Well, it's Valentine's Day, following the typical one month jump (on the show's timeline) between Mad Men episodes, and it's a day of personnel shifts around the office, heartbreaks, frustrations and embarrassment for a lot of folks. We'll start with the best stuff in the episode, which is by far the strained, and by the end of the night what looks to be repaired, relationship between Don and Sally.
After the ambiguous yet possibly understanding final glance shared between the father and daughter at the end of last season's finale, Sally is back in this episode, traveling with her boarding school friends into the city for a funeral. The funeral of her roommate's mother, which the girls seem to be pretty callous and dismissive about, mostly excited to go shopping in New York (Sally even says she'd do anything to get Betty in the ground... you're not alone, Sal). But when they're on the train headed back, Sally realizes she lost her purse and ditches the group, showing up at SC&P looking for Don. She's stunned to find Lou's name on her dad's door and the old man treats her pretty crudely, telling her to go find him at home. When she does, Don comes back to of course immediately lie to her, saying he left the office early because he's feeling sick. Bad move, Don. The familiar feeling of anger and disappointment with her dad's dishonesty sets in, and Sally instantly shuts down.
But it turns out that Don's been getting at home visits from office Dawn (in between lounging around watching Little Rascals shorts), who he's paying extra to keep him up to date on what's happening in the office, and Dawn manages to call him about Sally's visit right before he takes her back to school. Now Don's angry at Sally for letting him lie to her and the two share a stony drive back to the school, at least for a while, before Don finally confronts her about it, accusing her of acting like Betty (who we still don't see in this episode by the way). That's the wrong thing to say again, and Sally admits she wanted to embarrass him as much as possible by catching him in a lie, also telling him how hard it was to go to his apartment and risk running into Sylvia (who she says makes her want to vomit). Don is somewhat cowed by her honesty and takes a detour, pulling into a diner where he finally attempts to be honest with his kid. He admits to her he lost his job for telling the truth and lets Sally question him about everything, including whether he still loves Megan (he says he does) and why he won't just confess to wanting to stay in New York. This rare and candid talk from him finally breaks down her defenses and she calls her friends to tell them she's with her dad and even laughs at his joke about wanting to skip out on the bill. At the end of the episode when Don drops her off with a note she wishes him a Happy Valentine's Day and tells him she loves him, which he's taken aback by- and that my friends, is the closest you'll ever get to something approaching what could be considered a "heartwarming" Mad Men moment. Kiernan Shipka was as usual, fantastic in this episode, totally holding her own with Jon Hamm, and the Sally/Don bond is quickly becoming the core of the series as it nears the finish line.
In other embarrassing moments, Peggy spends the episode in a bratty state of self-absorption, mistaking the roses on secretary Shirley's desk to be hers from Ted (they couldn't possibly be Shirley's right? Oh wait, oops- they are), and proceeds to spend all day wondering why he sent them, sending him messages that she's over him, blah blah blah. When she finally figures out they're not hers she yells at Shirley and blames her for the whole mess, demanding that Joan remove her from the desk, which coincides with Lou's annoyance at Dawn reporting to the other Don on his time, also demanding that Joan move her around. Joan tries to accommodate them but Cooper objects to having a person "of color" at reception, and all the personnel shifts finally amount to Cutler realizing that even though Joan is by all means an account person now, she's still performing her other job. So he relieves her from it, moving her upstairs to a new office in accounts, and leaving Dawn to be promoted to head of personnel herself. Well, that worked out alright.
In the accounts department, Pete brings in a new one from California, but the partners shoot it down over a hilariously inept long distance speaker phone conference, with Cutler essentially browbeating Roger into running it by Detroit first. Which of course, Pete strenuously objects to, as that would involve his mortal enemy Bob Benson, even though he denies that's the reason. He's upset by the whole thing and shoots off on one of his classic vents to Ted, who really isn't forthcoming with much sympathy and Pete complains about his being too moral to be stuck with all the time (heh). He then falls into a very self-pitying Pete mood, but is woken up by his realtor girlfriend Ronnie, who tells him she's lost big sales under worse conditions (acts of God, as she puts it), and basically that's just the shitty business they're in. Well, that's good to know, all though I don't think this girl's gonna be around for the long haul, do you?
Other Tidbits:
-Dawn and other secretary Shirley (who's relocated to be Lou's girl at the end of this hour) have private kitchen sessions to bitch about their bosses, and it's noticeable how Dawn puts on a complete other voice when she's talking to the white people in the office. Now I'm wondering which one is the actress in real life.
-Has anyone noticed how insanely short the dresses are this season? There's no way anyone could sit down in those things, but if you've ever seen movies or TV from the late 60's it's eerily accurate, which is nuts.
-No sign of Betty again, which is fine with me (I don't think Matt Weiner is that fond of her either), but Sally's ultra-prominence in this one makes me think she's supplanted Betty's entire character in importance on the show, which is kind of cool. Just think about how tiny she was in the first season and where she is now. It's crazy to think it's been 7 years, but that's what happens with kid actors, although it's a lot more of an asset on a show like this, where Kiernan Shipka's role can actually grow and become of more value as opposed to one like Game of Thrones, where the kids' rapid aging is now becoming a pretty big liability.
