Mad Men – Recap & Review – Shut the Door. Have a Seat.

photo: amc

Mad Men
Shut the Door. Have a Seat.

Original Air Date: Nov 8, 2009

Brittany D. – Staff Writer
brittany@thetwocents.com

How amazing is it that we’ve been together now for thirteen weeks?? We’ve been through marriages and black face, secrets unraveling, and of course infidelity. Because our show wouldn’t be what it is if Don wasn’t sleeping with someone other than his wife. After last week’s heart stopping JFK assassination episode, I had no idea how it could possibly be topped. But somehow, it was done, and now we have to wait until next summer for more. So, let’s savor this recap while it lasts!

Don finds out through Conrad Hilton that Puttnam, Powell and Lowe is being bought by an ad agency called McCann, and that means Sterling Cooper is being sold as well. Connie pulls his business out, and as Don goes back to Sterling Cooper, looking out at all of the secretaries, he flashes back to his childhood. He watches his father, Archie, pull out his share of wheat for the CO-OP when the prices plummet. That gives Don an idea: Have Sterling Cooper buy themselves back. Cooper says they’ll need accounts, and they’ll need Sterling. Don takes the high road and apologizes to Sterling saying he’s not a good account man, but Sterling counters that it’s because he doesn’t value relationships.

When Cooper, Don, and Sterling bring the idea to Lane, he is under the assumption that only Sterling Cooper is being sold, so when he calls the True British Over-Lord (Saint John) and finds out the truth, he slams the phone down and goes back to the guys. Don has another flashback to his childhood, of his father being kicked in the face by a horse and dying. He snaps out of it in time to pitch an idea to Cooper, Sterling, and Lane the next morning: Lane can fire them, and when Saint John fires Lane, he can join them and they’ll start their own company. Lane is on board, but tells them that they’ll need accounts for cash flow. A telegram to London sent on Friday wouldn’t reach Saint John until Monday, which would give them plenty of time to secure accounts and a small crew, as well as the supplies they’d need.

When Don tells Peggy, and he more or less tells her she’s joining up with him, she looks at him in disbelief that he thinks she’ll do anything he says. When he tells her that he won’t beg her, she looks at him incredulously and tells him that he didn’t even ask her. She leaves the office, and at crunch time, Don goes to find her. He makes a last ditch effort to get her on his side, and eventually, after he tells her that he would never stop trying to hire her, she goes with him. Harry is hired as well, along with Pete because he has so many accounts. Don spins it as more, saying that Pete had a leg up on a lot of things, including the Negro market, and if he can deliver in accounts by Sunday, he’ll be made partner.

After the small crew is assembled at Sterling Cooper, everyone is excited about what they’re about to do when they realize they don’t know where all the supplies they’re going to need are stored. Roger says he’ll make a call, and the next thing you know, Joan is walking in, owning the entire episode with how awesome she is. She gets to the office and has already hired movers, dictated where everything needs to go and when, finds a temporary location for an office, and gets a furnished apartment for Don. Let’s just say that she absolutely ROCKS IT.

Come Monday, Saint John finally does get that memo, and he immediately fires Lane, who then saunters over to the new Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pierce ad agency. Don’s secretary opens his office back at Sterling Cooper and yells that they’ve been robbed when she finds all of his things gone, and slowly but surely Ken and Paul start to figure out what happened.

Now, on top of all of that awesome that was going on, there was also the drama at the Draper household. Don comes home from work and Betty tells him that she’s hired a divorce attorney and that he should do the same. Don tries to tell her that she’ll feel better if she’d lie down or go to a doctor. “Because I’d have to be sick to want out of this?” she asks before walking out. The next day, she meets with her attorney with Henry, and the attorney tells her that it’ll be hard getting a divorce in New York. He advises that she go to Reno, but she’ll need Don’s consent. Henry tells Betty not to ask Don for money because he plans on taking care of her, and he doesn’t want her to owe him anything.

What Don didn’t know was anything about Henry Francis, and over drinks with Roger, it slips out. Roger admits that his daughter is friends with Henry’s daughter, and they talked. Don goes home and drunkenly pulls Betty out of bed, demanding to know who the man is. Don tells her that she won’t get anything out of him, and he’ll take the kids. When she tells him she’s going to Reno, he tells her she’s a whore. Later the next day, they tell the kids together that Don isn’t going to live there anymore. Sally reminds him of his promise to always come home and runs out of the room, and Bobby clings to Don, while Don says that “no one wants this”. When he’s finally set up at the makeshift Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price headquarters, he calls Betty and tells her that he won’t fight her. That evening, she gets on a plane with Henry and baby Gene for Reno.

I can’t decide if this was the best episode of Mad Men in three seasons, or the best hour of television I’ve ever seen. It felt much more gratifying than season two’s finale, and more of a fan service than season one. From Sally blaming Betty for making Don go, to Joan proving why she totally rocks, I loved this episode so much that I’ve already watched it twice, and it’s not even Monday yet. I suppose that if I absolutely had to find something wrong with it, it would be that no one thought to call Sal for the new agency. But what did you think? Any predictions for when season four will start in the time line? My theory is that it’ll pick up in 1965 at the height of the Civil Rights movement and the start of Vietnam.

I’m going to miss our discussions and our show until next summer, so for the final time until next August, leave me YOUR Two Cents in the comments!