Alright looking at next batch of episodes TIME again becomes an incredible theme.
In the third episode Don and Sally both lie and come clean when Sally finds out Don is no longer working and when he finds out she used a funeral of a friend as an excuse to go shopping (which was brought on by peer pressure I might add). Don explains to Sally at the dinner that he told the TRUTH about himself to wrong people, at THE WRONG TIME.
This beautifully calls back to the season 7 premiere and the concept of 'accurate time' playing on the idea that there are "different times" and that timing is everything...
Betty also goes with Bobby on a field trip with his school to farm, where we see Bobby do something a little inconsiderate, especially because it seemed he was so happy to have his mother there. Betty as usual doesn't act too grown up about it by making Bobby feel worse about his actions than needed to be. Later when at home Henry asks Bobby what happened, noticing Bobby's sulking and Betty's cool, but obviously hurt feelings. Bobby says, "I wish it was yesterday." This implies the idea of regret and the wish to either go back to happier day and/or an option to be able to do it all again and make a different choice. (The pick nick scene might also call back to Betty Glenn.)
Ken Crossgrove also makes contact with Don after the company 'sort-of' lets Don come back to work. He tells Don about his own project and sites that he was reminded of Don's Kodac Carousel Add -- ("It's a time machine." See Below also for "On A Carousal" reference)
In the latest episode there are some really interesting things going on. Don, who's made at his situation takes it out on Peggy by not making the tags that she is forced to ask him for. The office is also being turned upside by electricians due to getting a new computer system. Don meets one of the guys named Loyd. There conversations become double talk for computers and human replacement being a metaphor for existentialism, siting that everything becomes obsolete at some point. Another conversation ends up being about advertising where Loyd and Don pitch ideas about IBM and selling computers, in which Don ends up complementing Loyd, which makes Don's next confrontation with him when drunk seem rather appropriate, as Don is basically facing a younger distorted version of himself, making Don feel obsolete. (also notice the way Loyd lit Don's cigarette and possible reminder to the life he stole)
Note: There's some interesting word play going on with names. DOn and lOyD, along with lots of "L" names: Lange, Lou, and Loyd.
Time was also played with, as Don left the office only to see him loop around and walk back into it on another day.
The idea of the office being worked on feels aptly like good science fiction and those literature pioneers of a space age, (let alone 1969 IS when Americans first go to the moon), as if building this computer would be like building a rocket to take people to the moon---which goes along with Roger's situation and obvious Jules Verne reference (From The Earth To The Moon) , although there's a juxtaposition as Vern's vessel to the moon, much like the farm his daughter is staying at, is not futuristic or considered advanced, but just civil war technology used as a projectile shot out with a cannon.
This brings me to Roger's family scenes. The farm house I think calls back and presents many things and may be one of the most symbolic scenes of the series so far. The way it looks is very similar to the way the one Don was first brought up in looked, but again there is an interesting contrast, as in this we have people choosing to live this lifestyle and calling it "happy" and where in Don's and Don's father's case it was more of a forced way off life, but in both cases there's a shared hypocrisy between strong religious beliefs and responsibility, as Don's father was not virtuous to his wife and where one has to question Roger's daughter in embracing her own youth, but denying and abandoning her child's. She points out that her parents weren't the best parents simply because they took to bad vices in order to pretend to be the parents she thinks they are not. In some respect she has a great point, but on another she has an option to give her son a better life by being a different kind of parent to him and thus given the implication that a relationship between a certain man on the farm proves Roger right, makes for her actions a complete cop-out.
This child abandonment and the implications of certain sexual situations also ties back to Don and his own childhood experiences, but also Peggy and her choice to give up her child. And this adds a philosophical debate on whether the point of life is to be happy, especially since in Peggy's case, despite actually becoming more responsible with her choice, is still not a happy person, and if happiness and responsibility for our actions are truly at odds, or if there should be balance between them somewhere?
Freddy, nursing a drunk and eventually hung over Don, gives him some words of wisdom during the dawn of the next day. He tells him basically not to fall back into his old habits. That to be mature and not give into an expected failure of the others at the company and go to work and make the tags Peggy requested. He sites, it's the dawn of a new age. (or as viewers might take it a Don of a new AGE). Don takes his advice.
The end of this episode also features the song by The Hollies, "On A Carousal" with lyrics,
Riding along on a carousel
Trying to catch up to you
Riding along on a carousel
Will I catch up to you
Horses chasing 'cause they're racing
So near yet so far
On a carousel, on a carousel
Nearer, nearer by changing horses
Still so far away
People fighting for their places
Just get in the way
Soon you'll leave and then I'll lose you
Still we're going round
On a carousel, on a carousel
Round and round and round and round and round
And round and round and round with you
Up, down, up, down, up, down too
As she leaves she drops the presents
That she won before
Pulling ducks out of the water
Got the highest score
Now's my chance and I must take it
A case of do-or-die
On a carousel, on a carousel
Round and round and round and round and round
And round and round and round with you
Up, down, up, down, up, down too
Riding along on a carousel
Trying to catch up to you
Riding along on a carousel
Will I catch up to you
Now we take our ride together
No more chasing her
On a carousel, on a carousel
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