We had a lot of expectations for tonight’s Mad Men episode, good and bad. Did it live up to your hopes? Sound off in the comments!
Last week’s episode of Mad Men, “Man With a Plan”, ended with the shocking death of Bobby Kennedy, tossing up the already shaky culture of the late 1960’s.
The tension at SDCP is amplified as Frank Gleason passes away from pancreatic cancer in “The Crash.” Sylvia and Don have one last phone conversation, and as Don pleads helplessly to talk one last time as Sylvia is clearly calling it quits. Why is Don so desperate? He’s been hanging around her apartment every night. Does he want to get caught?
And then Don comes down with a painful cough, and we’re brought back to his childhood in the brothel. Does he have an undiagnosed illness, or is something inside him dredging up the past?
Speaking of doctors, Cutler orders the men of the office to try a mysterious “energy supplement” injection that sounds frighteningly similar to cocaine- and has the same effect. The office is filled with tap dancing, running around, throwing random objects, and inspirational speeches. All the extra energy should help SDCP nail the Chevy account, but is the right thing to do? As Don proudly says to the creative team, “One great idea can win someone over.”
Don is haggard and all over the place in Mad Men’s season 6, episode 8. He hasn’t changed or gone home in two days, and can’t even come home for Megan or the children. He meets a strange girl named Wendy, who throws a set of coins- meant to tell the future?- and tells Don that his heart is broken. How can she be Gleason’s daughter?
We always knew Stan probably had a thing for Peggy, but he finally comes on to her before admitting he had a cousin die in Vietnam. Peggy admits she’s had losses of her own, but you can’t deal with them with sex and drugs alone. Are Peggy and Stan meant to be?
And then there’s the enigmatic visitor to Don’s apartment, who tells Sally that she raised Don as a boy. She turns out to be a criminal robbing all of the apartments. Is it a sign that Don and Megan aren’t cut out to take care of the kids? Sally stood up for herself more than a girl at her age should, and even admitted that she doesn’t know anything about her own dad.
Don furiously tries to find a soup ad from ten’s year previous, proving even further that he’s stuck in the past and can’t take Peggy’s advice to move forward. His calling on Peggy as if she were still his secretary calls back the old days of Sterling Cooper. Don’s falling apart because he can’t adapt to the rapid changes around him; he’s stuck in one place.
So, what was the ultimate crash? Is it the rock-bottom that comes from taking uppers, as we saw when Don hit the ground, or is it foreshadowing Don’s inevitable fall from grace?