorable.