Mad Men 2x05 Reaction
Added 2025-08-10 21:15:19 +0000 UTCi feel unwell about this episode
Comments
One thing I always appreciate about John Ham’s acting is he can just do a micro change to his expression to get across how Don is feeling. That's normal for human interaction, but it’s hard to do it on command as an actor. Also I never once noticed that Peggy's sister was pregnant in the hospital scene, so I always assumed the baby we saw was Pegg
Patrick
2025-08-12 01:54:13 +0000 UTCGur svefg bs gur Crttl naq Qba gevybtl, gung pbagvahrf va Gur Fhvgpnfr naq, gb zr, pbapyhqrf jvgu gur Ohetre Purs rcvfbqr. Gurer nf cvibgny fprarf gbb, yvxr gur F3 svanyr jura Qba unf gb pbaivapr Crttl gb wbva gur arj ntrapl naq bs pbhefr jura Crttl yrnirf gung ntrapl va F5 (avpr obbxznex, abj gung V guvax nobhg vg). Nal bguref? V xarj gurve qlanzvp jbhyq or n snibevgr bs gur tveyf' ohg vg qvqa'g uvg zr hagvy guvf rcvfbqr gung guvf vf jurer vg fgnegf.
Kev
2025-08-11 10:00:05 +0000 UTCSPOILERS: [ROT13.com] to decipher - Zvyran orvat cflpuvp nobhg Wbna'f fgbel pbagvahrf. "naq gura ure fgbelyvar raqf va Frnfba 3" vf vebavp orpnhfr vg'f rknpgyl jung gur fubj jnagf lbh gb guvax ng gung cbvag. V nyfb tbg n puhpxyr bhg bs gurz fnlvat "Jr unira'g rira frra [Tert'f] snpr", V'z yvxr jryy lbh unir ohg gung jnf uvf svefg irefvba. Naq vs lbh guvax gung'f fbzrguvat jnvg hagvy lbh frr ubj znal Oboolf gurer ner.
Kev
2025-08-11 09:08:46 +0000 UTC"This is an office that hinges on professional decorum" - biggest lie of the episode
Mark M
2025-08-11 09:07:15 +0000 UTCAbsolutely. Can't wait.
Chris B
2025-08-11 06:15:01 +0000 UTCThe Don and Peggy relationship is one of the few things that I still recall from this show. I loved the moments between them, especially one moment. We all know which one. Peggy really becomes one of the best characters.
Haye Zeus
2025-08-11 05:35:33 +0000 UTCDon didn't lie, that never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened.
Gaboxxy
2025-08-11 04:31:47 +0000 UTCBad managers get promoted to managerial positions all the time. This isn't a good argument. There's an entire principle about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle I think it would be incredibly hard to argue that Don is a "good manager" based off what we've seen so far. His department produces great creative work but that's not the same as being a good manager of people. His direct reports are terrified of him (with the exception of Freddy, maybe). Nobody understands what he's saying. He's late or skips many scheduled meetings. People can't get ahold of him during office hours sometimes. He's extremely demanding and harsh. He waits until the last second to do lots of things, leaving everyone in the lurch and dependent on his sudden creative heroics. Thankfully, he works in an old-school 1960s office where they don't give a shit about things that we would consider "good managerial qualities" in the modern era. You can be a genius creative director and a good, kind manager. They aren't mutually exclusive. Don's innate creative talent and direction offsets his, arguably shitty management style. He is "good at his job" in the sense his department delivers great creative work, yes, but I don't think he's a good manager. Many orgs today thrive and are filled with awful managers + directors, all the way up to the c-suite level lol.
Kara
2025-08-11 02:49:25 +0000 UTCDon is the creative director. He runs the whole creative side. If he were not good at his job (which includes managing the creative side), he wouldn't be such a sought after executive. I'd say he is a difficult and demanding manager, with very high standards. And like many creative geniuses, he can be nebulous and mercurial. But not good at his job? Nah. If Don were just good with ideas and nothing else, if he didn't know how to manage people, he would have stayed a copywriter, like Freddy, who is quite a bit older than him.
Julien
2025-08-11 02:19:57 +0000 UTC6:54 Pete is like this show's version of Chris Moltisanti: objectively not great human beings, but there's an underdog quality to them which makes them so endearing to the audience (even if in reality they both come from "royalty" in their respective worlds).
Gaboxxy
2025-08-11 00:54:42 +0000 UTCIf your husband lies to you and then calls you hysterical you are legally allowed to uppercut them into the ceiling Tom & Jerry style.
Nina
2025-08-11 00:47:03 +0000 UTCThere was a debate in the community over whether to tell you about peggy's sister's child earlier, but we decided to wait until this episode because tbh I thought you might figure it out. It's one of the most confusing plot points of the show, myself and Taya and others didn't even realize until we rewatched 🤦 But yeah, the little boy we see is Anita's (sister's) baby, who would be roughly the same age as Peggy's actual child. So the show is still using the child to tell stories about Peggy - why she doesn't like saying goodnight to her nephew, why the priest gave her the egg "for the little one" meaning the newphew but also quietly telling Peggy he knows about her situation. It even builds Anita's confession, she's angry in part because she has to raise her third child (that she probably loves and wants) and Peggy doesn't. 'The New Girl' is one of my favourite episodes of the show, and one that has stuck with me for years. It's a great 'trick' because it recontextualizes the first 4 episodes of the season, when you rewatch you know that this happened with Don and Peggy and like Milena says it just "makes sense", same with the Korea flashbacks. It's funny because Don is basically perfectly built to deliver the exact situational advice Peggy needs to hear in the moment, it's such clever writing, and it connects this ~36yo man with this 20-something young woman in a way that no random observer would clock. I've suffered from dissociation and derealization most of my life and while there are obviously downsides its can SITUATIONALLY be sort of a super power, to be able to compartmentalize and move past discomfort and trauma, to not be trapped in it. I said it in another reply but this episode unironically changed my life and it's not the only one. I said this before but imo, this starts a run of episodes that are peak television for multiple seasons lol... Don is so quick with the lies, and what we'd call "gaslighting" these days. Someone once said that great liars often mix truth and lie and tell half truths in a believable way. Here Don tells a truth - that he has high blood pressure - to form a believable lie - that he got into an accident because of it, and it instantly defuses Betty's anger and makes it about how Don is the victim and Betty is "hysterical" (ugh) for being mad Don didn't call HIS WIFE after crashing a car. And then later Betty modified [the meals she cooks FOR HIM] because she loves him. It's really tough to watch sometimes. Jon Hamm can really sell a conflicted feeling with a silent look huh? In the final shot we see Don from behind like the intro, at a table with his family, and he's literally physically broken... "I started tearing up because the show is too good" me toooo Lola 😭😭😭 its honestly still so vindicating that you're both so into the show. Even now I'm still shocked it won the poll lmao. These reactions are my fav content I watch all week.
Kara
2025-08-10 23:50:53 +0000 UTCum that's Rachel KATZ actually. her husband Tilden Katz loves comedians!
Kara
2025-08-10 23:44:50 +0000 UTC13:05 "you don't have to my boy". Lola is already so on point with Pete as a character.
Chris B
2025-08-10 23:12:05 +0000 UTCMaybe hyperbolic, but the "It will shock you" scene was such a watershed moment for this show for me. Says so much about Don. I was shook the first time I saw this episode lol
Chris B
2025-08-10 23:04:30 +0000 UTCLol, you guys forgot to talk about Rachel Menken. It's a testament to how good the episode is! So many important things happened. Rachel's reappearance knocked Don off his axis and made him want to go on a bender. He probably wouldn't have agreed to go to Bobbie's seaside cottage otherwise, nor would he have been joyriding, drinking, and acting so reckless. If they hadn't crashed, would Don have even bothered to call Betty with some excuse? Or would he have just let her stay up all night worried? I just finished a full rewatch of the series and I can emphatically say that Joan is my favorite female character. I love her so much! I wish I could say more without spoiling.
Taya
2025-08-10 23:04:05 +0000 UTC+1. It changed my life.
Kara
2025-08-10 22:51:24 +0000 UTCI can’t explain it but if you’re a certain type of person there’s like a 50% chance watching that don/peggy scene for the first time changed the trajectory of your life. It’s that good.
cheech
2025-08-10 22:48:47 +0000 UTCTo build on what you're saying, by demanding payment in full the cop forces Don to call someone, basically increasing his punishment because he has to tell someone else he got into an accident while drunk with his "wife" (even if Bobby were his wife, its still embarrassing to call a friend, a family member, a neighbour etc). The cop knows this so its just a little "fuck you Mr Moneybags, call someone, let them know ur a scumbag" move.
Kara
2025-08-10 22:47:37 +0000 UTCLMFAO
bondbond53
2025-08-10 22:42:08 +0000 UTCName's have power. Talking to "Mr. Draper" is a whole different world than talking to "Don". The BAC driving limit varies from country to country (and state to state within the USA), but most are currently below 0.1. The modern New York limit is .08. Don's .15 is higher than almost every modern standard around the world, and nearly DOUBLE the current New York standard. I love the exercise of power in this episode because the cop knows that drunk driving is bad, but he's got no power to enforce a harsher punishment than a fine, so he enforces the current rules to the letter. The dollar amount may not be a lot to Don, but demanding this payment before he will release Don lets him keep Don in jail and off the roads just a little bit longer. That inconvenience and frustration is a greater punishment than the money, which Don't won't even notice is gone. Betty asking why Don didn't call her hearkens back to what she's been saying for many episodes: She wants to be involved in Don's life. In the story he told she couldn't have done anything to help, but she would have KNOWN. It's so much better than stewing in fear at knowing nothing. All she's asking for is for the two of them to communicate and be partners, and he can't even meet her on that. "Donnybrook" is slang for a loud fight or argument. Pete was saying that he wouldn't want to have a kid see its parents fighting like this. Much like I often say with Don, Pete realizing that it's bad to raise children in an unhappy home is stepping over a bar that a lot of other characters can't clear. But also just like Don, he can't go from there to a more meaningful realization about how he treats his wife or his lifestyle in general.
JBK405
2025-08-10 22:39:08 +0000 UTCWhen Peggy's abandoned child turns 12 hes gonna go to the Advertisement Exam to become a Ad men and figure out whats is so good about advertisement that made his mom abandon him lol
Kenzo Yamashita
2025-08-10 22:37:00 +0000 UTCWhen I saw the caption I thought this was a certain other episode
Dhaval Kale
2025-08-10 22:28:02 +0000 UTCAmazing
Edin Burak
2025-08-10 22:07:56 +0000 UTCThat transition from Pete having to masturbate for the semen sample and Roger beating the paddle ball is *chef's kiss*
bondbond53
2025-08-10 22:06:39 +0000 UTCThis episode never happened, it will shock you guys how much it never happened!
Edin Burak
2025-08-10 21:50:44 +0000 UTCi’ve forgotten like 80% of what happens in mad men since i first watched it a decade ago but “it will shock you how much it never happened” is one of those infamous lines that’s just kind of seared into my brain since i first saw it. very haunting
Sebastian
2025-08-10 21:47:12 +0000 UTCThis piece of advice that don has is so interesting. It explains so much about what and who he is
Jude G
2025-08-10 21:44:39 +0000 UTCBeen waiting for this one. Seeing Don by her bed hit me like a truck.
Jay Craig
2025-08-10 21:32:11 +0000 UTC
