Watching (Mad) Men: S6 E7 Recap

Spoiler Alert: This blog is published after Mad Men airs on Showcase in Australia, Monday at 5.15pm EST. Do not read on unless you have watched this week's episode which is also available for download Tuesday mornings on iTunes.

This Week On Mad Men: Don Draper: “a cold fish” at the office, a sadist behind closed doors. Mysterious Dick (“I can't tell if he's putting it on”) runs Lindsay Weir through 50 Shades of Draper and drinks Ted under the table, but, by close, it's the End Of The Affair and Ted holding Don's life in his pilot's hands; our anti-hero's lust for power/control thinly-disguised neediness. Harry Hamlin may be give-a-shit cavalier, but the SCDP/CGC merger is corporatised Lord Of The Flies: the staff - even Roger! - scraping for survival whilst Don and Ted wrestle for the conch. Circa May-'68 (France on fire, bras burning, RFK dying), Ted's non-chauvinism and Bob's everreadyness are pros, not cons; the SCDP boy's club - Harry belchin', Pete recedin', Don condescendin' - now just making Joan's ovaries ache.

How Big Is Thy Weiner?: Closing credits as 1968 symbolised: the jarring juxtaposition of RFK-assassination news reports over Friend & Lover's brainless grooviness.

Arcane & Able: McCarthy vs Kennedy, a show of hands!

Pete Campbell's Punchable-Weasel-Face Watch: “And who knows what's out there?” PC warns his mother, using her dementia to scare her into compliance.

Sterling Campbell One-Liner Of The Week: “My mother can go to hell! Ted Chaough can fly her there.”

Screening every Monday night, 5.20pm and 8.30pm, on Showcase