Mad Men Season 6 Episode 4: "To Have and To Hold"

It’s a busy day at Sterling Cooper Draper Price.  Mad Men gets to business in an eventful episode that brings the excitement of the show back to the office.

We finally check in on Joan, who seems to be doing the same secretarial duties she's had the last couple of seasons even though she's been technically made a partner.  The dark circumstances of her partnership gets brought up in a cringe worthy scene where Harry disrupts a partners meeting to unfire his secretary and demand a promotion.  Joan may have made it to the top, but how she got there will always haunt her. Her promotion also has effects on Harry and Kenny feeling underappreciated, which makes sense.  His line "I'm sorry my accomplishments happened in broad daylight and I can't be given the same rewards" was pretty harsh.

More office drama unfolds with Dawn, who gets her own storyline in a subplot that highlight's the office's pettiness.  It's refreshing to get a different perspective on SCDP, even if it's through the lens of secretary drama.  I did not like Harry's assistant though.  In the only non-office story, Megan gets a love scene, which is great for her career, but angers Don.  His scene in bed with Sylvia at the end mirrored Megan’s sex scene in her soap opera.  I don't know if this was meant as a commentary on the hypocrisy of his character or if we were meant to interpret it as Don acting out what he saw intentionally in real life, maybe both.

Finally, we get the eventual showdown between SCDP and Peggy’s new firm.  Don listening in on Peggy's presentation was my favorite scene of the episode.  It showed a mentor checking on his protege as well as a rival eavesdropping on his competition.  Don continues his streak of trying to sell ads without actually showing the product (he also did this in the season premiere with the Hawaiian hotel chain).  He fails, losing both the potential Heinz Ketchup account as well as losing their long time Heinz Baked Beans account, to Ken’s dismay and anger.

Overall, an enjoyable episode that gives us some more time with Joan, Harry, Ken and Dawn, the side characters that keep the office running and who I would like to see more of.  It’s nice to see what’s going on at SCDP while Don ponders life and cheats on his wife. 

Observations:

- Secret Ad Agent Stan was pretty funny, I enjoyed the spy music playing while he went to his secret office, as well as him and Don sharing a joint.

- Harry's secretary's excuse for being gone is that she was in the ladies restroom.

- Poor Dawn, she got caught in drama at the office when she was clearly trying to lay low.

- “How are things, Don?”- Newcomer Bobby to Don, followed by Don’s eyeroll.

- Another good line: “You know how important I am to this company Burt.  Burt, you were me.”  Burt’s response: “I was different than you Mr. Crane, in every way.”

- From a business standpoint, Peggy’s pitch was better than Don’s.

- I guess Peggy and Stan aren’t going to be phone buddies anymore =[