The biggie in the season opener was repeated references to the "4 p's" - they were talking about some business terminology but I think they were really talking about the Process Church. It was repeated at least 3 times, maybe 4. I will re-watch and count. The reason I think I'm right is, that Roger Sterling's daughter invited him to brunch so she could "forgive" him for his transgressions. he asked if she'd joined a religion, and she smiled and said "not in the way you think." She said something about "love" transcending sin...and I think that's what the Process Church preached. (I know, lots of religions say that...but coupled with the multiply spoken "4p" I think they are implying she has joined the Process Church.)
Then there's Megan's new house in LA, where the coyote noises echo from the canyon below...my prediction is that either Sally or her friend Sandy will be involved with the Family.
I thought I saw the Manson bus outside the airport when Megan picked Don up in LA.
There was also one like this:
Here's a snip from an interesting blogpost (they don't connect the Manson bus!)
http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/serial-killer-expert-analyzes-mad-men-for-clues.html
And then there’s Megan’s career. The pilot she was auditioning for, Bracken’s World, was a real show about starlets trying to make it in Hollywood.
You could link that back to Valley of the Dolls, which Sharon Tate was in. And that was sort of that lifestyle. Though Megan hasn’t started taking drugs yet. [Editor’s note: Bracken’s World was created by Dorothy Kingsley, who co-wrote the Valley of the Dolls screenplay. Eerie!]
Okay, here’s the big one: Folgers coffee. Peggy and Ted have this big conversation about coffee while Peggy is holding a Folgers can, and then Stan walks in and says something like, “That was not about coffee.”
And Abigail Folger was one of Charles Manson’s victims. She was the heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune and was a friend of Roman Polanski, so she was staying at the house. I think that’s probably a good catch on your part. Because why would they have that coffee room debate?
Last season, the show made pointed references to Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby: Sally was reading the novel, four of the characters saw a screening of the film, and Peggy and Ted pitched an ad campaign based on it. I guess that ties into the general theme of innocence being corrupted in the late 1960s?
Not just corrupted — invaded. And also, advertising is about mind control, and Rosemary’s Baby was all about mind control. If only someone was living at the Dakota! [Laughs.] But advertising, everything they do is about manipulating people through subliminal imagery, and getting them to behave in a certain way. At the beginning of Mad Men, the characters were approaching the ad business like, “We’re doing good things for people, bringing these products into their lives.” But now it’s getting darker and darker, as they realize, this is really just manipulating people and making them do what we want them to do.