Roger Sterling looks serious on Mad Men
Photo Credit: AMC TV
My review of tonight’s spectacular Mad Men “mid season
finale” (curse you AMC) as soon as I fire everyone but Harry and the computer…
“The best things in life are free.”
-Bert Cooper
-Bert Cooper
Rest in peace Bert you shall be missed, especially after
your amazing song and dance number. Seriously though can’t every character that
dies in every show ever have a post mortem song and dance number and in particular
to “The Best Things in Life are Free.” Boy was that fantastic and I would love
to think that that’s how Don handles grief or how he always thought of Bert as
a mysterious figure. Either that or it’s a warning to Don to not give up his
freedom to McCann, or something. Either way it was a fantastic, if not
surprising, send off to one of the most mysterious of Mad Men characters.
The rest of the episode, sorry I mean mid season finale, was
equally as fantastic with everything falling in line so very perfectly. Heck
Sally even avoided the cynical shirtless hunk in favor of the optimistic nerd! “Waterloo”
was another special episode of Mad Men and a beautiful way to end this year’s
batch of episodes.
Peggy has been a frustrating character for a lot of people this
year but because of her moody loneliness early on this season her redemption
over the last two weeks has felt all the more satisfying. Said redemption comes
full circle in “Waterloo” where she gets her biggest pitch ever in Burger
Shack. Fearing the end of his tenure at the agency (more on that in a second)
Don decides to give Peggy the go at the pitch and she knocks it out of the
park. It’s a fantastic pitch, one comparable to Don’s big carousel speech way back
in season one, and it’s especially satisfying given the time that she’s spent
into darkness. It’s a huge sigh of relief for the show and gives Peggy her big
rise from the ashes that so many (including myself) have clamored for throughout
this half season.
Speaking of rising from the ashes let’s talk about Roger
freaking Sterling. After Bert Cooper tells him that he was never a leader the
day before he dies, Roger decides to take Cutler’s big threat to take Don down
to heart and cut Cutler down before he can get the partners to do so. He does this
via a bold move to have the firm be bought by McCann Erickson and for them to
remain independent. This allows Roger to finally prove to everyone that he’s a
leader by being the big figurehead of the firm and keep the people who he wants
to have around the firm, namely one Don Draper. It’s one of the biggest power
moves in Mad Men in a long time and the first move that Roger really
spearheaded a deal on his own without following anyone else’s ideas. This is a
huge and amazing step for Roger for the first time he gets to step out of the shadow
of Bert and really get the chance to spearhead his own agency his way, while
redeeming himself as a human being as well. Sure the agency goes to McCann and
that might be problematic in the long run but for now this is Roger winning the
war and getting his friend back into the fold finally after Cutler has been
trying to push both Don and himself eventually out of the fold.
That’s the big stuff of this episode but that’s only the
begging of what happened throughout “Waterloo.” Don Draper’s second marriage
finally came to an end in the most perfect and least dramatic way possible, a simple
phone call. The call was so perfect and so subtly emotional; we really didn’t
need the big yelling and fireworks that came with the Don and Betty divorce
because that wasn’t what this marriage was. Don and Megan always loved each
other but it never felt like the thing Don had with Betty. This marriage almost
felt like an extended fling of Don’s with a little more attachment in between.
Don never fully felt there throughout many parts of the marriage and
considering how it ended it all seems to come around full circle.
We also get brief glimpses of Sally oh sweet, sweet Sally.
Much throughout the episode we (along with Betty and the rest of the crew) think
Sally is going to fall for the cynical hunk who parades shirtless through the
halls of the Francis residence, but instead she ends up kissing the nerdy
telescope guy ironically named Neil. It’s a sweet way to end off the half
season for Sally as it shows that despite hitting the puberty stages and
starting to grow up a little too fast that there is still a sweet girl behind that
vale, and that she’s not going to allow herself to be potentially trapped in a
situation with a disingenuous hunky prick like the one we get to see enter the
Francis residence.
Finally all of this takes place during the moon landing of
Apollo 11 which, unlike many of the past real life events that passed through Mad
Men, provided the episode with some amazing structure. The characters at the
start of the episode felt fear of what was coming ahead, such as Don fearing
the leave of the agency, Peggy fearing where her life is going, and Roger fearing
the life after Bert and ended up in a place of hope where everyone gets to make
their big move. It provided a perfect and optimistic ending for these seven
episodes of the show as we get liftoff from Don, Peggy and Roger at the most
ideal time.
Some other musings:
- It’s sweet that Julio gets to be the most important person (well maybe other than Don at this point) in Peggy’s life at the moment. The scene where the two share a hug is truly a sweet and somewhat heartbreaking moment as two lonely people who have seemed to find solace in each other might be separated due to people looking for houses.
- Lame Ted is a little bit lame, but Don’s speech to get him into the agency was awesome and the best pitch that don has thrown in a little while.
- Also Harry really needs to get in on this whole talking to people about this partnership idea as he again got thrown way under the bus here (which in very many ways was wholly satisfying).
- Meredith gets to play Hannibal Lector for this one as she tries to get Don to pull himself together by an attempted verbal (and a little bit physical) seduction. Didn’t quite have the charms of Lector but with time and practice she’ll get there.
And Folks that’s it for this year’s batch of episodes. As
much as I don’t want to say goodbye to this show seven episodes for now the
wait for the final seven is going to be unbearably long. This has been a really
good first half of a season with two nothing short of spectacular episodes to
cap it off. I’m going to miss this show when it’s gone that’s one thing I know
for sure.
But we’ve still got seven more episodes and a year’s wait to
go before we get there (Curse AMC for this stupid split). It’s going to be a
wild ride.
That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?
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