Mad Men Season 2, Episode 11: The Jet Set

Well, that was weird.

Don Draper escapes the uncomfortable present in New York but is it to revisit his past in California (signaled by the invocation of the name "Dick Whitman") or to forge a new future?  Don is literally carrying no baggage from home as he lands in California.  He falls in with a vagabond group of free thinkers, just the perfect sort of faux intellectual nomads that seem exciting and vibrant but are nothing more than bright, shiny yet empty shells.  He realizes that their rootless ways are not the answer he was looking for and he makes plans to leave them too. Don is bringing the Hobo Code to new heights, not just running away from his problems, but even running away from the first solution presented.

But first, we see Jane waxing poetic about life with Roger.  Roger is IN LOVE.  Jane is the answer to all questions, she is what he's been searching for, she will help him defy death and aging and professional impotence.  She is the one true answer.  He has never been so happy - not riding that twin, not flirting with Betty, not even with Joan.

Don is the worst travel companion ever.  Here he and Pete are at the hotel, with sunshine and swimming and lounging theirs for the taking.  But Don reminds Pete why they are there and tells him to get to work unless he wants to make this a permanent vacation.  After stuffing Pete's dreams of fun in the sun, Don walks through the hotel and catches a glimpse of a beautiful, ice princess across the room.  Betty?  It's not her, of course, but an illusion of her - beautiful, regal, happy.  Back in New York is the real Betty - tired, angry, fed up - ready to move on without him.  Don is in LA in large part because she has rejected him, and yet she is what he sees there.

Back at Sterling Cooper, Roger meets with his divorce attorney and learns the simple math that half of what you have is far less than the whole.  But he doesn't care because, as I mentioned above, he's IN LOVE, like no one before him, making Romeo and Juliet look like amateurs.  He was miserable and could see himself on a slow march to the end wallowing in his misery until death takes him.  OR, he can find new life with Jane.  Half a fortune is a small price to pay for happiness.  

While Roger has found happiness with Jane, Duck wants validation and reward from Roger.  He's been with the firm for two years and he feels it's time for him to get a partnership.  Duck has confused length of service with quality of service, unfortunately, and Roger gives him a harsh dose of reality.  Put that meeting in context - Duck is trying to stay sober, is divorced from his wife and becoming further removed from his kids.  All he has is work and he finds out just how little he is valued there.  This kind of knowledge can cause a man to do some desperate things.

During a presentation on the missile race, and humanity's ability to wipe each other out with the push of a red button, Don has a YOLO epiphany.  Leaving New York wasn't enough, he needs to drop off the radar all together.  So he hitches a ride with the comely Joy and heads for a hedonistic adventure in Palm Springs.  He meets the gang around the pool, then passes out from the heat.  Willy toasts Don for "not being carried out in a pine box" and again we're bombarded with the specter of death.  But Joy will take all that away.

With the boss away, the kids do play and Peggy strikes up a conversation with Smitty 2 that leads to an invite to a Bob Dylan concert and some awkward moments.  The rest of the office is buzzing about their date, but Kurt doesn't understand their interest.  He is, he states matter-of-factly, homosexual.  Try to put this revelation in perspective.  This is 1962, not 2014, and while there were rumors about this celebrity or that celebrity being gay, virtually no one admitted to it because of the stigma then associated. Look at his co-worker's reaction, look at Sal reading the room.  Harry says, "so Kurt is a pervert," and Ken joins him in his bigoted revelry and Sal knows without a doubt that he was right to stay in the closet.

Meanwhile, Duck is plotting his revenge against Roger, Don and the rest of Sterling Cooper by meeting with his old bosses from England.  He crawls back to them, then falls way off the wagon as he prepares to sell them on his evil plan to take over the company.  Hell hath no fury like a mallard scorned. 

While Duck is planning on a hostile takeover of Sterling Cooper, two of its young employees are about to embark on their date to see Bob Dylan.  Peggy is crushed that she once again has struck out romantically and even suggests that Kurt might want to take a guy out tonight instead of her.  Kurt fulfills the gay stereotype by explaining to Peggy why she's not attracting men and performing a makeover to bring her into the modern era.  And we all bid a sad goodbye to Peggy's ponytail.

Pete Campbell returns form California and is surprised to find out that Don isn't there.  Duck makes his pitch to Roger and Burt, while across the country Don contacts someone using his real name Dick Whitman.  His suitcase makes it home, but Don is staying in California to meet with someone who knows him by his real name.

Don's experience with the European nomads is an interesting diversion from real life, but Don cannot run away from his problems.  He's lying in bed with someone's daughter.  He sees a divorced man dragging his sad children away from his ex.  Joy may seem to offer an escape, but she can't keep the real world at bay.  Don will have to deal with these issues, his marriage, his kids, his mortality.  So he makes plans to leave to go where someone knows him by his real name.  Don has chosen not to run off with the latest incarnation of Midge's bohemian friends, instead Dick Whitman is heading for a rendezvous.

OBSERVATIONS:

Jane's poem:

Delicious and destroyed.
Inhaling the fragrance of the sheets.
Feeling the warmth of where you were just laying.
You make me new with laughter.
You make me old with wisdom.
You make wine taste sweeter.

Roger did not like hearing he made her old.  Her most attractive trait to him is her youth.  She's almost Margaret's age.  She's young, alive, vibrant, and new. Is it true that he and Mona have "been miserable for years," is it true that he doesn't want to die with her - or is it just that he doesn't want to die and he's convinced himself being with Jane will make him young again?

Don is also consumed by Joy's youth.  I'm not sure it's for the same reasons as Roger, so much as it serves as a great diversion from his real* life (*which, of course, is not so real). Don had carefully crafted his storyline - married, two kids, professional success - but with part of that crumbling, he seems lost.

Joy is reading William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" a novel about the death of a storied southern family.  The title is taken from Shakespeare soliloquy in MacBeth that also contains reference to "The way to dusty death."  Again, this reinforces the death/rebirth themes of this episode as both Don and Roger strive to stave off death by their dalliances with younger girls, taking solace in satisfying their sexual hungers.

The look Don gives the father who shows up with his two kids at Palm Springs is quite poignant.  Does he see himself in that man, forced to take extreme action against his ex-wife?  Or does he instead see himself as someone who runs away from his problems, rather than stepping up like this father?

We've been teased for over a year with Don's "Dick Whitman" back story and it is shocking to hear him make arrangements with someone who knows him by that name.  He ran away from that identity, even indirectly leading to his half-brother's suicide. And now he's willing to face someone who knows him by that name??

It was an interesting parallel, both of our male leads taking up with much younger women.  But while Roger seems to have found "true love" (or at least a great opportunity to defy aging and death), Don's sidetrip with the young Joy seems to be part of trying to find an answer to a question that is plaguing him in light of the dissolution of his marriage.

Time stamp - news report of James Meredith becoming the first African-American student enrolled at the University of Mississippi, which occurred on October 1, 1962. 

QUOTES:

Roger: Who wrote that?
Jane: I write a lot of poetry when I'm inspired.
Roger: I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything you do.
Jane: You shouldn't.  It's insulting.

Smitty:  Did you read what's going on down there?
Peggy: In this day and age.
Ken: The papers said it's going to be Little Rock all over again.
Harry.  I don't know why people keep stirring up trouble. It's bad for business.
Just another reason not to watch TV.

Don: You want to be on vacation Pete cause I can make that happen? 

Willy (to Don): My friends and I have been speculating about you, trying to decide who you are and what you do.
Don:  Why?
Willy:  Are you an actor?
Don: No.
Willy: Are you an astronaut?
Don: No.
Willy:  Someone over there would like to meet you - a young woman - only if you were none of these things.

Pete:  I just saw Tony Curtis in the men's room.
Don: Handing out towels?
Pete: Tony Curtis, Don. A thing like that.

Roger:  We've been miserable for years.  I don't want to die with that woman. ... This is the life I was always meant to have.

George Rothman:  Think of all the good things in life and cut them in half.

Duck: listen, we're coming up on two years together here. 

Roger: Did you get me something?

Duck: I'd be proud to present my accomplishments.
Roger:  Good.  Because I'm at a loss.

Joy (to Don):  Why would you deny yourself something you want?

Willy:  Everyone, to our guest. To not being carried out in a box.

Willy:   The humiliations have been spectacular.

Greta: So, Don, What's your story?

Don: I don't know how to answer that. 

Don:  Who are you?

Joy: I'm Joy. 

Harry:  So Kurt is a pervert.  How about that?

Ken:  I knew queers existed.  I just don't want to work with them. 

Willy: The humiliations have been spectacular.  

Peggy:  I don't know why I pick the wrong boys.
Kurt:  You're drinking sad.

Joy:  My father will take care of you.  He likes having you around.  You're beautiful, and you don't talk too much.

Harry: I don't know why people keep stirring up trouble, it's bad for business.

Duck:  On the table will be mounds of money, international prestige, a chance at going public. And we don't have to change our name.

Cooper:  Let them open the kimono.

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SPOILER-Y OBSERVATIONS (Don't read until you're caught up):

This trip to California pays off in a potential client in Episode 4.10, "Hands and Knees," when Pete is about to reel in North American Aviation as a client. Unfortunately, their efforts to get security clearance for Don come back to bite them, and they lose this opportunity.

Pete says, of his first impression of California, "I don't know that I'd wan to live there."  He complains about the people and says he's glad to be home.  In Season 7, Pete thrived when he worked in the California office and enjoyed his time there although ultimately it did not work out. 

Foreshadowing - Pete brings oranges back from his trip.  Sunkist later becomes a client. 

Duck Phillips may ultimately fail in this attempt to take over Sterling Cooper, but it doesn't stop him from trying to damage the company at every turn, whether by poaching Peggy or by trying to leave a little "present" in one of the Sterling Cooper offices. Yet in the penultimate episode he actually does something good. 

We know now that Don was contacting Anna Draper (and his use of his full name was a little awkward considering their relationship).  We also learn shortly that it was to her that he sent the book at the beginning of the season.  When Don is troubled and confused by the current state of his life, he runs back to the only person who really knows him. 

Mad Men, Season 2, Episode 10: The Inheritance (Recap)

Pete Campbell rattles off the list of companies that the two-person contingent from Sterling Cooper will be able to court when they're in Los Angeles next week and Don jokes that it "Sounds like a hell of a stock portfolio."  Funny you should mention stock portfolios, Don, considering that Pete learns this episode that his recently-deceased father was broke and that the storied Campbell/Dyckman dynasty has barely a pot to piss in.  So Pete won't be receiving any inheritance thanks to his father's death, only bills and a crusty recently-widowed mother.

Betty is also dealing with her inheritance.  It's been two years since Betty's mother died and she finds some of her mother's things missing and her father ailing when she goes back to her childhood home, now taken over by her father's new lady-friend, Gloria.  Betty fears she's about to be an orphan, with nothing of her mother to remember her by and only newly-forged unpleasant memories of her father, now distorted by the brain damage of his recent strokes.  The past generation is leaving nothing but misery to the next generation - which is doing its part to either avoid creating or damaging its own progeny.  And so it goes.

The episode starts with a discussion of the aforementioned upcoming trip to Southern California which Don is making sure is not a boondoggle but sticks to the mission of getting more clients for the firm.  The impression these Manhattanites have of orange groves, beaches, and lazy afternoons is a real stereotype the East Coast holds about the West even today.  Pete can't wait to get out there, grab his putter, work on his tan, and start making contacts.  Paul Kinsey is also looking forward to the trip, even though it interferes with a planned trip down south to register black voters with his girlfriend Shirley.  Doing something for mankind is good and all, but a chance to rub elbows with Ray Bradbury (who, to name drop, I once sat on a writer's panel with!) can't be passed up.

Later that night, Don gets a call from Betty.  Her father's had a stroke.  Don wants to come in on his white horse and save the damsel, but she tells him it can wait till the morning.  The next day the two of them head up to her father's house to check on his condition.  Betty finds out that this was not her father's first stroke and that his new girlfriend didn't think it was serious enough to tell her about.  Betty is furious - that her father is ill, that her mother isn't there any more, that this witch has moved in and is taking over.

Her father comes downstairs and at first he seems none the worse for wear - until he calls Betty by her mother's name and seems very confused.  It's one of the many small moments that I love in Mad Men.  At first, nothing happens.  The conversation is stilted and superficial, with Betty's brother William and Gloria both making awkward small talk. It's realistic, exactly like that moment would play out.  Later, the chitchat takes a decided turn as Gene suddenly erupts at Don.  He's furious and vicious in his attack on Don and the family take it as another side effect of his stroke, yet they don't realize that he's right on target about Don.  He may have suffered some brain damage, but he still recognizes that there's something wrong with Don.

The profound effect of her father's illness on his perception and personality, along with the emotional toil of facing his mortality, is what likely drives Betty into Don's arms later that night.  But it's just a temporary deviation from the separate path she plans to take from Don.

Pete and Trudy have been trying to add to their family for some time and,

despite their best efforts, Pete has yet to do on purpose what he was so easily able to do by accident with Peggy.  So Trudy suggests they consider adoption.  While at first cool to the idea, Pete does warm up to it and even mentions it to his brother, Bud.  BIG MISTAKE.  Bud blabs to their mom and she refuses to consider handing her inheritance (if you can call a name with no money behind it) to someone who would bring in a child from outside of the family.  Adoption, she reminds him, was something his father called "pulling from the discards."  It's not something their family does.  But then her family also doesn't go broke...or they didn't before now.  The rift between Pete and his family just grows and grows; they don't understand him, appreciate him, or value what he values.  He's a stranger there, yet he doesn't feel at home with Trudy either.

The morning after Betty and Don sleep together, Don wakes up to find Betty gone.  She later lets him know that they are not reconciled and her father's illness has not changed anything between them.  He's there for her as much as he can be, standing by and supporting her as Gene again uncomfortably mistakes her for her mother Ruth, this time with a horrifyingly sexual suggestion.  Yet Betty is so distrustful of Don that even his sympathy for what she's going through is suspect.  Viola, the family housekeeper who Betty seems very close to, gives Betty some growing up advice.  "You are supposed to take care of your husband and your beautiful children now."  But Betty doesn't want to take care of her lying cheating husband and she's not all that interested in being a parent either.  She hasn't really moved beyond being the child herself and does not know how she can handle not being taken care of. Still, she rather be alone than with Don.  So once they get back home, she sends him away, again.

Don comes back to find the office nearly deserted as most everyone is in a conference room celebrating Harry Crane's baby shower.  While Pete is plagued by his inability to get Trudy pregnant, Harry is being feted for planting one in Jennifer.  He takes in quite a haul - cigarettes, coffee, girlie magazines - all the things a new dad needs.  Harry, who's always had a sentimental streak, seems pretty moved by the occasion, despite the efforts of his coworkers to trivialize and mock the moment. As is so often the case, there are great little moments in the scene including Joan bristling when she's reminded of Roger's new lady love (the Tiffany present from Jane..."and Roger") and Peggy and Pete exchanging a brief but to us meaningful look as she hands him a piece of the celebratory cake.

Did you notice how Don zeroed in on the guidebook to Los Angeles when he first arrived back at the office?  Well, Don suddenly cancels all his meetings and tells Joan that he'll be going to LA for the conference. Don has been known to run away from his problems before and so it's not surprising that after being told by Betty that he's still not wanted at home, he decides to fly across the country. Joan relishes the opportunity to tell Paul that he won't be going after all - giving him the bad news in front of everyone at the party.  Maybe Paul will think twice before outing someone's age publicly again.  But you still have to give him credit for trying to make lemonade by quickly calling Sheila and pretending it was his idea to stay and go to Mississippi with her.

Pete needs to confide in Peggy, needs to have some connection with her (if only he knew!).  But Peggy is always so formal with him, he never seems to get the interaction he wants.  He throws out some hints to what's going on with his life, especially his decision whether to adopt or not (again, not realizing how awkward having the conversation with the woman who gave up his child for adoption).  She doesn't know what he's talking about or what he wants, but, sadly for Pete, there's really no one else for him to talk to.

Cue Jaws music.  There's something lurking in the dark, something scary and dangerous.  It's...Glen Bishop.  He's hiding out in the playhouse that Don had built in Season 1 for Sally's birthday.  Glen is in a too typical situation, torn between split homes, feeling like a burden to both parents, and looking for salvation.  As was the case in Season 1, his happiness fantasy is tied to Betty Draper.  In her he finds a kindred childlike spirit and she's as much in need of rescue as he is of someone to save.  Their interactions would be even creepier if Betty weren't such a victim of arrested development and didn't so much appear to be his peer.  But, then, Betty is the adult and she finally acts like one, calling Glen's mother.  He takes it as a betrayal, but it's more likely a sign that maybe Betty knows she needs to grow up. 

When Helen comes to talk with Betty about Glen, their interaction is much different than it's been in the past.  Betty shares with her that she and Don are separated, and this bond brings them closer.  Helen opens up, Betty opens up and each seems to much better understand the other.  Helen has been there and is making it on her own - even if she admits that she's not a very good mother.  Betty is scared about life without Don, but here is someone telling her she can do it. 

Meanwhile, some 30,000 feet overhead, Don is heading for California. "It should be a pleasant day."

QUOTES:

Don (to Paul): As much as I'd like to indulge your Twilight Zone fantasy of being shot into space
Sal:  Believe me, it's our fantasy, too.

William:  In New York.  Right.  Where everything's better.

Paul: If you don't mind, I'd rather face Mississippi and those people screaming at me and maybe getting shot after I go to California.

Pete:  What about all that money Dad gave to Lincoln Center? Get that back.
Bud:  You can't take a donation back.

Betty (to William): Stop counting other people's money.

Gene:  Who know what he does, why he does it? I know more about the kid who fixes my damn car.

Gene (to Don):  Nobody has what you have.  You act like it's nothing.  My daughter's a princess.
You know that? ... He has no people! You can't trust a person like that!

Viola:  The minute you leave, you'll remember him exactly the way he used to be.  It's all good outside that door.

Betty (to Don): I know how you feel about grieving.

Betty: Nothing's changed.  We were just pretending.

Betty:  Daddy used to fine us for small talk, remember? Conversation is an art.

Joan: How is everything?
Don: About how those things are.

Paul:  And I want you to know I've thought about it.  Let me finish. I'm going to stand there arm-in-arm with you and make a stand. It's not just about you and me.

Glen:  I didn't know if I was going to see you again.  ... I haven't seen you in so long, except driving down the street.

Glen:  I know I'm a problem for them. ...  I know I am because they keep saying I'm not.

Glen:  I came to rescue you.
Betty:  Did you bring your cape?
Glen:  I'm not joking.  We can go anywhere.  I have money.

Betty: Sometimes I feel like I'll float away if Don isn't holding me down.
Helen:  The hardest part is realizing you're in charge.

OBSERVATIONS:

Let's run away, "I have money."  I'm not quoting Glen Bishop, but Don Draper in Season 1, Episode 12 "Nixon v. Kennedy."  When backed against a corner by Pete Campbell, Don's answer is to leave everything behind and run off with Rachel Menken.  He's not that much more evolved emotionally than a 12-year-old child of a broken home.

Pete mentions "Rope," the Hitchcock thriller about the murderous University of Chicago students Loeb and Leopold who in 1924 killed a teenager in an attempt to prove they could commit the "perfect murder."  By virtue of the fact that we know their names, suffice to say they were unsuccessful.  But Weiner and Co. must be very fond of the story as this is the second mention (the first being Don referring to Roger and Ken in episode 2.03 "The Benefactor").

Don's comment to Paul and Pete, when it was clear they hadn't read the material Peggy had prepared, was meant as an insult to the boys - "maybe I should send her."  But, maybe he should have.  Had this not been 1962, it would have occurred to him to send his best copywriter, not his most hirsute one. 

Much discussion of mourning and death, obviously:  Bud says, "all we have to do is go over there, get her signature, mourn over the loss of our birthright, and move on."  William says, of their father's home "It's like a tomb in there."  Gloria reminds Gene, "Ruth is dead."  Betty asks of her father, "Is he dying."  Pete mentions not having been on a plane since his father died. 

Though confused by his stroke, Gene has a moment of clarity when he lets rip on Don "the cypher" Draper.  He correctly notes that Don does not appreciate what he has and that he has "no people" and can't be trusted.  It's unfortunate when the sanest comment comes from someone with brain damage.

Love the little moment when Bert Cooper comes into the baby shower party and wishes Harry a Happy Birthday.  Classic.  Also appreciated the call back to Harry and Hildy's one night stand as she drunkenly wishes him the best with his new baby.

The conversation between Pete and Peggy mirrors others they've had in the past, such as when he regaled her with his hunter fantasy in episode 1.07.  

Betty perks up when Glen mentions that his mother Helen doesn't want to be with him, she wants to be with her "boyfriends."  She's always considered Helen to be a slut (a divorced woman!), and after their unfortunate interactions in Season 1, she's happy to hear anything that gives her the upper hand.

There is much gold to mine in the Betty/Glen interactions.  First, where do the writers come up with this stuff.  "G: Can I tell you something? B: Of course. G: I don't like ham. I don't like meat at all, actually."  So random.  But not random is his fantasy of saving Betty, of being the super hero who takes her away from her sadness to a place where they can be together, and happy, forever.  This magical thinking is normal for kids and yet is the kind of magical thinking that Don suffers from.  Whether it's his fantasy of swooping in to win the client or save the day, or his fantasy of pullig up stakes and running away, he's as childlike in his thinking at times as Glen is.  Only, Glen still has the excuse of youth.

When Carla comes home with the kids and asks "how is he," Betty is confused by the question.  She's so entranced by Glen's presence that she seemingly forgot she was just visiting her ailing father.  Carla's offhanded comment "what's he doing here" may have snapped Betty back into reality.

Even strangers find Paul Kinsey boring and pompous.  Imagine that.  His exchange with Hollis on the elevator was priceless.  "Please, Hollis, it's Paul."  What a coincidence the first time he tells Hollis to call him by his first name, Sheila is in the elevator. 

How long has Joan been waiting to get back at Paul for putting up evidence of her age in the breakroom?  She relished the opportunity to tell him that his trip to Los Angeles was canceled.  Let's face it, he had it coming.

Lack of subtlety:
Closeted Sal Romano toasting the new baby: "Here's to the little one, whatever it may be."  We get it, Sal's gay.  Please stop hitting me over the head with obvious nods to Sal's double life.  Also, enough with the "everyone smokes."  I can't imagine even in 1962 someone would joke about hoping their child grew up to like Lucky Strikes.  Although I don't begrudge them showing us people lighting up on the plane as soon as the no smoking sign was turned off. 

Suicide count:
Pete mentions to Peggy that his flight to California crashing "wouldn't be the worst thing."

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SPOILER-Y OBSERVATIONS (DON'T READ IF YOU'RE NOT CAUGHT UP)

Betty tells Don, after she finds out about her father's stroke, "You know, I've been dreaming about a suitcase."  That image will come back in Season 4, The Suitcase, when Don has his hallucination of the recently departed Anna Draper - holding a suitcase.   

There are two times that the Draper grandchildren discuss the art of conversation and it was nice how Betty and her brother referenced their father stressing to them the art of conversation.Once was in 2.4 Three Sundays and the other time in 7.3 Field Trip.

Don comes into the office, after being kicked out of the house for a second time by Betty, and walks by the receptionist.  He smiles, "Hello, Donna."  "Allison," she replies.  Sadly this will not be the last, nor most serious, slight she suffers at the hands of Don Draper as their crash-and-burn mini affair will show us in Season 4's Christmas-themed episode.

While Glen is still deserving of his "creepy kid" reputation in this episode, as the series progresses he becomes one of the beacons of sanity, shining a bright spotlight of rationality while others cling to their fantasies.  It's interesting to watch his evolution and growth, while seeing how stagnant others (notably Betty) are over the years.  

In Glen's last interaction with Betty, he comes to say goodbye before he heads off to war. He is 18 now and he still has fantasies of being with Betty, but she explains matter-of-factly that she's married.  She hugs him then and she's scared of what might happen to him in Vietnam, wondering if this would be the last time shed see him.  

Mad Men Season 2, Episode 9: Six Months Leave

It's easy to identify the date, the episode starts with Don waking up with his smoker's cough and lazily going to pick up the newspaper in front of what we realize is a hotel room, not his home.  We see the lead story - Marilyn Monroe was found dead the day before.  It's April 6, 1962 and Peggy is feeling pretty good about not having sold the Marilyn v. Jackie ad to Playtex.  But at the office, the rest of the women are shown sobbing over the fallen starlet.

What does Marilyn's death tell us about the Mad Men world?  Beautiful, successful, married to a baseball hero, yet so depressed that she let pills take her life?  Is the takeaway that not everything is as it appears?  That beneath the stylish veneer, things are ugly?  Sterling Cooper is a hot, young(ish) Madison Avenue firm, yet behind closed doors there are men literally pissing themselves.  "Don's perfect" says Betty's friend and for everyone on the outside the Drapers have the ideal marriage.  But we know of his lies and infidelity and even her toying with an affair.  Roger, married for 25 years, is secretly pining for the beautiful new secretary in the office?  Joan, engaged to a doctor, has a deep sadness as well, what is her unfulfilled dream?  Was it for Roger to leave his wife for her?  Was it to be married and a mom by now?  Or was it to have a bigger role at the office, be something more than just an office manager?  There is how it looks and there is how it really is, and those two things are far apart in this episode.

Pete, Sal, Peggy and Freddy get ready for the Samsonite pitch and Freddy does a great job with his part, until he manages to wet himself and then passes out drunk at his desk.  We'd been foretold about Freddy's drinking, and thought him a funny guy (with his musical zipper) but this was shocking and sad.  It's all fun and games until you pee your pants.

The three cover for him and the pitch actually goes well in his absence (they love Peggy), but Pete is not about to let this go.  Pete is the kid who reminded the teacher when they forgot to assign homework, so you know he's going to go blab about this, violating the bro code.  Even though Sterling Cooper is run like fraternity row at Dartmouth, Freddy has violated their unspoken commandment - thou shalt not be an embarrassing, sloppy drunk. Pete runs with the info to Duck and Duck, either because he's dealing with his own alcoholic demons or because he wants to gut Don's department, uses the information to demand Freddy's head. 

Up in Ossining, Betty's riding partner Sarah Beth comes over to borrow a dress and finds Betty still in her nightie, hair a bit disheveled, and Betty still pretty out of it.  But like any good housewife in the 60s, her friend is oblivious and only concerned with her own problems.  And what are they?  Boredom.  She fantasizes over Arthur, the young stud at the stables, and is surprised Betty doesn't.  But then she doesn't have to.  "Don's perfect."  Betty didn't even roll her eyes at that, it would take too much energy.

Betty has kicked Don out of the house, but communication was never their strong suit so he takes her words to mean he should stay away entirely and that only confuses the kids.  Sally even called his office to find out when he'd be home and Jane, in a confused panic, said "Wednesday" before realizing she should have said nothing.  So Don picks the kids up and spends time with them so they're none the wiser, though hearing him promise "Salamander" he'll be back before she knows it is heartbreaking.  Betty gets a good look at the real Don when he comes up with a perfect lie on the spot that they can tell the kids - she still has no idea just how good Don is at lying. 

The locked, private drawer in Don's office comes into play as Betty is seen trying to jimmy it before noisily dropping the screwdriver and drawing Carla's attention.  Poor Carla.  She tries to be helpful and supportive but is just shut down.  Betty shows such fondness for her mother's housekeeper, yet seems pretty hostile (jealous??) towards her own.  Carla tries to give her sage advice as a married woman, but Betty doesn't want to hear it.  The only help she wants is in getting to the bottom of all of her husband's lies.

Don is told about Freddy's unfortunate accident but does not react the way Pete, Duck or Roger expected.  They realize Freddy broke an unspoken code.  They can all drink themselves into an early grave, but they can't do anything that makes them or the firm look bad.  And Freddy crossed that line. But Don likes Freddy and doesn't want to see him thrown away like that.  Still, when Roger praises Don for his loyalty to Freddy it's hard not to wonder why he can't be as loyal to his wife and kids.

Betty proves to be fairly manipulative and diabolical, setting her "friend" Sarah Beth up for an affair with Arthur.  Betty is taking misery loves company to a whole new height.  She manipulates those two for her own pleasure and it's a really ugly side of her.  If she can't have the perfect marriage with no infidelity, then no one can. 

There's more misery at the dinner when Roger and Don have to tell Freddy that he's taking a "six month leave" which everyone knows means he's getting fired.  Freddy puts up a weak fight, but there's nothing much for him to do.  At least Roger and Don seem troubled by having to fire him, but Freddy is such a sad, lost puppy (maybe he can meet up with Chauncey?).  It is a sobering (pardon the pun) side of alcoholism, that you can be the funny, life of the party, that everyone jokes about, and then you become the pathetic loser that everyone makes fun of.

So Don is separated from his wife and kids, he just had to fire a guy he really likes (because of another guy he regrets hiring) and he's been drinking. A lot.  Roger tries to talk to him, man-to-man, but Don doesn't engage.  He doesn't want to talk about his private life (huge surprise).  He's fully cocked to the pissed off position and he needs only to hear Jimmy Barrett's voice to send him over the edge. He punches the "comic" in the face and then leaves to go drown his sorrows with Roger.

Roger finally gets Don to open up a bit.  He admits there's trouble in paradise and Ken and Barbie are having marital trouble.  But instead of the discussion being about Don's infidelity and Betty's knowledge, Roger is actually having a completely different conversation in his mind.  He's apparently fallen in love with Don's secretary but feels that she's the unattainable prize that his marriage to Mona is denying him.  But the combination of alcohol, desire and magical thinking leaves him taking away from his "it's your life" conversation with Don that it is his god-given right to leave his wife to pursue Jane.

Freddy's ouster makes room for Peggy to move up and while she doesn't want her ascension to be at her mentor's expense, Pete is right that she should be proud of herself. She achieved this promotion because of her talent, not because Freddy pissed himself. Regardless, she feels a connection with Freddy and this is bittersweet.  It's also, sadly, a realistic portrayal of office politics.

OBSERVATIONS:

The main event occurring at the office is the annual blood drive and it brings out the competitive streak in the men.  While Don talks about its humanitarian benefit - doing something good for mankind - he also tries to figure out ways his department can win and get the press that comes with it. 

I love Sal's subtle reaction to Freddy handing him a very full glass of alcohol.  If that's the norm for Freddy, no wonder he's about to lose his job.

Joan had told Roger in Ep. 1.06 Babylon that he would one day leave her for a younger woman and she was right.  Only, he didn't leave her (she did get engaged in Ep. 2.05), he just never tried to move their relationship to the next level.

Repeated iterations of "There's no reason to talk about it" - the recurrent theme that some things are best put in the past and forgotten.

The bag where Jane picked up some extra shirts for Don is from Menken's.  Karmic?

The pseudonym Don gives to the bouncer - Tilden Katz - is the name of Rachel Menken's new husband.  Don has Rachel on the brain.

When Roger sends Freddy to the cab he tells Don to send him to McCann.  This firm is constantly used as a foil to Sterling Cooper.

Don doesn't realize how he is giving Roger permission to leave his wife for Jane.  He thinks he's the subject of the drunk conversation at the bar, but it's really Roger who's wondering why he can't pursue what he really wants and why being married means you can't chase happiness.  When Mona comes and chews him out it's too late.  Roger has made his decision and Don is angry, he never intended to be part of that. 

The Draper advice for all situations - don't look back, move forward - is in direct contrast to the wonderful carousel he spoke about in Ep. 1.13 that went forward and backward, around and around, to a place where we feel loved.  This new advice encourages not taking responsibility and not being accountable.  If you never look back, you never have to face those you hurt in the past.

QUOTES:

Don (to Ken): There'll be women fainting. I'd think you'd like that.

Roger (to the reclining Joan):  Many's the time I've dreamed of finding you like this.

Joan: This world destroyed her.
Roger:  Really? She was a movie star who had everything and everybody, and she threw it away.  But, hey, if you want to be sad.
Joan:  One day you'll lose someone who's important to you.  You'll see.  It's very painful.

Don:  Bets, what do you want? Listen, if your mind's made up, I'm not going to talk you into it.
Betty:  I thought you can talk anyone into anything.

Carla:  Splash cold water on your face and go outside.  You'll notice things are right where you left them.

Don: I don't think it's in my contract that Duck can fire someone in my department.
Roger: You don't have a contract, and I can fire anyone I want to.

Roger:  Your loyalty is starting to become a liability.

Don:  Freddie had a bad day. Can't you find something else to do besides dining on the drama of other people's lives like a bunch of teenage girls?
Paul:  Sorry, Don.  It's funny.
Don:  Sure. It's just a man's name, right?

Roger: There's a line, Freddie, and you wet it.
Freddy: You see? We're laughing about it.

Roger:  All I'm going to say is do you want to be right, or do you want to be married? I know marriage isn't a natural state, but you do it.

Roger (to Don):  You're so secretive.

Freddy: What am I going to do?
Don: It's not an ending. It's a fresh start.
Freddy:  If I don't go into that office every day, who am I?

Don: That was a real Archibald Whitman maneuver.
Roger: Who's that?
Don: This hothead drunk I used to know.

Don: I don't feel bad at all.  I mean, sometimes.  Mostly, I'm just relieved.
Roger:  Really? Do you fall in love?
Don:  That would be easier.  Then I'd know what to do.

Don:  It's your life.  You don't know how long it's going to be, but you know it's got a bad ending.
You have to move forward.  As soon as you figure out what that is.

Don (to Peggy):  Don't feel bad about being good at your job.

Lack of subtlety: 
Hollis saying, "Some people just hide in plain sight."

Suicide count:
Don saying, of Marilyn Monroe, "Suicide is disturbing."

Oh how quaint things were back then:
Yes, that is how we used to defrost freezers.  You people have no idea how we suffered in the old days.

Literary references:
Betty is reading Ship of Fools which came out in 1962 and dealt with a disparate cast of characters on a trip seeking happiness and fulfillment but ultimately finding it all an illusion.  It was named after a Platonic allegory about oblivious passengers on a voyage to nowhere and mirrored the world's (oblivious journey) turning a blind eye toward the Holocaust.

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SPOILER-Y OBSERVATIONS (READ ONLY IF YOU'RE CAUGHT UP)

This is one of the most called-back episodes.  At the end of Season 6, Don, like Freddy here, is a drunk liability to Sterling Cooper and is given a "leave of absence" that the man is supposed to recognize as the boot.  Unlike Freddy, however, Don ignores what the partners really meant and continues to think that he'll be coming back to work as Season 7 starts.  We discover then that Don is still working, in a fashion, by using none other than Freddy Rumsen to act as his Cyrano.  The support and kindness that Don showed Freddy here will come back around as Freddy tells him to "do the work" and gets Don back on path.

The line Freddy says just before he leaves - "If I don't go into that office every day, who am I?"- sums up Don at the beginning of Season 7.  Without Sterling Cooper to go to, who is he?  Don may be courted by other firms, but for some reason he is no one if he's not at that office.  He needs it so badly he agrees to ridiculous terms of rehiring, working under Lou, taking orders from Peggy, no longer being the cock of the walk.

Freddy does "go for the cure" as Roger suggests, joins AA and gets his drinking, and life, mostly back together, though he stays a freelancer, possibly forever tainted by his reputation at SC. Peggy remains loyal to Freddy who she believes was instrumental in giving her a start in the business.  In Ep. 4.02 he comes back with a new clients, Ponds Cold Cream, and he and Peggy butt heads about creative approaches.

Betty does not yet act upon her desire for another man, instead using her friend as a stand in with the young stud at the stables.  But soon she will take that next step.

Roger mentions that one of the top ad agencies, BBDO, just hired "a colored kid."  That is the first time racial integration of the big firms has come up and it will be a bigger issue in seasons to come ("backfiring" for SC when their pro-equality ad is taken literally, leading them to hiring their first black employee Dawn in Season 5).

Don's smokers cough is a misdirection as someone will develop lung cancer by the end of the series but it won't be him.

Don mentions his father, without letting Roger know that's who he's talking about. 

Mad Men, Season 2, Episode 6: Maidenform (recap)

That was a jolt.  The episode starts with the the Decembrists' 2005 song Infanta playing loudly over a montage of women getting ready for the day.  According to at least one reviewer, the anachronistic song shines "a feminist light in a subtle and symbolic way on the historic position of virtually all 'privileged' women in many traditional societies."  And, indeed, this episode does have a lot to say about the two sides of every woman - what we see in ourselves and what is reflected back at us. But it is not just the women who deal with their dualities. The men are also forced to see themselves not as they want to be seen but as they are actually perceived by others.  And it's not a pretty picture. 

We get the subtle, and not so subtle, reminder that this is the early Sixties and sexism in the work place is much more obvious and pervasive. While Peggy is the right "man" for the job of keeping Playtex happy (withe her unique insights) she is also the one who has to ignore the lewd innuendos of Ken Cosgrove and the general frat boy mentality pervading the office.  She bristles at being left out of many decisions impacting the client and we watch as she maneuvers from the sidelines to getting in on the action thanks in large part to some good advice from Joan.

The title for this episode comes from one of the competitors to Playtex, a Sterling Cooper client who has seen great results and ever increasing sales.  Duck Phillips, who so far has been less than sterling in his position at the firm, brings to Don and the creative staff the client's complaints that they'd like their ads to be more like Maidenform.  The tension between him and Don is always there, but no more so than when Duck (who is to creativity what Freddy is to sobriety) tries to tell Don his side of the business.  Don doesn't understand why their approach isn't satisfactory considering sales are through the roof, but he agrees to brainstorm a new approach.

Duck gets an unexpected visit from his ex-wife, who brings up his drinking problems first chance she gets (while the reformed Duck counters that it's no longer a problem).  She drops off the kids and the dog, Chauncey, for a weekend visit and it could not be more awkward ("How'd you like to see A Funny Thing Happened," he asks and his son replies that they've already seen it. Trying to save face, Duck offers, "not from these seats.").  It's pretty standard divorced dad stuff and hard to watch, even when it happens to someone like Duck who we're not too fond of.  He has a tenuous, at best, relationship with his kids and the tension between him and Don is so evident that Roger asks Don to take him out to lunch to make peace.  Duck could use the break, he finds out that his ex is getting remarried and that she gets the new husband and the children, while he gets the dog.

The Drapers are at the country club and Don is managing to be sociable as Betty spots a familiar sight - Arthur from the stables.  He comes over and they flirt a bit, which is not unnoticed by Don, until Sally and Bobby blow the moment by racing in "Mommy, Mommy" while Artie's eyes go wide.  And thus the phrase Buzz Kill was invented that very day.

It's Memorial Day and at the country club they salute the veterans there, asking them to stand and be appreciated.  Don stands - but he's taking credit for service he did not complete.  He's no hero but a deserter whose namesake died because of him - yet he receives the love and admiration of all, especially his daughter Sally.  He looks at her, beaming with pride as she claps for her hero father, and we know that he's a fraud who does not deserve her adulation.  Worse, we know that he knows.

So how does he deal with his guilt feelings?  Well, he is Dick Whitman after all and he learned from the Hobo Code you can just up and move on.  So he leaves and goes off to call his girlfriend under the guise of needing to go into work.  He's a pip.  He wants to get together with Bobbie but finds out that she's going to be spending the day with her 18-year-old son (speaking of Buzz Kills).  She brings up the accident and Don is unhappy - he's put it out of his mind and doesn't want anyone reminding him of it.

Paul has a great idea (it was bound to happen eventually) - the new approach for Playtex would be the two sides of a woman - Marilyn and Jackie.  The idea was thought up when the guys were out for drinks after work one night.  Peggy is seeing how the old boy network works and she doesn't like it.  When guys can get together after hours, pal around and do business, that freezes out the women in the office..  She tells Freddy she wants in from now on.

Don comes by Duck's office for the talk Roger asked him to have, but Don isn't in a particularly conciliatory mood.  He puts Duck on the spot to claim one good thing he's done for the company in the eighteen months since he's been there.   Duck admits that maybe the American Airline move didn't go as well as he'd hoped (a contender for the understatement of the year award) but he wants to put that behind them and move forward.  Don says okay and they shake hands, but Duck does not like spreading himself prostrate in from of Don and Don doesn't like Duck screwing with his business.  This is not much of a peace.

Rather than have lunch with Duck, Don heads off for an afternoon rendezvous with Bobbie, who drops the other shoe that she also has a daughter.  They have some banter and she offers that Don can stay in her room while she goes.  Things will take a nasty turn shortly, but first...

Peggy gets the proverbial door shut in her face as she again deals with being treated like a second class citizen.  She is not told about casting for the Playtex commercial, again being shut out of her own client's work.

Pete makes friends with Duck's dog and then makes friends with a girl who had come into the office to audition for the Playtex account.  They end up back at the apartment she shares with her mother (Buzz Kill #3? Nah, Pete is undeterred).   Earlier, Pete had tried to impress his brother with how important he was at Sterling Cooper, but his brother only sneered at the free booze and mocked their mother's interest in Pete.  Pete had also tried to get a rise out of Peggy back at the office, ostensibly there to talk to her about his ideas for the Clearasil account, he was as charming as he could be, but Peggy was distant at best.  So after these attacks on his manhood, Pete looked elsewhere for reaffirmation and the young model was only too happy to oblige.

Don comes downstairs for breakfast to find his beautiful wife decked out in a sexy bathing suit ensemble.  She's rightly proud of her new purchase and how great she looks (after two kids!).  So, of course, he does what any husband would do.  He lectures her on dressing inappropriately - desperately, he calls it - humiliating her and treating her like a child.  Betty only makes the whole scene more painful by just absorbing and accepting what Don says and not realizing that they are his issues, not hers, that are what set him off.

Peggy is having a pity party and goes to Joan for some "this place is so sexist" support, but Joan (who is fed up to here with people treating her like a pair of boobs) isn't feeling the sisterhood.  If Peggy wants to be treated like an equal to the men, she better start acting like it.  And stop dressing like a little school girl.  It's some tough love, but Peggy needs it.

Don gives a typically great presentation to the Playtex clients and they love it in theory.  Only...sales are great, so why change anything?  Don hides his smug "I told you so" (seeing as he specifically told Duck there was no reason to change things) and the clients leave (after first getting an offer for some after hours fun).  Duck mopes around the office.  He feels impotent at home and now at work - replaced in his kids' lives by his ex-wife's fiance, and overshadowed at work by Don.  He's tired of feeling pissed on and he is going to find a way to regain the upper hand.  His first move is to get some liquid strength and inspiration and as fast as you can say "Bye, Chauncey" he is back on the bottle. 

You know what you should never say to Don Draper?  Anything, after he tells you to "stop talking."  But Bobbie Barrett doesn't heed the warning and she goes on to tell him that his reputation with all the ladies is quite excellent.  Don does not like the idea of his past conquests blabbing about him (since he conveniently puts the past out of his mind, these reminders are no bueno).  Bobbie has now committed two sins, continuing to talk and talking about him with other exes.  Bobbie, you've been a bad girl.  So Don ties her up and walks out of her life.

Peggy has taken Joan's advice.  She's styled like a woman on the town, not a girl raising money for a church outing.  She meets up with the boys from the office and the clients at a strip club.  It's hard to say how successful she is in her attempts to be treated like one of the boys.  None of her co-workers are sitting on a client's lap, yet it still seems better to be there, included, than excluded.  The look she exchanges with Pete (who has never accepted her sexuality unless it was his alone to see) had many meanings.  She's not thrilled she has to do this, but she's not going to be a victim.  He doesn't like seeing her like this, but he's not exactly a school boy either.  As the saying goes, it's complicated.

It's a new day in the Draper household.  Don is in his bathroom getting ready for the day.  He lathers up and starts shaving, his face staring back at him.  He doesn't see anything, at least not until his daughter Sally comes in.  She sits down to watch him shave, looking up to him with the same love and admiration she showed at the country club.  She's a good girl, she's not going to say anything.  She doesn't want to disturb him so he'd cut himself.  Her words, her presence, is too much for Don to take.  He's not the good dad this little girl should be looking up to.  And would he want some man saying to her what he said to Bobbie?  It's all catching up to Don.  He can't look away from the man in the mirror, he can't live with the knowledge of the man he really is any longer.  Can he?

OBSERVATIONS:

Pete is the Rodney Dangerfield of both the office and his home - Peggy doesn't respect his creative suggestions and his brother doesn't respect his career.  Pete tries hard, but it seems he will never get the recognition and appreciation he so craves.  His fling with the model is so obviously not about the sex, but about her reaction upon seeing his business card, "Oh, my.  Account Executive."  It's that reaction he desires more than anything. 

When Pete's dalliance is about to start, the girl turns on the TV set.  What we see and hear is "High Flight," a 1941 poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. that was set to music and footage of flights and used as a TV signoff (yes, kids, in the old days, TV stations signed off overnight).  The poem was later made indellible when Ronald Reagan quoted from it after the Challenger disaster.   

Poor Chauncey.  Duck could not bear to have his dog see him fall off the wagon, and so out into the cold for his four-legged former best friend. Don was in a similar position at the end, unable to look at his daughter knowing what a terrible father he is.  But Sally doesn't get kicked out of the house, so how does Don deal with having a daily reminder of what a horrible human being he is? 

Betty is totally wrapped up in her looks and what they say about her and as long as some man flirts with her, she knows she's still okay.  She was flattered by Arthur's attention and was likely looking for more with her new bikini, but Don shut her down. 

Don is at his worst this episode in his relationship with all the women in his life.  He doesn't stand up for Peggy and shut down the sexist chatter in the office, he allows his daughter to see him as a hero when he's far from that in reality, he humiliates both his wife, who he treats like a child, and his mistress, who he treats like a whore.

Betty mentions that she and Don lived in Manhattan when the Rosenbergs were executed.  That was in June, 1953, so we know the two of them were living together at least that far back.

Don balks at the idea that he and Bobbie are alike.  She says early in the episode, "I know what you like" and "I'm the same way."  But Don doesn't want to see himself that way and counters later, "Does it make you feel better to think that I'm like you?"  His self-loathing is strong enough not to want to see himself in Bobbie, let alone in himself.

When Peggy asks during the Playtex brainstorming meeting "what am I" (trying to point out the erroneous nature of the statement that all women are either a Jackie or a Marilyn), Ken responds with "Gertrude Stein" (the lesbian writer of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas).  Don and Freddy try and help things by calling her more of an Irene Dunne, but the damage is done.  This is what we now lovingly refer to as a hostile work environment.

QUOTES:

Don:  I like a happy client, although you'd think someone would be able to talk them out of jumping onto a bandwagon as solid as this.
Duck:  Maybe they want us to raise the bar.
Don:  Why, because their share of the market keeps increasing?

Pete: Her skin cleared up, but she still looks unhappy.
Peggy: She's a cheerleader.
Pete: For who, the University of Dour?

Betty: As we used to say in college, let's be friends.

Emcee:  Please, heroes, on your feet.

Bud: I was on the phone with her the other day, and you were all she talked about.
Pete: Really?
Bud: No. I'm kidding.
Pete: I don't think I know what's funny about that.

Pete: I'm very important to the agency.  My absence is felt.

Roger:  Has your wife seen that yet? [pointing to Jane] Do me a favor. Let me be there when it happens.

Roger:  You are going to have lunch with Duck.  Perhaps on a train car because I want you to sign an armistice on American Airlines. ... Errol Flynn is gone, and so is my taste for swordplay.  You two need to put them away.

Roger:  I've been married for over 20 years. I know the difference between a spat and spending a month on the couch.

Paul:  Marilyn's really a Joan, not the other way around.

Paul:  Women want to see themselves the way men see them.

Don:  You've been pitching more to me than you have the clients.

Duck:  If you hadn't brought me in, where would I be? Some fifth wheel at McCann?

Bobbie:  Where did you come from?
Don:  You don't want to know.

Duck:  Dogs are better than wives.  Never a problem communicating.

Don:  It's desperate.
Betty: I didn't know that.

Joan:  For a moment there, I thought you were just another person coming to ask me about my brassiere.

Peggy:  I'm a good drinker.

Joan:  You're in their country. Learn to speak the language.

Don:  It's a very flattering mirror.

Bobbie:  This is nobody's maiden voyage here, handsome.

Don:  Does it make you feel better to think that I'm like you?

***********************************************************************************
SPOILER-Y OBSERVATIONS (DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'RE CAUGHT UP ON THE SERIES) 

Don's relationship with Bobbie is our first obvious clue that he has a damaged understanding of the relationship between men and women.  It is not surprising for us to learn that the man who doesn't want his wife dressing provocatively, yet is more than willing to have rough sex with his mistress, was raised in a brothel.  We hadn't seen the side of Don - the guy who would tie up a woman, demand that she be quiet, or otherwise control their relationship.  We see more of that side later but previously we've only seen Don in more equal affairs (with Midge and Rachel).


We know that Duck makes his big move shortly and then comes back years later to put his stamp on the company, yet he never does succeed.  The bottom line is that Duck is not a creative person and has no real vision - he wants to be the big shot and tries to be that guy, but always falls short.   

Betty is chatting with some friends at the club and the husband says (of where Betty and Don live, Osining, NY) "We get them to close Sing Sing, we'll be in Shangri-la."  There are many references to Shangri-la throughout the show, including the Season 7 premiere "Time Zones" where we see Don and Megan in bed watching the movie Lost Horizon.  It's similar to the theme of "utopia" which Rachel Menken explains to Don as the perfect place and the place that can never be.

Pete's brother says, of their mother, "I see her crossing the widow's walk with an eye to the sea."  While he's actually talking about the rooftop with a ocean vista, it's interesting to note that in Season Six, their mother finds her final resting place somewhere in the sea during a cruise with Manolo Colon.

Freddy says, after Paul makes the Playtex pitch,  "Apparently, I've already signed off on it."  That's another red flag about Freddy's excessive drinking, that he would have been too drunk the night before to remember agreeing to the idea, let alone signing his name to a napkin.

Shockingly, despite all the efforts of Mad Men fans, we never see poor Chauncey again.

One of the men Betty talks to at the country club mentions that their town would be Shangri-La if they only closed Sing Sing (the prison).  The idea of Shangri-La comes up repeatedly in Mad Men, up to Season 7's Lost Horizon episode.  Like the Utopia Rachel Menken described to Don (when talking about Israel), this notion of a perfect, idealized place of happiness is always just out of reach.  Not because it's unattainable, but because when people get there, they are still unsatisfied and want more.

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 4: The Monolith (Recap)

 You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

- Philip Roth, "Portnoy's Complaint"

Like Alexander Portnoy, Don Draper's "sense of himself, his past, and his ridiculous destiny is so fixed." He's nothing if he's not Don Draper -- dashing, successful adman extraordinaire.  Don doesn't know how to be anything else. If he isn't barking at his secretary to get him coffee or making sure the underlings at the office cower in his presence, who is he?  So with his new role as lowly copywriter, Don is lost.  And he handles this loss by checking out, mentally at first, then physically.

Nothing has changed for Peggy since her first few months at Sterling Cooper.  Back then, she was used by a superior to get back at someone they considered a thorn in their side.  In Season One's final episode, Don promoted Peggy and assigned her to her first client to stick it to Pete.  Now, some nine years later, she's being used by Lou to stick it to Don.  Somewhere else, Mary Wells has started her own successful firm and women are burning their bras, but here at SC&P Peggy is still being manipulated by the men around her as a pawn in their giant chess games.

And Roger.  He's been skating by all his life, first thanks to the wealthy upbringing, then to his indulgent mother, to his forgiving (to a point) wives, to the random girls who stroke his ego and other parts, convincing Roger that whatever he is doing is a-okay.  But finally his daughter turns the mirror on him and asks him to take a look at what his selfishness, hedonism, and sense of entitlement has meant for the people in his life.  For her.  Margaret claims (somewhat unreasonably) that abandoning her son to find inner peace is certainly no worse than what Roger did for decades.  Whether they are similar in weight, Margaret's point has been made.  

At the office, it's a brand new world.  Years ago when the first copier came into the office it was hailed as a move towards the future that everyone could embrace and benefit from.  But the behemoth computer that displaced the creative team's brainstorming space is looked upon with awe by some (Harry and Jim) and hatred and fear by those it seems poised to replace (see above).  It's not a metaphor, Harry says.  And he is right.  As Don notes, the computer literally is aimed at making creative obsolete.

But Don has bigger problems than the computer.  The deal he made to come back to SC&P in practice is much worse than it was in theory, and Don can't operate under these conditions. He's used to being the one with the aura of genius, the one who could dismiss an underling with a withering gaze, the one who instilled awe and fear.  It kept him above and apart from everyone else at the office.  He didn't have to learn spouse's names or where you grew up.  He wasn't the everyman, he was Batman. Superman.  Unreasonably, Don thought he'd step right back into that position.  That there would be no further repercussions for his past actions.  This unrealistic, magical thinking that everything can go back to how it was, as if Don never did any if the things that got him exiled in the first place, it's a sign that Don still doesn't understand just how many bridges he burned.  But he is being held accountable, and he is not the only one.

Perhaps Don had been cushioned from this reality by Roger.  But Roger wasn't there to fix things, he had his own problems to deal with.  Marigold.  His daughter has run off to join a commune, an anti-everything group of young people who just want to get high and have sex.  In other words, she's living out his last few years.  Roger is confronted by what an absentee father he's been and how providing money is not all that a child needs from their parent. Like Don, Roger is seeing the consequences of his actions.  While Margaret has no right to abandon her son, Roger isn't exactly the paragon of parenthood who can convince her to go back. His collapse into the mud may have been one of the least subtle moments this show has ever had and it's too bad they went so heavy handed here.  Watching a clean, pristine Roger leaving the filthy shack would have been a more compelling contrast - he looks pure and upstanding yet that's just a façade. 

The main plot point of Episode 7.04 was ostensibly about the transition and move forward for the firm as they embrace computers as a significant part of their business. The monolith of the episode's title could refer to the imposing IBM 360 that is both an eyesore and a source of great sadness to those who value the old ways and it can be a salute to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey which was a touchstone for many obvious references throughout the show.  Usually, the show tips its hat more obliquely but this episode was so heavy-handed that there's no point in noting all the obvious symbolism and allusions to the movie.

Slightly less on the nose was the discussion that Don had with Lloyd about his company:

Lloyd: I saw that they have got a great product, but they don't trust it.  I've worked with these machines.  I know how resilient they are.  I don't want to find them in a junkyard in two years.

That's what's going on with SC&P.  They have a great product - Don - but they don't trust him any more.  Is Don resilient or will he be in on the streets shortly?

If it were up to Bert - if he hadn't gotten Don to sign that contract way back when - Don would be rotting in a junkyard right now. Yes, he's back at the firm, but Bert makes sure that he understands what that does - and doesn't - mean:

Bert:You have a fundamental misunderstanding of what went wrong here.
Don: So, that's it? You want me to be a janitor? Whistle while I work?
Bert: You thought there was going to be a big creative crisis and we'd pull you off the bench, but in fact, we've been doing just fine.
Don: So, why am I even here? I could've gone anywhere.
Bert: Why are you here?
Don: Because I started this agency!
Bert: Along with a dead man-- whose office you now inhabit.

Yeah, Bert's invoking of the late Layne Price was the lowest of low blows and the strongest sign yet that Don was only brought back because it was cheaper than buying him out.  While I'm not entirely sure that Bert's heartless dismissiveness is in character - if Don can come back and make them money, what else matters to Bert - it serves as a sign that Don is much further down and has much farther to climb to get back to where he once was.

Will Don bounce back?  Thanks to his decision to call Freddy, he was saved from imploding and was given one get out of jail free card.  There was another not too subtle hint about a possible outcome for Don.  The Mets banner that he conveniently, if inexplicably, found folded under the couch in Lane's old office, is a reminder that as bleak as their start was, back in 1969 they had a miracle year where the chumps became champs.  I can't see him embracing AA like Freddy, but he's going to have to stop turning to drink - being "in the bag" as Freddy referred to it - whenever things don't go his way if he wants that miracle to happen to him.  Him finding the miracle Mets banner on what could have been his last day at SC&P, maybe it means a turnaround is coming.

Another too-cute, not at all nuanced, moment was the final song, The Hollies' "On a Carousel" which of course harkens back to Don's shining moment as a copywriter.  We can hope that Don is on his way to being that guy again, but let's also hope that the writers of Mad Men bring back a lighter touch next week.

OBSERVATIONS:

Season 7 has been chock-full of callbacks to Season 1, but this episode had a scene that was straight out of the first episode of Season 2 when the new copier is brought into the office.

Joan: I could take out the lockers and use that wall.
Hildy: The break room? Don't take away the break room.
Joan: I'm not taking away anything.  Believe me, this machine is a gift to you girls.

Pete discusses with his real esta-girlfriend Bonnie going to Yosemite.  This was a more subtle approach to the episode's title than the black door and the many 2001 references as Yosemite is home to not one but two monoliths - Half Dome and El Capitan. Speaking of Pete, how disassociated is he from his family by living out on the West Coast.  Sure, he and Trudy may be separated on the way to divorced, but for him not to know that her father, their daughter's grandfather, had a heart attack was surprising.

Interesting conversation between Jim and Lou:

Lou: I thought we had an understanding about Don.
Jim: There's nothing to be afraid of.  He's an exquisite copywriter, if nothing else.
Lou: He's gonna implode.
Jim: That's a distinct possibility, isn't it? On the other hand, you might get some good work.

Lou is threatened by Don and well he should be considering he came in to replace Don.  If Don is back, what is Lou doing there.  But it looks like he was assured that Don would not replace him and that he'd be kept at bay - their "understanding" about Don.  Jim dismisses Don as a copywriter (albeit an exquisite one) and that gives Jim the opening to assign him to the client as Pete and Roger instructed but not at all in the capacity they intended.  Very sly of Lou.

Aside from the many references to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 Sci Fi masterpiece, there are also many nods to Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining.  Lloyd, the bartender who tempts the alcoholic writer, here played by the LeaseTech exec Lloyd tempting Don with the prospect of a new client and a whole new industry.  We have Ellery and his Dutch boy haircut running down the halls a la Danny Torrance.  The movie's theme of isolation and loneliness are two themes that have plagued Don's life since he was the whore child growing up on a farm surrounded by two people who wished he'd never been born.  But unlike Jack Torrance, we don't expect Don to take a murderous path as he faces his demons and we're still hoping this is a story about redemption and acceptance.  Of course, all bets are off if next week Don's 25 tags each start out "all work and no play."

So is Don obsolete?  Has the modern world passed him by as he's spent much of his time at the bottom of a bottle (or a fake out can)?  He went through all that effort to create the perfect package and the perfect pitch and no one is buying it any more.  In the larger picture, is creativity being pushed aside for the newness of the computer age?  Is information -- rather than ideas -- king?

You want more symbolism?  Don helps Ginsberg with the couch, but he is holding his side too high, he has to bring it down.  And Ginsberg - his former underling - is the one barking out orders, where to go, how to hold it.

Peggy should have been more suspicious that mere minutes after she's caught by Lou making a snarky comment about him --  he doesn't believe in creative because he doesn't know how to do it -- he gives her a raise and puts her in charge of a new client.  It wasn't until Joan cued her in at the end that she realized that none of this was about her and it was all about Don.

The scenes between Don and Lloyd were too cartoonish to take seriously.  Lloyd, who looks like a cross between Don and Caesar of Planet of the Apes, comes off like a snake oil salesman whose tonic will cure all ills.  Don's drunken verbal attack, likening him to Satan himself, was out of character for Don and over the top even for someone who'd imbibed that conspicuously. 

How great is Roger's secretary?  From playing with Ellery to her perfect reading of Mona's message, she is the sunshine on a cloudy day.

"Turn On" - the TV show referenced in this episode - is considered one of the biggest flops in TV history.  The filmed sketch comedy show, without a laugh track but with the quick cut aways that are now the post-MTV generation norm, was based on the premise that it was produced by a computer.  It was cancelled after one episode (some stations stopped airing it after the first commercial break) for being both too blue and too unfunny.

Don had watched "Lost Horizon" when he was back in LA with Megan and in this episode there was a reference to Shangri-La the utopian earth-bound paradise from the movie. Since the start of Season 6, with Don reading Dante's Inferno, the focus has been on Don's travels through hell and whether they'll lead him to ultimately to paradise.  His current position in his marriage and at work cerainly seem like the middle ground - purgatory - and we're set up to see if Don rises or falls from here.

Bert's shooting down Don's idea was a flashback to a scene in Season 2, Episode 2. Back then, Duck Phillips shoots down Don's plan to stick with Mohawk Airlines and discusses jettisoning them for a shot at American Airlines.  Duck tells Don that he knows what Don's fantasy was, i.e., that the president of American Airlines would see Don's work, fall in love, and have to hire him.  But that's not how it is going to play out.  Duck has the connection, he's made the first overture, and he'll be the one to land the airline. And we all know just how well that went!

QUOTES:

Peggy: He [Lou] doesn't believe in creative because he doesn't know how to do it.

Roger: We're getting a computer.  It's going to do lots of magical things, like make Harry Crane seem important.

Ginsberg: Harry Crane took a huge dump, and we got flushed down the toilet.

Ginsberg: Let me put this in terms the art department can understand-- they're trying to erase us! But they can't erase this couch!

Pete: Well, I'm glad all agree the client is going to love having a woman's point of view-- or whatever Peggy counts as...

Roger:  He's spent three weeks alone in that cave, and he hasn't clubbed another ape yet.

Mona: I only know one other person who would do something like that.
Roger: How is this my fault? 
Mona: Because she is a perverse child who only thinks of herself.

Don: Who's winning? Who's replacing more humans?

Harry: It's not symbolic.
Don: No, it's quite literal.

Lloyd: It's been my experience these machines can be a metaphor for whatever's on people's minds.

Joan: Well, Peggy, I don't know if this makes you feel better, but I don't think they thought about it at all.

Freddy: Do the work, Don.

Suicide watch:

Harry: Tim Conway plays a guy who's trying to kill himself the whole show.
Don: Probably to get out of his contract.

Freddy: I mean, are you just going to kill yourself?

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 2: A Day's Work Recap

Yes, Donald Draper has been a jerk and is getting what he deserves.  He lies, cheats, boozes and generally only cares about getting his own needs met no matter the cost to the other people in his life.  He's a terrible husband, a rotten father and a lousy coworker.  Yet the opening scene is heartbreaking, especially as you see him suiting up to look presentable to Dawn after a day making Al Bundy look dapper.  He's alone and scared, trying to keep it together.  He's thumbing through magazine ads, he's marking the liquor so he can keep track of how much he's drinking.  He's a lost soul.

The highlight of the day is Dawn coming by.  Seeing Don put himself together for their excruciatingly brief time together, his desperate attempt to get her to stay if only for a few minutes, it's a new vision of what rock bottom looks like.  For those minutes, Don feels connected to SC&P.  He feels important.  He's still in the loop.  But the crumbs of information are so insubstantial, they won't sustain him for long.  You can see Don moving farther away from the company he helped create.  The old Don never stayed in a rut like this, his motto was "keep moving forward." 

Dawn is happy to help Don keep some connection with work, but she balks at taking money from Don, even though it obviously costs her something to make this detour before going home.  But it makes what she's doing seem unsavory and Dawn isn't doing this for anything but the best intentions--to assist Don as she always has.  She doesn't want to sneak around or do anything of questionable morality, but she'll do her best to keep him up on what's going on as long as she can.

Again, we see the contrast between Don and Pete.  Pete is on top of the world, scoring left and right in California.  He nailed the SoCal Chevy Dealers account and nailed Bonnie the pretty real estate agent as well.  Pete's life could not be any better...until he shares his great news with the East Coast and gets nothing but push back.  Have to bring Bob Benson into this, have to run it past Detroit.  As much as he's loving life in Los Angeles, Pete is learning the hard lesson that you don't want to be the branch office, the red-headed stepchild of the corporate world. His counterpart Ted hates California, too, but at least for him it serves its purpose by putting 3,000 miles between him and now psycho ex-girlfriend Peggy.   

Valentine's Day is a tough day for the unattached, especially when your ex is cross-country with the missus.  But Peggy was completely bonkers today. She's still pining over Ted so she assumes she's in his thoughts as well.  Somehow she convinces herself that the roses on her secretary's desk were hers. And from Ted.  Her jumping to conclusions and ignoring any evidence to the contrary was a completely believable moment.  We're all convinced that the world and everything on it revolves around us and so it was not at all surprising that Peggy would assume the roses on Shirley's desk must not be Shirley's, they're Peggy's.  The fact that there's no note shouldn't change anything.  The hesitation in Shirley's response only confirms what she assumes, these are from Ted!  Yep, Ted's not over her and is still thinking about her and sent her these roses even though he's a continent away with his wife.  Peggy had to work very hard to create this fiction in her mind, but she's now convinced.  Unfortunately for Peggy, they're not from Ted, in fact they're not hers at all.  But she lets her wild imagination lead her to lose an entire day, much of her sanity and a good secretary.  All in a day's work!

But Don's Valentine's Day starts not with Don in his undies chomping Ritz crackers and watching an old Little Rascals show; today he's in full Draper regalia, at a business lunch with Dave Wooster from Wells, Rich and Greene.  They're doing a little pas de deux as Don refrains from asking for a job while Dave mentions he's heard tell of a certain adman who had a certain meltdown at a certain pitch meeting.  Into this awkward situation comes Jim Hobart, who famously tried to recruit Don to his company McCann Erickson way back in Season One's Shoot. Even with the word on the street about Don's break with SC&P, Don's reputation is still strong enough that Jim tosses out another veiled offer.

Speaking of SC&P, all is not well in the Don, Ted and Pete-less main office.  It's not just Pete who's dissatisfied with the new power structure at SC&P, Roger is not enjoying getting shut down at every turn.  He and Jim Cutler are constantly butting heads and it seems that Roger never gets his way.  Earlier, we see how lost Roger is at the new post-Don firm, when his attempt at levity falls flat at the feet of the humorless Lou Avery.  Now Roger can't even fight for Pete even after Pete lands a big new account and Roger is losing even Bert's support.  SC&P has never been a merger, it's been two different companies pretending to be one big happy Brady Bunch-like family but all the time keeping track of whose kid is whose.  Roger's line at the end to Joan, about it not mattering whether he agrees with Jim or not, shows just how impotent Roger is, just a name on a building and nothing more.

The scene where Pete is in Ted's office, fumbling for the word purgatory when that's right where he is, is great.  How he storms in, storms out, grabs a bottle, storms back in.  In a shout out to the fans, he says what we're all thinking, this is where he is supposed to say to Ted, let's start our own agency.  So now we know that's not going to happen.  Pete realizes he's in exile, not on a path anywhere worth going.  He's just counting the days til death.  Ted has resigned himself to all of this and it's about time Pete gets on board. 

But soon the focus is back on Don, greeted by a surprise -- his daughter Sally is in his apartment.  He's dressed from the lunch meeting and so quickly spins a story to her that he was at the office but left early because he wasn't feeling well. But Don doesn't know that Sally had come from his office and knew he wasn't there and, more significantly, knows that his name is no longer on the door and there's some crotchety old man now occupying his office.  Sally, who you'd think would be used to the dissembling her father is wont to do, looks perplexed and caught off guard to watch him fabricate another lie in front of her.  

Before we get back to them, we see more evidence that Lou Avery is the worst person on TV (Hannibal, the Bates Motel kid, Mr. Burns, Joffrey, all preferable).  He berates Dawn for being away from her desk (to buy his wife a Valentine's present!!) so that he had to deal with Sally showing up at the office and looking for her father.  He tries to get Dawn fired but Joan knows and likes Dawn and doesn't like Lou and recognizes his overreaction and irrationality for what it is.  She moves Dawn off his desk and saddles him with the nearly brain-dead Meredith.  Dawn, nailing down the title of world's best secretary, quickly calls Don with a heads up.  Sally was there and she knows he wasn't.

In the car, Sally is understandably cold and distant.  She's not interested in idle chatter.  She's not at all interested in anything her father has to say.  Don now has to fess up to Sally that he lied to her about where he was, but not before first getting mad at her for not telling him she knew he was lying (and how twisted is that!?).  "Why would you let me lie to you like that?" he asks.  As if it's her fault he can't tell the truth.  Don compares her with Betty (which is about the lowest blow you can hit Sally with), claiming that she relished in trapping and ambushing him with the truth.  But Sally fights back.  She lets Don have it, letting him know what an uncomfortable place he put her in and how she doesn't even feel comfortable going to her Dad's apartment for fear of running into Mrs. Rosen. The newsman on the radio says it best, it's a chilly Valentine's Day.


The relationship between Don and Sally is one of the most complicated and important ones on the show.  So much is at stake that I find myself holding my breath as they do their dance.  There's a bond there that he has broken but the question is is it irreparable.  The car ride is so tense and the final release of anger on Sally's part is a necessary part of the healing.  She just wants him to stop talking, because if he stops talking to her, he'll stop lying.

In the diner, he tries to connect but Sally has her guard up.  She knows something, he knows something, they slowly reveal the truth to each other.  For once, Don seems real.  He stops and tells her the whole truth, about what he did and what the consequences have been.  He takes the blame for his actions.  Neither the suave, perfectly pressed Don Draper nor the unnaturally relaxed Dick Whitman he was with Anna. This may have been our first vision of who Don can be if he can finally embrace the truth.  And you can see how much just telling the truth means to Sally.  She doesn't need Don to be perfect, she just needs him to be real.

They've reached a new place, a new understanding.  There must have been a step or two in this direction last Thanksgiving, after Don showed Sally where he was raised.  It now seems he told her the whole story.  Perhaps, that bit of honesty is what made his regression to lying so painful for her.  But now he's embraced the truth again and maybe this will be how it will be from here on.

This episode had its share of showing individuals triumphing over the efforts of others to keep them down.  Joan walking into her new office, upstairs next to all the other account executives.  Dawn taking her seat as the new head of personnel.  They battle glass ceilings and racism (I can never look at Bert Cooper the same) but still they rise.  Of course, to keep the karmic balance of the office, Shirley has her Valentine's Day ruined by Peggy and, possibly worse, is reassigned to Lou.  Peggy has completely lost her mind and let her unresolved feelings for Ted keep her from moving on with her life.  And Pete found that he's no more the alpha male here with Bonnie than he was back in the 'burbs with Trudy.  He might as well put his balls in a jar, he doesn't need them.

But it ends, as it begins, with Don.  When we first saw him, he was a lonely, disheveled wreck, sleeping away the day and wallowing in misery.  The last glimpse was of a man startled to find out he was loved.  There is so much hopefulness in the final scene of Don and Sally.  Last season she said, "my father's never given me anything."  Today, tonight, he gave her another look at his real self and she accepted it and it brought them closer together.

Don has run away from love before and and much as hearing Sally say "I love you" had to make his heart swell, it's always out there that Don won't feel worthy and will find a way to destroy this.  I really hope not.  It's hard to ignore Don telling Sally that he's in New York because he wanted to stay and fix things.  When has Don ever chosen to stay before?

QUOTES:

Sally: I'd stay here till 1975 if I could get Betty in the ground.

Bonnie (to Pete): You're such a big deal.

Michael: She has plans.  Look at her calendar.  February 14th: masturbate gloomily.

Stan: Hard to believe your cat has the money.

Lou (to Roger): The strangest things happen to you. 

Dawn: Hello, Dawn. 

Shirley: Hello, Shirley.

Dawn: Keep pretending.  That's the job. 

Dave Wooster: I don't know what the truth is and I really don't care.

Don: I'm just looking for love.

Jim: Ted, weren't you there when we signed Chevy? Roger seems to have failed to get a head count.
Roger: I don't see any reason to keep score.

Jim: Don who?  Our collective ex-wife who still receives alimony?

Don: Sally, what do I say?

Sally: Just tell the truth.

Pete: I don't seem to exist.  No one feels my existence.

Ted: Just cash the checks.  You're going to die someday.

Meredith: Maybe I should get a pencil.

Don: Why would you let me lie to you like that?

Sally: Because it's more embarrassing for me to catch you in a lie than it is for you to be lying.

Bonnie: Our fortunes are in other people's hands and we have to take them.

Don: The reason I didn't tell you I wasn't working was because I didn't want anyone to know. 
Sally: Got it.
Don: I didn't behave well. I said the wrong things to he wrong people at the wrong time.  

Sally: What did you say?

Don: I told the truth about myself. 

Sally: Why don't you just tell her you don't want to move to California.

Jim: What are the skills required down here? Organization? Fortitude? Lack of concern for being unliked?

Jim: There's an office open upstairs. It's for an account man not the head of personnel.

Joan: How about Meredith?

Peggy: She has the mind of a child!

Don: Life goes on.

Sally:  I'm so many people.

Roger: Does it matter?

Jim (to Roger): I'd hate to think of you as an adversary.

Sally: Happy Valentine's Day.  I love you.

OBSERVATIONS:

On the TV when Dawn came over was "That Girl," starring Marlo Thomas--a cute, modern (for its time) take on a young girl trying to make it as an actress in NYC.  The episode they showed was not by chance.  It aired on February 13, 1969 and had the lead, Ann, go out for an audition.  She was chosen because she had a sophisticated, classy look.  The scene?  She gets a pie in the face. Ann is torn--she could use the job and the money, but the part is degrading.  She ends up taking the part, then feels embarrassed and feels like she'll never get the kind of work she really wants.  There are enough parallels to Don's story for a novel.  He needs the job, if not the money, and so goes on an interview, yet he feels that he may never get back to being the old Don Draper because of his breakdown in the Hershey meeting.  The sophisticated, classy Don is now the punchline of jokes circulating in the ad world.

There really is a Wells, Rich and Greene and its president was Mary Wells Lawrence.  Read about her here.  It's interesting that while Peggy is having trouble moving up at SC&P, elsewhere there was at least one woman running a successful ad agency. 

The two songs that played during the episode were The Turtles's "Elenore" and "This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies.  Relevant lyrics: "Can I take the time, To ask you to speak your mind,
Tell me that you love me better" and "The warmth of your love's, Like the warmth from the sun,
And this will be our year, Took a long time to come."

It was mentioned in passing that the ad firm Ogilvy and Mather landed the Hershey account.  Apparently, their first commercials did not take place in a brothel, shocker, but instead featured "sentimental shots of young children at play, along with the jingle, 'There's nothing like the face of a kid eating a Hershey Bar'" along with the tag line the Hershey is the "Great American chocolate bar."

This may be the first time the man who was famously instructed in The Hobo Code didn't choose to run away but chose instead to stay and try to fix things.  At least that is Don's explanation to Sally why he's still in New York and not with Megan in LA.  If true, this would be a huge step in the right direction for Don. 

Not only does Sally go to a funeral, but Peggy mentions -- when taking the flowers out of her office and putting them back on Shirley's desk -- that her office smells like an Italian funeral.  Put that with Pete's comment that maybe he's dead and doesn't know it and Ted's suggestion that he not worry about anything since he'll be dead someday anyway, and you see how much Mad Men piles on the death references even in what otherwise was a pretty upbeat episode.

Bert Cooper's racism really shocked me.  Telling Joan, of her decision to place Dawn at the front desk,  "People can see her from the elevator."  And "requesting" that she reshuffle her reshuffling of personnel, was a great insight into the times and the man.  He may not think he's a racist, and we may thing times are a-changin', but it's all there ready to bubble up to the surface. 

Roger hanging up on Pete.  He couldn't argue with him and he certainly understood Pete's frustration, so what better way to handle him than ignore him.  But that's what is happening to Pete, in his mind.  No one sees him, no one hears him.  He told Ted to pretend he's in New York.  Everyone else pretends that he's invisible.  It was bound to catch up to Pete.  The happy-go-lucky Pete from the season seven debut just couldn't last.  You know what they say, wherever you go, there you are. 

Loved Don's conspiratorial dine-and-dash plan with Sally and how great it was to see a genuine smile pass between them. 

If you didn't feel like the Grinch -- whose heart grew three sizes -- by the end of this episode, you need to have it checked.  The way Sally said, "Happy Valentine's Day, I love you" - not like a chore or an obligation, but with genuine feeling.  And Don's reaction.  I thought his heart would explode right there.  It's a testimony to the writing and the acting that we know just how significant this moment was, what a potential game changer for Don.

Shirley is rid of Peggy but, despite her Valentine's Day meltdown, I don't feel that getting Lou is a step up. I loved her and Dawn's conversation in the lunch room, their joking about others at the office getting them mixed up and the frustration of being a second class citizen among second class citizens.  I hope she and Dawn can stay friends and allies and that Dawn's promotion won't cause any problems.

Roger realizes he has no power at his firm anymore and seems completely broken.  I don't think we're in line for another suicide, and maybe the drug-fueled orgies will keep him from offing himself, but Roger cannot be happy with the way things have turned out.  Cutler has made it clear from last season that he was unhappy with the power balance at SC&P and thought they were too hasty to jettison their own CG&C people in favor of the SCDP staff.  Getting rid of Don, marginalizing Pete, he's well on his way to wresting control back.

Season one, episode one Don scoffed at the very notion of love.  It didn't exist, it was something we admen created he told Rachel.  Last season, he had a breakthrough when he realized he felt genuine feelings of love for his son Bobby, as opposed to the love he pretended to have because that's what one does.  Will he accept that he is loved by Sally and that it's real?  That love is real and is something to find and accept?

Finally, will this road trip with Sally encourage Don to stop wallowing, stop letting other people decide his future, and start taking action to get his life back on track?  Will he take her suggestion to tell Megan that he doesn't want to move to California and he still wants to be a Madison Avenue ad man?  Will he make a fish-or-cut-bait demand at SC&P or will he asked to be relieved of his contractual obligations?  Who does he want to be from here on out?

*************************************************

Spoilery Observations - (Don't read until you're caught up)

So much foreshadowing of what was to come in episode 7.13! That entire diner scene from when Sally gets back from calling her friend to the end.  The discussion of the funeral and "life goes on."  

Want more on early 1969?  Here's a cool video with clips of some of the top pop songs from the beginning of the year: click here.  There's also this website that gives you a brief view of that day in history: click here.  And here's my Spotify playlist of some of the best songs from the year: