MM 1-3 great. MM 3+ who gives a ****? It's just **** now. How can it end in a way anyone gives a **** about? Die, who cares? Burn down, who cares? Land Coke, Pepsi, and anal sex, Who cares? It's just BS now. ZZZZzzzzBS.

I binged re-watched Season 6 this week and realized that the likely reason for Sally hanging up on her friend was because it was boy/sex related. I erroneously thought the party scene with Glen's friend at the boarding school happened prior to her catching Don with Sylvia. Early in Season 6 Sally talks eagerly on the phone with a friend about boys, then she catches Don, then the Glen scene happens. There's also the part at the very end of Season 6 where Don shows his kids where he grew up and it registers with Sally - echoing the common ground they found in the diner last episode.

Don might find peace with himself and his daughter this season, but there's bound to be lingering effects to all the mistakes he's made, and Sally won't be immune.

Finally Megan drops the hammer.

Don's never going to work in advertising again! He's going to jump off a building!

lol @ fools itt.

Cool ending. I am looking forward to what happens once he's back in the office.

didn't understand the point to the betty and bobby storyline

they had to show that betty has the mentality of a 7 year old child

wait, they already did that 5 seasons ago

yeah because that's what everyone was saying. go back to reading anthem.

one thing i loathe about week to week analysis of this show is when people say there's 'no point' to stuff - betty and bobby have hardly interacted at all one on one in this show. betty's normally too consumed by petty resentments to realize what her life is, but it appears francine has revealed to her through her travel agent job that if betty's not really a good mother (or at least feels unloved), then what's she really doing? I assume we'll see her try to do something more than gossip and make weird cracks - I'm just not sure what that is, but it'll be something different.

also couldn't help but notice that she was called betty draper by francine - is that the name she's going by still, or was it a slip of the tongue, or what?

Anyway, on to real analysis - Conquering Hero Don would never have accepted those terms to come back to work - I was shocked to hear him say yes to them - and indeed I don't really see how he can live by them. Not only will his words be pored over by people who don't quite know how to do his job, but he'll be undermined at every turn by Lou regardless. Even if they do throw Lou aside at the end of his contract, what kind of work will SC&P be turning out at that point?

Thought it was poignant that Cutler called Harry Crane the most dishonest man he knows - does Cutler know about Dick Whitman? I don't recall if that fact ever got to him. As the chief anti-Draper man in the office, I felt that interesting.

Oh, and Megan - that's not really turning out all that well either. Was that story true? Guess we'll never know. But I don't see how they stay together, though clearly Megan isn't ready for it to be over.

I love this show so much. This episode had some great directorial/set flourishes that I'll probably talk about tomorrow.

(Also did anyone else catch Meredith being fired? Haha.)

I know I know, you didn't really mean it and you did use the word "might" so it doesn't count anyway. Riiiiight.

Could also quote other people itt to show that's exactly what they were saying more convincingly than whatever the **** it is you're now pretending that you were really getting at, but of course it's all there so not really necessary to repost them all.

He came back to work - something which I didn't at all deny could happen. I also used the word 'might' which is a word that people who think of things in terms of black and white tend to not understand. But congratulations on your 'gotcha' - boy, you sure look smart now, Don looked like an absolute world-beater accepting that he would have to work under a boss who hates his presence and that he won't be allowed to talk to clients off-script. Don's being turned into a mannequin for the company to pose - if things go off the way the partners want them to, he's going to be more of an actor than Megan ever was. And now you enter the ignore list.

Speaking of, what was with that woman who approached Don? Was that an entreaty from McCann or something else? Either way that was a little baffling and I don't think it was to set up a surprise transition to him talking to Sterling (though it might've been)

Triumph - I think the Megan story was almost certainly true. Remember when she was going to an audition in New York and stopped in Don's office for a quickie because she wanted to walk in with "confidence?"

I took her immediately taking Don to the couch as a sign that her confidence had been eroded, probably because of what we think happened. She even says "I needed that" right afterwards.

I thought maybe Roger sent her and the room she mentioned was where Don met him? Seems a bit cloak and dagger though. I could definitely be wrong.

I'm also really surprised Don accepted those terms. It won't be long before he's miserable.

If they're building up to a "Don's lost everything" moment it's setup well for that.

As I read it if he violates terms of the agreement somehow and they said it would forfeit his partnership.

Ah yeah, great point, forgot about that. Yeah.

I think it would've been a little more surprising to Don to see Roger. On the other hand that didn't really seem like Roger's home (it looked like a hotel room). But yeah, not sure. Don got a real weird look on his face after she left.

That's what it seemed like to me but that wasn't clear - I believe Joan said grounds for termination, but I'm not sure anyone said plainly that he would forfeit his partnership (maybe Bert did?). Sure seems like a negative freeroll on his part.

At first I thought the blonde girl was the stewardess from his flight to LA, I don't know why. I imagine she was just a girl hired by McCann though.

Seems like they are wading through a lot of plot this season.

Don's circumstances at work are pretty crazy, and I was surprised he accepted them too. The requirements are a bit contrived (they can't possibly think that keeping "adequate" Lou to oversee Don is preferable to just giving Don the reins; and Don was drinking heavily for years when he was the firm superstar) as is the harshness of Joan, Bert, and Cutler, but it is undoubtedly a test for the new and improved Don who isn't drinking as much, isn't cheating, but is still unreasonable with Dawn on the phone and lies to Sally and Megan up until the last minute. There are now many different ways for the show to challenge Don - give him a chance to navigate or fail - and explore why he went the direction he ends up going. It's about time for Season 7 to open things up.

im liking the Roger vs Jim dynamic and one of the reasons Roger brings back Don is to spite Jim ..

its gonna be fun with Don in the office with all the drama thats already brewing , just sucks that we're basically halfway through this mini season .

He doesn't care about pitch approval. He almost always knows what he wants to do in advance with notable brilliancy exceptions i.e. 'It's toasted.' Now he just has to pitch twice where he answered to nobody before. The only real problem is not drinking at the office, but it seems he's just going to man up and do it on his own time. Answering to some putz is an annoyance but he'll do it until he pushes the guy out.

My presumption is he's going to quickly make himself indispensable again and maybe the show goes out on that arc or if things fall apart professionally maybe an enemy drops a dime to the government about Dick Whitman once he's back on top. Until then it seems pretty clear he has been stepping up to put his life back together though this episode is the first to really yield tangible results.

If he is terminated they'll still have to pay to reabsorb his partnership shares, which they don't want to do. That would also break his non-compete the whole thing is too pedestrian to be played out over the final episodes.

Yeah I don't see this bothering Don either. He's a laid back dude who is always well prepared. And if someone wants to make changes or just outright veto his ideas, hey, that's what collaboration is all about.

I think the theme is strongly embedded that he finally found the ability to stop holding onto living his last lies with the closest people in his life. He connected with Sally for the first time since she was little as a result and his marriage has a sliver of hope for the first time in a long time. It should provide some interesting opportunities to explore a new side of the character as he gets to walk around as himself for the first time in his adult life.

Perfect mechanism to force Lou out. Guy gets in the way unnecessarily and it creates undeniable negative consequences that the partners have to address.

Or the guy has enough sense to just say 'OK Don' everytime.

If you seriously think that's the straw that breaks the camel's back you're mistaken.

It was so tense watching Don sit there for hours waiting for Roger to show up....

I knew he'd accept the terms. Pretty smart on the firm's part, they can get the best of Don while they pay him and now have an easy path to terminate him if he gets out of line. Of course we know Don will make things much harder than that.