HIGH HOPES
TONIGHT, PEGGY'S PULLING NO PUNCHES. And neither is my Long Island iced tea…whoo. Need to ease up on the rum next time. Damn.
It's Friday afternoon at Sterling Cooper, and our two newly-appointed Heads of Accounts need the creative team to stay over the weekend to dream up some new Bacardi campaigns. You know, while the two of them slither around at Roger Sterling's country club soiree, actually *drinking* Bacardis.
"They hate creative," Peggy complains, resigning herself to her fate.
The next day, Peggy, Smitty and Kinsey hunker down to try and figure something out. Smitty and Kinsey lock themselves in Kinsey's office, and soon enough they realize they have *no* ideas. It's at this point that they don't call upon Peggy, but Mary Jane. Kinsey's hipster ass calls up one of his rebel-without-a-cause Princeton buddies, who's slangin' dope instead of working a 9 to 5. Jeff sits in on the "creative session" and chides Kinsey for never calling. You know, it's just a dime bag, not a therapy session, guy. Leave your number and a "free sample," and I bet he'll start calling your ass all the time.
Elsewhere, Roger's grand country club party is going well. That is, if you love crashingly dull work functions where you have to look like you're having fun even though it's hot, you're uncomfortable and you don't want to talk about work on the weekend. But, hey, open bar! That'll cure what ails ya.
Back at the Draper residence, Sally's getting sick of reading to Grampa Gene, so she decides to steal a little finder's fee from his wallet. Naturally, old Gene thinks Carla took it, resulting in several uncomfortably tense hours in that yellow-and-plaid kitchen. Eventually, Sally tries to right the situation by pretending to "find" the money on the kitchen floor. Naturally, everyone sees what just happened, but it's never mentioned or discussed.
I pity those Draper children. It's weird, but every time a scene at Don's house begins, I feel an urge to refill my drink.
While everyone else is suffering at the office or on the green, Joan is hosting a dinner party for her fiancée's co-workers. Things hit a wall when everyone discusses the hospital where they work, and Joan isn't up on the lingo. So there's an awkward silence that Greg suggests she fill with the sounds of her accordion. Did you know Joan plays the accordion? She clearly wishes that you didn't.
Meanwhile, Kinsey and Smitty got nothin'…except maybe the munchies. Jeff throws out a few ideas, but they suck. Peggy gets a whiff of what's going on and swings by. Jeff is hitting on her relentlessly: "What’s your name, sweetheart?"
"My name is Peggy Olson, and I'd like to smoke some marijuana." She’s getting bolder this season for sure. After a terrible caterwaul between Kinsey and his Princeton buddy-turned-pusherman, she laughs and says, "I am SO high."
Eventually, she strikes idea gold and tells the boys to go home, because she can totally take it from here, and all they're gonna do is keep singing and smoking, so. Thank you and goodnight.
Peggy's new secretary Olive has been watching over her all day and tries to warn her against doing what the boys do. It's very clear at this point that we're about to see a new side of Peggy: "I’m not scared of any of this." AWESOME.
Back to the country club. This has got to be the world's longest fucking garden party. I hope Don has sucked all the whiskey out of the open bar, because, if I were in his pointy, painful dress shoes, I totally would have. Pete and Trudy dance their asses off, but everyone else is pretty much over the whole scene. I mean, once you see Roger Sterling do blackface, that's got to be the apex of bad taste for the evening. Everything else after that is an amateur act…even when Mr. Big Time Client tries to hit on a very pregnant Betty Draper.
Things are winding down, and plaything Jane is WASTED. Oh, I know the feeling. Don and Roger exchange words, and Don, sick of it all, goes to find Betty. For once, he's figured out that he can go to her. Let’s see if that lasts.
Too bad there's no open bar at my place. Oh, wait, yes there is. It's called the fridge. Excuse me.
Miz J, who works in advertising, is a regular contributor and resident expert on all things Mad Men at Crabby Golightly. Check out her blog at Miz J



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