Mad Men End of an Era Ep 1: Do I Know You?

When we last left Mad Men, Don was at rock bottom number seven or eight hundred, Roger was being a leader (or just trying to keep everything in life together for once), Joan was greedy, Pete was selfish, Peggy didn't blow Burger Chef, and we landed on the moon. Oh, and Bert Cooper died. But Don didn't get fired! ONE MORE YEAR! ONE MORE YEAR!

The first half of the final season of Mad Men was..slow? I guess? Its hard to put those seven episodes into perspective, especially into one word. As a fan, I'd say they were transformative, bringing the characters of our ad agency in New York (and California, dammit!) into a different era in history altogether and setting a new pace for their careers, decisions and lives. There weren't many defining moments for the show. No one committed suicide, no one delivered an inspirational Carousel presentation, Pete didn't get knocked out. But we did see important character changes and moments that quite frankly we needed, regardless of how glamorous they may or may not have been. Don and Megan's marriage ending, for example, wasn't exactly a surprise and it wasn't an explosion. It was a quiet, tragic and peacefully painful phone call. But both characters, at the point they were both at in their respective lives (which is all they ever really were, was two separate people claiming to be married living for their own motives) needed the "distance". Megan was focused on her career, hurt by Don's lack of committing to change and a bitch. Don was still an asshole but more importantly but less apparent, he needed to break that chain that was linking him across the country so he could save his career and give his life some sort of forward progress. Without that conversation, Don would have no doubt left the agency.

Bert Cooper's death had the biggest impact from the first half, and we see that carry into this "season premiere" in a few ways. Roger sports a 70's stache that would turn Hulk Hogan's cheeks red, but he also sports a new boss swagger that we wouldn't have seen unless Bert told him to be a leader and than die. What a swell guy! Joan is power hungry, and I think some of that came from the pride and wealth that the quiet but oppressively and transgressively loud Bert attitude. But most of all, Don has life again. We see it right away with the old Don Draper barking orders at some model in mink, explaining that she needs to make it look like she's wearing nothing under there. He is flicking the ash from his cigarette into an empty cup while he confidently rests against the window. He is smiling, he is powerful, he is charming. He is everything that made us fall in love with the anti-hero in the first place. However, in true Don fashion, as the episode progresses, he falls from that grace. Don has a dream about Rachel Katz, one of the first "other women" we see in the show. She was mysterious, confident and intelligent, adjectives that make Don weak in the knees. I say was because when Don reaches out to contact her, he finds out that Rachel has since passed, but don't worry, in lieu of flowers he can make a small donation to the Jewish-.

Don always had a soft spot for Rachel, evident not only by his reaction to finding out she died (spoiler: he has a drink) but also by the way that it ended between them. He wanted to run away with her, but her desire for a home (and her morals, probably, hopefully) made her reluctantly say "no". Their relationship didn't have a clean cut end, and that probably always bothered Don somewhere in that messy heart and mind of his. In true Draper fashion, he twists reality to make it comfortable by "recognizing" the waitress at some diner bar, "mistaking" her for Rachel. He pursues her, has sex with her on her smoke break in the back alley, and visits her numerous times in the episode. For the record, the scene with Don and Roger with those girls at the diner is fantastic. Roger Sterling was at his best, cementing himself on the Mount Rushmore of Television Characters Cooler Than Anyone Alive. He might be alone on that monument. 

So where do we get with Don by the end of the episode? He attends Rachel's shiva sitting, although her sister, Barbara, isn't impressed by his visit and doesn't allow him to sit when the family needs one more member. Clearly Rachel told her sister about Don, which seems to interest him, but I can't help but think she had some bad things to say about the man. Surprising as that might be. So Don tells the waitress about everything presumably after he leaves the shiva, and she gives him her waitress advice. "When someone dies, you want to make sense of it, but you can't", she tells him. It is simple and pure, maybe obvious. But for a man like Don it is a tough concept to grasp. Don hasn't been able to make sense of anything in his life, one of the earliest challenges to that algorithm being death. It is clear that Don is afraid of death, but I think he is also genuinely confused by it. He doesn't understand why and when it happens and he seems curious about what happens after it. Regardless, Don struggles with Rachel's death, some sort of ugly relapse could be in the mink man's future.

My personal favorite storyline of "Severance" is Peggy. Peggy has always had a spot near and dear to my heart, a love hate relationship. Most episodes, I think she is my favorite woman on the show. Some episodes, she is self-entitled and wrong. This wasn't one of them. Perhaps her biggest flaw is her reluctance to trusting the right man and putting herself out there for the type of guy that she needs. They need to be strong, warm, firm and bold. Mathis sets her up with her brother-in-law, Steve, and after some soul searching, Peggy decides to go on the date. Their dinner goes well after an ugly start, and the two even talk about going to Paris together! Wee-wee! We see a rare side of Peggy, a side of embracing the moment and welcoming an experience. She agrees, suggests, to go to Paris with an almost complete stranger with no plans. They will leave that night. That is not the Peggy we know, not the stuck-up but valiant Peggy we saw on the elevator earlier in the episode with Joan. Quick note on Joan: Peggy tells her that she is thilthy rich, and I think that strikes a cord with Joan since she came about that money through really no talent of her own. It is dirty money in every sense of the word. We see her later on spending it on nice clothes and accessories. Could she be trying to empty some of that dirty money, or trying to clean herself up?

Peggy gets back to her place and can't find that darn passport! The buzz is gone, and realistic Peggy is back as she comes to terms that they won't be in Paris tonight. So, Steve wants to have sex and go to bed. Peggy feels something though, and she doesn't want to ruin whatever those feelings are. She even tells Steve that she doesn't think they are a fling, which seems to take him back. They agree to visit in a couple weeks for another date. Will that date ever happen? Is this the last we see of Peggy's dream man? I think so, unfortunately. 

And finally, Ken Cosgrove. Accounts. Cosgrove got some more air time towards the end of the first half of season seven, but this episode is the most focally Cosgrove centered that I can ever remember. Cosgrove is handling too many accounts, nearly all of them, if you remember from last season. So in this episode, we see Ken enter the meeting room during the Joan-Peggy-Topez power struggle as the apparent hero, offering lunch. Now that his father-in-law is retiring as the head of DOW, Ken's wife lays into him for working at a job that he doesn't enjoy and that beats him down physically and mentally. Cosgrove doesn't agree with her suggestions to quitting and pursuing writing, his true love. He not only doesn't agree, he angrily lashes out at her for even thinking that he would quit his job, especially before he sees if he gets that raise! She storms off, leaving her husband on the couch with his pajama shirt unbuttoned and ajar. Poor guy, but he seems determined and passionate! Until he gets fired because of his past with McCormick-Erickson on what seems to be the very next day. 

So, Ken ends up taking a job at DOW as head of advertising, meaning he is now a client of SC&P. Is it what he wants to do? Probably not at his deepest core, but Ken has had bad blood with the likes of Pete Campbell, Roger, Bert and McCormick-Erickson for a long time running. Is it a revenge move, then? Absolutely, but to answer both of those questions would be combining two important points. Ken is out for revenge for the way he has been treated and the decisions that had been made during his time at SC&P and also that he wants that revenge. Revenge is what he wants. And can you blame him? But it doesn't seem like Ken, to be so blood thirsty. But it is the 70's now, and everyone is being mistaken for someone else these days.