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'Mad Men': Old business is just old business
Sunday's episode of Mad Men was called "Three Sundays," but it might as well have been titled "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Unless you pay through the nose for it.
Pretty much everyone had their hopes dashed at some point in the episode, most acutely Peggy's sister Anita at the attention from the new priest in the parish and the Sterling Cooper crew after Duck's inside guy at American Airlines gets fired and the team has to pitch to a group of disinterested execs. The ripple effect of all that disappointment led to a couple of pretty scary moments.
Anita's reaction, using confession to tell Father Gill (that was Colin Hanks, beginning his guest run on the show) about Peggy's situation, was downright devious. But Don's blowup at home after the American letdown was scary.
Don has done everything he can to break with his past, which includes doing his best not to be the man his rat-bastard of a father was and thereby taking a fairly light hand with his children when they do wrong. So when Bobby does several dumb kid things -- breaking the bed by jumping on it, putting his tongue on a hot plate -- and Don does little more than give a stern look and a curt "Don't do that again," Betty stews and fumes and finally vents her frustration about being stuck at home, "outnumbered," with the children while Don does next to nothing.
Until he does -- throwing Bobby's robot across the room, and then, even more chilling, telling Betty in a scarily even tone, "You want me to bring home what I got at the office today? I'll put you through that window." And shoving Betty back after she pushes him. As hard as he tries to be everything his own father wasn't, it seems like he can't quite escape it.
To his (partial) credit, Don at least realizes pretty quickly the wrong that he's done, which leads to him sharing some information about his dad first with Bobby (in an unbearably adorable scene with the boy) and then with Betty, opening up to her about the way he was treated: "My father beat the hell out of me, and all it did was make me fantasize about the day I could murder him."
Don also notes that everything Bobby's been doing is pretty normal stuff for a 5- or 6-year-old boy -- testing his limits and trying to get away with it. He's not wrong about that, by the way. Betty's point is well-taken that Don should perhaps be a little firmer in his punishments (and there's a pretty wide area between "Don't do it again" and putting a hand on your child for Don to work in), but whatever deal Betty cut with him in the time between seasons didn't go the way she intended. Up to now, Don has just been looking to avoid any kind of conflict, which inevitably led to this kind of blowup.
To Betty's credit, too, she clearly takes in what Don tells her about his father. Maybe the upshot here is they might understand a little better where the other is coming from.
Over in Brooklyn, meanwhile, Peggy and Father Gill -- who's clearly not the old-skool priest Peggy's mother and sister are used to -- seem to have an affinity for one another (though not necessarily an attraction, at least I think, and hope). Which makes what Peggy's sister Anita tells him at confession all the more underhanded -- though again, what's great about this show is you can see her side as well. Anita, after all, has been doing the right thing all along, but her mother and everyone else don't seem to realize it, and Peggy is reaping the benefits of the consequence-free life that mom et al. are helping enable her to lead.
I've talked before about how much Peggy must have compartmentalized her life to put her child out of mind. Based on what we saw tonight, though, she's clearly had some help from her mother in that regard.
Armed with the knowledge of Peggy's past, though, Father Gill does something kind of cool. He doesn't angrily confront her with her sin, or even sit her down for a moralizing chat. Instead, seeing Peggy's son struggle during the church Easter egg hunt, he hands Peggy an egg and simply says, "For the little one" -- essentially challenging Peggy to step up and accept responsibility with the child, but in a way that won't shame or embarrass her publicly. Well done, Father Gill.
The night's other major story, of course, was Sterling Cooper's swing at the American Airlines account -- one that crashes and burns after Duck's buddy Shel Keneally gets canned the day before their presentation. Don may have been onto something when he proclaimed that the campaign would be all about looking forward, but no matter -- the American guys were there strictly as a courtesy. Sterling Cooper has no chance, and now they have no airline either.
It's a pretty devastating blow to the business, you'd think. Roger Sterling, though, doesn't seem too broken up over the loss, noting that the chase is the thing. Of course, that could be because he's just found himself a new lady friend in Vicki (Marguerite Moreau, late of What About Brian and several other shows). Sure, she's a prostitute and probably just a stand-in for Joan, but after hearing his wife go on about the magic of their long-ago wedding, well, the man is ready for some new business. (Some great editing in the sequence cutting between his tryst with Vicki and the emergency meeting at Sterling Cooper, by the way.)
Other notes from the episode:
- Lots of good comedic touches from Sally Draper tonight, from her pouring a very stiff bloody Mary for her dad to her blithe comments about Joan's "big ones" and Paul's girlfriends at the office to her sleeping off a surreptitious swill of bourbon at the office. Also good: Joan's barely concealed contempt for having to babysit.
- Bobbi Barrett is back, so I guess Don's manhandling of her last week wasn't something that scared her away. Not quite sure where this particular thread is going, but judging by the trailer for next week we'll be seeing more of her and possibly her abrasive husband in the future.
- Loved the various states of dress in which folks showed up for the Sunday session -- Don in a sweater, Pete in his tennis whites, Cooper in his plus-fours, others dressed like it's a normal workday.
- Exhibit, oh, 47 or so in the case of the secretarial pool's resentment of Peggy: The evil eye several of the girls gave her while waiting for their turn at the takeout buffet.
- Do we think Duck planted the gum on the floor just as a way to get Cooper out of his hair in the Sunday session? Loved that the secretary Cooper "fired" was the one who announced the American group's presence five days later.
Were you as taken aback by Don's and Anita's actions in this week's Mad Men? And do you think Don and Betty might have had a bit of a breakthrough?
The weakest ep this season (so far). The writers need to look at what made season 1 so strong,
and cultivate that into season 2.
Anyone else notice this little continuity error:
The opening scene in the church is on Sunday, April 8th according to the church tract.
The scene soon afterwards in the restaurant where the prostitute first appears is on Monday, April 16th, according to the chalkboard menu.
That scene takes place BEFORE Palm Sunday - Sunday, April 15th - which is the day of the emergency planning meeting at the office and Sterling's tryst with the prostitute.
It's an honest mistake, but a pretty big one for a show that is usually really good about such things.
Also - I missed about 5 minutes or so of the episode, including the part where everyone is first called into the office on Palm Sunday. So I'm wondering if it was made clear why everyone was called in on a Sunday when the meeting with American wasn't happening until Friday. Makes for a better story, I suppose, but it seemed a little extreme given that they had Mon-Thu to do the work.
GC | Aug 18, 2008 6:48:42 AM | #GC, they needed that extra day because they were initially scheduled for two weeks later. They got bumped up a week so they needed to ramp up fast.
I agree that this was one of the weaker episodes of the season (and series) but it is still better than most everything else on TV.
Blue Sean | Aug 18, 2008 10:09:34 AM | #I disagree with the assessment of this episode as "weak." I wasn't disappointed at all. thought it was full of character and plot development. Lots of nuance and subtlety -until the end scene with Don and Betty, which was so powerful and shocking in contrast to what had been shown in the episode prior to this scene.
I enjoyed the humor with the Draper family at the beginning, with the Bloody Mary's and forgetting to make dinner, and with Sally at work, and with the reactions to Peggy by the jealous staff. I enjoyed the realistic treatment of Bobby, showing him just being a kid, and Betty's responses and insistence that Don step up and hit him. Her frustration and nagging at Don rang completely true. I've seen this sort of interplay in real life countless times. Remember the show from last season, when a neighbor hit a kid for misbehaving, and the kid's father didn't object? Hitting kids was what you did. Using Don's refusal to hit to reveal to Betty something about himself was masterful. Great story telling.
Also, great storytelling and character development with Peggy and her family. The more I think about it, the more I think that this was one of the better episodes.
brad | Aug 18, 2008 12:17:54 PM | #Another great episode. I watched the encore episode right after the premiere broadcast, so nuanced, I thought, was the editing. I sense there are a lot of plot pieces being set up, but this never comes at the expense, on the part of "Mad Men" writing staff, of character development. Not to mention all the little set details that make the show so dense with period specificity. Not since "The Wonder Years" have I so enjoyed a show set in the '60s.
brainylagirl | Aug 18, 2008 1:55:25 PM | #GC,
I believe the American meeting was moved up by two weeks from its originally scheduled date, so they had to meet to start pulling their ideas together much earlier than originally planned.
But even though I was flipping between this show and the Olympics, I too, picked up on what seemed liked some sequencing errors. Not a bad episode though, I'm glad Don is revealing more of his mysterious past to his family. And glad to see Peggy's past may be catching up with her as well.
ditto | Aug 18, 2008 2:32:32 PM | #Call me perverse, but am I the only one who read the priest giving Peggy the blue egg as not merely a gesture of "I know what you did" by way of scolding her, but also as a way of cluing her in that he knows but he still likes her? When he got the news in the confessional, the look on his face suggested a man recognizing a possibility rather than a man disgusted by wantoness. Peggy's not afraid to color outside the lines, even at the expense of close relationships (her essential selfishness)with her family or men. I think he sees an opportunity for dalliance -- if not a fully consumated affair then at least a lot of heavy flirtation. After all, he's just a visiting priest, passing through town. So, the gift of the egg could also be read as a kind of breaking the ice: "I know your secret...maybe we could have a secret."
Or maybe he just offered it as a sign of a possibility for a new start and redemption. That's not as much fun, though, is it?
I have to agree with brad. This seemed like one of the better episodes I have seen from either seasons. It really made me think. And the interactions with the characters - especially with the Drapers, and between Peggy and Anita - really resonated with me.
Rosie | Aug 19, 2008 11:19:26 AM | #This ep was okay but not one of my favourites.
So far this season has not been as good as Season one IMO. I understand that they want to try different things and move the show in another direction, but at the moment not much seems to be happening.
I knew from last week’s ep that Anita had a serious problem with Peggy. Anita so obviously resents Peggy and I think Peggy resents having to go to her family. Their scenes together (Peggy, her mum and Anita) are always either awkward or tense.
‘Lots of good comedic touches from Sally Draper tonight…’
So true. It was good to see more of Sally…I like her character.
What I found interesting in Anita's devious confession was that she said Peggy "seduced" a married man. Surely Peggy didn't tell her family that. Is Anita just assuming then that "fast" Peggy "seduced" someone rather than naively BEING seduced?
I just found that interesting.
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