Never thought about the juxtaposition that Joan saves Guy’s life while Greg fails as a surgeon. Mad Men is so good

I look at that Barbie doll and all I see is Jane Sterling.

“Sally doesnt have the tools yet to rationalize change, she can only feel it” Bars

I loved how Don reintroduced Baby Gene to Sally in that scene.  It was one of the times he was a good father.

This episode also is one of the two major points where Mad Men discusses disability in corporate culture. The fact that Guy doesn't have a foot automatically and immediately means he can't be the man he was going to be, despite the fact that his job doesn't actually require physical skills at all. But what he is required to be is charming and be a leader, and it's taken for granted that a man with a major physical disability can't be those things.

This can then be compared to Ken losing his eye. Just a few years later things have shifted socially enough that his injury (though also of course, a lot less major) is not career ending, but it is still a detractor against him from then on. Notable also is that both injuries are ultimately the result of the drinking culture of their industry, leading to irresponsible and dangerous actions.

Sally waking up in the middle of the night to be met with the Barbie staring back at her is even more disturbing than the lawn mower scene, imo.

Lois used to work on the switchboard. If she had stayed there, Guy would have kept his foot. But she hated that job so much that she blabbed about the upcoming  merger in exchange for becoming a secretary

The lawnmower incident is actually a lot more important than people realize. Since Guy was incapacitated, it meant Lane was able to keep his position at PPL/SC. And when news of the McCann buyout came around, Lane was there to "Fire" Roger, Don and Bert, getting them out of their contracts and SCDP was created. Thus, seasons 4-7 happened the way they did, all because Lois was a klutz on the lawnmower.

To me, the lawnmower incident shows that in the corporate world, people are treated as replaceable parts until something breaks—and even then, the machine keeps running. it’s quickly reframed as a “problem to manage” rather than a human tragedy.

If this lawnmower incident hadn’t happened, Lane Pryce would have been sent to India. I wonder if he would have lived longer then.

I'm a father since last year, Sally and Don moment at the end of this episode has been on my mind lately.

It IS my favorite episode of the entire series. A close second is the final episode, just because of the irony of Don trying to "find his Zen," only to revert back to the next big ad!

I briefly worked in the same office as Crista Flanagan (actress who plays Lois). Really nice person. Very personable. Happy to talk about her time on Mad Men. I loved this episode.

JESUS, it's like Iwo Jima out there.

The character selection in MAD MEN is incredible. I always felt the writers chose the right character for the right story point.

Case and point:
Something I always kept asking myself in this episode was why was Ken the character chosen to bring the tractor in the office? Why not Pete or someone else? Until I remembered Ken’s backstory, in which it is stated MULTIPLE times he grew up in a farm in Vermont. He was never a city boy and he absolutely knows how to operarte that machine. The gag that Lois was the one to do the deed is hilarious but it could’ve anyone driving that tractor to cause the disaster, except for Ken.

Side note: Ken was also the first one down on the ground helping Joan out in the mess. Not just because of a sense of obligation but because AGAIN he grew up on a farm and he is no stranger to injury or mess.

I like the nod to The Sopranos, where there is an episode called Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist’s Office

I remember laughing very hard when the English people said “he’ll never golf again.”

Excellent video, I think the only thing you missed was that Joan's blood stained dress was foreshadowing the killing of President Kennedy in the next few episodes. She looked just like Jackie did the day of the assassination.

This was a definitely a big episode.

Regarding Sally's anxiety and baby Gene: I wonder how much of her anxiety and unease is also fuelled by her grappling with the cycle of birth and death. In a fairly short period of time she's had her grandfather come to live with them, decline, and pass, her mother becoming pregnant and giving birth and then has a new baby brother. She's 9 years old in this season- Just old enough to start putting the pieces together and to realise what awaits for her in womanhood. In baby Gene being named after her recently deceased grandfather, the symbolism of the circle of life is amplified for Sally. Sally is also about the age that many girls start the early stages of puberty (Tanner stage 2) and is likely becoming increasingly aware of biology and the social differences in the experiences of men and women. She's a smart girl and these experiences happening in tandem is likely to cause a lot of emotional malaise, even if she can't express or identify it.