The first image of season 6 is a disturbing one: A man — later identified as Don's neighbor, Dr. Arnold Rosen — is performing CPR on the floor of a lobby. Making it all the more unsettling: The scene is shot from the victim's point of view. We later find out the victim was Jonesy, Don's good-natured doorman.
"Why don't you go in there and rape her? I'll hold her arms down," says Betty, referring to Sandy, a 15-year-old friend of Sally's sleeping over at the Francis home. Despite Henry's shock, Betty presses on: "You said you wanted to spice things up. Will it ruin it if I’m there? You know, if you want to be alone with her, I’ll put on my housecoat and take Sally for a ride. You can stick a rag in her mouth and you won’t wake the boys." Betty then leans over and gives Henry a peck on the cheek: "My goodness! You're blushing," she says.
Betty channels her inner Martha Stewart when she heads into New York City in search of daughter Sally's (Kiernan Shipka) missing friend Sandy, whereupon she marches right into an abandoned tenement in the East Village and helps a pair of squatters cook goulash (pork butt, lentils, snow, paprika; combine and simmer slowly in a dirty pot).
Funerals are never easy to get through, but having to hear the pushy Hazel Tinsley rattle on about how much Roger Sterling's (John Slattery) dearly departed mother loved her son was just about all a drunk Don Draper (Jon Hamm) — whose own mom was a prostitute who died at childbirth — could take. He threw up on the marble floor of Roger's mother's luxuriously appointed townhome.
It's Roger's funeral, and he'll cancel it if he wants to. Actually, it's his mother's funeral, but Roger slips and shouts, "This is my funeral!" after things spiral out of control and he insists all the mourners leave. With his daughter's wedding coming on the heels of the JFK assassination, it seems no Sterling family affair can ever play out as planned.
Leave it to serial philanderer Roger to proposition his (first) ex-wife, Mona (Talia Balsam, John Slattery's real-life wife and ex-wife of George Clooney), as the two lay sprawled on a bed covered in furs after Roger calls off his mother's funeral. It doesn't work, but they have a nice talk about Roger spending more time with their daughter, Margaret (Elizabeth Rice).
No change in Betty Francis' (January Jones) physical appearance will ever equal the shock value of her dramatic season 5 weight gain, but it was arresting nonetheless to see the longtime blonde return from New York City with dark brown hair. Husband Henry (Christopher Stanley) was certainly taken aback, pretending at first not to recognize Betty, then likening her to Elizabeth Taylor. But was the consummate politician's wife going more for a Jackie O. look– or perhaps even Megan Draper (Jessica Pare)?
"F–king Tonight Show!" shouted Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), in one of several appearances of the F-word in Sunday's two-hour premiere. While press screeners left the profanity in, the episode that aired to millions on AMC simply muted them out.
When news arrives of Roger's 91-year-old mother's death, it's he who has to console his secretary Caroline (Beth Hall). It's not until Caroline informs Roger later in the premiere that Giorgio, his favorite shoeshine man, has also died that Roger finally breaks down, weeping over the man's kit in his office. Perhaps his ongoing therapy has helped him open up.
Don thinks long and hard about a pitch for The Royal Hawaiian, the resort where he and Megan vacation at the beginning of the episode. He finally comes up with a concept involving an unseen businessman's shed clothes and a trail of footprints into the Pacific Ocean. Tagline: "Hawaii. The jumping off point." Only Don doesn't seem to be aware of the morbid implications.
What are you doing New Year's Eve? If you're Don Draper, you're slipping out to bed the neighbor, Sylvia Rosen (Freaks and Geeks' Linda Cardellini), wife of Dr. Arnold Rosen, as your unsuspecting wife sleeps soundly in bed. Let's hope it doesn't lead to a New Year's Baby.