Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men

Three Up


3. Ken Cosgrove. He wasn't in much of the episode, but for what he was in he managed to keep the Heinz reps calm after Peggy lit into them for their indecision. Good work to keep them as clients at all.

2. Roger Sterling. Odd to have him as a winner, what with his marriage ending and all, but he's clearly comfortable with it, even when Jane says it'll be expensive.  That's helped by the LSD trip he went on with Jane and some of her friends. It should not surprise that triumphant music comes forth every time he opens a liquor bottle.

1. Bert Cooper. At first it just appears that he gets a couple of throw-away lines, as usual for Bert, but he picks up the win at the end of the episode when he calls Don out for his shirking. For all of the discussion of Don's hands-off attitude by other characters, it's Bert that manages to say something and get Don to actually think about it.

Three Down


3. Peggy Olsen. With all of the weird days on tap, her's might actually be the weirdest. She starts the day getting into a fight with Abe, who can't put up with her permanent focus on work and her general lack of attention to their relationship. She then has a bad meeting with Heinz, who reject her latest pitch, which causes her to go on the attack and then get pulled from the account. She goes to the movies to cool off, where she shares a joint with a strange guy and gives him a handjob in return. She goes back to work, sleeps late, gets an odd phone call from Don, and has an odd conversation with Ginsburg about his being born in a concentration camp, which both think is impossible. She ends up calling Abe to come over because she's ostensibly spooked by Ginsburg's story, but she really just needs him there.

2. Megan Draper. We finally get to see where the fault lines are in the Draper marriage, as Megan broods over being pulled out of the Heinz presentation so she can go on a trip upstate with Don to a Howard Johnson's. Things come to a head with her disdain for orange sherbet, which sparks an argument with Don over her role as wife and as work subordinate. The fight ends with Megan making a reference to Don's real family, which causes him to take off on her. She then gets herself to a bus station and home, where the fight continues when Don returns. She then gets chased around the apartment until Don catches her, and they sort of reconcile, but it's clear that Megan is still disturbed by the ease with which Don was able to leave her at the HoJos.

1. Don Draper. The honeymoon is over. His fight with Megan exposes how much he has not considered the difficult position she's in, and leaving her at the HoJos further shows the continuing turmoil he's in over his real family. His fears of losing Megan - seen both in his waiting for her and in the end of their fight at their apartment - also show that he's in a vulnerable position personally. Then on top of that he gets upbraided by Bert, and rightfully so. To then have Roger pop his head into the conference room to say it'll be a great day - followed by the parade of creative types - is just the icing on the cake.