This episode was really hard to watch – not just because the scenes with Midge were the most depressing things ever and every Betty/Sally interaction makes me cringe. A year ago, the sky was the limit for SCDP – remember how much fun that season finale was? It was an hour full of enthusiasm and excitement, and it has all turned to crap before our very eyes. The giddiness is gone and the fun has stopped – it’s hard not to take it personally. The company’s been shot out from under us, and it’s jarring.
The meat of the SCDP story is, obviously, Don’s “screw you” letter to the tobacco industry. It’s a rare moment of futurism for Don, as cigarettes are approaching their last days of TV advertising. Usually we see that Peggy and Peter are the ones who are just ahead of the changes to the industry. Or maybe the timing’s just fortuitous, and Don is thinking in the moment, as he tends to do. He got people talking. Maybe they admire his principles (even though he had an ashtray at his desk as he wrote the letter), or maybe they think he’s crazy. Either way, people are talking about the letter and not the impending collapse of the agency. As we’ve seen over the last two weeks, even companies that want to be in business with him want to make sure that Don and the rest are still there in six months. SCDP was a morbid joke in the industry, and now they’re… something. Sure, there are the pranksters, but it only takes one or two bigwigs who are impressed by Don’s letter, and he goes from being a loon to a genius overnight. It’s a Hail Mary pass, if I’m getting my sports metaphors right. And I almost certainly am not.
