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Don and Peggy are interviewing a young man who wants to get into the advertising game. Good luck, kid. Don is not impressed with his work. For one thing, his whole book is just a variation on the same slogan. But also he has mixed in torn out pages from magazines of other people’s work that he finds inspiring. Haha, classic rookie mistake. “Don’t you ever tear pages out of magazines?” the kid asks. “Sure,” Don says, “but I don’t put them in my book.” Wait a second, do you really tear pages out of magazines, Don Draper? Somehow I am having a very hard time picturing him sitting on a couch with a magazine and going “ooooh!” and then rip rip rip. But he probably does do that. Hahaha. I can see him now! Don goes into Roger Sterling’s office and is like “good joke with that kid,” and Roger is like “you have to hire him because of how my marriage works,” and then they talk about how they were nominated for a CLIO. Cool. Can’t wait to see the famed 1965 CLIOS made dramatic and real.
Oh wait, FLASHBACK!
Roger comes to visit Don at the fur store to buy a fur for a lady friend. Don is like “this fur is really nice, but also have you considered this fur?” He is a good salesman! Their clothes and hair look weird! It’s probably 1920. Around 1920, for sure. Roger sees an advertisement on the wall and is like “who did your advertisement” and Don is like “I did that, I am sort of an advertising hobbyist,” and Roger is like “it really sucks. It’s horrible.” I don’t know, it doesn’t seem that bad. He gives Don his card so that Don can deliver the mink stole, and then he goes to have sex with his lady friend. JOAN!!!!! HI, JOAN!!! Remember when Roger and Joan used to be sweet on each other? Those were the days. The roaring 20s, indeed.
Now we are at the CLIOS. Oh, they are just like I always pictured it! You know, in my minds eye, whenever I was reading a book about the 1965 CLIOS, or watching a documentary about them. Roger and Joan hold hands, and then Don and Joan also hold hands. Whoa. Take it easy, Don. Then they win the CLIO! Good work, Don and everybody. Good work, Duck Phillips.
Don is getting pretty trashed. Slow down, Don. Pete tells him that the clients from Life Cereal are at the office, but he can just tell them to come back the next day. That’s a really good idea, Pete, because it’s 10PM and what are you even talking about? Were there no such thing as BUSINESS HOURS in the 1960s? Don insists that he is ready to do some advertising business. Uh oh. Needless to say, buddy is a real piece of work. He is so drunk and falling all over himself. He gives a terrible, thin parody of his famous “Nostalgia” speech from season one. He should definitely rent Season 1 on DVD and watch that scene again, because he’s fucking it up. Then he starts rattling off campaign slogans like a SLOB. The guys are like “uh.” Eventually he lands on a slogan that they do like, but whoops, he ripped that slogan off from the kid who was in the office that morning. Peggy mad.
Don goes back to the party without, it would appear, stopping at the hospital to have his stomach pumped. He tries to hit on that doctor, and she’s like, “uh.” Everyone is basically like “uh” when Don is around. I was positive that he was going to make time with her this season, but maybe I was as confused about things as Don is. Doesn’t matter, though, he gets it in with another one. But then it’s like VANILLA SKY all over the place, because suddenly the one girl is now another girl. Her name is Doris and she is a waitress or a stewardess or some other kind of service industry professional whose job requires a nametag. Betty calls and Don is two hours late to pick up the kids and doesn’t he even realize that she and Henry have an important BRUNCH to go to? Don calls in sick on fatherhood.
Finally, Peggy, sick and tired of sitting in her bloomers around a hotel room all day with a guy who really is just a capital creep, comes to Don’s house and tells him that he needs to screw his head back onto his neck because this is getting out of control. Don is like “shut up, Peggy,” and Peggy is like, “no, YOU shut up, Don.” Don shuts up.
The next day, he hires the child prodigy and also can’t find his CLIO, but luckily Roger has it. Roger wants Don to thank him. Jesus, Don. It’s one thing to Vanilla Sky a couple of waitresses, but at least be thoughtful and considerate to the people you are close to. Don apologizes. You know, it’s almost as if Don’s relationship to this new kid is like Roger Sterling’s early relationship to Don. LOL just kidding. I’m sure they’re totally separate. This show is never subtle or interesting or puts any thought into anything at all, which is why it didn’t win any Emmys last night.
The final flashback shows Don and Roger waiting at the elevators. Don is like, “Hey dude! You hired me, dude!” Roger is like “I what?!” Because there was a time in our great nation when all business decisions were made during a blackout drunk. Which is good for these guys, because BOY do they like to DRINK and then SAY STUFF! These guys know what I’m talking about:
Next week: Betty shoots someone in the face! Pete tries black tar heroin! Sally gives herself a tattoo!
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I can’t wait until Don starts attending AA meetings.
Freddy Rumson as sponser?
That would be perfection.
I think you are mixing your vowels.
WAIT, YOU GUYS! Remember when Don literally got a hummer?
“Because there was a time in our great nation when all business decisions were made during a blackout drunk.”
And that’s the story of how Alaska became a state…
I believe that’s the same way our British friends explain Australia.
“I bought WHAT?!” – Thomas Jefferson
“My folly is WHERE?” – William H. Seward
With all the flashbacks, I was all like, “WTF is this noise? Fuckin’ LOST or some shit?”
I definitely found myself making LOST flashback sounds whenever there was a pensive shot of Roger after talking to Don. I hope we find out what’s in Don’s hatch soon.
Probably half a poop that broke off while taking a long hang over style crap
I need a GIF of the hand holding and another of Don kissing Joan after he won. Then I’ll be happy. Only then!
How’s this?
Ha! White people.
I could watch that forever.
Thank god the cooler was safe.
That was v. v. sexy.
I’m not gonna read this, or any of the comments, because, spoiler. But I just saw the lawnmower episode last night, anyone think the whole episode was a little too wack? It’s a realistic show, I think, but that scene, was like, whaaaa?
I thought that was a rad scene in a rad episode.
Mad Men would be more realistic if at first it was like
But then was like
I’m pretty sure that vomit gif is the reason Frank Gif invented the gif!
That girl looks an awful lot like Doris, right? I mean is that Doris? Doris called Don Dick. Or Dick Dick. You know what I mean.
Please tell me how this is ridiculous???
Just a normal day at my office…
You’re so lucky, unlike me…
I’m also confused as to when John Hodgman joined the cast
Whatever you do, Don, DO NOT stab Jonathan in the stomach and let him bleed all over the seal on the Hellmouth.
Ah, genius. I was wondering where I had seen that boy before. Rad reference.
That must be in Season 7, as I have not seen that particular scenario yet.
But even if Don does stab Jonathan, I’m sure Pete Campbell will know what to do, him being the child of two vampires and all.
Did anyone else feel like this kid was basically Jonathan time traveling? I’ll wait patiently for Buffy to jump out of some kind of time portal/vortex-thingy and drag him back to Sunnydale in the finale.
I wanted Dr. Who (old school Tom Baker style) to jump out at the end of LOST and make the whole series a redeemed rad series. Didnt happen.
I expect the next episode to follow Johnathan, the charming Ad Executive while he helps the young and clueless Don Draper. Try though he might, young Don just can’t speak to a crowd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstar_%28Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer%29
That’s one of my favorite episodes!
Is that a scene from Mad Muppet Babies?
“The Trio- The Cure For The Common Supervillains”
That’s one fancy lighter they’ve got there!
Um, do you mean that Don should be sure NOT to break up with the editor of the Yale Daily News?
Yay! But Paris will be thrilled that Doyle got such a high-level job.
#gilmoregirlsgum
Ughhh. The nerdtastic references to Buffy and Firefly and Felicity(?) are getting stifling.
I’m wondering when everyone at Sterling Cooper Draper Price will realize Joan Holloway Harris Reynolds is playing them all (possibly to steal the Life Cereal account?).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Mrs._Reynolds
Also, I find it very surprising that President Bartlet’s daughter would have to join the workforce as a secretary. I realize it was a different time, but still.
I’m upvotemgee over here except where I’m downvote mcgoo (there can never be too many Buffy or Firefly or Felicity(?) references)(Felicity(?)?)
The terror on Don’s face when that bang-waitress said “third order of french fries”.
“I am going to have to bang four more bang-waitresses just to burn those off.” – Don Draper
The should have started the episode off with this scene and made Don go on a mission to find out what the hell happend that weekend a la “Dude, Where’s My Car?” Maybe they could have called the episode “Dude, Where’s My CLEO?”
Seriously though, is Don on Alli or what? A diet of Old-fashioneds and french fries leaves you looking like Don Draper? Bartender — refill!
Body by Canadian Club.
Jeb do you mind if I use that slogan as my facebook status/ tombstone inscription?
I dunno. He wasn’t looking so hot in the bathroom. No muscle definition in his arms. Kinda skinny. A little pudgy in the gut.
But don’t be confused. I’d still hit that.
Preach it.
I’m not reading this because I’m only midway through Season 3 and SPOILERS, but from the headline picture, I just need to note; these motherfuckers love iceberg wedges with blue cheese. They talk about/eat that shit all the time.
Mad Men is still the cure for the common Sunday evening television programming.
“i just made one TINY change”
She’s so cute
I actually said the words “I love you” to my TV screen three times during the course of the episode. Oh Peggy.
They can put a man on the moon but they still can’t find a cure for the common penis.
This is how I’m killing time waiting for the True Blood recap:
Did anyone else catch that the model in Don’s fur ad was Betty? I was all like, “WOW! Attention to detail!”
I didn’t! Did anyone else notice that Don drinks too much?
WHAT?!?! You crazy, Jeb!
Did anyone else notice that Peggy’s balls grow bigger every episode? I’m convinced that’s what that art director guy was staring at the whole time. And how long was that guy at full mast? Didn’t he know he should contact his doctor if he has an erection lasting for more than four hours? I can never keep track of time on this show.
What’s crazy is that he was in the elevator flashback at the end and had an erection then too. THAT WAS A SEVEN YEAR ERECTION
That is why I love Mad Men. I was cringing and waiting for Sterling to be like “this is ad is a piece of shit but cute model”. But Mad Men trusts that we can see Betty for ourselves. (Sidenote: some people can’t see for themselves, which is why I’ve never thought that “Legally Blonde” was a very funny play on words.)
I did! But it made me pretty confused about the flashback timeline of the roaring twenties. Did Don really make it from fur salesman to blackout drunk creative director in seven years?
This is America, a land where you can steal a recently deceased platoon mate’s identity to get out of a dead end war, and a dead end life. A land of opportunity.
I’ll worry once Don stops being sexy. Until then, NO DICE!
Judas Priest, was that a hilariously anachronistic PeteSwear!
I’ve been wondering why it’s never been an issue that Jane Siegel Sterling is Jewish and her family is Jewish, but in the first season when they had Rachel Menken in for her family’s department store, SC was all FIND THE JEWISH EMPLOYEES GATHER THEM IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM WE MUST IMPRESS THE JEW WITH OUR JEWS.
It seems incongruous. But all of Roger’s memories are incongruous with facts, right? Like how he and Joan couldn’t have started their affair in 1950, and Joan never would have acted all ridiculous and starry-eyed about it, and he didn’t “discover” Don, Don basically conned Roger into hiring him. Roger is funny, but Roger’s brain is pickled.
That’s an interesting take, meaverly. I didn’t consider the fact that Roger could be an unreliable narrator of his own flashbacks.
On what we can presume to know is that the fur store scenes took place loosely around 1953 (give or take a year), which was the year Betty and Don were married, so a much more femme fatale Joan could be starting an affair with Roger at this time. She also dated Kinsey at one point or another, and I wonder where that fits in chronologically. But a 7+ year affair is a pretty long relationship (bringing us to Season 1, when it deteriorates for the final time). It seems plausible to me. I like the unreliable narrator take, but I also feel that the flashbacks were meant to be historically accurate.
I love the character of Roger Sterling so much, and his one liners remind me of Groucho Marx, which is a big thumbs up for me.
“Did you ever get three sheets to the wind and try that thing on?” is one of my favorites.
“We know how you people like the element of surprise.” – Roger to some Japanese clients, followed by “Dropping the big one … TWICE!” Rad racist.
Well everyone’s an unreliable narrator of his or her own history, right? Did we ever see the creation of the GloCoat ad, or just the ad itself? Because we’ve got Peggy talking about how much of it was her idea, but without proof, it’s her frustration talking and molding her own memories–probably she was responsible for some of it, but “most” of it? In her mind yes, in Don’s, no.
I figured these were Rashomon-style flashbacks, from Roger’s PoV. Maybe he bought Joan a fur, but from Don? Maybe not. And maybe he bought a fur for a girl who acted all Marilyn Monroe-y about it, but was that Joan? That doesn’t seem like her. Like, maybe all these things happened, but not in this order and not exactly with these people. Roger’s older and he drinks SO MUCH; I can’t imagine he’d remember so many things so clearly.
Regardless, Don telling Roger, “You said, ‘Welcome aboard,’” with his “young Don” face and voice, all eager–that was heartbreaking.
also when was it that don was a car salesman? before the fur store i guess?
and also also, it seemed implied to me that roger never DID tell don ‘welcome aboard’, but don took advantage of his blackout-drunk condition to trick him into thinking he had. yes?
Back in season one, Roger says to Joan that this has been the best year of his life – as if he’s only been with Joan for a year (“Do you have any idea how unhappy I was before I met you? I was thinking of leaving my wife…”). How could he have been with her for 7 before that?? Was it just the best year of their 7 together? Hm.
Roger Sterling has become unstuck in time.
Werrtrew, you are a golden god.
I’d settle for being a guy whose name got spelled right! ;P
Ooohhh it’s the return of the Diva. Meerrrrreeeeeooowwwertrew
D’oh!
I want to see Don start showing up at college parties and smoking pot with hippies and beatniks.
Uh, first season?
Wasn’t that with Midge or whatever? I want to see him show up like Bill Murray …or Jon Gosselin (?).
Didn’t we actually see Don ripping pages out of a magazine in a past episode? I seem to remember him doing this on a plane…
I just can’t wait for the episode when Elvis dies