Mad Men - "The Mountain King"

So Don Draper had a wife too. And we now know that she's the same person who our Don sent the copy of Meditations in an Emergency to. I thought this week was a little more on the nose than we've seen out of the show normally (and certainly a great deal more than last week's endlessly awesome and bizarre episode), but I still liked it a lot more than others.

I think my biggest problem was that, while the stuff with Anna was interesting and necessary, it was kind of a chore to get through, especially given that Don was missing out on the action at Sterling Cooper. I recognize that for story reasons, they wanted to take Don out of there while the merger went through, but it was still very frustrating. I liked the flashbacks a great deal more than the real time action (especially that first one), but I can understand feeling a little force-fed.

For me, the most interesting action happened back in New York, with the contrasting paths of Peggy and Joan coming into direct focus. Starting with Joan, who was in pretty much the hardest scene to watch this show has done. Her assault really put into focus what a true asshole that doctor is. Joan's getting older and, sadly, there don't seem to be any options left for her. The shot of Joan's dead eyes staring at the furniture has to be one of the saddest things I've seen on this show. Looking at the blank trappings of the office orthodoxy, you can see the realization hit her that because of the values of society, there's no way out for her. The Mad Men society has reduced Joan to just another piece of furniture. And then, to add insult to injury, she finds Peggy moving into the office next to Don. That conversation was probably the high point of the episode, highlighting Peggy's status as a sort of bizarro Joan. Peggy rejected the notion that women are simply objects and somehow managed to get her own office. Joan may be able to pretend she's excited and happy about marriage, but secretly its her who's envious of Peggy's life.

And then there was Pete, whose marital problems seem to be coming to a head. I'm not sure how this is all going to shake out, and I thought for sure Peggy was going to come clean with him at the end there. Alas, it was not to be, although their scene was all kinds of awesome. There was also Betty who had her moment of growing up in yet another not-very-subtle moment in this episode. I felt sorry for the daughter though.

So that's where we stand as we head to the finale. Given how great this season has been, I'm sure the finale will rock hard. Its kind of sad to see such an outstanding run coming to an end.

B+

P.S. The good news is that the show has been renewed for another season. The bad news is that Matthew Weiner hasn't signed on for that season yet. I'm sure AMC won't let him go though.