As Don would tell Peggy, there's nothing that we do here that you can't live without. But join the conversation if you want to. We love Mad Men. And we love to argue.
Ugh, this is the 10th episode of the season already? I can’t believe we have so few episodes left. But these seasons tend to work like Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit — build, build, build, climax somewhere in the third act (or the penultimate episode), bring on the resolution in the very end (or the season finale.)
Lane Skimmin’
How many storylines do I say “This isn’t going to end well” about? But this really isn’t going to end well. But, this season’s theme is “every man for himself,” right? His pride keeps him from going to the partners honestly and saying he’s in a tough spot and needs some cash. (Clearly Roger has enough to buy off his copy writers as needed and to give his ex wife a new apartment.) Borrowing $50,000 on behalf of the firm, money that is GOING TO HAVE TO BE PAID BACK … and then paying himself with a fraudulent check … this has future-JP Morgan/Chase written all over it. Doesn’t Future Lane ever meet present-day Jamie Dimon in the Negron Complex?
Joan and Don
Their mutual respect and rapport was obvious in the hospital after Guy got his foot chopped off with a lawnmower in Episode 3.6. They truly seemed to understand each other at this point in their lives. Joan is asking herself where she’s going, because she feels she has nothing. Don is asking himself where he is going, because he has everything.
Critics and fans have said Don and Joan are meant to be together, but maybe because they are, they’ll never be together. Such are the rules of television, right?
The bar scene reminded me a bit of Don’s bar scene with Peggy in one of the best episodes of Mad Men ever, Season Four’s “Suitcase” (4.7):
“Don shares with Peggy that he watched his father get killed by a horse when he was only 11; Peggy (in keeping with the reflexivity of their characters) reveals she too watched her father die in front of her when she was also a child. They both avoid what’s in their suitcases by giving everything they have to their work. I wonder, in fact, whether their personality types are somehow well-suited for advertising because of the way their brains can imagine another reality… or something… ?”
But Don and Peggy are soul mates in that they are mirrors of one another. It’s different than he and Joan, who complement one other.
The Return of Paul Kinsey
That was rad. This is the same former Sterling Cooper writer who briefly became a Freedom Rider in order to be part of something, anything. The latest place he’s playing poser is among the Hare Krishnas, which I suppose I’m not that surprised about, now that I think about it. The guy is a fake human being, though so is Harry, but they went on quite different paths. I suppose this is why Harry feels empathetic toward Paul — they are in many ways the same posers, only Harry got lucky.
“What ghost visited you, Ebenezer?” Don then reminds Pete that Pete instructed him to intervene the next time a boxing match was possible. Pete and Lane found some sort of civility. But these financial tricks wind up getting discovered, so we’re probably set up for another Pete-Lane showdown.
Loose Ends
-I’ve ignored Roger in discussing Joan and Don. But his efforts to try and pay for Kevin are noble, and that line after he dropped off flowers — how many times have I left you with a card from another man — was quietly heartbreaking.
-Meanwhile, it seems Don is starting to care about work again, just as Megan cares more about acting, which is a totally different direction. This is a fissure that’s NOT caused by Betty from 50 miles away.
-“It feels like Joan’s breasts are getting bigger and bigger.” -Matty
-What did y’all think? I found the episode to be pretty uneven compared to others … but maybe I’m missing something.
Ever the thoughtful writer, Ken Cosgrove’s short story voiceover that ends this episode concludes with a line like “all the beauty was too difficult to bear,” a theme that describes both the subterranean crises that brought on the social unrest of the sixties and the suffering of Pete Campbell.
It’s true that everyone in the office and the audience has been waiting for someone to punch out the glib, preening Pete, the one whose family is some major botanical garden benefactor but has never been rich in spirit or in many cases, decency. But because of the layered way he’s been written, I’ve come around on Pete over the years, especially in episodes like these, when it’s clear he’s always been treading water and now finds himself drowning under the weight of his perfect life.
That’s the thing about water that makes it such a great motif; it’s a force both placid and powerful. A little dripping faucet can explode with too much pressure, much like our beloved Mad Men characters.
Here, Pete (who despite blue blood bonafides seems to be raised by wolves) again searches for a father figure in Don. And Don not only disapproves when Pete beds the prostitute who guesses correctly (on the third try) that his turn on is to have a servant/underling to his “king,” but Don also doesn’t come in and stop Lane from beating the crap out of him. Again and again in the show we’ve seen instances in which Pete looks to Don for fatherly advice. Remember how Pete sought out Don after his real dad’s death in the American Airlines plane crash that starts Season Two? Don shuns him and he goes right to Duck Phillips, who he then pimps out his father’s death to to get an account. Now, after being humiliated in the workplace where he shined, the young account man feels he has nothing.
It’s mayhem on Mad Men, indeed. Between those car wreck scenes we’re shown in Pete’s driving class, and the news of Charles Whitman’s cold-blooded rampage from the University of Texas tower, and fashion changing from suits to madras sport coats, the teenager was right: “Things seem so random all of a sudden, and time feels like it’s speeding up.”
Loose Ends
Megan’s power over Don is ever evident. Megan has the power to stand up to Don about going to dinner parties, and to make Don change into a ridiculous madras sport coat. I guess they all had sport coats on cause it’s “the country.”
While Roger knows he’s a “professor emeritus” at the firm, his unsolicited advice session with Lane showed the silver fox actually DOES KNOW SOMETHING about being an account man. That was an excellent “Sterling Method,” ordering a scotch on the rocks but only drinking it until it’s clear while waiting for your client to tell you all his problems…
Speaking of problems, interesting to put a man with mommy issues who had a whore for a mom in a whore house. Thought they could have done more with that.
In an episode full of revelations, the main secret driving the the show’s central character gets kept under wraps - for everyone besides Faye, a new member of the Draper/Whitman inner circle. But let’s review everything we learned about the rest of the characters: Lane is involved with a “negro”! Joan is preggers with Roger’s baby! Joan gets a secret abortion! Roger loses 69% of SCDP’s revenue! Lane’s a victim of domestic violence!
This episode worked so well because it played on the central theme of the show: secrets and lies. And now that we’re four seasons in, the audience is getting a huge payoff for paying attention all these years. We see the resentment Pete harbors toward Don, as Pete has known the Dick Whitman secret since 1960 and now it’s coming back to ruin his business relationship. (Only the irony there is Don actually helped fix Pete’s big secret - the Peggy baby situation - all those years ago.) We see the marked difference between Betty’s reaction to learning Don’s secret and Faye’s reaction. Where Betty turned cold toward Don after learning the truth, Faye drew nearer to him. Faye’s actually Don’s type, of course. Instead of being a trophy wife who can cook and sew and such, Faye is that independent, headstrong woman who Don’s always actually been drawn to. (e.g. Rachel Menken, crazy Miss Farrell, Bobbie Barrett, Midge)
So one of my questions as we leave this episode is, if Don gets away with it again and gets to keep his fake identity, isn’t he still running? He really breaks down here and admits he’s sick of running, but Pete helping him keep things under wraps means he’s going to continue this lie… should the whole house of cards come tumbling down in order to save his sanity?
Finally, the change theme of the season’s really coming into full focus, as Roger loses the company’s golden egg (and, I think, the only real account he’s in charge of). As we’ve talked about in previous posts, his and the rest of the “old guard’s” influence is waning, if not dying a la Blankenship and that client he tried to reach by phone in this episode.
So we head an episode closer to the season finale with SCDP teetering on the edge, and Trudy about to pop out a tot. Methinks this season won’t end with as much caper-style fun and triumph as last season.
