Mad Men - For Immediate Release

Welcome back to our weekly trip to the 60’s in New York. Previously we saw our characters react to the assassination of MLK. Ginsberg gets set up with a pretty girl, but sort of screws up the date. A crazy LSD Real Estate guy tries to pitch a job to SCDP. Peggy and Abe are looking for a new apartment to buy when Abe announces he doesn’t want to live on the upper east side, he’d rather live in a neighborhood with “different” types of people. Henry decides to run for State Senate and Betty realizes she’s still a cow.

We open with an accountant  plugging away at some numbers while Pete, Bert and Joan all watch. We rarely get to see Joan with her hair down, literally. She’s starting to don some Farrah feathers. The accountant is there to explain to them how they could take SCDP public and make all the partners a large sum of money. Bert tries to talk the guy up from $9/share to $12/share. The guy agrees to look at the numbers a bit closer and see what he can come up with. He compliments Joan on her paperwork. Joan and Pete are left alone to toast to their pending fortunes. Joan’s share would make her almost $1,000,000 alone, and she has a small share! Pete tries to put the moves on Joan and it’s gross. He’s reminded that tomorrow is Mother’s day.

Roger wakes up with another girl young enough to be his daughter’s younger friend. She’s a stewardess and is late to work. She’s supposed to keep her ears open about big executives coming to New York. That seems like an odd person to be in cahoots with. Roger cajoles her back into bed.

Pete takes off his pants and crawls into bed with Trudy. Wait, what? I thought you were faux divorced. He feels her up and she puts a stop to it quickly. This doesn’t make a horny Pete happy. Trudy says she’s taken notice of his efforts to be a better husband.

How does someone sleep in that!? I don’t understand! Wouldn’t it all just be bunched up to your boobs, causing massive discomfort? It’s not even that it’s so thin that you wouldn’t notice! There are layers in there! Pete tries to tempt Trudy into staying with him because good things are coming his way, meaning his money.

Megan’s mean mom, Marie (yay alliteration!!) is in town from Canada for Mother’s Day and she’s bitching about Sally being excited to talk to her on the phone. What a meanie face. All of this is spoken on French so Don can’t understand. That would bug the crap out of me. Fusk’s parents do that sometimes when they argue, they talk in Spanish to each other. There’s a knock on the door and it’s Dr. Arnold. He’s in a desperate need for wrapping paper. He and Marie exchange pleasantries. His son is home as a surprise for Mother’s Day. Marie kindly offers up her flowers for Arnold’s son to give to his wife. “Do you want my flowers? I’m quite done with them.” Bitch! I’d have some rather harsh looks to give my mom if she said that about flowers I gave her. He doesn’t take them, just the paper.

“There’s poop on the stairs again.” Oh Peggy. There are a couple of things wrong with that sentence. Poop being one of them, and again being another. Abe tries to play it off that it’s probably just a dog, but nope she’s certain it’s human. I’m sorry. I love Abe, a lot, but this is unacceptable. The only real upside in this situation is that Peggy would save a butt load of money living there. Abe shocks himself trying to fix an outlet. Just then, very loud music, ethnic music starts playing above them. It’s hell.

Don and Pete were supposed to have dinner with Jaguar but they cancelled. Pete says the two of them could still have dinner since he has things to discuss with Don (the going public thing), but Don doesn’t want to. I can’t argue with that. He goes into his office and Roger is already on the couch. Roger says the dinner isn’t actually cancelled; they just don’t want Pete there. Herb wants to straighten things out with Don. Roger forces him to go. The idea is to have the spouses all come, including Marie so that the damage is limited.

At the partner’s meeting for CGC and they’re going over their pitches for Chevy and one of the partner’s goes off on a tirade because he doesn’t want to have to draw spaceships anymore. It’s then revealed that they ditched Alfa Romeo. It comes out that Frank (the anti-spaceship) guy has pancreatic cancer. Oh brother. Ted takes the news poorly. Frank is worried that when he dies it will put the company out of business. Ted tries to boost his morale but pancreatic is damned near impossible to beat.

Roger gets a call from his stewardess gal, and she says she has “one”. He rushes out of the room and forgets his shoes then comes running back for them. I love Roger.

Megan and Marie get in the elevator with 2 girls and they’re star struck. They ask her for an autograph. Megan is very pleased and Marie seems annoyed.

At the airport, Roger is pretending to be flying. Apparently they’re trying to get Chevy as well. The executive has eyes for Daisy and Rogers sits down to talk the guy up. He says how he hates to fly places and that he’d live in his car if he could. Oh Roger, you are good at your job. Micky is the guy’s name and Roger goes to get him a drink. And has Daisy put him on the flight with Micky to Detroit.

Marie and Megan are getting ready to go to the dinner with Herb. Megan doesn’t want to go because she had plans for the two of them, that didn’t involve Don or dinner. Marie shames her for this.  Marie starts a guilt trip and Megan falls for it. Megan admits there’s a drift in the marriage. Marie advises that Megan put on a bit of a show for him. And that the only thought he should have at dinner is…

I think I would die a thousand deaths if my mother said that to me. Megan just laughs. Maybe that says something about my relationship with my mom, but holy hell! I blushed.

At dinner, Herb’s wife is horrifyingly boring and trite. No one likes her. Megan tries to make the best of it. Marie is annoyed that Roger isn’t at the dinner and tries to get herself out of it, but she’s trapped.

Bert comes into Pete’s office and compliments him on the work he does for the company. He gets the verdict that the banker/accountant offered them $11/share. Pete is ecstatic and offers Bert a drink. “Do you have any brandy? Spirits of Elderflower?” Ha! Bob walks by and Pete directs him to get Joan and some ice. Ugh, can you imagine an even wealthier Pete? Gross.

At the dinner, Marie has had all she can take. Everyone is sick of listening to the wife. Marie starts talking shit in French and Megan covers it up. The women go to leave the men to talk business. Herb says he has a “fella” that writes fliers for him and gets results. He wants Don to hire him as a writer on the job without admitting that he wants him to hire him. Don writes the kid’s name on a card and hands it back to Herb saying, “Here’s the name of the guy that will be handling your account from now on.”  That’s it. The death of Jaguar and SCDP. Don tells Herb to pay for dinner. Don is happy to be rid of the asshole.

They get home from dinner and Don takes Megan and ravages her against the closet door. Marie is out in the living room when Roger calls. She is pissed at him and he wants to talk to Don. Roger is pleased with something that went down and wants to talk to Don about it. Marie tells him to forget her name and hangs up on him. He calls back but she hangs up immediately.

Bob and Pete went to a whorehouse and Pete comes out after his bout with his girl. Then the worst happens.

After a very curvy black girl comes out of a room, she’s followed by Pete’s father-in-law. I ask you, is there a more awkward place to have a bump-in-meeting with your in-law? They stare at each other and Pete actually says, “hello”. Horrible decision. Bob then asks if that guy is a client. Oh right, remember that part?

The next day Pete goes to talk to Ken about the situation in a hypothetical. Bob is outside the window offering up coffee. I hate that guy! Ken laughs at Pete’s misery. Ken tries to assure him that the porking-papa won’t say anything because if he accuses Pete of being there, he admits he was there himself. Ken then gets a phone call from Jaguar. Pete trips down the stairs to yell at Don about screwing then out of Jaguar. They have a big fight in front of the whole office. Their public offering is now off the table because of the loss of such a huge account. Joan takes them into an office to discuss it. Just as everything is coming out in the open, Roger strolls in with great news that they’re presenting to Chevy about their top-secret new car on Friday. Everyone just about blows a load in their pants at the thought of having Chevy as a client. Joan is on the verge of tears, but not tears of joy. She refuses to do anything that Don asks of her. He’s confused.

“I went through all of that for nothing? Just once I would like to hear you use the word ‘we’ because we’re all rooting for you from the sidelines, hoping that you’ll do whatever you think is best for our lives.” Poor Joan. I feel so terrible for her. She has a right to be pissed, but I also understand Don’s decision. That guy was toxic. Don knows he’s in trouble with her. They all run to start thinking about Chevy.

The car has no name yet, and it was designed by a computer! Shocking! Chevy isn’t happy with what they’ve been handed so far from the big shots so they’re trying out the small guy. Roger reads off the names of other agency’s competing and CGC is one of them. They’re all very excited at the possibilities and having GM!

Peggy is leaving the office when she hears some thumping going on in Ted’s office. He’s a little wasted and his TV fell down. She helps him and tries to prop up his spirits. She builds up his ego and he’s eating it all up. He then kisses her. She slowly pushes him away. He apologizes and says he’s just grateful. She says she understands, but you know she’s begging for more. He bids her goodnight and she takes her time leaving.  

Don and Dr. Arnold are in the elevator together when Arnold says he just quit his job. He had a heart and a kid who needed a heart, but he couldn’t do it because that sort of thing hasn’t been done in the US before. I did a little research and they’re wrong on this one. The first adult heart transplant was done in the US January 6, 1968. And since MLK died in April, they’re off. Oh well. Arnold is mad because someone in Houston gets to try it and he doesn’t. Don tells him that everyone makes their own opportunities. I think Don genuinely likes Arnold.

Don comes home and was going to sleep on it but decides to shower and just head back into the office. Megan tells him that she loves seeing him vulnerable and will do whatever she can to help him. In this case, that means a blow job.

The next day, Don and Roger are waiting for a flight to Detroit for their pitch. Everyone else in the terminal is ad men just like them. One of them even comes over and taunts them about losing Vick’s Chemical. Roger is confused. Flash to Pete screaming on the phone. The bump-in at the whorehouse cost him dearly. Bert is certain that Roger will handle the situation. Roger convinced Daisy to lose the luggage of the other guys. Heh.

Pete is meeting with his father-in-law and there’s no fixing this mistake. Tom thinks his daughter should be treated like a princess, and he knows that Pete never wanted to have children. He has no business being a father. Pete tries to throw Tom’s own discretion in his face, but Tom isn’t playing and tells him to get out.

Peggy comes to bed with a bandana on her face because the paint fumes are too much for her to sleep. She’s at her wits end with the neighborhood. Abe tries to laugh it off that things are just changing. She doesn’t like change. Peggy is realizing their differences. She then fantasizes that Abe is Ted and tells him that she just wants him to kiss her. Poor Abe, but I get it at the same time.

Don can’t sleep and so he finds a bar. Ted then walks in a shouts out, “Damnit!” He knows that if Don’s there, that both of them are screwed. With the two of them being small agencies, Chevy will take their ideas and give it to one of the bigger companies. Don then is annoyed. Ted then thinks they should tell each other their ideas. They do and they’re both impressed. Then Don starts to scheme. If they want a big agency, they’ll give them a big agency. A merger. Holy shit. 4 of them go in to meet with Chevy and present their idea.

Pete is there waiting for Trudy when she gets home. He asks her to sit down. He’s about to drop the bomb. He asks if she knew that her father pulled his business from his company. She says no and that she doesn’t care. He tells her that her father ruined their chances of being rich. He then tells her about seeing Tom at a whorehouse. “With a 200 pound negro prostitute.”  She is convinced he’s saying this just to hurt her. She says they’re done and tells him to get his things. Divorce!

Peggy gets a buzz that Ted wants to see her in his office. She powders her nose before going in. She smiles. She asks him how it goes.

“We got it!” Says Don. She’s correctly confused. Ted tells her about the merger. She still doesn’t understand. Peggy will be the copy chief. She says, “I just bought an apartment.” That seems an odd thing to say. Ted says they’re moving and they want her to write the press release. They don’t have a name yet, but to write for a company she wants to work for. She goes back to her office and lets it all sink in. She then sits down to her typewriter to write it out.

I don’ t know about this guys. I kind of liked the idea of Peggy not working with Don anymore. And things can only go terribly wrong with Pete, Don and Ted all working for the same company. Things seem to go in every direction of wrong in our next episode. What do any of you guys think?