Mad Men S7 E7: Waterloo

Bert Cooper dies with a whimper and then with a bang. Peggy pitches Burger Chef with a bang. The Draper marriage ends with a whimper. Sterling Cooper and Partners ends with a whimper. The partners cash in with a bang. Man lands on the moon. Mad Men hits pause until 2015.

Cooper’s death was poignant, coming as he was sitting on the couch watching the moon landing and saying “Bravo” to Neil Armstrong’s famous words. It reminded me of the moment in season 4 when his former lover Ida Blankenship died and he eulogized her as an astronaut. The show handled the whole scene gracefully, with Roger removing his friend’s name from the door as the wordless indication of death. But the moment doesn’t last and immediately, Jim Cutler swoops in and plots divvying up Bert’s clients. As Roger notes, the man hadn’t even been dead an hour.

In a vision of Don’s, Cooper gets to eulogize himself, tap dancing in his stocking feet to a little musical number called “The Best Things in Life Are Free.” I’m not sure what to make of that. It caused Don to show as much emotion as he ever has on the show. Maybe it was simply mourning his friend or maybe Bert’s lyric that “the moon is meant for everyone/the best things in life are free” pricked at Don’s conscience and was a counterpoint to the partners’ money-grubbing attitude, a reminder that they may have just cashed in on the agency’s sale to McCann Erickson but in the end, it won’t mean much.

I will miss Robert Morse as Bert Cooper. He was nothing if not incisive, cutting through the chatter with some pointed wisdom. He was always good for showing up briefly and dropping a few words of Zen here and there. His death leaves the biggest void Mad Men has ever had. Who will anchor the agency as it moves into its bold new era and leaves the past behind?

There were a few relatively smaller moments in “Waterloo” that may impact the show in the long run. Harry Crane again gets the short end of the stick, getting a partnership but not in time to cash in on the agency’s sale. Sally kisses the younger son of her mother’s friend but I think she has an eye on the older son, given the way she reverses her position and echoes his belief that the moon landing cost too much money. Her unconscious imitation of Betty’s smoking stance was the clearest indication yet that she is becoming her mother. Megan ends her marriage with a pregnant pause and a subtle, gentle invocation “Don.” It was clear the bond between them had withered but I liked how the official end of the marriage was almost wordless and more implied than anything.

Peggy seems to have surpassed or at least equaled Don’s pitching abilities. She was magnificent at the Burger Chef meeting, drawing on lessons from her own life (the heartbreaking goodbye to Julio) and world events (the moon landing) to sell a product. She noted that so many people had connected by watching the first men on the moon and it was a connection they were starving for and she’s absolutely right.

Back after Kennedy died, Don noted that nobody else could see that something fundamental about the country had changed but Peggy could see it and they needed her vision. The successful pitch to Burger Chef, somehow tying in fast food with the communal events of July 1969, was Peggy coming to fruition.

The stage is set for the end.