This superfine hour of television had its claws out for me right off the bat. The opening scene in the Jaguar war room, a glass cage in which Don, Stan, Ginsberg, and some copywriter mercenaries wearily and warily surround the concept of car-as-mistress, scratched my itch for Mad Men’s workplace dramedy mode, and we get a hint of deeper emotional waters as Peggy’s exclusion from this mammoth-hunting expedition plays on her face: naked, almost childish envy, not necessarily of the catered lobster. 

The “all hands on deck” campaign is one of my favorite Mad Men moods, so I finished this excellent episode with renewed hope for next week and beyond. I had some initial misgivings about the Lane and Kinsey segments but finally accepted both of them as consistent with previous character trends, and since it contains one scene that belongs in the all-time highlight reel, I can’t very well go lower than A minus.

On the next episode of AMC’s Mad Men – Lane Pryce is a Soviet spy! Who had that one in the pool? Your bitcoin is in the mail. And when Megan’s actress friend accuses her of living at 73rd and Park, it reminds us that we are the kind of ultra-classy people who read the New York Times online until we exceed our free page views for the month, and thus we already know that the Drapers’ apartment building is in the white brick style that was popular after WWII (but was falling out of fashion by 1966).

Previously I’ve noted this show’s tendency to sound the trumpets when they want us to sit up and pay attention to one of its themes. What if the trumpet is a post-horn?

I guess when Bobby Draper grew up, he became the drummer for Spinal Tap. This season, brave young Mason Vale Cotton is the fourth actor to play Bobby. But if you’re the boss’s kid, you’re always available to portray Glen Bishop whenever he’s needed, regardless of unsettling wardrobe requirements: