Okay, here’s the deal. I don’t love Megan Draper, but this article from Celebitchy got me a bit miffed (the photos are wonderful though and shirtless Hamm is definitely a treat).

I know this character gets a lot of (undeserved) hate and I guess I can see where it’s coming from; maybe she does make Don Draper less likable, maybe we are disappointed that he didn’t choose the wiser and wittier Faye instead, but this is all his doing, this is all Don Draper, so we shouldn’t blame Megan for his inability to commit to meaningful relationships.

I don’t see Megan Draper as “infantilized and tantrum-prone and vapid.” Even people who don’t like her or simply don’t care much about her character can admit that she is not just a two-dimensional plaything. We’ve seen an entire season of her striving hard to achieve what she wants, never letting Don or anyone else (including her parents) sidetrack her, even refusing to work in advertising despite being brilliant at it. There’s a lot of strength in walking away from something so secure, something you’re really good at, to pursue the unknown and throw yourself out there, just because you love it more than anything else in the world. Basically, everyone’s against her; Don, Sally, her mother and father, Betty, the people at the office etc. And she still holds her chin up high and smiles through it. I think she’s allowed to lash out when the pressure gets to her. Anyone would.

There are moments in which she makes other characters question their thinking just by stating the obvious. She doesn’t beat around the bush. She’s younger (new generation) so she doesn’t speak in euphemisms. In fact, it’s almost surprising how direct and matter-of-fact she can be (remind you of anyone else? Hint, it’s her husband). People take issue with the fact that she “used” Don to get the part in that commercial in the season finale, but if Don Draper had done the same thing to her, they would have taken it as ambition and shrewdness; in any case he would have remained just as likable, despite the morally ambiguous behaviour (because he is not even judged through that spectrum, but that’s another story).

Of course she is a flawed human being. Of course there are times when you don’t sympathize with her. It’s natural. It’s realistic. It’s good writing.

I, for one, don’t see the vapidness or the childishness.

She is simply different, an individual in her own right, and that should be commanded.

Unless we demand that all women on Mad Men be either Peggies or Joanies. And nothing else in between.

AU MEME // Mad Men & space

Aaaaah, so many Kubrick/Ridley Scott feels right now!!!!!

Don and Peggy, parting ways.

A fanmix:

1. Let’s Call It Off - Peter Bjorn and John

When you decided to knock on my door,
Did your remember what happened before?
It just didn’t sparkle, it just didn’t grow.
Some things are better to leave unexplored.

2. I Don’t Want Love - The Antlers

If I leave before you,
And I walk out alone,
Keep your hands to yourself
When you follow me home.

3. Smash - Calexico

No sense looking backwards
Shattered every mirror in my eye
Scattering the scrapbook
Blueprints on the floor

4. In Spite of Me - Morphine

Last night I told a stranger all about you
They smiled patiently with disbelief
I always knew you would succeed no matter what you tried
And I know you did it all in spite of me

5. The Time Has Come Again - The Last Shadow Puppets

Without permission
His face became wet
He thought that he learned
How to not get upset
From folded notes in envelopes
“Meet me beneath the moon”
Don’t go too soon
She went too soon

*emotional*

that scene where Beth Dawes holds Peter’s hands, telling him they’ll fix his “friend” is goddamn heart-breaking.

Temporary band-aid over a permanent wound, indeed.

In a way, Pete is like Beth, but he doesn’t have the horror and luxury of shock therapy to make him forget.

OH GOD MY EYES ARE ENGULFED IN TEARS OF HEAVEN

Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’ 
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at night

As brilliant and outstanding as tonight’s episode was, I was still waiting for a Ken/Peggy closure scene at the end, right before she left the firm. Their last encounter was him trying to comfort her and her throwing it in his face. And you can’t tell me that’s how they parted ways. Yes, no one knew about her departure the moment she left Don’s office, but I was hoping to have Ken come out of the conference room and see her walk down the corridor and call out to her to come join the party. She’d smile and shake her head, telling him they could raincheck. He’d suddenly notice she was carrying her stuff, she’d smile again in sadness and wave at him. For a moment he’d stare back in shock and disappointment, but it would only last a second, he would immediately understand she did the best thing for her, especially since he was by her side every time she got placed second. He would smile nostalgically and wave back, mouthing a quiet: “Don’t forget our pact”. Peggy would nod her head affectionately and turn away.

I really wanted this to happen since their friendship has been such a wonderful constant this season and I wanted it to be acknowledged. Well, amazing episode anyways.

The funny thing about Pete’s narcissism is that it won’t allow him to form meaningless attachments. He loves himself too much to allow that his feelings be superficial in regards to a woman he (“the King”) has handpicked to embody the perfect feminine image. It’s his image, after all, and no matter the woman he attaches it to, he respects and honours it because it’s his choice, it says something about him.

Ergo, the woman is and will always be special, because of him. She’ll always matter. But giving a woman more meaning than his own self simply because she represents what he perceives to be the best part of him actually leads him to forego his own interests and dedicate himself to her entirely (and the ideal she embodies). Yes, he has had several affairs so far, but think of it this way; is this the same kind of behaviour Don evinces throughout his nonmarital trysts?

Not quite. Don is always absent somehow, finished before it even started, already searching for the new idea, the new something to give him the satisfaction and meaning he couldn’t find there. He doesn’t cheat for the woman, he cheats for himself.

While Pete is just as irrationally dissatisfied with his life, he never looks on these affairs with a nonchalant, detached eye. He can’t. He’s always in the midst of it, sometimes willing himself to fall in love, sometimes trying to recover from the disappointment of unrequited feelings, but he’s nevertheless there. He cheats for the woman. Perhaps the best way to define him would be as a selfish romantic who somehow, along the way, manages to transfer his self into the woman and become selfless.

That is why when Beth “shows up” into his office wearing only a furcoat and delicate pearls around her neck, it feels more emotional and intimate than it should. It doesn’t feel like a random sexual fantasy. Pete wants recognition (Beth “remembered” him from the newspaper article), admiration, commitment, dedication (in Pete’s eyes, her showing up almost naked in his office constitutes as an effort and risk on her part) and everything his own embittered and rational conscience cannot give him.

The look on his face during the fantasy cements this idea. He is in a state of revery, not of lust.

Mkay, unpopular opinion probably, but I really didn’t like how Peggy acted towards Ginsberg this episode. I know she’s been a bit standoffish in regards to him from the beginning, so last night’s episode should make no exception. But until now Peggy’s dislike did not affect her work ethics, or her aesthetic taste.

I could clearly see it written on her face; she knew Don’s idea wasn’t as good as Ginsberg’s, in terms of immediate effect. She also knew that if left to her own devices, despite it being clever, she wouldn’t run with Don’s idea, she would stick with her team’s. Not out of comradery, but because she’s good at what she does.

Not so now.

And it wasn’t the fact that Roger picked Ginsberg to work for him this time around. This happens much later in the episode.

It’s the fact that Peggy has a weakness for Don. She’s not the type to go with whatever the boss says, simply because he’s the boss. It’s Don as a persona, a model, even an archetype. She still craves to impress him, to be his apprentice, his number two, his reflection. 

Maybe she’s already aware that it would only harm her, that she can do better, but deep down she still seeks for his approval.