Hey, the first car I drove was a Chevy Nova, so I would have been glad in any case to see how prominently Chevy figures in tonight's game-changing Mad Men 6.6.The Jaguar account is falling apart. Don cuts loose the pig who slept with Joan last season as the price of Jaguar going with SCDP. Pete's (of course) livid at Don's move. So, surprisingly, is Joan - or maybe not so surprising, because she's understandably furious that she gave her body for naught - though, maybe a little surprising, come to think of it, because she did get a partnership as a result of her selfless act, which means it wasn't completely selfless and she did get something in return after all. Roger's not party to this decision at all - he's absent for meeting in which Don sends Jaguar packing, and Pete and Joan are not too happy about that, either.
But Roger comes in the next day with good news: SCDP has a shot with General Motors to whip up a campaign for their latest car, still top-secret. The way Roger gets SCDP in a position to pursue this opportunity is a piece of a work, too, and in fact the best piece of business and pleasure we've seen Roger put together in a long time. He sleeps with a stewardess who looks a little like Joan and who has knowledge of the General Motors need, because she flies the Detroit to New York route. Yes, sex can lead to lucrative accounts in one way or another, at least in Mad Men (and I have no idea if it happens this way in the real life advertising business, because that's not my field, but it's certainly plausible in the show).
This - Roger pivoting SCDP from his bed to a shot with GM - would have been entertaining enough, but once Don and Roger get out to Detroit all hell quietly breaks loose and the plot of Mad Men is suddenly transformed. Peggy's firm Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough is also out there pitching. You may recall that a few weeks ago both SCDP and CGC lost out to a much bigger ad firm, and drowned their sorrows together in a bar. Tonight Ted Chaough and Don do the bit at the bar before their pitches, which both come to see will fail, not because the pitches are no good, but because neither firm is a big enough player to land an account as huge as Chevy. So what comes out of the bar is daring plan: SCDP and CGC combine and make a unified pitch. As Don later explains, GM got what it wanted: brilliant ideas from a big firm.
But the merger doesn't stop there. In the concluding scenes, we learn that the merger will be permanent. SCDP and CGC will become one big firm. It will be interesting to see what letters get dropped - certainly the vestigial P.
Peggy's less than thrilled - at least in part because she liked when Ted impulsively kissed her, and the merger could derail whatever might have come of that. But also because, as she tells us, she doesn't like change.
But I do - and I say bravo for a great episode of Mad Men with a totally unforeseen ending.
See also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist ... Mad Men 6.3: Good Company ... Mad Men 6.4: McLuhan, Heinz, and Don's Imagination ... Mad Men 6.5: MLK
See also Why "You Only Live Twice" for Mad Men Season 5 Finale ... Mad Men Season Five Finale
See also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party ... Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side ... Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust ... Mad Men 5.5: Ben Hargrove ... Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange ... Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree ... Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl ...Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity ... Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex" ... Mad Men 5.11: Prostitution and Power ... Mad Men 5.12: Exit Lane
And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ...4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking! ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -
And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World
And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men
And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ...Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ...Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes
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