After the slight glimmer of hope that last weeks' fantastic "A Days' Work" provided us, things are pretty damn grim again on "Field Trip", an episode that doubles down on the two major portions of Don Draper's life - his wife and his job. Both have been hanging by a thread, to say the least, and "Field Trip" brings them seemingly closer to some kind of definitive point. Whether that point is back to where they were before or to an official end...well, we're not quite sure. Both? Neither? Who knows! But whatever it is, it's clear that there's precious few people who don't have Don on their personal shit lists at this point.
One of those people is Roger Sterling, who more or less invites Don back to the agency, half because he's probably pretty drunk when he does so and half because there's a part of him that's willing to forgive Don and believe he deserves some kind of second chance. Roger and Don have had kind of an up-and-down relationship over the course of the series - Roger is Don's kind-of mentor, but he doesn't know nearly as much about Don as he thinks he does, and that fact has always strained their relationship to a point. And yet, it's always been clear that Roger knows Don's potential and how valuable he is to the agency. When Roger blurts out that Don's a "genius' in the meeting that the partners hold to determine Don's fate, it feels like their built up years of rocky friendship and tension-filled admiration finally coming to a crescendo. Roger knows Don is a handful. He also knows that Don is brilliant, and he knows that his skills could be of great use to an agency that is quickly becoming a Chuck Lorre sitcom version of an advertising agency. (Okay, Roger doesn't know who the fuck Chuck Lorre is because Chuck Lorre is not even close to being a thing at this point as he is but a young teenager, probably making lewd comments about his high schools' cheerleading squad to himself, but you get it, okay?).
But is the Chuck Lorre of advertising agencies such a bad thing? The partners are well aware of Don's creative abilities, but as much as we all like to say how innovative and boundary-pushing we all want our work to be, sometimes you don't want to be pushed to the edge of human potential every single goddamn day, especially when doing so requires you to work with a total trainwreck of a man who is not even sure of who he is and now is apparently going to start bursting into crying fits in front of clients about his dumb childhood or whatever. The partners are done. They know Lou Avery isn't going to win them too many Clios, but maybe they'll take a lack of Clios in exchange for a workplace where they generally know what to expect every day and don't have to worry if their creative director is going to have a mental breakdown or not. I've seen a lot of people feel that the workers of Sterling Cooper & Partners were overly harsh on Don, considering he's far better of an adman than Lou Fucking Avery and they should basically be begging him to come back. It's not hard to see that perspective, but can you imagine how hard it must be to put up with Don Draper every single day?
Plus, think of everything Don did to those people over the course of last season. He fired Jaguar despite knowing what Joan had to do to herself to land Jaguar - and he didn't even bother to consult with her, suggesting that all of that sadness and empathy he showed her when she was forced to prostitute herself for a client was a load of hokey shit. He continues to trap Peggy in situations beyond her control - even after she chose to leave him behind and pursue her own opportunists, his force still dragged her right back into his orbit. Then, he had the audacity to meddle in her personal life, sabotaging her relationship with Ted and, consequently, sabotaging her work life. Then, just as SC&P was on the cusp of landing a Hershey account - Hershey! - he completely fucked it up, having a near-breakdown in the middle of his pitch, not even able to finish it. We think we're supposed to root for Don because, well, he's the protagonist and that's how we're trained to interpret stories. But protagonists are people, too - they make mistakes. They do shitty things. Sometimes they do really shitty things. This is all your basic moody anti-hero stuff, but Mad Men has always been an interesting spin on the formula because Don Draper isn't committing the dark, grizzly acts of most anti-hero protagonists. It's not completely out of line to see Don's point of view, really. He's a troubled man who genuinely, at this point, seems to be trying to make the best of things. But the people around Don are people, as well, and they can't be expected to cheer him on just because he's the protagonist and he's trying to make things right. They're fed up. They're pissed. They're done. And it's not hard to see why.
This is true of no one more than Megan, though, and the tragic unraveling of Don and Megan's once-promising marriage has been one of the more devastating aspects of what's been a season with an unlimited stream of despair running through its veins. The early days of Don and Megan's marriage were meant to show a sort of promise, a contrast to the tension-ripe monotone of the Don and Betty marriage. They were always a little mismatched, but that contrast made Don seem alive in a way they never had before. While Don and Betty mostly just seemed to be trying to put up with each other, Don and Megan truly loved each other, even if their love appeared toxic at times. So it's jarring when we fast forward to Season 7 and see the two stuck on opposite coasts and barely even missing each other. If Season 5 Megan had found out that Don lost his job and still chose not to join her in LA, she might have punched him in the face. At least, she would've screamed. But current Megan is barely even surprised. She's hurt, sure. But she's not surprised. In fact, part of her seems like she kind of knew, deep down, all along. "This is how it ends", she says coldly before kicking him out. What is particularly disturbing is how much of this can be compared to the end of the previous Draper marriage. Megan finding out that Don is only visiting Megan because her agent informed him of her fragile mental state is remarkably similar to Betty finding out that Don has been talking to her therapist. The scene where Megan kicks Don out is nauseatingly similar to when Betty kicked Don out back in Season 2. The Don/Megan marriage was supposed to be everything the Don/Betty marriage wasn't. Instead, it's turning into a near parallel.
And hey, we haven't even talked on Betty! Like most Betty plots in recent seasons, I spent most of this episode finding out what the hell the point was, and I still kind of felt that way by the end. But even though the show could lose Betty and be completely unchanged, there's still something interesting about the way she just seems to spectacularly fail at being the perfect mother she feels she's supposed to be. It lines up interestingly with Don's plotline (the show quickly cutting between Don and Betty's plots this week was certainly no accident) - like Don, Betty has pushed away many of the people who are supposed to be there for her, and now she's left wondering if there's any hope for her at all. (Also, while Betty is often cold and unsympathetic, you can't really blame her for being mad at Bobby when he gave away his sandwich. For gum drops, of all things!)
"Field Trip" ends with Don Draper being offered an almost comically reduced role at SC&P. The camera zooms in on Don, as it becomes increasingly unclear as to whether or not he'll accept it. The Don Draper we know would scoff at working directly under someone and having no power of his own. But the Don Draper we know also doesn't do what we think he will. He accepts the job. Maybe to get back at the partners, who were likely banking on him waiving his partnership and being out of their hair for good. Maybe because he genuinely is trying to be a better person (he's not drinking...as much). Maybe because he has so little else going on in his life that he's in no position to turn it down. Whatever it is, he's back. And who knows what the hell is going to happen now.
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