TV reviews

Thoughts on Mad Men s7e8 + 9, “Severance” + “New Business”

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thanks_marieimage courtesy of imgur.com

“A man is whatever room he is in.”

Sorry for the delay. I haven’t had much time to write as I’m a regular working stiff these days, but to be honest, I’ve had trouble stringing my thoughts together for these first two episodes. There’s so much David Lynch seeping into these episodes it’s difficult to formulate coherent sentences. Everything is so goddamn surreal! They’ve left me cold. These episodes have eerie, dreamlike qualities.. like nothing we’re seeing is quite right. I’ve read a lot of criticism that Weiner has lost the plot, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. My bet is there’s something afoot just under the surface that won’t all fit together until the finale, when we can take a step back and gaze at the season and the series as a whole.

Besides the constant looming of death around every corner, the recurring theme of this show is ‘can people really change’? And to tell you the truth, I have no fucking earthly idea. We ended the first half of s7 with Don clawing his way back up at SC&P, getting his shit together, trying to mend the damaged relationships in his life. Bert reminds him that The Best Things in Life are Free, a hard truth Don is learning. The whole nation was filled with hope for the space shot and the moon landing, all this hard work and thought and sweat and tears poured into this one mission, this singular defining event. And once you achieve this, once you make history, once you get to the top, once you get your corner office back.. then what? What comes next after such a huge achievement?

Enter April 1970, where “Severance” picks up.. ominously and appropriately bookended to the tune of “Is That All There Is?”. The real Don Draper died and handed Dick Whitman a new life. What has he done with that life? Has it made him happier? Where does Don go from here?

The time jump straight into nearly-mid 1970 is pretty great, and for a bit it looks like not much has changed in the decade since the show began. We go from a crazy decade that closed out with high hopes right into the me-me-me 70s and The Manson Family. The midseason premiere opens with Don being a vague creeper to a boilerplate Wholesome Hot(TM) 70s model, and we see that he’s once again hawking fur coats. Later, we see Don and Roger with hot models on their arms, the pair of swinging dicks/drinking buddies up to no good. Peggy and Joan’s verbal swordfight in the elevator, again. Kenny passing on his true calling as a writer for a corporate job, again. Joan being overtly sexually harassed. Don needing an answering service for his ~1100 women. Pete finding a way to bitch about being successful.. again. Peggy pulling a Don and trying to swing a spontaneous trip to Paris to run away with someone she just met. Don forming a weird obsession with a waitress who resembles some combination of Midge and Rachel Menken (but is in reality a Human Eeyore). Are we sure it’s 1970? I guess the hilar mustaches say as much, but there’s a lot of familiar 1960 shit going on here.. despite Roger looking like an oil baron. What in the fresh hell is going on??

Speak of the devil.. we’re back to creeper casting sessions at SC&P. Ted opens the door and I was happy to see Rachel Menken (Katz) on my screen. It’s about 10 years ago that her and Don met at that point. Then I was immediately filled with dread as I realised what was happening. Don sees a whole lotta dead people, lest we forget..

“I’m supposed to tell you — you missed your flight”.

“Rachel. You’re not just smooth.. you’re Wilkinson smooth.”

This Twin Peaks realness right here. Rachel, speaking in code, says something to Don that strikes all of us. Not that this is out of the norm as ghosts tend to say pretty devastating things to him (“Dying doesn’t make you whole.. you should see what you look like.” “It’s not your tooth that’s rotten.” etc) aside from Bert. Then Don, true to form as someone who has no fucking idea how to say anything meaningful outside of work, spits back ad copy. Pete lets her out of the room, since the men in Don’s work life are pretty interchangeable. Taking this dream as a sign for business re:L’eggs, he tells Meredith to schedule a meeting with Rachel.. and Meredith shares the somber news. And I can’t help but think of Kenny’s “Wanna hear something spooky?” to Don in that episode about getting fired the day he was going to quit. The life not lived.

Don goes to the Shiva for Rachel, and talks to her sister Barbara. Their entire interaction is laced with shots being fired, and Don likely doesn’t know that Rachel told her about their affair. Barbara tells him that she died of Leukemia, and he is visibly distraught; the same cancer that killed Anna. Yikes.

Don has a sad fling with the waitress Diana over these first two episodes, and she reveals to him that she’s abandoned her own family back in Wisconsin; a husband, a daughter who died, and an older daughter which she does not reveal until a touch later. Unlike Don, she does not want to forget about her daughter.. which is what happens when they’re having a bang. So she tells him to get out. It’s a brief arc, but it says a lot about his lonely-ass state of mind.

The women in Don’s life genuinely seem better off without him so far. When Betty tells him that she’s heading to Fairfield University (hey, my alma mater!) for a Masters in Psychology, I was pumped! She’s shown a lot of growth among the struggle, and seems to have found a good rhythm in life. Grad school seems like a great choice for her, as a woman who has consistently struggled with the rules that were thrown at her since she was born. Of course we don’t know any more about what’s really going on in the Francis household outside of that one scene, but goddamn Betty is doing well.

On his way out, Don looks back longingly for a beat, seeing the life he could’ve had. Rachel, though dead, got everything she desired and lived the life she wanted to live. Even Diana will be better off, because she chose to face her issues instead of pulling a Don and just running off; she’s just taking some time. The brief glimpse of Sylvia.. she’s still with Arnold, and doesn’t give Don the time of day. Drunk Arnold takes a bunch of jabs at Don, making me wonder if he knows about Don and Sylvia’s weirdo mess. Megan is going to get on with it in Los Angeles no matter what, though it’s not likely that check will clear.

Speaking of which, I have to address the Megan hatred head on. I’m one of those people who digs her, loves her as a character, the whole nine. After “New Business” aired, the internet was blasting hate for her across all channels and all I could think was “really??”. This time, it’s not just the neckbeards.

I love Megan. I thought she was good for Don, but he wanted to use that marriage as a crutch to right the (many) wrongs in his life, to run. He wanted to escape through Megan, to escape facing shit in his life like Dr. Faye wanted him to do (even though I don’t think Faye is right for him either). He’s even using humour as a form of escape now– that scene with Roger and Don in the trash diner with the models, he’s regaling a tale of his impoverished childhood framed with humour. And the fact that his escape hatch marriage didn’t work out seems to be really getting to him, on top of Rachel’s death to the same illness that claimed Anna.. the only person who knew everything about him and still loved him.

Megan maybe could have helped him so much more if he would’ve stopped pushing her away with both hands. That iconic sherbet scene at the HoJo’s from s5e5 “Far Away Places” is her standing up for herself, not wanting any part of the obvious “role” he wants her to play; she’s a real person, not some invented shit only for him. I feel like that was the very start of his resentment which only intensified once he got her that audition with Butler Footwear at the close of s5, cue iconic “You Only Live Twice” ending.. and then we see him throwing a bone to Sylvia in s6 once Megan’s acting career got that jump start.

I love that she called him on his garbage (“an aging, sloppy, selfish liar”), and he took it like a bullet. People on the internet are worked up into a froth over that sad phone conversation they had roughly 10 months ago timeline-wise, where she said he didn’t owe her anything; 10 months is plenty of time to find out about Don’s various indiscretions, the lies, and to let that anger build up after the initial sadness and reality that your marriage is ending. She was angry with herself for marrying him, for giving him the benefit of the doubt, for trusting him. So I understand why she was so pissed off. I would be too! And think about the day she’s had. Her mother, though ultimately on Megan’s side, openly trashes Don and brings those raw feelings to the surface. Her comments about what he’s done to their family are poignant and double-edged — she’s obvi talking about Emile as well. And hey, we finally meet Megan’s judgmental sister Marie-France living atop a fucking perfect mountain of morality!

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Marie with the truth bombs. image courtesy of The Daily Mail

I’ve seen a lot of complaints that the time spent with the Calvets was “useless”.. what? The scenes with Megan and her family really tell you a lot about who she is, and her motivations in life. She’s consistently struggling to be taken seriously by her own family, as well as agents, other actors, casting people and directors. Don didn’t take her seriously when she started auditioning, nor when she said she didn’t like foul orange garbage sherbet at the HoJo’s.

UGHHH speaking of foul, fucking HARRY CRANE is the proto Nice Guy(TM). She sets a secret lunch meeting with Harry to see if he could help her find a better agent in LA, knowing full well that he’s atrocious but maybe he has some connections she could gain traction with.. and he turns the creep up to 11. I used to think Harry Crane was a mere boob, but he’s a real piece of shit here.. and that scene was hard to watch. With the grace of a goddamn Hadrosaur, Harry laments how Megan deserves a great agent — the right person to get her into the right meetings with the right people, and then starts in with “I can’t believe Don threw you away.”

Fucking barely 2 minutes into their lunch meeting, this asshole propositions her for a midday fuck, and when she balks at this gross idea of following him up to his hotel room and shuts it down, he turns it around on her tells her this is why she’s had no success. FFFFFFFF- cue sounds of my head exploding. He’s despicable in this scene, then paints it to Don the next day as “SHE CRAY LOL” to cover his own ass.

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I SEE YOU, HARRY. image courtesy of ONTD

Yup. So, let’s think about the day Megan has had, leading up to the tense meeting with Don finalising their divorce. Her sister, in a weird way to show faux-support, claims her marriage failing is on her shoulders. Her soon to be ex-husband is already banging around in the apartment they bought together, which she decorated and where they made a home.  She’s between acting jobs and doesn’t want to (nor should she need to) resort to being some form of prostitute on the casting couch to get a job. Her mother has been criticising her marriage for awhile now, and then Megan finds Roger Sterling in her former home, having just banged Marie. What in the whole world. I’d be in a mood too, if I were her. Roger is the closest thing Don has to an actual friend, and it’s hugely disrespectful and devastating for Megan to find this all out and like.. completely fucking bizarre. Aaaaand apparently Marie is leaving Emile for Roger! Who knows what will pan out, but YIKES on bikes.

This is Megan attempting to regain control of her life and hitting every roadblock imaginable, and Marie is trying to do the same thing by fleeing to New York City for however long it ends up being. Her outburst that Don has ruined her life isn’t entirely true of course, but it sure feels like it after that disaster of a day. He certainly derailed her steady acting gig on that soap opera by floating the LA move, then reneging on it later.

The hits just kept on coming and she’d had enough by the time she meets up with Don. And the strange thing is, when he gives her that check, it’s the only bit of “support” she’s had that day. In reality the check likely IS a joke, since no bank is going to cash a personal check for a rock. Strangely (and admittedly shallowly), this is the only gesture directed at Megan that didn’t indicate she was worthless. Since Don doesn’t know how to be emotionally supportive, he tries what he knows best; throwing money at the problem.

Where is this season going? I think there’s more to the latter half of s7 than we think. Just gotta dig a little deeper.

Marie jacking all of the furniture is pretty hilarious though, especially empty Don in his empty apartment set to French pop music. C’est si Bon.

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image courtesy of The Daily Mail

“When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere. Just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going — then, he woke up. If you listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel and dreamt of being perfect. And then he’ll smile, with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn’t perfect.

We’re flawed because we want so much more.

We’re ruined because we get these things and wish for what we had.”

Thoughts on Mad Men s7e7, “Waterloo”

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 Cooper dropping postmortem truth bombs. image courtesy of Tumblr

Hey kiddos. Sorry for the insane delay in posting my thoughts on the Mad Men midseason finale. I was in Ireland for a fortnight, traveled for approximately 24 hours total to get back to Los Angeles, and then getting back in the rhythm of real life knocked me out. Seriously, it was an epic poem for me to get home and to get back at it already.

In the interest of pragmatism, I shoddily streamed this episode on my cave internet connection by way of China to my 13″ MacBook Pro while I was out of the country. MAGIC. Honest to god, this was so I could look at social media without being assaulted by whatever potential spoilers were undoubtedly lurking — and I finally had a chance to watch it on my normal-ass TV last night. So, here I am. Frankly I’ve been thinking about this episode daily for the past few weeks, and I have no idea where to begin. My notes are a total disaster. Like I’ve said before, there’s SO MUCH in this episode.. goddamn.

Hey, Ted’s back! And he’s a complete fucking maniac! We haven’t seen much of him this season, but what we have seen is a mopey teenager who’s totally lovesick and miserable in the Golden State. In a super dark sequence, he’s flying the Sunkist guys around in his little plane and alludes to death being the end of all troubles in life. He then shuts down the engines and makes the Sunkist guys shit their collective pants for a little bit to drive his point home. NOT GREAT, TED. This isn’t a good look. Ted is fed up with advertising and hates the LA office, and all that comes with it. He wants to quit and expresses this to Cutler and an hysterical Pete, which does not go over well. Sigh. More on Ted later.

As an aside – I gotta say, props to Cutler for being extremely dismissive of gormless Lou in the wake of Commander Cigarettes bailing. We all know his motivations are shallow at best, but calling Lou a “hired hand” was a pretty awesome slap in the face. Cutler was only nice to Lou in order to get Don out of the picture, and when that didn’t work, Lou is of no value to Cutler anymore. Damn, that’s cold.

The Moon belongs to everyone! I’m fucking thrilled that Weiner didn’t troll us all and gloss over the Moon Landing like a total dick. Fun fact: in middle school, I was completely obsessed with 1960s/1970s NASA (naturally, this made me super popular at parties). I sought out every damn book about the Apollo program that I could find at the Ramsey Public Library, taped every PBS documentary that was on, and completely immersed myself in the Space Race and that awesome historical period of innovation, exploration, and emerging technology. An era of hope.

However, all that reading didn’t quite expose me to what we see on display in “Waterloo” – the simultaneous wonder and fantastic dread that comes along with exploring an unchartered alien world. Everyone at SC&P is buzzing, “what if they don’t make it??” Peggy, Don, Pete and Harry are in Indianapolis to pitch to Burger Chef on July 21st. If the astronauts don’t make it or something goes catastrophically wrong on the 20th, that pitch is put on indefinite leave – not unlike Don’s predicament. Somehow, I never connected that so much business could be riding on the success or failure of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins making it to the surface of the Moon and safely returning home. Everyone at SC&P is on edge.

As an offshoot of the Moon Landing, that idea of unchartered territory has been running deep this season as well. The Space Race, Don starting from the bottom to work his way back up, Peggy delivering a massively important pitch on the fly, Roger becoming acting President of SC&P, and obvi, the Moon itself. These territories are all carefully explored as we follow these people on their journey throughout this season.

During the Moon Landing sequence, we see a few families taking it all in together. Roger and Mona along with Brooks and space-helmeted Ellery all watch together, takeout strewn about the coffee table. The Francis residence is brimming with guests watching the lunar landing together. Pete, Harry, Don and Peggy are their own family watching a motel television broadcast together, with only two beers to cut the tense anticipation of what may or may not go wrong.

These characters are all in flux and have each lost something this season. Roger lost his sense of worth, being snubbed by Cutler and shut out of most actual business proceedings. He couldn’t save his own daughter from that filthy hippie farm upstate, either. Pete has all but completely lost his family, and his life in LA is losing its lustre. Harry alludes to Jennifer demanding a divorce, but she hesitates once he drops the potential partnership bomb (get that money, Jennifer). Peggy just lost Julio, the upstairs neighbour kid who has turned into her surrogate son of sorts; she takes the news of his family moving out with a heavy heart which is fitting, since he seems to be around the age of her lovechild with Pete.

“I don’t want to go to Newark!”

“Nobody does.”

THIS TRUTH.

Don thinks he’s losing his place at SC&P in the form of Cutler trying his damnedest to give him the boot, via a boilerplate attorney letter sent to him as a last resort right before the Burger Chef trip. Following an awkward kiss from Meredith (fucking LOL FOREVER) and some distractingly dramatic music, Don makes a beeline for Cutler’s office and busts in on (another) meeting. He tries to get a rise out of Don by cutting him down to size as just “a bully and a drunk” rather than this alleged genius shrouded in mystery, but Don stoically absorbs it and leaves. I mean, I thought for sure Don was gonna headbutt Cutler, but cooler heads prevailed and he immediately shut the whole thing down like a boss. Good work, Don. He shows the letter to Roger, Cooper and the rest of the partners – whose names were all at the bottom, mind you – and they’re all shocked at Cutler’s actions. They take a vote on the spot and it’s essentially nullified. Bam.

Don has finally lost Megan, in their surprisingly sad phone conversation right before he left for Indianapolis. He tells her about that letter and being on the chopping block, and when he mentions that he can finally move to LA in an attempt to repair things with her, she isn’t having it. Their conversation about ending things is a stark contrast to his confrontation with Betty and their ensuing nasty divorce and aftermath; Don quietly reassures Megan that he’ll always take care of her, and she says that he doesn’t owe her anything. Is it really the end? Who knows. It feels like it this time.

In the wake of all of their personal shit, these people bond just a little bit while taking in this awesome moment together, sharing an unspoken connection in that drab motel room. As Armstrong takes his first tentative steps, everyone is awash in the glowing warmth of the television. You can hear other guests in the motel losing their shit and cheering as Armstrong exits that LEM for the first time. That connection they’ve unknowingly been yearning for, been starving for, is encapsulated in that moment.

As an aside, how much Betty realness is Sally exuding in this episode?? MY GOD. Her hair! Her clothes! Her makeup! Her mannerisms! The Francises have some friends staying with them, with their two sons in tow; a hot idiot (Sean) and a geek (Neil). Sally is instantly drawn to Sean, just like her mother would be. When he loudly declares that the Moon Landing is a waste of money and Sally parrots that fuckery to her father on the phone, Don delivers the smackdown; “You want your little brothers to talk that way?” Don is no cynic, and he ain’t got time for that sort of basic flop bullshit. She understands, and then joins Neil and his telescope outside. They share a moment after she sees Polaris, and she goes right in and kisses him. I love this moment because she totally ignores Betty’s oldschool wisdom of “you don’t kiss boys, boys kiss you” from s3e8, “Souvenir”. Once Neil runs inside at his mother’s call, Sally lights up a cigarette and echoes Betty’s mannerisms down to a T. However, she defies the Betty in her by going for the thoughtful Neil instead of the cynical hot idiot Sean. So great.

Watching the Moon Landing with his housekeeper, Bert Cooper’s last words may have been an emphatic “Bravo”, watching Neil Armstrong as he takes his first steps. Absolutely fitting for a man so great. Cooper’s death has been widely speculated for the past couple of seasons, but actually having it happen and seeing the impact it has on the agency is another thing entirely.

Roger’s Moon Landing experience is interrupted with an “oh shit” phone call, which I immediately thought was someone calling to say that hippie Margaret/Marigold is dead. Turns out it’s actually worse — Bert Cooper, Roger’s lifelong friend and mentor, died in his home that evening. This means that Roger has to finally step up to the plate at SC&P; he has some enormous argyle socks to fill, after all. The last exchange we see between Cooper and Roger is when Cooper tells him that Cutler has “a vision” for the company, while they argue over Don’s fate and what to do. Cooper tells Roger that he’s not a leader, which Roger takes to heart. I mean, Cooper’s corpse is still warm when Cutler firmly tells Roger that Don is done at SC&P since the partners no longer have the votes, hammering the non-leader point home even further. That motherfucker is cold as ice.

Roger Sterling has been a longtime favourite character of mine, and he really gets his shit together in this episode. We saw him have a bizarre sauna conversation with Draper-thirsty Jim Hobart in “The Strategy”, and once Cutler attempts to take control a lightbulb pops on for Roger. Why not use Hobart’s unrelenting borderline creepy thirst as a vehicle to return control of SC&P back to Roger? Bingo. Roger slaps together a merger of sorts with McCann, where SC&P would still be owned by him AND independently operated, but in the process shedding the CGC weight that’s still dragging the company down (read:Cutler), axing Harry’s non-partnership in the process. AND NONE FOR HARRY CRANE, BYE.

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Sterling the Redeemer. image courtesy of Tumblr

Don is immediately not on board with this plan, but still votes in favour of it happening for the benefit of the agency. He also knows that Roger is on his side, and will fight to keep his place at SC&P if and when it all goes through. All is not lost after all, Don! Roger breaks the news to the partners (and tells Harry to fuck off in the most hilar way possible), and while hesitant, they’re all on board by the end.. even Cutler. Ted takes some goading, as he still adamantly wants out; Don ends up being the one to convince him to come on board, since McCann won’t take SC&P without the “original Chevy guys”. Their short exchange is a really nice moment of growth, with Don showing him something real and honest, and seeing the positive impact it has on Ted. He encourages him to stay on board as creative, to get back to the brass tacks of what he loves to do and relish in the simpler things. Don speaks to him as a friend, and Ted is on board.

But oh man, that ending. Initially when I was watching it all unfold, I was thinking “What in the actual fuck? Has Weiner completely lost the plot??” This isn’t the first time Don has seen dead people, but this is certainly one of the least depressing ones he’s seen, on the surface at least. Cooper – socks and all – receives a grand sendoff with a song and dance number of “The Best Things in Life are Free”, an appropriate and loving nod to Morse’s Broadway past. A musical number featuring a recently deceased character is a risky choice for sure, but it makes a ton of sense in the overarching themes of this mini-season.

“But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness.”

-Don, s5e2, “Commissions and Fees”

A huge theme in this show from the very start is the pursuit of happiness and what that means to each person we see — and if it can actually be done. Does real happiness exist? Is it a thing? These characters are all trying to forge their own paths in life and trying to seek out happiness however they see fit. Turns out Don has been doing it wrong all along, he’s been placing his definition and pursuit of happiness on the wrong things in the wrong places at the wrong times. As a result, we’ve seen his journey as something of a downward spiral and a hot mess. His outwardly idyllic marriage to model Betty and the classic 3 kids with a sprawling house in the suburbs, complete with a Cadillac? His marriage to the young, hot, fun Megan and his enormous apartment in the city? Turns out precisely none of these things brought him true happiness. As the characters on the show learn to focus more on the immaterial versus the material, a weight is gradually lifted.

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2001: A Space Peggy. image courtesy of Tumblr.

Back to Peggy’s Burger Chef pitch for a moment. As Don receives news of Cooper’s death, he pops the pitch to her side of the ring. He doesn’t want to land that business and then be immediately fired when him and Peggy worked so closely on it – if that happened, she’d receive nada. He gently encourages her when she doesn’t believe herself capable, and the resulting pitch she delivers at the meeting is magnificent. I was instantly reminded of the s1 finale “The Carousel”, and Don’s iconic Kodak pitch of the same name. She talks about the constant mess at home, and how television has impaired personal connections; dinner is supposed to be a time where you catch up as a family, and enjoy one another’s company. This ritual of a nightly family meal echoes our ever-present yearning to feel connected, to be a part of something. That baseline human want of a sense of community, of belonging, of family – this can be found at a Burger Chef table. That immaterial sense of belonging which we all seek is what’s really important in life, and Peggy puts it all out there for those executives in her pitch. Goddamn.

Those themes also fit right in with the evolution of “family”, and how divided some of these characters are becoming as their motivations are revealed. This episode confirms that Cutler’s only real motivation in life is money, the material – not that this is shocking, but watching him flipflop so rapidly with his opposition to the McCann merger as the cash value is revealed was an “….OH. well!” moment for sure.

So. Cutler, Joan, and Harry are in camp Cash Money Blang while Don, Peggy, Ted, Pete and Roger are seeking something different, something deeper. A sense of purpose perhaps, a love for their work, that lost sense of camaraderie and belonging at SC&P. I mean, money is still a big part of it for them (especially giddy Pete and his 10%), but it’s not the prime influence for them. This midseason finale draws that line of success between monetary gain and that of unbreakable, important bonds between people; after all, the most important things in life don’t cost a dime. Stick with the immaterial, guys.

The start of Don’s story this season was shaky for sure, but as he gains perspective on the shit that actually matters in life, he’s able to make a great deal of positive personal progress. Don is in fact able to overcome his past actions and slowly repair relationships with his colleagues/friends; he finds solace and success with personal fulfillment rather than a number or a title. He finds peace in going back to the start, writing tags and coupons, reconciling with his demons. As Cooper sings, “the best things in life are free”, this is actually sinking in for Don. It’s a fucking Christmas Miracle, you guys. Seeing the look on Don’s face as the gravity of this lighthearted sentiment hits home is nothing short of poetic; he’s been doing it wrong all along, but Cooper gently reminds him it’s never too late to get your ass on the right track. Stay focused, stay on the straight and narrow, appreciate the immaterial.

Ugh, I can’t believe we have to wait another goddamned year for the final 7 episodes of Mad Men. Stay tuned to the Den, kiddos; I’ll for sure have posts coming your way soon! But for now, that was an awesome mini-season. I’m sad to see Mad Men disappear from my TV until 2015.

Thoughts on Mad Men s7e6, “The Strategy”

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Bob Benson and his shorts need a beard! image courtesy of Vanity Fair

Well, the penultimate episode of this faux-“season” did not disappoint. When I reread my notes for this episode, I found that I scribbled down a disproportionate amount of quotes from the characters alongside my thoughts. This episode has loads of strong character moments, and truth be told, if this happened to be the end of the series I would not have been let down. I was reminded of the greatness that is the s4 episode “The Suitcase”, arguably one of my favourite episodes of the series. “The Strategy” is rife with Hemingway references, Don/Peggy bonding, tantrum Pete cramming bottles into cakes, Bob Benson’s gloriously awkward beard proposal to Joan, Megan’s fondue pot, and above all, the idea of family.

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Vin Diesel won’t stop yapping about FAMILY in these movies. image courtesy of The Grio

As an aside, I adore The Fast and the Furious franchise in all of its magnificent, totally entertaining absurdity. As last night’s Mad Men emphasised the unconventional family you choose in life, I couldn’t stop thinking about Vin Diesel’s incessant parroting of the word “family” in those movies. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming..

Let’s start with the triumphant return of Bob Benson. I love this handsome weirdo, I can’t lie. He flies in from Detroit with some Chevy execs, and they’re apparently still just as out of control as when they shot Kenny’s eye out. Roused by a phone call in the middle of the night, Bob has to go bail out one of his Chevy colleagues. It turns out Bill is a closeted homosexual and gets his ass arrested for an attempted beej on an officer (REALLY), and Bob picks him up. The cab ride proves to be fruitful, as he lets Bob know that GM wants to take Chevy’s advertising team in-house for their doomed shitbox Vega. However, Buick would be approaching Bob with an offer soon.. so there’s that. Splendid. Bill also indicates that his wife is cool with him totes banging dudes on the side, and strongly insinuates that GM prefers the quintessential family man with a wife at home, the kids, that fence, etc. Does this archetype even exist anymore in 1969? More on that later..

This gives Bob an idea. He should ask his BFF Joan to marry him! Of course! He’s beloved by her and her rude mother, he can act as a father figure to Kevin, they could buy a mansion in Detroit, what could go wrong? Bob’s a fun guy with a lot to offer, but Joanie knows she deserves more.

Now. Bob’s engagement ring box is nowhere near as creepy as Ginzo’s nipple gift, but this scene is almost as awkward. Bob proposes (I was screaming), and confused, Queen Joan turns him down. She’s put in a super weird position, but handles it with grace and eloquence as only Joan can. She knows he’s obvi A Gay (which is extremely difficult in the 60s), and wants him to seek happiness and love with his preferred sex, and not just to have a beard and call it a day. How is that living? I mean, we all know that Bob Benson is Don Draper Lite, but Joan doesn’t know that. Her words seem to strike a chord with Bob, because she really cares about him, and a sham marriage wouldn’t do anything positive for either of them.

Joan and Bob have a nice friendship, and she lets him down really easily. Joan knows exactly what she wants, and she won’t be swayed from her own path in life. She’s done enough for the agency in landing Jaguar, and money as a lure is no longer appealing to her at this point. She’s accepting of Bob’s sexuality, and encourages him to seek love instead of an arranged easy way out. Their scene is strangely sweet in a way. He lets her know about Chevy jumping ship, and her concern immediately shifts to her career and future.

Plus, who in the fresh hell wants to live in Detroit?

Megan is in town from LA, as is Pete with Bonnie in tow. It’s funny seeing how being in New York affects them individually. Pete reverts to being a smarmy prat, but who can blame him? He sees his daughter once a year, and she doesn’t know who he is. Trudy is avoiding him, and Pete picks a rude fight once she gets home from a date, and eagerly jams his beer bottle into her shitty cake. It’s no roast chicken being launched out of an apartment window á la s2e12’s brilliant “The Mountain King”, but I’ll take it. It’s almost like being back east affected Pete in a way that he could not have imagined in the least.

During their secret shady conference call with Ted, Pete and Lou say that while they love Peggy’s pitch for Burger Chef, they insist that Don deliver it and instead, with Peggy playing the “mother” role. Hey, glass ceiling! Rude that they’d undermine her like that and go full-on traditional, saying that she’s the emotion and Don’s the authority, when it’s actually the other way around; Peggy rightfully corrects those motherfuckers. Plus, Pete telling Pegs to play the mother is SUPER awkward. Hey Pete, remember your gross lovechild?

Pete’s former life on the east coast is a goddamn mess and it’s getting to him. Something about that city seeps into Pete’s headspace like toxic goo, and he becomes neurotic, defensive, and condescending. Bonnie isn’t safe from it either. Pete’s been hinting here and there that she should play the more traditional role with him, but she gives precisely zero fucks about that housewife life. She’s sharp as a tack and sees right through his shit – “Don’t try to fuck your way out of this”. DAMN, girl. Shots fired. She then splits for LA early; Bonnie ain’t got time for that shit, she’s got houses to sell.

Pete is bound by the gravity of his name in that city, and in LA he’s simply free of it. He can be his own man. LA is the first thing he’s had of his own; he’s building something for himself rather than standing on the shoulders of his parents, throwing his name around, or being forced to rely on Trudy’s family. Pete may be struggling, but he’s finding himself and making his own way. As an east coast transplant in LA myself? I get you, Pete.

The way Pete acts reminds me of a nostalgic feeling I can’t quite place. It’s that feeling you get when you go home at Christmastime, and you’re living in your childhood home for the week or however long you’re there. You’re sleeping in your old room, sometimes your posters and knickknacks are still around, and things are just sort of.. off. At any age, you’re transported back to that fucked out headspace of being a kid/teenager, and you find yourself sometimes doing strange things like you did when you were a kid. Pete is for sure experiencing a lot of this in his former home in Cos Cob, and in his old stomping grounds of Manhattan. Being back east activated his asshole switch just a little bit.

Megan is more of the same, though far less brash than Pete. It’s clear that she’s not comfortable in Don’s part of the country and is working hard to get every last piece of herself moved out to the west coast, fondue pot and all. As Megan is tearing the apartment apart in search of her things, Don finds a newspaper from the day JFK is assassinated in 1963, and pauses for a beat. After all, this is the day that Betty decided to leave him and end their marriage.

Megan plays the good wife and sets up a lovely breakfast on the patio for Don, but it’s almost an illusion, an act. Her big/awesome LA hair is gone – she’s been wearing falls to add length. Instead, she sports her natural elongated bob in New York. The funniest part of this is that she’s so eternally thirsty for Don’s gaze, yet she misses all of the very clear signals that he wants her to move back to New York. He wants her there, and it’s plain to see that she has no interest in moving back east; this is a massive thing that he’s overlooking, as well. They seem to barely communicate – when Megan showed up to surprise him at work, one of the secretaries didn’t even know that Don was married. Awk.

Next week is the midseason finale; the hysterically vague episode description says “Don is troubled by a letter”. That better be divorce papers, girl. Just end it already, that marriage is disintegrating rapidly. Ironically, the likely reason Don won’t move to LA is that he truly wants to dig his heels in and repair his life and relationships in New York from the ground up. Too bad he’s neglecting his marriage as a result.

Let’s get to the real meat of this episode, the Don/Peggy stuff. These two have a rich history and are forever tied together in their creativity, their struggle, and ultimately their misery. They have more in common with each other than they think and I am so, so happy with this episode. I love when Don and Peggy fucking get along like normal-ass people. Though Peggy is at first antagonistic towards Don for thinking of another Burger Chef pitch on the fly and thus starting the chain reaction of her rethinking it, he manages to diffuse her anger with.. kindness and understanding. That’s certainly new. They spend Sunday in the office together, working on Burger Chef and bonding, just like in “The Suitcase”. This episode doesn’t have drunk Duck Phillips barging in trying to take a dump on Roger’s bizarre modern white furniture, though.

Peggy’s original Burger Chef idea is, for lack of a better word, dated. It focuses on that wholesome nuclear family with the mom feeling guilty about feeding her family maaaaad burgers, and how to create an ad that will give her permission to hit up fast food for dinner on the reg and annihilate that guilt (Ameri-caaaaaa). Lou, ever the dinosaur, loves the archaic idea of the mom asking the dad for permission (since that’s what people do) and making Burger Chef an a-OK choice for dinner. Ugh.

Watching Don and Peggy figure this out is magical. I liked the visual switch of roles too – Peggy is in Don’s old office, with his old desk placed in the spot that he hated from that photo shoot in s6. She sits at that desk, while Don sits across from her. Peggy is expecting anything other than kindness and honesty from Don when she asks how he does it – what’s his creative process? How does his brain work? What does he have to worry about? His answers are striking and stark; “That I never did anything, and that I don’t have anyone.” Heartbreaking and so completely relatable. Don being that honest and open with her is a huge step forward.

They talk about how the traditional family is dead; everyone watches TV at dinner now, nobody sits down to a nice meal and has conversations anymore. How can they make this work in 1969? Peggy breaks down because she is simply exhausted. She’s done the work, gone above and beyond, but none of it feels right. She doesn’t know what she’s doing wrong, and then it clicks – change the conversation. What’s a place you can go where there’s no TV? Those people with whom you share a meal, with whom you break bread? Whoever you’re sitting with is family. Every table at Burger Chef is the Family Table.

The traditional 1950s Leave it to Beaver-type family unit is rapidly eroding. SC&P has to switch gears to advertise to this new normal, they have to evolve to keep up with the times. Just look at the characters here – Joan is a divorcée single mother with her own mother living in her apartment and has just been proposed to by her gay friend. Don and Megan are clear across the country from one another. Pete is still married on paper, but has essentially been ejected from his family by Trudy. Peggy is single, just turned 30 (“Shit.. when??”), living alone in her apartment in an up and coming neighbourhood. She’s estranged from her family because of her modern ambition and intelligence, and her mother and sister don’t understand her in the least. The people they’re trying to reach with the original Burger Chef pitch simply don’t exist anymore.

This episode is remarkable. While dancing with Peggy to “My Way” (of course), Don finally realises that he gets to choose his own family. He’d never really been alone if he’d bother to not be a complete narcissistic dick all the time. That scene with them dancing is one of the sweetest scenes in this show’s history; these are two people who truly care for one another, who are connected. Don is genuinely encouraging of Peggy’s talents and plays the supportive role to her very well, in an honest attempt to repair his relationship with her and move forward. He realises that she isn’t his competition, and instead wants to be her friend and colleague. He wants to collaborate and create shit with Peggy already. Move forward. Evolve.

This episode closes with an actually perfect scene – Don, Pete and Peggy all sharing dinner together at Burger Chef. These characters are all orphaned in their own ways, and now they are their own family. Pete tries his damndest to get Don back where he belongs at SC&P, a younger brother sticking up for his big brother. Peggy is at her wit’s end and Don helps her, coaxes brilliance, and talks to her frankly like a father figure. It’s a quick little scene but it’s immensely satisfying to see them enjoying one another’s company. So much Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper realness.

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A Clean, Well-lighted Place. image courtesy of imgur

Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well-lighted Place” is about a deaf old man who enjoys staying in a café all the live long day and night for the companionship. It’s a pleasant environment where he can have the coveted illusion of togetherness, so he doesn’t have to face that despair – the ever-present “nada” of life. There is a waiter who understands this man, who gets that many people are affected by that very same problem, countering the other waiter who’s super dismissive and blasé, and wants to go to bed already. The protagonist is presumed to not have anyone in his life, so he makes his own family to a loose extent, just like our characters here. Peggy, Pete and Don have seen and gone through some dark shit, so it’s natural that they seek out friendship and solidarity in one another now.

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One last bit – Meredith clearly gets her “winking eye alcohol suggestion” blatant wink faux talent from Lucille Bluth. Obvi.

images courtesy of Tumblr

OH! I almost forgot. Man, Cutler really has a humongous boner for Harry Crane and that damn computer. In light of the Chevy news, he seems pretty focused on making Harry a partner, an idea which both Joan and Roger reject (Don has his back for obvious reasons). Bringing in some massive computer does not a partner make, but Harry’s always been ahead of the curve when it comes to media. He’s intelligent and knows what he’s doing and has proven himself for at least a junior partnership. I guess he deserves it, but I bet he’ll be a smug dick about it all the way to the market.

And finally.. Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” dropped on June 14th, 1969. That means we’d better see the fucking moon landing next week, Weiner. I also want to see Ginsberg! Glad he was at least mentioned this week, but I definitely miss his crazed self on my screen.. not to mention Queen Betty and Sally. I’d even settle for freaky-ass Glen, I hope he didn’t get drafted; though that peculiar guy might feel right at home in Vietnam.

I will be out of the country when the midseason finale airs, so next week’s thoughts will be delayed until I can watch it! If any of you motherfuckers spoil it for me, I will lose my damn mind. Til next time!

Thoughts on Mad Men s7e5, “The Runaways”

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“stop humming, you’re not happy!” images courtesy of Idyllopus and imgur

Oh my god, what a fucking straight-up bizarre episode this was. More 2001 parallels, especially in this scene where Ginsberg is attempting to lipread Cutler and Lou  á la HAL-9000 lipreading Dave and Frank talking about shutting HAL down. Ginsberg takes on the role of HAL, and we learn that Cutler and Lou are talking about how to shut down Don, via Commander Cigarettes.

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It’s ironic that Ginzo takes on the “computer” role since he loathes and fears technology so much. More on that in a bit.

images courtesy of tumblr.

This episode is about people trying to find their role of importance – seeking that all-important feeling of being needed, and how to get it. On a small scale, Lou tries to make himself important with his flop idea “Scout’s Honour”, and loses his damn mind when Stan finds it, lashing out at the creative team like an uptight teacher punishing children for no real reason. In my experience, guys who have a personality comprising of 98% dick tend to not be packing much “elsewhere”. Lou is an example of that dude, and it’s becoming clearer with each episode that airs.

Betty and Henry sure are bickering a lot, yeah? That was awkward. Henry (unintentionally) undermines Betty and her opinion of the Vietnam war at a block party event, and Betty has no idea how to cope. Her previous experience being some Important Man’s Wife(TM) meant that Don coached her on what were the right and wrong answers ahead of time. Even in her final scene with Henry in the episode, she feels the need to assert her worth as a real person, that she’s indeed intelligent and capable of independent thought. She’s surrounded by people telling her what to do or what to say, her older kids fear and loathe her, and she’s fed up. Betty embodies the very principles of The Feminine Mystique. I feel very sad for Betty, she’s really lost in this changing decade. This is a woman so damaged by her upbringing (and atrocious marriage to a controlling Don) trying to figure out where she fits. Her real opinions and thoughts apparently are not needed by Henry, not while he’s in politics. Her thoughts and feelings are not needed by her kids who don’t want to listen.

One nice thing from this episode is that we get to see Sally and Bobby have a sibling moment. This is something that’s been pretty much absent from the series thus far, save for Sally taking on a parental role taking care of the boys from time to time. They’re both terrorised by their mother, and Bobby seeks out Sally for comfort. Bobby needs positive attention and non-creepy love from a family figure, and I’m sure Sally is seeking that same thing from Bobby. As a girl who is growing wise to Betty’s outward focus on looks as life currency in finding a husband, Sally spits straight venom back at her mother. While at boarding school, she gets in a swordfight with one of her friends and ends up getting bashed in the face. Naturally, Betty thinks Sally’s life is over because something so absurdly minor as a broken nose will prevent her from getting places in life, since she inherited Betty’s “perfect” nose. Yikes.

“The Runaways” has, for sure, one of the most shocking and flat-out dark things I’ve seen on Mad Men thus far. Let’s do a fun recap of previous horrifying dark moments on this show! In no particular order:

  1. Lane’s suicide in the office.
  2. Sally catching Don in the bone zone with Sylvia.
  3. Joan being raped by her dickbag fiancé in Don’s office.
  4. Flu-ridden Don hallucinating strangling/murdering some broad post-bang and shoving her under the bed.
  5. Joan landing Jaguar for SCDP by bonking hambeast Herb.
  6. Old lady burglar in Don and Megan’s apartment, threatening and intimidating Sally and Bobby.
  7. Betty’s senile elderly father grabbing her boob in front of the family, mistaking her for her dead mother.

And now, we have Ginzo and his Nipple Gift to Peggy. I was, in actuality, screaming. Ever since the great Michael Ginsberg neurotically graced our screens in s5, there was obviously something up with this guy. He was born in a Concentration Camp? He’s a self-proclaimed martian? Dude is also obsessively and hilariously fixated with who’s a homo and who’s not, no doubt some sort of headspace fuckery thanks to his dad’s constant probing of his own sexuality. We don’t know much about Ginsberg’s past, but this particular passage from s5 is very telling in light of what we’ve seen in “The Runaways”.

“Actually, I’m from Mars. It’s fine if you don’t believe me but that’s where I’m from. I’m a full-blooded Martian. Don’t worry, there’s no plot to take over Earth.. just displaced. I can tell you don’t believe me. That’s okay. We’re a big secret. They even tried to hide it from me. That man, my father, told me a story I was born in a concentration camp, but you know that’s impossible. And I never met my mother because she supposedly died there. That’s convenient. Next thing I know, Morris there finds me in a Swedish orphanage. I was five, I remember it.”

Peggy: “That’s incredible.”

“Yeah, and then I got this one communication. Simple order. Stay where you are.”

Peggy: “Are there others like you?” 

“I don’t know. I haven’t been able to find any.”

-Ginsberg and Peggy, s5e6 “Far Away Places”

After the hum of the monolith drives him out of the office, a weary Ginsberg shows up at Peggy’s apartment on a Saturday. He’s rattling on about how the computer is damaging everyone and building pressure inside of his body, and he has no way of releasing it. It’s invaded his head and apparently it’s turning everyone into homos, which is admittedly ridiculous/hilar, but not too far out of his realm of past absurdity. Peggy shrugs it off as him being a weirdo as usual, until she wakes up with him staring at her a few inches from her face. He kisses her, it’s hilarious and awkward, and Ginzo insists they have to reproduce though he’d prefer to do it without having sex if he could. L O L. Yikes. Exasperated Peggy brings him back to earth for a second when she yells at him that “IT’S JUST A COMPUTER”, and he agrees.

I was uneasy at their interaction that weekend, because.. yeah. So when Monday rolled around, and he goes into Peggy’s office with a jewellery box, I worried that he might be proposing to her on the spot. He tells her not to worry and reassures her that he’s back to being himself, and even among his yapping about data and outlets, I wanted to believe him. But then, he presents Peggy with his goddamned bloody right nipple, hacked off of his own person, in a fucking gift box, with some hair still intact. I CANNOT. Apparently, hacking it off has “relieved” the “pressure” from the “computer”; he tried to get it done by a doctor (???), but said that they’d only “sew it up” and not .. take it off like he needed. What in the world?! He’s gone full Van Gogh. He’s lost the fucking plot.

In more astute terms, he has no grasp of the consequences of his actions and that what he’s done is completely not ok; he’s now a danger to himself. Does he have a brain tumour? Is he a full fledged paranoid schizophrenic?? Signs of schizophrenia tend to manifest in people in their late 20s, so it’s not entirely implausible that his once endearing neuroses would take a turn for the worse around his age.

This is a remarkably sad turn of events, considering how people with mental illness are treated in the 1960s and 1970s. A prime example is Beth, Pete’s married love interest from s5. Her husband sent her off to a mental hospital to receive electroshock treatments when she was “feeling blue” but most likely seeking male companionship elsewhere, to keep her in line. Fucked out for sure. Heartbroken Peggy makes the tough call to get an ambulance, and we see Ginzo being wheeled out, strapped to a stretcher. He’s been cracked by the hum of the monolith, yelling “GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!”, and it’s genuinely upsetting for everyone at SC&P. A visibly upset Stan accompanies him to the hospital. Super jarring, especially compared to his singular “order” as a martian.

I’m scared for Ginsberg’s future, and I hope we get to see him again on the show. Forming a prayer circle for Michael Ginsberg right now.

As Ginzo loses touch with reality, Stephanie reappears. Anna’s niece from a few seasons back pops back onto our screens as a knocked up filthy hippie seeking help. She calls Don from LA, who tells her to head to Megan’s apartment in Laurel Canyon and that he’ll be there soon. Stephanie represents a few things in this episode. She is what Don wishes Megan could be – pregnant and dependant on him, and what Megan wishes she could be – more confident, gutsy, and spellbinding. Don moves mountains to be out in LA ASAP, which is upsetting to Megan since he hasn’t done that for her unless it was to “check in” like when her agent called.

And the obvious ace in the hole is that Stephanie knows that Don Draper is Dick Whitman, and has known all her life. Between Don and Megan, this secret was something that provided a sense of intimacy, something that was “just the two of them”, so coming into contact with someone who knows more about Don’s past leaves her shaken. Also, something interesting I noticed: Megan has no trouble wielding Don’s checkbook to cut Stephanie a “please leave” check for $1000, yet she balks at Don buying her a colour television saying it reflects badly on her image? Guuuuurrrrl.

Let’s talk about Megan’s effervescent, unrelenting thirst. Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d say: in what was probably the most excruciating threesome ever, Megan uses her vacant friend Amy to attempt to lure Don’s indiscretions back into their marriage, to draw him back in. Naturally, it backfires because she misread him entirely; Megan trying so goddamned hard to be what Don chases is really sad. She even tries to keep his attention and make him jealous by flirtatiously dancing with some basic Charles Manson doppelgänger at her party, which Don rightfully ignores.

Don leaves the party to go have a drink with surprise guest Harry Crane, which is a square punch in the solar plexus for Megan since she knows how much he generally dislikes Harry. This turns out to be a lucrative outing for Don – Harry has always liked Don from day one, and Don doesn’t have a hell of a lot of allies at SC&P right now. Harry lets him know that Cutler and Lou are pursuing Commander Cigarettes in secret (which is what Ginsberg spied in the computer room), knowing full well that if they go with SC&P then Don will have to bounce because of his damning Lucky Strike “he didn’t dump me I dumped him” letter in the NYTimes back in s4. Shady shit.

This is another devious attempt from Cutler and Lou to get Don the hell out of SC&P, and Don delightfully intervenes thanks to Harry’s intel. The main reason Don is “allowed” to stay at the firm is that the partners don’t have the cash necessary to buy him out; however, if they land a big tobacco account, they would for sure be able to do just that. Don crashes their secret meeting with Philip Morris, and acknowledges the letter and that he’d quit if need be. By acknowledging this, Don takes that trump card and spins it right the hell around. Instead of Cutler and Lou having a threat to hang over his head, Don has the advantage. He surprised them all by stating that fact, which gave him some time to plead his case and explain. He’s an impressive ad man with a keen business sense and invaluable tobacco experience, and everyone in that room damn well knows it. He can offer the opposing strategy as well, since he took a meeting with the American Cancer Society post-Lucky Strike letter. Suck on that one, Cutler and Lou.

Above all else, he places the good of the agency above his own personal vendetta, effectively shutting down Cutler and Lou for the time being. He did it in a classy albeit sneaky way, but he didn’t lose his cool. He knows he’s needed when it comes to American tobacco. Well done, Don.