And Don and Faye seem to have weathered their first storm as a couple. Faye admitted she had almost no experience with kids and had made the choice to put career first, one she did not regret. Don told her it didn’t matter to him and held her tight. At least she’s true to herself in admitting she not quite ready to be a mother, unlike Betty was ever willing to do.
EJ
I’m going to be honest with you – I’m still mourning Miss Ida Blankenship. But we’ll be strong, and we’ll get through this together.
Poor Roger isn’t having much luck with his book, it seems. It sounds like an agent is rejecting it over the phone, and I love his description of it so much. The man claims that his autobiography has “mystery”. He’s so into the conversation that he doesn’t take his wife’s call. But then, Jane is very much a nonentity this season – the honeymoon’s over. We also learn that Joan’s husband is headed straight to Vietnam after basic training. I appreciate that Joan is upset, but I hate that guy so much.
It’s interesting to see that the staff is more or less openly talking about Don’s issues now – they joke about whether or not he’ll show up. Don’s luster is dimming.
Peggy’s headed in some interesting directions this season – she’s ahead of the curve more often than not, and she’s a far cry from the timid woman we met back in the series premiere. Her “date”, Abe, is just the sort of tiresome knee-jerk activist who ruins every good party, but Peggy engages him and learns that one of their clients, Fillmore Auto Parts, won’t hire African-Americans. I love the way Peggy tries to segment her feelings from her work – advertisers don’t judge. She makes an interesting point, though, that women aren’t significantly better off than Black people at this point in history. I’m not a big fan of the whole “You think you have it bad?” thing, which is where this usually goes. Peggy really does present a good argument, though. In the past, we’ve seen Peggy frustrated in her inability to crack that glass ceiling. Remember when she accompanied the guys to a strip club? It’s very frustrating for her that her work will only get her so far, and I think it’s worse now that she’s working with the casually misogynistic Stan.
There’s actually something really awesome about the way that Peggy suggest a Black copywriter could fight his way in, just like she did. She’s sort of at this crossroads, where she has to decide if the system is actually flawed, or whether she can have anything she wants if she just does a good enough job. It’s all about whether she’s going to work to be better or work to fix the system.
Abe later shows up to give Peggy a copy of his latest screed, “Nuremberg on Madison Avenue”. You know, you can just tell what the overall tone is by the title. And then he hangs around so she can read it! Never has a character been so quickly defined by so few scenes. I swear, you already know everything there is to know about him. If this show were set in 2010, you just know he’d have a really angry blog, and his Facebook page would be full of links to news stories that outraged him.
He gets more and more irritating, when he announces plans to publish his tract which will incriminate Peggy. To her credit, Peggy shows him the door. I could do without seeing him again.
Joan and Roger are just fascinating throughout this episode – the push and pull of their relationship changes so often over the course of just one show. They’re both complicated people, though Roger’s trying his best to convince the world that he isn’t. What I love is that their story is timeless – their relationship doesn’t hinge on the 60’s setting or on their jobs – I like to think that whatever social upheaval is coming, these two will hold on to one another, in their way.
And then Miss Blankenship dies at her desk. Of course, Joan steps in to make everything better. Miss Blankenship is the severed foot of Season Four. I’m going to miss her, but at least she left us in the most hilarious way possible. As with all of her scenes, it’s almost too broad for this kind of show, but the fact that everybody has a real, human reaction is what makes it work. And the scene in the Fillmore meeting where Don, Ken, and Faye watch Pete Campbell try to move her while still conducting business is one of the best jokes in the history of this show. Ken’s reaction is priceless.
It’s interesting to see how the rest of the cast reacts: Bert Cooper still clearly has a place in his heart for Miss B. And receptionist Megan really steps up. We haven’t seen much of her so far, but she was just excellent in this episode. And it triggers some self-pity in Roger, though not without a classic Sterling line, “She died as she lived. Surrounded by the people she answered phones for.” Roger talks about jumping out a window, and I still think somebody will do that before the series is over – it’s in the title sequence! Roger finally gets Joan to agree to a dinner date by wallowing in self pity and threatening suicide. That never works for me…
At dinner, he asks if she read his memoirs. Hey, it’s another guy desperate to have a woman read something he wrote! This is the only time I will ever compare Roger to Abe. And in a real departure for this show, Roger and Joan are mugged after dinner. This clearly isn’t the first time it’s happened to Roger – he knows the drill. He looks away, he’s calm, he hands over everything. I do think it’s important that the mugger is Black, because I think it’ll come up later. With Civil Rights bubbling just beneath the surface, anytime we see a minority character, there’s a reason for it.
Roger and Joan turn fear for their lives into lust, and I swear, I’m happier to see these two together again than either of them are.
Later, Joan steps in again to write Miss Blankenship’s obituary. We also learn that Bert Cooper doesn’t have an office. Did we know that? I guess we’ve seen him sitting around in random places, so it makes sense. It’s still kind of sad. Apparently, he’s not important enough to the day-to-day operations. He’s more of a corporate icon than anything. Bert has a lovely line. “She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the 37th floor of a skyscraper. She was an astronaut.” Awww. Bert Cooper is making me cry this week.
The race issue comes up again as they discuss their Fillmore strategy. Peggy pushes the issue by suggesting Harry Belafonte as a pitchman, and then wonders why they do business with a company that’s so backwards. Don echoes Peggy’s sentiments from earlier – it’s not their job to care how Fillmore feels about race relations. Something significant is going to happen on this front before the end of the season.
Now, given that Betty has been working my last nerve, I loved the scene where she picks up Sally. Joan, Peggy, Faye, and Megan all stand there as if to show that they’ve got Don’s back. They’re a wall of disapproval, and Betty doesn’t even notice. I hope little Sally picked up on this, that there were four women who wanted to make sure she was OK, each of them awesome in their own way. Hopefully, on some level, she could feel their genuine concern and support, as that’s something she’s never going to get from her mother.
Farewell, Miss Blankenship. You will be missed.
And if you still need more Jon Hamm, check out his appearance on The Daily Show, where he talks about The Town and the end of Mad Men.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Jon Hamm | ||||
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