bill bodkin and jason stives need some ketchup …
The Low Down: Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Megan (Jessica Paré) are at odds when Megan reveals she’ll be taking part in a steamy sex scene on her soap opera. “Operation K” the company’s top secret ad campaign for Heinz Ketchup takes place and does not go well for them. Meanwhile Joan (Christina Hendricks) goes out on the town and gets in it with the secretaries. Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) demands to be respected.
The Bed and Booze Count: 8 drinks (damn, what’s wrong with them this week) 1 bedding. –JS
Our Favorite Retro Pop Culture Reference: Finally a pop culture reference I dug! I loved the lingering use of “Bonnie and Clyde” by Bridgitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg during the night club scene. Very sexy. –JS
Favorite Performance: Christina Hendricks was as firey as her hair. Joan continues her struggle to be taken seriously within the company and Harry’s condemnation of her as well as the reminder that he knows she slept her way to the top adds to salt to the wound. Her reactions to all of this were classic Joan and we’ve had quite a dearth of Joan this season. –BB
The Supporting Scene Stealer: Harry Crane must have found some courage in those huge sideburns he’s been growing because he was fantastic tonight. All his points are justified but those can be the kind of things that gets a person fired. Still, the defense he gave about his position in the company to the partners was spot on and he never let up once as the episode went on. –JS
The Best Part of The Episode: Don listening in to Peggy’s pitch and realizing he had lost the account. It’s rare we see defeat for Don in the advertising arena. Hamm’s facial expressions were awesome in this scene. –BB
Tough call. I would say the aforementioned Harry Crane situation was pretty awesome but so many other things worked well. The best part of the episode was probably the episode as a whole which just worked very well and engaged me more than last week did. –JS
The Part We Could’ve Done Without: Watching Megan’s terrible acting on her soap. Woof. –BB
I could have done without the Don/Megan storyline and that’s mainly because of the double standard of the situation that resulted from it which really pisses me off. Pot meet kettle. Shame on you, Don! –JS
The Little Thing We Loved: Cameo-palooza continues this season. Yes, that was Married with Children’s Ted McGinley as one half of Megan’s swinging showrunning bosses. And yes, that was Marley Shelton of Planet Terror fame as Joan’s BFF. –BB
The standoff in the hallway between the SCDP gang and Peggy’s gang made me very giddy to no end. I was waiting for switchblades to draw and fingers to begin snapping. We sadly didn’t get that but it put a greater perspective on the competition for the first time in a few seasons. –JS
Final Thoughts: Tonight’s episode of Mad Men reminded us of one of the show’s calling cards — it’s ability to utilize its ensemble. We’ve seen little of Joan or Harry and especially Dawn this season and then when tonight they are thrust into the forefront and are written in beautifully. And these characters were used to reinforce this season’s theme of loyalty. –BB
Without writing it on the wall this week was all about loyalty and devotion both in the business sense and the relationship sense. I really liked this episode because we got multiple storylines all connected by its themes. Obviously the situations involving Harry, Joan, and Dawn all come down to treatment and getting treated equally in a stuffy business and while Joan came off a little more cold that’s how she survives and it’s something that Harry could learn from even though he was right in feeling the way he did. Sure, the pay off for him was the advance for the Broadway Joe TV special but how far is he going to push this new mentality before he goes too far? Dawn on the other hand is truly stuck in her situation and that’s because of the racial issue which in 1968 should be very interesting to cover in her storyline if they continue to put more depth into her character. All and all a solid episode giving some extended time with the key players and supporting characters we don’t usually get time with regularly. –JS
All Photos Credit: AMC
