Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

Reeling from this ep TBH. What a season it's been.

xp I had, so, uh, thanks for reminding me?

idk he made it sound like it was unprecedented

anyway how about cosgrove snapping it off

Pete's been especially evil this season, and one of the pettiest things he did was out Ken's fiction moonlighting to Roger.

Still not convinced that it wasn't Peggy who did this, she looked guilty when Ken mentioned it.

? they showed Pete telling Roger.

I don't think they did actually, but I still think Pete did it too.

it was Pete and Don at dinner when Ken's wife let it slip about the writing, so...

And that happen right before the convo with Roger. Whereas I got the idea that Ken told Peggy about it earlier.

I can't remember the scene showing Pete telling Roger(?) but I do remember the writing was discussed at dinner at Pete's house with Ken & Don present. The episode ends with Ken writing a story that sounds like a dismissive slam on Pete's life.

argh xp
and of course most already knew about it from the first time he got published, but it'd been a few years since then.

and Pete was a dick to him about the writing from the get-go.

And that happen right before the convo with Roger.

hmm maybe this is what I was thinking of - Roger dressing down Ken the day after the dinner

I'm pretty sure we never got a scene of anyone telling Roger about the stories. I also thought it might be Peggy, based on her kinda weird/muted reaction to the news that he wrote stories, and also because maybe it would be TOO OBVIOUS to think it was Pete. otoh, as all the critics have pointed out, this is the season where everything you think is obvious is probably correct, so maybe not.

I don't get why Peggy would be the one to tell Roger - it's not like they were buddies, and Peggy had no real reason to make things hard for Ken

And surely Peggy knew back in season one when Ken's maple syrup story was published. The dinner party episode was the same one where Pete was jealous of the high school driving class hunk - he was jealously lashing out wherever he could.

(Pete was jealous then too, but took the 'I am going to get published too' approach by using one of Trudy's exes)

Pete just seemed too obvious, and Peggy does seem to have resentments towards people who have outside work/interests. It may very well have been Pete, but it seemed a bit cartoon villain.

...just you wait til next week when he kidnaps Rory and ties her to the tracks of the commuter train!

Funnily enough, earlier when we were discussing this episode and the 'Next Time' section, I put Peggy forward totally as the sort of person that the next episode could be about (if it's like how it's being teased) while Frances disagreed.

was idly thinking it would be funny if this show ended with Peggy with her own company and Don begging for a job

Why would Don ever need a job?

(not granting another of shakey's dumb conjectural premises here) but the show has flirted with the idea that industry is beginning to view him as an egoist and a snake instead of some kind of magic genius ("after you bit the hand?")

hey I was right about Lane at least

not that it wasn't really obvious or anything

i... i don't think it was?

I honestly thought that Lane was going to give up after the Jaguar ignition failed to work.

I wonder where Don's going to go from here. He's been a fairly amoral scumbag for most of the previous seasons but with the possible exception of leaving Megan in the car park he's not acted with anything less than integrity for most of this season and it's not actually got him anywhere other than with one other body on his conscience and a heavy load of disillusionment.

That said disillusionment is when Don Draper is at his creative peak - I thought the scene where he was pitching for what is essentially the fucking NAPALM account was amazing. "Happiness is just the period until you need more happiness" was *almost* the whole Mad Men brief laid a little too bare but it worked because he was just so rabid in it. But I suppose it's pretty obvious by now that the shittier Don's life is the better he is at his job.

btw did everyone notice Sally wearing the forbidden go-go boots on her "date"

xp

Happiness is just the period until you need more happiness

Don talking about himself again, of course

I honestly thought that Lane was going to give up after the Jaguar ignition failed to work.

I read the significance of the resignation letter as being that he had had a change of heart after the first attempt, and intended to go into the office solely to type the letter. But then the act of writing it forced him into another cycle of abject despair and he impulsively thought 'fuck it, I'm going'.

^^ concur w/ this assessment

yup. except to me, suicide felt weirdly selfish for his character... still has a wife and kid(s?) to take care of.

he wants to spare himself the pain of admitting failure to them, so he pretends he's sparing them the consequences of his failures

I don't think Lane's suicide was really out of character - he's been frustrated, humiliated, and defeated at every turn. his one big grab for the brass ring - the partnership - was not the life-altering solution he'd been hoping for.

Reeling from this ep TBH. What a season it's been.

co-sign. contender for best-season-ever if they don't fluff the finale, I'd say.

this build-up to the finale is interesting, I can't really imagine what'll happen. Now that Lane's story is over most things appear to be more or less in equilibrium.

Pete's situation seems a bit unresolved

also judging from the clips it looks like Megan lands a role

big twist could be word gets out about how Joan became a partner. drama would be huge.

curious whether Peggy will be in the finale at all or whether they'll leave us hanging until next season

I was onboard w/ best-season-ever talk 'till last week's ep. Now I'm not so sure.

I'd not be surprised by having no sign of Peggy in the finale.

yeah me neither

I was onboard w/ best-season-ever talk 'till last week's ep.

It was last week's episode that clinched it as best ever for me, tbh.

That episode not only created a turning point in the universe of the series itself, but in the outside world too.

What do you mean? I agree, tho, it was my favourite of the season

Well, it definitely pitted Don against everyone else in the company (and, oddly, gave him some moral highground). But it also seemed to split the fanbase into "she would've"/"she would've never" camps and, according to some recaps, ruined the show's credibility for many people.

I guess everyone was on board when she married her rapist.

haha, was going to say.