Mad Men Season 6 Episode 11 Recap

Season 6, Episode 11: "Favors"

Well. Guys. That was a hell of an episode of Mad Men.

So much happened in this week's hour of basic-cable ad agency drama that it was tough to immediately process. One character kind of, sort of, came out. Two more were caught in a compromising position that could have major ramifications if others find out about it. An interoffice truce was informally ratified by Don and Ted. And then there was the really, really big news: Peggy Olson got a cat! (Mad Men clearly responded to last week's much-discussed Game of Thrones Red Wedding by producing its own river of blood, courtesy of the rat that dragged its carcass across the hardwood floor of Peggy's new apartment, thereby prompting Peggy to take the first steps toward becoming a cat lady.)

Seriously, if there weren't so damn many plot developments to dissect, I could move forward with my initial plan: to focus this recap on the wondrous specimen of mustachioed humanity that is Manolo.

Manolo, the at-home healthcare provider/Latin lover to Pete Campbell's mother and a man who is, essentially, this guy.

Or, if you prefer, this guy:

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Or, if you're Pete Campbell shouting at Bob Benson, Manolo is apparently best described this way: "I told you we needed a nurse and you sent us a rapist." Fellow Americans, how many times have we all said those exact words during phone conversations with our health insurance providers? I mean: right?

It pains me that I can't delve more deeply into what makes Manolo tick, and whether he purchases ascots from the same men's apparel store that sells ascots to Roger Sterling, and what, exactly, Manolo has been doing to release the fire in Dorothy Campbell's loins. But I really can't. There are other, more pressing matters to attend to here. Besides, Pete made it quite clear that as far as Manolo is concerned, he did not want this recap to be more specific.

But I can be more specific about how this episode, "Favors," constantly placed its characters in triangular relationships in which a third party often intruded on the intimacy shared by the other two.

We saw it in the hubbub over Sterling Cooper & Partners — wow, look how easily we've adapted to the new name — and its conflicting interests in both Oceanspray and Sunkist.

We saw it when Ted and Peggy were acting all flirty in the presence of third-wheel Pete, then saw it again when that whole exchange tipped and turned Ted into the outsider suddenly incapable of understanding Peggy's and Pete's inside jokes and long, bumpy history. (As loathsome as Pete can be, your heart had to melt a little when he told Peggy, "You really know me," and Peggy agreed, her eyes getting just a little watery. That was a simply great scene, and one of many this week that allowed Mad Men's actors to do some of their best work this season.)

We saw it in the divided attentions Ted gave to his family vs. his job, although some of his workplace worries may subside now that Don agreed to back down in the two men's ongoing pissing match, in exchange for Ted's assistance in getting Mitchell Rosen, son of Don's former lover Sylvia, out of the draft. Yes, it's possible to finally find peace in the newly merged agency. All it took was the Vietnam War. Oh, and in case you missed this detail, Mitchell will likely dodge his draft notice by serving as a pilot in the Air National Guard. Possibly with ... this man?

And of course, most significantly, the triangle dynamic played out when Sally Draper walked in on her father getting it on with Sylvia Rosen, whose iciness toward Don quickly defrosted once she realized what he had done to save her son from a trip to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. (Side note: Linda Cardellini will be nominated for an Emmy for her guest acting role, right? Because during that phone conversation with Don, she was just devastating.)

For the record, this is not Sally's first trip to the interrupting-sexual-intimacy rodeo. She already lassoed a steer in that department last season, when she discovered Roger Sterling receiving oral pleasure from Marie Calvet. Clearly this experience is very different, though, because it involves her own father. We viewers are so accustomed to seeing Don commit adultery that we barely blink each time he unhooks another bra. But it's important to remember that, while Sally may know her dad has been with other women, she has no idea he's had so many extramarital affairs. His capacity to cheat is brand new, horrifying information. Her disgust, anger, and disappointment are totally understandable, and presumably not emotions she will be able to hide so easily.

Don made an exceptionally weak effort to explain his actions to his daughter: "I was comforting Mrs. Rosen," he told her. "It's very complicated." Look, Sally may not have gotten to second base yet, but I'm pretty sure she knows that most people don't provide "comfort" to their neighbors by lying on top of them while half-naked. Given how shaken she must be, it's hard to imagine that she'll hide this information from others — like Betty or, potentially, Megan — for very long.

It's notable that Sally made her discovery after entering the Rosens' apartment through the back door, an entryway that prompted an adulterous fever dream for Don during season five in which a former lover told him that he "can't change who he is." And it's notable, too, that Sally was allowed access because she got a key from Jonesy, the same doorman whose near-demise initially seemed to be Don's during the season-six premiere. That's all the evidence needed to conclude the following: Sally's shocking intrusion was the beginning of something disastrous for Don.

And speaking of shocking: Wow, we have to talk about Bob Benson's pseudo-confession to Pete Campbell.

After Pete blasted the diligent coffee fetcher for recommending Manolo the Alleged Rapist as his mother's caretaker, Bob sat Pete down, gave him a drink, and said the following, "If someone took care of you, if this person would do anything for you, if your well being was his only thought, is it possible that you might begin to feel something for him?"

"When there's true love," Bob noted, his knee quite deliberately brushing against Pete's, "it doesn't matter who it is."

So ... Bob Benson is gay? And in love with Pete? Seriously: in love with Pete, when Don Draper and Roger Sterling and the tremendously gifted tap dancer Ken Cosgrove work in the same office?

Personal taste aside, that doesn't quite add up. Which makes me think that the perpetually hard-to-pin-down Bob is up to something. Maybe he was purposely trying to unnerve Pete so that Mr. Campbell will be too distracted to notice when Bob starts leapfrogging him in the new agency hierarchy. Maybe — in conjunction with the still-unproven theory that Bob is a spy — he was just trying to talk Pete out of firing Manolo, who's busily gathering additional intel on Campbell and other employees of Sterling Cooper & Partners.

Or perhaps Mitchell Rosen isn't the only one attempting to get out of Vietnam. Maybe Bob Benson's number has come up and he's trying to establish that he's gay so he'll be ineligible to serve. Like a Chevy — as in Chase, not the prized Sterling Cooper account —once did.

Pretending to be something you're not in order to avoid going to war. That sounds like a twist on pretending to be someone you're not in order to come home as a war hero, doesn't it?