This week’s episode competed against the Emmys and revolved around an awards show. Oh Mad Men, you’re so clever!

Scott

Knowing that most discerning TV viewers were probably tuned in to the Emmys for no good reason, Mad Men took the liberty of becoming Lost for a week and engaging in some fun but unnecessary character moments through the extensive use of flashbacks. I think most of us always wondered how Don transformed from a lowly car/fur salesman to a God Among Men, and “Waldorf Stories” handled the task well by juxtaposing plucky upstart Don begging snooty upscale drunk Roger for a shot and getting it begrudgingly because of drunken confusion with plucky upstart Danny begging snooty upscale drunk Don for a shot and getting it begrudgingly because of drunken confusion, with lonely drunk Duck in the background as a cautionary tale.  And Don is definitely seeming more like Duck every day. He’s a loser really, an alcoholic who isolates himself from everyone, including his children, and makes lewd comments to nearly every woman he sees (I didn’t like his hand-holding with Joan one bit). If the guy I just described didn’t have a chiseled jaw and a hell of a haircut, nobody would have anything to do with him.

Dennis

Thanks to AMC for re-airing Mad Men at 11 so that I could see the end of the Emmys (where the show won for a third consecutive time) and then switch directly over to watch Don win a Clio. What’s that? The Emmys and Mad Men‘s foray into an awards show are the same night? Coincidence? This is Mad Men and Matt Weiner we’re talking about, so probably not. Either way, I’m happy we got the Clios, as it brought us a few interesting gifts: John Aniston (yep, Jen’s dad, and a Days of Our Lives mainstay) showed up as the presenter. Duck returned, and while he’s never been my favorite character, this was a nice little cameo, still tragically off the wagon before being escorted off the show yet again. And most importantly, we got to see thankless Roger flashback to that time he hired Don (or didn’t hire, but was too drunk to remember).

I liked the parallel between the early days of Roger/Don to Don hiring Danny (who I believe was played by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum and a TV movie writing Emmy winner himself, Danny Strong, after his own alcoholic blunder. Yet, my favorite storyline of the week was brought to us by Peggy Olson, ever increasingly the show’s envelope pusher. While Joan gets all the credit for being the walking sex symbol of the show, it was nice to see Peggy get her chance to shine (or strip) here and really bust Stan Rizzo’s obscured (in a sight gag worthy of Austin Powers) balls. While the aging Don and Roger might get increasingly drunk and depressing, at least we have Peggy to keep bringing a little modern 60s flair to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

Zoe

Sure, Don deserves a lot of accolades for his Clio, but if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be at the other end of the stage, congratulating Peggy for her “Smuggest Bitch in the World” award. Her winning entry was nothing more than amazing.

In other news, we get a bit of Roger/Don flashbacking this episode and we see what brought them together–and why Roger’s insistence on Don noting he couldn’t have done it without Roger it both true and not true (given the nature of Roger’s gift, all credit clearly goes to Joan). In any case, this flashback is given to parallel the experiences of the welcomed sight of Danny Strong as the teeny cousin of Jane and Don’s experiences trying to get a job with Sterling and Cooper back in the day.

This device mostly works and it’s always nice to see Don back before he was the slick drunk we know him as, back when he was a bit of an eager beaver with poor taste in ties. An earnest (but hungry!) guy like that and you can see why he got the job and why Betty agreed to marry him, not realizing it’d lead to misery.

Speaking of Betty, though the fanbase seems to want to paint her as History’s Greatest Monster, and while I’m not fan of her as a person, it’s worth noting that her anger was beyond justified here. For all the grief Betty gets from viewers, Don is well on his way to being a total deadbeat dad. In fact, one of the reasons Peggy deserves her award if for the “fix it” speech she gave Don. It was just about the job, but it was so clearly about the terrible, bleary mess his life has become. And I sure hoped he was listening.