Mad Men: Season Five (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

Wow, is this show getting crazy.
IMO the casual reactions of Cooper, Sterling, and Pryce to the idea of pimping out Joan were just bizarre. I realize that women were subject to horrible disrespect and objectification back then, but actual prostitution? Really? And this wasn't some young secretary who didn't mean anything to anyone; it was the person who's almost single-handedly kept their office functioning for years. Not to mention Roger's sometime lover. Due to recent events I could kind of see Lane being convinced to go along with it, but I just don't get the initial reaction of everyone but Don (and Pete, whose reaction was no surprise). They acted like it was nothing.
I wonder if Ken knows, or will find out, what happened. I can see him spilling those beans to Peggy in an attempt to follow her. I kind of wish there had been more screen time for her to react to the news that Joan had been made partner -- obviously, if there were any chance of Don convincing her to stay, that was the final nail in that coffin.
I am very curious to see where Roger and Joan's relationship goes from here. She must be as surprised as I was.
The Peggy story was great though. Ken should've listened all those times she called their pact "stupid!"

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Holy crap, check out the Zhang Ziyi news this week! Talk about a weird coincidence. . .

 

[Patrick Sun]

Maybe Rob Marshall could make a better film on purported real-life allegations...
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/zhang-ziyi-investigated-chinese-sex-scandal-accused-million-dollar-trysts-pols-article-1.1087557

 

[Patrick Sun]

I just re-watched "The Other Woman" again tonight, even more heartbreaking than the first time...

 

[NeilO]

I loved the intermixing of his arrival at Joan's house.. him introducing himself as a "co-worker" Joan's mom assuming it was her boss; us thinking it was before.. and later finding out it was after.. that was such a great use of intercuts.. great stuff.

Part of Don's interaction with Joan made it seem to me that Joan thought that he very well knew what would happen when he left the room and he was just there to make himself look good. Then we we saw it again now knowing that she had already gone through with it, it was a bit different. Just very well done.
I kept on thinking that Peggy really would leave and was about to give Don a number. I wonder how things will work for Don without having Peggy there - I guess more reliance on Ginsberg.

 

[TravisR]

I guess more reliance on Ginsberg.

Yeah and from what they've shown, Ginsberg is very good at his job and will fill the void. I'm guessing next season will have Don and him butting heads as up and coming Ginsberg's work starts to eclipse old man Don's.

 

[joshEH]

Speechless...

 

[NeilO]

Speechless...

Brutal episode ....

 

[NeilO]

I almost thought that Kenny was going to follow Peggy's lead ... I bet a lot of people liked his line about Pete. Roger sure didn't mind.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Liked how the episode centered around the circle of life and death. Hilarious was the Jaguar's reliability coming into play. For some reason I thought this was the season finale, and I would have been let down, but it wasn't, and now Don's conscience has to weight him down given what transpired.

 

[ScottH]

Another one bites the dust...

And yes, I also thought maybe Ken was a goner too. I don't really remember, what's the background with Ken and his father-in-law?

 

[Tim Gerdes]

A really depressing, but not entirely surprising turn of events. Not that firing Lane Pryce wasn't the right thing to do, but Don's lack of empathy has now contributed directly to two suicides by hanging.
Brutal.

 

[joshEH]

I half-expected Glenn to try to watch Megan pee.
Although, when you think about it, I wouldn't think that Don's conscience would truly bother him too much, since he didn't do anything wrong by firing Lane. I'm sure it'll hang over the finale, but besides being sad, I'd expect Don's angst mainly to stem from keeping Lane's secret...secret.
EDIT: ...Ugh, that pun was unintentional. I'll leave it in as penance.

 

[Tim Gerdes]

Although, when you think about it, I wouldn't think that Don's conscience would truly bother him too much, since he didn't do anything wrong by firing Lane. I'm sure it'll hang over the finale, but besides being sad, I'd expect Don's angst mainly to stem from keeping Lane's secret...secret.

I think, if anything, Don will feel badly because he's misjudged how differently Lane reacted to the prospect of a fresh start. It seems that his refractory mechanism for coping is getting shorter. With his brother's suicide, it took a couple of years and a car trip with his mistress's brother (S3 E10 The Color Blue) to ease his guilt. Here he's coping with Lane's death right away in his car trip with Glen.

 

[joshEH]

True, Don's conscience really hits a nerve when you take the whole "Adam"-issue into consideration, which is probably why he was so insistent on cutting him down. Don had to make these two separate decisions, which he felt were both for the best, and then this happens. That said, he'll still probably suppress it for at least a little while.
Watching the three men there in the office, it felt like a war-scene. Coming upon your fallen comrade. I have to think that this was intentional, given the fact that Don is going after the company that makes napalm. He's going down a dark road, man.
That said, Roger's line about wiping the blood off his mouth almost had me cackling like a loon.
(Also, goddamn -- did you see how purple Lane was? Really one-upped that menstrual-spotting.)

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I thought Roger made the blood statement coming out of the pitch meeting because Don was a shark in there.

 

[joshEH]

Woops, you're right...wrote that about two hours after seeing the episode, was editing the post, was pretty tired, and typed in the wrong person's name. Fixed. (Still had Lane-on-the-brain. )
On a somewhat lighter note....uh, congratulations, Scarlett, on your promotion, I guess?

 

[Tim Gerdes]

When Matthew Weiner was in protracted contract negotiations with AMC early last year, the New York Times ran a story about how some of the points of contention, including that "roughly two regular cast members, would be excised from the cast budget each season."
I can't help but wonder if Weiner lost on that point with his new contract. Though I remain optimistic we'll see Peggy again, who knows. Also moving a character from a regular cast member to a recurring status might have satisfied the requirement.
But I can imagine Weiner saying, "they want me to write off characters, ok, let's start with my female lead."
Here's the cited story from the Times.
On another note, Sepinwall's review has screen caps of Don's reaction to both suicides. Like last week, with Joan wearing the fur from Roger to her hotel rendezvous, it was a nice subtle call back to earlier events.

 

[TravisR]

Here he's coping with Lane's death right away in his car trip with Glen.

Somehow that scene made the episode feel like it had a happy ending. Or as happy of an ending as could be had when a main character committed suicide 5 minutes earlier.
I'd say that Jaguar must be really happy with all the free publicity they're getting but it seems like it's all negative. Every episode someone says that the car is unreliable, is impractical, is for assholes in a midlife crisis and now it doesn't even work when you want to kill yourself.

 

[ScottH]

Couldn't they have found a better actor to play Glen? Jeez...that kid made Robert Iler look like Robert De Niro.