Thus spake Mere Marie (not to be confused with my friend Mother Mary) after her dinner with Herb the horrible (the Hagar of Jersey) and his twitty wife, Peaches. That’s right, ladies and germs, please give it up for Peaches and Herb:
Okay, now that I’ve had my little joke (very little, actually) on to a discussion ofFor Immediate Release, which is hands-down the best episode of season 6 so far. It fits the classicMad Men pattern; nothing much seems to happen plot-wise at the start of the season and then WHAMMO. This season’s whammo occurred in episode 6, smack dab in the middle of the season.
Don Draper has his groove thing back and he shook it like a prideful and snarky baboon. The dinner with Herb was vintage Don Fucking Draper. He was insulted, returned fire and fired the fat fuck from Jersey. All without consulting with anyone. To paraphrase Joan, we is not in Don’s lexicon.
Okay, time to riff like a deranged Tom Servo:
Why Ken Cosgrove Doesn’t Fear The Bomb: I loved the scene between our boy Ken and malaka Pete Campbell about the latter’s seeing his father-in-law with the “biggest, blackest prostitute” in Noo Yawk. Initially, I agreed with Ken that this involved Mutually Assured Destruction since both Pete and Mr. Vick’s Hypocrite were whoring around. But Trudy’s father hit the detonate button and blew shit up like a rabid Wile E. Coyote. He expected Pete to uni-laterally disarm, but he did not. Kaboom in Trudy’s face. It all went kerbloowey and she threwy Pete out. So it goes.
Blowing stuff up was the unifying theme of the episode. That’s what happened when Don fired Jaguar, which prompted a hilarious Campbell tirade, “You’re like Tarzan swinging from vine to vine.” Pete is starting to remind me of a preppy Daffy Duck. How long until he tells Don that he’s despicable? I really need to stop making Looney Tunes references…
The Pegster’s Unfixer Upper: She and Abe bought a place in a “transitional” neighborhood per his desires. The Pegster is in hell with loud music above, junkies on the stoop, and human shit on her shoe. Yuck. It nearly led herinto temptation when her sweater boy boss stole a kiss from her. Nothing happened but we’ll file it away under future attractions.
Peggy declared to Abe that she hated change. It’s a pity because there’s much, much more change to come but we’ll get to that in a moment.
Fly Me, I’m Roger: Speaking of comebacks, the silver tongued acid head is back on his game at long last. He seems to be employing what could be described as the Playboy business plan: shtup lovely stewardess, get her to call when a live business prospect shows up at the airport, and then head out to land a client. It worked when Roger got an appointment in Motown from a drunken Chevy executive to pitch on a new top secret account. Others are reporting that it will turn to be the Vega, which is sort of a comedown after all the chatter about the Mustang but, still, it’s a car and it’s GM. Baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet, y’all. And Ted Chaough’s turtleneck?
The Big Bombshell: Tarzan Don swung into Detroit and not only landed a car account but merged the firm with Teddy Sweater’s agency. Details continue to elude Don’s notice, Roger is the only SCDP partner who knows as of episode’s end. I hope the others don’t read about it in the Daily News before hearing it from Don. I cannot wait to see how Bert, Pete, and Joan react next week. Suffering succotash…
The scene in the bar between Don and Ted hearkened back to the one in episode-1 between Don and the drunk Private. That led to Don’s presence at the soldier’s nuptials. This time, Don is the groom and Ted is the bride or something like that. Btw, Ted wore 2, count, em 2, sweaters in that scene: a turtleneck under a cardigan. He looked like the Beaver and Wally’s mom had dressed him…
The merger thing makes perfect business sense as a way to prevent another ketchup fiasco where the two little guys lost out to the big agency. It will be even better for the show as we watch the two agencies try tocome together, right now, over me...
I am simply Jonesing to see the next episode. I’m hoping to see more interaction between Roger and Ted’s partner Jim Cutler who is played as a smarmy lounge lizard by Harry Hamlin who is best remembered fromLA Law. Hmm, I wonder if he’ll wear a bunny suit when he hits on Megan?
There’s much more I could say about this episode but it’s Mother’s Day, and I have to wrap a present for Sylvia Rosen who Don couldn’t unwrap because her boy was home. Don was kinda busy plotting with his frenemy anyway…