Well, it finally happened. It took us a long while to get here, but really, all it took was a little bit of effort on Don's part, and there you have it- Peggy and Don are back together, with Peggy resuming her role as his admiring sidekick once again. All is right with the world.
It's a bit of a Peggy-centric episode, actually, but we''l start with Pete. He comes back into town with girlfriend Bonnie in tow, ostensibly on vacation but also to see his daughter and hear the pitch for Burger Chef. Bonnie is super accomodating on the plane, inviting him to join the mile high club with her (after making it clear that she'd prefer he be divorced sooner rather than later), but that attitude doesn't last long, because when Pete goes to see Tami, she's shy with him and Trudy is nowhere to be seen, having left Tami in the care of the new maid. Pete is suspicious of that and even more so when he gets back from taking Tami out and Trudy still isn't there. So he stands Bonnie up for their theater date and waits until Trudy shows up. When she does he turns on the classic dickish Pete mode, angry that she was out on a date (although she doesn't admit to that), calling her an unfit mother and smushing his beer bottle into her newly baked cake. Now there's the douchebag we haven't seen in a while. Can't say I missed you though. Bonnie's so annoyed at his ignoring her on their trip that she goes back to California while he stays in New York.
Meanwhile, when Pete's at the office he invites Don in to hear the Burger Chef pitch, much to Peggy's annoyance, but she presents her idea and pretty much hits it out of the park, pleasing Lou and Pete, and seemingly Don too. She's happy with herself, but then Pete calls her in for a meeting with Lou and Ted via phone, where he tells her the idea is so good that he wants Don to present it to the clients. Peggy is stunned and crushed, but Lou and Ted kind of agree that Don is best at making the pitch, so she relents. Way to quickly get us back on Peggy's side again, Weiner. Peggy somewhat deflatedly tells Don the news, and he's thrilled about doing it, happy that working his way back up the ladder seems to be quickly paying off. However, he does mention to Peggy changing a slight element of the presentation, which immediately puts her on the path to thinking the whole strategy is flawed.
She hems and haws over it for a whole day, yelling at Stan and Don passive-aggressively, before finally relenting to Don as he comes in to find that she's thrown out the whole thing. This leads to one of the very best Don/Peggy scenes- like the ones we haven't gotten since probably season 5 (maybe even 4) as the two sit around drinking and brainstorming as Peggy asks him to tell her how he thinks and what he would do. She also confesses to him that she turned 30 and she's worried about her future, but Don assures her she's someone he's never worried about. The two then tearily make up and dance in the office to Frank Sinatra's "My Way," in a beautiful scene, maybe one of my favorites of the series. I like when Don and Peggy are a team. So the two eventually settle on the idea of Burger Chef as a substitute for a family dinner that's been slowly vanishing, and join a disgruntled Pete at the fast food joint, where she wants to shoot the commercial, Don now firmly on her side. The three of them chow down on burgers as they present the image of their own "real family," since theirs has all but disappeared for each of them as well.
In other news, Bob Benson is also back for a visit with his Detroit colleagues, one of whom gets arrested for soliciting an undercover cop. He then calls Bob because he knows he's gay himself and will keep quiet about it, also telling him that SC&P has lost Chevy but Bob will be going over to Buick in a big promotion. Bob is cautiously happy about it, but uses it as the chance to propose to Joan when he comes over with gifts for Kevin and her mother. Joan is flattered but is more concerned about their account, and flat out refuses him, saying she'd rather die hoping for love than make some kind of phony marriage arrangement. He begs Joan not to tell the partners what happened with Chevy but of course she has to. When Cutler confirms the news to everyone, they vote to go public with their new computer and make Harry Crane a partner. Joan and Roger seem to be especially furious about bringing Harry on board, particularly Joan for some reason (does she have special reasons to hate Harry that I'm forgetting about?). But Roger realizes that when he was approached by a guy from McCann in the saunas in an earlier scene it meant that they now have a chance to steal Buick.
Other tidbits:
-Megan visits Don this time and he's very attentive towards her, and she still seems to love him too, even though she's kind of pissed when a secretary at the office says she didn't even know Don was married. I really don't know what's going to happen with these two- Don appears to be trying and Megan says she wishes they could be together not in New York or California. At the end of the episode she's shown on the same plane as Bonnie, both headed back out west while their men stay in the city and appear reunited with Peggy. Who knows where it's leading.
-I can't believe next week is the season finale. That's just one of the most ridiculous things ever. A whole year to finish this season, really? Couldn't it come back in the fall or something? Things seem to be pointed towards a measure of happiness for these characters eventually, which is not quite what I would have predicted even a year ago. But it definitely looks to be perking up. My guess is Don nails the Burger Chef pitch and comes out on top. He's taken steps to improve himself so much this year that I don't see this ending in his downfall. He's still the hero of the show after all (and I personally think Matt Weiner's as well).
