Photograph: Jessica Brooks/AMC, here are some episodes in which Mad Men gives you everything you hope for; when the drama that can seem to revel in its slow pace and cyclical themes suddenly ups the ante to deliver shock, surprise and – in the words of those Greeks – a bit of good old. Does Matthew Weiner want us to think about death? Mad Men recap: season six, episode 12 – The Quality of Mercy In the penultimate episode of the season, we see Don Draper at his best and worst, and the Bob Benson mystery is solved (well, sort of) review of the previous episode, Favors, here, Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here, Mad Men season 6 finale review: In Care Of, Mad Men season 6 episode 9 review: The Better Half, Halloween: Timeline Explained for Horror Movie Franchise, Topps' Fright Flicks Cards: Where Horror and Comedy Collide, Best Horror Movies on Netflix: Scariest Films to Stream, Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? Is Don already dead? That it has come to this says much about the position each character is in right now. Having learnt his lesson with Don in season one, Pete surrendered to the kind of animal Bob is and granted him leave to remain on the condition that he keep his distance. We saw Don Draper at his best and worst, with Peggy Olson sticking one in his gut (an insult this time, rather than a bayonet). Peggy was unable to take criticism, Ted too keen to pursue the solution that made him most happy. Don begins the episode topping up his morning OJ with vodka. There's a great ambiguity about that line. When he rubbed his knee against Pete Campbell's, I thought that was it. It’s what Ted Chaough was forced to do with Ocean Spray, even after Don agreed that the firm would bow out of Sunkist. In the penultimate episode of the season, we see Don Draper at his best and worst, and the Bob Benson mystery is solved (well, sort of), Ted Chaough, Peggy Olson, Megan Draper and Don Draper in Mad Men season six, episode 12. Ted Chaough this week was a lover, not a fighter. What we are left with is a revelation that reveals nothing. Another sign of the increasing dominance of TV as America's favourite medium. With his personal and professional life crumbling around him, Don positions himself for a change of scenery. The creative department has a wild, drug-influenced weekend as they work on the Chevy account, Don has trouble letting go of Sylvia, and Sally walks in on an unwelcome intruder. As Sally is inducted into the adolescent world of illicit consumption, she is forced to escape from the attentions of Glen's acquaintance Rollo (he likes to roll). "My father never gives me anything," mutters Sally, and Betty's eyebrows furrow. Business is war, says Mad Men, everyone suffers losses, and you’re lucky if you get out alive. As the firm prepares to go public, Don and Pete's actions cause them to lose two huge clients. Driven by his own bitterness, his own failure to build positive human relations, he can't stand to see other people happy. He first made his name campaigning for greater car safety, publishing a book Unsafe at Any Speed in 1965 that led to national legislation the very next year. In fact, he probably isn't even Bob Benson at all. Don and Megan take a trip to Hawaii for the holidays, Sally's friend visits the Francis family, a comedian torpedoes Peggy's Super Bowl ad campaign, and Roger gets some bad news about his mother. Don is preoccupied with keeping Sylvia's son from being drafted, Peggy has a rat in her apartment, Don and Ted bury the hatchet, Pete has a problem with his mother's new nurse, and Sally makes an accidental discovery about her father. After the traumatic events of last week, she has resolved to get as far away from her father as possible, and that means Miss Porter's, the boarding school that was alma mater to Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Mad Men season 6 episode 12 review: The Quality Of Mercy. The cost would have driven away the client. St Joseph's, who are more receptive to emotional arguments that aesthetic ones, acquiesce and add 10k to the budget. The Quality of Mercy’s actual schoolgirls were a less innocent bunch, as Sally Draper discovered on an overnight interview to Miss Porter’s Connecticut boarding school. As Ted and Don tussle over $35k, Harry Crane is bringing in $8m in TV spend from Sunkist. He does so, however, looking like one of the good guys. But no, he emerges, instantly confronting Rollo before wailing on him for his ungentlemanly conduct. Here's Frances' review of The Quality Of Mercy... It’s taken almost six seasons, but by inheriting the Chevy account, Pete Campbell finally has something he wants. Part of me wonders if Megan’s whole acting/soap storyline was introduced as a lead-up to the moment when Don would flick casually through the channels only to stumble upon the delicious irony of his wife rehearsing a scene they’ve yet to enact for real. The lovesick pair spent most of the episode giggling like schoolgirls. Close your eyes and pretend it's Ralph Nader." Sally is instantly introduced into the world of the mean girls and two of them seek to give her an emotional hazing. The Quality of Mercy opened and closed on an overhead shot of him tucked in a foetal position, first on Sally’s bed, then on his office couch. He sits in the meeting watching as Ted's pleas for his client to support ambitious but expensive content inevitably fail. Knocked for six by Sally discovering him with Sylvia, Don was at his most passive and least present this week since those opening silent minutes of The Doorway. Sally, however, has a trick of her own up her sleeve. A big box office hit, it was Roman Polanksi's final film before the murder of his wife Sharon Tate (to whom other Mad Men characters have been linked this season). Everything Coming to IMDb TV in July 2020, Top 100 TV Shows as Rated by Women on IMDb in 2016, The Top 200 TV Shows as Rated by Women on IMDb in 2018. The upshot of Sally having caught her father with his pants down was her doing exactly what any child of his would, and running away to avoid the problem. This week's episode was the penultimate one of the season, the "red wedding" slot, and it didn't disappoint. Conflicts over loyalty and etiquette have been enacted and debated time and again, and with what conclusion? On one condition: "I'm off limits.". While Don continues his affair with Sylvia, Pete's latest infidelity threatens his marriage. You killed the ad. Don’s own surrender to Ted last week was short-lived, and ultimately, the lure of an $8 million account won out over honouring your word. Meanwhile, Harry makes his power play while Joan has more trouble with the secretaries. Peggy becomes unsatisfied with her apartment and with Abe, Don has an eventful weekend with Betty while Megan has problems on the set, Roger has time with his grandson, and Pete begins exploring his options outside the firm. It doesn't, thanks to Don pulling off a piece of bravura office theatre in front of aspirin manufacturer St Joseph's. Peggy, meanwhile, has been in the company of Ted Chaough, working on her giggling. Cutler and Chaough prepare to make radical changes to the firm while Sterling and Draper are visiting a client in Los Angeles. All of which might help to explain the jibe above. It consisted of thirteen episodes, each running for approximately 48 minutes. Even the mystery of Bob Benson was dealt with, in the sense that one mystery was replaced with another. He's not just there to bring good cheer, though. As a postscript, we watch Betty driving Sally home again, Sally having bagged herself a school place. Beatifically declaring his admiration for Campbell one instant, then using plant Manolo to get to Pete’s mother the next, Benson has revealed himself as a player with more in common with Draper than an alliterative name. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. Richard Nixon was elected to office in 1968 on a pledge to end the Vietnam war. Pete has seen Bob's type before, he says, referring of course to Don Draper, formerly Dick Whitman. "You're a monster." Duck conducts due diligence on Bob and finds that nothing about him checks out and no one knows who he is, bar one Gatsby-esque detail – that he acted as a manservant to an ageing merchant banker. Don strikes up a friendship with the surgeon in his building, Peggy tries to save her campaign, Roger makes a scene at his mother's funeral, and Betty goes to Manhattan to find Sally's friend. With such a to-do, Glenn has no choice but to leave or encounter the authorities (and miss his lift home). Don was right about the ad. You can stop now.”. Well now he’s interested in your idea Peggy, and plenty more besides. Read Frances’ review of the previous episode, Favors, here. Environmentalist, champion of US consumer rights and serial independent presidential candidate (his fourth and latest attempt coming in 2008), Ralph Nader is an enduring figure in American politics. Sally bangs on the door behind which Glen is getting busy. AMC broadcast the sixth season on Sundays at 10:00 pm in the United States. The Essential DanMachi Moments, Mad Men season 6 episode 12 review: The Quality Of Mercy. Things quickly become awkward after the two firms merge, Don asserts his dominance over Sylvia, Pete has to deal with his ailing mother, and Bob Benson helps out a sick Joan. The season premiered in the UK on Sky Atlantic on April 10, 2013. However, Roger uses a new connection to put them in position to gain their biggest client ever. Ted wants this ad for personal reasons, he says, reasons he won't admit in public. The boarding school interlude opened a door for this season’s cameo from creepy Glen, now a peace-sign giving, joint-smoking teen, who came to Sally’s rescue, twice. "You hate that he's a good man," Peggy says, and there is another inference to be made, too – that Don hates seeing Peggy doing her best work under another's guidance. Sally’s easy lie about her pushy ‘date’ once again showed that she’d learnt to dissemble from the best of them. The penultimate episode of Mad Men's sixth season finally reveals Bob Benson's secret. We saw Sally Draper reunited with Glen Bishop, indulging in adolescent experimentation. I expected him to ignore her and for Sally to endure another horrible encounter. Den of Geek Not for writing "mouse" instead of "rat", but for underestimating the Bob Benson mystery. And be our Facebook chum here. Like one of those enormous paintings in famous galleries, season six won’t make coherent sense until we’ve stepped back from it and gained the perspective of distance. It's a cycle he's been in since the beginning of the season, exacerbated after he was caught by his teenage daughter having sex with his mistress. Three episodes ago, Peggy told Don that unlike him, her new boss was interested in the idea, not his idea. In this year of Gatsby reinventions, it seems appropriate that Mad Men should have one of their own, except Jay Gatsby is an open book compared to Bob Benson. The sixth season of the American television drama series Mad Men premiered on April 7, 2013, with a two-hour episode and concluded on June 23, 2013. Does the best man win, or the best idea? The Latest in Crazy 'Mad Men' Season 6 ... Sept. 25, 2020, at 12:08 p.m. Nah. Having tried and failed to prise out the reasons for her daughter's newfound scholastic enthusiasm, Betty drops Sally off for an overnight visit. Nothing but a sense that when Bob stops smiling, he's a very different man. He had a particularly unpleasant relationship with General Motors, who had spent time and money trying to discredit him. How wrong you are. "See that tree over there? He hates Detroit, he hates cars and he hates being shot in the face. Back at the office, Bert and Roger consider the merger offer, Peggy makes a play for a real office, and Peter loses his father-in-law's account. Season 6 | Season 7 » See also. They share a moment and a cigarette together, but as she suggests that her daughter would probably get a beer from her father, Betty gets the bite she was looking for. Pete confronts Bob with what he has learned but, in an exchange filled with mutual incomprehension, he ends up giving way.