This week, I’ll read some mail from fans of spunkybean and discuss some points of interest.
Q: Don? That episode was kind of all over the place. Was Sally’s teacher the same woman that Don was checking out during the May Day May Pole dance thing? Do you think Don will be hooking up with Sally’s teacher soon?
A: Yes, t’was the same foxy little teacher (queue Van Halen …”I brought my pencil …now give me something to write on” -David Lee Roth). Don Draper is a creative genius, a great ad man, and he knows how to pick ’em. Mrs. Sally’s-Teacher (hey, she may be a passing character, you learn her name) is giving Don Draper all kinds of temptation. But with the bizarre hospital waiting room conversation Don had with the prison warden, and with the whole “Betty-won’t-let-me-come-home because-she-knows-I’m-a-cheating bastard” thing, I know he wants to be a better man. But, boy oh boy, he sure left the door open on that one, ya know …just in case.
Q: The whole birth thing was strange…and it is scary to think about the baby riding without a car seat, don’t you think? Didn’t you have a bad feeling that Betty was going to go all post-partum and do something bad?
A: First, is it highly inappropriate of me to chuckle about the possibility that the 1990s phrase “he went postal” (referring to the rash of Post Office shootings, and meaning a person goes temporarily insane) could be replaced by the horribly non-PC phrase “that dude went post-partum”? Try it out and report back how the phrase was received by the masses, won’t you? As for the birth-dream sequence, I think EJ covers it below well enough. Betty is grieving the loss of her father and whatever freedom having a 10 and 7 year old allows a woman of the late 60s. As we see later in the episode, as a crying baby wakes her up out of bed, she struggles to find the will and the energy to do this all again – we can see she is feeling trapped. This baby doesn’t have much nurturing in its future, now does it? Granted, as a father of three, I know this late night walk of the dead rarely comes with skipping and humming of jaunty tunes, so it could be nothing. Right? I’m sure Weiner and the writers just told her, “look tired.” Ha!
The more compelling late-night sequence took place while Betty was at the hospital following the birth of baby Eugene and Don was home playing Mr. Mom. Again we found him in the kitchen, alone, just as we saw him open this season when he flashed back to his very troubled beginnings. But instead of looking back, we found him confronted with his present circumstance – his daughter Sally. She is awakened by, I can only assume, the sound of red meat (or was that pork?) frying up in a pan and she stumbles into the kitchen. Don could give her a drink and send her right back to bed, but instead, he invites her to eat with him and he shares a tender moment with her. It was very sweet and I was happy for Sally – she needs someone to show her some sort of attention. Side note – nothing says childhood obesity like the Sumo diet …late night hash and eggs, baby!
So moved by this exchange, I ran upstairs and woke up my own 6-year-old daughter and dragged her downstairs for some bacon and eggs – but being without 60s era staples, I had to settle for left-over pizza and ice cream. She wasn’t too thrilled about being pulled from her cozy bed, but I explained this was because it was important for her and I to bond, less she start snagging $5 bills from Grandpa’s nightstand.
“I’d never do that,” she explained.
“Not if we have nice moments like this, little lady. You’ll thank me later for my keeping you out of trouble.”
“Dad? Can I please go back to bed?”
“No,” I said. “I just watched a TV show and it made me all kinds of sappy and nostalgic for your early years and how my nurturing, or lack thereof, might affect you down the road.”
“But, Dad. You are great. You are always there for me. It’s 2009 – men are much more in touch with their feminine selves than at any time in history. Please …I’m tired …and I have school tomorrow. And you can’t be nostalgic for a moment you are currently living or have yet to live.”
“Oh,” I said. “I guess maybe I got caught up in the moment.”
“I’ll say.” She continued. “And have you been hiding a secret past? Did you assume another man’s identity somewhere in your early 20s, and are you now living a complete sham of an existence?”
“No, I didn’t and I am not,” I said.
“And do you regularly cheat on Mom with other women – multiple women – and lie to your loved ones? Did you reject your long lost brother when he finally found you? Do you smoke? Drink excessively?”
“Um, no.”
“Well, then you have nothing to worry about, Dad. And you know dairy upsets my tummy …ice cream and pizza? Really? I’m going back to bed. Now go and flashback onto your Rockwellian infant years when you were born in a hospital of two loving parents and how you were not abandoned by your birth mother to be raised by an abusive alcoholic, Mr. Whitman.” She kissed me, patted my head, and headed back to bed.*
*Hey, if Matt Wiener is going to use a dream sequence and a random encounter with a prison warden in a hospital to advance a story line, I’m going to invent a conversation that never happened with my 6-year-old. Touche, Mr. Wiener. Touche.
Q: Do you think Peggy will go work with Duck?
A: No. Duck is shadier than Don Draper. Do you really think Peggy’s going to get some golden parachute by jumping firms with no real resume of work to show? It isn’t as if she’s dreamed up any outstanding campaigns on her own outside of the orgasmic underwear thing, right? Nope, she’ll stay put. Her threat to leave might get her more money and ruffle loyal Pete Campbell’s feathers, but she’s loyal to Don Draper. I vote: she stays.
Q: Don and that guy in the hospital had that whole emotional exchange and then they did not look at each other in the hall?
A: I’ve been thinking about this, and I think the warden dude was just embarrassed he spilled his guts to a complete stranger. Something tells me where he works, Sing Sing, he can’t exactly open up like that – and doesn’t. “Hey, Gunner. Which was scarier? Having a teenager you couldn’t connect with, or robbing a bank and the eluding police in a high speed chase?” “Glad you asked, Warden. I’z did some crazy things, but nothing is scarier than holding a little baby in ya hands and knowing youz responsible, ya know? Takin’ a life – or a few dozen – t’aint no big deal, ya know? But making a life, Warden …yeah, it’s like mind blowing.” “Thanks, Gunner. Good talk.”
But, the warden’s monologue about being scared, not knowing what he’d do if something happened to his wife, and then vowing to become a better man for the sake of his child …that’s something most men do when that big day comes and they have a baby of their own. They realize there’s a bigger purpose and a more important life to worry about than their own – why do you think the guys on Maury Povich who are informed they are “not the father” go all wiggy crazy? Because they know they don’t have to have the “warden moment”.
Q: Will it be enough for Don Draper to stay on the straight and narrow?
If the Kodak Carousel wasn’t, and being kicked out of the house nearly forever didn’t work, I’m going to bet on adultery. Hey …he can’t change overnight, right?
Q: The whole “urban” marketing thing was interesting too, eh?
A: Yes. We had Roger Sterling in black-face a couple episodes ago, and now we had liberal use of the word “Negro” which is also upsetting, no matter if it’s in a period piece or a Quentin Tarrentino movie – racially insensitive words make me nervous. But, for those of you not in advertising, this was and is a very real challenge for brands and marketers. These episodes are taking place in 1963, correct? Just before Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Kennedy’s assassination. You can’t write, direct, and produce a period piece like Mad Men and not address the women’s movement and Civil Rights. We see women taking on productive roles in the workplace, we see Betty and Joan completely unfulfilled by “home making” and we see little pieces of power slipping away from the Ivy League, Caucasian males of Manhattan and Wall Street. The show began in 1960 in a man’s world, and now its taking us kicking and screaming into the teeth of the 60’s sexual and race revolutions. Heady stuff for a show about advertising and the business world, but we’re going there and there ain’t no turning back. We shall over …um … analyze. MYNDI
