Trudy has really turned out to be pretty interesting.

So that's what the raised eyebrow over Clearasil meant. I'd forgotten that business.

I hope they don't skip too much time. I love the scrappy little brand-new ad agency. Don typing! Peggy not getting coffee! Roger fully awake and involved! Fantastic.

Pete Campbell is one of the most unprecedented characters I've seen on a TV show. He's weasely, and insecure and entitled and he's also (I suspect) borderline Asperger's syndrome. And yet, he's not unsympathetic for all his flaws and fuckery. He's human and complicated.

One of the huge abiding pleasures of this show is how Weiner builds these complex relationships, and this particular episode paid off on so many different histories.

That scene with Don and Peggy was amazing, because you could see it was breaking her heart to think he'd never talk to her again. And Don does love her - but not romantically. I don't know that he'd even identify it as "love." But a mixture of respect and concern and care and intimacy.

Rewatching the episode it was incredible to see all the harsh, harsh things everybody said to each other. But the really interesting part narratively was that everybody responded positively to those truthful moments. Like they were starving for the truth.

Like Bert needed to hear somebody tell him to go back to sleep old man. Or Roger to hear that what he really needed was a challenge - way more than a vacation. His life is already a permanent vacation. It's the work that makes it worthwhile. And he's a really good account man.

Roger tells Don that he doesn't value relationships, and Don takes that to heart. That's exactly how he woos Peggy and Pete - by valuing them. And it's so important to both of them to get Don's validation.

And yet, he's not unsympathetic for all his flaws and fuckery. He's human and complicated.

True of so many of the characters.

Yeah, they are all energized by it. And Don probably the most out of it. It's crazy that it happened with the timing it did in his life, but he was about to be completely unavailable to the family with his complete engagement in this new agency.

Trudy & Pete are so interesting. At the start of the show, they were like the little proto Don & Betty's, playing at being a married couple. But that little glance that Don gives Trudy is so telling. And yet, he's about to be so happy with the work he's doing.

Again, I love that I never have any idea where this show is going. It's so wild how it ended up where it did, but it's also so organic that it did. Lots of storytelling payoff.

Trudy and Pete's marriage is this really intriguing, rather odd thing. But I like it, and her character's growth.

It is. I liked the way he listened to her and took her advice the last couple of weeks, and watching them watching the assassination news unfold on TV was almost sweet. I would possibly start to like Pete if he hadn't become a rapist this season.

One thing I like about the show, and I occasionally see contravened in various blog comments, is the intimacy of the work relationships. Obviously, work and sex bleed together in Mad Men.

But...I like that Don's best relationship with Peggy is a work relationship. And I think also that Roger's best relationship with Joan is at work.

I work-ship those characters. I love seeing them in scenes together. But I don't want them to get married. I don't want them having sex and being involved. I want the intimacy of collaboration, and respect between them.

Which, curiously, I also see and like in Pete and Trudy. But I like them best when they're working Pete's career.

I really liked this ep. I am very disappointed that it's the end of season! Don was forced to come out from behind his charm and be honest and real and it worked for him.

I was really hoping that Sal would walk in the door, didn't even grok what Lucky Strike would mean. I'm hoping that they say to hell with it and hire him at Sterling Cooper Draper and Price. SCDP, baby!

Two thoughts:

1) Does being fired negate the non-compete clause? Damn if I know, but I'll bet Don, Rodger, Bert and Price don't either because they are all too used to winging things to check. Confirmed by the way it came up. Don saying to Price "you have the absolute authority to fire us if you choose". Really in the spirit of "Gang, why don't we put on a show?".

2) Betty: yeah she is unpleasant, but also trapped. She drank the too much of the Koolaid for way too long because Koolaid was all that was on the menu. At this point even if she was offered champagne she'd choose Koolaid, because that is all she knows to recognize. And yeah, agency and all that, but it would have taken one hell of a strong character to turn out better than Betty did in the circumstances she found herself in.

Interview with Matt Weiner on S3:

[link]

Somehow, I had totally missed they were at the Pierre. I think that's the only time I've ever stayed in a NY hotel. Way back in high school. In a suite next to Cher! Good times.