Before we get started on this pivotal episode of “Mad Men,” can we just comment on how the show has been used by Matthew Weiner as a way to have actresses formerly known for adolescent roles suddenly appear fully grown in the sexy adult (and adulterous!) roles?
First there was Alexis Bledel of “Gilmore Girls” having an affair with Pete Campbell last season, then Linda Cardellini of “Freaks and Geeks” fame as a doctor’s wife having a torrid affair with Don Draper in her building this season.
And as of Sunday, here’s Danielle Panabaker, James Woods’ daughter in “Shark” who has also been in a couple of Disney Channel films, cast as Daisy, a sexy Northwest Orient flight attendant (or maybe more like a waitress in their airport lounge). She’s first seen in bed with Roger Sterling who urges her to pass along business tips she mayhem in her job, and she quickly follows through, telling him about a Chevy big wig about to take a flight.
The other guy I recognized in Sunday’s cast was a partner in Ted Shaw’s firm who announces he has cancer. Craig Anton was also in Disney Channel shows, but as the dad, in things like “Phil of the Future” (odder still for me is that I knew him when we both lived in Omaha).
But it was his character’s cancer that threatened Ted’s agency (they’d have to buy him out), paired with the Chevy tip that caused the greatest change in Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce since they incorporated in a hotel room after a revolt. And the move also brings back together one of the great original teams of the series: Don Draper and Peggy Olson.
The episode begins with a lot of number crunching about how much Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would earn its partners if it capitalized and went public – a scheme somehow Pete is spearheading without telling Don.
Then Don tears up the Jaguar contract because he just can’t stand that goofy Herb from Tenafly that is always dictating terms. Not only was he the one that insisted on sleeping with Joan before the firm got his business; now he wants a kid he knows to review any copy the firm would write for him.
That and a dinner with his obnoxious wife Peaches to which Don has brought Megan and her mother Marie has soured him completely on the rube and he feels just fine about severing ties.
Pete just about shrieks when he hears, though, because it means their firm won’t be as well valued. But then again, Don is just hearing about this plan.
Joan is just as mad. In one of the most dramatic moments she’s had this season, she declares to him “Honestly Don, if I could deal with him, you can deal with him… I went through all of that for nothing.”
Don’t kid yourself Joan. You didn’t go through all of that for the good of the company; you whored yourself out so you could become a partner.
Speaking of whoring, while Pete is out prematurely celebrating his agency’s good fortune, he sees his father-in-law in the same whorehouse. And Pete, who so unconvincingly last week was yelling the praises of Martin Luther King, seems more scandalized that his father-in-law was seen with a big “negro” prostitute.
Anyway, the father in law is upset at seeing Pete there too and never thought he was good enough for his princess, so he pulls all of his VIcks advertising from the company. Pete thinks he has leverage but when he tells of his lurid escapades to Trudy. But Pete’s already on the outs with her, now he’s out for good.
This would all seem like some devastating business times for the firm, except for that tip from Daisy, which brings Roger to the airport lounge where he strikes up a conversation with the Chevy guy. Soon he’s back with an invitation to pitch them on their new experimental car later in the year.
What experimental car could it be, by the way? It’s not the Camaro, that was introduced in 1966. It’s something that’s seen as the kind of potential game changer for Chevy that the Mustang was for Ford. It’s only referred to by its model name XP-877, but look that up and it turns out to be ….the Vega, one of the worst cars ever made, and one that more represented the 70s, when it was finally introduced.
For this bold new move, Chevy called in one of the big agencies, but also two small ones: Drapers and Ted’s agency, where Peggy has been working. Drinking in a Detroit bar before their presentation, Don and Ted realize they’re only there to have their creative ideas stolen by the big agency. Their solution is to combine forces and become a big agency that’s creative to boot.
So that’s what they decide to do, and Peggy is not only the first to know, she also has to write the press release.
Already this episode she had been kissed by a drunken Ted and fantasized a bit about it later (she seems to be losing interest in her East Village boho life); to see him and her onetime mentor together in a room as new partners is a little head-spinning for her.
Wait till Pete hears about the merge, though; his head will explode.