I'm just going to come right out and admit it: I have no clue how to talk about this week's episode.
"Seriously, what happened over the weekend?" - Ted and all the viewers. I'm just going to come right out and admit it: I have no clue how to talk about this week's episode of Mad Men. This was an episode unlike any other the creators have produced, though moments were similar to other drug-related episodes in the past. My notes are all over the place this week, and I'm still not entirely sure what I just watched, but I'm going to try and talk my way through it. Here goes nothing...
Things started off on a chaotic note, with Ken (Aaron Staton) flying down a road at night in a Chevy, the car full of clients from Chevy. One of the men even pulled a gun before they inevitably crashed, leaving Ken wielding a cane all episode. Things were not going to get any easier to understand after that, as we quickly learned that Chevy wasn't happy with any of the work being done by the creatives, and they were going to be running them on tight deadlines for the foreseeable future, which made everyone unhappy.
To combat this absurd work schedule, and another weekend-long work session, Jim Cutler (Harry Hamlin) brought in a doctor to inject all parties involved with some sort of drug that would allow them to work for multiple days at a time without any need for rest. This is where things went off the deep end. People were quickly running around the office, full of more energy than they knew what to do with. Whenever the creative group would sit down and try and come up with a pitch, it was usually gibberish, much to the dismay of Peggy and Ginsberg (Elisabeth Moss and Ben Feldman). Things continued to spiral out of control, leading to Stan (Jay R. Ferguson) getting an Xacto Knife stuck in his arm, and then trying to make out with Peggy in his office. The scene ended in a rather touching way, which I appreciated, because I much prefer these two characters as they are.
The bulk of this episode, however, rested on Don's (Jon Hamm) shoulders. His unsteady, drug-addled shoulders. As he fought a cough and thought back to his childhood once again, as he developed a serious fever and lost his virginity to one of the prostitutes in the brother where he was raised, Don was also trying to sort out his relationship with Sylvia (Linda Cardellini), who wanted nothing to do with him anymore. His response to this was to rather desperately stand outside her apartment for extended periods of time. Beyond this, he also spent his entire drug-induced time developing a pitch for her, rather than for Chevy.
In the end, the drugs got absolutely nothing accomplished. Don was too busy time traveling through his weekend to get home, which led to a very strange woman breaking into their apartment while only the children were there. These sequences were the most concrete and tense of the episode, with Sally (Kiernan Shipka) having to shoulder a lot of responsibility that she was ill prepared to handle. In the end, this dangerous situation involving his children is what ended Don's high, as well as snapped him out of all of his woes.
The episode ended with Don making a resolution with himself. He spent his entire weekend trying to find a way to please other people, so that they will like him. This has been the new Don we've been dealing with for a few episodes now. However, his coldness towards Sylvia and his indifference towards the Chevy account at the end of the episode shows that Don has moved on from being the prostitute who claws and begs through every account. He has determined that he will only work with people who will work with him, meaning he will no longer pine over Sylvia, and he will no longer kill himself over accounts. His job is to review the work his copywriters produce, and that's how he will act from now on, according to him.
This wasn't the masterpiece of an episode like "For Immediate Release," but this was certainly an exciting new style of episode for Mad Men. I'm not a huge fan of being left confused after an episode, but this was such an all-around bizarre experience that I'm inclined to forgive the lack of structure in this episode. I hope the issues with Chevy continue, but I hope things are made a little more clear for us as the season moves deeper into the second half.
What did you think of this crazy episode? Sound off below. See you all on Wednesday for a look ahead. Thanks for reading!