This week’s episode of Mad Men was filled with 1960’s goodness. Sound off with your own opinions of tonight’s episode in the comments!
After last week’s episode, SDCP is gearing up for some big changes. In Mad Men’s season 6, episode 7 “Man With a Plan,” we see how the merger with CGC is felt all around the office.
Don overhears an argument between Sylvia and Arnold, which strongly indicates that their marriage might be coming to an end. Could Don and Sylvia’s clandestine encounters be part of it?
Peggy and Joan reunite once again as the female powerhouse that we all know and love. Always a bit of a rocky friendship, Joan reaffirms Peggy that her presence is a comfort, telling her, “I’m glad you’re here.” Both of them have advanced in their careers since the last time they spoke, though outside influences refuse to let go of their secretarial pasts; Peggy’s make-shift door sign reads, “Coffee Chief.”
Pete gets a surprise phone call from his mother, who we haven’t heard about in quite some time. She seems confused, and Pete is less than amused. Their interactions are heartbreaking; Pete is too frustrated to show his sadness, and his mother has no sense of reality. Will their relationship be more significant soon?
Don and Sylvia meet up at a hotel, and after one go-around Don demands Sylvia crawl on her hands and knees to find his shoes. When Sylvia kneels down at his feet to place the shoes on the floor, it’s a powerful symbol of both gender roles of the era as well as Don’s overwhelming need to dominate and control. He takes it a step further, instructing her to undress and return to bed. If there’s one thing Mad Men season 6, episode 7 conveys, it’s the unmistakable factors of gender and race that pervade the late 1960’s (at one point Ted asks Peggy whether she’s referring to the black Dawn or white Don, to which she answers only with reference to gender).
Sylvia is left helpless and totally dependent on Don, not knowing when he will return to the room. She, however, is totally happy to submit to his requests, and he makes sure that she follows orders. Don even provides Sylvia with money and expensive gifts, like a fiery rouge dress from Saks Fifth Avenue. Does Don’s ability to provide show him as more masculine than Arnold in Sylvia’s eyes?
Don tells Sylvia she exists solely for him, i.e. she’s not better than an object in his eyes. Sylvia’s the temptress in red, while Don slides home to Megan, sleeping obliviously in an innocent night gown.
Ted and Don are still working out the kinks of their respective creative processes. Ted is a ceaseless worker, and Don likes to wait until brilliance comes to him, usually after a few drinks. As Ted noted last episode, “That’s why everyone hates you” (to Don). A few too many whiskies leave Ted zonked out, and Peggy frustrated. Wasn’t the reason she left SDCP to escape that lackadaisical environment?
Bob finally gains some significance when he takes Joan to the hospital, but he still remains shrouded in mystery. Why would he tell Joan, “I have no place to go”? Joan is definitely favoring Bob now that he helped her out.
At last, Sylvia proclaims that her and Don’s affair is over, for good. She tells him that it’s time to go home, and that it’s easy to give something up that’s shameful. Don protests, because he’s lost control.
The episode ends with another monumental moment in history, the shooting of Bobby Kennedy. Mad Men’s Season 6, episode 7 could appropriately be encapsulated in Peggy’s single statement to Don: “Move forward.”