Revolutions are everywhere at the end of the summer of 1968—in Chicago, to be sure, but also within the hallways of Sterling Cooper
Draper Pryce Cutler Gleason and Chaough & Partners. Let go beyond the fold for the spoiler-averse, as I continue to dream of a GoT-inspired Mad Men opening sequence with Hollywood rising in place from the map.
I want to leave it to others to summarize the plot, because they're better at it: Alan Sepinwall, Todd VanDerWerff, and Matt Zoller Seitz, among others whom you should be reading regularly on plot and theme. Me? I'm just going to ask a few questions:
- So we've got both Bob Benson and Joan Harris advancing into the Accounts Department through somewhat similar means: both make sure they're in the right place at the right time, but Joan is seen as treacherous while Bob's just one of the guys.
Well, kinda: Bob get called out a bit ("Why are you always here? Go upstairs!"), but less so than Joan does for her more obvious opportunism, but in the end, money is money.
- Ok, what is the deal with Bob Benson and, in particular, with his ubiquitous Anthora cups?
- Doesn't it feel like we're only moments away from SC&P recognizing the need for an LA office, with Harry Crane in charge?
- On a scale of 1 to C'mon, We Really Want To See Sal Again, how awesome was it to see Danny Siegel once more?
- Politics seems to be intruding into the office far more than ever before -- not just the Cutler-Ginsburg fight ("I hate hypocrites ... like hippies who cash checks from Dow Chemical and General Motors"), but everyone seems to be consumed with the Chicago protests, with Humphrey v. Nixon, with the war ... everything permeates through that front door.
- Has anything good ever happened on this show when a character tried harder drugs than marijuana? Don Draper, that experiment with hashish did not go swimmingly.
- If there's one thing that this season has been low on, it's Sally Draper. Odds on a Sally-Glen Bishop scene before this season's over?
- How much do you think it cost them to license the Big Brother and the Holding Company original version of "Piece of My Heart," instead of the Janet Jopfler "Chunk of My Lung"?
- One last thing for which we're due: Pete Campbell getting punched in the face again.