Spoilers for "Mad Men" season two, episode four coming up just as soon as I call 1-800-MATTRESS..."Don't you love the chase? Sometimes it doesn't work out. Those are the stakes. But when it does work out, it's like having that first cigarette." -Roger Sterling
There's a lot of chasing and not a lot of catching in "Three Sundays," an episode that's largely about foiled expectations -- for both the characters and the viewer.
Betty's about to get spontaneous, Don-initiated sex when the kids burst in, and her pleas to get Don more involved in disciplining them go largely unanswered. Peggy's hope of finding someone she can relate to in her mother's world gets ruined when her sister Anita blabs about Peggy's "nephew." All that time and effort spent on the American Airlines pitch are wasted after Duck's contact gets fired, and to put us in the characters' heads, writers Andre and Maria Jacquemetton choose not to show us a second of the pitch we've spent so much time preparing for. (For us, seeing a vintage Don pitch is the fulfillment that Sterling Cooper would get from landing the client.)
Really, the only character who catches what he's chasing is Roger, and even there he has to literally pay for it.
Not that there were many blanks left to fill in with the story of Peggy and Pete's baby, but Peggy's budding friendship with Father Gil -- and Anita's jealousy of same -- gives us a better sense of how things went down in the Olson family. Her mother is a devout and very old-fashioned Catholic, the sort who treats the arrival of a priest in her home like she just won a contest to meet her favorite movie star (she even takes a souvenir photo), and the sort who's so strict about tradition that she feels comfortable giving Gil lip when he recites a version of Grace that matches the spirit but not the letter of the law.
Why would such a woman be so tolerant of a daughter who had done what Peggy did? Because she, like everyone in the family but Anita, believe what the shrinks must have told them after Peggy gave birth. They think Peggy had a nervous breakdown -- explaining, in their minds, both her ignorance of the pregnancy and the affair that led to it -- and so they walk on eggshells around her, just pleased when she makes a new friend who didn't know her during all the unpleasantness.
Anita, though, sees Peggy for who she really is: a girl who slept with a married (or, initially, engaged) man without thinking about the consequences, and who seems perfectly happy to use her psychiatric diagnosis as an excuse to avoid future responsibility. What Anita does to Peggy in her confession to Father Gil is awful and manipulative, but I can sympathize with her resentment. Now, in a different time, and/or a time when Peggy wasn't so naive that she didn't recognize what was happening to her body until it was too late, Peggy might have gotten an abortion or arranged to give the kid up for adoption, and it's not like she chose to have the kid placed with her sister. But it's still her son that Anita has to raise, and Peggy does her best to act like that isn't so, and if I was Anita -- the "good" sister who plays by the rules and takes responsibility for the entire family -- it'd drive me a little nuts too, you know? (Especially if I was as devout as Anita and I saw the new priest paying more attention to my wicked sister than to me.)
Father Gil's reaction to this news is interesting (and well-played by Colin Hanks). We learn fairly quickly that he's a progressive priest by 1962 standards, more worldly and more open to new ideas, and while he doesn't shun Peggy upon learning about the baby, he does seem more reserved around her in the episode's final scene. I know Hanks is going to do a few more episodes; I just hope Matt Weiner doesn't try to travel the Carmela/Father Phil route and have Peggy fall in love with her local man of the cloth. She does seem to like him, because he's a nice guy who doesn't fit the mold of either her work or family life, but I don't want to see it go further. There's paying homage to your old show, and then there's copying it wholesale.
Don doesn't get the American Airlines account, nor does he get to see Duck take any kind of punishment for dumping Mohawk on this foolish gamble. (On the other hand, I imagine that Roger and Cooper may listen more closely to Don than Duck in the next argument.) And in his frustration over that disaster, and over having to witness how quick Betty -- whom he views as the ideal mother -- has become to judge the kids as harshly as she can, he explodes. Yet it's a good explosion in the end, because it forces Don to open up to both Bobby and Betty about the son of a bitch who raised him. Neither Don nor Betty is getting what they want out of this relationship. She's angry, and lonely, and unfulfilled, and she's taking out her frustrations on the kids (especially on Bobby, whose denials about breaking things cut her just as deeply as Don's denials about his cheating). He's entered into this fake ideal of the the perfect marriage and the perfect mother, but he has little use for the kids and isn't really attracted to Betty. They both usually refuse to admit to those feelings, or to open up in any way, but for a brief moment, Don's explosion -- and sweet little Bobby showing how much he loves his daddy -- leads him to drop his guard and talk a little about his horrible childhood. If Betty knew how Don really grew up, who he really was and why he acts the way he does, they might be able to have something resembling a functional relationship. But hopefully this one moment of honesty will lead her to ease up on the kids, and maybe on Don, too. And maybe seeing what a mess Betty's reationship with the kids is will cause Don to be a little more present. This being "Mad Men," though, probably not.
As for Roger, all he wants is the chase. His wife Mona expected happily ever after that wedding day she speaks so glowingly about (to the daughter that Roger feared would never find a man), but instead she found herself married to a man with no use for the sedentary, predictable nature of that. Mona is old business, and if he had ever left her for Joan, Joan would have become old business, too.
At first, I wondered why Roger would feel the need to pay for it, as opposed to dipping into the secretarial pool, or picking up a girl in a bar, or whatever, but then I realized that it's just like him bumming a cigarette off of Ken last week. After his heart attack, Roger made a pledge to change his wicked ways, to cut out the smoking and the whoring and (some of) the drinking, but he's doing that in ways that allow him to deny his own actions. "Oh, I don't carry cigarettes around anymore; I just bummed one off of Cosgrove!" "Oh, I would never have an affair with another woman. This is a hooker! It's not real!"
Some other thoughts on "Three Sundays":
• So much wonderful, largely wordless stuff with the secretaries during the Sunday cram session, whether it was them swooning over the sight of Don bringing his little girl to the office, them gazing with frustration at having to wait their turn at the buffet, or especially them giving former secretary Peggy the stinkeye while she enjoys her dinner.• Even before his unfortunate defeat with America, Duck turns out to not be the complete villain the earlier episodes this season suggested he might be. Not only does he make sure that the gum-chewing secretary gets to keep her job (Cooper doesn't even notice that she's the one introducing the American contingent), but he shuts down the chimpunks' gripe session about Don, acknowledging that ultimately, Don is more important to the process than he is.
• In yet another time-warp moment, I love how dressy everyone gets for working on a Sunday. Don could probably be one of the more stylish people at your average 21st century office on a weekday, and you just know that Ken or somebody would show up today wearing a throwback basketball jersey and cargo shorts. (Though I suppose Pete's tennis whites were the 1962 equivalent. That boy's like school on Saturday.)• As I suspected when Melinda McGraw showed up with the regular cast for the Television Critics Association awards, it looks like Bobbie's going to be sticking around for a while. And it looks like those people who suggested last week that Don grabbing her by the "reins" was a move that she had not only invited, but enjoyed, were onto something. That is one seriously damaged woman. I look forward to Joan having to hold her tongue about Bobbie. Also, at first I assumed Bobbie refused Joan's offer to take her coat as some kind of minor power play, but then it turned out she wanted to use it to aid her in finding a way to keep things from getting dull with Don.
• Sally Draper, comedy genius: I can't decide whether the episode's funniest moment was Sally clapping wildly at the end of Don and Betty's argument, or Sally admiring Joan's "big ones" and suggesting that she'll have some too one day. (I guess if she wears a bra like her not-too-busty mother, she can look like she has big ones, too.) Question: between her junior bartending gigs and her sneaking a swig of some leftover SC booze, are they setting up Sally to have some sort of alcohol problem by the end of the series (or, at this rate, season), or is it just a sardonic commentary about how little adults in 1962 worried about kids being around liquor?
• I loved the sequence leading up to the big meeting with American, as the SC people did last-minute fixes, limbered up, etc. It was shot very much like the locker room scene that takes place before the big game in a sports movie -- which only made Duck's announcement and the episode's omission of the stillborn pitch that much more (deliberately) frustrating.
What did everybody else think?
this is a lame first comment I apologize.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm pretty sure Mrs. Sterling is being played by the same woman who played Marta Karolyi in the movie "Nadia". What an Olympic coincidence!
That was a great episode...I especially loved the editing job. There's a sequence in the middle while most everyone is at the office and Sterling is at the hotel that they had this wonderful interplay with doors opening and closing in the two sets.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Don closes his office door as, to the viewer, Roger opens the door to his hotel room in essentially the same motion.
As Alan says, this episode was all about doors of all metaphorical and literal types opening and closing with not what you expected inside.
Mrs. Sterling is played by Mrs. Slattery: Talia Balsam, and she was in "Nadia," in fact.
ReplyDeleteI loved that Betty was reading F. Scott Fitzgerald in the living room. It looks like her attraction to the man at the stables remains mental while Don continues his carnal affair with Bobbie.
ReplyDeleteThe Sally and alcohol thing...you are right, no one paid attention to the kids when they were drinking thus lots of drinking problems for boomer/post bommers.I think Don should "Dump Duck", he is a asshat that is typical office backstabber. I am with you on the Father Gil, please no repeats.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was partly the expectations lapse you set up in your first para, but this was easily my least favorite episode of the season thus far. It didn't feel as labored as some of the woeful BSG episodes of the past season, but it definitely felt off.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Don having his Eureka moment in front of the whole office ("America is the future, not the past") felt really stiff and writerly to me. The Colin Hanks preacher subplot felt, as you said, rehashed. The church program fade-ins were too cute by half. And the Betty-hating-on-Junior riff kept repeating itself rather hamhandedly, I thought.
Also, did I mishear him, or did Don really tell his son that his daddy's candy "tasted like violence"? I really hope not...that's just terrible writing.
On the plus side, I liked how Betty's now cozied up with some Fitzgerald...looks like she now has "Diamond as Big as the Ritz" on the brain.
"Violets," not "violence."
ReplyDeleteAh, thank goodness. That's much better.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a nice touch that, while she wasn't cold to Sally, it was obvious that Joan had no interest in taking this opportunity to play the mother role. It helped to illustrate why a woman who clearly could be married and living in Connecticut isn't--she's chasing a goal she doesn't really want.
ReplyDeleteMost of the characters suffer "buyer's remorse" over the white-picket ideal they've been sold. They are trapped by the decisions they've made; Joan is trapped by the decision, that on some level, she refuses to make.
M-A-T-T-R-E-S -- leave off the last S for savings.
ReplyDeleteI also love how after Don throws the robot, Sally can be seen grabbing napkins to clean up the mess.
ReplyDeleteSally Draper -- breakout star of 1962.
Two notes on Father Gill, based on 17 years of Catholic education:
ReplyDeleteFirst, he's a Jesuit, which helps explain his relatively liberal grace, etc.
Second, Colin Hanks looks exactly like a young priest circa 1962 would look; he could have stepped right out of a photo on the walls of my old high school.
kcm -
ReplyDeleteI didn't really have a problem with Don's dialogue sounding writerly, because I think that's the way he's supposed to sound. Every aspect of the personality that Don presents to the world has been carefully cultivated to match Don's idea of what a New York City ad man should be - why shouldn't the way he speaks sound similarly cultivated? I didn't find his speech about American that different-sounding from some of his more successful pitches.
I do agree that the stuff with Betty verbally abusing the kid was a bit too on the nose, though (or on the chin, I should say). They should have pulled that back a little bit.
Those are Choward's Violet Flavored Mints -- that Don's Dad liked.
ReplyDeleteSome moments I liked:
ReplyDeleteThe camera-work when they huddled together for the group picture, effectively eclipsing the dad lying on the couch.
Sally asking if the lady in the picture was Kinsey's maid.
Betty and Don maybe have a few too many drinks and forgetting to have dinner.
candy tasted like "violets" (not violence): http://www.chowardcompany.com/products.htm
ReplyDeleteSally is indeed high comedy, but for me the funniest momemt was Peggy's mom ("Are you going to say grace now?"). I seriously fell off the couch laughing.
ReplyDeleteAnd also - hey, Marguerite Moreau! No wonder she ended up with Sterling, since her priorities are NOT having sex with Coop(er).
ReplyDeleteWhen Roger asked her to dinner, I so wanted her to say she couldn't because she was late to shul.
Let's not be too sure that Don/Sterling Cooper didn't get the American Airlines account.... we never saw an actual rejection.
ReplyDeleteDon did mention changing the logo, and the logo we see on the cover of the binders prepared for their presenation is American's old logo....
Betty had a funny line, too. When she was listing Bobby's transgressions, she mentioned "the incident with the washer." Oh snap, Betty, I think that was you!
ReplyDeleteI feel gypped. Nothing really shocking this week (as was intimated by the Mayor of TV). I guess the emotional fireworks within the Draper family *had* to come out sooner or later, so the childish explosions from everyone didn't bother me that much.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, how in the hell could Don get away with having two kids, but never having a serious conversation about corporal punishment and why he doesn't believe in it? Maybe in these new-fangled times I think parents would get that out of the way even before a pregnancy begins, but that lack of disclosure even for Don seemed neglectful. It shouldn't have to take him destroying his son's toy and pushing his wife to actually say that the hitting he received only damaged him.
As for the prep scenes for AA, they seemed hectic, confusing, unconnected in a way we hadn't previously seen. Was it because they were doing so thorough a brand change (from soap to stewardesses to china) that things seemed all over the place? Dunno.
As for Peggy, the beans spilled by her bitch of a sister were to me as shocking as last week's fingerbanging, but with a possible positive outcome -- this family is overwhelmed by Peggy's illness/selfishness, and shit will explode, and most likely damage that precious boy, if someone doesn't step in and start getting Peggy to be real about what happened. If it takes Father Gil to do this, mazeltov.
"As for the prep scenes for AA, they seemed hectic, confusing, unconnected in a way we hadn't previously seen. Was it because they were doing so thorough a brand change (from soap to stewardesses to china) that things seemed all over the place?"
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how long it takes to put together the size pitch they were making, but they thought they had a few extra weeks to do it until the meeting got rescheduled. So they were scrambling to get it all done in a lot less time than they originally planned.
M-A-T-T-R-E-S -- leave off the last S for savings.
ReplyDeleteAlan's a big spender. I can hear him now: "Screw the savings- throw that S back on! In fact, S's for everybody! On me!"
And if anyone was a fan of the GQ take of the ladies of Battlestar Galactica, Barbarella stylee, take a gander at the men of MAD MEN -- with Playboy Bunnies of the old skool:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.playboyonline.com/style/fashion/mad-men/index.html
Danged tasty, my friends, danged tasty.
Was that a Perry Como song that Don and Betty were dancing to? Blue Room?
ReplyDeleteA few quick thoughts:
ReplyDeleteRoger's ode to his love of the chase and his poor wife's description of her wedding day -- the happiest day of her life -- showed how truly well these two are matched. It's all about the getting, not the having.
Although Duck did show himself to be a mensch with the secretary who gummed up Cooper's sock, I didn't think his "he's gotta pick the fruit" line regarding Don was particularly noble. Seemed more like a preemptive CYA maneuver to my ears. (Except of course, he didn't even manage to pull the damn branch down.)
My absolutely favorite little detail: Mrs. Olsen overcooked the chicken. One more dried out bird at the table. Beautiful.
I didn't mind the Colin Hanks storyline but I never watched the Sopranos. I think a friendship between Peggy and the priest would be interesting, a love interest overkill.
ReplyDeleteI hate the Bobbie Barrett storyline. It doesn't seem realistic that the wife/manager of some fairly famous star would be throwing herself aggressively at the creative director of a third-rate ad agency or that said agency would have a comedian under an exclusive tv contract.
I was a priest for almost 20 years, and I was taken aback at how Fr. Gill made use of the knowledge he received under the seal of confession. Anything you learn cannot be divulged, even tacitly, under pain of excommunication. A 1962 SJ would have been exquisitely aware of that (of course, if that's what Father's handing the egg to Peggy meant at the end).
ReplyDeleteI assumed Don was talking about SEN-SEN, a violet flavored breath cleaner for every drunk in the family.
ReplyDeleteAnd did anyone else notice that the swing set used for the hotel room was the same as Don and Betty's bedroom? Nothing other than a production note--the Sterling Cooper set is huge and elaborate, so the use of swings for scenes like this is a budgetary natural. Note also that almost all doors open off camera, obviating the need for back walls--another smart use of money.
Does anyone else think that Peggy's going to have Don's job by 1970--either at SC, or a competing agency--maybe with Sal as her art director? Mary Wells, anyone?
Dave -- I wondered if anyone else would comment on Father Gill's having broken the seal of confession. I think that was a rare case of MM's writers getting it wrong.
ReplyDeleteHoward -- My grandfather used to chew Sen-Sen. Licorice, not violet. (There's a call-out to Sen-Sen in "Trouble," from "The Music Man.")
Finally, a tiny, tiny quibble about a show that spends SO much time perfecting the details. Except for Easter Sunday, we didn't see Peggy's kid once; where are they keeping him? I don't for one minute believe those women would have hired a babysitter to take care of him while Peggy's sister was at dinner at Mom's house. The kid would have been there with them. It's exactly the way they treat the Drapers' Golden Retriever: we've seen the dog exactly twice, when he was needed for a plot line. If you're gonna give them a dog, give them a dog. Or don't give them a dog.
I do adore this show; just needed to get that off my chest. I feel better now.
to Howard Chaykin:
ReplyDeleteWhat is a swing set?
Was the young child at the very end Peggy’s? If so, that was an incredibly poignant shot- the little kid struggling to walk in his easter clothes reaches for an egg, only to have it snatched away by an older child. All the while Peggy looks on, too scared or numb to comfort her own son. I was hoping to see Peggy give the kid the egg Fr. Gill handed her, just like I was hoping Don would finally give his kids a hug, or show them some kind of attention or love.
ReplyDeleteTook me a second to get that "Wet Hot American Summer" reference, eires32.
ReplyDeleteRe: Peggy's baby - I think that the uncle was watching it while using his bad back as a pretext to not go to mass. The baby is also young enough (approx. 16 mos.) that he wouldn't be eating dinner at the table with the other kids.
As to Peggy's home - does she live in Bay Ridge or does her family? That church is in Kensington (a couple neighborhoods north of Bay Ridge) and that family definitely would have gone to OLPH (although Holy Innocents does give the writers a nice subtext regarding her kid.) And the reference to the 4th Ave. BMT (now the R train) - would she be going south to Bay Ridge or north to Park Slope,Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill?
I'm holding my breath hoping that they don't go down the "Fr. Phil" road! I'm worried, though...c'mon...Fr Gil, Fr Phil...seems like they aren't even trying!
ReplyDeleteThat being said...I LOVED the scene in the Board Room when they got the news...loved the Good Friday parallels...even the Last Supper shot of Cooper sitting at the table and all of them around him!
...completely bored with Bobbie Barrett...hope she goes away SOON
Didn't Peggy's dad mention that he was watching the child when he was introduced to Fr. Gil?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteDidn't Peggy's dad mention that he was watching the child when he was introduced to Fr. Gil?
Yes, I believe so. That's Peggy's brother-in-law, by the way, Anita's husband.
Definitely not Sen-Sen, although I know what you're talking about. As soon as he said candy that tasted like violets, my ears perked up; when he described that purple and silver packaging I grinned out loud: I was addicted to those things in high school (mid-'70s). They were bizarre; they didn't so much taste like violets as they tasted like violet perfume. Definitely an acquired taste.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an excellent episode. Although it may perhaps have been a touch heavy-handed, I liked Don's announcement of the new approach for American Airlines (who better to understand the desire to put unpleasant things in the past and concentrate on the future?), and I liked the utter bewilderment with which it was greeted by his creative staff.
I liked the Peggy/Father Gill/Anita storyline: especially Anita's combination of dismay and confusion when she learned that Peggy had helped Gill with his sermon: not just jealousy, I thought, but a total lack of understanding of what it is her sister even does. I was also curious, when the Olson family told Gill that Peggy was sick--but she was at work--whether that's what Peggy told them, or whether that's what they felt they needed to tell the priest.
I gasped out loud when Don shoved Betty, but thought it was perfect--she has been pushing, pushing, pushing and he finally pushed back. A big move for him, actually, since her years of pushing previously only pushed him away. The scene with Bobby was lovely: the strange, disconnected questions that children ask, and how they sunk down to tap Don on what's left of his soul.
I thought it was genius that they showed the prep and the aftermath but not the pitch--what did it really matter, in the end? How much was it ever, really going to be about their pitch; Duck made it pretty clear when he walked in the door to tell them about Shel's firing that that connection was their only real shot.
On Peggy's baby: I assumed that the toddler in the blue suit was hers. They caught the perfect shot of him, teetering uncertainly in that way that kids just learning to walk have. But she left him to teeter, and she kept the blue egg that matched his suit while he got robbed by another kid. That kid is going ot have a tough life. His birth mother won't care about him and his supposed mother is going to resent him.
He can go to the same therapist Sally Draper finds for her incipient drinking problem.
I didn't think that Father Gill was necessarily brushing Peggy back, by the way. I thought, that by giving her the egg, it was his way to try to remind her or her maternal responsibilities.
So is it a safe assumption that if they're pitching a real company they won't get the account? Do they only have fictional clients? I remember the Kodak Carousel pitch but I can't recall if they actually landed the account. And I don't think I've heard Kodak mentioned since.
ReplyDeleteDon's idea for the pitch was classic-Draper: we're going to forget our past and just move on as if it never happened.
ReplyDeleteSo is it a safe assumption that if they're pitching a real company they won't get the account? Do they only have fictional clients?
ReplyDeleteVirtually all their clients are real, though many are companies that no longer exist in 2008 (like Mohawk). And they landed the Kodak account.
When the crew was putting together their multi-media program for the new AA, I had to ask my boyfriend about the "menu in French" and the china patterns Peggy asks Don about. He then reminded me that these were the days when airlines served meals on china, and didn't treat their passengers like cattle in a chute. I had no idea!
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I definitely teared up when bobby told don "we have to find you a new daddy". (or something to that effect).
ReplyDeleteWhile the whole scene was emotional, it's definitely something we've seen before, but that line just threw me for a loop, and into a crying jag.
Did Don notice Sally's empty liquor glass? I couldn't be sure.
My respect, and enjoyment of this show has taken a noise dive with this episode.
ReplyDeleteSo the upshot of Don's sexual assault on Bobbie is.....nothing. Not even a mention.
As more than one person pointed out here last week, the resolution of that moment would tell us a lot about the writers & producers of this show, and what they are trying to accomplish.
Apparently, they believe that if you assault a woman, she likes it so much she shows up the next week looking for more.
Weiner wasn't trying to snow us how low Don would go, or paint him as a msyoginst. He wasn't trying to tell us something about the 60s and how men treating women then. He just wanted to shock us. Having done that, he's simply moved on, as if nothing happened.
I thought this show was better, more serious, and had more depth that that. I guess not.
s to Peggy's home - does she live in Bay Ridge or does her family? That church is in Kensington (a couple neighborhoods north of Bay Ridge) and that family definitely would have gone to OLPH (although Holy Innocents does give the writers a nice subtext regarding her kid.) And the reference to the 4th Ave. BMT (now the R train) - would she be going south to Bay Ridge or north to Park Slope,Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill?
ReplyDeleteIt was established last year that Peggy and her roommate live in the Slope and that Peggy grew up in Bay Ridge, presumably in the house where her mom still lives. Anita's neighborhood has not been specified, I don't think, so there's no reason we can't assume she lives in Kensington (unless there was a line I missed about her living just around the corner/down the block/etc) from mom. Regardless of whether they were in Kensington or BR, Peggy would have been taking the BMT north to the Slope.
Did Don notice Sally's empty liquor glass? I couldn't be sure.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure he did. I think his comment afterwards to Joan of "Thanks for babysitting" was sarcastic.
jeff_i
ReplyDeleteI, too, was shocked at don's assault on Bobbi; it was an ugly thing to watch; but I'm curious: are you also offended by her assault on him in the car during the hailstorm, after he clearly, firmly, and repeatedly, tells her to stop?
Thanks Alan. I didn't realize that Mohawk was a real airline. So is there resentment from the people that really created the ad campaigns that these companies used? And, when SC creates an ad campaign, are we seeing the campaign that really ran back in the day or is something original that the show created?
ReplyDeleteI think Peggy's mother is easy on her not just because of the psych evaluation, but also because in her she sort of sees someone who can go and do more in the world, and she's living vicariously through her daughter in a way. Anita is jealous of this as well, that for her, getting married and raising kids was the expectation... times have changed and Anita wishes that she had been born later (both for the new opportunities for women and to be closer in age to flirt with Father Gill).
ReplyDeleteOf course, having to raise Peggy's child for her while she's moving on in the world alone is enough to spur such resentment.
Also: The violet candy in question is Choward's Violet Candy.
I agree with the above about Peggy vs. Anita. Anita cringes every time the mother says that Peggy is such a lovely girl. There's also resentment for not being the "pretty sister".
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with your assessment of Peggy's relationship with her family. While I sympathize with Anita's anger, she does not "see her for what she really is." Nor do I think her mother and other family members are on eggshells around her. Her mother recognizes it was a slip up, that getting pregnant was a slip up that Peggy did not know how to handle, and while she is not taking responsibility for it, she is not shirking it off completely. Peggy is not really rejecting her place in her family. She bites her tongue when Anita bates her, and she does try and appease her mother by attending mass, if not practicing Catholicism. And was I the only one who thought she needed air because of the sermon's subject matter, instead/ or at least as well as, a hangover? That was a very dour anti-flesh talk.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely hard for Peggy to hear the Passion Sunday sermon, but that's certainly magnified by her hangover. The discussion of "sins of the flesh" were one thing, but it wasn't until the reverend started in on the "cross you have to bear," that the weight of said cross got a little too heavy.
ReplyDeletetomok97 said...
ReplyDeleteThanks Alan. I didn't realize that Mohawk was a real airline.
The first airplane I was ever on was a Mohawk flight from LaGuardia (or possibly White Plains) to Plattsburgh! Not that this has anything to do with Mad Men..
Like most of the episodes, I'm not sure how much I like them until a day or two passes. Kind of like real life, the realization of the significance of what happened occurs retrospectively. There were a few minor clunky parts in this one to be sure, but there were so many intriguing little hooks.
ReplyDeleteBetty was reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited". Remember the Babylon theme from Season 1? Is this just amusing to the writers, or do we need to pay more attention to that episode? (Bing Crosby was the crooner in that scene in the Draper living room)
What did Joan mean about Sally earning more than anyone that Sunday? I found that to be a very odd thing to say.
And why does Ken always seem to be every client's pimp? It appears to be most of his job. I guess that explains why he's paid more than the others?
I thought it was Chet Baker crooning in the Don/Betty dancing scene.
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get the nickname "chipmunks" for the younger guys in S-C? Was that mentioned in an episode and I missed it? If you came up with it, what's it mean? I might just be showing off my occasionally dense head but I can't for the life of me place it.
Chris, I came up with it, but only in the sense that I borrowed it from the late (and fairly loathsome) Dick Young. Young was the dean of New York sportswriting for a long time, and he used "chipmunks" to refer to the young up-and-comers in the '60s who didn't do the job the way he did. Just seemed to fit Ken and company for some reason, and it saves me from having to refer to them all by name whenever I'm discussing a gaggle of them.
ReplyDeleteThe book is "Babylon Revisited: and Other Stories" which contains
ReplyDelete"Diamond as Big as the Ritz"
Dave - as a lapsed Catholic myself, I was shocked to see Fr. Gill apparently break the seal of confession - but did he really? All he did was give her an egg for her "nephew" - the "little one" in the family. Like so many of the plot lines, we don't necessarily get all the backstory, and certainly there must have been some talk around the parish when this kid turned up - certainly Anita was never pregnant and people would have known that. Although I doubt the family blabbed that he was Peggy's love child (and do we even have a name for him?), they could have easily claimed he was adopted. Either way (whether they claim he's Anita's or not), the priest could be seen as simply offering an egg for a young child - in fact, I thought Peggy's reaction was partly because she did not know how much he knew/had figured out.
ReplyDeleteApparently, they believe that if you assault a woman, she likes it so much she shows up the next week looking for more.
My take on that was if you assault Bobbi, she likes it so much she shows up next week looking for more. Bobbi is very unlike most of the women in the show - in fact, we don't really know if she is Jimmy's wife, manager, sister or some weird combination of all three. My own take on her character, and her interactions with Don, is that she is a living representation of everything he is trying to repress - like the anger at Betty at the end. He responded as he did at Lutece because he thought, rightly, it was the only way to get what he wanted and she would respond to it, but he's also disgusted and fearful of that part of himself.
I have a feeling we have not seen the last of the repurcussions from the assault on Bobbi.
Sounds like Perry Como singing Blue Room. Musical 'Words And Music'.
ReplyDeleteAlright people, I'm putting this one to bed.
ReplyDeleteIt was Bing Crosby that was on the turntable for Don and Betty.
Due to kids and dogs and tinnitus, I watch the show with the closed captioning on.
They usually name the artist and song for the background music in closed captioning, which they did here.
--bad dad
Official Mad Men listing has it as Perry Como, which is what I had assumed.
ReplyDeleteDon's comment that "his voice sounds like Christmas" should've been enough of a clue ;)
the song title is "Blue Room," by the way
ReplyDeleteJana,
ReplyDeleteA swing set is a set that is not a permanent set on the stage where a TV show is shot. On many TV shows, you usually have the regular permanent set (say the two apartments in Friends and the coffee shop) and then usually two swing sets each episode (that swing in and out during the night of shooting.) They need certain permanent sets to keep costs down.
And I wonder if the Howard Chaykin who wrote in is the famous comic book writer/artist? If so, thanks for "American Flagg!"
So I have to say this is the first time I've been bored watching Mad Men.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of friends who have complained about the pacing before and I always disagreed, saying that I could just watch these characters talk all day about any topic and I'd be happy. I guess I was wrong!
This episode was just dull. Certainly my least favorite of the series so far (and last week's wasn't so hot either.)
Worst. Episode. Ever.
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting juxtaposition from viewing the show On Demand again. (It's the only way I can see the show in HD.)
ReplyDeleteThis week, there was one commercial inserted into the middle, the first ad break in an on-demand episode to date. Right after Roger initiates his tryst with the call girl, we get a :30 spot for...viagra!
It was the biggest laugh of the hour for me.
I really liked this episode - surprised anyone found it boring.
ReplyDeleteIn amc.com's episode 4 recap (http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/episode204), they say the song is sung by Bing Crosby: "Later, holding cocktails mixed by Sally, Don and Betty slow dance to a Bing Crosby ballad."
ReplyDeleteAs for his voice sounding like Christmas, all of the crooners had Christmas albums, but Bing starred in "White Christmas," and his recording of the song of the same name has always been the definitive one for me.
After Betty's comment, during family drunken frolics, about hating her feet and Don's comparing them to boats or skis, I was expecting that Sally's reference to "big ones" that her mother had was going to turn out to be feet, not breasts. Since she was drawing, I really expected a brief shot, showing us that she was drawing feet, leaving us in the know, and Joan still thinking she meant breasts. I wonder if that was originally intended, then cut, or maybe just my imagination.
ReplyDeleteI also wondered if Sally would turn out to be the one who broke the stereo.
Then again, in the first season, I expected there to be a physiological explanation for Betty's shaking hands, and that the diagnosis of nerves was just typical of how doctors saw women at the time.
The music supervisor, Alexandra Patravas, submits a list of music for each episode to this space. It, again, lists it as the song "Blue Room" by Perry Como.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to Como's version, which if you play along with the scene provides secondary confirmation (if word from the music supervisor isn't enough).
To be fair, Como fashioned his voice after Crosby, so he sounds a lot like him, so it's a common mistake that a close caption writer or a recap writer might easily make. But again, the word from the music supervisor is that it's Perry Como (singing "Blue Room").
loved this episode!!! best of the season so far.
ReplyDeletebesides the priest storyline the shot of don and betty in bed with the camera staring down at them was also a classic Sopranos shot.
I don't understand why everyone refers to the scene where Don grabs the wife/manager's hair as an "assault".
ReplyDeleteIt's clearly a sexual power play or dominance/submissive type of thing. And she responded.
Don't be so prudish.
I don't understand why everyone refers to the scene where Don grabs the wife/manager's hair as an "assault".
ReplyDeleteYou might rewatch that scene and look at what Don's other hand is doing.
I am trying to reserve judgment on both that moment and the entire Don-Bobbie storyline until it plays out fully, but right now I am skeptical.
Otherwise, I thought it was a stellar episode. Sally Draper is hysterical.
I just started playing around with Shazam, an iPhone app that can ID songs being played in a store/on the radio/over the credits of a TV show with an accuracy that, so far, is pretty astonishing. It'll be fun to see what sort of effect it has on these "what was that song?/who sang it?" debates in the future...
ReplyDeleteDrake,
ReplyDeleteI acquiesce. Closed captioning can always be wrong. Just go watch Dr. Horrible over at hulu with the captioning on, especially during Penny's death scene.
"Captain Hammer would say that" instead of "Captain Hammer will save us", "Arise and see" instead of "Arise and sing", etc.
--bad dad
So the upshot of Don's sexual assault on Bobbie is.....nothing. Not even a mention.
ReplyDeleteAs more than one person pointed out here last week, the resolution of that moment would tell us a lot about the writers & producers of this show, and what they are trying to accomplish.
Apparently, they believe that if you assault a woman, she likes it so much she shows up the next week looking for more.
I'd say that the TPTB were establishing Bobbi's character, not saying that every other woman on Mad Men, or in real life, would think nothing of what Don did in the restaurant. Character behavior doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what the show runners believe. Everyone on this show is morally or ethically compromised in some way.
Not talking about what happened in the car and in the restaurant was much more effective than listening to the two of them blab on about it, not that either one of them would have talked about it. I think not talking about it was the point. These two people interact with each other in this particular way. They understand each other, and probably anything short of murder is going to be OK.
Every viewer has a line that can't be crossed, though. I stopped watching Rescue Me after Tommy raped (or didn't rape) his ex-wife. It wasn't because I thought it was rape, because I didn't. My displeasure with the show had been a long time coming, because the show had taken such a nosedive, both in general quality and character development. Too many characters went from being complicated and interesting to reprehensible with no redeeming value. And it became about which woman Tommy was having sex with this week. (I wasn't morally outraged. I was bored.) The scene between Tommy and Janet was the last straw. These were two people who were so sick and twisted I didn't want to watch them anymore. Why I haven't had the same reaction to the Don/Bobbi dynamic, I'm not sure. Maybe it's because the show is still so great, and I still care about Don.
That said, I'm not interested in seeing this storyline continue. It's a little too icky for me. And the mere presence of Bobbi makes me roll my eyes.
Sure, Bobbi's icky. in this story, that's her job.
ReplyDeleteBobbi doesn't have second-wave feminism or civil rights laws or even a working model of human decency on her side. She knows what's right and wrong, but her job is skating along that definition, for profit. She manages an offensive man, and gets her kicks dealing with the squares in the suits, bringing them down to her level. (What else is a derivative show of "Candid Camera" with a human Triumph the Insult Comic Dog but a forerunner of the reality shows we have now?)
Hate to say it, but Bobbi and Jimmy are *us* -- Madonna without the bullet bra as outerwear, Steve-O without the filmed genital punishment. They are the *now* zeitgeist we were glad to get away from by diving into the cool water of MAD MEN.
We mistook Bobbi for a woman of her time, when in fact she's a woman of ours. I'm thinking of Ariel Levy's "Female Chauvinist Pigs", where post-feminism is defined as a renewed tolerance for the behavior MAD MEN's men exhibit. Ask any Girl Gone Wild whether she'd tolerate Don's behavior; she would, if it were photographed and she got a cut of the royalities.
Was it me, or did Peggy get her own "back of the head" shot?
ReplyDeleteAs has happened with Don a few times, and with Pete in Flight 1, there was a shot at the end of "Three Sundays" that framed the back of Peggy's head, if only for a moment. It was just after Fr. Gill gave her the blue egg.
If Sally doesn't have some substance abuse problems down the road, I'll eat my Easter hat.
The attacks on Bobby (the child, that is) were so sad. And that "We have to find you a new daddy" line completely got to me.
I agree that the Bobbie Barrett storyline shows a coarse side of Don that's unattractive (I don't think the show is saying anything about women in general and what they will or won't tolerate via the Bobbie-Don scene in The Benefactor. I think the show was establishing in that scene that Bobbie is a sick puppy, Don read her correctly and used that information to solve a problem - for the moment).
But what if the point of the show is to illustrate Don's decline and fall? Maybe we'll eventually see the Don of Season 1 as being at the apex of wealth, influence, security, etc. What if, over time, we're going to be shown how the disconnect between him and his past and his emotions will be his eventual undoing?
I can see a Don of Season 5 or 6 as being less wealthy, unmarried, umoored from financial success but perhaps more in touch with who he really is.
Or not. Maybe he'll just be living in a van down by the river. With sideburns.
My random comments about this episode:
ReplyDelete1) In my opinion, this is one of the best episodes of the show. I guess I was always the guy who liked the 'slice of life' episodes of 'The Sopranos' over the move the story along ones, as well; this episode reminded me a bit of the Lake House final season opener of that show. Clearly, Weiner is hanging in the same neighborhood of the human condition as his earlier show. Tim Hunter is great at directing stuff like this, little bland aspects of a much larger disease within society. See his movie The River's Edge for a similar worldview.
2) Mad Men is excellent at hiding the motives behind the behavior of its characters, shading them in a veil of ambiguity. We can guess what people are trying to achieve on this show, but it very often proves us wrong. I still don't know if Father Gil had any other attraction to Peggy beside an intellectual one, but his behavior towards her at the end went from peer to paternal (as it should be for a Catholic priest anyway). Is Don honest about the abuse he took as a kid, or is his disconnection from the paternal role a much larger indication of his desire to play act at being Don Draper, Family Man? Does Peggy get off on the jealousy of the secretaries, or is really in her own world as they stew over her exalted place in the Sterling Cooper hierarchy (a microcosm of her relationship with her 'child')? It's ambiguous, and it's why I can't stop thinking about the episodes days after viewing them.
3)I'm not sure why everyone is so wound up about Don's 'assualt' of Bobbi last week. They were already screwing, and he clearly realized that the only way to reach this woman was by domination; passive Dick Whitman had to become aggressive Don Draper to accomplish his goal. Bobbi's a twisted woman, and she's kind of nauseating; I'm glad she's more than a one-shot. Last years major affair, Rachel, was far too normal for Don, and it's a nice change this season to see someone even more screwed up than Don is.
4) Father Gil did nothing to violate the secrecy of the confessional. He may have given off a subtle 'tell' with the egg gesture, but I think he was just being human by doing so. He didn't say, "for your illegitimate baby" or "Get thee to a nunnery, tramp". Information changes a person, no matter how hard they try to leave it behind, and I think Father Gil is a young man who is possibly struggling with his place in the church just prior to Vatican II.
5) There are episodes where I want to hate Don Draper, but the conversation with his little boy almost drove me to tears. So much of this episode was about parenting - Roger, Don, Peggy, and even Joan (as surrogate to budding lush Sally). I don't think anyone's doing a good job of it.
6) I hate watching this show on Sunday night - the week wait is killing me!!!
Wow, you guys all have amazing insights, comparisons and info that I never would have put together, thanks!
ReplyDeleteBut I will add that I think Bobbi was perhaps more of a set-up for Don. He needed another female to bounce off and he always goes for the non traditional types. He finally pushed her back at the restaurant and now this week he pushes Betty back when she tries it.
And while Bobbie may have some problems (choosing a guy like that dork as your boyfriend/client doesn't say much), she is a woman who is forced to pretend and manipulate and somehow get respect as both a female and a businessperson all the time.
Maybe she's hungry for a man who actually can take the reins without being an @sshole? Who won't walk all over her at a glimpse of weakness? I can personally tell you that a LOT of women saw Don grab her neck and said "oooooh yeah!"
A Jesuit weighs in on the Father Gill situation. Wrong cassock, this priest says:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/6b2qva
He also is dismayed at Fr. Gill apparently breaking the seal of confession, though as one of the Jesuit blogger's commenters points out, Peggy does not know that the priest knows about her son. She had just been watching the area where the littlest "nephew" had been unsuccessfully trying to get an egg (yet another thwarted goal).
Agreed that its a grey area at best for the priest, but him saying that didn't shock me (in the break-the-confessional-seal sense), though I was raised Catholic. Maybe he's subtly trying to get her to open up about her "sin" so as to eventually repent or whatever?
Talk about traditionalists. My sister and I always had nicknames for the priests at our church, and one guy was derisively called "Father Ad Lib" because he'd go off the text a few times during Mass. We were pretty unforgiving about that stuff back in the day.
Mo,
ReplyDeleteI think the winding-up happened because we don't see things like that on broadcast TV, not even often on basic cable. On FX, yes, once in a while, but those shows air in the later broadcast hours, on shows known for their vulgarity and sensationalism. This is the nice sedate, complicated show we want to wear vintage clothes to watch.
Such fingerwork on *this* show shattered the illusion that the smart set a geberation ago could have watched MM on a mythical proto-cable network in the 60s, along with a TCM supported by an intact studio system and a smattering of arts events from the newfangled performing arts centers seeded by the NEA, broadcast by an unmolested Public Broadcasting System. Don's realistic crudity brings us to now; that act was shocking to us now, and to people back then. It woke us up.
A lot of the tension in MM is how acts are shocking to us in our enlightened age, but not shocking to the earlier generations of businessmen. Bobbie's violation of Don, and his retaliation, were different. The only analogies I can reach for is seeing the same violation onstage in Shakespeare in the Park (for a Troilus and Cressida with a Gulf War I motif) or the broomhandle rape in the 70s broadcast BORN INNOCENT. It's not that such acts were rare, in a chauvinist age; it's that we rarely see them dramatized with characters we care about.
I kind of like to look at the episode as one big Easter egg hunt that everyone is on. Since the egg (especially a blue egg) is a symbol for 'new beginnings,' it works on multiple levels. There are a lot of metaphorical eggs throughout the episode.
ReplyDeletecgeye...I didn't mean to leave the impression that I was shocked by what Don did to Bobbie. Certainly it was out of the norm for then or now, but as usual with this show, a character did something that surprised me but also made a certain amount of sense.
ReplyDeleteDid I say something about some winding-up process on MM? Sorry, I'm feeling kind of not with-it today -- sinus infection. Feel like I'm half asleep most of the time...
I agree with this: "It's not that such acts were rare, in a chauvinist age; it's that we rarely see them dramatized with characters we care about."
It reminds me of what they used to do everyone once in a while with Tony Soprano -- remind you that he could be a brutal murderer...not that Don is, but I think Matt Weiner doesn't ever want us to forget that there are parts of this guy that are really dark and damaged...
Mo,
ReplyDelete"winding-up = the break in faith some viewers feel regarding Weiner's storytelling, due to an act they interpret as sexual assault. You didn't say it; those really not liking or trusting Don felt that, because of his use of sex to distract Bobbie from her contract demand.
Maybe some viewers really thought the verbal violence Don and other men engaged in was just that -- verbal only. The slurs and insults against women were non-trivial, always. One of the reasons we have sexual harassment laws now is that one person or a group of people can bully an employee through use of sexual terms; words have always mattered, and serve as indicators of future conduct. Are we so wrapped up in First Amendment lingo that we forget what that means on the macro level?
It's just that MAD MEN, for a time, gave us the illusion of safety that if we could pride ourselves in taking the coarser talk of today in stride, we'd be able to handle ourselves in that 60s environment despite the systemic poisonous chauvinism that debilitated the women trying to fight it. At least that's my theory of why Don's fingering meant more to viewers this season than his "You’ll realize in your personal life that at a certain point seduction is over and force is actually being requested", last season.
Peggy Olsen didn't stamp out her awareness of a big, full-term pregnancy by *herself*, folks. She had a lot of help from the co-workers, family members and doctors eager to condemn her as a whore. Face it, her sister was being polite to Father Gil, compared to what she probably said once the family found about Peggy's involuntary hospitalization, her new baby, and the family decision that forced her to care for one more child. A grandma tending to a baby from her crack-ho daughter would be less incensed and more compassionate, considering the moral context Peggy's family live under, being all priest-correcting and such.
Sorry for the length of the post. Just didn't want you to think you misstated anything. *I* was shocked by what Don did to Bobbie, but I was even more shocked that basic cable showed it. It's like the era of STEAMBATH and PBS dramatic rawness in the 70s is getting another generation of play....
Oh I see, yeah, agreed. I remember some stuff that shocked me in Brideshead Revisited when that first aired.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, the show dwells on all these inequalities and these kinds of verbal violence. What Don did was on that continuum. Not sure if I said it here or elsewhere, but I'm guessing we'll see Don do worse (or find out he has done worse) at some point.
"I think Peggy's mother is easy on her not just because of the psych evaluation, but also because in her she sort of sees someone who can go and do more in the world, and she's living vicariously through her daughter in a way."
ReplyDeleteI prefer this interpretation too. You could tell she was proud of Peggy the way she boasted about Peggy's job as an advertiser to Father Hanks at the first lunch.
@cgeye:
ReplyDeleteIt's just that MAD MEN, for a time, gave us the illusion of safety...
I think Weiner would be shocked to learn he had provided you with such an illusion, and relieved to hear he'd broken it.
My take is that Mad Men wants us to recognize that the early '60s weren't a golden age, and our era isn't either. All the effort that goes into costumes and set design is to make the look of the show feel as genuine as possible, so that the storytelling can surprise you by being real in a way that movies and TV of the era never were.
Which isn't to say a showrunner should break faith with his viewers. Well, not unless he's a genius like David Chase...
OK, now for something from the 'no insight - just observation' side of the room. I thought it was great that Coop wore a golfing outfit right off of the Rudy Valee character in the "How to Succeeed in Business..." movie. Maybe later we will see him knitting??
ReplyDelete@sr:
ReplyDeleteI didn't share that illusion, just trying to explain the possible mindset of those who called me an apologist for sexual assault.
I love the look on Betty's face after Don pushes her back. She's had the upper hand for a while, but when he pushes her back she realizes that it's just an illusion and I think she becomes genuinely afraid of the violence she is actually trying to unleash. I don't think it occurred to her that if Don let's out the beast to punish his children, it could punish her as well. I had to watch the scene several times but I finally understood what he said to her before she pushed him, that he would push her out the window if he were to fully let his emotions out. There are times when Don is just despicable, but the following scene with Bobby is so endearing, you can't help but feel sympathetic towards him and want him to rise above his shortcomings.
ReplyDeleteI forgot that I wanted to add that I have a feeling that Peggy's older sister has been in second place ever since Peggy was born. I'm sure that given their age differences, she probably was a third parent to Peggy as well. Her confession was selfish. I bet she's been jealous of Peggy her entire life and now that she has something to use against her, she will.
ReplyDeleteI think if Don could let himself be Dick more often, he'd probably be a happier guy and a better father and husband (or at least, a better husband to someone else he's more compatible with). Problem is that his job requires him to be a dick, not just Dick (compare how fast Don has risen in that world vs. nice-guy Harry).
ReplyDelete@ Jeff L: Apparently, they believe that if you assault a woman, she likes it so much she shows up the next week looking for more.
ReplyDeleteIt is always interesting to me when people believe that because a protagonist does something that the writers/directors must "approve" of it.
I wonder if Mad Men is subjected to this criticism because it is a period show. It often seems like people try to interpret characters on Mad Men as archetypes for an entire era rather than stand alone individuals.
I also wonder if it is because Don Draper is charismatic and the show's putative hero, that people have a hard time when the writers introduce darker shades to his character.
Its impossible not to draw Mad Men and Sopranos parallels; there seems to be a similarity in the way in which people glamorize Don or Tony and are then shocked when they perform immoral acts.
"And while Bobbie may have some problems (choosing a guy like that dork as your boyfriend/client doesn't say much), she is a woman who is forced to pretend and manipulate and somehow get respect as both a female and a businessperson all the time."
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, Rachel Menken never had to resort to Bobbie's methods as a business person. As much as I admire Bobbie for her business savy, I don't always admire her methods. In regard to what happened in "The Benefactor", both she and Don went too far. And now it looks as if the pair might end up in a rather twisted love affair.
"If Sally doesn't have some substance abuse problems down the road, I'll eat my Easter hat."
ReplyDeleteThe older members of my family used to allow me the occasional sips of beer when I was a kid. Yet, I never became a drinker (or smoker) when I grew up.
I have to concur with juanita's journal on the Sally front.
ReplyDeleteI was surrounded by alcohol growing up and was even educated like Sally to get my father drinks early on -- scotch & soda during economic boom, generic beer during recession. At that age, alcohol tasted awful, and as a result I found myself abstaining from alcohol until I was 21. It might have also been a sort of reverse form of rebellion.
I just realized that Anita's frustration and confession to the priest parallels Peggy's frustration last season when she complained to Don that her locker had been broken into and innocent scapegoats fired. Both complained to father figures that "being good" and "following the rules" led to no reward while no consequences were realized by the "sinners." Maybe Peggy and Anita are more alike than we think?
ReplyDeleteWow La!
ReplyDeleteThis morning I had the EXACT same epiphany and came here to post it even though I figured no one was still commenting!!
It popped into my head and I almost slapped my forehead with a "DUH".
I hope they explore more of how despite their different life paths the Olsen girls have a lot of the same morals and feelings.
Amy - GMTA, and I love how this show sticks with us through the week.
ReplyDeleteI don't stop reading the comments for Mad Men posts until a new episode airs.
It will be interesting to see where they are taking us with the Olson sisters!
I predict that Don and his band of Mad Men will get the airline account. They think they won't get it but, you heard it hear first, they will. In the scene where they're setting up for the pitch, one of the print boards showed a picture of a plane in the air and the line "This is American Airlines". Wasn't that a line that the real airlines went with at one time? Maybe I'm having one of those pesky false memory episodes.
ReplyDeleteThe pitch wasn't officially turned down so there's still a chance they'll get it.
"Ask not about Cuba, ask not about the bomb, we're going to the moon..." "Let's pretend we know what 1963 looks like..."
ReplyDeleteCome November, about like the room after Sterling Cooper loses the American account. An odd little JFK-laden moment.
What did Joan mean about Sally earning more than anyone that Sunday? I found that to be a very odd thing to say.
ReplyDeleteanonymous, I think Joan was talking about Peggy, not Sally, when she made that comment to the other secretaries. They were all put off that she got to eat first and hang with the guys (that she's literally moved up on the food chain)
One thing that struck me in a Freudian sense is that Don's attraction to Bobbie may have something to do with his mother. Bobbie is a business whore who in essence sleeps with men like Don for money (or things that will end in her getting money) outside the bounds of marriage. Bobbie is almost old enough to be his mother too.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a small part of the attraction between the two but I think Oedipus does raise his head in this relationship.