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Mad Men recap S06E08 - The Crash

I successfully avoided spoilers for this episode, but noticed the incredible buzz it generated on Twitter. I watched it expecting to be blown away, and from the opening scene of Ken Cosgrove in a car, speeding toward destruction with a gun pointed at his head, I knew I would not be disappointed. There’s so much going on in this episode that it’s sure to polarise fans… so let’s jump in!

I heard a conversation on a movie podcast about what it even means these days to be “cinematic”. Mad Men was mentioned as being more cinematic than some things at the movies, and I was struck by the directing of this episode as a great example of this. The composition of Don and Silvia talking on the phone, cutting rapidly between the two shows that they are facing opposite directions, certainly not simpatico as they struggle with the end of their affair. As the conversation ends Don throws the phone into his alcohol cart, certainly laying the imagery on thick without being too heavy handed.

Mad Men recaptch-up, S06E07 “Man with a plan”

With this we are up to date, and just in the nick of time… 

A settling episode after the fireworks of S06E06, Don overhears an argument between Arnie and his mistress Silvia. When she calls him begging for his company Don takes full advantage and sets her up in a hotel with clear instructions that she is to stay there, “You exist, in this room, for my pleasure.”

With the merger in full swing at the agency office-space, not to mention seats in the partner’s meeting, are in short supply. Peggy gets Harry’s old office (Column-y? The Den? This office needs a nickname guys, tweet me @pandasizedtv), while Roger meets Burt in his office to be dismissed for the second time. Don and Ted faceoff, if you can call that, perhaps a better approach would be Ted trying to keep up - Don having dominated Silvia is in no mood for being spoken down to by his new partner. When Peggy later dresses him down and Silvia explains that the game was fun but the final siren has sounded things fall a bit flat for Don by the end of the episode. 

Joan’s ovaries (which you can only assume are the sexiest ovaries in the world) have a cyst, and despite her bulldog front, she needs someone to take her to the hospital. Enter Bob Benson, the annoying guy that no-one can really get a read on, to whisp her away and follow up on her at home which charms the panties off Joan and her mother. Seriously, who is this guy… and don’t say he’s a spy or something other nonsense, that’s junk. 

Pete’s mother shows up at his apartment, she appears to have a few screws loose (not the kind of loose screws that Pete is hoping for), and she generally bumps into things and makes a nuisance of herself and annoying Pete to the audiences great amusement before telling Pete that Kennedy is shot. You don’t need to be a genius to work out that she means Robert Kennedy, as the conversation is really awkwardly shoe-horned in to an earlier scene, and with that historical box ticked season 6 is free to throw down.

Mad Men season 6 recaptch-up

So we’ve been on a break, my hopes for recapping while I was away fell in a heap like a pile of laundry. Here we go, a mini-catch up/recap of the last few episodes bringing us up to speed.

S06E04 - To Have and To Hold

We open with Pete and Don having a secret meeting with Heinz ketchup, this leads to a private office being created for Stan to work on “Project K”. Thinking they are the only ones pitching, Don lays out his ketchup-less pitch with protests from the clients that you can’t even see their product. Waiting outside is Peggy and her entourage ready to go in and spoonfeed them exactly what they want. Hearing that SCDP made a play for ketchup infuriates their Heinz beans man and the account is closed.

Don and Pete aren’t the only ones having a bad day. After learning that Harry’s secretary asked Dawn to punch out her timecard Joan dismisses her. Hearing of the brash move Harry storms in and demands Joan apologise and reinstate her, undermining her authority. In the partners meeting Harry bursts in (he just can’ help himself can he? And Roger totally throws him under the bus in typical style) and defends his actions, demanding a partnership implying that he at least earns the company business during daylight hours. When he is offered a year’s salary as a bonus he asks again about a partnership, and when he is refused he storms out subtly hinting that someone else might offer him one. Apart from his disrespect for Joan, you’ve got to love this new Harry - and sadly Joan has to deal with the consequences of sleeping her way into upper management.

Megan gets offered a story arc involving a love affair in the soap opera, in exchange her co-star propositions Megan and Don for a night of swinging which they awkwardly refuse. Dawn takes us behind the curtain insisting that SCDP is full of “women crying in the ladies room, and men crying in the elevator”, and Joan, having been dumped on at work she’s a friend a night on the town including a trip to what looks like The Factory. The real scene-stealer was the two ad agencies staring each other down in the corridoor, like two high-school football teams - facing off in the dinner afterwards over pints of room temperature beer, with no elevators to cry in.

S06E05 - The Flood

This episode is timestamped by the MLK assassination, obviously nothing to be celebrated but those who look for clues as to the date and convert currency into modern equivalents will appreciate this one. We open with Peggy being shown a new Manhattan pad, her boyfriend shows up but he makes it obvious that Peggy is calling the shots. The decision is mulled over later in the episode when he suggests the area maybe isn’t the ideal one for raising children, which melts Peggy’s heart and she goes all gooey. Bobby Draper is caught peeling the wallpaper off his bedroom wall, and when the kids go to stay with Don they find him comatose, staring at the TV footage of riots in Harlem and father and son alike pretend to be sick. With TV off the cards, Don takes Bobby to see Planet of the Apes - the ending of which takes on a different context given the assassination. Megan confronts Don about his lack of emotion, and it’s obvious that in burying his pain he also sometimes loses grip on his feelings for those around him.

At work tensions bubble up between Harry and Pete, Harry’s recent bravado leading him to complain about lost revenues due to TV coverage of the riots, Pete takes the high road and calls him a racist. At home in his cold, lonely apartment Pete is left to eat Chinese food, calling Trudy and offering to comfort them in a thinly disguised attempt at returning to the comfort of his suburban life, the same one he was so willing to risk for a couple of booty calls. Henry drops the bombshell on Betty that he is running for a higher position of public office, with it will come a higher profile for her - at which point she is taken back, and later holds up some of her old dresses against her larger frame, lamenting her inability to retain her blonde, statuesque figure.

Mad Men is still one of the most thoughtful shows on TV, but these episode (and this season come to think of it) really isn’t blowing me away. I’m not disappointed, but… urgh. Give us more, Wiener, more!

Mad Men recap S06E03 - “The Collaborators”

I’ve been putting off this recap for a few days. I wasn’t sure why until the AV Club tweeted that this week’s episode was disappointing, and suddenly I realised it wasn’t up to scratch. Much was made following the premiere that the show skipped over the “Summer of Love” and everyone now smokes pot, has long hair and sport mustachios. It’s a bit of a shock, one I’m not sure I’ve come to terms with… perhaps too much time has passed or some radical paradigm shift has occurred that is being kept from us. Pete and Trudy are entertaining guests, and as he gets the ladies their coats a lot of flirty exchanges pepper their farewell, and you know the temperature has changed when Trudy is entertaining ideas of cheating herself. It is explored further later when Pete’s mistress is delivered, beaten and bloody, to their suburban home and Trudy goes Thermo-nuclear on him. His love nest in the city isn’t playing out the way he wanted, and his indiscretion has seen him booted out of his house (with Alison Brie, I’ll remind you… the writers REALLY hate Pete). Don’s warning in the cab after their trip to the brothel was clearly unheeded.

Don, being no angel himself, keeps backsliding his doctor/neighbour/friend(?) to jump in to bed with his wife, Sylvia. He flashes back to his days living with his mother in the whorehouse, the similarities to his current situation not unclear as he beds her and slips her a wad of cash, because as she explains, “I have money, I just never have money.” She’s riding her luck, I don’t get why Don wants her and I can only hope she doesn’t end up being strangled and stuffed under his bed. It’s a situation as unappealing as young Don Draper himself (seriously, how the hell did he grow up to look like Jon Hamm?). The two couples attend dinner later, but with Megan feeling unwell and the doctor being called away the two lovebirds are left to… I don’t even know. This episode isn’t very good. So much time was spent on these two, and I just don’t care about their relationship. At all.

In the Draper household, Megan blows up at the maid and fires her - then confides in Sylvia that she had a miscarriage after, “being sloppy in Hawaii” and messed up her birth control schedule. The two share an intimate moment and lament the Catholic guilt their upbringing has saddled them with, before Don returns home. Sylvia excuses herself and leaves the distraught Megan and Don to talk. My mind started wondering to exactly how constricted Don’s anus must have been when he walked in, and whether the whole situation was a foreshadowing of a potential baby for the Drapers before the season is finished.

Peggy, with her black secretary and all, continues her transformation into a Don Draper-style Svengali. The staff are grossly intimidated by her, and decide to play a practical joke on her leaving a jar of Quest on her desk - a feminine hygiene product that promises to leave women feeling fresh and kills overly critical bacteria. Peggy laments that when she wants them to be funny they can’t, but really the story shows her inexperience at the higher levels of marketing and highlights the difference between her and Don: his cruel-to-be-kind bluntness may shock but it usually comes from an impassioned place, rather than a desperate striving for perfection. She’ll get em, it’ll be her struggle this season. During a conversation with “Beardy” Stan, he confides in Peggy that there’s a conflict between Heinz Beans and Heinz Ketchup, and although she is resistant due to the insider nature of the gossip, her boss instructs her to make a play for the Ketchup (the Coca-Cola of condiments!).

Finally in the SCDP office, the partners meet with Herb from Jaguar who has had the brilliant idea to switch from TV ads to radio commercials in the hope of driving foot traffic. It’s seems like the worst fucking idea in the history of bad ideas… you don’t talk about a car like that on the radio, you let it loose on people’s eyeballs so they get erections and open their wallets. Don hates it because it’ll mean a smaller ad-buy, but mostly because he hates Herb. (Or at least, the “idea” of Herb. Herb and Joan. Ahem.) Pete and Roger are persuaded to go ahead with the crazy idea, and further more, Herb asks that the firm pitch it as their idea. Don flubs the pitch, going through the motions in a passive aggressive manner, suggesting Jaguar need to target housewives and truck-drivers to increase sales, and predictably the executives don’t go for it, which disappoints Herb but it really upsets Pete and Roger. In Don’s office they blast him before Pete storms off the repair the damage done, as an audience we look to Roger to make a witty joke that eases the tension but, like the episode itself, it comes up short.

So we go from the symbolism of the premiere, which a lot of people have called “heavy-handed” but I thought was fine, to the no-symbolism of this episode. Every relationship is put through the wringer, the Drapers, the doctor’s, Megan and her unborn child’s, Peggy and her staff, Jaguar and SCDP. Let’s hope things pick up as we slowly inch toward Spring. I’m heading to New York next week, I don’t like the idea of it being snowy and cold. But thanks anyway.

Mad Men S06E01/E02 recap - “The Doorway”

The opening scene is a point of view shot of someone lying on their back, going in and out of consciousness with Megan screaming in shock. Being the informed, modern audience that we are thoughts like, Don is going to collapse and this could play out over this episode/season this might be foreshadowing the end of the series! Our speculation over the Hawaii destination is quickly illuminated when we see Don and Megan enjoying the tropical beaches, sipping blue drinks and reading classic works of literature. Don finds himself in the hotel bar fidgeting with a serviceman’s lighter, is recognized and befriended by a fellow-serviceman and is convinced to give away his bride the following morning at his wedding. The two discuss the horrors of war, weapons so powerful they could spray the walls with blood and the similarities between the Hawaiian natives and the Viet Cong and Koreans respectively that they fought. During the pitch to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel executives, Roger will also remember fondly the exotic smells of the location on route to his deployment. “You aren’t selling a geographic location, it’s an experience. It’s not a different place, you’re a different person.” As desperate as Don is to impress the execs, his pitch of a man’s clothes lying on the beach and discussion of the Hawaiian legend of a man’s soul entering and leaving his body/Aloha translating as both hello and goodbye, makes the clients think only of death. They even call out the end of “A star of born” (1954) where James Mason swims out into the ocean with no intension of returning. Don stares blankly at the sketches looking for evidence of any death symbolism but is perhaps numbed too much by Lane’s suicide to see it. Perhaps the whole office is the same. Similarly Peggy’s Superbowl ad campaign for Koss headphones is thrown in to turmoil when a comedian on the Tonight Show makes a joke about soldiers with necklaces made of ears, highlighting the struggle between the horrors of the real world and the warm, acceptable world that advertisers have to reflect back to their audience to keep them content and spending. (Slate have published an article hoping to turn up the air date of the actual event, but found that this period of the show’s history came when the tapes were routinely wiped… Fuck the Tonight Show, as Peggy so aptly puts it. Weiner has commented to TV Guide that the event is, in fact, based on frequent comments about the war on the Tonight Show without an actual specific incident being referred to.)

Any thought that Peggy wouldn’t play much of a role in the new season is squashed fairly early, it’s obvious that we are going to see almost as much of her as when she still working at SCDP. It’s amazing how Don-like she is when talking to her staff; so confident, committed to the work rather than the workers. Stan with his extra weight and beard (almost Galifianakis like?) talks to her on the phone, both still working on New Years Eve. When she solves the headphones issue her boss remarks, “You’re good in a crisis,” which prompted me to wonder exactly what crisis could happen at SCDP that would make them miss her, what problem could hit that company that leaves a Peggy-shaped hole that is worse than anything they’ve already dealt with. Our first glimpse of the office is shows the executives getting portraits taken on their stairwell, indeed every time it’s framed we are reminded of the expansion of the company and the mixed fortunes that befell them in the previous season. In the space between seasons they have landed the Dow Chemical account, and others including Leica cameras are discussed. When Don encounters his neighbor in the elevator he invites him to his office to grab one, on the house as it were, and the two seem to get on swimmingly. Plans for New Years Eve between have been made by their wives, but when the good doctor is called away on business Don take the opportunity to swoop in on his wife. “It’s good to have the old Don back,” is a sentiment I saw quite a bit on Twitter while I was dodging spoilers. It would appear that, like the service-issued lighter that Don can’t seem to get rid of, his mental anguish and the coping mechanism of finding comfort in a woman’s bed (any woman) has certainly not abated.

Roger similarly has a lot on his plate. We are shown a number of psycho-analytical sessions, leading us to presume that LSD didn’t hold all the solutions he might have hoped, and when the news that his mother has passed away is brushed off like an unfavorable dental report, we question whether it’s even doing him any good. He certainly doesn’t seem to take it very seriously, explaining to the analyst how life if like going through a series of doors, that you hope will deliver you somewhere but are all the same and close behind you. In bed with his new fling Don is asked what he wants from the new year, he responds, “I want to stop doing this,” he too is tired of doors hoping for new beginnings and finding the same results. Roger relies on Joan to organize the funeral for his mother, and manages to charm the elderly ladies in good spirits, but the sight of his ex-wife’s husband sends him crazy saying his mother never liked him and tries to kick him out, screaming ferociously, “THIS IS MY FUNERAL!” with the brilliant duality that we’ve come to expect from Matt Weiner and the Mad Men writers. He passes on to his daughter a jar of water supposedly from the River Jordan with which he was baptized, and as he returns to the office more bad news befalls him when he is told the guy who shines his shoes has died. The brushes are delivered to him, Roger being the closest thing to family the man had, and his emotional dam finally overflows, reducing him to a blubbering mess.

The Francis family are visited with Sally continuing to develop and her friend Sandy being admired for her musical abilities, and other things if you would believe Betty. Man, she has a twisted idea of men’s sexual fantasies - her suggestion that she hold the young girl down and gag her while Henry rapes her is the furtherest thing from anyone’s idea of spicing things up in the bedroom. Sandy’s wish to live in the city gets Betty worried, and without her mother to save her she takes it upon herself to track down her flophouse and bring her home, or at least talk some sense into her. Upon discovering her violin she knows she’s on the right track, and after helping the squatters make goulash and seeing how desperate they are she leaves the violin for them, presumably so they could sell it - “groking” in some small way their desperation. Betty told Sandy about how she used to be a model and lived with five girls in a two bedroom apartment, eating soup out of a can. Sandy replies how it sounds great and she wagers that Betty looks back fondly on the time, and the look in her eyes confirms that she probably does. For this reason I found Betty was just as annoying as ever, taking it upon herself to tell a young girl what’s best for her. If her sexual fantasies are anything to go on, I’d take my chances with the vagrants as well. She dyes her hair brown at the end, and she’s still fat. Fat-ish.

Megan, seemingly unaware of Don’s cheating, is having success in her acting career having landed a role on the TV show Berkshire Falls, and is approached in Hawaii by an autograph hunter. Despite her mother’s insistence that she has the artistic temperament without the ability, she certainly has the knack of carrying herself as a low-level celebrity. Don’s lack on control over her and his post-traumatic struggles spell long term problems. With all the drinking he’s done over the years I can’t remember a time when he’s thrown up (a cocktail of booze and stress), and with the amount of times hash/reefer/etc. is mentioned and the doctor’s insistence that giving up cigarettes is a good new year’s resolution, we might wonder if weed is on the cards for him as a potential creative catalyst. His fascination with what the doorman, “Jonesy”, saw when he collapsed in the opening scenes and “died” his reply is a cliche, designed to please. “A white light”, he guesses. Don fills in the blanks himself, “Like a tropical sunshine? Did you hear the ocean?” As Don looks out over Manhattan (“Draper-ing” as fans call it) during his portraiture shoot, he zones out looking at the lighter, snapping back to consciousness when asked to, “be himself” for the picture. Awkward. The sounds of the city are superimposed over his own, internal soundtrack: either the crashing of waves on a polynesian beach or the rumble or fighter jets and flames burning in a war zone. He hopes, the former.

Interesting times in the Mad Men universe. What did you think?

Mad Men season 5 binge recap - part 4

Zomgoodness, we’re at the finish line! Here’s the final recap, read it slowly and on your own. Smoke if you’ve got em.

S05E11 - “The Other Woman”

From the opening scene it’s all hands on deck to come up with the Jaguar pitch. It becomes apparent that the best advertising copy in the world isn’t going to be enough, not while the lead executive Herb has his gaze fixed squarely on Joan’s luscious booty. Pete, at his weasely best, puts the offer to her explaining that unless she wants to let the company go down the drain she’ll spend the night with Herb, and if she declines she can justify to the partners why. Pete twists Joan’s rebuttal of, “You couldn’t afford it,” in to an expression of interest if the price is right. Having recently aired his thoughts about houses of ill-repute, Don storms out of the room. Roger, Lane and Cooper are not against it - and Pete instructs Lane to extend the company’s credit, which gets him sweating like he’s eaten a five-alarm chili. Being left in charge of all business apart from Jaguar, Peggy is left despondent after hitting some home-runs only to have Don dismiss her efforts. Lane considers himself Joan’s knight in shining armor (amour?), telling her she’ll be better of asking for a partnership and a stake in SCDP instead. Megan gets an acting opportunity that would involve her heading off the Boston for three months, which gets Don’s head spinning. A partnership and 5% stake is demanded by Joan, it’s around now that the audience stands up and starts shouting at the TV.

Peggy has lunch with her old pal Freddy Rumsen, who suggests she take a bunch of meetings and give SCDP the ass. When news of the professional arrangement between Joan and Herb gets out, Don races out of the office hoping to catch her to explain that the vote was conducted without him and the justification that all partners were in favour doesn’t apply to him. As Don walks across the Jaguar showroom on the way to the meeting you really feel what a bunch of badasses these guys are, like a bunch of gangsters running a bootlegging racket. We cut between Joan’s evening with Herb and Don’s pitch, about the, “beautiful thing that passes by, because they do that. Don’t they?” As the killer line is delivered it becomes obvious the con is on - we cut back to Joan’s apartment and it si revealed that Don’s impassioned speech was too little too late. A lucrative job offer that gives Peggy exactly what she wants is enough for her to betray Don (obviously, not for the first time this episode), and as word spreads that Jaguar are turning down all the other agencies, the partners (including Joan) gather for the good news that the account has been won and they are all Made men… and woman. Deflated by how the deal was sealed, Don corners Peggy in his office so he can self-flagellate even further. He sits, she stands. She thanks him graciously, and explains she is giving notice. Don mistakenly assumes she’s asking for a raise, with disbelief he contains himself and says he’ll beat their number. It’s not just about money, Peggy wants recognition and respect - the kind she can’t get at SCDP, Joan’s treatment is testament to this. For any lesser show this would be a season finale, and having being put through the emotional wringer we may be through with this season - but this season isn’t through with us.

S05E12 - “Commissions and Fees”

With Jaguar calling the shots, they ask to pay a flat rate for SCDP’s services rather than a commission rate. An investigation of the logistics of the request turns up Lane’s forged cheque. Don doesn’t entertain any nonsense, demanding his resignation. Don gets riled up having won the Jaguar account only for Campbell to take the spoils, he is determined to slay some giants on his own terms. Ken is given the bad news that his father in law’s account at Dow Chemicals is fair game, and despite his protests about mixing business and family - an understanding is reached that he’ll do nothing to stop the pursuit of business and in return Ken will be put on the account… and that Pete can’t be involved. With 48 hours to prepare Don returns home to the news that Sally is spending the weekend with them, and gets blasted by Megan worsening his depression over Lane’s dismissal. Upon returning home, Lane is surprised with his wife’s purchase of a new Jaguar (racing green!), a celebration of his great career achievements. Someone said recently that all suicide attempts are designed to hurt those around us. As Lane snaps his glasses in two and runs a hose from the tailpipe of the car in to the driver’s side window, it would appear that he is intending the hurt his wife the most - or at least it would be the case, if Burt’s succinct insight into Jaguar’s starting performance wasn’t painfully accurate. With Don at his big meeting and Megan at an audition, Sally and Glen catch up to run wild in the city visiting museums and playing boyfriend and girlfriend (Sally wears the boots her father didn’t like). Complaining of being unwell Sally goes to the bathroom and discovers womanhood is upon her earlier than she would have liked.

Central to Don’s pitch is the notion of not having enough. His behavior is unrecognisable, there is nothing smooth about his delivery, suggesting that their ad company is holding station rather than fighting for more market share. Sally deserts Glen and jumps in a taxi, her maternal longing makes Betty feel fulfilled. As Lane’s body is discovered hanging behind his office door, the office is dismissed - Don and Roger return from their chest-beating to be told the bad news. Don bursts in to the office to cut him down, many redditors noticed the similarities between his reaction to the discovery of his brother’s body when he took his life the same way. Riddled with guilt, Don returns home to discover Glen, concerned at the boy’s downcast attitude, he asks what he would do given the opportunity - having control of a heavy automobile would seem the antidote to a bizarre day for all concerned.

Foreshadowing - Obviously, this is the episode where it all goes down, but as Lane flirts with Joan one last time he bids her bon voyage.

S05E13 - “The Phantom”

With the parachute company on the higher floor moving to Washington, rumors start flying that more office space could be a possibility - and nobody wants to move in to Lane’s office so it would seem that a fresh start would have more than one benefit. Seeing Peggy yelling at the copy writers in a different office is a shock at first, but something we will have to get used to as all signs from the writers are that we’ll continue to see Peggy into season six. Beth calls Pete offering a rendevouz at a hotel, explaining that she’s been diagnosed with manic depression and will be receiving electro-shock therapy. Usually patients lose months of their memory, but she’s hoping another go around with Pete will stick this time. Megan’s mother, Marie, is visiting for easter - and presumably has the fertility god Ishtar on her mind. Nursing a sore tooth and mistaking someone for his dead brother in the elevator, it’s clear that Don is carrying the guilt of Lane’s death. Following a number of mysterious phone calls, Roger finally gets the woman he wants on the other end, inviting Marie over to his apartment for “conversation”. An insurance benefit is paid out to the company, leaving Joan wondering why she didn’t just give Lane what he wanted. Between Don and Joan it is decided that from the benefit payout the balance of Lane’s investment in SCDP be returned to his widow. As graceful as Don is he can’t avoid a scolding for having led Lane astray, the picture of Delores is uncovered and the worst is assumed.

Against her better judgement, Megan asks Don to get her an audition for an ad he is over-seeing. When he voices his concerns at how it will be perceived she drinks herself stupid and throws herself at him insisting that’s all she’s good for. The pain gets so bad Don finally visits a dentist, and as he is being knocked out the phantom of Don’s brother reappears. “I’ll take it out, but it’s not your tooth that’s rotten,” he explains. Pete pays a visit to the hospital Beth is staying in, but following her therapy he is welcomed as a stranger. Taking in a mid-afternoon movie, running in to Peggy (hand jobs are imminent you might think. Silly, perverted you) and pleasantries are exchanged. On the train home Pete runs in to Howard who suggests they go back to the city and look for trouble - his treatment of Beth disgusts Pete, who can’t resist absconding him and for the second time this season Campbell cops some chin music. With his self-esteem in tatters Trudy finally agrees to let him take an apartment in the city. In the office Don watches Megan’s showreel and sees for the first time the joy she gets and the focus in her eyes. With the new office space, and Megan’s role in the commercial secured there’s only one issue left to settle. Don has remained faithful to his wife all season, but with not one but two seductive beauties asking, “Are you alone?” we can only assume the credits role just in time.

The Draper Walk - Don enters to office with a cheek padded with gauze and he looking like he hasn’t slept in a month. And he is alone, more than anyone can realise.

And we’re clear. See you next week for the S06E01/02 recaps…