One question that I’ve been chewing on is whether Don and Megan’s epic chase and fight signaled the end of our protagonist’s “love leave” or the beginning of what’s a more true relationship between Don and his young wife. I begin with an excerpt from my colleague Linda Holmes’ recent post:
There was a surprising amount of “This marriage works very well, because they really get each other” analysis going around after “Zou Bisou Bisou” and the later quasi-violent sex scene in the season premiere, and it was a relief to see the show deal with the fact that this marriage is, in fact, ridiculous, and it is based on the same fundamental lack of respect that marks Don’s other relationships with women.
She goes on to lay out the argument that while the season premiere’s cat-and-mouse “fight” really resulted in some hot sex, this apartment chase displayed real fear on Megan’s part — she was actually scared of her husband in a way that “diminishes this whole thing.”
What I saw in that fight wasn’t the chase or Megan’s fear so much as Don’s fear that she would leave him. The way he clung to her at the end like a little boy against his mother. The way that was blocked, with Don on his knees and his face in Megan’s stomach, made it evoke even more strongly that boy/mom image. The honeymoon may be over — she expresses that she doesn’t “like everything” after all — but the overnight scare forced Don to realize how much he really NEEDS this wife, this woman.
It was just two episodes ago when I said I worry Don has a propensity to domestic violence even though the majority of you (and the pro reviewers) saw Don’s strangling-to-death of the former lover as the effort to symbolically crush his libido and primal desires to stray. I think it’s both — Don could hurt a woman because of his insecurities and his constant need for control (which makes me scared for this marriage), but he’s also constantly trying to punish himself. Remember what he needed from the prostitute last season? He wanted to be slapped again and again while having sex. So maybe there’s hope for him and Megan because she makes him at least sometimes WANT to change and be a better man.
On the flip side, one message made clear by this show is that people don’t change, and that bad mothers wreck a man’s life for the long run. If that’s the case, this marriage is headed to disaster faster than we can say orange sherbert.
Don and Megan… did this episode represent a step toward real intimacy and communication in their marriage, or was it the beginning of the end?
The truth is relative,
Elise
