Mad Men Season 4, Episode 9: "The Beautiful Girls"

I've only been able to watch this episode once so far, so I may not have picked up as much as I might otherwise have.

[Standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

As the title implies, the ladies were the focus of this episode. Don has decided that he's ready to be more deeply involved with Faye, and they're even sneaking away from work for nooners. Made me think of Don's fling with bohemian Midge from season one, and how different things are for him five years later.

Peggy's crusading journalist flirtation Abe from back in episode 4 returns to give it another try (dude, that was what, four months ago in show time--what took you so long?), only to blow it by basically telling her that he doesn't consider women's rights as important as civil rights. He then tries to make up for it by writing an expose of an SCDP client's hiring practices, which only makes things worse. But even so, you can see that these issues are getting under Peggy's skin, and you know that in a few more years, when the women's movement becomes a serious societal force, Peggy's going to be right in the thick of it.

Sally shows up in the middle of a presentation, having sneaked onto a commuter train--I guess things aren't going so well with Dr. Edna after all. (When Don first went out to the lobby, I thought that was Dr. Edna with Sally.) And then, as if one minor crisis in the midst of a client meeting wasn't enough, Miss Blankenship strokes out at her desk. This was a great scene, with Don sitting in the conference room watching Joan and Pete struggling to get the deceased out of sight without the clients knowing, distracted from the meeting by both that and the thought of Sally sitting in his office.

At first I thought the simultaneous occurrence of these two events was meant to be seen as parallel, the way parallel structure has been used several times this season. But after some thought, the more obvious parallel for Don is between Sally and Faye, being pulled in different directions by them, and what each of them represents and means in his life. Poor Sally is so needy right now, with good reason, and Don can't see it. Obviously having Sally live with him isn't going to happen, and I can't see Betty ever agreeing to that anyway, but if he could somehow meet Sally halfway, she would be so much the better for it. But I fear that connection is going to elude Sally, until it's too late for Don to have any sort of meaningful relationship with her.

Meanwhile, Sally's outburst gave Don (and us) the chance to see Dr. Faye's maternal instincts, or lack thereof. "I feel like that was a test, and I failed." Well yeah, you kinda did. I'm not criticizing her; like a lot of people, she just isn't comfortable with kids. But she lies and says she loves kids, and it would have been much better if she had just admitted as much. In the mid-60s she still would have been seen as unusual not being maternal, and she ends up having to defend her choice to be a professional woman rather than a wife or mother, which brings us back around to... Abe and Peggy's conversation. And how ironic that the glamorous, young, single, thoroughly un-maternal Megan is the one who ends up comforting Sally after she falls.

Viewers hoping for a Roger-Joan hookup got their wish, and in a doorway, after a mugging, no less. But Joan never would have done this while Greg was around; he's thousands of miles away, and she's scared and lonely. She is willing to accept it as a one-time thing, and reminds Roger that they are both married, but is that enough to keep him in line?

And then we had the final image of Joan, Peggy, and Faye on the elevator, each with something on her mind, all of them looking unhappy, or at least unsatisfied. What I want, vs. what is expected of me... Don does not have a monopoly on that dilemma.

French toast with rum sounds like a good idea. Remember, Sally used to be the Draper household bartender.

"My mother made that!" (Harry, in the background, about the afghan from his office they used to cover Miss Blankenship's body)