Jenn recaps 4.09 "Hands and Knees"

Hands and Knees is right....Joan, then Roger, then Don and most shockingly..Lane. And seriously....how many more times this season is Don going to puke? It is probably the grossest, graphic puking I have ever experienced in TV or film.

This episode felt like a real game changer to me with everything basically hanging by a thread for most of the characters.

I love how it starts out with Beatlemania fever in little Sally Draper's shrieks...and in typical fashion all comes crashing down to pieces.

As soon as Joan walked into Roger's office and locked the door, I knew she was knocked up. Poor Joan. Then Poor Roger...he is so riled up between Lucky Strike and Joan being pregnant he drops the F bomb at the partners meeting. I wish Roger knew about Lee Garner, Jr.'s nasty entangle with Sal in the reel room. It would have been a great coup for Roger to get Lee right where it hurts and make him stay on with SCDP just so Roger does not expose him.

Slimeball Pete Campbell should just leave his wife already and join the ranks with Peggy, as they really deserve each other. What a hypocrite to call out Don meanwhile he and Peggy's lovechild is out there somewhere. Trudi's pink babydoll nightie made me laugh out loud. It was unbelievable, she looked like a ruffled Easter egg! And by the way, so relieved we got a break from Peggy this episode.

Happy with all the Betty tonight, and was so impressed she didn't let on about all of Don's dirty secrets. But too many people know now, and the cat's going to get let out of the bag and bite Don and it's probably not going to be the Defense Department. Telling Dr Faye was a red flag to me. Maybe here's where her Mafia father comes in to play. Or she's going to use it against him if things go sour between them and I am sure they will.

And Lane's father...oh my gosh. Straight up gangster, taking him out with the cane like that and then stepping on his hand...ohh how creepy! Poor Lane, it's why he's so rigid and repressed with his nasty father making him live in fear. I think he tried to impress him by taking him to the Playboy club where he's a key carrying member, but it's obvious who wears the pants in that relationship.

I loved the shots of the Playboy club. That whole subject of Playboy had never crossed my mind much until I saw a documentary on Hugh Hefner which I didn't want to watch, but ended up being so interesting especially the early history. A little known fact for our generation was his show called "Playboy After Dark." It was basically a talk show/party/concert all in one. I found this clip which is amazing. Tina Turner is total badass hottie in this, and the occasional shots of Hugh with his silhouetted pipe is so Camp.

Back to Mad Men though, I have my doubts Joan actually got an abortion. We'll have to see. I am hoping she didn't. In the back of my mind I kept thinking "Don't do it Joan, this may ruin your chances for ever having another."

I always love the song choices at the end of every episode and this little tune is actually one of my favorites by the Beatles. Perfect for this episode. I was left confused though, I didn't get the way he was looking at his secretary, Megan...did you?

Elisa recaps 4.09 "The Beautiful Girls"

The Blankenship hi-jinks in this episode really gave the cult comedy classic, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, a run for it's money. Peggy's little yip when she realizes she's just poked a corpse; Pete's attempt to wheel her body, chair and all, past the conference room; seeing Ken, Don & his lady love doctor watch the scene unfold without drawing attention to the Fillmore Auto suits; and overhearing Harry protest that his mother made the blanket hiding Blankenship--these are the little snippets of hilarity that I love about this show. Alas, I'm not sad to see her go.

So Don and Faye are having lunchtime trysts now are they? Wasn't it just last episode that we heard him tell the fair doctor that he wasn't ready to consummate their affair just yet? I'm so confused about how Don chooses who he beds. Also noteworthy: this was also the first time I remember seeing a woman on the show look disheveled during a midday dalliance! And shiny faced too...

I was excited to see Abe back in action, but not surprisingly, Peggy shuts him down when the two engage in a political clash of opinions. However, I find her arguments as self-serving as last week's showdown with Joan. She pushes aside the points that Abe is trying to make about Fillmore's racist agenda by bringing up her own indignation of the sexism she experiences. Personally, I really hate it when people argue that way. One issue does not negate the other! Well she doesn't deserve Abe's soup. I think her pot has definitely got some loose handles.

Sally Draper was the highlight of this episode. You can just see how she seems to be inheriting her mother's traits. Her smug smile when she thought she had her father wrapped around her finger... Her tantrum in front of all the ladies at the office when she refused to go with her mother...

Oh how I love the dynamic between Roger and Joan. Their very public fornication post-mugging was something I definitely wasn't expecting but leaves me hopefully for more Joan storylines! So far her domesticated stories are fairly tepid. I always wonder why Roger didn't leave Mona for Joan during their seemingly long affair together. Maybe they're leaving that open for season five? One can only hope...

Jenn recaps 4.09 "The Beautiful Girls"

The best thing about this show is that you never know what you're going to get. I've never seen such ironclad previews that leave you so desperately hanging, yet never reveal a thing about what actually is going to happen.

Episode 8 starts out with Don hurrying to meet someone and it turns out to be Dr. Faye Miller for a lunchtime shag. The 'ole Draper is back in the saddle with his mid afternoon love affairs!

Back at the office, Don makes it in time for his Auto meeting but is diverted twice with drama, the first being Sally has run away from home and taken the train to Manhattan to live with Don. The second, Peggy finds poor Miss Blankenship finally typed her last note and has passed away at her desk. While the Auto meeting is still on in the conference room, they have to quickly remove Blankenship in what ensues in utter hilarity at moving the body from the desk with an afghan that Harry's mother made. Despite all that Don manages to close the deal really showing how well he can handle a cut and dry meeting yet is totally lacking when it comes to showing comfort to his daughter or real regret for his secretary. "I would ask my secretary to do it - but she's dead!"

It was interesting to see the coupling of Joan and Roger's reactions to Blankenship. It struck them both hard, Joan because she saw herself as an older woman in Miss Blankenship, and Roger who too, is scared he will meet that same fate. The trauma causes them to rekindle the closeness and chemistry they have always shared. I had been wondering when they might reconnect, it's so obvious that they both love each other. Roger is able to really be himself around Joan without having to crack jokes all the time just to fill in the gaps. I thought the mugging scene could have been shot much better, but still shows how easy it was for them to tell the truth to one another about their feelings after being stripped down of both their possessions and guard. This is only the beginning I think of what is to come for them. Is she going to get pregnant with Roger's baby? Is Greg going to die in Vietnam? It seems that Roger will surely be single again with Jane Siegal Sterling off to the Hamptons for the weekend on a Wednesday. The fact that Joan's ring was taken was a clear sign of foreshadowing.

Poor Sally Draper. She is the direct casualty of her parent's irresponsible parenting and divorce. She is getting so grown up looking, but is starving for attention and love. She is such a good actress too, her scene with Don when he was tucking her in asking to live with him was so tender and real. Then in the morning proving how responsible she can be by making French toast with Rum on top for her father and then going to the Central Park Zoo. I want that day too!

I thought this episode really demonstrated the weakness of men and how they constantly rely on women especially in times of trouble. Don cannot leave his business meeting even though he has a child in trouble and a dead secretary, so he enlists Faye to take care of his daughter for the rest of the day. Roger needs Joan for comfort even though she has a much larger worry going on in her own life. The receptionist is now having to shuffle between Don's desk and the waiting room. Joan has to write the obituary for Miss Blankenship even though Bert clearly knows much more about her evidenced by Roger's tapes about her being a hellcat and sleeping with Bert.

The only woman not giving comfort is Betty. We see her as not too fazed that Sally has run away from home and was in potential danger, but rather sees it as an opportunity to punish Don by making him keep her for the night just so he can see what it's like. Toward the end when Betty comes to pick up Sally at the office, I love how the women of the office hover in the doorway staring at Betty like a pack of wolves. It is as if they are saying, "We can see everything that is going on here even though we don't know you. What is wrong with you, your child needs your love." Betty ignores it and seems more worried about the fact that Sally has made her late.

Perhaps much more trouble is on the horizon with Sally and whatever it is will bring Betty and Don together and he'll have to choose his family or Faye.
Although I should stop predicting because this show is brilliantly unpredictable!

Details:

1. I just loved the snippet of Joan answering the door for her massage in those awesome glasses and pink PJ's. She's just so sexy even when lounging around. I want her to wear those glasses to the office, let her hair down and wear pants one day. That would be so fierce.

2. I always wonder when I see people having an afternoon shag during work hours in movies and TV about how many people in real life are actually doing this. I know it goes on a lot, but how does it work especially for the ladies? Wouldn't it be obvious by mussed hair...buttons missing or buttoned wrong? Must be stressful. Just something I've always wondered. I really cannot imagine myself with my kind of crazy hair showing up after all that and carrying on!

Jenn Recaps 4.08 "The Summer Man"

After last week’s alcohol infused binge and all-nighter with Peggy at the office, Don is shaking it off by cleaning up his act and doing some soul searching, starting with copious amounts of swimming at the swanky New York Athletic Club.

Right away the voice-overs start as Don writes in his diary and we get inside his head for a change instead of seeing his blank, vague expressions, which are usually what makes him so appealing. Remember SNL’s Don Draper’s Guide to Women this is the Don I love. I usually hate voice-overs, there are so few instances where they actually work, and if they do, it’s because they are funny.

Up until this point, Don had learned how to navigate through life by compartmentalizing and controlling his emotions very cleverly, but the divorce, separation from his children and Anna’s death has sent him on a fast downward spiral.

Summer is coming and the world is starting to change. Don standing outside the N.Y.A.C. with “Satisfaction” by the Stones playing in the background shows the shift from his era to the counter-culture. I love these outdoor shots and want more. Can’t he drive that red Thunderbird from LA around NYC? We need more parties, country clubs, trips to the beach, nightclubs and boating. That trip last season to Palm Springs was killer, especially with the spot on portrayal of the guests at the house.

Enough already with Mrs. Blankenship…it was funny the first couple times, but now it’s just tired. Even Don is funnier than she is. “Get Ray Charles in here!”

It was great seeing more of Betty in the episode. The patina is starting to wear off in the Francis marriage. Henry was a total rebound and I think she is starting to feel some after shocks from her hasty divorce from Don. Seeing Don out on a date with someone who looked like a younger version of her, got her completely unnerved in part from the shock first, and then the realization that she is married to an older boring man {that’s really like her father, rather than a husband} and won’t be having fancy romantic dinners out and going to glamorous parties with handsome Don especially with the ‘Swinging Sixties’ ready to kick into high gear.

It all results in a typical Betty-style drunken temper tantrum, and quietly I was cheering as she and Henry fought in the car. I have always had Henry pegged as the snake-oil salesmen and waiting for his underlying controlling behavior to come out. Never trust a man who suggests a quickie divorce in Reno. I could not believe he asked Don to come the day before Gene’s birthday to get rid of boxes, all the while rubbing it in that Don is not welcome at his own son’s party. I would love to see a Draper -Francis fight where Don knocks him right between the lights and Betty secretly fawns while watching from the kitchen window. I am hoping she leaves Henry and gets back to her rebellious ways and takes up a wild nightlife. Her one night stand in the bar was unforgettable.

And then of course there is the office uproar triangle between Joan, Joey, and Peggy. Poor Joan is in the most vulnerable place we’ve seen her with the stress around her husband’s departure to Vietnam. Typically she is the office powerhouse using her charm and buxotic beauty to snap all the gentlemen into place. But when Joey crosses the line, and self-righteous Peggy jumps at the opportunity to put herself in a place of power, Joan being Joan gives her such an unbelievable verbal smack in the elevator putting her in her place. I love Joan’s ability to cut right to the bone and show people how it really is.

“All you’ve done is prove to them that I’m another meaningless secretary, and you’re a humorless bitch”

It was a great surprise at the end to see Don bite the bullet and show up at the birthday party bringing the elephant. So my question is, does this symbolize Don as the elephant in the room or Henry? Or is the elephant in the room the fact that Betty is still in love with Don?

ps: After their date, Don drops off Bethany at the Barbizon, the famous women’s only hotel with a vast history. Vanity Fair wrote a story about it in their last issue. I want to own this series so I can watch it just to uncover the minute details in the script and the objects placed very specifically within the sets. It is so amazing! AMC just came out with the Mad Men scrapbook showing props from the episodes! It’s so cool…Elisa are you able to check it out? I hope so.

Elisa Drunkcaps 4.08 "The Summer Man"

Jenn, sorry I'm drinking Strongbows and pretty much drunkenly reiterating everything I said on gchat today... Ha! Here's hoping there's not too much repetition... Salut!

Okay, a Don Draper voiceover? Since when did Mad Men become The Wonder Years? Or Doogie Howser for that matter... I'm not sure I like this new Dear Diary approach. Although it gives me an excuse to create this wickedly awesome graphic.

By the way, what year did that Stones ditty come out? Being trapped in the office episode after episode makes me forget what year we are really in!

So I really hate this new direction they're taking with Joey. I loved the whole "John and Marsha" bit in the first episode of this season where they had Joey and Peggy playing off each other. After losing quite a bit of the cast when birthing the new firm, I was warming up to the young art director (although I would have Sal back in an instant if I could). What's with the 180? Don't they have enough creative jerk juice with the newly introduced Stan? Joey's sudden mom and egotistical issues are popping up out of nowhere! Calling Joan a Shanghai whorehouse Madam is pretty unforgivable. And Harry being in love with him? He's probably just jealous he missed out on being crushworthy for Sal.

Mrs. Blankenship is also grating on my nerves every week. Random fact: did you know she was the mom on Karate Kid? I abhor the use of comedic relief in such a campy way for such a high quality show! This new Don 2.0 with the introspection, abstaining from alcohol (and sex), and constant swimming is turning my beloved show into the most boring hour of television. He needs a new hot, young secretary and how.

Although I can't keep track of the blondes he's with now. Office blonde and True Blood blonde. Office blonde is so bland to me that I think I was IMDB-ing on my iPhone during her whole date scene, so I can't even comment on that part. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see True Blood Blonde back this episode. And her storyline brought my Betty back in the action with some great scenes! Distracted dinner Betty is awesome. So is drunk passenger Betty. I cannot wait until she divorces Henry to take on another lover or husband. I'm hoping that she'll evolve into that older sexpot with a line of ex-husbands and young lovers.

I'm completely over old man Henry. Driving into Don's boxes was a big douche move. Same with asking Don to move them before Gene's birthday bash, totally subtexting the fact that Don wasn't invited. It was interesting to hear Henry has a mansion with servants during Betty's drunken car outburst. Why don't the Drapers move into this mansion? Especially when it seems like Sally is pretty much set on busting out of that suburb.

Joan & Peggy: this is such a difficult era for a female to comment on without some bias. The antics of the guys are clearly deplorable: sexist cartoons of Joan and Lane, comments from Joey about Joan looking like she wants to be raped (my jaw dropped when he spewed that line), etc etc. But the way the two main ladies handle themselves is so different that although I should be applauding Peggy for her "equality now" standpoint, I find myself cringing when she tattles on to Don and bandies about her power. So Peggy self-righteously saves the day by canning bizarro Joey and Joan gets the last word by letting her know it.

And Joan! When in the world are we going to get more storylines about her Vietnam bound hubby? The 15-second snippets of her home life are so few and far between that we go from hating her husband, to wishing he wasn't destined to the frontlines of the tragedy to come whenever we get the small glimpses of his humanity. If we can get one whole season of Pete's in-laws and au pairs, then we deserve to see more Joan. I can seriously freehand draw the giraffe artwork in the Cambpell apartment.

Scene stealer of the episode: young Gene. The subtle mixture of "who the hell are you?" and "please let me down" really illustrate the confusion of hardly ever setting eyes on his birth father. The kid should win an Emmy hands DOWN.

I hope I didn't miss anything! Can't wait to see what Jenn's got to say...