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Mad Men, Season 7, Episode 4 (Patreon)

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2024-06-20 00:05:38
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2026-06
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Content

The Monolith

Comments

Jesus

Meet thaaa Mets

Jesus

This episode stuck out for me as a probably-accidental set-up for the next AMC series that premiered in Mad Men’s timeslot “Halt and Catch Fire” set in the early 80s about corporate misfits trying to take on IBM. Quality show. In my head the Oz of AMC was like “and one of the episodes of season 7 has to vaguely talk about IBM and technology’s impending swallowing of all things corporate” and Matthew Weiner squinted and said “uh yeah sure”

Jesus
>>141320316

The eccentric artist could not coexist with the standardized analysis machine not a metaphor at all you guys AI isn’t real

Actuarial Lurker

The Monolith!.....Don is the 2001 Ape Man, the episode opens with him staring at an elevator door that looks like a Monolith, later on Roger quips: "He spent three weeks alone in that cave and hasn’t clubbed another ape yet"...later on the IBM installation guy can't light a cigarette and Don "makes fire" for him- Lloyd Hawley which sure sounds like H.A.L.

Actuarial Lurker

So Don calls out IBM installation as the AntiChrist...."you go by many names..."

Actuarial Lurker

The ultimate bottoming out- Don works FOR Peggy....And Freddie- "Just do the work"

Actuarial Lurker

Bert as Ayn Rand- A Company started by another dead man whose office you "inhabit"

Actuarial Lurker

Lou is played by a stand-up comedian Allen Havey who kills this role with his dead-pan acting of a D-bag Mr. Rogers...weird resume was In Rounders, Internal Affairs, Man in The High Castle

Actuarial Lurker

Parlor Game while Joe edit for YouTube...spot all the DIFFERENT Kubrick references...2001 is NOT the only one

Actuarial Lurker

If Don was confronted with the Monolith as a sign of his choice to grow but in the episode he's reading Portnoy's Complaint about a guy who can't ever seem to grow...what do we think? Motivation or commiseration? Hopefully Don doesn't like liver....

tom
>>141320316

The rewatch has been pretty well-timed with the AI-art hysteria the last two years. It's scary to think where AI will be in another two years, and pretty funny that this episode is contextually having us go "Isn't it funny how scared we used to be of machines back then, so primitive" only for it to be a feeling I'm sure we've all felt at least once lately

tom

The computer guy is one of the more interesting Don-stranger talks to me, because I still don't think I fully understand it. I do indeed feel a little strangeness towards him.

tom

I love Roger being instinctively annoyed by Margaret's husband and Mona being all calm and reassuring to him, then when he's out of sight it's the other way around and she's like "Fuck that guy" lmao. Always love seeing Mona on screen, and she and Roger are always dynamite together. I recently found out the actors have been married for over 20 years, so no wonder they have so much chemistry while filming! "I thought he was good enough for the time being" is brutal lol

tom

I like the tone of the scene for its (and Don's) defiant anti-dissonance. Like, Peggy reacts to Don finally doing his job with still a sense of smug satisfaction that makes it clear she's holding resentment (justified, which I'll get to in the next comment), but Don is too in the zone to care. And importantly, he's not biting back. He knows the path forward so he lets her feel powerful for a bit, and in a way I think it's also a sense of him figuring she deserves to be angry for a bit considering everything. Of course he wouldn't apologize because it's Don, but I don't think Peggy expects that either. He kind of has to prove himself to her like he does the rest of the firm.

tom

Because we're following Don and we're on his side, we do see Peggy's power moves to be a little tiresome, like can you just not? But while I don't agree with them, I think it's fine for her to enjoy it a bit especially since she's not actually treating him that badly, just leading the group and knows that itself is enough to get under his skin. And it's not like he reacts well either (until the end), he proves her right by throwing a tantrum simply for having to listen to her. Mathis, the other guy on the team, was beaming the whole time and thanking Peggy and didn't have a moment of thinking Don was lesser. So it goes to show there were egos at play. Of course that included Peggy because she should've known from the beginning that her authority over Don has a limit. I think she just wanted to jab at him because she felt like she'd finally escaped him only to be dragged back into that office under his orders. He did also kind of throw money at her face among other things. On Peggy giving the other copywriter an extra 25 taglines, I think it was half her taking it out on him, but also going "Fine, you want to cover for Don? Cover for him then". Possibly trying to turn him against Don by showing that he's the reason he needs to do extra work since she can't make Don do it. An expression of her frustration for everyone loving Don. Obviously unfair though because it's not like he's going to snitch on a partner. Also I love Joan and Peggy chats and the shared cynicism they possess.

Jesus
>>141320316

I for one welcome our new corporate machine overlords

Paul T Hewes

Freddy has turned into one of the best characters in the show.

Actuarial Lurker
>>141348502

What don't you understand- the original discussion or the drunken screed?....For the original I think its Don's link to nostalgia- even though IBM is innovative with this "for the time" groundbreaking computer- Don sees the nostalgia of valuing the product's lifespan as exceed the replacement culture view IBM has on how fast they can beat Moore's Law" since Lloyd is banking on new iterations being slower than IBM thinks they can churn out. The screed is the flip side- that Lloyd doesn't know that he is being "too innovative" and rupturing culture. I viewed this episode just like "No Country For Old Men" where there is stability in ossification and Friendo is the disruptive influence on society of change.

Actuarial Lurker
>>141349112

I agree this was a bit of revenge for "You want to go to Paris, go to Paris" for the Chevalier Blanc perfume ad where he throws cash in her face right before she quits

Actuarial Lurker
>>141386087

Now the fun part for Joe and Kevin is to see which OTHER characters might serve as guardians angels and which might find redemption for themselves

Actuarial Lurker
>>141318704

I was 3 in 1969 so don't remember the Mets winning the Series but was 7 when they lost in seven to the A's in 1973. When I was 10 in 1976 the Mets were perennial 58-104 level cellar dwellers with only 3,000 people attending most Summer day games. So my friends and I would either get lawn chairs and set them up on the ramp coming off the #7 elevated subway line and watch from across the parking lot 50 feet up in the air looking over the right field fence with binoculars and keep score and could see about half of the plays and hear the PA, or we would buy the $1 Highest upper deck seats and just walks down to behind the dugout stage-by-stage over the first 3 innings. The guards didn't care since nobody was in the stands and we would sit between the dugout and first base and talk to the players and the 1st base coach etc.

Jesus

Also as you guys mentioned liking Roger coming in drunk and easily manhandling everyone at the meeting - theres a scene in an earlier season where he morosely complains about being punished for making his job look easy, and that negotiation scene and several other instances prove that the dude is definitely well-grounded in the business and does in fact make it look so easy as to appear like he does nothing. Just like Bert, Roger deserves his position

Youtalkingtome
>>141349112

Her and Don are two peas in a pod. While it is frustrating watching their dynamic now. I can't blame her. He was awful to her

tom
>>141428691

The scene where he gives advice to Lane on dining a client is another scene that demonstrates his value

Weird Magic

I struggled with this episode...did anyone's story advance here? Everyone is essentially in the exact same spot they were before the episode, with the exception of maybe Peggy? There are only 10 episodes left and it doesn't feel different than 60 minutes ago... :( Originally airing on May 4, 2014, 'The Monolith' is Episode 4 of Season 7 of Mad Men. It is the 82nd episode overall and has an IMDB rating of 8.5, placing it as the #8 ranked episode of this season and #29 out of all the episodes shown so far.

tom
>>141478329

Not maybe Peggy, definitely Peggy. Definitely Don. Definitely Roger and his familial side of things, which with Margaret in particular has been set up over numerous previous episodes. Harry and Cutler, also the office getting a computer is pretty significant. We see more of Dawn taking up Joan's leadership role. Freddy comes in to help, again, Don. Stuff with Pete and his father-in-law. Idk, I like Mad Men more for the scene-by-scene basis. An episode overall having a progression is more of a cherry on top for me anyway.

Actuarial Lurker
>>141478329

I see this as showing a Cutller/Harry power move....Even though Cutler despises Harry he gets the Computer as a way to say that he has vision for where the agency should go in terms of it revenue while the other ar4e caught in the weeds of winning accounts haphazardly without a strategy...it made me feel on first watch that Cutler was very dangerous

Actuarial Lurker
>>141323952

First hint....when Roger and Mona's grandson Ellory runs down the hall with the toy military rifle shooting at Roger's secretary he looks just very much like Danny from the shining and the shooting- I feel is an homage to Full Metal Jacket

heheheheheh

Mad Men is such a fascinating show because it can be viewed through so many lenses. Yes, the show is about advertising, but the subtext can be about many different and much more compelling topics such as feminism, sexism, the American dream...but lately I often wonder whether Matthew Weiner used studies about attachment theory and childhood emotional neglect as also a source of inspiration. I mean, he did write for the Sopranos, and David Chase always said the Sopranos wasn't actually about the mafia, but about family, and his own twisted relationship with his mother inspired him. On Mad Men, we see time and time again, how our relationships with our caregivers shape us. Don, being literally the discarded and mistreated son of a whore, being dismissive towards other's feelings' because he dismisses himself, feeling unlovable. How that affects his children. Roger, being the faraway dad who throws money at every problem, now struggling to understand why his daughter is rebelling. It's yet another interesting lens to view the show through.