Mad Men Season 6, Episode 1 Recap: The Doorway

"I want you to be yourself."

Hasn't that been the whole quest of Donald Draper, nee Dick Whitman, for lo these past five seasons?  Be himself, whoever that is, whatever that means.  He has donned many identities--scrappy salesman, successful ad man, suburban husband and father, cheater, divorcé, modern married Manhattanite, partner--yet none seem to satisfy him.  He's in a constant state of wanting something else or discovering that what he has will never be enough.  But when your whole identity is built upon a lie, can you ever find your truth?

Don's search for answers takes him from Dante's trip through the nine circles of Hell to the arms of another in his seemingly endless list of paramours. Along the way he questions life's meaning and leans on alcohol to quiet the noises in his head. Like Roger, he seems consumed by the ultimate of life's question--what's it all about?  His drunken questions to Jonesy the doorman about what happens after you die come on the heels of his embarrassing performance at the wake for Roger's mother.  Why can't he be happy seems tied up in what does this all mean anyhow?

Both Don and Roger take stock of their lives this episode.  Don has it all--his beautiful wife is now happily employed as a daytime TV actress, his business is booming, he jets to Waikiki Beach for work--while Roger is feeling the nagging absence of anyone significant in his life.  His mother's death is a reminder of the relationships he's ignored (not just his mother, but his daughter and grandson) in search of that magic pill that will make him feel complete.

Roger can't help but notice that his only family connections have purse strings attached and that "I love you" means, thanks for the money.  He was loved unconditionally and, in his mind, undeservedly by one woman his whole life and now she's gone.  He pushed away the other women who tried to love him and they've moved on with there lives.  What else is there for him?

Roger and Don's quest for answers is at least more plausible than Betty's quest to find Sally's friend Sandy.  The whole storyline is silly and just an excuse to remind viewers of the counter-culture the show mostly ignores.  The show skipped over the summer of love and went straight through to disengaged youth thumbing their collective noses at the war-waging capitalist hegemony.  What I think we're supposed to take away in Betty's journey through one circle of Hell's Kitchen is that she, like Roger and Don, is dissatisfied and unfulfilled and part of her envies the wanderlust and freedom of youth while another part is worried about what happens to a young girl who has her dream destroyed.  Any question of whether Betty's slumming was for the girl's sake or hers was answered when she comes back out of the rabbit hole with dark hair.  She can't or won't do the work of finding out what is really troubling her or what she needs. She can't fix herself, so a new can of paint will do the trick.

At the very beginning of the episode we are introduced to a new character Dr. Arnold Rosen saving the life of doorman "Jonesy." Dr. Rosen and his lovely wife Sylvia live in the same downtown high-rise as the Drapers.  He is a short nebbishy guy who saves lives who looks up to (literally and figuratively) the suave and distinguished guy who makes people want to buy things.  The world was and continues to be a strange place where how hot you are is more important that what you do.  He and his wife have become close enough friends to spend New Year's Eve together and this may be the first time we've seen Don happily interacting with another couple.

The war in Vietnam is becoming more at the forefront of everyone's life, in small ways and large.  While in Hawaii, Don meets a soldier on leave for his wedding and carries the memory with him throughout the episode in the form of a lighter.  The soldier talks about having eight more months and it's impossible not to wonder if he'll be as lucky as Don to make it out of the war alive.  Horrific war stories are turned into sick jokes on late night television and, along with the nightly news, starts to rouse the sleepy public about what is going on "over there."  And kids become cynical at a much younger age now that they are forced to face their own mortality earlier than ever before.

Bob Benson.  Suddenly he appears and no one knows his story.  He "bumps into" Don in the elevator with a cup of coffee and a pitch to get some time with him.  He puts his name onto a gift basket for a funeral he wasn't invited to.  He hangs out in the middle of the office, striking up conversations with whomever walks by.  Ken is suspicious, possibly because Ken is a writer and spends time thinking about people and their motivations and it less likely to take things at face value.  And there's something suspicious about his eagerness, his puppy dog enthusiasm, his habit of placing himself in the right place at the right time  Who is Bob Benson?

Peggy is finishing 1967 with a job that she does very well and a boyfriend who brings her cold sandwiches to work.  She still remembers the work-related advice Don gave her and she still continues to shine.  She has to quickly rework a TV ad and her crisis management skills are on fire.  She also manages to keep up her friendship with Stan and they keep each other company on New Year's Eve as they work from their respective offices.  Ted, who Peggy had frantically been searching for all episode, shows up after she's solved the problem and proudly feeds her some Wizard of Oz line of the power being with her all along.  But even over the phone Stan can hear that Ted really likes Peggy more than as just a proud boss.

Don and Megan's trip to Hawaii was to get acquainted with the Royal Hawaiian hotel on Waikiki Beach, ahead of a new marketing pitch.  So after a few days in paradise--endless sun, sandy beaches, warm tropical breezes--what is Don's takeaway?  Hawaii, a great place to kill yourself.  He is shocked when the clients look at the print ad and see visions of a man walking alone into the Pacific to end it all.  Don thought he was conveying freedom and peacefulness. But even Stan saw the image as suicidal.  Don could still be haunted by the two suicides he's been touched by (notice how the still tied tie in the picture could refer to how those men killed themselves) or he just has a strong fatalistic streak that sees paradise as something you have to die for to earn.  The clients want to see their hotel, the famous outline of Diamond Head, not a man's footprints into oblivion.

Oh, so that's why Don was reading Dante on vacation.  It was a gift from his new mistress, Mrs. Arnold Rosen.  The surprise scene of their affair hearkens back to the stunner in the pilot when Don left his girlfriend to come home to his then wife and kids.  But, Don's infidelity has never gone this far before.  He's cheated on his wives, he's even cheated on girlfriends, but to cheat with the wife of a friend.  That is low, even for Don.  How can he live with himself knowing he's betraying not just his wife but Sylvia's husband?  His guilt is not enough, he claims he wants to stop but the power is his.  He hasn't.

So what are the doorways of this episode?  There's the one that leads to the scuzzy rat's nest that Sandy escaped to when the other one--the one to her dream of studying at Julliard--was shut.  There's the doorway that leads from the hallway to Sylvia's apartment, where Don escapes his marriage to break the sanctity of another's.  There are the endless doorways that Roger spoke of that lead ultimately to nowhere. The largest doorway of course is the one through which we exit this world, and it is the doorway the show is focusing ever more on. The gang is getting older and they're all starting to lose things and they're all facing that reality.  If you're lucky you can ignore this while at a luau in Honolulu, or smoking weed and having sex overlooking the ocean, or over a late night chat with an old friend.  If you're unlucky, you cry alone in your office and wonder what it's all for.

Quotes:

Sandy: You go to college. Meet a boy. You drop out. You get married. Struggle for a year in New York while he learns to tie and tie, and then move to the country and just start the whole disaster over.

Therapist:  I can't laugh at everything you say.
Roger:  Either it's funny or it's not.  I don't know how you can control yourself.
Therapist:  It's hard sometimes.

Roger:  What are the events in life? It's like you see a door.  The first time you come to it you say, "Oh, what's on the other side of the door?" Then you open a few doors.  Then you say, "I think I want to go over that bridge this time.  I'm tired of doors." Finally you go through one of these things and you come out the other side and you realize that's all there are-- doors and windows and bridges and gates.  And they all open the same way and they all close behind you.
Look, life is supposed to be a path and you go along and these things happen to you and they're supposed to change you.  Change your direction.  But it turns out that's not true.  It turns out the experiences are nothing.  They're just some pennies you pick up off the floor, stick in your pocket, and you're just going in a straight line to you-know-where.

The inscription on the lighter: In life we often have to do things that just are not our bag.

Roger:  You know, I used to jump off mountains.  It never occurred to me I had this invisible parachute.


Observations:

Don is reading Dante's Inferno because of course he is.  It's such an easy breezy beach read.  The first of the three part epic poem The Divine Comedy it depicts Dante's journey through the nine circles of Hell, aided by his guide, the poet Virgil.  In each circle, those in the afterlife are punished for their misdeeds while on earth.  Is Don wondering what will await him in the great beyond? Is he looking to understand himself better? Or did he think he'd look really cool delving into such deep material? Or was it his way of cheating on Megan without his girlfriend around.  Reading the book your lover gave to you while lying next to your wife is next generation tackiness.

Roger insists to his therapist that he doesn't feel anything.  He doesn't crack when he hears of his mother's death, nor at her memorial.  But alone in his office after he's been given the shoeshine box from the shoeshine guy who just pass, all those feelings he swore he didn't have come rushing to the surface.  Roger is always fast with the quips to keep everyone at arm's length, but he finally is facing the feelings of loss and loneliness he's been ignoring.  He tells Don later that their job is to ignore the bad things, like the fact that the cigarettes they advertise will kill you.  He had become very astute at doing that, not just at work, but in his home life as well.

It's hard to realize now, but there was a time when air travel was not so commonplace.  Long trips (coast-to-coast in a zippy 20 hours) and high cost kept commercial aviation from, if you pardon the pun, taking off until the 1950s.  But by 1967, where we start this season, both the length of trips and their cost was starting to come down and flying was more available to everyone. 

Five years later, Cat Stevens will record a song that Roger will relate to.  In "Sitting," he writes: "Life is like a maze of doors, and they all open from the side you're on. Just keep on pushing hard boy, try as you may, You're going to wind up where you started from..."  This parallels Roger's therapeutic rant about doors.  "You go through one of these things and you come out the other side and you realize that's all there are-- doors and windows and bridges and gates. And they all open the same way and they all close behind you."  It's depressing and nihilistic and emblematic of man's search for meaning in life.  Some call it a midlife crisis, but it can happen to anyone at anytime if they feel empty, directionless, unfulfilled.  What am I doing, what am I doing it for, does any of it matter.  In 1967 you had to face these deep issues.  Now, you can go on Instagram and search "Cute puppies" and make the bad thoughts go away for awhile.

Speaking of doorways, and paths that lead to nowhere new, in Episode 3.01, Don said:  I keep going places and ending up somewhere I’ve already been.

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Spoilery--DON'T READ UNTIL YOU'RE ALL CAUGHT UP!!!


It warms my heart seeing Stan and Peggy on the phone, both working deep into the night, chattering about work gossip and making each other laugh.  A small moment like this is paid off big time when they finally realize that they belong together!

Bob Benson was an enigma from the beginning.  Other than terminally delightful receptionist Meredith, no one is that chipper all the time.  It took some time, but we finally had our answer to who was Bob Benson and what was his deal.  Bob was Don Draper 2.0.  He didn't steal anyone's identity or do anything quite that extreme, but he did weasel his way into the job he wanted by being whatever anyone wanted him to be.  He created a person and then acted as if he were that person and for a while it worked.  But in the Season 6 finale, Bob gave us the greatest gif(t) of all time, the "Not great, Bob" elevator scene.

They dropped a nice hint in this episode that the war would become front and center for the Rosens, when mentioning their son was in college.  This was the height of the Vietnam War draft but college deferments kept certain men from serving, This issue came up later when their son is selected as 1A for the draft.

While Roger is indeed lost and sad this episode, we only have to wait one more season for him to find true happiness.  It's worth the wait!

Mad Men Season 5 Episode 13 Recap: The Phantom

Life goes on, as painful, disappointing, and awkward as ever.  Don is dealing with a literal pain in his mouth from a bum tooth, Megan is dealing with the double disappointment of both failing as an actress and having her artistic dreams belittled by her mother, and Pete is dealing with awkwardly engaging with the wife and the husband whose marital union he has--um--intruded upon.  Poor Harry would rather complain about his lack of a window than take Lane's office and Don is seeing things.  His deceased half-brother to be exact.  Is he the phantom to which the title refers?

Or is it Lane?  He is gone but still there, his empty chair a stark reminder of his presence and his absence.  Joan takes up the talking points Lane would have raised at the partner's meeting but all she accomplishes is moving the discussion to a later date.  Things are going great at the firm, at least money-wise, the only-wise that they used to all care about.  Yet, no one seems that excited by the success.  When you get what you want--at least what you told yourself you wanted--it's never really enough is it?

It makes sense that Don would start imagining his late brother hanging around.  He was, at least in his mind, somewhat responsible for Adam's suicide.  He wasn't there for his brother when he needed him.  Adam asked for help and received a chilly response and an offer of money.  Lane too had asked Don for help and Don was cool and unemotional in response.  He didn't register either man's desperation nor their need for something more from him than detached advise.  And now both are dead at their own hands.

Joan feels the guilt about not being there for Lane and while Don claims he feels no responsibility, his hallucinations and dental pain tell a different story.  When later he goes to Lane's widow with a check and an apology, he's doing it for himself.  To ease his pain and guilt.  But she doesn't allow him to use the gesture to make himself feel better and calls out the hypocrisy and selfishness in his visit.

Disappointing people is what Don is good at.  Especially when he thinks he is being helpful.  He doesn't see how his lack of support of Megan's acting is hurting her, once again thinking the calm, rational advice he gives is sufficient to deal with someone's heartache.  But Megan is more the "suffer in silence and keep up a good appearance" type, crying alone in the bathroom, wallowing alone in the bed, but not letting on to Don just how much he's hurt her.

But her mother, of course, as mothers do, will be there for Megan.  Comfort and support her and help her find her way.  Give her words of encouragement, shower her with love and understanding.  Or...she will tell her daughter that she's a petulant needy child who pouts when she doesn't get her way and that it's time she grows up and puts away her ridiculous acting fantasy.  The phantom, according to Marie, is the unattainable, unrealistic dream.  She gave up hers, as all little girls must, and now she expects her daughter to do the same.

Megan does not take this well and punishes herself and Don, pretending to be "the little woman" staying at home waiting for her man to come home.  It's not what she wants, it's not what Don wants.  But he was happy when she was at work with him and she won't be happy until she captures her phantom career.  So Don has a choice.  Help her with her dream or continue to fail to be there for anyone who needs him.

The one bright spot for Don after one failed interaction after another is bumping into Peggy at the movies.  Her is someone he helped and guided and who is now living her best life.  Perhaps that is what gets him to actually look at Megan's reel and finally involve himself in her dreams.  He couldn't help Adam, he couldn't help Lane--his widow made that extra plain in their brief meeting--but he could be a supportive husband.

The phantom Pete chases in this episode is the dream of being suave and sophisticated and handsome and desirable.  Basically, to not be Pete Campbell.  Anyone else looking at his life--successful career, beautiful loving wife, adorable child, house out in the country--would think he has it all.  But he is restless and unsatisfied and he searches for a more exotic, exciting life with his train buddy's wife, Beth.  But Beth has her own demons and no amount of attention from Pete will keep the depression at bay.  So, she goes in for electroshock therapy to quiet the noises in her head.  Unfortunately for Pete, the cure not only cuts the dark thoughts from her brain, but any memory of their time together.  He is scrubbed from her mind and is just some nice man who comes into her room to talk with her a bit.  Pete is angry and frustrated that he can't have his dream life with Beth and instead is stuck in his suburban rut.  But perhaps help is on the way.  Trudy says he can have an apartment in the city, giving him carte blanhe now to live that life he thinks he deserves.

We see Peggy at work, going after a potential new client, and later at the movies trying to clear her head.  Don happens to be there too and it's a melancholy reunion between mentor and mentee.  Don is the man who helped Peggy get her wings then grew angry when she wanted to fly.  He taught her a lot and he is in large part responsible for her career, yet he held her back and she had no choice but to leave him to get the career she wanted.  Does Don see how he this parallels his relationship with Megan? How he was only happy when she was under his roof, not when she wanted to be her own person?  How afraid he is of being left that he holds on to the point of smothering?

Elsewhere there is a new and improved Roger Sterling.  His mind recently expanded, he has more clarity about what he wants in life. And it's a real relationship with his emotional and intellectual equal.  No longer is he chasing his youth or fearing growing old.  He is willing to embrace a challenging woman, someone who is independent and strong.  And Marie, for her part, is putting herself first.  Megan called her out for giving up on her dreams, now it's time for her to consider what she wants.  No longer is she sacrificing for her children or her husband.  She is seeking her own happiness.

As we wrap up this season, the partners at Sterling Cooper are looking forward.  They are moving on and up, the success they've chased for years is finally at hand.  So what does the future hold?  As they stare into the Manhattan skyline, no one knows.   But a beautiful woman comes up to Don and asks if he's alone and not one of us thinks the answer is no.

Quotes:

Don:   lt'll go away.  lt always does.

Marie:  Not every little girl gets to do what they want.  The world could not support that many ballerinas

Pete:  And then he realized everything he already had was not right either and that was why it had happened at all.  And that his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound

Marie: This is what happens when you have the artistic temperament but you are not an artist.
Take my advice, nurse her through this defeat and you shall have the life you desire.

Conductor: I am an officer of a New Haven line!
Pete: Well! I'm the president of the Howdy Doody Circus Army!


Observations:

The first "cigarette for women" that I remember growing up was Virginia Slims.  They advertised on TV with the nascent women's lib-y: "you've come a long way, baby." In retrospect, now that we all know of the dangers of cigarettes, it doesn't look all that empowering for women to have a "cancer stick" designed just for them.  But this was the sixties and women were suddenly on advertisers' radar for more than cleaning and beauty products thanks to the women's liberation movement.  This is not to say that cigarette companies overlooked women before this.  As far back as the 20s, shortly after women were finally given the vote, Philip Morris aimed their print ads at these newly enfranchised women.  But this was the first time they were tailoring the design of their product exclusively for just one segment of the population.

Electroshock therapy was used since its discovery in the 1930s to treat depression and other mental disorders.  A small electric signal was sent into the brain, stimulating a mild seizure.  While effective for many patients, it fell out of favor as being too "brutal" and dangerous.  The book, and later movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, brought both the practice and its risks (including some memory loss and other side effects) to the public's attention and stigmatize the name and the therapy.  Electroshock therapy was replaced with medication (the birth of the Prozac nation) and talk therapy.  Now renamed Electroconvulsive therapy, it is still in use today as an alternative when traditional approaches are not successful.

We can all assume that Megan's friendship with that actress ended the first time the commercial ran on TV. Unlike today with 500+ channels and dozens of streaming services, if you were on a national TV commercial campaign in the 1960s, EVERYONE would see it.

The theme of this episode was a little too on the nose.  Don has something rotten inside him and he needs to get it removed.  Whether it's guilt or shame, Don needs to confront his past and make better choices in the future.  He took a good step with Megan, let's see next season if he can continue and become a better person.  Or is that a fool's errand?

Not enough Ginsberg.  We only saw him for a brief moment pitching "reasonably priced" pantyhose.  But his confidence--shown in his unwillingness to consider the client didn't like his pitch--was a delight.  Not so delightful, the stains all over his shirt.

I absolutely loved Joan hiding the fact that the firm was considering space on the 48th floor from Harry.  She's a partner and he's not and she is not going to forget that.

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Spoiler-y Observations: DON'T READ UNTIL YOU'RE ALL CAUGHT UP

One of the most iconic moments of Mad Men was Peggy Olson, cigarette dangling from her lips, striding down the halls of McCann Erickson in Season 7, Episode 12, ready for her next chapter.  To think it wouldn't have been possible without Ted Chaough encouraging to take up smoking for their new client.  And therein lies the problem.  Would that scene be as memorable without the cigarette? Does it not add to Peggy's bad ass-ness? And then we wonder why people continue to smoke even in the fact of the medical data.

Pete asks Beth to run away to California with him.  Trudy mentions getting a pool and how Pete is better when he gets some sun.  So it won't be a tremendous surprise when Pete ends up in California, soaking up the sun.  What will be a surprise is when he comes to his senses, realize he too has been chasing a phantom--the idea of being the suave, complicated, cheating Don Draper--and finds happiness just being boring old happily-married Pete Campbell.

When we first saw Roger and Marie together there were two thoughts.  One, how odd it was to see Roger with someone so age-appropriate.  Two, that this was just a fling that would end badly.  Not so fast.  Roger and Marie turned out to be just what the other needed and seeing them grow up and meld their two lives was a high point of the last season.

Peggy will realize that her career success has come at a price and that she should aspire to have it all.  She's always seemed almost embarrassed by being good at her job and unworthy of wanting it all.  But she continues to grow, in strength and in confidence, and may find the love she's been looking for was not that far away after all.