The midseason finale took place on the day of Neil Armstrong's historic landing on the moon. Of course that's a metaphor on Mad Man: a metaphor for togetherness. Here's how I see it. Everyone got some face time in tonight's episode. Also, we wave good-bye to some. I won't reveal who. Ted, who's been in limbo this season, finally has a purpose. He's depressed, teetering on the edge, and is questioning his future in advertising. He wants something new in his life, and he makes it clear (or tries to) that money isn't everything to him. This is the big picture in the episode. For everyone else, money is the motivation. It's what brings smiles to the character's faces. It makes the blood sucking Jim Cutler (who's consistent yapping about Donald Draper's removal like a pull-string doll is hilarious) back off. It makes a new-faced Joan ease up. But money isn't worth celebrating for Don. "I'll have plenty money if I sell out" Ted says. Is multiple lifetimes worth of money necessary? Don sees an image. It leaves him wondering, holding himself up on a desk. His reactions saved for next year. Then there's the Burger Chef pitch, which is sold on family and togetherness, ironically for capital means. The use of the moon landing in the pitch is genius and genuine. As we get a look at the different groups united around the television to witness the moon landing, I noted that the characters who played villain this episode weren't included in this sequence. Is that a sign of their exclusion from who really matters in Mad Men? (Sorry, Harry, you really can't sit with us; at the partner's table). Roger Sterling matters a whole lot in the episode. I noted earlier in the season that Roger looking out for Don solidifies one of the show's greatest relationships (the bromance is real). If anything, this episode shows it's Don's truly most important and long-lasting relationship. He'll look out for Don again because ever since the merger with CGC the agency has been running further away from the original Sterling Cooper. Therein lies the metaphor of the moon landing. (This is what I believe to the be the "waterloo"). The agency has endured so much and has evolved in so many ways throughout the course of the series. The new step taken in tonight's episode marks "one big step" for SCP. A step in unfamiliar territory, but really a step to preserve the main fabric of the agency. And for the second half of the season we'll see, like Neil and Apollo's trip back, if the gang can make it back in one piece. History proves they will. Tonight's quote of, "Giving everyone that they want, when they want it"; I think that's when Mad Men will achieve its apex and its resolution. A cute B-story; Sally Draper's hormones, her (familiar) hairstyle, and her (familiar) smoking posture. The Francis's are having guests over for the moon landing, one of the kids is a hunk, the other is a star-gazer. Sally takes notice. If you enjoy a nice narrative break into song and dance. This is truly your episode. TIll 2015! 10/10