The Mad Men Recap Where the Internet Threatens to Collapse in on Itself

As per usual, last night’s Mad Men was par spectacular.  Certain things, like Betty and Don’s ever tumultuous relationship, remained the same.  For example, Dan solves his distaste for Roger Sterling’s blackface performance by making himself an Old Fashioned and cryptically discussing his past with a bartender.  Meanwhile, a silverfox by the name of Henry Francis flirts with Betty at Roger Sterling’s Derby Day party; naturally, she does the only the only polite thing to do if you’re a married, pregnant, and fending off advances from another man: Shoot him the ol’ fuck-me eyes.  That’s just proper social decorum when you think about it, and Joan would probably remind us that Emily Post says so.    They fight when Betty realizes Jane drunkenly reveals that she knew about Betty and Don’s split, Roger gets called out by Don for being a tackyass who flaunts his embarrassing marriage, then Betty and Don hug.  With all that drama, it’s no wonder that Sally turning into a thieving lesbian.

Fortunately Trudy Campbell continued her wearing-the-best-hats streak, and then she and Pete did the Charleston:

My goodness how a dancing Pete Campbell GIF can make everything better.  Right?  Right.

We also discovered that nothing changes the uncomfortable conversation of screwing up a surgery like Joan playing the accordion.  Really, it was amazing, and just another reason to remind us that she’s the World’s Second Greatest Joan.  Her husband is the undeniably the worst, and it’s quite heartbreaking to see her trapped in a marriage that amounts to little more than a case of Stockholm Syndrome that substitutes marital “obligation” for sympathy, but she seems like the character most primed to benefit from The Feminine Mystique (which we all know came out in 1963), so I optimistically suspect that this situation will eventually turn around.  I mean, seriously:

Obviously not.  Duh.  Dropping her asshole of a husband can just be another thing to add to her long list of talents, which among other things also includes dressing fabulously and eating secretaries for breakfast.

Also, Jane wore a hat:

A mind-meltingly ferocious hat at that.

Mostly, though, there’s this whole subplot, which is partially badass but also the sort of moment that threatens to break the internet:

There’s nothing strange in and of itself to have Peggy smoke a joint.  The way she’s going, she could be shooting up heroin with beatniks in the East  Village by season’s end and I wouldn’t be surprised.   No no, what’s strange is the fact that they cast Miles Fisher as Paul Kinsey’s dealer, Jeffrey Graves.  Which is weird because why?  Because my friend Laura first introduced me to him via his music video for “This Must Be the Place,” which is inspired by American Psycho.  Threeway scene and all:

This video’s damn good, but it’s also the sort of thing you can’t unsee after you’ve seen it, which means I kept having flashbacks the entire time he was shilling drugs and making fuck-me eyes at Peggy (so much with the fuck-me eyes this episode!).  This isn’t a bad thing, per se, but it’s definitely one of those curious moments where I’m left to wonder if some sort of apocalypse, interweb or otherwise, is nigh.

I shouldn’t worry about these things, though, because it was another excellent episode of Mad Men, so all is right in the world.  Besides, as Lady Gaga would suggest, I should make like Pete and Trudy and just dance:

Thanks to This Recording for locating all these wonderful GIFs on ohnotheydidn’t.