Director: "It's so horrible. (This name-check is a reference to a real New York family, and the title of the episode tips its hat to that thread running through Mad Men — something Don does not have access to, or even knowledge of.). Elisabeth Moss, Hamm and Jones both change gears a number of times throughout. the guy says to him. Two months later, he's so desperate to keep up the façade that he's working that not only has he not told anyone in his life that he's on leave — not even Megan — but he's also playing Cyrano to Freddy Rumsen, who freelances for Sterling Cooper & Partners and other agencies. Roger allows McCann's Ferg (Paul Johansson) to fire Ken too easily — Ferg is still holding a grudge from when Ken worked with him last time. When Glen returns to see Betty alone, she does finally put up a barrier between them: after he makes a move on her! The Conrad Hilton character is introduced here; he and Don, who doesn't know with whom he's speaking, have a conversation over a drink as they both escape their respective parties. We learn a few biographical details about Don/Dick here. Joan would at least like to try, but Greg's schedule doesn't allow them to have any sort of New Year's holiday. As the characters stare, mouths agape, at the moon landing, or as Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) turns in a spectral performance of “The Best Things in Life Are Free” for Don, the series offers yet another masterly assessment of what we want, and how we get it, and why it is we can’t. "And I really wish you had met her.". But it's easier for her to lash out at Don, and to literally take his seat. As an act of further kindness, Lane says, "It's just a matter of time before they find out I'm a sham.". Kurt (Edin Gali) comes out to all the young jerks he works with who have mistaken him for going on a date with Peggy: "I make love with the men," he says. Sally gets her period for the first time while she plays hooky with Glen at the Museum of Natural History. He and Freddy had a standing argument that you were a lesbian." "Everybody sees it," Don tells Ted. "For Those Who Think Young," the Season 2 premiere, began the tradition of Mad Men seasons starting slow. This is more like it, backend of Season 7. Flushed with her triumph, and literally skipping in the office, she organizes a celebration at P.J. In the episodes that follow, during Don's self-exile and walkabout, we'll learn how much Don took Bert's advice to heart. And after Roger inadvertently is the one to tell Don about Betty and Henry: "I was gonna tell you! Director: He takes a driver's ed class since he never learned to drive because of his Manhattan upbringing (I can relate, Pete), and finds a college-bound woman to want. The Liston/Ali parallels are there—Don as the reigning champ, older, believed to be unbeatable; Peggy as Ali, the young, up-and-coming, perhaps overconfident challenger who’ll eventually beat the odds and knock him out. This is the episode that famously gave us Don’s rejoinder to Peggy’s demand for respect -- “That’s what the money’s for!” -- but it’s just one carefully written, deeply felt moment in an hour stuffed with long, artfully crafted, high impact scenes, culminating in a scene of powerful quiet: Don grasping Peggy’s hand, conferring deep gratitude and affirmation. So how's it going? And you'll tell them the next thing will be better. And I've been hard on you. Vincent Kartheiser, So to delay that as long as possible, he tortures Peggy, not knowing at first that it's her 26th birthday. (Later, he adopts it at work too. Though that feels entirely correct, at the same time, I would rather see Don and Peggy together again one last time, or Don with any of the other people on the show. "What a good idea. On the flip side, Peggy is often wrong. Don, blindsided, reacts angrily at first ("Let's pretend I'm not responsible for every single good thing that's ever happened to you," he snaps), but then when she goes to shake his hand, he kisses it and won't let go. Drama. Roger asks her. So would have the post-pitch drinks Ted shares with Peggy and Pete, where the latter two resolve ill will that has lingered since Mad Men’s earliest episodes. Megan and Don continue to be distant, but a weekend in which Don goes up to visit Bobby (the final actor to play him, Mason Vale Cotton) at summer camp and has a one-night stand with Betty ends up pushing him back to Megan. To have an ending that some people will worship, and others will hate feels right for Mad Men, a historically important show that was never a mass hit, unlike its AMC brethren The Walking Dead or, as the years went on, Breaking Bad. At home, Betty follows through with her plans to divorce Don. Ted, who has a wife and two sons, is stunned. He's already in financial trouble (his son's tuition is late); he finds the wallet of a stranger and becomes obsessed with the man's mistress, even stealing her picture. Maybe next summer Sally can intern for Peggy, who knows exactly what she wants: to be the first woman creative director at the agency. Think Ocean’s Eleven, but with a smaller scale, even better suits, and infinitely more psychological baggage. Co-written by Weiner and Cool Hand Luke screenwriter Frank Pierson, the episode features more than just the memorable image of Lane removing his coat and putting up his dukes to teach Pete a lesson in manners. It's not unreasonable for her to ask to work on the Hilton account, but if she's going to always ask him for things, eventually he's going to take his misery out on her. But he's an ambivalent one who writes terrible spec scripts for Star Trek, and Harry becomes enmeshed in his mess temporarily. "You always say that," Roger says. The sad-sack Diana character (played by the compelling Elizabeth Reaser) serves as a device to show us that Don is incapable of figuring out his past mistakes, and he will never change. "Peggy listen to me: Get out of here. —Melissa Maerz, Watching Peggy prove herself to the boys’ club at Sterling Draper Cooper Pryce is so satisfying from a 21st century perspective, it’s easy to forget that the late '60s weren’t so liberating for every woman. At first after they get there, Don, whose luggage has been lost by the airline, is rigid with Pete and all about work. But only because I think I see you as an extension of myself. After meeting with and eventually winning the yet-to-be-built Madison Square Garden as a client, Lane tells Don that the home office in London doesn't think it will be worth it financially. It's also an episode for the Mad Men musical theater kids to shine — the actors themselves, that is: Joan sings in French and plays the accordion to impress Greg's boss; Pete and Trudy clear the dance floor during the Charleston; Paul sings to prove he can; and Roger serenades Jane — in blackface. When Peggy does fire him, he doesn't take her seriously. He has hurt her to the point of indignity: "I don't say this easily, but you're not a good person!" And you can tell her all this. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Matt Brennan, While Mad Men is often about gradual, incremental change, “Commissions and Fees” drops the floor out from under its characters and changes their lives irrevocably. No one is happy, but they have to pretend otherwise, and during the celebration for Joan's departure, Smitty and Lois begin drunkenly riding a John Deere lawnmower around the office. When Sal tells Don what happened, he doesn't appear to believe that Sal said no (after all, Don never does). Don's new secretary Dawn (Teyonah Parris) is black, and Ginsberg is Jewish. Wonderful weirdness here, and the beginning of new depths for Mad Men. January Jones. The acting in this episode is peak, with Hamm embodying Don as loving father, as cowed supplicant trying to impress (Hilton), and as a guy who really knows how to laugh at Joan's jokes (something we so rarely see Don do). ", Mad Men's first ever Pete-focused episode shows us his vulnerabilities. Betty has been tossed aside by them; her revived modeling career is over. Sally goes to her room crying. She seizes the opportunity to land Avon as a client; unsurprisingly, no one at work thinks she can do it, so she has to sneak around Pete to assert herself.