‘Mad Men’ season 7, episode 11 review: Want a good Pete Campbell meltdown?
Have you been waiting for a big Pete Campbell episode on “Mad Men”? Well tonight you’re going to get that as some really heavy drama unfolds for him in his business life as well as his private life, so expect some big Pete hissy fits (we can’t get enough of them).
Pete and Trudy are having some trouble with Tammy and the trouble is that she’s on a wait list for a school that Pete and his whole family went to and he feels that Tammy should have been accepted, not be put on a wait list. They agree to go to the school together to show them that even though they are divorced (which is frowned upon in this time period) they are still a team and Tammy should be allowed in. When they get to the school they learn that Tammy’s scores were very low and that’s why she’s not getting in… or at least that’s what they think. The head of the school later reveals their families have a long war between their clans and that’s why she’s not getting in and after Pete punching him in the face now she’s really not getting in.
Roger learns that McCann is planning to move their agency to their building to be one big happy family and the team freaks out over the fact that their agency will be amalgamated with theirs. Pete is especially devastated and he goes to Peggy telling her what happen so she is prepared in case she loses her job. There is a really nice moment between them as she tries to console Pete and we see that after everything they’ve been through (including having a baby and giving that baby up) they still have a real connection.
Speaking of kids, Peggy had to deal with a lot of children in the office during a casting call and after one of the kids gets hurt (and a mother goes off on her), she starts to think deeply about her child and the decision she made to give him up. It was a very tough moment for us to watch, but it was nice to see that Stan was there for her.
Don comes up with an idea – get a few clients and take the main crew and head down to the California office now that Lou is leaving. They’ve done this before – can they do it again? One of the problems is that they need more then the crew they have and they are desperate enough to ask Ken to go with them (as a client) and after toying with them Ken tells them no.
If you’ve been hoping for a Ted and Peggy romance sparking up now that he’s revealed that he’s divorced, you’re going to be disappointed. Seems that Ted has a new woman and she’s in New York, so he won’t be joining the move to California. This move could be really great for Joan though, who is still going strong with Richard.
When the group heads to the meeting with McCann to push their California idea, they are instead told that they were being brought over because they passed the test and are each being awarded one of their top clients and that they are getting a huge promotion so it’s time to stop fighting it… and they do. The only person that wasn’t giving a big named client was Joan and she’s very concerned that they aren’t taking her seriously.
There was so much to love about this episode and not just because we are huge Pete and Peggy fans (although that did help make it great). We had all of our main cast together, working as a team to try to get themselves out of another jam. It was also interesting to see that Roger is getting serious with Marie – will he be getting married again? Episode grade: A
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