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!
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