Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. Still working on a different recap structure with David Jacobs. Some thoughts then a discussion.

First, some quick thoughts David and I didn’t get a chance to discuss.
-I didn't know the phrase "The worm has turned" comes from Shakespeare.
-Pete has a rough go of it this week, between his mother’s Alzheimer’s/dementia, and literally not having a seat at the table, "I went to a meeting this morning and there was no chair for me." Here we go again with Pete getting the sympathetic treatment. I get whiplash trying to decide if we’re supposed to like him or hate him.
-Title of the episode was “Man With a Plan” which is strange because I can’t really think of anything that went according to plan in this episode except Bob Benson’s sucking up to Joan. Maybe it was altruistic, and without guile, but it worked. "Every good deed is not part of a plan."
-Guess we all thought Joan was pregnant, but it was just a cyst on her ovary. Not sure if anything will happen between her and Bob or if what we saw (him taking her to hospital, her saving his job) was “it” happening.
-Don hears a vicious fight between Dr. Rosen and his wife. It was the first scene(?), which I think is why I noted it here.
-"First day in school, are you nervous?" It’s annoying there was no indication of how the merged firm will look structurally. Who will have which role, etc. Peggy is presumably the highest creative, under Ted and Don of course, but beyond that, we don’t really know.
-Peggy and Joan. "How's your little boy?" "How's yours?" They always had a pretty weird relationship. Coolly affectionate maybe? Envy at the other’s strengths.
-The scene between Roger and Bert Peterson seemed mostly like an excuse to give Roger some great one liners. I don’t recall Roger having any reason to not like Bert previously.
-Don was enchanted by Mrs. Dr. Rosen’s, "I need you and nothing else will do." That’s when the dom/sub plot formed in his mind.
-Peggy and Don back in his office having conversation. She still talks to him like no one else does, and I hope we get more of that. “He can't drink like you and you must know that because nobody can.” But also, more importantly, "Move forward."
-"Sometimes when you're flying you think you're right side up, but you're really upside down." Don won the margarine round, but Ted’s wins the Mohawk round. "No matter what I say, you're the guy who flew us up in his own plane."
-Don was crushed when the doctor’s wife dumped him, but even then, he’s trying to put his spin on it. "It's easy to give up something when you're satisfied." It was an moment, because Don yelled at Pete last week about knowing when something was over.

Aaron: It seems as though the SCDP creative is much more of a motley crew. Stan's bushy beard and Bieber hair. Ginsberg's general weirdness. Compared to CGC's buttoned up guy, one of whom is even a Republican. What do you make of that?

David: Well, it's a lazy way to communicate that they are "more creative," and all those CGC folks feel like redshirts to me. I liked Margie (Margie?!) and I am surprised they wrote her out of the show. But I think we're headed to a Duck what-his-face situation with Ted, who’s already complaining way too much about the SCDP culture. There weren't any work villains left in Don's life post-Herb, so Ted is stepping right up.

Aaron: But CGC had been getting the clients/accolades, so I don't think they're less creative. I think they represent more of the older way of advertising instead of Stan and Ginsberg ushering in the type of person we know of as "creatives." For instance, Ted was using a formula to figure out how to pitch Fleischman's. Almost like advertising as science.

David: But didn't his process come to nothing? I think the scene where they were "rapping" just betrayed how little his process worked. No ideas at all, and then the meeting ended.

Aaron: The contrast was pretty stark in how they portrayed the two styles of advertising. CGC and brainstorming sessions, SCDP is Don drinking in a room until he gets an idea.

David: I'm a little bit disoriented when it comes to Don's arc - he's just getting everything he wants over and over, and as Don famously said, happiness is just a moment before you want more happiness. But, I’m not sure why he feels threatened. They went out of his way to talk about how rich he was last week, but it’s always paired with how unhappy he is. Is there another way to tell this story again? I guess I wouldn’t even call it an arc, it’s more of a narrative pancake. What do you think?

Aaron: We better hope so. Don’s definitely in a different place than he has been in recent years. This season he’s neither on top of the world or underneath it. I actually don’t think I’m too concerned about the arc repeating because I don’t see it as so clearly repetitive as you do. He’s the main character of the show and I think you don’t like him very much, which is fair, but it’s not the same story every season with him as it is with Walt in Breaking Bad (1. Figure out how to get money. 2. Get money. 3. Lose money.)

David: It drives me nuts when the writers of Mad Men wink to the superfans, it just gets in the way of the narrative for me, and it's distracting. But I loved the Gilligan Island's conversation. Whereas the SCDP to Gillian's character mappings were quite clear, now that there are more characters on the show, they just don't match up anymore. And when Don connected the growing number of brands of margarines, I couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t talking about the growing number of characters on the show as well. Lots of meta-winks this episode. Megan talking about being written out of the show (as January Jones and others have been), the Gilligan's Island chat, the news of Bobby Kennedy's assassination being broken by Pete's mother (I also assumed she meant JFK), and the deep background of the May '68 Paris riots. The show (especially last week's show) is rich enough without these distractions, in my opinion, and compared to last week's episode absolutely nothing happened. Should we be worried? I hate to go there, but are we in a Lost season 5 situation, where the occasional great episode fools us into thinking this is better than it is?

Aaron: I don't know, I don't know. I want to believe I'm staying up late writing these recaps every Sunday night for a reason. In talking about TV, there are 4 tiers of program for me from lowest to highest. 1) The dreck I won't watch. 2) The dreck I will watch, which has a span from drecky dreck to actually OK dreck. 3) Cable dreck, shows that are just better for various reasons from writing to acting, etc. 4) The unparalleled programs. The Wire, Deadwood, etc. I think the first season of Mad Men was absolutely in tier 4, maybe the first three seasons. The last couple have gone from tier 3 and 4. I look forward to watching it every week, but I'm not totally sure it's as amazing as it used to be.

David: I’m feeling that too. So, was margarine a reference to the show feeling faked, or forced. I can’t imagine so, but it was the first thing I thought of. And that certainly betrays something not great. (I want to remark that the "It was our pleasure to serve you" coffee cups made a brief appearance last week, and they were indeed invented in 1963. So that was satisfying, but it’s not great drama.)

Aaron: We should talk a little bit more about Ted and Don. I like to think it's not just going to be them battling the next season and a half. It's hard to see where everything is going because we don't know how the new agency is set up. We don't know if they have parallel positions or what. Wouldn't it be more interesting if they became a great creative partnership? Are we underestimating Ted? He’s getting Don’s charm offensive, "He seems more interested in me than he is in the work." Ted got the advice to let Don have his way in the early stages, "Give him the early rounds." and he's obviously intrigued, "He's mysterious, but I can't tell if he's putting it on." And don't forget, Ted got some hand back in the relationship during the flight.

David: I loved it when Peggy said "Move Forward." It was obvious how quickly she picked up on Don’s misery, his emptiness, and that he was taking it out on Ted by drinking him almost literally under the table. But I think it's going to be just this season - not the next as well. If they became a great creative partnership, that would be more exciting since it would be unexpected. There's no way he can "win," though, because it's basically Don's firm. I just don't like Ted. But the last episode’s bar scene was one of the more perfect scenes of the entire series. So it would be a shame if their relationship is only a power struggle from here on out. When they realized that their Chevy creative was complementary, there was a real shared connection.

David: As above, I think it's a little lazy to tell a story through references. There's a nuanced but important difference in using historical context to set a mood and inspired a massive change in a character's worldview, but sometimes I feel like major events like (say), the May 1968 riots in Paris are less than window dressing. Perhaps it shouldn't have come up at all? And the second is the Sun Tzu quote, “If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” Because for better or worse, that's been Don's philosophy. He never competes, he just does what he does best. The show teases Don towards a realization that his life's work doesn't matter by juxtaposing his (and his neighbor and co-worker’s) struggles with 1968 in Paris (and will they get to Columbia?) and Bobby Kennedy's assassination. His will be the body floating fown the river. Do you the writers have something that existential in mind for the series finale? Remember, Weiner comes from the Sopranos, which came from Twin Peaks - two shows with ambiguous (at best) finales.

Aaron: Gosh, that’s a big question. You make these huge declarative statements about how Don is realizing his life’s work doesn’t matter, and I’m not there yet. There was a huge contrast between how the show treated MLK’s assassination and RFK’s, which was shown quickly at the very end and then overtaken with dissonant music about coming together. The reason is the MLK episode was build up to a series reset, a throwaway episode, while this episode is the morning after and there’s too much to cover. On whether we’re going to get a bleak, dystopian, philosophically empty end to the series, maybe? I don’t think anything is being telegraphed ahead of time, though. 1968 is a gigantically tumultuous year, lots of change in lots of facets of life. Maybe the finale will be about change or about renewal.

Aaron: We've seen hints of dominant Don before on a couple occasions, but with Dr. Rosen's wife (whose name I still don't know for some reason) he seems to have overplayed his hand. What I don't get is why he was so into her in the first place, and why he was so completely shattered when she ended it. Was it just because he doesn't like to lose or not get his way?

David: Ah, I think he was trying to drive her back to Dr. Rosen. Because he overheard them arguing, and it was all about how the relationship was only about him. So he made their relationship ALSO only about himself.

Aaron: Subconsciously? I don't think that's what he was doing at all, but that's a good point.

David: Oh, I thought consciously.

Aaron: Then why would he be so upset?

David: He wanted one more romp in the jungle. Or, she thought he loved him more. As he was losing power at work, he was asserting more power with Dr. Rosen's wife. So once that outlet is removed, he only has Megan. Who, obviously, has some self-determination at this point, even affecting the plot of a popular show.

Aaron: The Don after she dumped him was the Don after he found out Mrs. Whitman in CA had died. When Jon Hamm is playing sad, he gets lugubrious. He closes his mouth and swallows audibly. It's annoying.

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. This week, I wanted to try something new, so I invited David Jacobs to have a conversation about the show instead of a straight recap. Let us know what you think.

David: How important is money to the SCDP partners? They keep saying Don is "rich" - but is he? And aren't Bert Roger supposed to be basically ultra-rich? I get that the IPO is exciting, but I'm surprised, especially after the Sterling/Cooper deal went bad everyone was eager for this.

Aaron: Bert and Roger are "fuck you rich," while Don is just getting there rich. Pete's probably on the same level, but this would be life changing for Joan. Roger wasn't in the room with the banker. I think Bert is a collector, and that includes money, he's also in legacy building phase, and bringing an agency public would be a big boost for his profile. I think Bert wants the IPO, but not for the money. Pete wants the IPO to prove he is somebody, and then for the money. Joan wants the IPO for the money. Roger and Don could care less about the money, while Don would probably actively oppose the IPO because it would give him a boss in the form of a board of directors. "I don't think Don cares about money."

David: A boss, and presumably, some scrutiny.

Aaron: Due diligence. Guess we ought to check if that's an upcoming episode title.

Aaron: I noticed a lot of relationship 'stuff' this episode, Pete and Trudie, Pete and his father in law, Roger and his flight hostess spy, Don and Megan, Abe and Peggy, Peggy and Ted, Don and Ted, Pete and Don, Don and Joan, Marie and Arnold, Marie and Roger, Arnold and Don, etc. Was there more of that this episode or am I crazy?

David: There was definitely more. And the sex/advertising double entendres were also laid on top, especially "He's a client for Pete's father-in-law." The show is best when the characters are suffering, with the exception of Dick Whitman's trips to California. This season has been direct with it's intentions, the characters you listed all voiced displeasure with their situations. Even Herb's wife got some minutes talking about the puppy's birth. It was such a dense episode that dinner scene may get lost, but it was actually wonderfully written and directed, from Don's "I love puppies" to Marie's cursing in French.

David: You noted last week that Don's campaigns were all about the absences of the brand - no hotel in the Hawaii campaign, not ketchup in the Heinz campaign, etc. Once again, he proposes that the Chevrolet commercials not show the car (for a week!) and Ted's "bend in the road" monologue is so much better Don practically surrenders on the spot. At this point, can we assume that pattern is intentional? And does it connect to Don's professed inability to feel love, and can we connect that with your observation about the general malcontent of all the characters in relationships?

Aaron: I think we can assume we're seeing Don's advertising style, and I only wish time was endless so we could look back at previous pitches to see when this style developed. (I sometimes think about an idea I don't have a name for. Basically, I'm assuming this is Don's current style of advertising, but what if Mad Men is suffering from Studio 360-style writing. Remember how the show was OK, but the comedy sketches were awful? What if the people they have writing Don's pitches are out of ideas and they're not amazing, this isn't a pattern, they're just bad?) I don't think it connects to Don's love issue, because remember the carousel pitch. That wasn't an absence of the product and he certainly wasn't full of love when married to Betty. If you're reading that differently, let me know. Rather than Don's inability to feel love, I think it's more about Don's unwillingness to put something on a pedestal. He likes the new, the chase, but gets bored/complacent with something he already has. Did you see his glee in the first Chevy meeting, "No, it's completely new." He fired Jaguar because he was tired of them. Etc, etc, etc. Additionally, Megan was more attracted to Don when he was chasing something because it reminded her of the man she fell in love with (when he was chasing her).

Aaron: Don and Joan have always had a complicated relationship, maybe they recognize something of themselves in each other. The scene starting with Pete falling down the stairs (obligatory Pete Campbell falling down the stairs gif), into Don yelling about it being over (which he's done at least once before), into Joan yelling at Don was one of the most powerful of the season. It was the scene that alerted me to the fact, "Hey, something's happening in this season, finally." Why was Joan so angry at Don for firing Jaguar? Why'd she attack him for getting rid of Herb and Jaguar? She didn't do what she did for nothing, she did it to become a partner. "Because we're all rooting for you from the sidelines hoping that you'll decide what you think is right for our lives."

David: Is it because she lost the IPO money (or thought she would?) Or because, perhaps, it confirmed her worst fears about Don's lack of empathy. It's a hard one. I'm sorry I don't have more on that one! I've always thought he was the little soul of the organization. Skilled, but ultimately hollow of ethics and morals

Aaron: The organization has no soul?

David: Well, it has Pete. They're fundamentally not honest people - Peter has always been the one to remind the audience "Hey, these are not people you want to be friends with!' I think we're seeing Don wake up, ethically. And that's why he just can't bring himself to put these objects in the campaigns. He is blocked on it, because he knows it's a lie.


David: But I guess I meant to ask - where Joan's behavior has perhaps been building up over the last few episodes (frustrations with Dawn, makin out with a stranger at Electric Circus, etc.) Pete seems to be zigging and zagging. Are there some tea leaves for us to read here? Or is he just the same as he's always been?

Aaron: They've always done that with Pete, though. They'll take 3 episodes to build sympathy for him, and then make him hatable again. Up and down forever. I'm not even totally sure he's hatable here. His father in law basically dared him to tell Trudie. Pete ALWAYS wants to prove people wrong. His father in law sealed his own fate when he told Pete he'd do the right thing. For what it's worth, I got the sense with Dawn and Joan that there was a different tone to her treatment of Dawn. I want to say it's because Joan likes her.

David: I hate to go out of order here, but I am fading. I am SAD about this merger. I felt like we were just getting into Ted & Peggy as a real rival to SCDP. And their work was better. (Especially Peggy's HUGE FUCKING Heinz bottle.) Now I feel like we've lost something in the show before the arc ran it's course. This would have been all fine as the season finale. But it's too soon for me. What do you think? Ultimately, Peggy wanted SOME self-determination, and not to have money thrown in her face (per the teaser)

Aaron: Well, the teasers are always useless. I thought this was the best episode of the season. I thought there were three great scenes: Joan yells at Don, Don and Ted in the bar, Ted and Don breaking the news to Peggy. There were also huge arrows pointing at this happening with SCDP about to come into money, and CGC about to need a lot of money. I hate jerking the show off, but this type of thing happening mid-season is an excellent for viewers because now we get two mini-seasons. I hope it doesn't turn into Friday Night Lights Season 2 Episode 1. Last week had all the makings of a set up episode. Now there are so many questions. What's the structure of the new company? What's the name? Will all these characters become main characters? Will they buy out extraneous partners? Specifically, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what's this mean for Peggy? What's this mean for Joan? What's this mean for Pete?"

David:To your list of great scenes, I'd add the dinner scene. Mad Men is best when it's about what's unsaid (which is why it's so frustrating when all the characters narrate their feelings, or find poop in the stairwell). For Peggy: She's back to square 1. She's surpassed her mentor, and now she's back working for him again. The result of her beating him was a return. Not good. For Joan: What Harry Crane says to her face, everyone thinks behind her back. And when Don, who is supposed to be her great supporter, fires Jaguar without a second thought, that's made even more clear. For Pete: He got this amazing validation from Bert this episode. But he's immediately reminded that Jaguar & Vic's - the two big gets, had nothing to do with his charms/account management. I wonder how Ted will treat Joan.

Other thoughts from the episode:
-In the first scene it seemed a little like Pete and Joan were flirting. Is she the only one who doesn't think he's a creep?
-It's never been totally clear what Roger does for the agency and it's taken halfway through season 6 to see one of his tricks. That was pretty cool, wish they'd made him seem more useful earlier.
-Marie had some great lines: "Do you want my flowers, I'm quite done with them." "You talk like a woman who's been married for much longer than you have." "She's the apple that goes in the pig's mouth."
-There were some indirect and obviously direct ties to the episode title, "For Immediate Release." The indirect ones were about sex.
-Abe and Peggy. Ted and Peggy. Didn't get a chance to go over this is the recap, but yeah.
-Did you notice Roger using the shoeshine kit he got earlier in the season?
-"They designed it with a computer."
-"It's one thing to want something, it's another to need it."
-Don and Arnold in the elevator talking about fate.
-"Unless this works, I'm against it."
"Make it sound like the agency you want to work for."
-May 17, 1968.

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. Our baby, Campbell Grace finally came this past Wednesday, so I may have watched this week's episode in a partial vegetative state. I guess this was the episode for it, though because plot wise, not much happened.

-I can't remember an episode of Mad Men where a single story took up so much of the episode. I guess what they were doing was using the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr as a foil or pivot for a few different characters. I didn't feel it was super successful, did you? Without knowing what they were going for, I guess I can't judge that too much. I hate to say it, but I think Don's secretary, Dawn, had a bigger role last week to set her up for this week and possible future episodes.
-I guess I was surprised at the response to the assassination, how shaken everyone was. We're only a few seasons away from Roger doing a blackface routine at a party, and now it seems al the characters have completely evolved on the race relations front. (Except for Harry Crane who was more distressed at lost advertising revenue.)

-In the first two episodes of Season 5, Pete had two instances of looking uncomfortable around racism. Tonight his outburst seemed to have more to do with his own situation, but it would be pretty tight if the writers were knowingly making Pete the most comfortable around various races on the show, but only dropping evidence of this once or twice a season. Pete is spiraling, trying to make smalltalk with the Chinese food delivery driver and trying to set the groundwork to convince Trudy to let him come home. While there's no doubt his argument with Harry Crane was partially about MLK, his last line about MLK's family drives home the point that this was about his own family. "It's a shameful, shameful day."

-It's curious the characters for whom they choose to focus on and provide backstory. For instance, this week we found out Michael Ginsberg is a virgin and is a wreck around women, but we'll never find out anything more about Stan. I don't know what the Ginsberg story had to do with this episode or this season. Any ideas? Maybe to show the Men of Mad Men, aren't all handsome and suave, there is some vulnerability there.

-Peggy has a tax problem and she's going to solve it with some interest payments on a new condo. There were some funny moments with the real estate agent when she assumed Abe was the money behind this purchase. The Second Avenue Subway mentioned as the boon to the condo's price still isn't completed yet, so maybe it's a good thing Peggy didn't get that apartment. The biggest part of this plot line was Abe guilelessly discussing Abe and Peggy's future children. It was a really sweet moment seeine how Peggy responded to that. "I'm going to Harlem in a tuxedo."

-Ethan from Lost is now a trippy insurance salesman named Randal Walsh trying to push the advertising envelope. I've got no idea either, except Roger's still experimenting. "This is an opportunity. The Heavens are telling us to change." I saw Don consider this for an extra beat.

-This episode was titled The Flood, but the only direct reference to a flood was Ginsberg's father, "In the Flood, the animals went two by two. You, you're going to get on the ark with your father." Did you catch anything else?

-I noticed this week a commercial with a voiceover by Jon Hamm. Is that new? Also, Christina Hendricks has been pitching scotch all season.

-Awkward meeting between Megan and Don and Arnold and his wife. And then Don calls DC to check on them? Come on, Don, settle down.

-The hug between Peggy and her secretary and Joan and Dawn contrasted nicely. There's real warmth between Peggy and her secretary, while Joan and Dawn are still trying to figure each other out, though. Don did seem genuinely concerned for Dawn, though. Peggy's secretary: "I knew it was going to happen. He knew it was going to happen. But it's not going to stop anything." That could be about Don.

-I can't really remember much of this from the earlier seasons, but I feel like newspapers/radio/TV are being used for expository and dating information more consistently this year. It was used a significant amount tonight.

-I'm not going to by into a Bobby story line until they promise not to change the actor again. We've had the same creepy Glenn forever, why can't we stick with the same Bobby? In any case, Bobby can't allow for the wallpaper to be uneven and gets punished for his obsessiveness. I think this was supposed to show his steely steadfastness to details, he is his father's son, but they've never really illustrated that specifically for Don, so what do I know. I did love Bobby in the movie theater, though, first when his mind was absolutely blown by Planet of the Apes, "Jesus!" and then when talking to the movie theater employee, "Everybody likes to go to the moves when they're sad." It showed a compassion and empathy never exhibited in Betty (except for with Glenn and the violin girl) and hardly exhibited in Don. That was a sweet moment, too.

-Setting up Don's speech on fatherhood, which is especially poignant to me as a brand new father. "I don't think I ever wanted to be the man who loves children." "And you act proud and excited, hand out cigars, but you don't feel anything." Don's never really loved his kids (which is going to make it harder for Megan down the road), or more accurately, has never really lived for his kids. And one of the first times he does feel true parental love for Bobby is after Bobby's kindness to the man in the movie theater, "You feel the feeling you were pretending to have and it feels like your heart is going to explode." But then this is all turned on its head because Bobby's biggest fear is his step-dad will be shot. Don acidly clarified Henry isn't important enough to be shot, but is clearly stung. That juxtaposition was one of the best of the season.