It's transition time for SC&P, with the whole crowd moving over to the enormous McCann offices, and the various members of the Mad Men cast finding it difficult, if not impossible, to adapt. We'll start with the person who has the most horrendous, and ultimately aborted experience moving over, which is Joan, who was right last week that she was going to be cast aside, despite Pete's optimism (and his halfhearted attempt to include her on an account in this episode). At the new place, she's forced to work with Dennis the asshole, who's rude to her clients and when Joan tries to scold him, reacts very badly and doesn't like being reprimanded, or really told anything at all, by a woman. Joan tries to go to Ferg Donnelly for help (he's the lackey who brought the guys over last week), and at first he seems like he'll help her out by taking Dennis off her accounts and taking his place himself...but only if Joan will agree to occasionally sleep with him. Gross. Joan goes to her boyfriend Bruce Greenwood for advice, who tells her the two ways to deal with people are to get lawyers involved or "call a guy," (what, like a mobster?) and Joan bravely attempts the first, by confronting Jim Hobart himself.
But this goes even worse than with the other men, as Hobart flatly tells her he does not respect her, her partnership, or her job, and when Joan demands that she be bought out for the half a million she's owed, he refuses, telling her she'll get .50 cents on the dollar or nothing. Joan tries her best, threatening to bring in lawyers and the women's rights protesters, but it's still a bit early on that front, and Hobart orders her to get out and doesn't care about a thing she says. It's finally Roger who convinced her to take the half, since it's the best she'll ever do. Joan sadly accepts the deal and walks out, and I have a melancholy feeling that this is the last we see of her- but at least she gets her nice millionaire and will probably go on to have a reasonably happy life. If it had only been ten years later or so- she may have been able to fight for what was hers.
Speaking of Roger, he spends the episode hanging out at the now abandoned SC&P building, where Peggy is as well, since she too is already being shabbily treated by McCann, where they never brought her furniture over or gave her an office, and mistook her for one of the new secretaries. Peggy's pissed about all of it, and refuses to show up until she at least has an office, meaning she hangs out in the empty building where the lights are shut off and she's surprised and spooked by Roger playing weird organ music in the hallway. That's not the only funny moment the two of them share, as they get drunk together, reminisce and worry about what their respective futures hold, as Roger bemoans that he's been placed on a floor with other useless old people, while Peggy will have to claw her way up (if she's even given the chance). It's all worth if for the last shot of them as Roger grinds away on his organ while Peggy roller skates around the empty halls, and a defiant Peggy finally shows up at McCann three days late, strolling in with sunglasses on, a cigarette in her mouth, and Cooper's naughty painting of an "octopus pleasuring a lady," that Roger told her to take and hang on the wall. That's pretty awesome. I just wonder how long she will last here.
Finally, we get to Don, who at first comes over to the McCann offices ready to get to work, as Jim and Ferg butter him up and make him feel like he's being courted by them (Hobart insists they've wanted him for ten years), and Meredith has everything planned exactly as he needs it...but our Don, he's never satisfied. As he walks into a Miller meeting he realizes that he's only one of many others, and while colleague Ted is happy to be anonymous in the crowd, Don stares out the window at a passing plane and suddenly walks out of not just the meeting, but the office and then the state. He starts driving aimlessly, hallucinating visions of Bert Cooper asking him what he's doing, and winds up in Wisconsin, looking for Diana the waitress. Are you kidding, Don? Really? He actually poses as a collection agent who asks Diana's ex-husband where she is, but the guy's too smart for that and threatens to call the police on him (as well he should- Don's acting like a lunatic here). But then Bauer tells Don he's not the first guy to come looking for her, and the truth is Diana can't be saved, which sends Don on his way, but not back to New York. No, he heads out further west, picking up a hippie hitch-hiker on route, not knowing where he's going (but I'm betting on California, since he always winds up there eventually).
Notes:
-Betty gets one scene tonight, as Don shows up there before his journey to pick up Sally, who already went back to school, and the two are friendly and warm with each other, as Don wishes her luck with school- and for some reason I have the feeling this will be the last scene these two share as well. Which is for the best and all, but things are inevitably starting to feel like wrapping up.
-Don and Joan have a nice moment in the elevator at McCann, and even though we never saw them make up from their ugly spat a season and a half ago, apparently they did, because they're fun and flirty friends again, who agree to have lunch together soon, and of course now I'm realizing that scene was probably included because that's that for the two of them as well. Sniff.
-Pete seems to be happy enough at McCann, along with underlings like Harry and Stan, but all of them are on separate floors now, as the old crew really does split up for good. Next week's previews showed some split Pete, Betty, and Sally fragments, so my guess is it's time for their swan songs now before the final episode will give us mostly Don, and probably Peggy too, right? Even though tonight's final Peggy shot could very well be her last (it was a good one for her), I can't imagine the show signing off for good without one more Don/Peggy moment, since they've had so little this year. Even if it's over the phone or something, I bet we'll see her one more time.
