Ali Clay versus Liston. Oh, Don, you are soooooo gonna lose your bet.
Oh, ouch, Don! I don’t think the commercial pitch was that bad. Well. Well, OK, it wasn’t good, but not horrible. A lot would depend on the actual filming and acting and what not.
“Actually funny? Mabye. Funny like what I just saw? No.” Ouch! And Namath will become quite the pitch-guy soon, even if you don’t like him Don.
Duck! Wooing Peggy with being a partner in a new company, specializing in “women’s products”. Hmmmmm. Can he be trusted? Can it really work? What’s his ulterior motive, eh?
Aaaaand of course he gets defensive and angry pretty damn quick.
“I don’t know whether to take this seriously because I suspect you’ve been drinking.” Yeah, ya think?
Oh, a phone call from California. This can’t be good. And of course, Don can’t cope and turns to drink instead.
They are really hammering home the alcoholism theme, aren’t they?
“We can solve this problem with a flask.” HA!!
“I wouldn’t be good company anyway.”
“That’s never bothered me before.” AH HA HA HA HA!
Oh, Roger. You are so funny when you’re being horrible!
“I don’t know what it is, but I look at the side of your neck and I wish I had one of those James Bond pens so I could jam a dart in it.”
OMG, that’s sooo wonderfully hostile out of nowhere!
26 today. She is doing very well. And here comes Trudy, as a nice little reminder of her past. Are we surprised that Trudy’s father loves bloodsport? No, no we are not.
“You know, 26 is still very young.” Oh, snap. Interesting comparison of the 3 women. Receptionist woman really sees Peggy as someone to look up too. And Trudy really sees her as someone who is lagging because she’s not a wife and mother yet.
OMG, that little look that Pete gives, when Peggy and Trudy come out of the ladies room together? Whoa!
“Joan knew exactly what I needed and made sure that I got it.” Ooooooooooh, that is a very revealing little throw-away line. About Don. About Joan. And about the fact that he actually said that to Peggy!!
Oh, Peggy. You shouldn’t have stopped in Don’s office. Run! Run! Run!
Heeee! The bit about dropping a Sampsonite off the Eiffel Tower and it doesn’t break and Don is all “but it would, wouldn’t it?” and she’s all “probably” and then “the government has prohibited us from doing things like that Peggy”. His deadpan delivery? Heeee!
Oh, showdown between Don and Peggy!
And, oh crap! She thought it as a romantic dinner and he’s got all sorts of family there? Oy! Maybe you’re actually better off working late with an enraged and drunken Don after all.
“I’m the greatest.” Not if you have to say it. Hmmmm.
Heee! Peggy is actually thinking and reacting to his idea – “how would you do that on TV, what’s the story?” – before she realizes she should just agree with anything he proposes and get the hell out of there. You are just as much of an ad junky as Don is, Peggy. And Don? It’s kind obvious that you are just wanting company and distraction, you didn’t really need to work on Sampsonite tonight.
OMG, the desperate call from Roger, wanting to be saved from Freddy Rumson and the deadly dull dinner? Ha!
Oh, Mark. You really
shouldn’t have done that. And Peggy, just
leave already. Should have just told him what was up from the beginning and left.
“No one asked you to do this.” Which is very true about Mark and the surprise birthday family birthday party. And it’s also true about you staying to work with Don. You’re doing what you want to do, Peggy. Own up to it.
OMG, Peggy’s mom, with the “how many nice boys you think are linin’ up for you” and Mark with the “she’s right” and “you used my birthday to get in good with a bunch of people that drive me crazy”!! OMG!
“It’s not my fault you don’t have a family or friends or anywhere else to go.” OUCH!
And he continues with the “go ahead and go”, which . . . I gotta say, Don has not been looking good/nice, but he’s right. She’s the one who kept coming back and not just saying what was going on and . . . She’s just as needy as he is, just in a different way.
“You never say thank you!”
“That’s what the money is for!”
(Peggy and Don in a nutshell, there.)
Harsh words and harsh truths. From both of them, really. I can’t say that either of them is wrong.
“Come on! Ida was a hell-cat!? Cooper lost his balls!? Roger’s writing a book!?!”
I am really loving this whole angry!truth-telling!bonding!drinking evening with Don and Peggy. It’s like the mirror image of the ep with Don and Lane.
“There’s a way out of this room that we don’t know about.” Don you’ve always been a master of finding a new way of a room. But you can’t find a “way out” of cancer and you’re not gonna be able to avoid California news forever.
Don is telling tons of stories from his real life to her.
He really does see himself in her, doesn’t he? Because she sort of is just like him. “I know what I’m supposed to want, but it just never feels right. Or as important as anything in that office.”
And Don? "A man has to be ready to go at any moment." Yeah, metaphor. Metaphor that you’ve taken as your way of life!
“Why is there a dog in the Parthenon?”
“That is a roach. Let’s go someplace darker.”
Oh, that is so Don! So very Don!!
Oooooooh! Peggy’s mom thinks Don was the father of her baby because he was the only one who visited her in the hospital and hates him? Whoa!
And I can’t decide if Don’s “Jesus! Really?” was because of him being thought to be the dad or because no one else visited her.
“Playgrounds.” Oh, oh the emotion in that one little word! Damn, we’re getting some KILLER acting in this ep, from both of them!
OMG! Peggy dealing with a drunken Don and a drunken Duck? Holy crap!!
Oh you don’t say the word “whore” around Don. This will not be good. Drunken brawling? Oy!! And Don is gonna just let him hit him. Flashback to slapping hooker! Don is always looking to get punished lately. Peggy, you should just throw a bucket of water on both of them!
Awwwww, damn. The two of them slumped and sleeping on the couch? Damn! And then he drunkenly hallucinates Anna . . . time to make that call, dude!!
“It’s me.”
“She’s gone.”
“I know.”
Damn! I’m all sniffly now!!!!!
“She’s in a better place.”
“That’s what they say.”
DAMN! Did I say the acting was killing me? KILLING ME!
“The only person in the world that really knew me.”
“That’s not true.”
And at the end,
Peggy is reassuring
him about his ad idea and they have a very sweet moment.
Open door Don – gonna decide not to hide so much, maybe?
Perfect ending song!
That? Was an epic episode. The writing! My God! The acting!! **applauds them both so very very much**