'Mad Men' and Its Women Problem

Warning: This article contains storyline and character spoilers for the Mad Men episode “New Business.”

The title of this week’s Mad Men was “New Business,” but the hour-plus was a whole lotta old business. Female business.

Remember Betty? She got a quick scene to update us on her life — she’s getting a master’s degree on psychology. Remember Don’s neighbor Sylvia? She came back, standing in an elevator. Remember Diana the waitress? She came back for a second week, was seen at a second job, had one scene where she said she had a daughter then a second scene in which she said she had two: She is one two-timing gal. Remember Megan’s mother? She returned to help Megan get over the divorce from Don and ended up boffing Roger.

Remember Megan? She got propositioned by Harry and handed a million-buck check by Don, who was feeling guilty about… oh, why would we start thinking now that Don feels truly guilty about anything at this point?

Remember Pima Ryan? No, because she popped up Sunday night embodied by Mimi Rogers as a Great Photographer Who’s Had to Battle Sexism — no, wait, turns out she was a Predatory Bisexual Hustler.

Related: ‘Mad Men’ Q&A: Aaron Staton on Ken’s Revenge

I mean, really, could Mad Men dislike its female characters more this week? The only thing missing was a scene in which Sally was tortured by having to come home from boarding school and submit to Betty’s glares.

Why, I do declare, if it wasn’t for Pete, his golf pants, his sputtering exasperation with Don, and (during a Don-and-Pete Car ride) one of the worst process shots since Alfred Hitchock’s Marnie, “New Business” might have consisted only of drab dialogue and inadvertent laughs. As it was, every time Megan, her mom, and her sister spoke French, it was like being trapped in another blast from the 1960s past — an Antonioni-directed bummer like L’Avventura.

So far, Mad Men is going out with a sullen whimper. Or to quote the best line of the night (from the night’s only woman who wasn’t too badly mauled by the script’s coarse dullness, Stan’s tart nurse girlfriend), “Are you in a creative mood or a bad mood?”

Mad Men airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on AMC.