"A Day's Work"
They don't come right out and talk about equal pay, appropriate subject for the recent "Equal Pay Day", but it's fingerprints are all over the episode, perhaps as much for racial reasons than gender.
When Are We?
February 14, 1969. About a month after last week's episode, following the usual formula.
Kent State series finale?
Cutler
We don't know much about Cutler except he's an account man and founding partner of CGC. His name went first and I believe he was the president (based on one of their partner meetings). He was most featured in "The Crash" when he calls in Dr. Feelgood, mocks Ted for being sad his friend died, and perves out on the deceased's daughter hooking up with Stan.
It sounds like he's running the show though. Roger notes that they aren't in the conference room for their partner's meeting, and it looks like they're in Cutler's office. Not only that but the decision goes the way Cutler wants, with Roger trying to save face when he calls Pete, like it was a consensus.
Roger even seems a bit resigned to it when he passes Joan on her way out, "Does it even matter?" Then when they meet in the elevator, Cutler says he doesnt' want to think of Roger as an adversary. But I think the subtext is not that he wants to be friends with Roger, or even respects him, but because of what Cutler would be forced to do to an enemy.
The one time we saw Cutler come up short was his conflict with Ginsberg about the war. It seems Cutler uses his time in the Air Force as carte blanche to believe whatever he wants about the war without empathy. He wants to fire Ginsberg until Ted stops him. His encounter with Ginsberg is a microcosm of Don's probing GM at dinner about the war, and we know what happened to Don (with Cutler the most vocally opposed to his return).
I assume Cutler is not only a Republican but an active one. He even looks like Goldwater, and had tickets to the '69 inauguration, so I could see that endearing him to Cooper.
Pete calls him "Machiavelli" and it will be interesting to see those characteristics play out. I can't help but think he's trying to enlist Joan as an ally with his offer of the account position (something Roger never did, ingratiating her to Cutler even more). I can't imagine he's doing it for unselfish reasons.
Cutler's gone from merely the initial C in CGC, to an unseen partner, to a guy who is around Ted sometimes, to partner, to the most likely person to take control of SC & P. We still don't know much about him and I think the ceiling is high with what they can do with this character. In the meantime, here's what Harry Hamlin says about developing Cutler.
I wrote little biographies for him, but I had to keep updating them because every week I found out something else about the character. I didn’t know, for example, that I was in the Air Force. I didn’t know that I had a wife. I kept re-writing my interpretation of the character. He kept evolving. I did always perceive the character as being at not exactly right angles, but maybe 30 degree angles to reality, and I crafted the character that way.
Pete
You can't blame Pete for his nihilistic view of his work. Why bother, indeed?
Odds & Ends
- Michael not bothering with the elevator for Peggy speaks volumes about the dynamic of the creative team right now.
- "Hard to believe your cat has the money."
- If Peggy does have a cat now then it sounds like she's taking her mother's advice
- Things have changed but Roger is still able to yell "kike" across the office without anyone batting an eye
- The only on the job drinking was Pete and his Cutty Sark 12
- Don is marking his bottles to see how much he's drank. Megan is not there as his wife or secretary to keep count. Plus he's home all day with nothing to do and no one to talk to, so I imagine it's even easier to
- Don is taking meetings. Imagine if he went away (I imagine Cutler is eager to cut a deal to that effect, and Cooper would support it) then came back storming SC&P.
- When he's not taking meetings he's doing what most of us would probably do. Sleep in, snack and watch television. Been there.
- Don asks Sally what the note should say, and it comes off to Sally like he wants to lie even when it's not necessary.
- Lou Avery is a real piece of work, bringing Dawn into his office and then talking about her as though she's not there. Not to mention he really could not have been less helpful with Sally. When it comes down to it, she's a child looking for her father and he simply could not be bothered. It was even Sally who thought to ask Joan.
- Lou would've loved having that dumb girl on his desk
- Dawn hilariously has no faith in the former receptionist, continuing to take Don's calls herself
- Reception is a demotion from the creative director's desk, but that doesn't even get a mention
- There was a question in an earlier episode, more of a statement, that they couldn't have a black girl out front in reception. Cooper, the oldest one there, seems to be the only one with a problem with it now.
- "Aborted" appears twice, once on Don's magazine and once from Cutler("the meeting was aborted")
- The length, or lack thereof, on some of these dresses would get you sent to the principal's and then home if they didn't have an extra pair of athletic department sweatpants to make you wear
- At least Dawn and Shirley can make light of the fact that no one can tell them apart
- Kid actors. There are good ones out there. The entire fourth season of The Wire hung on them. Game of Thrones has Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon. Mad Men has Sally (and seventeen Bobbies). Why do we waste time with the kids on The Americans? It's awful.
- In Season Two Joan introduced the copy machine that she said would make the secretaries lives so much easier. It made it so easy, the secretaries have nearly disappeared from the office. In the early seasons, even hack copy writer Paul Kinsey had his own secretary to blame for when he lost an idea. Ginsberg, who by all accounts is much better at his job, doesn't even consider the possibility of having 'a girl'. Secretaries are mainly limited to the higher ups, and even they share sometimes.
- In another time, perhaps Season Two and earlier, Joan would have wrung out and possibly fired a secretary who said anything but nothing in response to their boss' reprimand. Season Two was also when we saw Joan be not so nice to Paul's girlfriend, though that was more directed at Paul than her. Here she's standing with Dawn and even promoting her. Peggy and Joan also switch roles in relation to the MLK assassination and the respective secretaries, when Peggy was very empathetic and Joan was super awkward.
- I looked away from a second and when Joan asked "Was that necessary?!" I assumed it was to Dawn, but it was in fact directed at Lou
- A motif throughout the shows run has been characters either wanting things go back to how they were, or only grudgingly moving into the future. There are exceptions (usually Pete, of all people) but this is another example of pining for reactionary-ism (probably not a word, but whatevs) where Peggy and Lou don't want to deal with their problems and instead have them brushed away
- Edit 4/23
- Don and Dawn were never close like Don and Peggy, but they still got along very well and very profressionally. She's being very loyal to him in how she reports back the happenings. Wondering why she is particularly loyal (also based on how she speaks about him) I saw one post say it's because Don gave her a chance, when he really didn't have to. I can picture that meeting when they are trying to figure out who the new black secretary is assigned to, with everyone being hesitant and Don piping up out of frustration and contempt for them all, "Oh Jesus, just give her my desk."
- Lou's statement to Peggy, "Maybe I'm just immune to your charms" is so loaded and it carries over to this episode. Peggy's been passed over and marginalized. Lou's statement there implies she is like a cute mascot rather than a professional, and certainly one more talented than him. It also implies she's not there on merit, when it's probably the reverse (she is, and he isn't).
- The larger SC&P becomes the less the creative matters, which means the less the creative personnel matter which means Don's exile is more likely to continue and Peggy is more likely to continue to be marginalized. Also, the more it becomes an accounts game (rather than creative) the more control Cutler can seize.
"Elenore"
The Turtles
Elenore was a parody of "Happy Together." It was never intended to be a straight-forward song. It was meant as an anti-love letter to White Whale [Records], who were constantly on our backs to bring them another "Happy Together." So I gave them a very skewed version. Not only with the chords changed, but with all these bizarre words. It was my feeling that they would listen to how strange and stupid the song was and leave us alone. But they didn't get the joke. They thought it sounded good. Truthfully, though, the production on "Elenore" WAS so damn good. Lyrically or not, the sound of the thing was so positive that it worked. It certainly surprised me.[4]
"This Will Be Our Year"
The Zombies
don't let go of my hand
now darkness has gone
and this will be our year
took a long time to come
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