Don and Peggy are going to start a new firm, right?

^ Definitely the vibe I'm getting. Seems weird to start yet ANOTHER firm during this series' run, but I don't know what else there is to do. Don being welcomed back to SCDP just seems kind of boring at this point. Would love it if he started a firm in LA.

Peggy is going to push what's his name to pitch an idea. He's going to fail. Miserably. Then he'll admit to Don being the brains. Peggy will yell at Don. Don will pitch Peggy on being equal partners. They'll bring in Pete as the accounts man. Beardo will be the art director. The business will focus exclusively on television, which Don is clearly obsessed with. They'll all be based on Harry's contacts.

Would absolutely love that.

And I think they take Joan with them

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One more note about his drinking. Four times we see Don around alcohol: (1) Don has a celebratory dinner with Megan/agent where she drinks heavily, (2) he comes home while Megan is cooking and asks her about wine, (3) he accepts a glass of wine/champagne on the flight back to NYC, and (4) he ends the show with a bottle of booze. Not once did we see him actually take a drink.

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I could be mistaken, and I've deleted the episode, but I think Don took a drink out of a glass before setting it down as the delivery men were moving the TV in.

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Peggy is going to push what's his name to pitch an idea. He's going to fail. Miserably. Then he'll admit to Don being the brains. Peggy will yell at Don. Don will pitch Peggy on being equal partners. They'll bring in Pete as the accounts man. Beardo will be the art director. The business will focus exclusively on television, which Don is clearly obsessed with. They'll all be based on Harry's contacts.

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I actually think a good portion of this might happen. I wish Roger worked into that prediction though.

MW03, that all sounds very, very plausible and is a finish I'd enjoy seeing.

For AgLaw and MW03. I think the redemption story angle is dead-on, and I assume we'll see each character achieve various degrees of it--including some who fail miserably--by the time the show wraps up.

As for Don, one of the things I love about this show is that there are a million directions his story could go, and as of now I have no clue where he's headed. On one end of the spectrum, I could see the "Megan is going to get murdered" predictions coming true, something happening to Henry, and a cleaned-up Don somehow reuniting with Betty to become the great father (and to a lesser extent, husband) he's never been able to be. Perhaps a reinvigorated Don starts crushing it at work and the "let's start a new agency" scenario outlined above comes true...only Don has another Hershey-type moment and decides at the last minute to just cash out and focus on raising his kids. Maybe he endorses Peggy to run the new agency instead, finally giving her the validation she's been seeking from him throughout the entire show. I think we've seen a lot of "the world he once owned is passing Don by" moments in the later seasons, so perhaps this is how Don finally comes to terms with it.

...Of course, very little about this show indicates that we're heading toward a happy ending, so maybe the scenario I just described unfolds but on the way to tell Peggy his decision Don gets drunk and hooks up with Pete's realtor, forgetting to pick up his kids at the airport and earning him a devastating tongue-lashing from Sally that causes him to realize he'll never overcome his demons, so rather than risk failing again, he decides to end it all and jump off a building. Like I said, the possibilities are endless.

I see Roger committing suicide. His life right now makes Don look like a saint. Roger is participating in hippy orgies with people half his age, he drinks as much or more than Don, and he literally does nothing at work and has done nothing for years.

His existence is barren and futile. His only life line is Joan. If she doesn't accept him in a relationship (which he would probably screw up anyway) I just don't see him making it. But who knows!

No. They already have had 2 suicides. Going for 3?

Roger is a loser and is only there because his father was one of the original partners. He adds nothing.

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Roger is a loser and is only there because his father was one of the original partners. He adds nothing.

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To be fair to him, though, he was kind of a wizard in dealing with clients. Even when it wasn't his business, bert would always send him along to a meeting bc he cleaned up messes and put clients at ease. He had value in that way... Not so much anymore, obviously.

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One more note about his drinking. Four times we see Don around alcohol: (1) Don has a celebratory dinner with Megan/agent where she drinks heavily, (2) he comes home while Megan is cooking and asks her about wine, (3) he accepts a glass of wine/champagne on the flight back to NYC, and (4) he ends the show with a bottle of booze. Not once did we see him actually take a drink.

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I don't remember him smoking in the episode either.

Telling that Joan referred to the company as "SC&P" at the restaurant rather than "SCDP".

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Telling that Joan referred to the company as "SC&P" at the restaurant rather than "SCDP".

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Why do you say that's telling?

He forgot they changed the name.

After Roger abandoned Don (at least in dons eyes) when the partners ran him out, I expect Don try and return the favor. Maybe Roger ODs thereafter

There was an SCDP mention earlier on the page.

Tom & Lorenzo review - always find these really interesting.

http://tomandlorenzo.com/2014/04/mad-men-time-zones/

From Tom and Lorenzo - let the speculation begin!

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And speaking of ominous foreshadowing, here’s Megan, discussing the coyotes which sound like they’re right outside her door but aren’t :”It’s just what happens to the sound in the canyons.”

And here’s the opening lines from the first chapter of Helter Skelter, the book about the Manson Family murders, including Sharon Tate’s:

“It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon.

The canyons above Hollywood and Beverly hills play tricks with sounds. A noise clearly audible a mile away may be indistinguishable at a few hundred feet.”

God, we almost hated pointing that out. We still maintain, as we did in the face of all that Tate hysteria of last season, that Weiner’s not that literal in his foreshadowing, but even we were shocked at how clearly he’s making a direct reference here to her murder.

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The more I think/read about it, the more I think the Manson reference is a red herring. Too obvious for Weiner?

I'm intrigued.



Of course since I had to catch up on the last 4 of last season before doing the first episode of the 7th season tonight, I have a lot to digest.


They have a lot of problems to solve in the next 12 episodes......

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They have a lot of problems to solve in the next 12 episodes......

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the next 13*

The split season has one more hour to work with than usual, with 14 episodes total.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 4/15/2014 11:56p).]

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The more I think/read about it, the more I think the Manson reference is a red herring. Too obvious for Weiner?

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Yeah, I just can't see her getting murdered. Too coincidental, and would be a weird "rewrite" of history. At most, I could see the murders being a thing talked about/referenced on the show, and it freaking Megan out to a degree (which could potentially impact the plot in some way), but I doubt they just straight up murder her.

Just got around to watching. Lots of time references in this episode. Title "Time Zones". Accutron watches are the big pitch. Opening scene, Freddy pitches directly to the audience, giving the appearance of breaking the fourth wall, and asks if we have just 30 seconds. Megan asks Don how much time do we have. Lady on the plane asks Don how much time do we have. The woman's husband was 50, which Don is nearing, making him wonder on a deeper level how much time he has. Not sure where it all points yet though.

http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/04/15-megan-drapersharon-tate-connections-that-prove-mad-men-is-just-straight-up-trolling-us-now/

^ Wow. Seeing all the connections laid out like that all at once is pretty insane. I just really, really hope it's an epic troll on Wiener's part and that she's really not going to get murdered. Seems so lame to off a character that way.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 4/16/2014 11:08a).]

My wife has a theory that Roger's daughter has cancer and knows she will die, and that is the reason she wanted to meet and was constantly talking about forgiveness. His daughters death could be his final undoing or snap Roger back to reality.

Thoughts?

I thought she might be sick after watching their brunch.

I think you guys are definitely on to something. Her joining a cult, which has been speculated, just seems too random.

I don't know. Cult (or at least some eastern religion thing) seems more 60s appropriate. The I have cancer get my **** in order/new age thing is much more 80s to me.

Megan doesn't have to die but the murders could occur in the valley below her. Also, MM has made it a point to be historically correct, so why would Megan die at the hands of Manson's cult when it didn't happen in real life?

[This message has been edited by AGnCS (edited 4/16/2014 2:10p).]

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Megan doesn't have to die but the murders could occur in the valley below her

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That seems likely. A lot of the show has been about the reactions that the characters have (or dont have) to current events.

In regards to MM having its lowest rated premiere, I think the following are big reasons for this:
(1) It seems like it has been forever since last season ended. I've watched every episode of the series and I didn't have a clue what happened last season before reading the episode summaries on Wikipedia. For a show like this, I feel like shorter breaks is better.

(2) We are only getting 7 episodes. When added to the fact that I couldn't even remember what happened last season, it's hard to get too pumped up for a mere 7 episodes. Especially when the next 7 won't come for another entire year. This is ridiculous.

I'm not a huge fan of the show (definitely have others that I like better), but I do really like it. And as I mentioned I have seen every episode. So if I can't remember what has happened and was no overly pumped about it starting (due largely to the above reasons), then the more casual fans definitely aren't going to be pumped about the season.