Mad Men S3E13: Shut the Door. Have a Seat.

"I want to work. I want to build something of my own."

We got a phone call at 11:02 last night from someone who wanted to eagerly discuss the incredible episode we both just saw. "Did you think it would turn out this way?" she asked. "Not exactly," we said. "But it's like they gave every one of our favorite characters their best-case scenario."

Last night's episode wasn't just a culmination of the entire season; it was a culmination of the entire series to this point. Leave it to the creators of this show. Two weeks before the season finale they gave us an episode as shocking as any season finale and now for the actual season finale, they give us an episode that feels like a coda to the whole series. Every action taken by every character made complete and total sense for that character based on their experiences. Every story felt like it had naturally flowed to this place. They could have just titled the episode "Of Course." It was an incredibly satisfying payoff wherein each character got to have a character-defining scene and various relationships were re-defined and re-affirmed while others were ended.

When things are ending, it gives license to truth and much truth was spoken this episode. The series could be easily dismissed as endless scenes of subtext piled upon subtext, but last night's episode was all text, all the time.

"Young men love risk because they can't imagine the consequences."

"And you old men love building golden tombs and sealing the rest of us in with you."

"I wanna see what you look like with your tail between your legs."

"You sold your birthright so you could marry that trollop!"

"You're not good at relationships because you don't value them."

"I don't want to make a career out of being there so you can kick me when you fail."

Suddenly, everything's out on the table and nobody is holding back. And even though the events could have played out in a doom-laden catastrophic manner, it all felt like a breath of fresh air. At the end, every character was exactly where they were supposed to be.

As the title of the episode indicated, the show was literally composed of scenes of people shutting the door and having a seat and yet great drama was wrung out of these remarkably repetitive scenes over and over again. They've spent the last three seasons setting these characters up (and in some cases, knocking them down) to get to this point. This episode was all about playing all the riffs on the relationships they've spent three years constructing to get to this moment. Like Peggy's "Really?" to the news that Pete brought Clearasil on as a client. Two syllables that address the history of the two characters and also implied a highly functioning partnership on the part of the Campbells. In fact, to our intense delight, Trudy looks to have become a fairly prominent character in the new status quo, but we'll get to that in a minute.

You're going to have to forgive a little bit of fragmentation in this post. We're just gonna spew and hope it wraps itself up in the end somehow.

The episode opens with Don waking up coughing in Gene's/Baby Gene's/I Don't Love You Anymore's room. Contrast that with the Don of just 3 episodes ago in a tuxedo accepting an award. We said back then that it felt like Don was heading toward a downfall and he certainly rarely looked as beaten down as he does here.

Betty, on the other hand, is moving forward, jaw set. "Maybe you should see a doctor. A good one," says Don to the news that Betty's consulted a divorce lawyer, desperately trying to regain control in the old Don Draper manner. "Because I'd have to be sick to want out of this?" she shoots back. It's not gonna work anymore, Don.

To be honest, we just wanted to see the Draper marriage end. We really hope there isn't a planned reconciliation for these two characters in season 4. It's done and we'll repeat what we said about them during season 2: "The Draper family seems irrevocably broken and we can't help thinking that everyone involved would be better off if they just all went their separate ways." And we said that BEFORE she threw him out of the house the first time. It's been three full seasons of misery in Ossining. A good marriage might have survived the year that they had, but they clearly never had a good marriage.

In other news, Connie calls Don in for another meeting and drops a bomb on him, which gives him license to speak the truth and call Connie out on his games and bullshit. "You called me son. I get it, Connie." But Connie unwittingly throws down a gauntlet to Don: Are you the type of man who whines about his fate or does something about it? Don chooses option B because taking charge of his career is the only thing he has left in the face of his disintegrating home life.

Just like in last season's finale, when every character had to come face to face with the end of something (although last year's Cuban Missile Crisis-inspired "end of civilization" was a little bit more dire), the status quo got upended and all bets were off. As Don appealed first to Bert and then with Bert to Roger, he had the zeal of a man with a mission and the desperation to go around with hat in hand (literally) to convince others to climb on board.

Roger, like Pete and Peggy and Betty this episode, wants his pound of flesh from Don and before he can even think of throwing in with him, he had to get a few things off his chest, not the least of which was his brutally honest assessment that Don doesn't value relationships in any form. A hobo down to his soul. It's interesting to note that for all Don's attempt at privacy, the people around him have known him long enough and been at the mercy of his demons enough that they all tend to know him pretty well, much to his chagrin. This episode was in many ways a chance for many of the characters to tell Don exactly what they think of him.

We loved the scene where the four future partners of Sterling Cooper Draper Price sit down in Don's office and discover to their delight that they can actually get out of this untenable situation. It only made us wish we could have seen more of the business drama this season because they really shine when they focus on it. "Well, gentlemen. I suppose you're fired." Lane is awesome. Have we said that enough? We're really looking forward to seeing more of him next season and wondering how his bitchy wife is going to take to her permanent residence in New York.

Two things of note here:

The first: The lack of technology, the fact that you could only set this story in this particular time period, when a message to London won't even be read for 3 days, is what allows the entire caper to be successfully pulled off. We appreciate that from the writers because the show works best when they really make good use of that specific brief period of time to set stories in motion. That short window when the business world was operating globally but didn't have the technology that would come along in a short while to facilitate it.

It's also notable that Don gives an emphatic "No" to the idea of Connie as a client for the newly formed firm. While it's true that Connie had ended things and Don gave him a little mouth on the way out, Don could conceivably have pitched him on the merits of SCD&P. That he chose not to is evidence of his need for control in this moment. He had the energy of a newly formed evangelical. He had found his purpose and he didn't have time for idiosyncratic clients who like to play head games.

So Don and Roger are off to see Pouting Pete. Don finally said to Pete everything Pete needed to hear from him, and the beauty of it was that all of it was absolutely true. A complete validation for the character.

Can we just take a moment here to once again declare our love for Trudy Campbell, setting out the chip and dip and wearing a kicky little dress for company? Her perky little, "I'm going to change the sheets," was treat enough, but her tense, eavesdropping-inspired "Peter, may I speak to you for a moment?" had us rolling. Best line of the night. Once again, we see the total teamwork in the Campbell marriage as Pete tells her to get the rolodex out from under the bed, where he threw it (a great throwaway line illustrating Pete's childishness) and pose as his secretary in order to set up a meeting with a client. At the end of the episode, we see Trudy breezing into the new "office" with lunch for everyone and we realize, she is in a new position to become the alpha wife in this scenario. Don, Roger, Lane and Bert do not have willing partners to play the hostess and the arm candy as a firm like this would definitely require. Her willingness to be a partner to her husband could be a great asset not only to the Campbells, but to the newly formed company.

Roger and Don still don't love each other, but they're back to sitting in a bar together, something we haven't seen them do all season. They each seem to have realized the other's worth and they've reached enough of a detente that it can survive Roger blurting out Betty's rumored infidelity to him. Our mouths dropped when he said the name of Henry Francis to Don. A great scene and a plot twist we didn't see coming.

Again, revelations and endings lead to spoken truths. After calling her a "spoiled main line brat," Don says to Betty, "You never forgave me." "Forgave what?" she spits out. "That I've never been enough?" And if these truths weren't enough, when Don calls her the very worst name Don Draper could ever call someone, "whore," they've reached the point of no return. The marriage effectively ends at that moment. And didn't we all want it to? We don't hate either character or blame either character for the demise of the marriage; we just want it to be over. They're more miserable than they've ever been (and that's really saying something) and it's time to just rip off the band-aid and get it over with. So they do.

"Is it because I lost your cufflinks?" asks Bobby at the news. It's a heartbreaking line that reveals beautifully what goes on in the head of a child when divorce becomes real to them. "You made him stay in Gene's room and it's scary in there!" accused Sally. Children processing adult events in child-like terms. It was a tear-your-heart out scene, beautifully written and perfectly acted by all four of them. But even this didn't change our minds about the divorce. As painful as it was for the kids, they'd only have a lifetime of tense and uncomfortable scenes ahead of them if they tried to keep the family together.

The ending of the primary relationship in Don's life has him running around trying to shore up all the secondary relationships and none were better than the scenes where he tries to keep Peggy from leaving him. But she's no more likely to fall for the old Don Draper moves than Betty is. "Beg me?" she says when it's her turn to collect her pound of flesh, "You didn't even ask me."

Later, in her adorably messy new apartment (in the DVD bonus commentaries for season 2, Matthew Weiner gleefully mentions the fact that Peggy is a bit of a slob as one of his favorite character bits several times) Don laid it all out to her. We watched this scene three times and each time we thought, "Why does Don look so good here?" It wasn't just the beautiful lighting. On the third viewing we finally figured it out. It's because Don is looking up at Peggy, who's in a superior position. A pleading Don with his hat literally in his hands, the sun streaming through the windows and lighting his face up like a joyous convert, is a completely human and vulnerable Don. A far cry from the swaggering Don who shoved his hands up the skirts of women to get them to do his bidding. And then something else occurred to us. This scene is a romance. There isn't a chance in hell of Peggy and Don ever having a literal romantic relationship (or of even wanting one) but this scene is nevertheless a declaration of love, a grand gesture in the face of a breakup. "I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you." It's literally one of the most romantic things Don has ever said. That's as firm a declaration of love and need as Don has ever uttered. And Peggy, because how could she not? Completely accepted it. She is finally where she needed to be: her worth is known and valued.

After that, it's just a matter of setting events into motion. With the addition of one last-minute, yet nonetheless major player.When Roger stood up and said he was making a phone call we knew our Joannie was on her way back. "Joan. What a good idea," says Don appreciatively, and we could NOT agree more. From that point on, we just sat back with huge grins on our faces and watched it all unfold.

"Peggy, can you get me some coffee?"
"No."

Okay, no. THAT was the best line of the night. Of the SERIES. The old ways are OVER. We said this about Don after Betty found out the truth about him, but now it applies to all of them: they could literally go anywhere they want to with these new core characters. The possibilities for what season 4 could even be about are so wide open that we're not even going to attempt to make predictions.

Joan. We just can't say how happy we are regarding Joan's role in this turn of events. "Furnished?" she asks Don, at his request for a new apartment, followed by the most incredibly discreet "I'm sorry," as she folds the paper and files it away in her robot brain. SCD&P didn't feel like a real possibility until she came on board and we can't wait to see where this takes her.

With a newfound control exerted over his life and his immediate goals met and immediate future wide open, Don ends what needs to end. "I'm not gonna fight you," he says to Betty and for a moment she looks a little hurt to hear that he won't. But it's really over. "You will always be their father." That's as final as final gets and Don knows it.

So Betty is off to Reno with Henry and little Gene while Carla sits in the den in Ossining with poor Sally and Bobby. It would be easy to vilify Betty for running off with another man and leaving her two children weeks before Christmas but that's as much an admonishment against the draconian divorce laws of the times as it is a strike against her. We guess she could have waited until after the holidays but why? Why leave the family in limbo? For good or for ill, she's fallen for someone else and wants to get her family out of an untenable situation. Is she going to find happiness with Henry? Who knows? Sure, there are some warning signs there, but say what you will about him, the guy follows through. She's got a better chance with Henry than she ever did with Don.

And Don is living in the city- where he belongs? After all, Don always was attracted to either the cosmopolitan (Rachel and Bobbie) or the bohemian (Midge and Suzanne). His mistake was taking the educated, world traveling, Italian-speaking model he fell in love with and trying to turn her into a suburban housewife. We suspect Don's immediate focus is his career at the moment and another relationship is not on his agenda right now but you never can tell with this show and a divorced Don doesn't necessarily mean he's suddenly conquered his impulse control issues when it comes to women. Although really, anything is possible right now with these characters and that suddenly makes the show feel more energized. For once, all of these characters are out in front of change instead of unprepared for it or worse, passive to it, like they usually are. The future really is wide open to them.


[Pictures courtesy of amctv.com]


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Mad Men S3E12: The Grown-Ups

"Take a pill and lie down."

Show creator Matthew Weiner has often said in interviews that he was reluctant to take on the Kennedy assassination, arguably the seminal event of the sixties, because it had been explored to death in more films and television shows than you can count and he felt he couldn't bring anything new or fresh to the story. As the episodes piled up this season and those of us who obsess over this sort of thing took note of the dates, it became obvious that he had changed his mind and the event was going to be examined before the season ended. Unfortunately, after watching this episode, we have to say his initial instincts were correct. There was nothing particularly new or interesting in this version of the tale. Most dramatic explorations of the assassination from the view of the general public hit two major tropes: people watching TV in horror, and people reacting to the shock of the event by questioning their own lives. We got plenty of both last night and it made for what we would consider the most disappointing episode of the season.

Of course a disappointing episode of Mad Men is still better than 95% of what appears on television and there were plenty of interesting scenes and interactions plus one major shift in the plot at the very end. And to be fair, almost any episode was going to have a very hard time following last week's episode which, as we said, was probably the best in the entire series.

But let's talk about the assassination before we get into what we think was the major theme or motif running through the episode. Here's what we think they got right and what we think made perfect sense for the characters:

♦ Pete and Harry, having a whinefest (because let's face it: they are the two whiniest characters on a show full of them) about their careers, so caught up in their own drama that they don't even notice the flash on the television informing them of the assassination.

♦ Betty, after a year full of disappointments, finally has the emotional reaction she couldn't have when her own father died; she cried. And she spent the rest of the episode floundering around, looking for someone to explain it to her or at the very least validate what she was feeling. "What is going on?!" she cried out in anger, and the only answers she got back were "It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be alright," answers that she didn't believe and didn't want to hear.

♦ And what we thought was the best touch of all and handled with great subtlety, Carla, all barriers momentarily forgotten, slumps down on the couch next to her employer, takes one of her cigarettes and cries too for the man many African-Americans of the period considered their greatest hope.

♦ Sally and Bobby, too young to understand but nevertheless fascinated by what's playing out in front of them. Adults didn't cry in their world and suddenly all of them were doing so. We have a slight quibble with Sally's reaction, though. She's old enough and the show has demonstrated time and again, insightful enough, that we would have thought she'd demonstrate a more knowing reaction than that.

♦ And then there's Don, completely dissociated from his emotions and the emotions of others, advising Betty to lie down and medicate herself and chastising her for letting the kids watch the events unfold on television. Much like in Season 1 after her mother died, Don simply can't be there for Betty when she has emotional responses like this. Not because he doesn't want to - this episode made clear that he's tip-toeing around her and trying to be the best husband he can be after last week - but because he's spent his whole life hiding the truth and subsequently doesn't have the capability to show empathy or to be in touch with his own emotions.

♦ And the one bit that was truly eerie, original, and illustrative of the magnitude of the event: all of the phones in Sterling Cooper going silent as the phone company becomes overloaded with calls.

If you lived through these events or if you were the type of people (like us) who loved hearing the stories from people who did, you could probably come up with stories that were as interesting or moreso than the reactions we saw this episode. That's what made it somewhat disappointing. Clearly, they wanted to, but the show creators simply didn't bring anything new to the table and there were no real revelations to be had.

Now, having got the bitching out of the way, let's take a look at the real motif of the episode. With the nuptials of Margaret Sterling and her (we have to say, distractingly cute) fiance, the theme was couples: married, unmarried, used-to-be married, wanna-be married, and should-have-gotten married. Betty and Don, Betty and Henry, Roger and Mona, Roger and Jane, Roger and Joan, Peggy and Duck, and in a huge surprise to us, the couple that went from being our least favorite on the show (we once said they were horrible people and we'd never want to be stuck on an elevator with them) to becoming our new favorites: Pete and Trudy.

How did that happen? How did this whiny boychild and his spoiled rotten wife become the fabulous young couple whose every scene illustrates how good they are for each other and how sweet they are together? From the only-a-married-couple scene of Trudy leaning in to Pete and asking "Do I have bags?" to the two of them curled up on the couch and exploring their horror at the events on their TV, to her support of him after his career disappointment, they've become the new golden couple after the previous years' model (Don and Betty) has deteriorated to the point of no return.

The ending of last week's episode made it seem as if the crisis may have passed in the Draper marriage and that might have held true if the assassination hadn't happened. Unfortunately, Betty was at the end of her rope emotionally after the birth of a child she didn't particularly want, the death of her father, the revelation that her husband has been lying to her the entire time she's known him, and the confusion brought on by her feelings for Henry. It was all just too much for her and the assassination lit a match under her and set her off.

And maybe if she hadn't run into Henry at the wedding (We have to say, we loved her little smirk and "Of course" under her breath when he walked in), she wouldn't have come to the conclusion that she did. But sometimes life lays out your choices for you very clearly and Betty saw both her husband and the man she's most intrigued by standing side by side and looking at her with adoration and in that moment, it appears she made her decision. Actually, that's not true. Betty made her decision when Henry announced his intention to marry her. She'd never leave Don to be a single divorcee like Helen Bishop, but she'd do it to become another man's wife, like Happy Rockefeller.

So Betty wants out and we can't say we're surprised by that. When Betty announces the end of her feelings for Don he typically tries to play it down and doesn't display any emotion until he's alone. Do we feel sorry for him? Sure. A little. But take a second and run down all the shitty things he's done in his marriage over and over again and any sympathy we have gets watered down quite a bit. We feel bad for Don, but we can't say he doesn't deserve it.

On the one hand, we'd be sorry to see the Draper marriage end because a single Don doesn't sound all that interesting to us and a Betty married off to someone else would likely mean she's off the show for good. We know we complained that there was too much focus on their marriage this season, coming on the heels of last year's season-long examination of their marital troubles, but like it or not, they are the center of the show. Without the drama inherent in the perfect Drapers living the dream life and dying a little inside, we don't know what the purpose of the show would be.

But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. Maybe next episode they'll run back into each other's arms, just like they did at the end of last season. If that's the case, color us bored and disappointed. How many times are we supposed to see them almost break up and then come back together at the last minute?

In other news, Peggy is once again revealed to be a junior Don Draper. She's as dissociated and unempathetic as he is. Although we have to give her a lot of credit. So focused is she on her career and so good is she at it, that she had the presence of mind to realize that the upcoming shoot of their proposed Aquanet commercial - the one depicting two couples in a car with the top down - would be a disastrous idea in the wake of the assassination and like a good little soldier, was in the office all alone trying to figure out how to rework it and trying to avoid the emotion of the day. Once again the show examines how the major events of the day were repurposed (or in this case, avoided) in order to sell products.

But while she may be good at her job, she keeps demonstrating her lousy taste in men. Duck is so wrong for her it's not even funny and we have to echo her room mate's question: Why is she with him? Is she acting out a Don fantasy with a surrogate? Because she better realize soon that Duck is no Don. In fact, Duck is using her as a substitute for his alcohol addiction. He acts just like an addict when it comes to her: completely impulsive, focused solely on getting what he wants, acting like a big shot and doing what he has to to make sure he gets his fix. He knew if Peggy walked in and saw the news on the TV, his nooner would be over so, like the asshole he is, he kept that information from her until he got what he wanted out of her.

And then there's Roger, surprising himself with his somewhat emotional reaction to the assassination, demonstrating great affection and respect for his former wife, trying to be a good father to his daughter and possibly coming to the realization that his new wife is something of a mess and possibly more trouble than she's worth. We don't know what his thinking is regarding Joan, but we have to say we love those phone calls. Those two know each other on a level that no one else in their lives do and each phone call makes us wish more and more that they had both made different decisions.

Pictures courtesy of amctv.com

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Mad Men S3E11: The Gypsy and the Hobo

"Don't change the name, don't change the product."
"Let it go, the name is done."

Unsurprisingly, we have much to say about last night's intense episode, but one thing's for sure: Jon Hamm locked up his Emmy nomination.

The theme was names and how names hide the truth. Only a show as brilliantly intricate as Mad Men could get away with the analogy that horsemeat=truth, but they pulled it off beautifully. There was definitely a lull in the midpoint of this season and we complained as much as anybody that the Draper marriage was becoming played out, but they needed to lay that groundwork for the emotional bomb drop that was to come. Whatever lull we were perceiving is long gone and we're left each week asking "Best episode of the season, or best EVER?"

But for really reals this time: we think this is the best episode ever. As in, in the history of the show. Full stop. Don and Betty sitting down to have that conversation is something that other writing teams would have at least saved for a season if not a series finale. There was this unreal, dreamlike feeling hanging over the whole thing of "I can't believe they're saying this." But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Betty is on her way to Philadelphia to settle her father's estate (but really, she's assessing her own financial affairs to see where she stands without Don) and she's taking the kids with her, possibly for the week. It's the week of Halloween 1963 and history with a capital H is waiting for them all, little more than 3 weeks in their future. She's still playing at the old Betty here; the child like Betty who pouts but doesn't confront. "You have no more money," she challenges Don, knowing damn well that he has a ton of it locked in his desk drawer. Because for Don, what's in that drawer is private, and because for Don, "private" is something so locked away that he never has to think about it ("It will shock you how much this never happened."), the stashed money never even enters his mind and he looks at Betty puzzled and unthreatened.

Back at SC, we get some very welcome business-based drama and the best storyline yet for Roger Sterling. An old flame and an old client come back into his life and gives us just a little more backstory on Roger, more than we were expecting, actually. He was a rich kid slumming it in Paris in the '30s, eating in cemetaries and dancing while people jumped out of windows. But Roger is in a far different place now and won't accept Annabelle's fantasy Casablanca version of the story. "That woman got on the plane with the man who was going to end World War II, not run her father's dog food company."

Annabelle is trying to salvage the good name of her father's dog food company, which has been hit with the bad publicity of having its main ingredient, horse meat, revealed to the public. "I've eaten it," says Don when she explores relativism in the context of animal flesh. And because of his dirt-poor background, we have no doubt that he has. But it's of a much larger theme. Annabelle is hung up on the power of her company's name and she refuses to change it. Don and Roger both attempt to get her to change her name, Don in particular by arguing that in essence names are meaningless. Don Draper is the name on the label of the can; Dick Whitman is the horse meat inside.

But all of this was really a masquerade for Annabelle to get back into Roger's life somehow. She was painfully humiliated both times she propositioned him. Turning her down while she was drunkenly throwing herself at him was one thing, but when she said to Roger the next day "You were the one," and he coldly answers, "You weren't." we winced. That's an ouchie. But you know? We had a newfound respect and affection for Roger this episode. He's been portrayed alternately as a douchebag and a joke for so long now, it was nice to get a little of the humanity behind the smirk. As cold as he was with Annabelle, he was also surprisingly tender with her. He told her what he needed to tell her, but he did it gently.

Meanwhile, we get a (also very welcome) peek into what's going on in Joan's life. One thing about Joan's marriage, it's not what we consider a happy one by any means, but like all the marriages on this show, you can sort of see how it works and functions. As they sit in their surprisingly fussy and feminine apartment, Joan (who, it can never be forgotten, was raped by her husband back when), is ever the dutiful, supportive wife, competently coaching her childish husband for an interview. Greg has never been anything but a series of red flags to the audience that he's not a good choice for Joan and his revelation of his family's history of mental illness was as big a red flag as we've gotten yet.

Having set up these two subplots, we were in perfect position for a long overdue Roger/Joan Pas de Deux, and we were treated to a great one. "You want to be on some people's minds." "Look at you, figuring things out for yourself."We, like so many fans of this show, foolishly try to predict what actions these characters will take next and what fates might befall them, but we forget that the writers of the show know these characters much better than we do. Having Joan call Roger to find her a job just made damn good sense all around. There's already been speculation online that when Roger turned down Annabelle, he was really thinking of Joan as The One, but honestly, we've watched it three times now and we don't get that impression at all. He feels great affection for Joan and probably, like she does, wonders what might have been, but for whatever reason, he seems particularly committed to Jane, whether from true love or because socially, he'd never get away with dumping or cheating on his young bride.

Back in Ossining, Don and Suzanne are living in their little over-the-garage fantasy, but Suzanne is entertaining more ambitious dreams of openly dating Don and even though she tries to cover it up with "Don, I swear I'm not talking about our future," that is EXACTLY what she's talking about. They both know it and they both know it's not going to happen that way. It's important to note how often the fact that Suzanne has been down this road before is mentioned. It'll come into play later.

Greg fucked up yet another job opportunity and Joan is treated to his anger. But even the supremely confident and in control Joan Holloway Harris has her breaking point and when Greg turned on her and snapped, "You don't know what it's like, to want something your whole life, to plan for it and count on it, and not get it," well. That was all she wrote for Mrs. Harris' patience and Dr. Harris was treated to a good dose of Joan fury. Rather than bore you with long-winded examinations (too late, we know), here's what we wrote in our notepad while watching the vase crack across Rapey's skull:

*GO JOANNIE!!*

Big letters, all caps, stars, exclamation points and underlining all included. It was a great moment for the character. We don't know what's going to happen in her future - Will whoever Roger called offer her a job? Will she go back to SC if it gets sold and the Brits pull out? Is Greg going to Vietnam? - but we know she handled the sudden shift in her status quo in perfect Joan Holloway manner. When he told her about joining the Army, you could see the gears in her head working overtime to process the information and come up with a suitable response.

Back in Philadelphia, Betty is dealing with her childish brother and her father's attorney, who unfortunately for her, can't look at her as a client and instead treats her like a daughter. "It's a lie so big, Milton," she pleads when he counsels her to stay in her literal sham of a marriage, but he can't even fathom a world where a woman has every right and reason to walk away from her husband.

Don, meanwhile, is planning a trip with his girlfriend. Nothing illustrates just how careless Don has become than the image of leaving his girlfriend parked in his car outside his house. We thought when he misplaced the key to his drawer he was slipping a bit, but this was a pretty reckless move even for him.

And just like that, he walked straight into his own personal horror film. The acting Hamm did in these scenes was off the chart, but that first look on his face when he realized his family was home, that was a look of pure terror. Then, when Betty looked him in the eye and said "You know I know what's in that drawer," everything went out of him. Don Draper evaporated in front of our eyes and for the first time ever, Betty Draper met Dick Whitman.

Seriously, we couldn't believe it was really happening. The stark lighting and the look of sheer fright on Don's suddenly old and haggard face, really did give it an almost dreamlike, almost horror movie feel to it. Are they really having this conversation? Are they really saying these lines we honestly didn't ever think these characters would ever say? "Is that you? Dick? Is that your name?" "Are you thinking of what to say or are you looking at that door?" "Where do you want me to start?"

And how amazing to see Don so completely defeated and flustered, all the swagger, all the weight of being Don Draper, suddenly gone, and he's fumbling on the floor for a dropped cigarette. Betty, for her part, handled the entire thing perfectly. She couldn't help but come from an emotional place and there were times where it sounded like her fury might overwhelm her ("You're a gifted storyteller."), but she didn't give an inch and she didn't allow herself to be derailed or confused or intimidated. She had the ultimate trump card - SHE KNOWS ALL ABOUT HIM - and that gave her all the power in the situation. She revealed both the silly, romanticized idea she had of Don ("All this time I thought you were some football hero who hated his father.") and the bluntly honest, brutally classist view she always secretly held of him ("I see how you are with money. You don't understand it."). She could have been vindictive and nasty to him (although she did manage to remind him that she knows just how much she can damage him: "Isn't that against the law?"), but instead, she just wanted to be let in. She just wanted to KNOW. Finally. All of it.

And so she pushed, mentioning Adam's name when we were sure Don was going to keep that part to himself. Again, we'll let our scribbled notes tell the tale more efficiently:

He told her EVERYTHING!
****DON CRIED!!!!****

Seriously, bitches. Don Draper cried. Big snotty tears too. And in front of Betty. That is fucking seismic.

And of course, hanging over these wonderfully tense scenes is the biggest tension of all: Don's girlfriend, who in the past has demonstrated a tendency to be a little blase about the boundaries, is sitting right outside in his car. It's a testament to the sad state of the Draper marriage that the girlfriend in the car is only incidental to the real issue of Don's identity. For us as the viewer, the bigger drama was going on in the house. There was definitely the fear that somehow Suzanne would be discovered and a precarious situation would explode into a hopeless one, but the groundwork had been laid that Suzanne knew her way around the block when it comes to affairs with married suburban fathers, and we were fairly sure she'd get the message and excuse herself from the scene as quietly as possible. After all, revealing the affair would have as much potential of destroying her life than of destroying his. When Don called her the next day to explain, she asked fearfully, "Do I have to worry about my job?" We forget how much she was risking in this affair. By the way, it's notable that even now, with everything that happened, Don wasn't completely writing off the affair yet. We're in a new era in the Draper marriage, but this show makes it clear again and again, that people don't really change.

At breakfast that morning, Sally notices something pass between her parents but she can't figure it out, we can't figure it out, and even Don can't figure it out. Where do they stand now? The only answer comes that night as the Draper family - full as it is with both hoboes and gypsies - goes trick or treating. "And who are you supposed to be?" asks Carlton jokingly to Don. But Don neither laughs nor looks away. Instead, we see his face close-up, older, and raw, a bit unsure of himself; a version of Don that is completely at odds with what we've seen before. They could quite literally go anywhere with this character right now and that makes for some intensely and unusally gripping television.

Plus? We are DYING for a Betty Draper/Anna Draper face to face. Oh writers, we know you've given us quite the dessert buffet with this episode and we should by all rights be too full to ask for anything more, but please don't make us wait until next year for that one!


[Pictures courtesy of amctv.com]


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Mad Men S3E10: The Color Blue

"The truth is, people may see things differently, but they don't really want to."

We'll get to the usual long-winded examination of themes and motifs in a minute, but first...

LOIS STILL HAS HER JOB?!? What does it take to get fired from Sterling Cooper? Aside from refusing to have sex with a client, we mean.

And now, a long-winded examination of themes and motifs. Wait, no. One more thing.

OHMIGOD, BETTY OPENED THE DRAWER, Y'ALL! BETTY OPENED THE DRAWER!!!

Mad Men is usually such a slow burn but there are a handful of hand-to-the-mouth, ohmigod-I-can't-believe-that-just-happened moments in its history, like Peggy going into labor, Peggy telling Pete she had his baby, an unexpected amputation in the middle of the office and now this. We honestly thought that Don's secret life was one of those things that was always going to sort of hang over the show, with maybe a resolution some time around the final season. And while we are far from a resolution, the story suddenly sped up and rocketed forward to a point we didn't expect to see for some time to come.

And we'd just like to take a moment to address the oft-voiced notion that January Jones can't act. Puh-leeze. The look on her face as she discovered the truth should put that little meme to rest. And speaking of discovering the truth, what exactly does Betty know? What could she possibly be thinking? We can't imagine that she has an accurate picture based on the contents of that box. Two sets of dog tags, a picture of Don identifying him as Dick, and a divorce decree. Clearly, she's figured out that he's been lying to her for as long as she's known him but how much of the lie does she actually understand?

Of course, there's the other big question this revelation is forcing: what is she going to do with this information? We had a slight disagreement while the show was airing. Tom said "She's not going to do anything yet. She's not very good at confrontation." Lorenzo strongly disagreed and cheered the scenes of her staying up with the box on the kitchen table, waiting for Don to come home, smoking and drinking furiously. But in the end, for whatever reasons, she not only chose to put the box back, she chose to put the key back, covering her tracks that she ever discovered it at all. Is she just going to let this information simmer with no payoff before the season ends. Please, writers. That would just be too cruel to us.

In other Betty news, we were cheering on Henry Francis when he basically told her to fuck off if she wanted to play games with him. We're starting to really like that guy and we're even more committed to the idea that he just might be the right guy to handle Betty's childishness. What could illustrate the sad state of the Draper marriage better than Don and Betty's reaction to a simple hangup? They both thought their paramour was on the other end of that line.

And speaking of paramours, we're more convinced than ever that this thing with Suzanne is going to end very badly. Not only is she blithely unconcerned with the boundaries and realities of the situation, but Don is flirting more and more with having the whole thing blow up in his face. Not only is he continuing to spend the night at her place, car parked outside only two miles from his own house, now he's given his card to her slightly less than stable brother, telling him to call him if he needs help. Now, don't jump on us. We're not saying the guy's unstable because he had epilepsy. We're just saying that he gave off a slightly dangerous vibe and he's clearly not planning on living his life within the boundaries laid out for him. He's a hobo like Don is and he's a hobo who has some very damning information that desperation may force him to use at some point down the road.

We understand why Don wanted to help the guy out. He reminded him of his own brother and he screwed up that relationship so badly that the kid wound up killing himself. Don's trying to make amends in his own way but like we said, we have a feeling it's not going to play out the way Don hopes. On the one hand, it's admirable that Don's trying to do the right thing; on the other hand, we can't really crown him a hero when he's got a drawer full of running away money that he keeps hidden from his wife and children. Face it: Don Draper is one fucked up guy.

In fact, we can't shake the feeling that this episode showed us the final ascendancy of Don Draper. It ended with Don looking fabulous in a tuxedo in a room full of applause and admiration, but it's all downhill from here. He's locked into a contract with a company that's about to be sold again and his beautiful and glamorous wife now knows the one thing he never wanted her to know about him: he's a fraud and a liar. He may look like the stud that everyone wants to be or to know, but in reality, he's fucked and he doesn't even realize it.

In other news, it was nice to be reminded that Peggy is almost supernaturally good at her job. We feel a little sorry for poor, pompous Paul Kinsey. And let's face it, he was written to look as pathetic as they could make him. Drunkenly stumbling through the office in search of an idea and jerking off at his desk to his failed Maidenform pitch of last season. To top it off, not only was he unable to produce an idea for the Western Union account, he had to sit through Peggy taking his lack of an idea and spinning it off to a great idea right in front of his (and more importantly, Don's) eyes. In a way, it was of a piece with the general theme of this episode, which if you haven't figured out by now, was mostly lacking in themes and motifs and instead was all about plot. Don is, on the surface, everything that anyone could ever want to be and he looks like he's right on the precipice of taking a huge fall, both personally and professionally. Paul is, on the surface, perfectly primed for the kind of success he feel is owed him by virtue of his pretensions and ivy league education and yet he continues to get upstaged not only by a woman, but by a woman who doesn't have the benefit of his own background and education.

We've probably missed a lot of points worthy of discussion so you'll all have to fill that in in the comments section. For now, we're happy to sit on the edge of our seats wondering what the hell is going to happen next and begging the writers not to leave us hanging before the season in ends in just 3 episodes.


[Pictures courtesy of amctv.com]


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Mad Men S3E9: Wee Small Hours

"I want what I want when I want it."

If last week's episode was the most cynical in the show's history, then this week's may just have been the most depressing. It was all about power dynamics and what happens when people who want what they want when they want it and have the power to make it happen exert that power over people. In true Mad Men fashion, this theme was played on both the personal and political levels.

Don is no longer the master of his domain. Tied to Sterling Cooper with the signing of his contract, he's finding that being at Connie Hilton's constant beck and call isn't as gratifying as he thought it would be. We couldn't help but notice that Don is now showing up for work earlier than anyone else, a complete reversal from the former cocky swagger into the office at whatever time he felt like. On the one hand, Connie and Don share a deep bond, one that goes beyond mere father-son dynamics, although he was clearly deeply affected by Connie saying that he was like more than a son to him. If there's anything that Don wants more than the illusion of freedom, it's the respect of a father figure. He's done a pretty good job of keeping potential father figures like Bert Cooper and Roger Sterling at arm's length, but Hilton, a self-made man from a background similar to his own, that's the kind of man whose respect he yearns for, even if he'd never admit it.

Unfortunately, as soon as Connie doled out that respect, he yanked it away. "You didn't give me what I wanted." Connie is pretty much the worst kind of client: demanding, obtuse, and impossible. Don was always able to get by on his charm and superior talent but we're no longer looking at the in-control Don. We're looking at the Don whose control is slipping away and his desperation is palpable. For the first time, we had a scene between Roger and Don where Roger was the one with all the power. That never would have happened prior to Don signing that contract.

So desperate is he to run away from his problems that he does something the old in-control Don would never have done. He begins an affair with Suzanne that's dangerously close to home. Because she's done this before, she's wary (or at least feels the need to seem wary) but he, awash in fatalism, simply doesn't care. He wants what he wants when he wants it. Think about it: as he's sleeping in her bed, his car is parked outside, two miles from his house. That's just asking to be found out in a community small enough (and rigid enough) for Betty to be concerned that someone might see a man enter her house in the middle of the day.

What Betty wants right now is Henry. Fortunately for her, Henry wants her just as much. Unfortunately for him, he's dealing with a child-woman whose idea of an affair is positively Victorian; all fainting couches and love letters, but no sex. It's weird, but we can't shake the feeling that what Betty and Henry are feeling for each other goes beyond lust. We rarely ever think this about the various extramarital affairs on this show, but it feels like they really might be in love with each other and more importantly, should be together. Maybe that's just because she's so miserable in her current situation and Don's simply not the man who can meet her needs emotionally. The only other couple who gave off that vibe was Pete and Peggy and we all know how that turned out.

It may be a moot point, because Betty put the kibosh on taking their little Victorian romance to its natural conclusion. Sex with him is too "tawdry" in her mind, another factor that makes us think these two might have more going on than a lust for each other. Henry fairly worships her and Betty's the kind of women who desperately needs that. "I don't know what you want," Henry pleads with her, to which we can only add "Get in line, buddy." It's interesting to note that this is one time where Betty really does have all the power. Henry won't go to her because she's married (another bit of Victorian "morality), so she has to be the one to come to him.

Actually, there is one other area where Betty has the power. "Carla works for me, not for you," she reminds Bobby. Apparently, in Betty's mind, part of Carla's job description entails dragging her in as an alibi while she contemplates an affair. As the show has shown in quiet ways time and time again, Carla's no fool. She read that scene in a second even though there was virtually nothing for her to pick up on.

It can't be easy for an African-American actress to be playing a pre-civil rights maid in 2009, but her performance is so quiet, intelligent, and full of dignity that she really pulls it off, even though she probably got no more than a dozen lines the entire season. Finally, civil rights is moving from the background to the foreground, as we get the one-two punch of the march on Washington and the Birmingham church bombings in the same episode. "Segregation is uncivilized," sniffs one of the Junior League ladies as Carla answers the door and takes the coats in the background. For these typical northeasterners of the time, racism only occurs elsewhere. They can't even imagine it in their own communities, even as it plays out right in front of them.

"Maybe it's not supposed to happen right now," says Betty to Carla and we are treated to one of those golden moments where the show masterfully comments on the modern world by delving into the world of a half-century ago. It may not have registered with every viewer, but believe us, the gay ones got it because that is exactly what well-meaning supporters have been saying to us for a decade now regarding our own civil rights struggles. Be patient. Don't ask for too much equality because it might piss people off. It's no more an acceptable argument for denying civil rights today than it was in 1963, and with the Sal storyline, we simply don't believe that this was merely a coincidence or that we're reading too much into it.

As for poor Sal, Lee Garner, Jr. wanted what he wanted when he wanted it and unfortunately, Sal didn't want it - at least not there and then. Lee knew that he was the one with all the power (he forced Pete to smoke when he didn't want to and called Harry to handle the situation because he knew he was a pushover) and in classic sexual harassment fashion, when he doesn't get what he wants, he punishes.

Of all the ways Sal's storyline could have played out, we never would have predicted that this would happen. A tip of our hats once again to Bryan Batt, who played his scenes beautifully. His sadness was overwhelming and we were devastated watching his fall from grace. Another tip of our hats to the writers for not being afraid to show just how much of a bastard Don really is. "You people," he says with disgust. Apparently, his advice to Sal to "Limit your exposure" meant that not even Don wanted to be confronted with his disgusting sexuality.

We doubt very much it will play out this way but more than ever, we want to see the world of Mad Men open itself up and show the Madison Avenue outside Sterling Cooper's doors. We have no idea what's going to happen to Sal now (it will kill us if he's gone for good), but we fervently wish there was some other agency where Sal, Joan, and Peggy could all go just so they can realize their potential and give a big old fashioned "Fuck you" to the swaggering Don Drapers of the world.


[Pictures courtesy of amctv.com]


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Mad Men S3E8: Souvenir

"When you don't have any power, you have to delay things."

Last night, one of television's most cynical shows had one of its most cynical episodes of all time as it examined the state of marriage in 1963. In a reversal of the normal code on how to depict marriages on television, it was an act of adultery that led to a strengthening of a marriage and a glamorous, sex-filled getaway romp that led to the weakening of one. And if that wasn't reversal enough, we find out that little Betty Draper, she of the shaking hands and fainting couch and childlike pout, is, when set free, way out of Don Draper's league.

We're torn on this episode. There was a lot about it that we liked but the fact of the matter is, this would have been a great episode if we hadn't already spent so much time this season on the deadend Draper marriage. To be perfectly blunt, we don't watch this show for a weekly examination of the ennui of upper middle class suburbia. That was always a welcome feature of the show, but this season it's become the main story. Ossining simply isn't as interesting to us as Madison Avenue. There's so much story to be mined from the ongoing saga of Sterling Cooper and it feels like we've been going over and over the same story in the Draper household with no changes or advancement. Don is trying to be good but he's emotionally distant because he's living a lie; Betty is a furious mass of childish resentments. Done and done. At this point we're rooting for Henry to break up this miserable marriage.

We sound more critical than we mean to. We really did enjoy this episode, especially for the unexpected infusion of early '60s continental glamour.

Betty's hard at work at her Junior League assignment of saving the town's reservoir. "They should be paying you for this," says Don in an uncharacteristic moment of support and appreciation. "I'm paid well enough already," Betty replies, the perfect surface response from the perfect surface wife. Everyone involved in this little social contract understands the rules. She's working "outside the home," but it's fully funded by the salary of her successful husband, which makes it less threatening. Still, it offered a moment when he was actually interested in something she was doing and she ended it by encouraging him to go out and play with his kids, which he does. We said it before: this is a miserable marriage, but it has its moments where it almost works.

But these are only moments. When Don gets a call from Hilton's office, he grabs a pen and literally overwrites Betty's work, scribbling notes on her call list. She dutifully rips out the piece of paper- probably with the name of yet another woman who refers to herself by her husband's name - and doesn't even think about the thoughtlessness.

Later we see Betty primping as she gets ready to make her big Junior League appearance at the town meeting, knowing that Henry is going to be there. We get this great shot of her meticulously finishing her face in the mirror, Sally watching her every move in awe. Betty is sending a message loud and clear to her little girl: It's very important to be pretty.

Henry comes through for the ladies of the Junior League and takes his prize from Betty: a kiss. We all saw that one coming. Betty struggles not to react and drives off in Daddy's car, watching him in her rear view mirror. When she gets home she's more animated than we've ever seen her, doing a little victory dance and mock shouting "We won! We won!" She embellishes the story to an attentive Don, neatly avoiding any hint of her pretend relationship with Henry. When Henry explained his political maneuvering to Betty, he said, 'When you have no power, delay." In Betty's retelling it becomes the far more poignant "When you don't have any power, you have to delay things." So heavy was that line with meaning that even Don and Betty got it right away.

Betty, in either a fit of guilt or an attempt to run away, abruptly invites herself on Don's business trip to Rome. One thing we loved about Betty's sudden transformation into experienced continental traveler was that the writers never attempted to explain it but to long time viewers of the show, it made perfect sense. Between her excellent education and her previously mentioned time in Italy as a model, any explanation for Betty's shockingly easy slip into la dolce vita was taken care of. In a weird way, this felt almost like a Joan storyline. We got to see a glimpse of what Betty is capable of; what she enjoys, and that glimpse illustrates how far her real life is from the life to which she's more suited.

It's not that we think Betty should be spending all her time wearing gorgeous clothes and hairstyles - although we have to say, she never looked as good as she did this episode, whether done up in haute 1963 styles or just curled up in bed with Don in a towel, she glowed the whole hour - but clearly she'd be better served with a little more sophistication in her life. When she tells Don at the end of the episode that she hates where they live and who they know, all we could think of was, "Move into the city! What's stopping you?" Seriously, they have more than enough money. If a little sophistication and ambiance can get Don and Betty THAT hot for each other, then get the hell out of Ossining, fools.

And those scenes were scorching. It was great seeing them be playful with each other, flirting at the cafe as if they didn't know each other. When Betty tells Don she could take him or leave him, you could tell he'd never been more turned on by her. For one night at least, Betty was as smart, interesting and devastatingly sexy as any of the mistresses Don bedded, from Midge to Rachel to Bobbie to Joy. That sex scene was so hot and so of-the-moment stylish that it looked like something from a James Bond film of the period. Which reminds us, we kind of loved them for momentarily relying on a cheesy backdrop to fill in for the view from their hotel room. No doubt, they didn't have the budget to do anything better but in a strange way, it felt era-appropriate, like they were two actors in a Hitchcock movie.

Meanwhile, back in New York, Pete's living the life of the bachelor as Trudy takes off for vacation with her parents. Unsurprisingly, Pete doesn't have the strength of character to be left alone. Inserting himself into some neighborly drama with the au pair down the hall, Pete finds himself in Bonwit Teller, attempting to replace the dress the girl ruined. We kind of saw where this was going and weren't too surprised to see Joan there, working as a manager. It was a great scene, though. Pete made his feelings for the social status of retail clerks plainly obvious by how he treated the first woman to speak to him in the store. Joan and Pete both knew that as far as social positions go, she was in a decidedly inferior one. Still, she's Joan fucking Holloway dammit, and she took control of the situation immediately; fixing Pete's problem, making sure he knew that she suspected it wasn't Trudy's dress, and wrapping the exchange with the line that has become the defining slogan of the show: "This never happened."

What a sad little scene, though. Joan didn't look nearly as glamorous or in control as she did when she was queen bee at Sterling Cooper. We couldn't help but notice that she was wearing purple. We've noticed for some time that they put Joan in purple when they want to show her powerless or demoralized. She wore it when her husband raped her, when she and Roger had a revealing conversation in a hotel room, when she tried to fire Jane, and now here, revealed as a shop girl in front of a former co-worker. Joanie, come back to SC!

Upon presenting the grateful au pair with her replacement dress we see what a little shit Pete Campbell can really be, showing up later, drunk, and forcing the poor girl into sex with him. If that wasn't disturbing enough, then the scene with his neighbor that basically came down to "Hey, we're neighbors. Let's not rape my nanny, okay? Keep it out of the building." sealed the deal.

Trudy comes back from her vacation looking fabulous in a striped scarf wrapped around her head. And here's where the show really plays with complexity. For all the wrongness of the Campbell marriage, there is a lot there that works for these two people. Trudy, misunderstanding Pete's quiet, offers that she's fine and happy without any children in her marriage with him. "You're my husband. I want what you want." It's not exactly a healthy line by modern standards, but with where and when they are and what they're dealing with, that's not a bad place to be, considering how bad things were for them a while back. It's a good enough marriage for Pete to feel remorse over what he's done. And it's a good enough marriage for Trudy to forgive and come to terms with it. When Pete said at the end that he didn't want her going away without him anymore, that may have sounded like he was trying to avoid responsibility for what he did but we don't think so. We think he was saying that he really needed her to be there for him, to keep him from doing wrong things. For this childless couple, their marriage is built on his childish nature being kept in check by her maternalism.

Don and Betty come home to Ossining, so relaxed from their non-stop sex that even the eternally reserved Don admitted to Carla that the trip was "Short but sweet." Unfortunately, Carla's there to yank them back to reality and as soon as she starts in on Sally's behavioral problems it's right back to the roles of Don and Betty Draper of Ossining, New York.

The next day, Don is trying to keep the magic alive by lighting her cigarette for her and buying her a charm to commemorate the trip but it's not enough. The title of this episode is "The Souvenir," and that refers as much to the charm he bought her in the gift shop as to the realization for Betty that it was never going to get any better than it already is. She's stuck in a suburban unhappiness and sees her future stretched out in front of her, at best, with a couple trips to Rome along the way to remind her of what she doesn't have. She voices this to Sally when she explains the Rules of Kissing According to Betty Draper: "You don't kiss boys. Boys kiss you." And you should save up your kisses because nothing's more important to Betty than the thrill of that first kiss. "It's where you go from being a stranger to knowing someone and every kiss after that is a shadow of that kiss." That's the souvenir: the realization that everything from this moment on is a shadow, a reminder of how good you thought things were going to be.

Like we said, cynical.


[Pictures courtesy of amctv.com]


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