Episode cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jon Hamm | ... | Don Draper | |
Elisabeth Moss | ... | Peggy Olson | |
Vincent Kartheiser | ... | Pete Campbell | |
January Jones | ... | Betty Francis | |
Christina Hendricks | ... | Joan Harris | |
Aaron Staton | ... | Ken Cosgrove (credit only) | |
Rich Sommer | ... | Harry Crane | |
Kiernan Shipka | ... | Sally Draper | |
Jessica Paré | ... | Megan Draper | |
Kevin Rahm | ... | Ted Chaough (credit only) | |
Christopher Stanley | ... | Henry Francis | |
Jay R. Ferguson | ... | Stan Rizzo | |
Ben Feldman | ... | Michael Ginsberg | |
Mason Vale Cotton | ... | Bobby Draper | |
Robert Morse | ... | Bertram Cooper |
It's December 1967 and Don is in Hawaii with Meagan on a working holiday. They're staying at the Royal Hawaiian hotel, a client, so that Don can get an idea of what it's like for their new ad campaign. He has an interesting encounter with an army private currently serving in Vietnam but on leave to get married. He has a proposition for Don. They return home to finds their doorman, who had a serious heart attack standing in front of them, on the job. Megan is concerned that her employers may be diminishing her TV role. At the office, the firm has expanded to include the floor above but Don is not too happy to find that his office furniture has been rearranged. Roger Sterling learns that his mother has died. Betty takes a motherly interest in Sally's friend Sandy who lives next door and whose mother died recently. Sandy has an adventurous streak that Betty perhaps wishes she had at her age. At her new employer, Peggy Olson faces something of a crisis when recent news may force her to ... Written by garykmcd
I have watched every episode from all the previous seasons, and this episode is the worst. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) heads up a great ensemble cast. The writer, and the show's creator, has chosen to take several of these characters – Don, Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss), Roger Sterling (John Slattery), and Betty Draper (January Jones)– and give them each an individual story line showing their travails. In following each individual story line, of each individual character, this episode loses the thrust and cohesion of previous episodes where the interaction between the ensemble gave the episodes their dynamic.
This episode starts off with a scene - a man is being given CPR while Don looks on - which is only laid into context later in the show: and when is does appear, in context, it is shown to be an event that even then is out of the time line - confusing! It appears yet again when a drunken Don badgers the person, who was given CPR, about their near death experience. It seems to be an obtuse way to get to that point, where Don is shown to be a mean drunk.
The script has us cutting in and out of the disparate four main story lines. After a while, I just found this to be annoying. Only Don' story and Betty's story have interest. Roger's was the least interesting. Peggy has a job as a poorly paid artistic director who is trying to follow in the footsteps of her mentor Don. You can decide on whether she can do that. Never the less, the show ended too quickly. This is probably because there is a part 2.