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Mad Men Episode #404 The Rejected — Open Thread

2010 August 15
tags:
by TopIdol

Peggy Peggy Peggy. Secretary Allison thinks she slept with Don! She has a new admirer — a Time-Life photographer who shows a bit of sapphic interest in our copy-writing heroine. Poor Don! Everyone thinks he’s a drunk. And an old man! Compare side-by-side to…poor old-school Freddy Rumson. He’s no longer a drunk, but he still thinks all women just want a husband. Poor Don’s secretary…hmmm. She should have known what she was getting herself into. Blond psychologist lady is still annoying in her Kristen Wiig kind of way, but will I end up liking her? (Can’t Rachel Menken just come back forever? Maybe Sal is working for Rachel! I will tell myself this is true.)

Tonight’s episode also welcomes back an old favorite — Ken Cosgrove. HE WAS NOT DRIVING THE TRACTOR DAMMIT! Oh, how I’ve missed the Pete vs. Ken sparring. And speaking of Pete, he’s gonna be a daddy. But this time it’s different since the soon-to-be mother found out about it before she went into labor and oh yeah, it’s his wife.

Tonight’s Mad Men! Discuss! Are all women looking for male validation? Whether it’s telling us we’re beautiful or just being able to put our best qualities & strengths into their own words rather than the ones we tell them to say?

(Trudy is with child. Yeah…I just got the heebie geebies when Pete said it.)

Spread the word. Do it.
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from → Randomness

  • wino

    I wonder if they are slowly paving the way for Sally to come live with Don? Maybe that will force him to get his act together?

    Peggy and Pete…so much chemistry btw those two. They really are equals. I do think both are heading their own (separate) ways but something tells me their personal lives will cross paths again.

    Did you get the pears?…My fave line of the season so far :) And yes, producers/writers, we “got/noticed the pairs”.

  • JaneRochester

    There was so much funny in this episode:

    Harry ordering a Caesar salad, “Hold the dressing.” WTF????
    Peggy peeking over the wall.
    Pete and Lane trying to talk around that damned column
    Finally,

    “No, but he’s renting it.”

    It actually overpowered the Extreme Depression that is The Life of Don Draper right now.

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      No but he’s renting it was hilarious. This might be the best-ever Peggy episode and while this may sound crazy, but it resonated with me unlike anything I’ve seen on TV in a very long time. Perhaps it’s because Peggy and I have the same career, this episode particularly struck a chord. It felt like a lot of my life, even though I’m not naive and I’m slightly older (hey, she’s learning! She’s learning why some people don’t respect what she does, especially when they brand themselves “artists.”) but the stark differences between the “creative” office and the “creative underground scene” felt very real to me and how that dichotomy shapes your life. Even 45 years later, those lines still exist, even if we think we at least blurred them all to hell.

      I think something else to note in that final scene is that Peggy re-realizes she would not have an exciting life if she would have kept the baby and “shamed Pete into marrying her,” per se. There would be no fun underground artist parties or a career she loves. Just the imagery of that final moment when their eyes meet as she’s getting on the elevator with her new counter culture friends and Pete is back with the secretaries and the suits. A wall divides them, but a glass one. They’re worlds apart, but they can still see one another.

      • deez

        I can’t WAIT to watch this again! I think I missed so much…frakking people talking while I’m trying to watch!! (was it not a hint that I continually bumped up the volume to try to drown out their conversation…oh, I suppose that makes ME the “rude one” :) )

      • http://8sourcandy.wordpress.com/ 8sourcandy

        Very insightful commentary TI. I can’t wait to see it.

        I am downloading the episode as I type this. (bought the itunes pass) I just caught up on
        the last few episodes this past weekend. I really like this show. Happy you recommended it.

    • On The Edge

      Yes, but…did you get any pears?

    • deez

      FINALLY got to rewatch! Caught the “No, but he’s renting it.” LOL…I did miss a lot the first time…Peggy’s head popping up over the wall was great! I also liked the expression on Don’s face when she was trying on the wedding ring.( I still didn’t get why the Life staffers wanted to look at Megan.)

      • On The Edge

        Hmmm…why do I get the feeling Megan has done some “modeling” for that photographer?

  • deez

    Peggy is a different person. I actually LIKE her now. She’s making the NY art scene? (Is that authentic 60′s lingo?) Who woulda thunk? Poor Allison…Don can’t even be bothered to write her a recommendation. (Oh Well…) Maybe I’m stupid, but why were the LIFE magazine staffers going to gawk at the receptionist? I think I missed something (I need to watch it again).

    This episode was awesome. The first (3 was it?) few felt odd somehow, but this one felt “right.”

  • Beanbag

    I love Pete and Peggy. But I like Pete and Trudy, too. This was a really good episode, with a lot of the characters involved and a lot going on. Love the convo w/Lee at the beginning: “no, the jockey is smoking the cigarette”. Heh. Did anyone see that very brief shot of Cooper sitting in reception reading and eating an apple (and not wearing shoes).

    What I really want to know, though – did she get the pears?!?

  • cc

    I’ve never thought I’ll say this but I’m looking forward for Betty to come back next week. Maybe she’s the only one that can bring the old (the confident and undepressed) Don. IMO, tonight episode is ten times better than the last two this season. I love all the scenes with Peggy’s new crowd, sooo many good lines. I lol-ing so hard at Don’s neighbors and his ~new secretary.

  • jukejoint

    I’m in a hotel with wifi that’s slipping in and out, but at least the TV has AMC. I don’t know what I thought of this episode. The Rejected was the title. And I get that, with Allison not getting what she wanted from Don, the other chick in the Ponds discussion not getting what she wanted from her ex-boyfriend, the girl from LIFE rejecting the photos, maybe even Peggy feeling rejected by Pete because Trudy is preggers. But part of it was about New vs. Old, with Peggy hanging with lesbian Warhol cool kids and Pete stuck with the Old Guard corporate snoozers in suits. So… Rejected? Or Moving On? Or what?

    Man, I wish my mom, best secretary ever, had been willing to leave small-town Illinois and go to NY and become Don Draper’s Girl Friday. She would’ve been 40 by then and not his type, anyway, and she would’ve been such a good secretary for him without the romantic entanglement problems. He needs someone like my mom was then, somewhere in between naive and schmoopy Allison and Florence Stanley/Thelma Ritter/cranky old crone.

    John Slattery directed this episode and he did a great job, but there wasn’t enough Roger in the episode because of it, I guess. I, personally, need more Roger per episode.

    I find Ken kind of a slimeball, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to see him again. He was okay, though. Interesting to know Pete still resents him. I guess Ken fits in the “The Rejected,” since he was rejected by SCDP. And Pete was pretty darn good this episode, from facing off with the father-in-law and raising the stakes, plus he was cute with Trudy. Let’s just say I find Pete less offensive than Harry right now, and that’s unusual.

  • FreeDavidCook

    Peggy’s reaction to finding out Pete’s wife is having a baby really got to me. The lingering looks that they exchanged as she left at the end. Peggy and Pete aren’t over it seems.

  • On The Edge

    So, what’s with the Sarah Silverman look-alike? Ah, Peggy…still so naive. Can’t wait for her to go deeper into the counter-culture.

    I feel like I need to go to Wikipedia and research who owned what back in the day (Clearasil and Vicks? Mountain Dew and Pepsi?).

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      If I am not mistaken, Mountain Dew is and has been for some time a product of Pepsi Co.

      • On The Edge

        I’m curious as to when they bought them, or merged. I actually have some “throwback” Mountain Dew in my fridge right now, with the old hillbilly marketing and real sugar instead of HFCS. God, sodas taste so much better without the corn syrup.

        • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

          It was always with Pepsi…since 1964. I’m going to have to playback that scene.

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Dew

          • On The Edge

            Never mind, on the rerun and saw the first scene with Pete and Harry, DUH.

    • On The Edge

      Ah, DAMN IT! Severe thunderstorm moving through and I lost my satellite signal! Somebody give me a live play-by-play…last I saw Peggy was talking nude photography and they finally found a secretary Don won’t fuck…well, maybe he will but he’ll have to be REALLY drunk.