EJ
You had to know that the arrival of the newest Draper on Mad Men would not be a “very special episode” complete with wacky hijinx when Don gets trapped in an elevator. Actually, we did get some wackiness in the elevator, but by “wackiness” I mean “uncomfortable discussions about race”. And that appearance of Yeardley “Lisa Simpson” Smith caused no small amount of delight in the spunkybean offices. Also, I finally realized that Betty’s friend Francine is played by Anne Dudek, best know as Cutthroat Bitch on House.
This episode continued with the “TV theme” that’s been showing up through the season, focusing on TV as a tangible object. Pete’s ahead of his time with the idea of using advertising to target minority groups, but as ever, he can’t manage to sell the idea. And I don’t think it’s a case of Pete being too progressive – I think it’s just that he assumes that everybody else sees the dollar signs first, ahead of their own beliefs and prejudices. I did really like his interaction with Hollis in the elevator. To Pete’s credit, he didn’t come off as a bigot. Mildly condescending, but that’s pretty much par for the course with him. He talked to Hollis the way he’d talk to any focus group, and he wasn’t shy about doing it with other people in the elevator. And how great is it that Pete didn’t even get Hollis’ joke about every job having “its ups and downs”. Pete just isn’t as great a writer as he’d like to convince everybody he is.
I liked the discomfort with the racial issue – I don’t think we’ve ever seen Roger as mad as when he lit into Pete this week. It seems like people are aware that a change is coming but they would prefer not to be involved. Nobody (except Paul, of course) is going to march for Civil Rights, but they’re not burning crosses either. There’s this sense that they’re spectators to this part of history. They’re certainly risk-averse in this case – it’s not like Roger to turn down a way to make money.
Race factors into the story in a couple of other places – there’s a reference to Carla, who used to be the Draper maid. Francine Hanson actually says “I can’t believe you didn’t force her to stay”, which is kind of creepy. You could just force a person to keep cleaning your house back then? And did I miss something, or was this the first we knew that Carla left? It was good to see her stand up to Gene a couple of weeks back, and I’m sorry we won’t see more from her. But then if Duck can come back, anybody’s fair game, right? It’s also possible that she meant “stay” in the sense that she would live there full-time to help with the baby. In that case, disregard everything above, except that it’s still kind of creepy that you can force people to live at your house against their will.
The other interesting racial theme came from slain activist Medgar Evers. Sally’s teacher mentions him early on, saying that Sally’s been asking question about his murder. (Sally is taking a rather precocious interest in the news of late.) He was instrumental in desegregating the University of Mississippi. He was shot on June 12, 1963. And he’s more than a passing reference in the episode, as he’s also the dead man in the kitchen in one of Betty’s hallucinatory dreams.
It’s interesting that Betty and Sally both focus on Evers, though Betty does so unconsciously. Her mother and father are cleaning up the mess of something she heard about on the news, which is probably what Sally wants right now. Betty is alarmingly childlike in many ways, and this apparently runs all the way to her psyche. But what’s really disturbing to me is that in the dream, Gene is mopping up somebody else’s blood. I’m not going to bother with blood spatter, because this is Mad Men and not Dexter. Still, in Betty’s mind, the Evers’ blood is behind him, and her mother is blotting it up with a napkin. Gene’s mopping up blood ten feet in front of him. That’s somebody else’s blood. Is it just that she has trouble accepting the fact that her father killed people in WWII, or is there something more sinister at work? And note that Betty’s mother and Evers are not visible in the room until Gene points them out. Her idea of her father defines the reality of her dream, which makes Gene the most important figure in the dream, even moreso than Betty herself.
I think Betty’s dreams will require a closer look. Matthew Weiner wrote the greatest dream sequence ever, “The Test Dream” from Season Five of The Sopranos. That episode was basically a forty-minute dream absolutely steeped in symbolism, foreshadowing, and insights into Tony’s character, some of which were never verbalized over the course of the series. I think this is our first real dream sequence of Mad Men, and you can’t write it off as a flight of fancy. It will be significant. (Also, Weiner wrote an episode of Andy Richter Controls the Universe. That blows my mind.) Right now the important things are a fear of her father, and the idea that her psyche is not significantly different than that of her young daughter. Just listen to how Dream Gene describes his death – “I had to go away”. That’s what you’d tell a child.
When Don passes the prison guard in the hall, the guard refuses to acknowledge him. I think Don and I differ in our interpretations here, but I think the guard’s wife lost her baby. You can only see her face for a second, but it’s not the beaming of a new mother. She looks shattered. The guard himself isn’t smiling, even before he sees Don and averts his eyes.
Peggy has a couple of really good scenes this week. First is her meeting with Duck and Pete. Duck was not exactly a friend to the creative types during his tenure at Sterling-Cooper, but he’s made a wise choice with his selections here. Peggy wasn’t that plugged into the big picture when Duck was in his heyday, and Pete just wants somebody to tell him that he did a good job. I think if Peggy hadn’t been at that table, Pete would have signed on with Duck right then and there. He’s desperate to find somebody who values him. And isn’t it great to see how Pete acts whenever Peggy’s around? Pete’s still devastated that he will never know his son.
Also noteworthy is Peggy’s scene with Don, and the unspoken subtext that he now has a third child and Peggy gave up her one. I think Don believes that’s what their conversation was actually about. “What if this is my time?” He’s reading this as regrets about the baby, since he doesn’t know that Duck is in the picture. I’m not certain that Peggy knows that much about Don’s back-and-forth with Pryce, so I have to think she’s reading his attitude as dismissive. Peggy seems inclined to ascribe the worst motives to Don lately. Of course, he’s also the reason why I don’t think she’d ever take Duck on his offer. As independent as she’s becoming, Peggy still needs that security blanket. I think she’s very conscious that she would have to start over with her quest for respect at any new company. She knows that Don believes in her, and she needs to be around the person who’s keeping her secret.
Still, Duck’s in a position to do some damage. I think there are going to be more dissatisfied creative types, and a few clients who are worried about the change in management. We haven’t seen the last of him and his jaunty turtlenecks.
Is it me, or did Sally’s teacher seem a little off? When she called Don to check in, she certainly acted like she had her prey in her sights. That sounded like a Kennedy-Era booty call to me.
