‘SHUT THE DOOR. HAVE A SEAT’
11.09.09
“All those in favor of motorboating Joan?”
People who don’t watch or aren’t up to speed on “Mad Men”: kindly excuse yourselves. The grown-ups have an immensely satisfying season finale of a badass TV show to talk about it. I don’t want to go into any spoilers (we’ll save that for the comments), but let’s have a very quick run-down of Season 3, Episode 11 (“Shut the Door. Have a seat”) in a quick installment of Just the Badass Parts:
- Drinking whiskey from a jug
- Deadly horse-kick to the face with lingering close-up of the bloody hoofprinted face
- Americans and British turncoat sticking it to stuffy British suits
- The return of Christina Hendricks’s Joan
- Jon Hamm’s Don Draper kicking a door down
Any more than that and people who haven’t seen it yet will complain, but I’d like to offer up a round of e-high-fives to everyone else who watched and let out excited whoops like I did. Not that it didn’t come without some downers as well (I guess the kids are spending Christmas with the nanny?), but the whole episode was a tremendous conclusion that wrapped up Season 3′s emotional train wreck while sending the characters — and series — in a brave new direction. Cheers, Matthew Weiner. This is me raising a 3 o’clock whiskey to you. It’s gonna be a long nine months ’til your show is back.
More “Mad Men” links: excellent recaps from the AV Club and the SF Chronicle’s Tim Goodman; everything Don Draper said in Season 3; and this video from NY Mag of Roger Sterling’s quips from this season (so good to see him and Don patch things up).
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What about Sal?!?! I was half expecting them to show up on his doorstep as well…we need our token gay guy back!
Only thing missing–Pete Campbell doing an upgraded victory dance after Don and Roger leave his apartment.
Just finished watching it. Glad I could join the discussion after it’s over. Just want to say I’m happy to see Don get his confidence back. It was disconcerting watching him stumble so many times this season.
Not saying the divorce isn’t Don’s fault, just that Betty’s character is annoying enough that I’m glad she’s “gone”, which isn’t likely. Also, Don’s an asshole, but his experiences have shaped him into a mature asshole nonetheless. Betty’s just a spoiled rich kid. Also, my statement that he’s a grown ass man was more in regards to his preference in women who, aside for Betty, all happen to be strong and/or sophisticated types.
/dick joke.
Betty’s new relationship will not end well. That scene where he tells her not to take any of Don’s money should have been sweet, but instead it was foreboding as shit. He’s gonna have to turn out to be insane and she’s gonna have to come crawling back to Don. Gotta disagree with Ocho Cinco Fan Club about Don, though: He’s far, far, far from a grown-ass man. And even though Betty is far from innocent herself, it WAS Don and his infidelity that broke up their family.
That video left out one of Roger’s best lines of all time:
“Well if it isn’t Martin Luther King, I should drop kick you off the roof.”
@Strange, I hope they don’t show the old office, period. As much as Pete started out as the annoying whiner, by the end of the season he got better, and picking him over Ken Cosgrove was a win. And Kinsey’s pretty much an annoying hipster, 60′s edition.
The denouement was pretty much perfect, like the last half hour was just putting together pieces you knew were going to fit a certain way. No asinine, nonsensical curveballs that you’d expect from a show on network tv. Bravo. I mean, AMC. Wait, what?
Sterling, Cooper, Draper, and Price is a jarringly annoying name. When Pete wanted his name in there too I was asking myself if the writers were just fucking with us at that point.
As hot as January Jones is, I’m glad to see Betty go. Up to this point, Don’s been a grown ass man married to an infantile pin-up. Did she really have to wonder why she was never good enough for him? Oh right, she operates on the level of a god damn 4 year old.
Thank god Pete was able to poach the Jai Alai account.
When Betty is in the lawyer’s office and says “I want what I’m entitled to” did anyone else flash to Tony Soprano leaning across the table at Vesuvio saying “You’re entitled to shit!”
Lot’s of Carmella and Betty parallels
@Otto Man,
Totally beat me to it on Dr. Douchebag. For my money, Pryce telling subtly telling Moneypenny to get bent was a great scene.
Dr. Douchebag is going to get fragged in ‘Nam.
Pryce’s “Happy Christmas!” might be the best moment in the series yet.
I’m disappointed that Joan hasn’t left Dr. Douchebag yet. But otherwise, this was everything I wanted in a season finale.
Except Don Draper shirtless. They forgot that.
The new firm better hire some hot-ass secretaries soon though or the show will lose viewership.
In my mind, they picked the “Dream Team” to go to the new firm. Left behind, “I’m Ken” Cosgrove, Paul “Beardo” Kinsey, Smitty and his gay art buddy, and the chick that runs over people with lawnmowers (no she wasn’t fired for that).
Hopefully, they hire back Freddy Rumsen to periodically piss himself, and I’d like Hilde to be there next season as well.
I wish that Bert Cooper was my crazy grandpa/dad/son. He is awesome in every scene.
/I love January Jones but Betty Draper is a total queef and Henry Francis is a fucking tool. They are perfect together. Like Sally and a bucket of TUBBB!
You gotta love Harry Crane falling into the new firm. The elevator ride with Pete was one of my favorite scenes — in an episode filled with awesome scenes.
Wait, did I say forlorn? I meant “horny.”
I keep thinking that Little Sally Draper is going to grow up and work the poll because of her serious Daddy issues and I feel very forlorn. Then I remember she’s not real, and that’s how fucking good this show is.
St. John: “You’re fired. You’re fired for costing this company millions of pounds. You’re fired for insubordination. You’re fired for lack of character!”
Lane: “Very good. Happy Christmas.”
Awesome.
And hippies will converge on a dairy farm in New York for a week-long rock concert, while Don watches the coverage of it on TV while getting a hummer from his daughter’s teacher.
Predictions:
Henry turns out to be a wife-beater.
Duck gets Peggy pregnant.
Don has a lot of sex with hot women.
Bobby Draper burns down the house.
Roger: “Peggy, will you get me some coffee?”
Peggy: “No.”
+1
I miss Don already. I love the fact that they took John Deere, and the way they left the place. Another favorite line was when Roger asked Don how long he thought it would be before they an office like this, and Don said I never saw myself working in a place like this.
Am I alone in thinking Mona is still getting it done for a woman of a certain age? She’s no Miss Farrell, I wouldn’t say no to a poke in the whiskers.
Roger had some good line last night:
Joan: Media will get the bedroom.
Roger: Accounts gets the bed.
Burt: We’re starting our own firm.
Harry: You’re kidding.
Roger: Yes, we’re kidding. Happy birthday.
Roger: I was going to tell you. No I wasn’t.
(to Burt) Relax, you’re still going to outlive me.
What’s this Mad Men you speak of? Some sort of tv show?
“your a whore” high-five
To post all of the bad-ass parts of last night’s episode would require putting up a .pdf of the entire script; it was that good.
I also enjoyed the garden variety domestic abuse that Don periodically levels on Betty when she’s being a brat. We haven’t had a good dose of that since he threatened to “put her through that window” and then shoved her (it was self-defense).
Equally bad-ass, the brief cameo from the Chip N’ Dip.