Shut the door, take a seat. – translation: All hell, in fact, as per Grampa Gene, does break loose.

The rumors were true; the sale of SC was being prepared. The buyer? Conrad Hilton. He was going to purchase SC just for the satisfaction of firing Don (his mediocre surrogate son) who failed to get him not just the moon but not even a motor lodge on Haley’s Comet. However, Bert Cooper’s death though certainly sordid and icky was very timely for SC. The deal is on hold until Bert’s estate is settled.

Our boy Don is shaking off the shameful and meek persona of the last two weeks. In dog food terms, he’s feeling his oats. And of course enjoying the delicious oat bran and cranberry muffins Suzanne sends him out the door with in the morning.
Betty meanwhile has hired a lawyer and waits.

Speaking of necessary pests, a swarm of attorneys descends on the SC conference room where we learn that Bert has given his share of the company to. . . Ubermensch and surrogate son Don Draper. He has willed his power to the Important One. Bert grins from everywhere, Nietzsche smiles from nowhere.
Roger is irate. He has a coronary event and while awaiting the medics, asks for a Lucky and wheezes his last, cradled in . . .**irony alert**. . . Lois’ arms.
(we will learn next season that Roger has willed his share of SC control to Joan. Smile now. Don Draper, Joan Holloway Harris and Alice Cooper will rock the advertising world next year)

The SC ownership shake-up means Pete’s promotion to Head of Accounts is scrapped. Pete does not dance. Pete drinks heavily, and does something impulsive and violent. (fill in the blank here yourselves, I can’t think of everything)

Peggy has been quite serene lately, annoyed only by the munchies now and then, but Duck keeps at her about a reconciliation; he’s “changed” he claims, she need not gargle with Canadian Club before their canoodling. Peggy relents and agrees to meet him. But she sees he’s not so new and different. “If it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, and so forth . . .” So Peggy gives him a sympathy go-round and next morning tells him they are done for good.
Duck is outraged and heartbroken. Duck gets sauced (had to do it! LOFL) and does something impulsive and violent. (See Pete directions above)

Now seriously, we cut to an office where a serious looking man in horn-rimmed glasses is sitting at a serious looking desk looking serious. We switch the angle to see Betty across the desk looking very serious. We hear a long loud bell ring and thru the doorway we see Suzanne approaching. She stops at the threshold.
Betty looks icily at her over her shoulder. We watch Suzanne as it starts to dawn on her why the principal has asked to see her. A rainbow of well-acted subtle emotions cascades across her sweet face. (yeah I know. Opinions vary) She bites the inside of her lip and her eyes begin to well with tears.
“You wanted to see me, Principal Skinner?”
The principal speaks, “Shut the door, have a seat.”

Don gets a call late in the work day from Suzanne. Through the tears she tells him the story. They’ve been caught; she’s been fired. A rainbow of well-acted emotions cascades across his sweet face (but this we all agree on) He tells her to not worry, things are never as earth-shattering as they first appear; he reminds her that right now she’s looking at her life and she’s seeing the color yellow but he looks at that same life and he assures her it’s still blue. (Entire audience swoons.)

We see Don driving. He looks at the reflection of his eyes in the rearview mirror.

Don walks into the house and kisses the kids and asks them to go watch TV.
“Bets, we have to talk.”
“You are right about that, Dick.”

She follows him into his office. She shuts the door. We are left in the hallway to ponder the bittersweet vagaries of life; maybe we can find some Ritz crackers in the kitchen.

Cut to the front street looking up the walk to the lighted porch and the red door. It opens and we see the man in his London Fog trench coat. He carries an American Tourister suitcase. He steps forward. Cut to a view from inside the house looking out at Don as he turns, kneels and reaches out to hug Sally and then Bobby. He looks up at Betty and (believe it or not I don’t know what I think we’ll see on his mug this time)
Don turns and walks toward the Cadillac. Cut back to the view from the street looking at the porch. We see Betty slightly behind the kids; Sally just in front of her with Bobby next to his sister. Bobby reaches up to wave but stops his hand near his eye.

Cut to black. Cue the music, “Knight’s of the Round Table” from Monty Python’s Spamalot

That is the way I’m calling it. Probably won’t even watch the last two hours. It would be anticlimactic.
My idiocy is captured for posterity on this fine blog. Thanks R&D!

The Grown-Ups – translation: Adults acting childishly.

Betty knows she has the power edge over Don in Chez Draper. Don is being very submissive and deferential to her being in the dog house and she’s surprised to feel more and more disgusted with him for just that. She wants to be in the loop on the money decisions. She’s still not sure if she can ever trust him.

Betty sees Francine at the A&P and lords something over her which provokes Francine to be a little more catty than usual. Francine tells her that weird things are happening in the neighborhood. The night before Halloween she could have sworn she saw Don’s car parked down the block from the house. But of course she must be wrong because she saw a woman inside, obviously waiting for the driver to come back.
Later that night Betty confronts Don (she’s getting to like this power stuff). Don reverts to form and lies. But he’s sort of telling the truth because he hasn’t had sex with Suzanne for a few days. Suzanne is heartbroken but she’s been tough and lying low, alone for now.

Back at SC, Lane has become increasingly strange. He appears drunk one morning; later that day he’s seen wearing the armored Knight’s helmet, and chatting up the girls. Could this be related to the rumors that the company is for sale? That Bombay is on his itinerary?

Pete feels he’s losing ground to Ken. He grovels back to father-in-law and persuades him to bring Clearasil back to SC. Pryce wearing a Jackie-like lavender pillbox declares the contest over and Pete the victor. Huzzah! Pete does a dance again. Ken shrugs.

We discover that Peggy has used her obvious charms and sundry body parts to get Sal a job at Duck’s store. But she feels the need to break the relationship off. The sex has gotten stranger. The Duck can’t “quack” unless and until she has liquor on her breath. Men demand a lot from Pegs. She tells him goodbye.

Bert Cooper, light-years ahead of his time, is found dead in his bedroom, hanging pant less from the ceiling fan with a copy of The Fountainhead at his feet. The police suspect something foul of course but won’t have the term “autoerotic asphyxiation” for a few years.
JFK is shot.
Margaret has the wedding of the century.

Tuesday morning the day after JFK’s funeral, Suzanne comes to the office to see Don. Don tells Allison to hold his calls. There is no cute exasperated look from her this time.
Suz is distraught. Don consoles. Suzanne wants him to stop by. Don wants to, yet declines. They embrace. Don smells fresh bread. He says he’ll be by tonight.

After dinner at Casa de Draper, which Don has eaten very little of, Don calls Conrad. Or so he tells Betty. The most boring one-sided conversation is overheard and Don announces he must heed his master’s voice and go into the city. Betty replies, “If you must”.

Don heads out. Betty watches from the window as he drives off. Fifteen minutes later there’s a phone call from the gumshoe she has hired to tail her slippery hubby. Betty gets Gene ready and tells Sally and Bobby they’re all going out for Carvelle’s. Children in tow, Betty drives to the location of Miss Farrell’s garage loft and spies the Caddy just up the block. She looks up at the window to see two shadows on the cheap, tawdry curtains and she gets that pigeon sniping look on her face.
Credits roll to Herman Hermits “Silhouettes”

if Don’s true self is his created self – i.e. if Don is his essence, not the person who was the trauma of his Dick (ensian) childhood, Betty wins.

if Dick is his true self – if this man is really COMFORTABLE and wants to live in the skin of his childhood story of who he is, then he and Betty are strangers because she doesn’t know and isn’t married to that man.

Since this season has been all about how miserable Don has become as his life has fallen apart, is this meant to also show that Don’s return to “dickness” with Suzanne is not a positive move on his part? — in the same way that losing his freedom with S/C is not positive (and makes him more “childlike” in his relation to his business relations)

All the other negatives of this season deal with Don reverting to things associated with Dick- his passive/aggressive father figure, Hilton, the contract that ties him (as it did to the army), and that ties him because of the part of his life that pertains to Dick… his inability to please Betty’s father because “he has no people” with all the hostility that created for son-in-law and father-once-removed figure.

Since others have constantly noted that Suzanne figures into the sepia-toned flashbacks because her scenes evoke that same idea, then I’d have to say that Suzanne is part of the negative in Don’s life, even tho she offered him a decent night’s sleep away from baby Eugene and baby Connie, has touched some fantasy of innocence that is totally void of context (i.e. pay no attention to the fact that she was his child’s teacher, she met his wife when she was about to go into labor, hit on the man when his wife went into labor, pretended she wasn’t hitting on him when she was, then pretended that there were no consequences for following him onto the train, going to his house and waiting in the car, etc.) and allowed Don to try to make up just a little bit for his treatment of his brother.

I see your point and I wrestled with those Anna implications and, don’t forget, the first DD probably had parents and sibs and friends; there is mucho collateral damage. But I really think “the fog of war” kind of gives him a personal pass. And by buying Anna the house and new life in sunny CA, she kind of gets the practical perks of an out-of-court civil settlement for any negligence Dick possessed.

I think he did/does feel responsibility and some remorse but he bought his conscience out of it. We’ll probably get a good idea tonight, he may want unload it all if he gets a chance.

The FSM came to me in dream and told me how this season ends and asked me to write it all down.

I'm not sure you'll like how it turns out.

Unfortunately the shelf life on teh Funny is 10pm tonight.

esme – I think it's Dick/Don's journey as a character to unite the two into one man. I don't know if it will happen, but I think he will remain a fractured human being until he can do that. And will never experience real intimacy with anyone until he does. I could see this story line ending (sniff!) with him having told most of the truth, being mostly forgiven but still a slightly haunted man. I could also see a real transformation into a truly actualized, authentic human being. I think Weiner and the writers could pull that off without MM becoming too 'pollyanna happy ending' (which I loathe, personally, in story lines.)

How is this for a great quote for Dick Whitman's understanding of transformation in his choice to become Don Draper:

"Society is organized on the principle that any individual who possesses certain social characteristics has a moral right to expect that others will value and treat him in an appropriate way."

Don knows this is the way society operates, no matter how unjust or artificial the constructs that create this situation, across cultures. That is why Don is who he is.

I looked at Berube's blog after the mention of him. I already knew his blog but had not read it for a while. did he stop and start again? The association of Mad Men to Goffman seems especially apt, esp. with the "dramaturgical perspective" – defined by wiki as:

In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that human actions are dependent upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, the self is a sense of who one is, a dramatic effect emerging from the immediate scene being presented…Goffman forms a theatrical metaphor in defining the method in which one human being presents itself to another based on cultural values, norms, and expectations. Performances can have disruptions (actors are aware of such) but most are successful. The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through manipulation. If the actor succeeds, the audience will view the actor as he or she wants to be viewed.

In so many ways, the move from the early 20th c. to the latter part seems to me to also be a move from psychological theories of existence to sociological ones, particularly after the mass actions of the Nazis (and Eric . I'd linked to the BBC doc from Adam Curtis before, but for anyone who might be interested, his 3 part series on The Century of the Self is on google video. It has lots of interesting things to say in relation to Mad Men and advertising. Curtis doesn't seem to believe in "progress" per se. He sees new attempts to deal with problems are fraught with their own unintentional ones, time after time, across a host of issues.

Freedom is knowing that all is open to question.

anyway, Sartre would have an answer for the question of Don. Dick became Don because existence precedes essence. (one work of Sartre's I love is his deconstruction of Freud's idea of the unconscious – how an "unconscious" cannot exist according to its own terms.)

so, yes, Don is an existential hero because he has created himself, knowingly. He has made choices to be Don rather than Dick.

"He seized the opportunity to be reborn, to put a new label on the can. To be recreated not as an accidental byproduct of a horny abusive brute and a desperately poor whore. This time he would be reborn on his own terms, a person conceived of his own conscious deliberate choice."

Really well said. I agree with you on his will to live and what drove him to the army, as well as the changing of the tags. I think he knew that he was better than his circumstances. People like that will do what they have to better themselves. And I too, do not blame him one bit.

I still think that if he comes clean he'll need to apologize to Anna. It's not like he stepped on Real Don Draper's toe — he killed the guy. Accident or not, that's not something you do and then just forget about. It would seem unnatural to me for his character not to feel remorse.

The accident that killed the original Draper was just a wartime accident. Dick was scared and unsteady but we can certainly agree he is not morally responsible for fumbling a lighter, right?

The switching of the dog tags is a thornier issue. Don knows his decision is tough to defend. He probably thinks about it quite a bit.

But it was the explosion that caused the death and collateral damage to others. Dick’s decision to switch the tags just redirected the fallout. Admittedly, it was a self-centered decision. A choice that was bold, radical, risky and criminal, but not entirely unreasonable.

Dick had enlisted in the Army to escape a life that had him trapped and he didn’t have the means to improve it. He hated this life so much he felt taking a chance of being mangled or killed in war was a more attractive option than suffering some arbitrary kick in the head on some farm somewhere down the line.

After the explosion, despite fear and panic, Dick was smart enough to recognize the moment, and desperate enough to transgress his conventional morality. Dick saw a chance at profound change; to not just survive and exist as he had before but a real chance to be recreated and truly live.

He seized the opportunity to be reborn, to put a new label on the can. To be recreated not as an accidental byproduct of a horny abusive brute and a desperately poor whore. This time he would be reborn on his own terms, a person conceived of his own conscious deliberate choice.

Dick’s choice was a philosophical and psychological leap into a gray area of situational ethics. His will to live (and hopefully live better) prevailed. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche would applaud. I will too.

Dick chose to become Don Draper. He has nothing to be ashamed of and nothing more to atone for. He is a moral relativist. Don should accept this fact and be proud. (Sensitive Suzanne will help talk him through this and he will sleep better because of it.)
As Bert Cooper said, “This country was built by men who have done far worse.”
True dat.