This has nothing to do with snacks or TV, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This is my blog. I get to make the rules.
My mom keeps texting me pictures of my dog. Which should be a joyous occasion, because my dog is super super cute. Evidence:
She surfs. She scores!
But for some reason my mom’s pictures of my dog (Daisy) always catch her in states of EXTREME depression. (Or at least that’s how I read her expressions.)
Since LOLcats are usually really amusing and uplifting, I’ve starting calling these pictures DOGZ.
To keep MYSELF from getting depressed, I’ve added words to try to turn things back around. Dogs are supposed to make people happy, damnit!
She seriously looks like she's on her deathbed, in the 1800s.
Another depressing little biscuit of information for you: I don’t think I’m going to recap yesterday’s “Mad Men.” Sorry. But it was good. If you want to talk about “Mad Men” in the comments section of this post, I am happy to engage.
I will say this: I continue to love Peggy. I’m SO MAD at DON about WHAT HE DID toward the end of the episode. He knows what he did. You know what he did. (He’s at it again. SAD FACE.) And Roger= hot mess.
Feel free to add your two cents. But I completely understand if that picture of my dog sent you into a spiral of depression, and you’re too sad to type.
Last night’s “Mad Men” (episode 410: “Hands and Knees”) was… I mean, HOLY SHIT. Everybody is fucked!
Beware: This is a level 5 on the spoiler alert scale. (Or, like, a code red on the Homeland Security Spoiler-Alert scale.)
At the beginning of the episode, Don’s biggest concern was that Harry Crane wouldn’t come through with tickets to the Beatles concert at Shea Stadium. Did you notice that Betty was actually HAPPY when she found out that Don would be taking Sally to that concert? Does she love Don again, a little bit?
Also– I was kinda surprised that Betty was okay with Sally going to the concert, because my dad was older than Sally at the time, and he wasn’t allowed to go.
When Sally finds out about the tickets, she screams like a crazy person. Like… those girls in the Beatles concert footage. So yeah. She’ll have a great time. (Don says that he’s going to wear earplugs. Haha.) (Square!)
Speaking of Harry, what is UP with him? He needs to take a plane to California immediately? Shady business. Maybe an affair?
Anyway, thanks to Pete’s new government-y missile-making client (National Aviation? National Aeronautics?), Don’s new secretary (Megan from reception– Mrs. Blankenship died last week, in case you missed it) filled out a form to get him government clearance. And he signed it, not realizing what it was. And that THREE out of EIGHT answers were lies.
So the g-men show up at the original Draper residence and question Betty, and she keeps Don’s secrets. They have a great phone call where he thanks her. Later that night, Betty tells new-husband Henry that the g-men came to question her, because she doesn’t want to have secrets. And then Henry’s like, if things go well, they’ll be investigating me. Big aspirations. Blah blah. Bleh.
Don finds out (from Pete, who knows his Dick Whitman secret) that if they drop the $4 million Astro-whatever account, the investigation will stop. So he’s like, SHUT IT DOWN! (I kept thinking it would be kinda hilarious if “30 ROCK” and “Mad Men” merged, especially… I’ll get to that.) But Pete’s like, fuck you and your lies!
He gives this lovely little speech to Trudy about how the honest people always suffer. Oh, Pete. I mean… Peggy didn’t tell him about the baby? I guess that upset him. But he has cheated at least… two times? Three times? And has definitely done some other scummy stuff. So he’s not exactly a saint.
And also, Trudy looks like a crazy pink marshmallow in her maternity nightie.
Snuggle time!
But I love her. She’s awesome. And she wants Pete to talk things out with her. No secrets! (You know… other than the secrets.)
There’s also a funny Don/Pete moment where they get on an elevator, and Don tells some unseen person to take another elevator. Snap! Men gotta talk!
Don goes on a date with Faye, and when he gets home two guys are standing in his hallway. It turns out they’re just (conveniently) lost, and everybody wore g-men-looking coats and hats back then, but Don freaks out and has what appears to be a Level Five Panic Attack (I’m using the tornado scale).
Don thinks he’s having a heart attack, but Faye says he’s not because her father had heart problems, and his heart would hurt. Don’s like, “Fuck you, you’re not a real doctor.” Haha. Did they know what panic attacks were, back then? Apparently not.
Faye refuses to leave Don’s side because he’s obviously not well, and eventually he tells her that he switched places with the REAL Don Draper and that he’s a Korean War deserter. OH. Faye wonders if there’s a statute of limitations on things like that, but Don’s like, NO, I’m FUCKED. He’s sorry that he told her, but she’s glad he did. And then she lies down next to him, and she’s totally his next wife. NO SECRETS.
Seriously, Don is SURE sure that he’s super-fucked. Like, he sets up a trust for his kids, which Betty can access. (Bad idea?) He indicates to Pete that he might just have to disappear, and that SCDP can run without him.
We’ll discuss the thrilling conclusion of that story in a bit.
Meanwhile, Joan is pregnant. And the baby is Roger’s.
You ARE the father.
Joan has been TRYING to get pregnant, so I think the logical thing to do here is to lie that the baby is a little farther along than it is, and pretend it’s Dr. Greg’s. But Joan decides to get an abortion, and Roger chips in the $400. They get a referral from an extremely disapproving doctor, and Joan goes out to New Jersey to take care of it. (She won’t let Roger drive her.)
I guess she can’t go to her BFF gynecologist who performed the last one, because she’d have all sorts of explaining to do. Now that she’s married.
At the clinic, Joan watches as a seventeen-year-old girl gets called in. The girl’s companion starts to cry, and I totally want Joan to pull a Liz Lemon and say, “It okay! Don’t… be cry?” But Joan actually knows how to administer comforting words, so she talks to the woman and finds out that the girl is her DAUGHTER, and the woman had her when she was fifteen. So… the mother of the abortion girl is 32. And Joan is… older than that?
But, as the mother notes, her daughter seems younger at seventeen than she felt at fifteen. (These days, 30 is the new seventeen.) The mother mistakenly thinks that Joan is waiting for her daughter. Joan goes along with it, lying that her daughter is fifteen.
I wonder if that age correlates with her first abortion.
We don’t see Joan get called in by the doctor, and maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I’m not 100% sure that she had the abortion. She shows up at work the next day all chipper and tells Roger that she’s fine. I mean, I know this is Joan’s third abortion, but I’m guessing you’d be in quite a bit of pain the next morning. (I don’t know!) (Seriously, Mom, I don’t!)
Meanwhile, Roger almost has another REAL heart attack, because Douchey McAwful of Lucky Strike announces that he’s cutting off the company’s 30-year relationship with Sterling Cooper. Jerk-face reminds Sterling that he inherited the Lucky Strike account. (And Jerk-face inherited Lucky Strike. So what?)
There’s more father/son going on, elsewhere in this episode. We’ll get to that.
Roger FREAKS, because Lucky Strike is the biggest account they have ($7 million), and he begs for 30 days to get Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce’s affairs in order.
I hate you.
My first thought was, Can they hire Salvatore Romano now?! Because if you remember, he was fired for rejecting THAT GUY’S advances.
But they can’t hire ANYONE, because the company is fucked. Double fucked, because Don is forced Pete to get rid of the Aviation account. Which Pete cultivated last season, while Don was off gallivanting with the Palm Springs jet-setters. Anyway.
And Roger has to shake hands with that guy, when he really wants to murder him.
So– Don is fucked. Pete is fucked. Roger is fucked. Joan is… un-fucked?
Let’s check in with my favorite enigma, Lane Pryce. England’s finest.
So, Lane’s son is supposed to come visit. Lane has an adorable Mickey Mouse doll and some red, white and blue balloons at the ready. (Which… are both American and British colors, but I’m assuming he’s going for America-ness.) But… little Nigel is nowhere to be found. Instead, Lane’s FATHER shows up, ready to drag Lane back to England.
Uh oh.
So Lane, Don, and Lane’s father (Robert), go to the Playboy Bunny club. (Whatever it’s called.) Lane is a member, and it’s obvious that this Bunny named Toni is his girlfriend. Nice going, Lane!
Meet the parents.
Did you notice that she’s black? That shouldn’t be a problem in 1965.
But good for him! Lane is full of surprises, isn’t he? Under his straight-laced exterior, he’s all kinds of interesting.
Now that I think about it– did we see Toni before this? I think we might have, but my brain is mushy around this. Maybe I’m just having deja vu. (The last woman I definitely remember seeing him with is the New Year’s prostitute.) Either way, it turns out that she and Lane are already in the “I love you” phase of things, and he’s staying in America for her. (Is he divorced? Or just separated? I can’t remember.)
Toni’s not exactly pleased that she had to meet Lane’s father in a Bunny costume during work, so Lane decides to take Robert and Toni out to dinner, so they can get to know each other. Robert is polite to Toni, but backs out of dinner, using the excuse that he’ll be traveling in the morning. Lane sends Toni ahead so that they don’t lose their reservation.
And then… ROBERT SLAMS LANE IN THE FACE WITH HIS CANE! It’s nuts. I thought Lane was going to lose an eyeball, or that his dad was going to beat him to death. Old man justice, you guys.
America may have won the Revolution, but Britain carries a big stick. WHACK!
Out of a really crazy episode, that was probably the craziest scene. And saddest. Because Lane is… what, in his forties? And he can’t do what he wants. He’s still ruled by his father. He’s lying on the floor, totally helpless. Totally bleeding.
And he just wanted to see his son.
So… Lane is fucked. Everybody is fucked.
The partners gather for a meeting, and Pete announces that they lost the Astro-peeps (because Don forced him to, ehrm, abort the mission). Pete doesn’t blame Don. And he sits there and takes it as Roger FREAKS OUT at him. Because as only Roger knows, they also lost Lucky Strike. Triple fucked. (When Joan goes through their roster, he says NOTHING when she reads Lucky Strike. So… he’s sitting on ticking time-bomb.) (Or a missile, if we want to keep with the title/theme.)
I was proud of Pete for holding his ground, even though it’s unfair. He’s a man now. And he’s going to be a father in about 10 seconds. Don does very little to defend Pete, but Bert has the final word. He reminds Roger that accounts come and go. That’s the name of the game.
And Roger says NOTHING about Lucky Strike. ARGH!
Lane announces that since the accounts are all in order (or SO HE THINKS), he’s taking a leave of at least two weeks to put his affairs together in England. And then he just walks out. Gone. Which means he will probably be in London when the shit hits the fan. And he’s the money guy.
DON’T GO, LANE!
Um, are Pete and maybe-pregnant Joan (and absent-from-this-episode Peggy) going to be left alone with Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce? Is there even going to BE a SCDP by the end of the season? They’ve lost their biggest account, Don’s ready to run at a moment’s notice, Lane may or may not return from England, and Roger and Bert are old and sickish.
Mrs. Blankenship was the canary in the coalmine, maybe. (She died. Sorry, I didn’t recap last week.) (Or maybe I did a small one? Why is my brain so crap?) (I’m drinking so much water! It can’t be dehydration.) (Maybe my brain is waterlogged?)
At the end of the episode Megan brings in the Beatles tickets. She’s like, yay, everything worked out. Can I go now? (It’s 8pm, but the sun is shining. Does that happen in NYC?) (It happens in Vancouver in the summer. I LOVE VANCOUVER!)
Don stands staring at Megan as she reapplies her lipstick. At first I was wondering, is he macking on her? What about Faye?
Then I realized: He’s probably thinking, how can you be so cavalier? You filled out the form that FUCKED ME. And your life just goes on like nothing happened. (But she was just doing her job.) (And he signed it without reading it.) (That’s what he does!)
But hey, the Beatles tickets came through! They were the red herring. (But still, something’s up with Harry.)
It was a great episode, filled with so many “Holy shits!” and moments where I just burst out laughing. I’m probably forgetting some of the funnier moments. Or maybe they weren’t funny, so much as shocking. But this was definitely… wow. We’re on a roll. Which means the finale must be looming.
Okay, time to eat some banh mi! And revel in the fact that I am not any of the “Mad Men” peeps. They are SO fucked.
They’ve all been whacked with a cane, literally or metaphorically. Cut down. Thus, episode 410 is called “Hands and Knees.” Will they crawl out of this mess intact?
Next week’s episode is called “Chinese Wall.” Not “Great Wall of China.” Just “Chinese Wall.”
After this week (Episode 409: “The Beautiful Girls”), who doesn’t love Dr. Faye Miller? She’s the softest!
I came across a great LA Times interview with Cara Buono, the actress who plays Faye. I recommend that you read the whole thing, but here are some interesting excepts.
First of all, did you know that Faye is JEWISH?! (SCORE!)
What sets you apart from Faye?
I have naturally dark, almost black hair and she’s blond. She’s also Jewish. The line she says in the phone booth when she’s telling her boyfriend off. “Go … in the ocean.” That’s an English translation of a Yiddish expression. And her father, though he’s a gangster, he’s not of Italian descent.
Now I know you’re dying to see dark-haired Cara Buono. I got your back!
From her Soprano days.
She looks so different! (And more Jewish, but I guess Faye is trying to keep that under wraps?) (I’m allowed to say she looks Jewish, because I’m Jewish. It’s in the Seinfeld laws.)
And Cara brings up something that I brought up this week… the whole dating-Don-rather-than-being-his-mistress thing.
Don and Faye’s relationship begins from a place of honesty, which is a big change for him. Do you think she’s someone he can open up to about his past?
Something I realized is that Faye is not a mistress; all of Don’s other women have been mistresses. But she’s a real … can I call her a “girlfriend”?
I think it’s safe to call her that at this point.
But what I’m thinking is, would she want to call him her boyfriend. I always thought it was interesting, that she’d say she has dinner plans, she’s busy. Who are all these people she’s going out with?
I had the same question. Did she just say she had dinner plans to be coy? Or is she a Don?
Okay stop reading my drivel and go read what she had to say about it.
Oh, and look at this photo from next week’s episode.
I'm feeling intense love for Pete's robe.
Pete continues to wear blue amazingness, and I continue to endorse his wardrobe. (And his chest hair is more palatable than Don’s… what I can see of it.) (Not that I want to eat anybody’s chest hair.) (Sorry, boyz.)
‘Tis the night before Yom Kippur, and my stomach is already feeling a bit grumbly. I said I wasn’t going to fast hardcore, but it’s downright wimpy to eat or drink between sundown and sunrise. C’mon!
So I’m writing a little blog for you instead. (Crystal urged me to blog Kol Nidre, but I don’t know if she realized that it’s a food-free affair.) And trying to make this have to do with “Mad Men,” because this is not The Daily Prayer.
I always like to go to Kol Nidre (aka Yom Kippur Eve), because there is sad/pretty music. So I wore a Target dress that looks kinda soccer-mom-at-a-school-recital-in-the-’burbs to work today (a few co-workers said, “Nice dress!” and I replied, “NO.”), and went directly from there to services at USC’s Hillel. The current Rabbi is named Lori, and I like her insights and sermons.
According to Lori, Kol Nidre (it’s also the name of a once-a-year song) was the first thing ever heard in a talkie. (JEWS FTW!) As you may recall, THE JAZZ SINGER is about a Jewish guy (a cantor’s son) who goes undercover in blackface because he wants to be… a jazz singer.
I didn’t really make the “Mad Men” connection until I googled “The Jazz Singer,” and most of the pictures of Al Jolson looked a little bit like this…
CRINGE.
That’s Roger Sterling, for you “Mad Men” dopes. Season 3.
The second “Mad Men” reference was more overt. Lori told a story about working in a senior facility in Manhattan. A 90-year-old woman who “dressed like Joan from ‘Mad Men’” walked into Lori’s office one day and said, “I went to the doctor, and it’s official: I’m pregnant.”
Old people can be hilarious!
BUT that night, the Joan lady died of a stroke. WAH WAHHHH. Sad. Double sad. She was so vivacious!
Overall, the sort of theme of tonight’s sermon was that we have to stop sleepwalking through life so that when we die (AT ANY MOMENT), we won’t have any regrets about everything we didn’t do. We’ll just be like, time to die. “High five!” (That’s a direct quote from Rabbi Lori.)
That makes me think of Don’s snap-out-of-it episode this past week. He assessed his life and was not happy with what he saw. So he’s trying to change.
What am I doing?
It’s interesting to resolve NOT to sleep-walk through life on Yom Kippur, because one of those most intriguing aspects of this day is that we’re living like the dead (and/or vampires). Not eating. Not drinking. Not bathing. Not sexing each other up (okay, maybe not so much like vampires). Just kinda walking around in a cloud. (And generally trying to sleep as much as possible, to get through the 25 hours of no food or drink.)
I like the idea of being a ghost for a day, because I’m all about quiet observation. (A paradox for those of you who know me, because I’m maybe more known for being at the center of loud conversations.) But I also very much like the idea of coming through that cloud, finding some sort of clarity, and living a more lifey life for the other 364-ish days of the year.
Ironically, my major resolution is to write more, which is kind of a ghosty/sleepwalky pursuit.
Rabbi Lori ended her sermon with, “Let the games begin.” Very Hunger Games. Yom Kippur is totally a hunger game.
Whether or not I break the fast (and I may be masochistic tomorrow and post some of my backlogged food pics), the official snack of Yom Kippur, according to Rabbi Lori, is air.
I’m going to go to sleep now, but I’ll leave you with a midnight snack… I took this in Long Beach two weeks ago, but I’m feeling too lazy to tag it.
Are you full yet?
Looks like the walls of my bedroom at my house house. Very relaxing.
An easy fast to those of you who are going to do it up. I’m always tempted to GO THERE, but I think I’m going to try to stick to my non-fasting guns this year. With all the sickness going around, I’m not keen on weakening my immune system. (And in fact, my resting/eating habits on Yom Kippur are sorta like a preemptive sick day… mostly water and broths.)
Good night, and good luck.
Oh, and I’m totally wearing my “Mad Men”-style dress to services tomorrow.
I really don’t have much to say about this week’s “Mad Men.” I didn’t watch it with the “I’m going to recap this” mentality. I will tell you that a friend of mine goes to a gym where the guy who plays Henry Francis is a trainer, so I’m not surprised that he’s ripped.
Also, now I watch two shows where sexy guys keep broody diaries. (The other one being “The Vampire Diaries.” Duh.)
But my no-recap-post plans were dashed when my mom sent me an email with this postscript. This made me laugh because it’s like… one of those machines that turns a car into a square of metal. So packed! (Also, re: many things in this paragraph: [sic])
spoiler-don’t read this yet if you didn’t watch mad men…
Speaking of that, I had the close-captioning on for Mad Men last night bc Don sometimes mumbles, as does Betty. it was interesting to hear Don talking in his head when he was writing in his journal and also reading it from the tv at the same time. Really interesting episode. Swimming “therapy”. So much happened with Don/betty/henry/don’s blond babes/joan/peggy/obnoxious jerk peggy fired/joan’s reaction/don with baby gene/henry hitting don’s storage boxes-wtf? etc etc.
Pithy.
If I am the queen of the long recap, my mother is the dame of the small bites recap. I guess I didn’t inherit the brevity gene. But I did inherit the liberal use of slashes (as in /, not serial killing) gene.
Moms write the darndest recaps.
Also, RIP Paul Kinsey and Salvatore Romano. You’re not really dead in the show or in real life (as far as I know), but I miss you guys! Hugs.
Dear Peggy, This should be your Facebook pic! Love, the Future
Just finished watching last night’s “Mad Men,” Episode 407: The Suitcase. Written by Matt Weiner and Matt Weiner alone. Did you notice that the episode was about Peggy’s frustration over being the underling idea-submitter, always watching her hard work get rewritten, and not getting credit or awards for her contributions?
And Don’s reaction? Fuck you, Peggy! Your pay is your thanks!
More and more, I see the world of “Mad Men” as a reflection of the world of TV writing. Just sayin’.
So yeah… let’s do a quick rundown of what happened.
-Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali) was in a big boxing match. And it was also Peggy’s 26th birthday.
-Peggy ran into pregnant Trudy Campbell in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce bathroom, and Trudy dissed Peggy about being an old maid by saying “you’re still young.”
-Duck wanted to start a new company with Peggy, but luckily Peggy knew he’d gone back to his drinking ways. Duck showed up at Peggy’s office to DO her, but ended up in a wrestling match with Don, which may or may not have lasted longer than the Clay/Liston match.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a Duck.
-Peggy’s boyfriend, Mark, arranged a surprise birthday dinner with her family (I thought he was going to propose, because some people sic families on people for proposals, but I guess I was wrong). But Peggy stayed at work with mean-drunk Don (without telling him that she had plans), and she and Mark broke up over the phone, as Mark sat with her entire family. Awk. Later Peggy tells Don that she expected romance and candlelight, not for Mark to round up the people who annoy her the most. I get that. Bye Mark. I’m over you, too.
-Peggy says, “I’m single!” in a way that is sad, adorable, and exactly what I do every time I’m single again. (Peggy imitating life.)
"I'm Elysse?!"
-Don discovered one of Roger’s dictation tapes for his autobiography, and we found out that Don’s crazy old-lady secretary was a “hellcat” (AKA used to sleep with Roger, kinkily) and that Burt Cooper has no balls (LITERALLY), because they were surgically removed by the mysterious Dr. Lyall Evans to whom Roger alluded in the Honda episode. Why they were removed, I don’t know. But Cooper maybe had the doctor killed?
[-Upon further reflection and prayer, I'm not sure if Cooper ACTUALLY had his balls removed, or whether Dr. Lyall Evans, like, had an affair with his wife. I'm guessing it's the latter. Because Cooper doesn't have a high-pitched voice. I kinda feel like an idiot for not hitting this conclusion earlier. (But at least Peggy was also confused about it, in the episode.) (I'm such a Peggy, you guys-- in case you didn't get that the first thousand times I said it.)]
-The new guy, Danny (the “cure for the common x” guy) is so short! But actually seems like a fun coworker, despite his annoying-ness last week? His line about James Bond meeting a girl underwater is one of my faves. And even though his name is Danny, he’s Jewish? Our first Jew since season 1!
-Don takes Peggy out for dinner at some cheap Greek diner, which is funny because Mark and the fam were waiting for her at a really fancy Greek-themed place.
-Peggy tells Don that her family thinks he’s the father of her given-away baby, and therefore they hate him. Don DOESN’T know that Pete’s the father. Don tells Peggy that she’s super-cute, but he couldn’t sleep with her when she was his secretary. Peggy’s like, yeah right, never stopped you before. But Don’s like, men would line up for you. And she’s like, what? And later he fights Duck for calling her a whore. So… Peggy, you don’t know your own wiles. (And you looked really pretty this episode!)
-Anna Draper is dead, and Don drinks so much that he barfs, and he’s really sad, and he talks to Stephanie on the phone, and Peggy sees him cry? And I think Peggy is going to be his next Anna? And maybe marry him if not-really-married Dr. Faye Miller doesn’t? (And if Peggy doesn’t end up with secretary-Megan or one of the people from the lesbian party– Abe included.)
-Don actually tells Peggy a little bit about his parents and his past– such as, he was in the Korean war. Both of them watched their fathers die.
We're not so different, you and I.
-Peggy has never been on a plane, and I kind of want Don to take her to California with him if he goes there to do Draper-stuff.
-The actual famous Samsonite idea is the elephant one, which Don rejects. Later they see a mouse. That’s kind of funny. Elephant, mouse.
-Um… that’s all I feel like talking about? I can’t think of anything else right now. Oh yeah, Don sees Anna’s ghost, holding a suitcase. Is it Samsonite? I don’t know.
-And I didn’t watch LAST night because this happened (my usual)…
Falling asleep on the couch, that is.
I watched “Mad Men” last night rather than this morning because I was voraciously reading The Hunger Games. People have been urging me to get my butt in gear and read it, and I finally complied. So good! I’d be reading the 2nd one right now if I wasn’t waiting for my sister to mail it from St. Louis. Once again, I wish teleportation existed! (I might just have to Kindle it.)
Not surprising that I would love this book, because it’s all about snacks and TV. (That’s not entirely why, but that’s how I can justifying writing about BOOKS on here. No books allowed!) (Wait– books allowed! I make the rules.) In the future. Really!
The book revolves around this sick televised “Survivor”-type showdown that captivates the nation. First it felt like the Olympics, complete with nationalism (only in this case it’s district-ism) and built-in human interest stories. Then it was like “Survivor,” only you didn’t get voted off the island– you got KILLED off. Then it got all “Bachelorette.”
It’s totally telling us that we are the worst. Sorta.
But I’m not making it sound as awesome as it it. Just read it so we can have a very scholarly discussion about it. (Off the blog. Nothing scholarly happens here.) (I’m about to post a picture of a ladybug cupcake.)
Um, yeah. Sorry I haven’t been recapping “Mad Men” for the past few weeks. Sorry this recap is kinda scattered and lame. It’s Labor Day. I’m not supposed to be working too hard. (I actually did some Labor yesterday. I lifted a couch! And I might do some IKEA-ing today… I’m doing this holiday all wrong.)
I prefer Pete's blue suits. He rocks the blue suits.
Episode 404, “The Rejected.” Air date: 8/15/10
This is gonna be a REAL recap, so let’s dive right in. No time for dilly-dallying.
Before the episode begins, a title card appears warning us that there will be brief nudity! I was hoping it would be that scene from the season 4 trailer where the woman is naked from the back, but it turns out the nudity is in photographs. (Seriously? I got excited over nothing.) (Although, I’m sure it’s a landmark for AMC.)
Also: This episode was directed by John Slattery, aka Roger Sterling. Here’s an interview about that.
In the first scene, Don and Roger are on a conference call with Lee Something, Jr., the awful Lucky Strikes guy. They are taking turns not paying attention, and Secretary Allison alerts Don every time he actually needs to speak up. Ha. Even before the internet/cell phones etc etc etc, people didn’t listen to each other on the phone.
There’s not even speakerphone technology. Everybody is holding a corded line. Don’s on one phone, and Roger and Allison are on another. Apparently Lee can’t hear Allison’s line? (“He can’t hear you,” Don scorns when she whispers.) But there’s no mute feature, is there? I’m confused. Technology confuses me in every era.
“I would never buy a sailboat,” Roger tells Lee. “I don’t like to do things myself. For that price a boat should have a motor.” TOTALLY. Or a crew! Or… fuck you, Lee. You’re the worst. Why am I even engaging?
Don opens a letter from Anna Draper. Inside, there’s a picture of Anna and Don from his recent trip. “Stephanie doesn’t think we look old,” the letter says, in scrawly don’t-know-I’m-dying-from-cancer cursive.
Don and Roger end the call abruptly by pretending that they’ve looked out the window and discovered that Radio City Music Hall is on fire… and they have to go help put it out? And if you believe that, I’ve got a sailboat from 1965 with your name on it. It’s a steal!
Bad news for Pete Campbell– where the heck have you been, Pete Campbell? SDCP has to drop Clearasil for Pond’s, because Pond’s says so, and Pond’s is the bigger account. Pete’s father-in-law gave him the Clearasil account– or owns Clearasil, or something like that. It’s not… CLEAR to me. (Sorry.)
Pete goes into… Pete’s office? But Harry Crane is sitting at his desk, reading a newspaper. Guess who’s getting married, Harry says. KEN COSGROVE. We haven’t seen that guy since Season 3. But Harry went to the opera with him last month. Ken’s father-in-law “shits gold ingots.”
“My father-in-law’s a bus driver,” Harry laments. “The only place he can take me is to the moon.” (Oddly, that “Honeymooners” reference coincides with a “Honeymooners” clue in yesterday’s LA Times Sunday crossword.)
“Why did you go to the opera with him?” Pete gripes. “He’s our competition… are you always looking for a job?” It’s called networking, Pete. Look it up.
“Look, Pete,” Harry says. “There’s a group of us. We’re all coming up together. You don’t think Kenny’s a comer?”
HAHAHAHAHA. What is UP with that word on TV this year? It was on “Glee,” because Rachel sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” And guess what year that musical came out. Yep, 1964. So… what is up with people saying “comer” in the 1960s? WEIRDOS.
Harry tells Pete that they’re having lunch with Kenny tomorrow, and Pete ever-so-gently bangs his head against the wall.
Next we’re in the elevator with Peggy and Marshall’s girlfriend from “United States of Tara,” for the few episodes where Marshall was bi. In “Tara” she was a high schooler in 2010, but now she’s a twenty-something in 1965. And in real life only a few months have gone by. They grow up (and back in time!) so fast.
"Your boyfriend is gay."
So girl-from-”Tara” is Joyce, an assistant photo editor at Life magazine. (Remember when Life existed?)
Joyce is holding a file of rejected photos– naked ladies. (Or, as the refined would say: Nudes.) “My boss hates nudes,” Joyce tells Peggy. “Who hates nudes?” Peggy asks. (Not AMC, apparently.) (But they DO disclaimer them.)
In the Previously On they showed the scene where Peggy tells Freddy that she wants to get married, and now I’m wondering if that foreshadowed Peggy being a very conflicted lesbian. There is a total lesbian vibe happening on this elevator ride. (Remember how the Sterling Cooper elevators had operators?)
I’m sure we’ve seen Pete’s father-in-law (Tom) before, but I never realized that he’s the dad from “Clarissa Explains it All.” (!!!) Today’s guest stars are coming from all sorts of awesome female-name shows.
Those watermelon tumblers are so 1990s amazing.
Pete hems and haws about having to give up the Clearasil account, but Tom cuts him off– he already heard.
“You crazy kids!” Tom crows. Pete is confused. “What are you talking about?” Classic comic misunderstanding in 3… 2…
Trudy’s pregnant! (Whaaa…??) She found out on Monday, but hasn’t told Pete yet.
You guys… wasn’t Trudy infertile? What’s going on?
“I feel like my heart’s going to burst,” Pete says. In a good way or a bad way?
“If it’s a boy, it’s 1000 dollars,” Tom says. “If it’s a girl, 500.” What is he talking about? A gift? How much the baby is worth? Also: Hello, sexism.
Tom realizes: If Pete wasn’t calling Tom here to talk about the baby, what WAS the news? “We’re putting new creative on Clearasil,” Pete lies.
“May you know this feeling many times,” Tom says, re: fatherhood/baby-having. He only has one child, because… Trudy’s mother had her uterus removed? The way Tom says it is very blase. As if she had her uterus removed because it was making her look fat.
I’m guessing something traumatic happened, but Tom doesn’t seem to know. (Well, we saw how involved the men were allowed to be, in the episode where Betty had Baby Gene.) (Zero involved.)
Pete gets home, and Trudy already knows what happened. Her father called in tears. AWWWW. His guilt is adorable to me. Trudy wanted to wait for their anniversary to tell Pete. (I’m guessing their anniversary is soon. It would be funny if it was ten months away.)
Pete, in his typical hilariously clueless Pete way, says, “I want to spin you around but I don’t want to damage anything.”
Pete: This feels different than I expected.
Trudy: How would you know what this feels like?
“Because I had a baby with Peggy, but she didn’t tell me until she’d already given it away?” Pete doesn’t say.
Trudy wants to tell her father about Clearasil, because he can’t be mad in the middle of all this happiness. “Tomorrow night. Yankee pot roast,” Trudy declares. She is totally the woman behind the man. Too bad the man is not worthy. (Also: Yankee pot roast? Tee hee.)
It’s weird to think that Trudy is probably younger than me. And it’s maybe weirder that the thing that most makes me think “I don’t know how women do it back then” isn’t the fact that she’s married, or pregnant– it’s her ability to make a Yankee pot roast. I don’t even know what that is!
And yes, I fully acknowledge that plenty of people– including small children– know how to cook in these modern times. And plenty of girls my age are married and having babies and/or running households. But for now I’m going to stick with what I’m good at– namely, eating food I didn’t cook, watching TV, and blogging. (And whether or not I’m good at blogging is up for debate.)
But I’m open to learning how to cook! (Hey boys.) Or dating a guy who cooks. (Double hey, boys.) (This is going to tie in well with Dr. Faye Miller’s storyline, which is rapidly approaching.) (Actually, it’s right now? PERFECT TIMING.)
Hey girl hey!
Dr. Faye Miller, advertising psychology expert (or something like that), is interviewing the young single secretaries at SDCP in order to figure out how best to advertise Pond’s.
For the panel, Faye’s pretending to be young(er) and single. (But… don’t the secretaries know who she is? Whatever, apparently they don’t… she’s very clandestine when she comes to visit, I guess.) Faye changes from her business clothes into a Joan-esque blue one-piece. (Did she borrow it from Joan’s Single Ladies collection?) She takes off her wedding ring (so… I guess she won’t be the one marrying Don?) and gives it to Peggy for safekeeping.
Faye is upset that they didn’t make her a name card, because she wanted her name to be spelled wrong, so she could seem unimportant. Instead, she goes into the panel and says, They didn’t even make me a nametag! Little old me, I’m definitely not important enough to run this panel!
I guess she doesn’t want to seem like an authority figure because she wants the secretaries on the panel to open up to her, but now that I think about it… is she also trying to play down her authority because she’s a woman? Even though she’s presenting herself to other women? Definitely some interesting gender politics at play here. (Note: Don, Freddy, and Peggy are watching Faye through a two-way mirror.) (The male gaze!)
In the semi-dark observation room, Peggy tries on Faye’s wedding ring. As we say in the TV world, Don clocks this. (AKA he sees it happen.)
“Your financial future’s in the hands of a roomful of 22-year-old girls,” one of the men says ruefully (I think it’s Freddy). Get used to it, Freddy.
Faye makes a big deal out of eating a danish and talking about her beauty regimen. (First thing’s first, probably stop with the danishes.) (She actually mentions watching her weight at some point and kind of laughs about it, like oh haha). (Faye is like me and this blog. I blog, Haha, eating all this ice cream is going to make me fat! Hilarious! But then I sign off from my computer and put on my fat skinny jeans and cry.)
Eventually the other girls start eating the danishes. Power of suggestion! As soon as you get girls eating danishes, they are moments away from CONFESSION.
The front-desk receptionist (Megan) talks about how her French mother washes her face with just perfect-temperature water and fingertip pats. And amazing genetics, obviously. I kind of want to punch my TV.
“She’s amazing,” Peggy says, and I can’t tell if she’s talking about Megan or Faye. Peggy’s been drinking the Lezbionic Tonic (which, I learned this week, only works if you’re already a lesbian).
The Rejected? (That's the episode title, folks!)
I almost had caption-block again, and then I remembered the title of this episode: The Rejected. And these women were specially picked for this panel because they are unmarried/single. Awww.
One secretary is named Dotty (she points out that “dotty” also means… idiot, basically) (poor Dotty), and starts talking about her ex-boyfriend and how he didn’t really notice her. (Story of my life, Dotty.) (Story of a lot of lives, apparently.)
Secretary Allison says, in a small voice, “It’s worse when they notice, sometimes.” Obviously referring to the whole thing with DON HAVING SEX WITH HER. She’s PTSD’ing over it. (Totally justified.)
Next thing you know, Dotty is crying and telling stories of her ex. “How the hell did this get so sad so fast?” Freddy asks. HA! Women + danishes + ex-boyfriend stories… what do you expect? Off at the end of the table, poor Allison is crying quietly to herself. Obviously she can’t discuss her issues. I don’t even know if she knows that Don is watching.
(The presence of hot-Megan is not helping things. Hot girls just make non-hot girls feel terrible about themselves. Especially girls with naturally hot French mother genetics.)
“You can only do your best with what God gave you,” Dotty says. “I gave him everything, and I got nothing… it’s not what I see, it’s what he sees.” The male gaze! And also: UGH.
Allison exits the room, overcome. For some reason Peggy feels responsible, and goes to talk to her.
“They just want to get married,” Freddy says in his simple Freddy way. “They’ll buy anything that’ll help.”
Peggy catches up with Allison, in Don’s office (I think). “You must have gone through everything I’ve gone through,” Allison says. Peggy was Don’s secretary season 1, right? “He’s a drunk, and they get away with murder.”
I don’t know exactly what the deal is, but Peggy gets mad. “Your problem is not my problem,” she huffs at Allison. “You should get over it.”
Nice, Peggy. Great job at comforting.
I have to wonder what made Peggy decide to go after Allison. They’re not friends. And even more than that– what set Peggy off? Was it Allison’s harsh (and more or less accurate) appraisal of Don? Has Peggy put him on a pedestal? I mean, she knows his foibles, but he IS her mentor.
But my gut feeling is that Peggy is… I don’t know, I think deep down she might be hurt that Don never “noticed her,” as Dotty would say. She may be the one secretary he didn’t sleep with. Peggy’s reaction might be kind of like, “Fuck you! I wasn’t pretty enough?”
Is PEGGY going to marry Don? She is apparently hell-bent on getting married. Or is she a lesbian? (Is she a lesbian who would marry Don anyway?)
At any rate, Peggy is a real bitch to poor sad-face Allison.
Pass the Lezbionic Tonic.
It’s time for lunch with Kenny Cosgrove, the accounts man who also writes short fiction! Welcome to Season 4, Ken!
But wait, those ganefs at CBS are screwing Harry again. By calling him on the phone at lunch? Whatever, Harry is trying to be so Hollywood now.
Harry: Those ganefs at CBS are screwing me again.
Pete: Those what?
The question I wrote was, “Is Harry just using Yiddish because he’s been in CA? Or is he supposed to be Jewish?” Rich Sommer (who plays Harry Crane) tweeted last night that HE (Rich) isn’t Jewish, and I have a feeling that Harry isn’t either. I mean, his wife’s name is JENNIFER. (There are Jews named Jennifer NOW, but I don’t think there would have been, back THEN.)
At any rate, it’s funny. And of course Pete wouldn’t know a lick of Yiddish. Total goy.
So Harry goes to the phone, and Ken takes the moment to confront Pete: Don’t say shitty things about me behind my back.
Wait, did Ken say shitty on TV? That’s what I wrote down, but I can’t tell if it was a quote or just my paraphrase. But they’ve said “shit” on “Mad Men” before… I think. And… there were nudes, you guys. [Movieline heard it, too. So there you go: Ken said "shitty."]
Pete’s like, Whaaaa? Because as we saw at the beginning, he hasn’t really been keeping track of Ken or thinking much about him.
“You didn’t call me an all-American idiot who fell into everything?” Ken asks in disbelief. “I heard that you told your wife that I was driving the [famous bloody foot] tractor.” (Poor Guy!) He also heard that Pete said he’s marrying for the money. And it turns out that Trudy is friends with the fiancee. Double awk.
Of course of course of course, Harry is just telling Ken all these lies, which are really how HARRY feels. I’ve totally had shit like this happen to me, where a friend attributes his or her opinion to me, and suddenly I’ve got some angry third-party friend calling me and asking why I gotta diss them so hardcore. (Because my friends are Eminem?)
Pete just shrugs and takes the high road. “I apologize. Mea culpa.” Then he shakes his head and adds: “Textbook Harry.”
Now I HOPE Harry’s not Jewish, because he’s making us look bad. Especially in 1965! (But he is helping spread the use of Yiddish? Even though… ganef is fairly obscure these days? Am I right?) (I thought it was spelled “goneth.”)
Ken is… at some agency that he likes okay. McCann bought out Sterling Cooper, and it sounds as though he left McCann (he says, in the non-PC lingo of the times, that McCann was full of “retards”). Maybe he’s at Duck’s agency? Who knows. Maybe they said where he is, but I didn’t catch it.
Ken also says some stuff about turning Mountain Dew into Pepsi. I’m not really following that, either, but it reminds me of turning water into wine. Oh, the Biblical weight of advertising!
Pete tells Ken about the baby. “Another Campbell,” Ken quips. “That’s just what the world needs.” Ken also says that he can’t wait to have a family. He’s so adorable. Hopefully he and Pete become besties, and Pete brings him to SCDP. (I mean, Pete’s a partner. Time for him to do something partner-y.) (Full disclosure: I don’t really know what it means to be a partner, but it sounds important.)
Don walks into his office, and finds Allison… still crying. Awww, I want to hug her. (But not in a Joyce way.)
“This actually happened…” Allison says. “We made a mistake, and I feel like it’s awkward, and it’s better for both of us if I move on.”
She wants to work for a WOMAN (yes!) at a magazine (she heard about it through a friend, I think), and asks Don for a letter of recommendation.
“Type up whatever you want and I’ll sign it,” Don says. OH NO HE DIDN’T.
This is the thing: All Allison wants is some ACKNOWLEDGMENT. She was an awesome secretary and he never seemed to notice, and then he had sex with her and blew her off and acted as if everything was the same. Allison did EVERYTHING for him. She bought his kids their CHRISTMAS presents. All she wants is to have a letter, in HIS words, saying that she was a great employee. And he’s like, Nahhh, you can write it.
As the modern-day equivalent of an Allison, I can tell you– the ONE thing that can really make your work day amazing is getting praise from your boss, when your boss doesn’t HAVE to notice or approve of you. And the ONE thing that can make it suck the most is feeling as though your boss is disappointed in you, or doesn’t care about you.
Telling Allison to write her own letter of recommendation is the equivalent of saying, I can’t spend a second on you, you’re totally generic to me, whatever whatever. He’s totally denying her the validation and closure that she needs and deserves.
So I think Allison is totally justified when she throws some decorative thing at Don and shatters a picture hanging behind his desk. That’s the secretary-in-the-1960s equivalent of whooshing out through the airplane chute.
“I don’t say this easily,” Allison says, before storming out. “But you’re not a good person.”
Well, she’s probably not going to be the one who marries Don, either.
Joan totally knows what’s up, and pops her head in. “Would you be open to Allison returning in a couple of days?” Hahaha. Yeah… don’t see THAT happening. Allison MEANT it when she stomped outta there.
Don turns to get a drink, and Peggy spies on him through a glass window at the top of their adjacent offices. (At first, I thought she was Don’s daughter, Sally. Mega-creepy!)
Peggy’s secretary buzzes in. Joyce has come to visit! She’s in reception, checking out water-face Megan.
Peggy: Do you want to come back and see my office? (OOOH.)
Joyce can’t, but she invites Peggy to a party/installment that the nude-ladies photographer is throwing, at Washington Market. I googled it to see if it was some sort of gay Mecca, but all I could find out is that it was razed because of… something to do with the building of the Twin Towers. (Everything razed is razed again?) (Too soon?)
I wrote at this point in my notes that it’s funny to me that Joyce is “the lesbian,” because she was the token straight ally on “Tara.”
Okay, time for some Yankee pot roast! (We don’t see it.) (Awww.)
Pete actually mans up and decides to talk to Tom for himself. He sends Trudy to show her mother how they’re going to turn the maid’s room into the nursery. (Wait– they have a live-in maid? In their apartment? We’ve never seen her.) (And now I can feel a little less bad for not being a domestic goddess.)
I forget what Tom says, but I wrote down Pete’s response. “Every time you jump to conclusions, Tom, you make me respect you less.”
“I’m done auditioning…” Pete says. He wants the bigger accounts that Trudy’s father has (possesses? controls? I don’t know). He lists a bunch of famous ones. I wrote down Vicks, as in Vapor Rub.
“You son of a bitch,” Tom says. I’m not sure if he’s mad or proud or both. I think he’s proud, because Pete’s manning up. He’s going to be a father! He’s going to provide for Tom’s daughter (and grandkid).
Not this daughter. The other one.
Don’s the last one at the office, by far. A man is waxing the floors. It’s really late. The man waxing the floor is black. Which is only important in juxtaposition to the next scene…
Cut to: Peggy’s at a party. Black people are there. So you know it’s a hep, cool party, full of tolerant-ish people. (And this kinda makes me miss Paul. Remember Paul’s party? It had black people, too.)
“You look swellegant,” Joyce tells Peggy. I’m generally a major fan of combined words, but swellegant… I don’t really understand how swell and elegant intersect. To me they’re on two different poles, because swell feels male and elegant feels female. And I’m sure somebody in a gender studies or linguistics class could write a thesis on this topic.
I can see how it works in an androgynous context. Like, this photo of La Roux is kinda swellegant.
All false love and affection. You don't like me--You just want the attention.
I love La Roux. I put those lyrics in the caption as an excuse to use some La Roux lyrics, but they apply perfectly to a lot of relationships in general, and specifically to a lot of relationships on this show.
“All false love and affection. You don’t like me–You just want the attention.” (-I’m Not Your Toy)
I mean, look at Allison. That was basically her sentiment toward Don. And Don this season– he has been all about getting up every skirt possible, in a desperate way that doesn’t seem to match the Don we used to know. He’s needy this season. He doesn’t have anybody to go home to at the end of the day.
But back to the party. (That digression was brought to you by the word “swellegant,” which is growing on me… maybe.)
A person in a bear head walks by. “Jesus,” Joyce says. “I thought I needed a lot of attention.” (“You just want the attention.”)
Joyce is high. Peggy gets high. Let’s all watch La Roux’s “I’m Not Your Toy” video. It ALSO takes place at a party with some cool black people, and will make you wonder if YOU are high.
Dear Allison: After you’ve digest that, move on to “Bulletproof.”
This is the part where I wrote, “Where is Mark?!” in my notes. Mark is Peggy’s boyfriend, you’ll recall. They spent New Year’s together… supposedly.
During the whole getting-high thing, Joyce leans in for the kiss and Peggy resists. “I have a boyfriend,” Peggy says. Yeah, but WHERE IS HE?
Joyce: He doesn’t own your vagina.
Peggy: No, but he’s renting it.
HA. But also… curious. (Bi-curious?)
Back at his apartment, Don’s in a bit of a drunken stupor. He begins to type a letter. “Dear Allison…” The part we can see says, “I’m very sorry. Right now my life is very…” But it doesn’t matter what else it says, because he crumples it up and throws it out. Honestly, I thought (and was hoping) Don was sitting down to write the recommendation. Allison didn’t ask for an apology.
Can I just say, why do guys always make so many excuses for being shitty? It’s always, “Oh, I’m in a really bad place,” or, “Things are weird with my ex,” or, “I really need to put my career first,” or, “I’m still depressed about the Holocaust.” Man up, guys.
It’s just weird to me that Don started writing up an excuse, as if… as if he actually did need to explain it all to her? As if he she meant more to him than they both realized?
I mean, without a wife and with Anna’s impending death, all Don has to take care of him anymore are a secretary and a housekeeper. So you can see how he might project weird stuff onto Allison, because here she is, managing his life. It’s kind of wifely.
But back to the party. (By the way, there are experimental anti-Catholic films being projected onto the walls. Becomes important later.)
So high right now.
Is Peggy’s outfit cool for a party? I’m not sure. (Does she look like a hornet?) I think she has more style than before, so I’m going to give this one to her. (Lots of people want to kiss her, so she’s doing something right.) (Can I borrow your hornet shirt, Peggy?)
Peggy wants to meet the photographer. Joyce calls over a friend named Abe. He’s wearing a leather jacket, he’s not the photographer, and he reminds me of Jason Segel, though I’m not sure exactly why. Personality, I guess. He’s easy to talk to. (I say that as if I know him.)
Abe’s a writer, and he finds out that Peggy’s a writer, too. (By the way, everybody’s yelling to be heard. Love it.)
Abe: What do you write?
Peggy: I’m a copy writer.
Abe: But what do you write?
Peggy: That IS writing!
Joyce: You’re not working on something else?
HAHAHAHAHA. Best exchange EVER, not only because everybody always wants to know what you’re working on, but also because certain types of writing get so much more respect than others.
But also… Peggy’s not working on anything else? (Haha, I know… I’m doing it, too.)
Davey Kellogg comes over to talk. HE’S the photographer. First of all, Peggy feels obligated to tell him that she’s Catholic. Ha. But she’s okay with the films. Thanks for your permission, Peggy. That wasn’t at all awkward.
Peggy asks Davey if he’d be interested in doing some work for SCDP. Davey doesn’t understand WHY he’d want to get paid for art. Peggy’s like… to support yourself? Haha.
“Art and advertising?” Davey pish-poshes. “Why would anyone do that after Warhol?” Why WOULDN’T anyone do that after Warhol?
“Sorry,” Abe says. “For somebody to sell their soul they’ve gotta have one.” With friends like these, who needs enemies? (But truly, Davey seems like a soulless jerk-off.)
Something happens like a raid? The lights go off and there are all sorts of bells and whistles. I was still thinking it was some sort of Stonewall situation, but apparently it’s the anti-Catholic films. Peggy and Abe end up hiding in a closet. (Peggy’s in the closet. GET IT? GET IT?)
Peggy asks Abe if he’s ever been arrested, and he says that he has. He was writing about a boycott and refused to leave, so he got arrested with the protesters. Anything for the story. But he didn’t actually stay the night in jail, because his sister came and got him.
There’s something so endearing about the way Abe tells it. You see that his leather jacket is the front for a sensitive boy-man. Oh God, I would totally date him and hate myself for it later.
“I feel like I should kiss you,” Abe says. (Because you’re in the closet! Haha.) (To be fair, Abe is probably straight.)
So Peggy and Abe kiss. (Nooooo! says Mark, who isn’t there.)
Trapped in the closet.
Can I just take this moment to say that Peggy and I seem to have the same type? I am always in love with her love interests. I would gladly date her rejects. Come to me, Peggy’s rejects. I will gather you all in my bosoms, and I will not dump you for Joyce.
Joyce opens the door, interrupting the kiss, and lets them out of the closet. Hahahahaha. SYMBOLISM.
“Are they beating people?” Abe wonders, sounding a little too hopeful about it. “They took the film,” Joyce says.
Hold up: WHO took the film? Does the Catholic church have a police squad? Were political films illegal? I’m confused. (NINJA PRIESTS!)
“I should see this,” Abe says, hilariously. He’s ridiculous, but at least he’s passionate. “It could be a story. How can I find you?”
“I know where she is,” Joyce says. She knows where Peggy is, all right– literally, and metaphorically.
And then they run down the street together, reach an intersection, and look confused.
Where are we going-- literally, and metaphorically?
The next morning, Don gets a new secretary– An old lady named Miss Blankenship. On the phone, she refers to Lane Pryce as Pryce, Lane. Oops.
“What’d you do to make them take her out of mothballs?” Sterling asks. “She was working in Cooper’s apartment.” I imagine that she was working in his apartment as his like 70-year-old sex slave. Especially when Sterling adds that Cooper works with no pants on.
Turns out that Pete is signing Vicks’ entire chemical cough line. SCORE! They’re all going out to lunch.
Don tells Miss B to reschedule Dr. Miller. At first I went, Doctor?! Don has a secret disease! But it turns out Dr. Miller is Faye.
The art guy is back. I think his name is Joey (his REAL name is Matt Long). He and Peggy are talking about nudes.
Joey: We had nude models in school. You knew right away whoever had the best drawing was going to get her.
HA. Also: Makes sense. (MALE GAZE.)
Out of nowhere, Peggy says, “Did you know Malcolm X was shot last Sunday?” (Way to change the subject, Peggy.) Joey’s like, Yeah.
And that’s about all we get of that historic event. Somewhere, somebody thought that the whole season would revolve around this, and is PISSED.
And Malcolm X is totally rocking the Don Draper pose in this picture. Maybe he INVENTED it.
I make this look good.
A secretary comes in with a card and says that they’re sending a bottle of champagne to the Campbells. Joey signs the card but won’t contribute to the gift. Don’t we all wish we could be so bold?
Peggy sees the card and realizes that Trudy’s pregnant. She doesn’t sign the card, and she walks out of the office. I thought she was going to the bathroom to cry into a bucket. But… she goes to Pete’s office to congratulate him.
Of course, Pete’s whole thing this episode is conversation confusion, so he think she’s talking about the $6 million Vicks account. No, she corrects him, the baby. She’s happy for them.
Peggy returns to her office, where she gently bangs head against her desk. Oh, Peggy and Pete, secretly knocking your heads against white surfaces. So perfect for each other. (And somewhere their kid is banging his head against a crib.)
Faye comes to Don’s office, because the secretary is old and crazy and told her that Don needed to see her urgently. She tells Don that she’s rejecting his hypothesis. (Basically– Don and Peggy wanted to emphasize the routine of Pond’s cold cream. Looking in the mirror, feeling indulgent.)
“I’d recommend a strategy that links Pond’s cold cream to matrimony,” Faye tells him. “A veiled promise.”
“Hello 1925,” Don says. “I’m not gonna do that.” Um, I’m pretty it’s more like, Hello 2010. Isn’t advertising STILL selling the promise of romance?
“I can’t change the truth,” Faye says.
“How do you know that’s the truth?” Don rails. “A new idea is something they don’t know yet, so of course it’s not going to come up as an option.” True, but… did you watch the panel, Don? Faye reminds Don that she said “routine” and “ritual,” but what the women actually care about is “husband.”
“You can’t tell how people are going to behave based on how they HAVE behaved,” Don protests. Methinks you doth protest too much, Don. Is Don begging for his own salvation, here? Because I think we can tell EXACTLY how he will behave, based on how he HAS behaved. And he knows it too. See: Allison.
“You think I’ve never had this argument before?” Faye says.
Don rants about how none of this proves anything, getting people to talk. It’s nobody’s business, blah blah, Don’s crazy secretive bullshit.
Remember, it was FAYE who predicted that he’d be married within the year. And the veiled promise of matrimony… is that what just happened with Allison? There’s some kind of theme going on here that has to do with Don and marriage and how this advertising is getting too close for comfort. As a result… Don’s mad at Faye!
Come to think of it… everybody else who got divorced on this show already had somebody lined up. Roger had Jane. Betty had Henry. But Don went back to shitty bachelorhood. He was good at single-guy stuff when he had a wife. But now that dating MATTERS again, he’s sucking at it. And he can’t bag the hot young chicks anymore. Or if he does, there are consequences. (See: Allison.)
Oh, Don. Your life is so ironical. It’s like… A TV SHOW.
Peggy lies on the couch in her office. Misery. But then… Joyce calls her. Lunch in 5? You betcha!
Joyce and her friends (male and female) have a crush on Megan at the front desk, so they hover outside the glass doors in their hipster-of-the-times clothes.
Meanwhile, the SCDP suits, Pete, Tom, and the Vicks guy stand in the lobby, waiting for Don. Everybody’s shaking hands, excited to do business together, blah blah etc.
Peggy invites Megan to lunch, but she can’t. (Do people really take lunch? I guess they do when they’re not Megan or me.) I wonder for a second if Peggy has a crush on Megan? Or if this is just about people being on different levels and not connecting?
For a second I wondered if the Joyce group would make some sort of scene in front of the Vicks group, but they two parties don’t seem to notice each other. Except– Peggy and Pete catch eyes as she waits for the elevator, on the other side of SCDP’s double glass door. They exchange sad smiles. Two different worlds.
Now that Peggy is a maybe-lesbian in a world before gay rights and expanded fertility options, I wonder if she’s kinda sad that she gave up the baby. Like, she can’t really have a traditional family (which… Pete is about to have) unless she marries a guy. (I imagine her finding the kid she gave up one day, in a reverse version of “The Kids Are All Right.”)
Don’s returning to his apartment at night. A very old woman is also returning to her apartment, and her husband stands expectantly in the hall. They are ANCIENT.
“Did you get pears?” the old man demands, three times. (This seems significant– Biblical, perhaps?)
“We’ll discuss it inside,” the woman answers, finally. Cryptic! She totally holds the power in this relationship, and they’ve obviously been together forever, and she takes care of her husband.
This episode made me feel lonely, dudes and dudettes. After it was over and I emailed myself these notes, I went and watched the marriage parts of “The Young Victoria” and cried, wishing I could have an epistolary romance with a handsome, sensitive German prince. (Overshare?) (But NOT wishing that the prince would die young and leave me with NINE kids. Sheesh, Albert.)
For that matter, I wouldn’t mind kissing a sensitive writer guy named Abe Drexler (played by Charlie Hofheimer– thanks, credits) in a dark closet. (Speaking of credits, I thought the music over the credits was really pretty this week.)
Drexler… is that Jewish? German? (Whatever. Good enough.)
(Have you noticed that network TV shows have set credits music, and cable shows have different music every week? Luxuries of cable!)
Next week: Betty wants Don dead? But probably not in a hire-a-hit-man way. That’s not this show (… yet).
Well, that took up the better part of my day. I slaved away at it. Consider this my Yankee pot roast.
And now that I’ve explained it all…
I have that exact expression on my face right now.
… time to go tap some water on my face and hunt for a man!
Na na na na na naaa… all right all right!
Until next week. Can’t wait to see which strange allusions or guest stars I’ll be able to fixate on.
xoxo…
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Another week, another episode of “Mad Men” to sink our teeth into. (Was that metaphor to vampire-y?) (Or am I hungry?) (Yes to both. Always.)
Don is headed to Acapulco for New Year’s, but he has a one-day stopover in Los Angeles– to visit Anna Draper. Back in New York, Joan and Lane Pryce and Lane Pryce and Joan and Dr. Greg. And also prostitutes.
Let’s do that thing where we talk about characters old and new. I liked doing that, last week. And now it’s tradition!
-THE GYNECOLOGIST! We haven’t seen this guy since the pilot! (It’s the same actor– I do the imdb footwork so you don’t have to.)
Remember how he was such a dick to Peggy and wouldn’t prescribe birth control, and then she GOT PREGNANT but pulled that didn’t-know-I-was-pregnant denial thing and had the baby in the Season 1 finale? Yeah, you probably remember that.
But for some reason this gyno is BFF with Joan. Like, BFFFF. And he gave her an abortion! (Is that the correct way to say that? He performed her abortion… on her?) And she had another abortion before that one, from a “midwife.” I’m wondering if Roger Sterling was the father. TIMES TWO.
(So I guess as BFF as this gyno is with Joan, apparently he wasn’t giving her the pill until she was married… or she was really bad at using it.) (Doubtful.)
Obviously Betty went to the WRONG place when she wanted her abortion. Because times have changed since… whatever, a year ago. But Joan’s abortions seem to predate Betty’s attempted abortion.
And also: Dear Joan, Please don’t have babies with your creepy husband. Love, Everybody. (Of course, the doctor makes some remark about Joan being too old to wait.) (How old is she? 34? Back then 34 was old, I guess. They didn’t have all the fertility options we have now.)
And also also: the gyno thinks Greg is a crazy for joining the Army in wartime, with a wife and potentially-soon-a-kid. He’s like, what’s up with THAT? And later Joan asks Greg the same question, and they fight. Duh.
-ANNA DRAPER! AKA The REAL (dead) Don Draper’s ex-wife. (Only ex because the FAKE Don needed to divorce her so that he could legally marry Betty.) (That went well.)
Anna has a broken leg and a stain on her wall/ceiling from a leak, so of course she’s dying of cancer (it’s in her bones– eeeek). You have to put two-and-two together here. Decay=dying. It’s really sad because Don is losing the most important woman in his life. He almost never sees Anna in person, but she’s kind of his mother, sister, and wife all rolled into one. And (SHOCK?), I don’t think he’s ever had sex with her.
And he was going to introduce her to his kids in the spring. Wah wah wah wah wahhh. (For EASTER, which is a death/rebirth holiday.) (Yeah, I know enough New Testament stuff to be dangerous.)
But I’ll talk more about Anna later. Let’s not get bogged down in the cancer all at once. (Don doesn’t get bogged down by it until he finds out. I kinda brought it up early.) I want to talk about new people. Namely, Anna’s (judgy, conservative) sister and her (grass-toting) niece. Mostly about the niece.
-Stephanie. When we meet her she’s wearing a bikini top. (That’s a good indicator that Don will want to sleep with her.) She’s approximately 21 years old, and is a student at Berkeley. She’s a little bit political, but she isn’t going to the anti-Vietnam sit-ins. As she puts it: Somebody has to go to class!
I was taking notes on my phone as I watched the episode, and the first two lines I wrote about the California scenes were, “Don/Dick knows these randoms?” and “Please don’t fuck the Berkeley girl.”
I was weirded out because Stephanie and her mother KNEW Don, and they knew him as Dick. (Everybody in California calls Don by his real name.) It’s the “Mad Men” way of not filling in the whole picture for us.
Anna got rid of her sister and went to dinner with just Don and Stephanie. I was thinking, nooo Don, do NOT sleep with that girl. Noooo. (I know your name is Dick in California, but that’s no excuse.)
So Don’s driving Stephanie home, and Stephanie asks Don if he’s married or divorced. (I think Stephanie would know about the Betty situation, but whatever.) Don asks why he can’t just be single, and Stephanie’s like… yeah, no. She proves to be wise beyond her years.
This goes back to last week’s observation, about how Don seems to flounder without a woman around. Stephanie picks up on Don’s inability to successfully exist as a single guy.
Re: dating, Stephanie says, “Nobody knows what’s wrong with themselves. Everyone else can see it right away.”
I think we THINK we know what’s wrong with ourselves, but whatever we stress over is rarely what other people would pick as the worst trait. See: women who think they are really fat, but are in fact incredibly neurotic and/or vain.
Don tries to put the moves on Stephanie, but she pulls a Sassy Gay Friend line on him. (“What are you doing? What, what, WHAT are you doing??”) (That’s how Sassy Gay Friend says it, not Stephanie.) Thank GOD she stops him. Whew. But Don shouldn’t be trying, to begin with. (I REALLY like watching women turn him down.)
Then Stephanie kills the mood for SURE (MEGA SURE) by telling Don a big secret that has been weighing on her: Anna has cancer. But that’s not all: Anna doesn’t KNOW she has cancer. Stephanie didn’t want Don to leave town without knowing about it. Because Stephanie is my favorite.
Anna and Stephanie hold a meeting of the haven't-slept-with-Don/Dick club. Very small club. Also: the "not telling you about your cancer" club.
This is how I put it in the notes: “Anna has cancer. Oh snap! And she doesn’t know? Double snap!”
There are some major ethical issues at play, here.
I guess we should finish the Anna discussion first, so that we can end on a happier note. Which note is happier: New Year’s with a prostitute because your wife left you, or a medical emergency/spousal’s refusal to drive you to the hospital? This show is HILARIOUS.
Don drops Stephanie off SANS SEX (WHEW), and returns to Anna’s house. She’s sleeping on the couch, and Don carries her into her bedroom.
We probably never know, but do you get the feeling that MAYBE Anna knows about her cancer? When Don found out that she was sick, he indicated that it was very Anna, not to burden him with her problems. So maybe she knows that she’s sick, but doesn’t want her family to KNOW that she knows? I mean, she doesn’t want to paint over the water stain on her wall. That seems very… fuck it, I’m dying anyway.
When Don carried Anna to bed, the visual reminded me of a page from a picture book that my mom used to read to me when I was a kid. The book was very much like that song “The Circle Game,” but actually MORE depressing. In short: An adorable little baby is born, and his mom takes care of him. Then one day the baby is a man, and he has to take care of his mom. And then she DIES.
The image I’m recalling is the old mom all curled up in her son’s lap while he spoon-feeds her. I want to describe it more, but I am crying at my desk. And if you’ve read this book, you’re probably crying too. SO depressing. Too depressing for children.
Looks adorable, but beware.
Seriously, if you read this book as a kid, I defy you to read this and NOT cry: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”
According to Wikipedia, the story ends with the dad having a baby of his own. So it’s like… renewal. (EASTER?) But I don’t remember that part. I just remember the depressing death part. Thanks a lot, Robert Munsch. (Your name is hilarious. That helps a little bit.)
Anyway, Don tries to fight death (or just be nice?) by painting over the water stain on the wall. He’s wearing a T-shirt and boxers, and they’re white-on-white, which is the color of death in many cultures. And the color of hospitals in America. So… make of THAT what you will. I would argue that the painting is symbolic, is all I’m saying. (It’s “Mad Men.” Everything is symbolic.)
Anna sits on the couch watching Don. I can’t remember the exact context or if it comes out of nowhere, but she says to him, “I know everything about you, and I still love you.” At dinner the night before, Don told Anna about Betty’s reaction to his truth. He said that he realized that the lie wasn’t THAT bad, but he always knew that Betty would react badly to it.
What Anna says to Don is so beautiful because I think universally we hope that a deep, true love will be the state of being accepted unconditionally. I don’t think anybody can ever fully be known by himself or others, but imagine being fully known and fully loved, despite your flaws. (And we all know that Don has MANY.) This is a pretty romantic line, but it’s a totally platonic love.
I don’t know, sometimes it’s hard to be super-articulate about things that resonate, but that line was awesome.
Then Anna asks Don if he’s only going to paint over the stained part of the wall. “A patch of new paint’s just as bad as the stain.” Ooh, another packed line. I could see it being about Don’s superficialities– calling yourself Don won’t cover up Dick. But I could also see it being Anna’s way of saying that she KNOWS about the cancer. Like, you can cover it up but I can SEE the cover-up.
The judgy sister arrives and freaks out about how Don could be arrested? For painting in his boxers indoors? For wanting to sleep with Stephanie? Or– I guess there’s pot. I didn’t see it. And I didn’t smell it, because I don’t have smell-o-vision. Missing out! (Also–the sister seemed really scandalized to hear that Don was staying at Anna’s house.) (I mean, she’s not totally off-base about Don’s proclivities… but Anna’s an adult.) (An adult who has seen UFOs…? )
Don goes outside to confront the sister. He wants to take Anna to experts! But the sister already showed Anna’s x-rays to experts. And Anna contracted polio when she was eight years old. (I can’t remember if that was an issue last time he saw her, or if it was strictly a childhood thing…) I don’t exactly remember what that has to do with this… she’s had enough of medicine blah blah blah?
Don goes inside, and you think he’s going to tell Anna about the cancer, but… he doesn’t. Post-cancer revelation he had decided to stay with Anna for longer (this was just a one-day stopover on his way to Acapulco), but now he tells her that he’d better be on his way. Anna says something else that’s wise and maybe-she-knows-she’s-dying-esque… something along the lines of, I want you to do everything that makes you happy. Don promises to bring the kids in the spring… when Anna is dead. (He doesn’t say that.)
And then Don gets on a plane… back to New York. He’s not in the mood to stay and lie to Anna, nor is he in the mood to go to paradise. But he IS in the mood for hookers! More on that in a moment.
Back to Joan. She wants to get a few days off right after the holiday vacation, because Dr. Greg’s vacation schedule isn’t flexible. Joan tries to use her feminine wiles and fried chicken (breasts and thighs) to soften Lane Pryce into granting her those vacation days. But Lane is not amused. He’s like, you can use your wiles and chicken on me, Joan! (He actually says that, more or less.) He’s stressed about money. And… something else.
Alert the media! Someone is immune to Joan!
Hey, Peggy’s here! She looks great. Peggy brings Joan a big gold box (isn’t that beneath Peggy’s duties?). It’s a dozen red roses. Aww. (Too much.) Peggy and says something about how great it is to see an example of loving marriage. Joan’s like, if only you knew.
Also: Moment of catty-ness. Joan assumes that Peggy’s spending New Year’s with the girls, and acts kind of pity-nice to her. But Peggy corrects her– she’s actually spending it with boyfriend-Mark! (But we don’t see it… awww.) Joan huffs away, because she’s losing her groove… and because the flowers are NOT from Dr. Greg. (But they should be, because he and Joan had a fight… because she doesn’t want him to go to ‘Nam. Duh.)
Don’s secretary IS spending New Year’s with her girls. They’re going to Times Square, and Don’s reaction is kind of hilarious. Paraphrase: “So YOU’RE the people who do that.”
Anyway, Joan goes into Lane’s office to yell at him for sending her this Big Fucking Bouquet. Turns out Lane sent flowers to his wife AND to Joan? But his stupid secretary mixed up the orders. So Joan stops being mad at Lane and they band together and yell at/fire his secretary. Bonding moment! All is forgiven. (But she still doesn’t get the vacation days.)
Joan goes home to Dr. Greg and creates a luau New Year’s spread, because it’s still January 1st (or December 31st or Christmas or whatever) in Hawaii (so… it’s the weeee hours in NYC). Dr. Greg’s exhausted, and already ate. Ugh.
Seriously, what are we doing together?
Joan goes to cut… something? And ends up slicing her finger? It happened so abruptly, I almost thought she did it on purpose. But I guess it’s one of those TV things– we only see the dinners where crazy things happen. If Joan’s not slicing her finger or being forced to play the accordion, why show it?
Of course Joan wants to go to the hospital. But Dr. Greg has his bag of medical tricks, and is like, Stitches? I got this, babe. “Isn’t there some medical ethical law against operating on your wife?” Joan asks, and there really should be. Dr. Greg actually doesn’t have the worst bedside manner. He distracts her and jabs a shot into her arm (kiiinda creepy, but I guess it’s a doctor thing), and tells a joke while he fixes her up. (I can’t tell if he works with kids or what, because he’s acting like you would with a child, but I think the joke is dirty… I wasn’t fully following it.)
Guess what? Dr. Greg is maybe a shitty surgeon, but he’s pretty good at stitches, and bedside-mannering. Joan has been living under the assumption that he’s the worst of the worst (she REALLY wants to go to the ER), but he’s… y’know… a doctor. For real. I mean, I think we can all understand why Joan has no faith in him. But seeing her realize that he’s actually kind of okay… it’s interesting. And sad. It’s a side of him that he doesn’t really show at home. You know… the good side.
“I can’t fix anything else,” Dr. Greg says. “But I can fix this.” It’s kind of our first insight into the fact that they both know that things are shitty. Er… it’s Dr. Greg acknowledging that he’s not the best? And Joan cries.
So Don skips Acapulco and returns to NYC. But does he go home? No. He goes to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. And guess who’s there, when he ought to be with his family in London? That’s right: Lane Pryce.
What follows is an awesome buddy montage. Don and Lane drink. Don and Lane try to figure out which movie to go see. (I love the reading aloud of the movie listings. So lifey.) (I think one of the movies they consider is It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, hence the title of this blog.)
In maybe the funniest scene ever on “Mad Men,” Don and Lane sit in the movie theater, drunk. (I think it’s Godzilla.) (Er, it’s Godzilla, but the film is called Gojira.) (Thanks, Wikipedia.)
“You know what’s going on here, don’t you?” Don asks Lane, as if he knows about a legit conspiracy. “…Hand jobs.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You have to see it. Just trust me.
(And conspiracies don’t happen on AMC until the next hour. “Rubicon” shout-out!) (I haven’t watched it… yet.)
But they aren’t even in a porn theater. Just a normal theater. A middle-aged woman in a had turns around and shushes them, and Lane goes Japanese on her. (My biggest clue that it was Godzilla… other than seeing Godzilla on the screen.)
Don and Lane go to dinner. Lane tells Don that he reminds him of a popular guy at his school. Everybody used to follow that guy around, but he never noticed them. Eventually, that guy died in a motorcycle crash.
These little stories aren’t just random. I think this is our hint that Don is going to crash and burn, before the series is over. And maybe, die. (I kind of thought he might die last season, because… this show likes to do the unexpected.)
Lane reveals that his wife left him, and also pretends that his steak is a Texan belt buckle. But I guess he’s allowed. It’s an emotional night. And he’s super drunk. And when Don offers some prostitute-y action, he’s like… okay.
Don and Lane go to see a stand-up comedian, and get called out as a gay couple. “We’re not homosexuals,” Lane yells. “We’re divorced!” In the comedian’s defense, they make a great couple.
Bring on the prostitutes!
Don’s prostitute shows up (with a friend for Lane, too). The girls are both wearing green dresses. Is that a prostitute thing? Or a… sickness and decay-theme thing? (In that case, should the dresses be yellow?)
Feels as though Don is corrupting Lane, but… whatever. I feel sorry for Lane. I even feel sorry that he got a dim-witted prostitute. He probably had sad sex. Like, I don’t think he’s NOT missing his wife.
The next morning Lane exits his sex-room and wants to pay him back for the prostitute. Don asks for $25, and I think he’s just being nice? Because if that prostitute made $25 for the night… that BLOWS. (Ha.) I mean, she got all dressed up, she went to that stupid comedy show, she may or may not have spent the night. I mean, I don’t know what $25 was worth back then, but Sally’s Christmas necklace from Macy’s (last week) was $30.
I’m looking out for the prostitutes. Although on the plus side… at least Lane and Don are nice, attractive guys. Maybe they get the attractive-guy discount. (I don’t know how it works.)
I kind of wonder if Don is going to marry the prostitute. She knows everything about him… and is still willing to have sex with him. Kind of the opposite of the Betty sitch, eh? (And Don’s mother was a prostitute, so…)
Lane tells Don that despite all his kvetching about the finances (he doesn’t actually say kvetching), it’s been a great year for the business. (I don’t remember exactly WHEN he says this, but it happens.) So… yeah. Yay. It has definitely been a momentous year. I mean, last Christmas they were at Sterling Cooper. And here they are, with their names on the header.
It’s also interesting to see two men unmoored by the loss of their ladies. Who’s next? Looks like Pete, from the previews. This season is (apparently) about what happens when you’re stripped of everything and forced to start over. (Maybe I’ll actually locate an interview with Matt Weiner and link it… he said that in several interviews, so we can assume that he’s not kidding.)
Um… this was a little disjointed, because I wrote it over 2 days. Probably forgot some thematic stuff and just wrote too much about the plot. I’m going to meditate on this for a moment…
Oh yeah, so the episode ends on a wide shot of everybody sitting at a meeting together on the first day back at work, and everyone’s back to business. And everybody seems miserable. They’re all like, Happy 1965. Yay. Not.
They don’t really know each other at all. It’s funny. I mean, some of them have their secret this-and-that’s. (Like… Don helped Peggy with her baby, she bailed him out of jail once), but it’s… work. They’re colleagues. Are people more open now? I guess it depends on the job.
Oh also, I totally thought that Don’s CA-driving stuff was process/green-screen, but apparently not entirely because he’s a still of it…
Cruisin'.
And now I must be off, because I’ve got food from the Dim Sum Truck under my nose. Don’t worry– there WILL be a post about it. Duh.
But yeah, good episode. Lots to chew on. As always, looking forward to next Sunday night… but also sad that the seasons are so short. We’re 1/4 of the way through!
xoxo…
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I know this is crazy, because my recap days seemed to be behind me. But “Mad Men” is one of those shows that I love talking about. I just need to get my feelings out! And people have actually been ASKING me to write about “Mad Men.” So I must give the people what they want!
Okay, that paragraph was actually a total ruse. When I post these to Facebook, the first paragraph is visible. I wanted to avoid spoilering anybody. So ignore that first paragraph, if you’re ready to be spoilered. (Sorry– you probably read it already.)
But I guess a ruse is thematically appropriate, because the Christmas party in last night’s episode was basically a big, expensive fake, pulled together to make Sterling Cooper Draper Price’s one big client (Lucky Strike… haha, isn’t it?) think that the firm was DOING GREAT.
Last night marked the return of many seemingly long-gone characters. [Except for Sal. ] It was like Christmas for loyal viewers! (Appropriate.)
-Glen, the divorced neighbor’s son. If memory serves, he declared his creepy love for Betty.
I can’t remember if Glen was a season 1 or season 2 character, but he was definitely not in season 3. (He’s played by Matt Weiner’s son, FYI-zers.) I don’t think the character is supposed to be Jewish, but he is always doing the Jewiest things. Example: He left a LANYARD on Sally’s pillow. Lanyards make me think of summer camp. Jewish summer camp. (I made some INTENSE lanyards.)
Mine were better.
I think they actually have a different name, but at Camp Sholom we called them lanyards. And I was OB-SESSED. I think I still have some of my finer pieces in my desk drawer at home. (I was actually an arts & crafts counselor one summer. Because for me, camp was all about doing crafts, avoiding the sun, and requesting plain peanut butter sandwiches on Shabbat because I didn’t like jelly at the time. Oh, and singing.)
Also: Of course Sally is attracted to a creepy, evil kid. And of course he’s attracted to Betty’s daughter. I hope he doesn’t rape anybody.
-Fred Rumsen, fired from Sterling Cooper because he was a disorderly alcoholic. I totally thought he was dead.
But a bunch of other blogs kept guessing that he would return, so I guess I should have known better.
I think Duck’s dog is dead, too.
But now I guess I should have hope.
Anyway, Freddy is sober and in AA, and MAN is it hard to stay sober in “Mad Men” times, when everybody is drinking ALL THE TIME. But he manages it, by skipping the party. He doesn’t stereotypically fall off the wagon just because Peggy is mean to him. And Peggy’s like, thanks for that.
-Lou Gossett, Jr.
UGHHH, this guy. Not only is he Big Tobacco and the guy responsible for Sal’s firing (because he tried to proposition Sal, and Sal was not having it), but he’s just… yuck. Spoiled. A big jerk. I thought it was funny that they gave him a Polaroid camera as his big special gift. A Polaroid camera for the man who has everything? Were Polaroids the iPads of Christmas 1964?
Don was almost as gross as Lou last night. He was trying to get into everybody’s pants. I was really mad at him by the end. NOT THE SECRETARY, DON! And then he basically made her feel like a prostitute with the $40 bonus and the card with the impersonal message, obviously sealed before The Incident. DOUBLE FAIL.
Lou and Don: The Naughty List.
But instead of getting lumps of coal for being The Worst on Christmas, they got… you know, whatever. I loved the scene where Lou was making everybody pose for Polaroids in Santa Roger’s lap (and wasn’t THAT a weird power play, the “you better be Santa” thing?), and Harry Crane was all apologetic because he’s heavier than Roger. (That might be the gayest action that Lou witnesses this Christmas, unless he hires a man-stitute.)
There were also some notable New (or new-ish) Characters…
-The nurse neighbor with the short brown hair.
At first I was just like, great, another woman for Don to charm into bed. But when he tried to pull her into bed with him, she went into No-Nonsense Nurse mode. She also said that she likes working in a hospital because everything happens there– people coming into the world and people leaving it. Color me intrigued. I think she’d be good for Don. (How long before they sleep together?)
-The blonde ad-psychology lady.
I didn’t recognize her when she reappeared at the party– until she called Don out for skipping her presentation. He thought she came to flirt, but she came to fight. Feisty. She’s obviously very smart– Don was actually surprised when he realized that he agreed with her theories. And she predicted that Don will be remarried within a year. (More on that in a sec.) (And… how long before they sleep together?)
-Peggy’s boyfriend, Mark.
We met Mark really briefly last week, when he and Peggy showed up at Don’s apartment and he introduced himself as Peggy’s “fiance,” much to her chagrin. This week we found out that he works at a “station,” which means he’s either in TV… or law enforcement… or trains? There are lots of types of stations.
Anyway, Peggy told Mark that she is a virgin, and she doesn’t want to sleep with him. But we can’t write it off as trauma over the whole Pete/baby thing, because we’ve seen her sleep with people before. We even saw her sleeping with Duck, in the previously-on. And she is probably on birth control now, and/or condoms exist. So… it’s kind of puzzling.
I am a little bit obsessed with Mark. (For one thing, I think he looks perfectly period. That hair!) I’m not sure if we’re supposed to love him or hate him. I mean, on one hand he’s pressuring Peggy to have sex. But on the other hand he’s human, and Peggy is being devious. I think we’re supposed to feel at least a little bit sorry for Mark, because Peggy is lying to him, and he seems to be the male equivalent of a puppy dog. Peggy is… turning into a Don? Or a Duck? Bad influences!
Did you notice how she didn’t really introduce him to anybody at the party? Red flag, Mark. Red flag.
The prodigy, his protege and her puppy dog.
Fred Rumsen tells Peggy that she ought to wait until… marriage (?) to sleep with Mark if she’s serious. But if she’s NOT serious, she should sleep with him NOW so she’s not just leading him on? There’s some very pretzel-y logic going on there. And Peggy isn’t sure how she feels. But at the end of the episode Peggy sleeps with Mark, so… she’s just leading him on? Unclear.
I get what Peggy’s going through. I think most of us have been in situations where we’re dating a guy and in theory everything’s cool but in practice it’s very meh. But the lying-about-being-a-virgin thing is… I don’t know, Peggy’s all over the place. And what does this mean about her willingness to sleep with Duck? Did she have feelings for him? Was she doing it to get ahead?
I want to know how Peggy and Mark met. It definitely wasn’t match.com.
I liked the way Mark kissed Peggy goodbye when she asked him to leave and said, “You think about THAT!” He’s so adorable– and a gentleman, compared to Don and Duck. We saw how Don behaved when his secretary didn’t want to kiss him… he just kept going. (And yeah, she joined in… but she kinda had no choice.)
Ah well, Mark. Nice guys finish last? (Okay, total double entendre– because THEY DID IT.)
I’m also wondering if we’re going see Duck again. (And his dog! Please don’t be dead, Duck’s dog. Sad face.)
Okay, that section is done. Segue time. Official segue here.
Don seems to be encountering two types of women this season– ones who get pulled in by his shtick, and ones who don’t (the nurse, the ad-lady, and– maybe–Bethany). The ad-lady told Don that he’s a “type”– and I think his type is… needs a woman in his life? He seems unmoored without one. (In this episode alone– the nurse had to help him open his door, the secretary had to bring his keys… ooh, door/lock/key metaphors. And also… drunken bad decisions.) But you know if he met a nice woman, he’d make her miserable. Because I can’t see him NOT cheating, keeping secrets… you know, being Don Draper.
The ad-lady predicted that Don will be married in a year, which I think means he WILL be remarried in a year? She basically put the gun on the wall. Someone’s going to get shot. BUT– WHO will Don marry? Bethany seems like a Betty-in-ten-years. Going through Don’s wringer would destroy her. The nurse seems like she could handle him, but… yuck. And how long until his secretary is moved to somebody else’s desk? (PS I adored the way she read Sally’s letter. Good acting.)
And now for some fashion…
Did anybody notice that the outfits at the party stuck to the red, green, and white family? No blue, no yellow. Just pure Christmas. I bet the Menken’s Dept Store (season 1 throwback!) is having an awesome Hanukkah party, somewhere.
I thought Pete’s red blazer was kind of perfect. Not sure how I felt about Trudy’s salmon dress. I guess they couldn’t BOTH wear red?
Campbells!
I was really happy to see Trudy. (Sadly, they didn’t have a big dance number prepared.) And… Pete has been kinda backburnered lately, hasn’t he? I thought that they might even bring on Ken Cosgrove to handle the Pond’s account… and maybe they will? I’ve seen him in promo pictures.
And Joan… I liked her red Christmas party outfit (she is a sexy dancer! I want lessons!), but I was NOT feeling this full-body pink wetsuit thing.
It looked even weirder on the show.
Sorry Joan, you know I love you. And we found out that her husband is “saving lives.” Is he in Vietnam, or not? (I think not yet, I saw him in a promo picture, too.)
My DVR cut off the “next week on,” but since it’s a bunch of out-of-context one-liners, I probably didn’t miss much. But I was still mad (men).
And just to prove that I’m still watching True Blood… three recurring characters died. And fairies happened. And… Bill in the sun. And HOSPITAL?! Something real-ish? I’m climbing back on the wagon.
I was reading some blog-article about “Community” the other day, and I noticed that it said that actress Alison Brie is in both “Community” and “Mad Men.” I had a moment of Huh, and then thought, Oh, she must play one of the secretaries.
But “Community” is on my TV right now (I’m just waiting for “Parks & Recreation”… sorry), and I realized, HOLY SHIT. This mouse-y Annie girl on “Community” is TRUDY CAMPBELL.
What the WHAT? Alison Brie as Trudy.
I guess it’s a testament to Alison Brie’s range that I had no idea that these characters were played by the same person. It also speaks to how much more mature women had to be in Trudy’s day. I mean, not to get all Martha Stewart about it, but Trudy seems much older than Annie.
I don’t exactly know what this says about “Community,” but Alison Brie seems like a better actress on “Mad Men.” I mean, the “Mad Men” role requires more range and emotion (and some crazy dancing), and it’s… not a half-hour broad comedy.
But yeah, my mind was blown. I literally screamed when I saw the imdb verification.
Just some gratuitous "Mad Men" goodness.
Okay, I’m enjoying Abed’s Batman monologue. Why are all of the women of “Community” wearing such dowdy Halloween costumes? I’m kind of loving it, but these women are hot. They’d be all about the sexy.
Okay I have to go now. LOUIS CK is back on “Parks & Recreation.” (!!!!!) AND he’s Leslie’s “boyfriend” now (!!!!!!!). And Intern April’s two boyfriends are back, and one is dressed as a straight guy. Love this show.
DOGZ.
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