Mad Men, page 30
Episode 2.4: “Three Sundays” (August 17, 2008)
Easter season 1962. Peggy has a weird flirtation with a young priest who looks like he should be a serial killer on Dexter. She helps him with a sermon, indicating a kinship between religion and advertising/marketing that Leopold Bloom understood well more than half a century earlier. The firm hires a call girl to help schmooze a client; Roger decides to use her services too, given that his affair with Joan is over. Don and Betty seem to be getting on better, though Bobby gets out of hand. Betty is inpatient with Don’s reluctance to employ corporal punishment, leading him to share with her a story of the violent abuse he himself suffered as a child. This seems to bring the Drapers closer. Bobbie Barrett develops a TV-show idea for her husband.
Episode 2.5: “The New Girl” (August 24, 2008)
Trudy and Pete struggle to conceive. Don and Bobbie go on an account, get drunk, and wreck his car. Peggy goes to Long Island to pay Don’s drunk-driving fine, getting him out of jail. She also takes in and helps care for an injured Bobbie. Bobbie gives her advice on how to win Don’s respect (act like she is his equal), something Peggy is desperate for. The dazzling Jane Siegel shows up as Don’s new secretary, though neither she nor anyone else seems interested in her typing and clerical skills. Oddly enough, Don seems rather oblivious to her charms. More details unfold regarding the days after Peggy gave birth, including a period when she was confined to a mental facility after a supposed breakdown. Don visits her there with some very supportive advice. The whole episode surrounding her child and its fate remains mysterious and downright weird, suggesting the difficulty of early-1960s American society in dealing with such matters.
Episode 2.6: “Maidenform” (August 31, 2008)
Impressed by Maidenform’s ad campaign, the stodgy folks at Playtex ask Sterling Cooper to come up with an ad campaign that has more pizzazz. Paul comes up with a brilliant Jackie-Marilyn idea, but the Playtex folks decide to stick with their conservative campaign since they already dominate the market. Don is horrified by Betty’s sexy new bathing suit, which he claims looks “desperate.” Duck, with his ex-wife about to remarry and other tensions mounting, dumps his beloved dog on the street in Manhattan and decides to hit the booze. Duck is an awful human being. Don shows signs of serious stress in his relationship with Bobbie and in life in general.
Episode 2.7: “The Gold Violin” (September 7, 2008)
Don considers buying a Cadillac—and flashes back to his time selling cars (the perfect prep, of course, for his time as an ad man). The Smiths (the new young talent at Sterling Cooper) present Don with a copy of the Port Huron Statement, hoping to convert it into new advertising strategies. The episode also features a new technological advance: Pampers disposable diapers. Bert Cooper shows more Ayn Randism, buying a Mark Rothko painting, not for the aesthetics, but for the investment. He also assures Don that “philanthropy is the gateway to power.” Don buys the Cadillac. Jane nearly gets fired, but Roger rescues her (she will soon “rescue” him as well). In the meantime, Jane, counting on Roger’s support, faces down the formidable Joan. For a twenty-year-old, she’s a force to be reckoned with. The Smiths’ hip new approach wins the Martinson’s coffee contract. The Drapers go on a family picnic. Sal reads Ken’s latest story and has him over for dinner to give him feedback. Sal’s wife feels neglected. Duh. Betty is flattered by the attentions of Jimmy Barrett, who hints to her that something is going on between Don and Bobbie. Afterward, Betty pukes in the Caddy. Brenda Lee’s “Break It to Me Gently” is an excellent example of the way Mad Men’s ending credits music plays a crucial part in the series.
Episode 2.8: “A Night to Remember”
(September 14, 2008)
Mad Men at its most soap operatic. Father Gill reappears and practically twists Peggy’s arm to get her to design a flyer for the church dance. The church ladies, of course, find it too sexually suggestive. Poor ad placement triggers a crisis in Harry’s TV department when a Maytag ad touting the virtues of their agitator is placed right after a segment in which a Communist spy is referred to as an agitator. Joan helps out with reviewing scripts in order to avoid a repetition but is then pushed aside. She will, in the series, repeatedly show talents that are not fully utilized because of her gender. Betty, on the edge of a nervous breakdown, murders a dining chair and later confronts Don about the affair with Bobbie. She calls him at work and tells him he is no longer welcome at home.
Episode 2.9: “Six Month Leave” (September 28, 2008)
Marilyn’s death (August 5, 1962) casts a shadow over the whole episode, casting it firmly in its historical setting. Freddie Rumsen hits the booze hard leading up to a big presentation, then pisses his pants in the office beforehand. Peggy pinch-hits and knocks it out of the park, winning Freddie’s place on the account and, ultimately, his job. Don takes up residence in exile at the Roosevelt Hotel, while Betty continues to unravel. Jane tries to be supportive of Don, but he’s not particularly interested in sharing. Roger and Don take Freddie out for a night on the town prior to sending him off for a six-month leave that is likely permanent. In a development both surprising and predictable, Roger leaves Mona so he can pursue Jane.
Episode 2.10: “The Inheritance” (October 5, 2008)
Paul and Pete prepare to attend a “Rocket Fair” convention in Los Angeles, still a relatively exotic destination in 1962. A science-fiction fan, Paul fantasizes about making a visit to Pasadena, land of Jet Propulsion Laboratories and Ray Bradbury. (The trip also gives him a chance to bail out on his plan to become a Freedom Rider with Sheila.) Don reminds him that the trip is business, “as much as I’d like to indulge your Twilight Zone fantasy of being shot into space.” Astronauts will definitely be at the convention. Sterling Cooper hopes to make connections there to cash in on the space and arms race. Betty’s father, Gene, has a stroke, bringing Don and Betty together to visit. Dad seems relatively okay but repeatedly mistakes Betty for her mother and grabs her breast. Don decides he’ll go to L.A. in place of Paul, who now heads off on the Freedom Ride, claiming he changed his mind. A family crisis causes Glen to run away and hole up in the Draper kids’ playhouse. He seeks solace from Betty, announcing that he has come to rescue her and run off with her. Instead, Betty turns the boy back over to his mother. Betty confides in Helen about her separation from Don. Helen’s advice: “The hardest part is realizing you’re in charge.”
Episode 2.11: “The Jet Set” (October 12, 2008)
One of the strangest of all Mad Men episodes, the focus is the view of California as a place where strange things happen (which runs through the series). In California, Pete meets scientist Caleb Sawyer, who shares his “Optiman” thesis, concerning the engineering of human beings to function better in space: “new organs, super strength, you know the Soviets are working on it.” Don seems to step into an alternate reality (of course, in Mad Men, California is an alternate reality), where he meets some strange jet-setters, including twenty-one-year-old Joy, who becomes Don’s lover, then reads The Sound and the Fury. The nefarious Duck, warned by Roger that he might be in trouble at Sterling Cooper, secretly suggests that his old British firm should buy Sterling Cooper. Duck hits the sauce. Duck is an awful human being. Kurt Smith, having openly declared his gayness to his shocked coworkers, goes with Peggy to see Bob Dylan in the Village, but first, being gay and all, he has to style her hair for her. Don arranges a mysterious meeting, jotting down the address on the last page of The Sound and the Fury. What a jerk move for the next person reading it . . .
Episode 2.12: “The Mountain King”
(October 19, 2008)
Attempting to sell popsicles, Peggy compares them to Communion, then channels Leopold Bloom, noting that “the Catholic Church knows how to sell things.” Her campaign to sell the eating of popsicles as a family ritual goes over well. Bert ponders merging with the Brits, though the Brits would definitely be in charge. Don goes to see Anna Draper (the real Don’s widow), with whom he had previously established an acquaintance and to whom he has long been sending money. Pete, back in New York, goes home angry when he finds that Trudy has signed up with an adoption agency. The Day the Earth Stood Still plays on the TV. Joan unsuccessfully tries to get it on with Greg. Then later, Greg, seemingly the ideal dream man, rapes Joan in Don’s office. Things are seldom what they seem on Mad Men. The partners vote to merge with the Brits, though Don is still AWOL in California. Anna reads tarot cards for Don, with vaguely apocalyptic resonances. Betty, apparently afflicted with hysteria, becomes more and more erratic. Peggy moves into Freddie’s old office and is accused of trying to be the next Don. Duh.
Episode 2.13: “Meditations in an Emergency” (October 26, 2008)
Betty gets the news that she is pregnant; she is less than thrilled. Meanwhile, the entire episode is dominated by the Cuban Missile Crisis, which obviously distracts everyone. But life goes on. Don returns to Sterling Cooper to find the firm sold to the Brits; the news that he will make $500,000 from the deal mitigates the shock. Duck, brokering the deal, has also managed to have himself made president of the New York branch of the new firm. Duck makes Pete his replacement as head of accounts, a position that apparently requires one to be a weasel. Duck is an awful human being. Betty plays Don and has a quickie assignation with a man she meets in a bar. When that isn’t very satisfying, she starts to chow down. Father Gill makes his move, trying to scare Peggy with the fires of hell. She doesn’t fall for it. Duck’s vision for the new company is highly TV-oriented. Don isn’t interested and walks out. He goes home wondering if the world will survive the weekend. Peggy, meanwhile, drops a bomb on Pete after he declares his love for her. The season ends as Betty tells Don she is pregnant, once again descending into soap opera. Of course, it also pretty much replicates the ending of part I of Madame Bovary. The line between high and low culture isn’t always clear.
Episode 3.1: “Out of Town” (August 16, 2009)
Don reigns ascendant at the British-controlled Sterling Cooper, Duck having been sent packing because of Don’s opposition and Lane Pryce having arrived from England to take the helm. Duck is an awful human being. Bert Peterson has been made head of accounts but is quickly sacked. Pete and Ken become co-head of accounts. Don makes hot milk for the pregnant Betty and has a weird flashback to his own birth and infancy, including his prostitute mother’s death in childbirth. The highlight of the episode is a business trip to Baltimore, where Don and Sal pitch to London Fog. They both have sexual encounters, Don with a stewardess and Sal with a bellboy, though they are interrupted by the hotel fire alarm. Don sees Sal in flagrante, but says nothing other than issuing an oblique warning to Sal to keep his proclivities to himself by telling him of his new “Limit Your Exposure” ad campaign for London Fog. Don has a moment at home with his family.
Episode 3.2: “Love Among the Ruins”
(August 23, 2009)
Sterling Cooper hopes to land the account for “Patio,” Pepsi’s new diet soda, using an Ann-Margret musical performance from the then-new Bye Bye Birdie (released in New York on April 4, 1963). Don hasn’t seen the film. Shown the clip he understands it immediately: men want Ann-Margret; women want to be Ann-Margret. The firm tries to land the account for the proposed Madison Square Garden; Don steps in when Paul blows the pitch with his opposition to tearing down Penn Station to build the Garden, but SC’s British masters pull the plug and order the firm to drop the MSG account. Roger’s daughter is planning a wedding, made more complicated by Roger’s switch of spouses to the dazzling young Jane, with which ex-wife Mona is not too happy. Peggy is forced to admit that she yearns to have the sexual allure of Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie. She has a one-night stand. Don boots Betty’s smarmy brother and wife out and keeps Betty’s father (and his Lincoln) with the Drapers. The Drapers attend the Field Day celebration at Sally’s school. Don is hot for teacher, who might just have a bit of the allure of a youthful Ann-Margret herself.
Episode 3.3: “My Old Kentucky Home”
(August 30, 2009)
Paul, Smitty, and Peggy have to work the weekend to come up with new ideas for hawking Bacardi Rum. Instead, they just spark it up, which leaves the boys pretty much wasted but stimulates Peggy’s creativity. Don, Betty, and most of the Sterling Cooper accounts execs attend the Derby Day garden party at Roger and Jane’s estate. Jane gets drunk and seems on the way to train-wreck status. In one of those weird, jarring, estranging moments at which Mad Men is so good, Roger performs “My Old Kentucky Home” in blackface. The rich attendees at the party pretty much seem like a collection of obnoxious, privileged assholes. However, Don slips away to the bar and meets up with a folksy, down-home rich guy—who turns out to be Conrad Hilton. Connie on his rise to wealth: “It’s different on the inside.” Joan and Greg host a party of their own, at which there are hints that Greg might not be any better at being a doctor than he is at being a fiancé. Sally steals some money from her grandpa, triggering a minor domestic crisis. Betty meets dashing politico Henry Francis. Don discourses on class warfare: pissing in the trunks of the rich when he was a car parker at a club attended by “fancy people.”
Episode 3.4: “The Arrangements”
(September 6, 2009)
Peggy wants to move from Brooklyn (near her ma) to Manhattan because she’s one of “those girls.” She seeks a roommate to share the high rent. A rich idiot wants to pay Sterling Cooper a million bucks to promote jai alai. They move ahead with the account despite Don’s reservations. Grandpa Gene makes arrangements for his death and its aftermath. Betty asks him to keep it to himself. Gene becomes more and more of a problem in the household. Then he dies—in line at A&P. Sal directs the Patio TV ad. He’s thrilled, but less thrilled by Kitty’s new nightie. The Pepsi reps reject Sal’s ad, even though it’s exactly what they asked for—an exact copy of Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie. Roger puts his finger on the subtle problem with the ad, which no one else can articulate: “It’s not Ann-Margret.” Sally watches a TV news report of the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức, which occurred on June 11, 1963, in South Vietnam. The U.S. imperial adventure in Vietnam is picking up steam in the background.
Episode 3.5: “The Fog” (September 13, 2009)
Another filler, extremely busy, and filled with miscellaneous events, many setting the stage for later developments. Sally gets in a fight at school, causing Don and Betty to conference with Don’s favorite teacher, Miss Farrell. Betty gives birth to a baby boy while Don shares a moment in the waiting room with another expectant dad, a Sing Sing prison guard. Don does some dad time with Sally while Betty is in the hospital. Pete comes up with a plan to boost Admiral sales to black consumers and is harshly rebuffed. Duck, now working for a rival firm, tries to recruit Pete and Peggy. Duck is an awful human being. Considering the offer, Peggy asks Don for a raise but is denied due to Lane’s penny-pinching management. Betty comes home with the new baby to a newly domestic Don, though he’s not much help when the baby cries at night, reminding Betty of the difficulties to come.
Episode 3.6: “Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency” (September 20, 2009)
The British are coming . . . the British are coming. They visit (appropriately) during the July 4 holiday, apparently to make a point. Pleased at Lane’s performance, they promote him to head their operation in India. British accounts genius Guy McKendrick will take over the New York office. However, while he might walk into the New York office, he doesn’t walk out. In a mayhem of blood spray worthy of Dexter, Lois chops off his foot with a runaway John Deere tractor (a quintessentially American product), a present from Ken’s new account score. Brits apparently shouldn’t mess with Americans during the July 4 holiday. The moment is one of the strangest, most shocking, and funniest in all of Mad Men. Most of the second half of the episode is informed by the black comedy of the aftermath of the bloody event, including the rumination by McKendrick’s British boss that Guy is probably ruined as an accounts man because, footless, he might never golf again. Lane remains in New York. Meanwhile, Connie Hilton woos Don, and Joan leaves the firm to be with Greg in his lucrative new life as a surgeon—except that he washes out of his residency and now needs to do another year. Sally is convinced that baby Gene is the ghost of Grandpa Gene.
Episode 3.7: “Seven Twenty Three”
(September 27, 2009)
Hilton agrees to give Sterling Cooper the ad business for three New York hotels, with Don in charge, but only if Don will sign a three-year contract. He resists, valuing his independence, but eventually gives in. Betty’s misadventures with home decorating are accompanied by an uptick in her flirtation with Henry Francis. Peggy refuses Duck’s offer of a job but accepts his offer of sex. Duck is an awful human being. Don gets drugged and mugged by a young hitchhiking couple, seeing a vision of his dead dad along the way.
