Mad Men#9 review: "Wee Small Hours"

Finally a fitting title for an episode.
It starts off with a 'wet dream' of a sexy seduction of Betty...then it turns out to be Don's dream!
He does still love her? Or was it Betty's dream? Don woke up, not Betty??? I'm not sure.

Then we get to watch Don's descent into 'client Hell' as Conrad Hilton takes over his life, calling him at all hours of the night like Dracula summoning one of his minions. He seems to love it..at least Betty thinks so.

First CH treats him like his long lost Son, then like a hated in-law. What a nut-job, like another Howard Hughes. Makes me want to read up on CH, who just died last year, leaving his family members 'chump change' compared to what he had saved. He left Paris $2 mil.; not bad, but he had $100's of mil's. I think he was known to 'date' lots of movie stars in the 50's and 60's. Will he hit on Betty?

Then we get treated to more '60's Homo in the Closet fun' as poor Sal gets hit on by S&C's biggest client from Lucky Strike. Should he have just 'done him'? Everyone loses on this. To tell or not to tell? a no-win for sure. Sal finally does the right thing to tell Don, but too late. He gets fired in an attempt to keep Lucky's account. Did you ever see the movie "Crusin'"? Sal is at a gay pick-up park in Grennich Village when she calls his wife. Did ya see the "Leather Biker Boy" in the background?

Betty gets her big chance to screw her 'Silver Fox', but doesn't??? Is the 'chase' more fun than the capture in 'Fox hunting'? She acts like a spoiled little girl all the time now, like when HE doesn't show up at her 'event'.

Civil Rights is-a-comin'! Will the black maid quit on the Drapers? Will she get an Afro and picket their house? Reminds me of that fine Whoopie film where she plays the same type of maid in the 60's suburbs. (she ends up marrying Ray Liotta)

My early prediction of Don screwing the 'hippie-dippy' teacher finally came true. It was kinda weird..she is passive aggressive....while she hates him for wanting her and belittles him... she does it anyway with relish. It's clear they both have done this before. Don calls her "that kind of girl" (code for slut?) The epi. ends with them in bed, finally having had sex. The end-song was esp'ly fitting too. (Her name is Suzanne...the title of a famous Leonard Cohen song of the time.)

But before that, the big climax scene is Don doing 'his thing' at S&C for Conrad. He brilliantly pitches a new Hilton Hotel ad campaign (that I'm sure was a real one). Just another day for Don, he earns HIS keep. Unexpectedly, CH clears the room and berates Don for 'not putting Hilton on the Moon', as he had asked for (in a way that made it seem like a metaphor for 'hitting it out of the park', etc.).
WTF???? is CH crazy? or.....
It seemed to me that CH just wanted free ad service, (as he said in the beginning of his courting of Don.) By acting dis-satisfied, he keeps Don's work w/out paying the bill. (common in the bus. world)

Then '5th wheel/off the flow-chart' Roger Sterling berates Don for screwing up their 2 biggest clients in one week. thus leading up to:
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My end of season Predictions for Mad Men!

1. My early one of Don nailing 'Miss Hippie' came true..1 for me.

2. My other early one of Don will leave S&C to start his own agency is looking good...but...
I amend it to something close but more logical...

2B. The Brits will fire/remove/retire the dead weight of Sterling and Cooper. (They were after-thoughts on the organization chart already, and note that NO-ONE reported to them on it.)
The "My Left-Foot is Left" guy is gone, who was to be a co-head of S&C...so....

They will then hand over the agency to Don and it gets re-named Draper & Assoc. or something. They DO have a 3 year deal for him already.....he has to honor it...for chump-change compared to what a Co. Head would earn...(maybe their plan all along?)

Maybe not until the start of next season:
3. Joan, the smartest Sec'y in the world comes back. Sal will get re-hired. Pete gets fired...goes to Duck Co. to be an enemy to Don & Co. London Fog takes off...everything at Don Co. seems...well just 'Ducky'.

4. Peggy (where HAS she been?) will not leave Don, but becomes an unwitting spy for Duck Co. as she keeps sleeping with him. Peggy gets preggers again, by "Go-Fuck-a-Duck".

5. Pete gets caught cheating by his wife, she leaves him, cutting off the big bucks of her family.

6. We know Sterling's kid has set her wedding the day after the JFK killing...my bet it's the season ending episode....He's so insensitive; they still have it, but no-one comes to it is my guess.
He may even have a stroke at it...a good cliff-hanger to see if he survives...or if anyone cares. I bet his young wifie bails on him.

7. Any fling as close to home as Don and Miss Hippie is going to get found out. It does, and Betty leaves and/or throws out Don again....the cliff-hanger is...will it be for good this time?