Mad Men 4.4: "How the hell did it get so sad so fast?"

Actually, this was the least depressing of the season so far, and also the best Peggy episode in ages. I give it 2 out of 5 razor blades on the Depressing Scale (tm) because most of the time, I was laughing -- but then suddenly cringing in horror. Most of the sad parts were also hilarious, and most of the hilarious parts were also sad. 

Case in point:

1. The sobbing focus group (from which I drew the title of this blog post, courtesy of a perplexed Freddy)

2. Pete using his unborn child to essentially blackmail his father-in-law

3. Don's beleaguered secretary throwing things at him

4. Don's unfinished, pathetically drunken apology letter (how weird was it seeing Don type?)

5. Don's ancient replacement secretary, Mrs. Blankenship

6. The return of Cosgrove!

And there were things that were ONLY sad:

1. Pete and Peggy, and their rarely referenced baby

And things that were ONLY hilarious:

1. Peggy standing on her desk and peeking over the wall into Don's office

2. Peggy's new bohemian art friends

As for the nudity warning at the beginning of the episode, my husband and I speculated about what to expect ("Will it be depressing or happy nudity?"/ "It won't be one of the series regular women or it would've happened already -- so who's the poor guest star?" / "Will it be in an ad?") but didn't quite guess correctly. Alas, it was in a photo.