Watching (Mad) Men: S6 E10 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: Going back to Cali usually brings Swingin' Dick respite, but this trip to LA —for a run of failed meetings with Harry and Roger— descends into a hashish-fuelled, bizarro-Hawaii nightmare the leaves Mad Men's Falling Man floating face-down in a Sunset Blvd. pool. The now-dead soldier he once hitched tells Don what the doorman didn't: dying doesn't make you whole; nor does re-embracing your hot French-Canadian wife. With Ted touring Chevy's Get Smart compound, the Fat Cats of SC&P —vale SCDPCGC— are away, and thus, as America comes out to riot, the town mice come out to play: Stan royally baked, Jim willfully dividing ranks, clients left in the hands of maybe-“homo” Bob and Bhagavad-Gita-barking, alien-transmission-receiving Ginsberg. Joan breaks Account Man ranks and tries to land Avon solo-style, with Peggy as her blackmailed, bitchy ally; which sends Pete into a tornado of awesome adolescent tantrums.

Arcane & Able: On a scratchy LP, Bob listens, eyes closed, to the booming voice of How I Raised Myself From… Failure To Success In Selling.

Pete Campbell's Punchable-Weasel-Face Watch: Pete Campbell's Blazing-A-Joint Face.

Sterling One-Liner Of The Week: “Our biggest challenge is to not get syphilis.”