Two weeks into the last leg of “Mad Men,” and we’re tying up loose ends before the series finale. While last week’s episode opened more storylines than it closed, this week’s focus finally shut the door on Don and Megan.
A divorce is in the works, papers need to be signed, a settlement must be agreed upon, and Megan’s belongings are to be moved from Don’s apartment. The Calvet’s of Canada have come to New York for moral support (for her “failure”), staying in a luxury suite Megan’s mother and sister booked on Don’s dime. The financial standing of the couple was expectedly vague, as their decision to call it quits ended with Don’s ominous vow, “I’ll always take care of you.”
Mama Marie Calvet oversees the move, calling her one-time lover Roger for an extra $200 in cash after she spontaneously decides to completely clear out Don’s entire apartment and overfills the truck. Overwhelmed by his generosity, she goes in for a kiss — IT’S THAT MUSTACHE — and he’s surprisingly hesitant. “You already emptied the place out, you want to defile it as well?” But he goes with it anyway.
Meanwhile, Megan meets with Harry for lunch. She wants help finding a new agent, but he wants some casting couch action. “You’re like if Ali McGraw and Brigitte Bardot had a baby,” he coos. She deflects his advances, and he runs back to Don to warn him of her “unstable” behavior. Harry, you’re dead to me.
The divorce goes down like this: Don offers Megan a cigarette. Megan calls him “an aging, sloppy, selfish liar,” and informs him that he’s ruined her life. Don writes Megan a check for $1 million. She returns Anna’s ring and asks for him to send her the papers. End scene.
When Megan returns, her sister tearfully informs her that Marie is leaving their father, but Meagan is too jaded to care. “She’s been very unhappy for a very long time, at least she did something about it,” Megan shrugs.
Don, however, is continuing his dalliance with Diana the waitress. They spend a good amount of the episode embracing and breathing in each other’s body odors. She confesses she left her family in Wisconsin following her own divorce — including a daughter. Don seems to want to pursue something real, and he doesn’t even flinch when they share an elevator with a drunk Arnold and (tbh) ravishing Silvia. He buys her a New York City guide book as a gift, and she throws a fit. “Can’t you see I don’t want anything?” she cries. He tells her not to be in “a mood” because they are already that couple, and she sends him back to his barren apartment. Sorry, Don.
Meanwhile, where people work, Stan and Peggy are schmoozing artist Samantha “Pima” Ryan, who is photographing a Cinzano ad for the agency. She knows her way around a pantsuit and challenges Stan’s art direction. “I can feel the tension of your need for my opinion,” her suit says. They get it on after he shows her some naughty negatives of his nurse girlfriend in the dark room.
Moments later Pima makes a similar move on Peggy, offering to take her photo, but she bashfully declines. When Stan comes by the creatives to boast of his conquest, Peggy quickly puts the pieces together.
“It’s Pima’s business, which turned out to be more advertising than art,” she informs him. “She’s a hustler.”
“You’re jealous,” he scoffs.
“She tried the same thing with me, but she didn’t get as far,” says Peggy. “And that’s why I’m not going to give her another job.”
Plus one.
Other quotes worth repeating:
— Betty is going to get her masters in Psychology at Fairfield University. She can finally spend more time thinking about herself and receive credit for it. Her smugness could fill a room. Who will get her in? “Some distant Rockefeller.” Naturally.
— Stan’s nurse girlfriend is supportive, you know, in her own way. Sometimes it’s getting naked to amp up her boyfriend’s portfolio. Other times it’s this gem of reason: “Do you think Picasso looks at Guernica and says, ‘Don’t worry about that, it was a long time ago’?”
— I’m still rallying for a Meredith spin-off. On California: “How do you sleep at night knowing the Manson brothers are running around?”