Could not peg a date just yet. I thought I could connect the television show in the Francis' bedroom to an airdate, but it appears to be "My Favorite Martian" which would've been a repeat and not on the air in 1969. It's warm enough to go out without a jacket and the kids are still in school so, April/May 1969?
Either way, it's been nine years in show time since the premiere set in March 1960.
The Return
A byproduct of Lou not liking Peggy apparently means that Ginsberg is getting more of his work though, apparently including a Mountain Dew piece that Don was not a fan of. This shortly after much of the work that went out in 1968 was from Ginsberg due to Peggy being tied up on Heinz, and then not getting any pay off for it. Even the seating arrangement in Lou's office makes it seem that Peggy is less important than Ginsberg, despite their titles.
The creative at SC&P is continuing to be marginalized. Roger acknowledges this in the partners meeting. Cutler speaks for Ted but in the same breath undercuts creative. Earlier in the episode, for the first time, we see an internal pitch get chastised for not being cost effective, when Lou wants Stan's time to be accounted for. It's part of the larger strategy that counts on accounts and scale rather than unique creative.
There's so little creative that they are both proud of, and that Lou won't block, that the agency does not get any nominations for the Clios. While the importance of the actual awards is still pooh-poohed, it's apparent it's still important to the individual members of the creative team. Jim and Lou pulled most of the nominations so there's little creative reputation being sowed for the agency.
This is part of Roger's pitch when the partnership meet to decide on Don. I can't tell if Roger is actually employing his business chops (which we know he has, the few times he actually tries) or if he accidentally stumbled into a plan to get Don back. Ultimately, Don comes back by coming back, employing Casey McCall's version of Napolean's plan. He does so unwittingly. But it gets the same result, with Don returning and things happening at CSC*. However, perhaps Roger's argument doesn't has as much impact as the pocketbook argument.
* "Napolean's Battle Plan" ends with Dan remarking to Casey, "Hey look it's your plan!"
Apparently part of the reason Don's leave is so ambiguous to him is because there were as many different understandings of what the partners were doing as there were partners doing it. No one was on the same page so of course the message to Don was unclear leaving him in limbo. If that's not a metaphor for the creativeless, messageless state the agency is without it's creative driving force, I don't know what is.
Not only that, but Lane Pryce's presence is felt twice in the episode. The first time is that none of the partners seem to have the buy-out consequence figured out, and what that would mean to their wallets. The second is that Lane's office is the only place they can put Don. It's obviously still vacant and it means they can use some of the unused space, because Don cannot say no.
Don slowly went about alienating everyone in the agency, one by one, last season. No one is happy to see him. Not even Joan, who threw a fit when Don fired Jaguar, is pleased to see him. I had assume she was going along to get along with the partners. But she seems as opposed as Cutler is to Don's return. Her tune changes when she comes to grips with what separating Don from the company means, and what that means in terms of her financial standing. Her body language ("That's a big hit") both when first meeting Don and then later understanding the cost of buying him out speak volumes.
If Joan's 5% of a smaller company was $1 million a few years ago, then Don's much larger share of a much larger company is going to significantly impact the partners and the company. They could probably borrow against the company to pay it off, but as Roger points out it will take until at least 1973 to come out ahead.
Ultimately the decision is made for them ("This is a financial decision!"), albeit they put Don in a position where they can more easily fire him *. I would've expected more of a "creative partner at large" type of role. He could float about in partner status without really interacting, supervising, or reporting to any one person (like Roger in the PPL re-org). Don can agree to curb the drinking. And can avoid being alone with clients. He probably welcomes that last part actually being how Don hates everyone**. But him reporting to Lou is the ultimate insult. Even Cutler damns him with faint praise, calling him "adequate".
* Does Don actually have to agree to these terms? Apparently. But I'm unclear on how they are able to dictate terms of his return that go so far as to result in possible termination. Could Don have accepted the other offer if he actually wanted to?
** Oh darn, I can't have dinner anymore with the Herbs of Jaguar? Bummer.
The other factor that led to them agreeing to Don's return is the thought of him going elsewhere if he were to be fired. Competing against Don in their current poorly creative state could be hard to overcome. They need to keep his brain in a jar.
Pulled an Oblique Muscle
Some things I could not figure out....
Could not understand the idea of the field trip scenes, but Betty is back and not fat. Sometimes there are scenes that are simply too oblique for me to even start to get.
Was Ginsberg delaying Don, feeding him "garbage" so as to not give anything away? At first I thought he was being sincere but that became less apparent.
Did Roger actually send a message as "Judas" (that would be his humor) or is Don just calling him that?
Ends and Odds
- I like this guy, Dave Wooster, the man who's been courting Don
- There's a lot of background happenings where the girls are able to show their boots and dresses
- Roger throws a little fit about his name being on the door and it being his birthday party and his special day
- Harry is demanding respect, using his full name when answering the phone. Probably the most/one time I've ever liked him
- Betty and Francine are back to one-upping and backhanded compliments. This is her best friend.
- Cutler is as severely detached to the business as Ted is attached to it. Now he's reading about funeral homes?
- As I just learned in a cursory search, this book is about how funeral homes exploit death to make money. It was an expose. Cutler's take away though is not with the people being exploited but that they could learn something from the exploiters.
- Don greets Cutler with the same contemptuous deep voice that he used to greet Henry with.
- Did anyone else think "Emily Arnett" was Anna Draper's niece, Stephanie?
- Mad Men almost exists without a plot sometimes, but this is one of the more strongly, cause > effect > effect etc... episodes
"If 6 was 9"
Jimi Hendrix
White collared conservative flashing down the street
Pointing their plastic finger at me
They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high
Next Week on Incongruous Mad Men Clips
"What?" - Peggy Olson
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