Mad Men Season 4, Episode 6: Don is a mess, Peggy is my hero

Ok, I am just breaking this down by character.

Roger: increasingly irrelevant and a mess.  All he does is dictate his memoirs now, and we know him even finding Don and hiring him was a drunken accident.  He knows his own irrelevance to the firm now - he refuses to give Don his Cleo without a promise from Don that Don couldn't have done it without him. 

Don: He's starting to black out and not remember giant chunks of time.  He wakes up with a strange woman, having lost a day, and having introduced himself to her as, "Dick."  The most telling line in this episode is where the woman who works at the firm as a consultant (what's her name?) says to him (right before she rejects his offer to go sleep with him, telling him he is confusing a lot of things at once): "Award or no award, you're still Don Draper."  Don's response is: "Whatever that means."  And that's Don's problem - without a family, a fiction to uphold, he has lost his own storyline.  He cannot figure out who he is.  He even doesn't remember his day with his own children, and disappoints them.

Peggy: Peggy IS MY HERO.

She is increasingly furstrated at how little credit she gets, how much work she does and how very fucking good she is, without Don acknowledging it.  She was a big part of the idea behind the ad that got him his award, but she doesn't get credit whatsoever.  She is told she has to learn to work with the lazy asshole art dude when she is clearly better.  There is that great scene where she goes to speak to Pete, he says not now, he walks into the office with Lane, and she has nowhere to go, no one to appeal to.  The look on her faceless is perfect - she just hit her head on the glass ceiling.  And she is MAD.

Furthermore, I cannot even tell you how much I admire the scene where she calls the asshole art guy on his shit and strips (and then makes fun of him the whole time, and later mentions he has a "little, tiny thing").  Most women give in to body shame - I mean, here is a guy being a complete pig, continually ragging on Peggy how uptight she is and how he is really into nudity and being free and unfettered.  But he's really using that to belittle her, control her, shame her - he can't ACTUALLY handle it when Peggy strips.  And the thing that preceiptates her stripping is he makes fun of her body - he says she should be ashamed of it, it could never turn him on.  So she takes her clothes off to prove him wrong, in that she is unattractive, that she is a prude, and that she doesn't turn him on - she continually looks over the table to make fun of his erection.  She refuses to drop her gaze first.  It's just . . . the awesomeness in confronting shame, body hatred, and misogyny like that, and winning, had me fucking clapping in my seat. 

While Peggy wins, Peggy SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO BE IN THAT SITUATION.  That kind of blatant sexual harassment and sexism is nothing she should ever have to deal with.  She manages to get the upper hand in a shitty situation, but there is no denying that we are SO LUCKY to live in a time where mostly, we as women don't have to tolerate that shit (at least on paper - I've been sexually harassed plenty, but I also got to report it, and steps were taken.  I know there is a lot to be said about my white privilege, too, in sexual harassment - I want to address that in another post).  Peggy is brilliant, and Peggy gets screwed, and is continuously under-appreciated.  And she is also the warmest, kindest, most honest person in that agency - she tells Don that he has to make right after stealing that kid's ideas, instead of just stealing them.  She gives Ken a big hug when she sees him.  Peggy is just good people.

Basically, again, Peggy is my hero.

Other things I am wondering - when does Roger start to really destroy the firm?  Or Don, with his inability to control his drink?  What is WITH this new kid, and don't you think Peggy will end up stuck with him?  What did you think of Pete and Ken's interaction - and how big a dick is Pete (still)(I thought he'd be mature about things and . . . he wasn't)?  

The thread is yours!  I am really interested in what you think!