‘Mad Men’ season 7, episode 12 review: Joan challenges McCann, Peggy and Roger can’t transition
We are rolling into the last three episodes of “Mad Men” and we still haven’t had a good Roger episode or Peggy episode, so we are hoping that they’ve saved the best stories for last! If Roger goes out with a fizzle this year and no real focus on him we won’t be happy, but we have faith that Matthew Wiener will come through and give us some great material on Roger and Peggy… maybe even tonight?
Things are changing for Don: He’s staying at a hotel while waiting for his new apartment to be ready, and he’s moved into his new office at McCann. His office is cold, drafty and missing a personal touch, but to Jim, Don is his white whale and is willing to give him anything he wants after chasing him for 10 years. Jim tells him he’s giving him Miller beer, but when Don walks into the meeting and there’s 20 other creative directors there, he leaves after hearing a lame pitch from one of the directors. Don gets in his car and drives for hours and hours until he’s so delirious that he starts to see Cooper in the passengers seat! He tries to talk Don out of hunting Diana down, but he refuses and goes to her ex-husbands house to find her. All Don finds there is grief from her ex-husband and a warning that he can’t save her.
It looks like Peggy is going to be in trouble over at McCann when some of the vultures come to Joan over the accounts she’s been working on with Peggy. Seems that Peggy is going to be squeezed out by the other women very quickly and Joan is getting squeezed out by the men. When Joan calls Avon with an executive at McCann named Dennis (who didn’t read any of the briefs Joan gave him), the call goes south very quickly and she lashes out at him for not doing his home work. She goes above Dennis to have him moved off of her accounts, and the man in charge, Ferg, says that he’ll help her stay in charge of her accounts… in exchange for a good time, at least that is the underlying message veiled with a threat of losing her accounts. Joan decides to go above Ferg’s head and goes straight to the top to get her accounts in order, but Jim tells her that she doesn’t have the same clout anymore and that he won’t give her the half million dollar pay out and she just has to deal with Ferg. Joan threatens to get a lawyer and file a complaint saying that she will expose the sexism going on at work. He offers her half of what she’s owed if she walks away and she says no… now it looks like they will be going to court. Roger tries to push Joan to take the offer from Jim because otherwise she will end up with nothing if she goes to court… and with that, Joan leaves McCann.
Peggy is already being treated like a secretary at McCann and she hasn’t even walked in the door yet, but it’s clear that Peggy is going to be demoted heavily. Peggy has refused to leave SCP until she is given a proper office at McCann and finally after much complaining it comes through. Really she just doesn’t want to leave SCP and as it turns out, neither does Roger. Both of them are lingering around the old empty office and refusing to go over to McCann and we have some of our first (and last) Peggy and Roger moments. Roger and Peggy get drunk in their old offices, and reminisce as Peggy roller skates and Roger plays the organ until they are ready to let go of the SCP ghost and go to McCann.
We worried that Joan and Peggy were going to have a tough time at McCann and it has gone just as bad as it could. Watching Don drive off at the end of the episode was perfect since we expected him to run away as he does with everything in his life that upsets him. He keeps chasing that fleeting happy feeling and he’s always left feeling worse then he did before. Episode grade: A-
What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Mad Men” and how do you want to see it all end? Leave us a comment below.