Sunday, August 23, 2009

Mad Men, "Love Among the Ruins": A change is gonna come

A review of "Mad Men" season three, episode two coming up just as soon as I enjoy a drink that sounds like a floor...
"Let's also say that change is neither good or bad. It simply is. It can be greeted with terror or joy: a tantrum that says, 'I want it the way it was,' or a dance that says, 'Look, it's something new.'" -Don Draper
The '60s are famous as a decade of great social change. So far, "Mad Men" has taken place on the front side of that change, but now that we're in 1963 - and now that we see that Roger Sterling's daughter is scheduled to be married the day after John F. Kennedy will be assassinated - we know that seismic changes are coming, both to Sterling Cooper and the world it tries to depict in its advertising.

But the shot of Margaret's wedding invitation aside, the changes people are either struggling against or embracing in "Love Among the Ruins" are on a smaller scale. The Draper/Hofstadt families are grappling with a new dynamic where Gene has to be treated like a child rather than the patriarch. Peggy wants to change the way her business works when it comes to selling to women, but in the end settles for changing her approach to men (even if just for a night). Roger doesn't understand why his marriage to Jane has irrevocably changed all of his personal relationships, and the new British overlords of Sterling Cooper don't seem to want to change their old business model to accommodate the new thinking of their American colleagues.

But as Don tells the Madison Square Garden representative, change is inevitable. The seasons change (and Don enjoys the feel of fresh grass under his fingers as he watches Sally and her teacher dance around the maypole), attitudes change and relationships change. You can't stop it. So the best thing you can do is find a way to make your life work around the change.

Don, despite his slip with the stewardess last week, is still making an effort to change, and to be a better husband to Betty. We know he didn't get along with Gene even before senility became an issue, and yet when he sees Betty wracked with guilt over the idea of her brother and sister-in-law becoming her father's caretakers, he goes alpha male and assumes control of the situation to make his wife feel better. William notes that Don has no family, had no people at the wedding, and in previous seasons Betty has complained that Don shows no interest in making her family his own. In this instance, he's willing to bring Betty's father permanently into his home because he knows it will make her happier. It's one of the more generous impulses Don has had of late. (Though even it's bolstered somewhat by a negative emotion, since Don dislikes William and takes obvious pleasure in sending his family back to Philadelphia without the Lincoln.)

And then Gene's midnight mental trip back to the days of Prohibition (he hears a police siren in the distance and assumes it's a liquor raid) makes both Don and Betty realize that having Gene live with them may be a much more drastic change than they had anticipated. Yet the situation isn't all bad; you get the sense that Don and Betty are happy to have Gene there for the family photo after Sally's dance.

At work, Don has a relatively easy time fixing things with the MSG people after Paul turns his pitch into an outraged ode to old Penn Station. But he has a much harder time understanding why Pryce's bosses back in London can't see how valuable the deal will be for Sterling Cooper long-term. During our interview about the season premiere, Matt Weiner said this about the folks from PP&L:
The British have come here because we're great. They're redefining how things are done. But at the same time, they feel everyone needs a parent. That's their attitude.
Here, they're being too much the parent who knows best, when they should be recognizing that the son has a broader range of vision than they do. I suspect this is not the first time Pryce has butted heads with Don, nor will it be the last. (Though I hope this doesn't turn into a Richie/Ralphie situation where every season, Weiner brings in a new money man to cause Don problems, and not just because Jared Harris' accent is too good not to keep.)

But if Don can't bring Pryce and the Brits around to his way of thinking, he does eventually get through to Peggy on the subject of Patio. Though Peggy is now comfortable enough to openly disagree with Don (in one-on-one situations, at least), he's still her mentor and professional role model, and you can see how disappointed she is when he's just as turned on by Ann-Margret singing "Bye Bye Birdie" (he says it "makes your heart hurt") as the more callow likes of Pete and Harry.

Where Peggy is understandably interested in pushing to change the way Sterling Cooper sells products to women, she has the bad luck to catch Don in a bad mood. (Just as poor Pete did at the end of "Flight 1" last season.) Demoralized after the meeting with Pryce, Don bluntly tells her, "You're not an artist, Peggy. You solve problems. Leave some tools in your toolbox."

Now, since she gave up the baby, Peggy has deliberately walked her own proto-feminist path. She's now at the point where she doesn't understand a woman like Joan any more than Joan understands her. But frustrated first by this account, and then at not getting approval from Don, and at constantly having to deal with the sexism of her time and workplace, she decides to see how the other half lives. First there's her Ann-Margret pantomime in the bedroom mirror, and I love how Elisabeth Moss just turns the teenage girl thing on and off like she's flipping a switch. And then, satisfied that she can play the role, she picks up a college boy at the local bar. They're roughly the same age, but she seems years older than him (and certainly more sexually experienced), and she certainly never wants to see him again. But at the same time, there's sincerity in her voice - as much as you can read anything into the show's most inscrutable character - when she tells the kid, "This was fun." Might this evening lead her to a more carefree personal life? Whether it does or not, the experience allows her to set aside whatever irritation she feels for Don(*), and the next morning she's back in his office, just another colleague, the previous day's conflict forgotten.

(*) When Peggy is pretending to be the dumb secretary for the college boy and complains, "My boss is a jerk,"she seems to be using her real current issues with Don to enhance the performance.

I find it really funny that Peggy borrows Joan's joke about the subway in the same episode where Roger confronts Don about their estrangement, since I thoroughly believe that Don is as mad at Roger about stealing his "move forward" line to use in dumping Mona as he is that Roger violated Don's various codes about privacy and personal ethics by hooking up with Jane. Don may be a problem-solver some days, but in his heart he's an artist, and he just won't tolerate plagiarism of his words.

Aside from maybe Harry Crane, Roger is the character on the show who most strongly symbolizes the side that's going to be left behind in the cultural revolution. (Even Bert Cooper seems more forward-thinking; if nothing else, he was in on the Hentai boom decades early with that octopus painting.) Roger doesn't think about the future because he's too busy thinking about himself. He irrevocably transformed his life by leaving Mona for Jane, but he expects everything to more or less remain the same. He doesn't think Don should feel betrayed by Roger using him as the excuse (and the words) to leave his wife. He expects Margaret to be happy and smiling and eager to welcome homewrecker Jane into the family. He even expects Mona to make some pretense of being nice to him.

Roger wants things the way they were, not the way they are, nor the way they'll become. And because we know his daughter's wedding is scheduled for November 23, and that JFK will be killed on November 22, we know Roger's going to get an up close and personal view of one of the most transformative moments in our country's history. Knowing Roger - and knowing what Matt Weiner told me about the way history is viewed by the people living through it - we're going to see Roger too wrapped up in the ruin of his daughter's wedding to notice the larger story.

Some other thoughts on "Love Among the Ruins":

• Patio was, indeed, the awful first name of Diet Pepsi, though it only lasted into 1964. I can only assume that the commercials featured a Chevy Chase type explaining that "It's a floor wax and a diet cola!"

• It's always funny to watch Michael Gladis play Paul as the youngest old man in New York, but in this case, history will have proven Paul right, as the outrage over the dismantling of Penn Station (you can see a picture of the old interior here) will lead to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

• I'm also amused whenever whenever Pete goes all Dychman blue blood whenever he's in the presence of people who come from old money. In many ways, Pete's similar to Don; he doesn't really know how to be a human being, but he can fake it in the right situations if he can remember which persona to adopt.

• Born in Indiana but largely raised in South Africa, Embeth Davidtz is one of those actresses where I'm never quite clear what her real accent sounds like. But she fits in nicely next to Jared Harris as Pryce's wife Rebecca, and seems just the kind of brittle, overly-cultured type who would make Betty feel uncomfortable (and inadequate) around.

• I can't be the only viewer who gets angry at the merest mention of Joan's husband, can I? It appears that he's only allowing Joan to keep working at Sterling Cooper until he gets promoted to chief resident, at which point he becomes the breadwinner and she becomes a baby machine. Grrr...

• Gene brings over steaks from Pat's, which raises the eternal question for anyone who has either lived or spent significant time in Philadelphia: Pat's, Geno's or Jim's?

• When Gene appeared last season in "The Inheritance," a number of fans pointed out actor Ryan Cutrona's resemblance to John McCain, and suggested that Matt Weiner was making some sort of commentary on the then-presidential nominee. But Cutrona had already appeared in the first season, more than a year before McCain had gotten the nomination. And now I'll remind you of the No Politics rule, and let's let this be the last that this comes up, okay?

Speaking of the commenting rules, I should say that you guys were great last week with all your comments. You pointed out things I either forget to mention or hadn't noticed, and just as importantly, you played well with each other. Even though I didn't bring up the rule about at least skimming all previous comments before posting your own, there was very little duplication among the comments. So good on ya.

That being said, iTunes recently goofed and for a few hours made next week's episode, "My Old Kentucky Home," available for download. And apparently, a number of people did download it. So it's at this point that I need to remind you about the No Spoiler policy here on the blog. Simply put, I don't want any discussion of that episode. I don't even want discussion of the previews for that episode (even though AMC's previews for the show tend to be opaque and/or misleading). Not a word. Are we clear about that? Good. And that being said...

What did everybody else think?

227 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Exept Real Widow Draper didn't know him as Don, she knew him as Dick. Perhaps the complexities of taking on Don allowed him to find the "perfect woman" in Betty but also forces him to be unable to find any real connection with any real woman because he's not really Don. They all just want the Dick as Don.

-EmeraldLiz

Anonymous said...

Oops- forgot to add that I don't think Don or Dick will have any sexual relationship with Peggy, nor do I want them to. I think they are much stronger as business partners.

Alan Sepinwall said...

For what it's worth on the subject of Don and Peggy hooking up, it's something I speculated about last season in my review of "The New Girl."

panam53 said...

"I also don't understand how Don could demand that William pay for everything... was that customary?"

Yes, it was customary. A daughter would not be responsible for her parents, because she would not be earning her own money. She would be supported by her husband.

A son would be responsible for his parents.

Anonymous said...

From Jan:

I LOVE this blog! The level of discussion never disappoints me, and even when people have different points of view, they remain civil. And it's fascinating to me to see what people have picked up from the show. I especially enjoyed the person who wrote out the entire poem of "Love Among the Ruins." There are just so many levels of meaning in each and every episode.

Anonymous said...

Pamela Jaye wrote:
"Ooh! If they decide to stop skipping years, I want to see the Blackout of 65. Now *that* I remember! (obviously it won't be this season)"

I don't think they won't stop skipping years because the actors playing Don's children are growing up and recasting them every year would be very difficult.

Liam wrote:
"And, if you want to feel a little younger, "Bye Bye Birdie" leads Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera are still very much with us...."

Except Janet Leigh played Rosie in the movie and Chita Rivera played her on Broadway. Showing interracial couples in movies was not allowed at that time until "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

Unknown said...

The level of discourse on this blog enhances my enjoyment of this show *so* much -- but I've never gotten here early enough post-show to contribute anything not already discussed. Hence I'm shocked that no one has yet linked to Ann-Margret's soda commercial from just 4 or 5 years after the Sterling Cooper viewing. It's spectacular, and strangely long at 2.5 minutes. (Did they really make such long commercials in the '60s?)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU3p67qrfhw

Mario said...

1 - Definitely John's Roast Pork if you want the best cheesesteak in Philly, but as was mentioned, closes at 2pm. (John makes the sandwiches himself and won't hire people to run the place at night because it wouldn't be the same.) Otherwise, Tony Luke's no doubt.

2 - What are they setting Betty up for? Her terrible day was about seeing no good in her future. First, she finds out that her widower father's girlfriend left him because he grew ill. Then she sees Roger who ditched his wife for a 20 year of secretary. Then she goes to dinner and sees a couple happily married... at the cost of being moved across the ocean away from everyone they know.

She's got nothing good in her future, and she's starting to see it.

Anonymous said...

Concerning the fate of Peggy's baby: Remembering the way it was in those days, I assumed that Peggy gave the baby up for adoption. Then, in Season 2, we saw a little boy just the right age at her sister's house. Unwed mothers did sometimes have their kids brought up as or "nephews" or "little brothers." I wasn't the only one who went "hmmm."

Then we saw the flashback to Peggy's hospitalization; her sister was heavily pregnant. Matt Weiner later said that Peggy's baby was adopted.

What was the immediate result of Pete discovering the truth? What does he think now? Stay tuned. Maybe we'll find out.

berkowit28 said...

Maggie, that was interesting.

I didn't see any information about the commercial there. Are we sure it was for TV, and not just played at movie theaters?

That said, back in the fifties and (early?) sixties, up in Canada where I'm from, programs sometimes did not neatly fill their hours and there would be "fillers" between the programs. Maybe in the more commercial US, there would be commercial fillers. Perhaps a long commercial like this one would be shown on a program sponsored by the company making the ad, who could pretty well do what they wanted and had already paid for the time. I don't specifically recall long commercials of 2 1/2 minutes though. I'm curious to know when it might have played.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone mentioned Rodger's terrible comment to Betty? Oh look, Princess Grace swallowed a basketball. He is nearly as bad as Joan's husband, his exploitation of the probably teenage twins seasons back was despicable.

To speak of Betty that way after getting drunk and feeling her up in her own home in season one, these are reason enough for Don to take issue with him.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else get Malick vibes from Don at the Maypole dance, I was almost expecting Das Rheingold to kick in.

KT said...

I love reading your posts Alan - they help me to make sense of many references in the show that go over this Aussie viewer's head. For example, while I knew the year of the Kennedy assassination, I had no idea of the date, so I was perplexed as to why the camera lingered on the wedding invitation. Mystery solved!

olucy said...

I love the description of Paul as "the oldest young man in New York." So true.

I'm curious, though, why you think Harry is only second to Roger in being a symbol of the kind of person that will be left behind in the cultural revolution. I'm not sure I entirely disagree, but I'm not sure I entirely agree, either.

After all, Harry is the one who was forward-thinking enough to bring SC into the age of the "television department" and to understand how ratings affect sponsors and ads.

Politically, he 's conservative. But conservatives and liberals have always been with us. I'm not sure that's a reason to think he'll be left behind.

I'm interested in others' thoughts.

Anonymous said...

>One other point. Harry aside, Alan's point about Rodger being on the
>losing side of history is spot on. No way he supports Goldwater in
>64 - he is going to be a >Rockefeller man
Roger, like Rockefeller, has divorced his wife to marry again. This had
a lot to do with Rockefeller's failure to get the nomination.

The bar Peggy went to reminded me of P.J. Clarke's. If I recall
correctly it was popular with advertising men.

In late 1964 when I was pregnant I asked my doctor if it was alright to drink. He said that since my blood pressure was high it might help bring it down.

MMS said...

Great blog and comments. I would only add to Anon at 6:19 on August 25 "I was 15 when JFK was assassinated and I can tell you that the wedding will be a disaster. I don’t know about the rest of the country but in NY everything, I mean everything stood still from Friday afternoon when the assassination was announced until Monday when JFK was buried (and, in between we were rocked by the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald on Sunday)."

It was the entire country,and many who lived in other countries. I was 13, in the 8th grade and living in Casper, Wyoming. This was Nixon country and a majority feared or didn’t trust JFK. As I left my class room that Friday and headed for lunch in the Jr High cafeteria, the hallways had an unusual amount of buzz and drama. People were saying that the President had been shot, but no one believed them. It was an incomprehensible idea. Before we were to begin our 1pm class (Mountain time) the principal came on the address system (which sounded far worse than the MM intercoms) and said the President had been shot. Shortly thereafter, we were dismissed early. Many parents came to the school in a panic to get their children. Buses showed up to take those who usually took buses. Nobody said it out loud but after years of “duck and cover” drills we knew the fear was that the Russians were coming. TVs were still relatively new. We had one, in the basement, as my parents rarely watched it. It’s most significant use was by me and my siblings, who spent most Saturday mornings watching cartoons, My Friend Flicker, and Sky King. Like everyone else we knew, the entire family sat huddled together that Friday afternoon watching TV and pretty much stayed there through Monday. Such things didn’t happen in 1950’s America and it shook the world view and innocence of every generation. We spent those 4 days trying to comprehend what had happened and by the time we tried to resume our lives the following Tuesday, everyone said they had voted for JFK, admired how Jackie had handled herself and wept for their children.

Either the wedding will be postponed at the last minute, or Roger, his daughter and the wedding party will sit nearly alone that Saturday trying to understand what is happening to them and to the country.

Anonymous said...

One thing that seemed off to me was when Betty said, "Spring Break." In the sixties and seventies our schools called it "Easter Vacation."

berkowit28 said...

Right. It should have been "Easter Vacation".

Jessamyn said...

Coming very late to the party here, but just a few things to add...

I, too, initially thought the Don-fondling-grass scene was about sex - but no one has commented on the fact that we're seeing his POV in between the grass-fondling, and the scene doesn't end on the girl: his gaze drifts up into the trees, and then cuts. I agree with the posters who think it's more about nature and connectedness. Sex, too, because that's part of everything for Don, but more in the baptised-by-the-ocean kind of way.

Oh, Peggy. My husband saw Ann-Margret in BBB when he was young, and he STILL has a thing for red hair as a result. I, on the other hand, have never "gotten" Ann-Margret at all, in much the same way that I don't "get" Marilyn Monroe. Now, my husband, besides being of course male, is the sort of person who is a good natural salesman but who also can be sold on things himself. Whereas I am pretty impervious to advertising. I think Peggy is, too. There's a certain type of artificial beauty that's mystifying to those who cannot avoid looking beneath the surface, all the time. It makes you a killjoy (and "a prude!"), but it's like being tone-deaf; you just can't hear what everybody else is hearing.

Peggy needs to become a novelist. There's a great remark that Dorothy Sayers puts into one of her characters' mouths about how writers are always on the outside looking in; it makes them lonely, but it makes them what they are. Peggy's biggest problem is that she's left a world that's wrong for her for another one that's wrong for her.

KarenX said...

@ Kokuanani

I'm confused about something.

I've been reading over your [Alan's] write-ups of last season, specifically "Flight 1." In it you refer to Peggy's sister "taking in" Peggy's baby & raising it as her own -- something I'd assumed was the case, but that comments here and on other threads don't seem to acknowledge.


By the end of season 2, we learn that Peggy's sister Anita was pregnant at the same time as Peggy, and everything pretty much points to her raising her own child. Peggy is probably telling the truth to Pete--she refused to see the baby when he was born and he probably did get adopted out of the family. My great fear for season 3 was that Pete would go after it, but it seems that is not to be. What a relief!

I have it in my head from the Blogosphere that season three is set up to be "Betty's Season." If that's the case, I think that's why Gene, her father, was brought into the home. Betty is not going to be able to watch her infant and her father at all times, and it's likely something will happen that puts the baby at risk. Betty having to confront her father and make some kind of big decision that only she can make is going to be her big moment.

Of course, I always predict everything wrong.

Chiming in on two other trivial points: Yes, that guy looked like Pete and yes, that teacher looked so startlingly modern I thought it was a real commercial--not a scene from the show.

richn said...

Joan is getting as big as the Hindenburg. Why?

Also, Don tells his brother in law to get on the New York Central's Broadway Limited to return home to central N.J. That famous train belonged to the Pennsylvania RR, not the NYC.

R said...

I know I'm late to the party, but I wanted to put my two cents in concerning cheesesteaks:

Dalessandro's is definitely the best, but I think Pat's is the best of the "classic" variety. They are really two different animals. Anyone who says Pat's is a tourist trap is a snob and has probably never been to South Philly; after a Phils or Birds game Pat's and Geno's are mobbed with locals. They are also pretty great drunk food locations and can be quite crowded after midnight with college kids, not tourists.

The Local said...

Skimmed the comments and didn't see this mentioned though I may have missed it. I though Don running his hand through the grass was a nice bookend moment to
the opening scene with Betty. Where he is trying to get her to sleep by having her visualize "running her fingers through the cool sand in the shadow of the deck chair.." (to that effect) She says "You're good at this."

I saw his touching the grass by his chair at Field Day to be just Don taking everything in the way he always does. He misses nothing and that is what makes him so brilliant in a crisis w/ clients at SC.

Yeah,there was some interest in and attention to the proto Hippie,
but I thought the moment was about more.

Joysong said...

On the subject of Don forcing William to agree with his plan for Gene:

I agree with Liz Coopersmith's comment that Don just wanted all those damn people out of his house, NOW, and he wanted the issue resolved once and for all.

But Don also did it for Betty, because (1) he knew it would make her happy and (2) he knew she wanted him to be her conquering hero, and as Pandyora said, "I also wonder if part of Betty is thrilled by Don's assertiveness. After all, if Don is trying to prove he's recommitted to their marriage, strong-arming and humiliating her brother is a pretty good place to start."

Betty's motivation here is clearly not her father's welfare. She has a contentious relationship with him, with her brother, and his wife. Her only concern is herself; she just wants to make sure she comes out looking like "the good daughter."

And I don't really see that much evidence that William is the "weasel" people are saying he is. Maybe all he wants to do is inherit his father's house, but if he moved his whole family into it and had his wife nurse his father, then I think they deserve it.

Benaud said...

As a MM-loving Brit I read this blog all through season two and loved the extra insights I got from all the comments. Made me feel like there actually were some other people out there watching the series!
We've just had screened the first two episodes of series 3 in the UK, and I think someone in the scheduling department realised how much they deserved to be shown together. Some commenters have already picked up on the 'lesbian' comment and the 'toolkit' insult, Joan's subway comment to Peggy and subsequent joke to the men in the office. There was also the story Don told Betty about putting your hand in the shade of the deckchair, which mirrored the maypole scene grass grope.
The main thing I wanted to say though, was that the maypole scene arguably conveys all of the ideas put forward by the commenters here: the patio ad casting, followed by the realisation that Peggy had been right, the lusting after the teacher and wanting to connect to her, but most importantly surely this was the cry for freedom of a man who has just straight-jacketed himself further into a life he's never been really sure he wants. It can't have been just me that thought Don was wearing even more brill-creem than usual. And siting there at the start of that scene he (and the other parents) looked like they were posing for a very old photo - so stiff and formal in contrast to the dancers and the coming 60s culture. Maybe this was Weiner showing us how Don's going to survive the final destruction of the ancien regime. It's actually what he's always wanted.
Don was always attracted to, albeit with reservations, the beatniks, and he nearly fell in with the californian bohemians. I suspect Don might be able to get on board with the hippies and the sexual revolution, as long as he doesn't have to be honest with anyone...

GWAM said...

Britain calling again - 6 months after you guys have long since parked the Lincoln in the driveway! As always, just in case there are any stragglers or DVD-ers floating by: just my £0.02p

What a joy to turn here immediately after each episode (S3 is now into the groove in the UK). For not only are the comments all oven-ready, not only are they so damn erudite but they are an immense help for Mad Meners over the pond.

Whilst I'm pretty clued about a fair bit of US culture, there are obviously many things that can whoosh.

One of those was definitely the Penn Station angle. At first I just regarded it as a makeweight aspect to highlight Kinsey's abilities (or no) .

But it was only when I came on here, and then subsequently GoogleWikied a crash course on Penn Station/MSG, that I realised it was far from random; and in fact, once I knew the history it provided the final jigsaw piece and suddenly the whole installment made total end-to-end Weinersense.

So thanks, guys - and really I just can’t believe that they did THAT to Penn Station! Then again, I live just four miles from where Liverpool Corporation in the 1970s concreted in The Cavern - "The Home of The Beatles". Only when Paul McCartney embarrassed the authority in 1982 did they try and excavate it only to find it was irretrievable and they had to recreate a replica scale further upstreet. Okay, not quite the same gem as Penn but still another "you don't know what you've got til it's gone" scenario and that was definitely what Wiener was driving at.

Just like with "Jet Set" - which I originally had down as a makeweight slice but now regard as a truly pivotal episode in the whole Mad Men canon - I suddenly propelled "Love Among" into the seminal category.

Yep, I agree, the most iconic symbol of the "crash and burn" brigade is Roger. Painful to watch.

But I don't buy that Don doesn't see what's coming. Like he says, change just is. He's a past master and usually ahead of the Darwin curve.

Don's a shape-shifter and I definitely concur with the view that he came around to Peggy's thinking.

While people readily recall Midge, Rachel and Bobbie amongst the litany of independent women that fire Don's gun, don't underestimate the effect Joy in Jet Set will have had on Don in Weiner's thinking.

She may have been flighty, but young Joy was definitely in control and sparking the revolution. That's why Don asked: "Who ARE you?"

And if we can assume there was no-one else between Joy and the Stew last week, then I reckon that's why Don sounded so tired when he said "I just keep returning to the same place I've been" and though he was prepared to go through the motions with the Stew it was almost tedious.

Blonde, ditsy, a simp = the Stew = just another Betty.

I wonder if he realises now that it was a mistake of (his code of) honour to return to Betty? And hey, doesn't he have a habit of calling her "Buhr-dee"?

Was this what he was subliminally thinking watching "Bye Bye Birdee"? Is it really "Bye Bye Buhr-dee" and that's why he said "it makes your heart hurt?" Betty bye-bye from Don’s heart - but hey, guess he'll always care?

The posts equating BBB and Grease are correct and just like Sandra Dee morphs into Leather Lady, Ann Margaret goes from ditz to sass all in the space of the one song in Bye Bye Birdy. By the time she gets to the end of the song she's no longer Miss Goody but a "guess she'll always care" freewheeler.

So Don gets the Maypole gal, gets Peggy and gets where he's at, where the decade's headed and where Roger's not and ultimately where Betty-Buhrdee is never gonna be.

And he doesn't much like being reminded of just how shallow Bets really is, as evidenced by her lameness to her Prohibition-hallucinating father.

What an episode. What a blog!

joseph said...

Just one tiny little puzzle piece more: Pampers/diapers, ending the episode, I feel refers to the the ultimate indignity of taking care of a new baby OR an old man.

Perfect.

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