Mad Men C to Z S1E13 The Wheel Transcript

This is the full, human-edited transcript of the podcast episode about Mad Men's Season One, Episode 13: The Wheel.
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Mad Men C to Z Episode Transcript for S1E13 The Wheel
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: We started this podcast to connect to fans like us, who pick up something new with every re-watch.
 
Steve: Be advised, our discussions may include spoilers so we can talk about character arcs all the way through the final season.
 
Jenna: We break down each episode of Mad Men, from the pivotal moments to our favorite scenes and lines. Let's get started with Mad Men C to Z.
 
Welcome, and thank you for listening. Today's episode is the season one finale of Mad Men, episode 13, The Wheel. It was directed by Matthew Weiner, and written by Matthew Weiner and Robin Veith.
 
The first scene opens with Trudy and her mother looking at wallpaper samples, while Pete and his father-in-law talk about sports.
 
Steve: It seems to be the standard domestic scene with the in-laws and Pete. Pete obviously looks a little less than fully comfortable.
Seems like he's not enjoying his time with the in-laws so much.
 
Jenna: We can hear Trudy's dad messaging Pete about how it's time to focus less on work and more on having a baby. And Pete is trying to generate a business lead for Clearasil through his father-in-law's connections.
 
Steve: And it seems that Trudy's dad is not having any of it, warning Pete not to mix business and family.

 
Jenna: In this first scene, we get our first it's true call-out when Tom Vogel says tend to your own garden, like the song (he says). Trudy is very on top of this conversation that Pete and her father are having, so she says, what song is that, Daddy?
And he goes, well, people say it. It's true.
 
Neither Pete nor Don are really in the tend your own garden business so much.
 
Steve: Not so far anyway.
 
This scene cuts to the next one, which is Don and Betty lying in bed. Don is getting out of spending Thanksgiving with her brother, making his excuse that it's the job, that now he's a partner.
 
Betty clearly wants him to join her at their family Thanksgiving and the conversation turns to why exactly Don doesn't want to go.
 
Jenna: I'm a little impressed Betty expresses her need so directly. She turns to him, and she looks at him and says, I wish you would come, which is very direct for Betty compared to what we've seen in the past.
 
When he says, oh, you know, I'm too busy, it's silly to go for 12 hours, she presses. She says, well, what about Sally and Bobby's childhood memories?
And she has a point, but he doesn't answer that directly.
 
And finally she says this thing: I don't understand why you can't make my family your family.
And we understand that Don doesn't have family or even a concept of what that might be.
 
Steve: I think this is a crucial point about Don's character.
He doesn't get family. The family he had was horrible. He wanted to escape it. And now he just seems broken and unable to make connections or even seek out some ideal of family. It doesn't exist in his vocabulary.
 
 
Jenna: And the fact that this scene moves into a new one, with Harry on the phone to his wife Jennifer; we can infer that he confessed his infidelity with Hildy to Jennifer because he's at the office late at night, and he's pretending to be staying over at Ken's, and he asks her to let him come home.
 
We haven't met Jennifer yet. We've known about her for a long time; Harry is always telling people he's married.
 
He tells her that he misses her. And this is an example of something completely different from Don's systematic infidelity.
He cheated, but he confessed. And he feels guilty. He's bothered by it and finding it difficult to keep his life together.
 
In contrast, we see Don function without missing a beat with his infidelity. But not everybody can carry their deception that successfully.
 
Steve: Yeah. My interpretation of Harry is that he honestly does miss her and he honestly feels guilty and sorry and regrets what he's done.
It's such a contrast to characters like Don, who seem to lack any of that.
 
You really get the sense Harry's suffering cast into the doghouse, even though he pitches it to her that he's actually staying with Ken.
We see the reality that he's wandering around the office in his underwear.
 
Jenna: And Harry does have a concept of family, unlike Don.
And Harry would love to be able to be included in the regular Thanksgiving plans, I think, with Jennifer. Whereas Don has so much and he throws it away.
 
Steve: Yeah. And I think that's a key question that arises in this episode or culmination of the season is in a world where Don really does seem to have access to anything he wants, why does he continue to make choices that undermine and deny buy him these things?
 
Is it because he doesn't know what family is?
Does he honestly not want family or see it as potentially having good aspects? Or is he just too distracted or drawn to other things that preclude engaging and really devoting himself to his family?
 
Jenna: He does seem to have a clear picture of what he doesn't want. But the things that he does want seem to shift. And I don't know that it's ever entirely clear to him what those things are.
 
 
Steve: We cut from Harry in the doghouse in his office to Bert's office, where Don has clearly been called in by Bert. And Bert mentions that Abe Menken's daughter will be unavailable for three months.
And Bert asks Don, why is Abe calling him Bert about this?
Because it's no longer Rachel leading on the business.
And as well, the phone call doesn't go to Don, who ostensibly is over that account to this point.
 
Jenna: Yes, Bert has a line saying, I don't expect your personal preferences to interfere with our business. And of course, Don denies it because that's how he is. He says, who says they have?
 
And Bert says, it was the tone of his voice, meaning Abe Menken. He disapproves of Don in some way. He's her father, he says. And this clarifies for us that Rachel is out of the picture.
He's not going to have a chance to reconcile with her in the immediate future anyway, whatever he might wish.
 
Steve: This is a good scene in terms of Bert's character because, as we've seen to this point, Bert is very much focused on the business, what's good for the business.
Dragging Roger in to parade around in front of Lucky Strike, giving Don a partnership, Bert will do whatever it takes to further the business.
 
And Bert's reading this call from Abe. Clearly Don has done something to jeopardize the business.
And although Don denies it, Bert has him dead to rights and basically reads him the riot act as a new partner here in a way that Don can do nothing but accept it.
 
The dismissive way Bert ends the scene where he says, that's it, cowboy, you know, makes it clear that Bert is very focused and stern on his message.
 
Jenna: That line is so funny when he's being punished, but it's such a funny dismissal.
 
Steve: I like that Bert is shrewd enough to see through Don's denials and lack of ownership here, and he just cuts it back to the point he doesn't need Don to express it. He's made his point clear.
 
Don gets Bert's point, and from the standpoint of maximizing the welfare of Sterling Cooper, it's a very valid point that I don't think Don would argue with.
 
 
Jenna: Next we move into this power scene between Betty and Francine. Francine is disheveled. She's cursing herself for being stupid. She says she's been waiting for Betty to come home, and she reveals that she saw the phone bill with a Strange number in Manhattan.
And when she called it, a woman answered.
 
Betty is a good friend to her here. She tries to make excuses. You know, maybe he's planning a surprise party for you.
And Francine gives the most painful laugh at that. She can't deny what's in front of her face. And she looks at Betty and asks, what am I supposed to do?
I thought you'd know what to do.
 
And Betty is confused. Me? Why? And then Francine stares at her for a beat, realizing that Betty isn't just pretending to the world, but to herself.
So she says, I don't know. And she looks away.
 
Steve: It's a really painful moment because we've got Betty trying to be a good friend to Francine and trying to throw out possibilities to distract Francine from her hurt and her pain, and it doesn't work at all.
 
Francine implies Betty's in this exact circumstance.
She figured that Betty would know, have some useful advice, some good, practical advice about how you manage it. And like you say, it seems like they both are surprised by that assertion by Francine.
 
But you know, Betty in terms of her denial, and then Francine in terms of Betty's - oh, she really isn't conscious that she is in the exact same moment. So it's incredibly awkward.
 
And I love the writing and acting here because I think it really captures that circumstance beautifully, even though it's very painful. And then we get into Francine's more sort of crazy reaction of, you know, I'll poison everyone at the dinner.
 
And you just realize these women, they don't have a lot of good options here. You know, what can you do? They're trapped.
 
Jenna: Yes. So they have to deal with the infidelity. And then they also have to go on with the show of Thanksgiving and having the people over at the house and pretending like everything is okay.
And it isn't an option to confront him and call off Thanksgiving, because this performance that their lives are is so critical.
 
Yeah, it was really disturbing when she was talking about, I'm going to poison my parents and his parents and everybody. But you can see she's really upset and she doesn't have any recourse.
 
This is completely reflected in the look on Betty's face. It shows how she's wrestling with all of these doubts she tries to suppress about her own marriage. And it's so much harder to crush them in the face of Francine's honesty here.
 
Francine looks at her and says, I'm so embarrassed. Because it is. It's embarrassing. You work so hard to put up this front.
And it's crushed in front of you and it's, it's a lot of things, but it is embarrassing.
 
And Betty hugs her and she is truly a friend to her. This is a generosity that we feel from Betty, who can be, let's face it, very spoiled and image conscious.
So I appreciate that she is there with as much support as she can offer her friend in this moment, until Carla walks in with the kids and they kind of have to wrap things up.
 
Steve: I think this scene also underlines the limitations of Francine's and Betty's friendship. You know, this is a zone they haven't clearly haven't gone into previously in any depth. There are unspoken assumptions on both sides about the other that haven't been discussed.
 
So later in this episode, when Betty tells Don that Francine is like a sister, it gets back to Betty's isolation in the world. That even this ostensibly closest friend of hers in the neighborhood, there are caps and limits on how they exchange information and just how close they really are.
 
Jenna: Well, and we've seen from the past that Francine is completely a gossip. She would talk about Helen Bishop so much: “her son's shirt wasn't ironed, and that it's really not that hard to work at a job in a jewelry department store, and why is she walking? That's so weird.”
 
It's so different than all of that judgment there.
We can assume that Francine is a stand-in for most of the rest of the neighborhood to varying degrees. So Betty understands, of course, that revealing ugly things about yourself is not an option in this time period,
if it ever is.
 
I mean, you know, Facebook and social media, it's. It's the same, right? You're presenting one thing to the world and the uglier truths we keep hidden.
 
Steve: And Francine discovered this via the phone bill. So at the end of the scene, we see Betty grabbing the phone bill. She doesn't open it, but she's securing possession of the phone bill.
 
Clearly she's contemplating what secrets may lurk on her own phone bill.
 
Jenna: Betty not being ready to open the envelope yet, but going and getting the envelope is another step. How did you feel about this?
 
I kind of want her to face the truth and confront it. And at the same time, I'm worried for her about what she's going to find.
 
Steve: Yeah, agreed.
She, she has her suspicions. And the phone bill, to me is really the straw that's breaking the camel's back here potentially, when and if it's opened.
 
Jenna: Next, there’s a quick scene at the office where Duck is laying down some ground rules. The office people need to be on time for meetings. Sterling Cooper doesn't have an automobile, an airline or a pharmaceutical, so they all need to be hustling for business.
 
Duck offers a hundred dollar bonus for new business and distributes a list of people they should be having lunch with.
And Don, interestingly, backs Duck up on this. He says the business focus includes the writers. Bringing in business is the key to your salary, status, and self worth.
 
Steve: Yeah, it's a new order in the office.
I think it further underlines the sort of nepo-baby background of Roger. There's a new boss in town. Matt Weiner, in his commentary, talks about treating people like children. In this scene, clearly Roger is not there anymore. The party is over.
 
They're going to get serious about driving the business forward. And Duck isn't their friend. He's a manager, and he's going to manage and push them.
 
 
Jenna: In the next scene, we see Peggy and Ken. They're auditioning voices for the relaxicizer radio spot. Peggy is arguing that one of the candidates, Annie, is a confident, beautiful woman. She's the living personification of what customers will aspire to.
 
Ken likes Rita's voice, but Peggy says, we're selling a better you. That woman isn't a better anything.
And it's interesting in this scene that Peggy and Ken seem to be operating near equal status here.
 
And he says, if I get a hard time about this, I'm going to tell people it was your idea.
And Peggy looks right at him and says, it was my idea. And what a long way she's come from being shy at lunch.
 
Steve: It's also interesting because I kind of interpreted the writing here as perhaps indicating some of Peggy's newness and just inexperience in this matter.
Because ultimately we're going to find out that Ken is correct here. Despite being, you know, one of the naughty frat boys in terms of his attraction for people coming in to model or try out for advertisement, he's actually focused on the right voice for this radio spot.
 
And it seems like Peggy's inexperience is leading her astray with factors that will not be visible to anyone listening to the spot on the radio.
 
Jenna: I wonder, too, if her own self-doubt about not being that girl - we saw that on her date, and we see that in her interactions with Joan, and her own self-doubt about feeling like, I don't really belong here, this is not who I am.
 
I wonder if she does imagine that people who look a certain way enjoy certain privileges, and are able to do all the things in a way that she thinks the rest of us don't get to do.
 
Steve: I think that's a reasonable conclusion. And it's also interesting in that when Ken and Peggy debate this, she carries the day. He's the one who backs down in the end and says, okay, fine, we'll go with what you want.
 
And she's already asserting her leadership here,
despite being, you know, new. And this is her first time listening to tryouts for for the radio ad. So both her aggressiveness, assertiveness,
but also her inexperience combining in the same scene - really love that writing because it feels so true to me of the kind of challenges that occur in the real world.
 
Jenna: Yes, I so appreciate that we can be proud of Peggy for how far she's come. And at the same time, we can see her being wrong. And that is so real and so authentic.
 
And most shows wouldn't do that. It would just be she's immediately a superstar who knows all exactly the right things to do and is never inefficient on her path to greatness.
And instead we see this. There are bumps in the road. There are things you need to learn.
 
 
Steve: The next scene is Pete and Trudy getting romantic in the bedroom at her parents’ place.
Pete expresses some frustration and Trudy detects it. She's always very perceptive and she asks, what is it, honey? You can say anything to me.
 
Jenna: Yeah, they really speak in coded terms about whether they're ready to have a baby. And Pete admits that he can't provide for a child on what he makes. And Trudy isn't worried about that.
She tells him not to be.
 
He's practical with the financial piece, but he probably is also not emotionally ready to be a father. And she tries to make it all okay. It seems like she does want a baby, but she's also not going to push him too hard about it. She really manages him here.
 
Steve: I wonder how much she wants a baby at this point in the series, because we know later she's the one pushing very hard for a child.
I wonder if we're taking that knowledge and backloading it here in this scene, because I don't get the sense she's the one pushing at this point. Even with her own father schooling Pete on the need to start a family.
 
Jenna: I definitely think her parents are driving it,
I guess without direct information, it does seem to me like it's something that Trudy is interested in. But the more powerful driver for her at this point is to not make Pete uncomfortable about it.
 
She really would like it if it were Pete's idea, if Pete were the person who wanted to make it happen. And so if she can engineer that, I feel like she wants to.
 
Steve: I also appreciated in the commentary, one of the writers mentioned that clearly Pete and Trudy are still getting to know each other at this point. So they are married. They've been married for some period of time, but they're still learning and figuring out each other.
 
Which, again, I really like about the writing, because I think it's very true to the circumstances of the characters.
And it's something often that is taken for granted or omitted from things like film and television for reasons of time.
 
Jenna: It seems like Pete is young and inexperienced. And so they're all kind of trying to work around his ego to get what they want. This is the machine. The machine is going to push for particular things to happen in a sequence.
We're going to step aside for your ego a little bit here, but get in line. There's a program, and you need to follow it.
 
Steve: It's also interesting to me, you know, Pete, the silver spoon lad,
he desperately wants to create his own thing and have ownership and control of it. So that chafing he has at others trying to program and drive him in a certain direction, or the thought that, say, her parents would provide for them, all of these things irritate him and frustrate him.
 
So it's interesting to me that his character has this hunger, this desire to achieve something for himself.
Coming from such a place of privilege, where perhaps, you know, he'd be perfectly happy to just glide along on his background and family name.
 
Jenna: And I think in spite of the fact that his ambition is so ugly, so often the audience can admire that hunger, that genuine drive in him to achieve and to not simply accept credit from his in-laws or his family, but to build something himself.
 
Steve: Yeah, and we've said this before, one of the reasons Pete is so dislikable is because when that ambition puts him out of bounds or starting to behave in unsavory ways, I think a lot of us who share those feelings of ambition and wanting to be self-made can start to see reflections of ourselves.
 
And you know, whether you do or don't take some of the unsavory paths that Pete does, it's uncomfortably close to the reality, where that hunger and drive is suggesting to you to behave or do certain things that maybe the better angels of your nature are saying, oh, come on, you can't do that. That's not nice. Again, the humanity and the realism of the writing, to me, is very powerful and compelling.
 
 
Jenna: In the next scene, this time we get Betty's back to camera, and this is significant, because her looks and her image are all part of who she is as a prop.
But this time we get the depth of her. We see her from the back and Don walks in and she's surprised to see him home.
 
He says, oh, he has to work. And she voices frustration. He flips it right back to her, Bets, right when I walk in the door? And she does apologize, but she voices her need again.
Earlier she said, I wish you would come with us. And here she says, I had a terrible day. Sit with me.
 
Everything about his body language says he doesn't want to, and he doesn't have time for this, but he does indeed sit with her. It feels like Betty is in control in this situation.
 
Steve: That's an interesting way to put it, because I think the scene opens with Betty looking as messed up as we've seen her in the series to this point. Smoking, drinking, slightly disheveled - as much as January Jones ever gets disheveled.
 
And it's an interesting contrast, I think, to the prior episode where we see Don in that state after the confrontation with Pete about Adam's box of memories.
Now it feels like we're getting the flip of that, where it's Betty wrestling with the consequences and implications of Francine's situation and what that may mean for her own relationship.
 
And now her husband's actually come home by surprise, and she's forcing this moment, which I agree with you. She's the one driving it to say, hey, sit with me. we're going to talk about a few things right now.
 
Jenna: And what a key difference, that she goes to him to have a conversation, whereas he bottles it up. He does go to Rachel, but he doesn't talk to Rachel about what's bothering him. And he certainly doesn't sit down with Betty and talk about it - he just stuffs it down for her to throw this out to him and say, let's have this conversation.
 
Even though it's coded, it's not completely open yet. It is a step. She's trying. She's reaching out to him, and he does not do the same for her.
She tells Don that Francine told her that Carlton was having an affair, and she has his full attention, but he is so guarded with his replies, and he offers, I'm surprised she told you.
 
And she has a huge reaction to that. Like you said, he says, well, she's like a sister to me.
And he agrees with, “Of course she is.”
 
That is really insincere, I think, as you point out on her part, because she isn't exactly like a sister. It doesn't look the way that, for example, Rachel's conversation with her sister was, where they offer some judgment and some real talk to each other, right? Francine and Betty aren't there.
 
He'll agree with her, like, this is an easy thing he can give her. Yes, of course. She's like a sister to you.
And then she brings it. She looks at him and she asks, how could someone do that to the person they love, someone they have children with? Doesn't all this mean anything?
 
And Don is not reassuring at all, not in the way she needs.
Here's that “people” call-out. He says, who knows why people do what they do?
He tries to make it an other thing. It's not about the two of them. It's about other people.
Yeah, that's right, Don, keep pretending.
 
Steve: Now, in our prep for this episode, you brought this up, and I think it's a great point just to backtrack a little bit.
Don's nervous when he sits down. What is she about to unload on him? Has she discovered? Or is she confronting him with something he's done because he's got a lot of skeletons in the closet?
 
The look of relief on his face when he finds out it's about Francine and Carlton - you can see the weight come off his shoulders.
But like you say, as the conversation goes forward, it does seem to flip at some moment, where we're no longer talking about Carlton and Francine.
 
And now the question is from Betty to Don, again in code, how could somebody do this? And that completely unreassuring answer from Don.
Clearly that's not what Betty was hoping to hear at this moment. I have to think that Don's answers at this point are just throwing gasoline on the fire that's burning inside Betty's head.
 
Jenna: I don't know that it's necessarily making it worse, but it definitely isn't making it better.
He, of course, changes the subject. He says, come on. He puts a hand on his shoulder and says, bring the wine. And she follows. So they're going to pretend a while longer.
 
Steve: He's bought a bit of time, I think. Absolutely.
 
 
The next scene is Duck with the Kodak projector displaying slides,
and they're talking about this donut or wheel and what it's going to take to earn Kodak's business.
 
And they emphasize a couple points here. That it’s considered technologically advanced at this point, and it feels like that's what Kodak, the client, is looking for.
As we'll see, the solution for the pitch deviates quite a bit from emphasizing the technological aspects of the device.
 
Jenna: Yeah. Duck is short and to the point, and he is all about success. And adds to Don, if you can do this, you can make me look good in my first month here.
That's not really what Don is about, but it's very interesting that Duck trusts him enough to confide that. And we've seen when Pete has had that appeal to Don, it hasn't gone well.
 
Duck has made the appeal, and so far, Don seems to have his back. So it's an interesting tenuous partnership they're building here.
 
Steve: Yeah, I don't put too much weight on it myself. I think it's more a throwaway line between two experienced guys.
I think they're much closer in age and experience than, you know, the young upstart Pete, who's sort of climbing over the dead bodies of those he has to stab in the back.
 
So everybody knows it's in their interest to land Kodak. So I've. I have to assume Don is plenty motivated, regardless of any impact it may have on Duck.
 
Jenna: I think it's very loaded. We don't get a lot of screen time with Duck, but this is key to who he is. Remember, he's damaged goods. He is here to make a comeback, so he has a lot to prove.
He's reaching out to Don, as if Don is going to be his office buddy. And we know that is not how Don operates, ever.
 
So it's an interesting ask to him, especially since we know where their relationship is going later.
This naked ambition, it doesn't make account guys look very good, maybe because they all seem to have that.
But I think it is really a defining point of Duck's character. He wants to look good.
 
Steve: I don't think it makes him look bad. That is their mission, to win and hold accounts, to grow accounts. So I think if you were to lay that behavior or focus in front of a Bert Cooper, he'd say, absolutely, that's what I want in my account, guys.
 
So, yeah, it's. It's an interesting early interaction between Don and Duck, with Duck inside the fence, given where we know this relationship's going to go next.
 
Jenna: We're back to the recording booth, where Peggy and Ken have hired Annie for the radio spot. The first couple of times I watched this scene, I was stuck trying to figure out what it was that Annie was doing wrong, because I couldn't detect any lack of confidence or bad performance.
 
And I think it's because it feels like this is about Annie's performance. But really the point is Peggy's performance.
She's running the recording session and she has a specific thing in mind and this isn't it.
 
Steve: Yeah, I think the subtext here is Peggy realizes she made a mistake and she's trying to rectify it and thinking by direction she can push it to this other place where it needs to be.
 
Maybe not consciously realizing she can't get it there. And in the process of attempting to do it again, a rookie mistake.
She destroys the actress who's reading the lines, and there's no way she can win. And she just progressively grinds her down until she. She flees in tears.
 
It's a painful scene, but again, I love the realism of the writing because I think this is exactly the kind of thing that can happen.
Peggy's learning something about herself and about her job in this scene.
 
Jenna: You might think that Bert would approve of this, because Peggy is trying to coach Annie. She speaks professionally. She's insistent.
There is a quality in the work she's looking for and she's going to push until she gets it.
 
And again, we talked about this with the last one, the last scene.
She also has a belief that because Annie is beautiful and slim, she must also be confident. Some kind of magic power.
When it's not working, she turns to Ken and says, say something and make her feel beautiful.
 
And Ken says, a woman like that will never feel confident. It's God's gift to bachelors. The juiciest gazelle is the easiest to catch.
What is it with men comparing women to animals on this show?
 
But I thought that was really kind of a weird truth that he was espousing. What did you think about that?
 
Steve: I think it is a weird truth that he's sharing or a perception. You know, obviously generalizing about millions of people is not going to apply to so many. But I think you really see the enjoyment on Ken's face in this scene.
 
He knows he was right and he's being proven right as this thing crumbles in front of them both. And he's quite happy to be the right one when it comes around at the end that it is falling apart.
And they do need to bring Rita back.
When he gets up and pats Peggy on the head again, it just seems a triumphal, adolescent gesture on his part of you've got things to learn, kid, and I was right and you were wrong.
 
Jenna: Okay, I completely disagree. I don't see that at all.
I think he is expressing this truth about her, about Annie, to Peggy,
and it's a real conversation between them. He's explaining something that he sees as true to Peggy, that Peggy doesn't understand.
 
And I don't get condescension and I don't get victory or power from it, which is what I think is . . . we go back and forth about Ken, and he certainly makes some awful choices.
But I feel like here with Peggy, here he acknowledges her and sees her as a coworker, as a colleague. It doesn't seem like he's triumphant over her mistake.
 
Steve: Oh, I don't see it as a sexist put down or something. A prejudice Ken has against Peggy. He's triumphant over her.
No different than when he was triumphant over Paul about getting published.
 
Jenna: I don't get that, though. I get it that it didn't work out. And the thing that I like most about Ken here is they're in the booth and Peggy's looking at Annie, and it spiraled downward, and Peggy says, this is not working out. We're going to have to let you go.
 
Ken looks at Peggy with disapproval. And it's professional. He says, you could have gone in there and said that. And he's right.
Peggy did not handle it kindly.
 
She's all about the work and she knows how the next part works too. This is a great line, she says, all right, Ken, go console her. And after you make plans or whatever, call Rita. She's probably home with a relaxerciser right now.
 
And Ken looks surprised and impressed. It doesn't feel like he's taking a lap here. He pats her head and it's a little bit weird, but to me it feels like Peggy just leveled up in his head that she sees how that works.
 
Steve: Yeah, I think you're misunderstanding my point.
He considers Peggy a peer and he was right and she was wrong on one particular question or decision. And he's happy to be the right one. But she's not devalued in his eyes.
Everybody's wrong. He's treating her like a peer and he's enjoying being correct on the specific question.
And he also can appreciate her strengths and focus as she moves on to the next piece of it. I guess we're just agree to disagree on this.
 
Jenna: I see him as looking at her in a completely new way than he ever saw her before after this scene, because he corrects her for being unkind to Annie, because she certainly was.
 
And I think that's more her mistake than hiring the wrong person. This mistake, this flaw that Peggy has about not being very nurturing to people is going to be important later on in the series, and even in this episode.
 
Steve: Yeah, I can buy that. And he's still getting to know her professionally, and they're feeling each other out to understand each other professionally. But if we talk about people like Ken and Freddy, I think they both are at the meritocracy end of the scale. Just naturally. That's their inclination, and that's why they're so quick to acknowledge and speak to Peggy's strengths.
 
I don't think they have an evolution or change needed there. They're open to the merits of Peggy's performance and quick to acknowledge it.
And same thing when. When the merits aren't there. They're just boldly and openly state it and it's. And it's okay. You don't have to be right all the time or perfect or whatever.
 
Jenna: It's funny how likable that quality is in them, in spite of some of the other drawbacks that their characters have.
 
Steve: Well, I think it's. It's a very fundamental myth of our society, right, the meritocracy. And in so many aspects, we cling to it, aspire to it, claim it.
When you start to reveal how we're falling short of that ideal, I think it's unnerving, it's irritating, it's frustrating, it's painful.
I do think it's a great theme in the office here, surrounded by all this sexism, antisemitism, racism. I think we latch onto the meritocratic aspects in our desperation to find that value and nurture it.
 
 
Jenna: Moving into the next scene, we see Don working on the Kodak presentation. He has slides of Betty and the kids, but instead, he reaches for the box of photos from Adam.
 
Steve: And as he goes through the photos, clearly he's thinking about family, he's thinking about his connections. And he decides to call the hotel, where he discovers that Adam has hanged himself, and left a bunch of money to the building - the money that Don had given Adam to go away, I think in his misinterpretation that Adam wanted something material out of him.
 
And I think it's a powerful scene for Jon Hamm and his acting as Don Draper. As he hangs up the phone, he puts his head in his hands. He looks as much in pain or as near to crying as I think we've seen the Don Draper character to this point.
 
Jenna: As an audience member, I feel relieved that Don was going to finally call Adam and not cut him out of his life after all. And at the same time, frustrated that he waited so long to get to that point.
 
I have to think it would have made a difference to Adam if he had been able to call sooner. I do see Don looking shaken, but I also have this disappointment. He doesn't talk about this news. He doesn't process it. He just stuffs it inside with all of the rest of his issues.
 
And he pretends like there's room for this to hide in there, too.
 
Steve: Yeah, it's a heartbreaking scene. And I totally share your view that if Dick welcomes Adam in any form into his life, Adam is not going to hang himself. It's such an avoidable tragedy, and he's a day late in a buck short.
 
Does Don Draper realize he's at fault here?
I don't know, but I have to figure he, at the very least, suspects he had a direct impact on this.
 
Jenna: You would think he would carry some guilt, but as we've discussed previously, he's not really manifesting a lot of guilt about other choices he makes. So it's hard to say from the information we get.
I mean, we are going to see some guilt pop out later about this, but in unusual times and places.
 
 
Steve: From there, we cut to Betty alone in bed, obviously stewing and thinking. She turns on a light, pulls out the phone bill, and finally opens it. And as she flips through the cards, I guess the old phone bills showed all the calls on individual cards - she spots a number that's recurring frequently being called at night. After she's upstairs in bed, she calls the number.
It's her therapist, Dr. Arnold Wayne.
 
Jenna: This is a great scene for Betty, and it's such a good contrast because Don is alone, discovering something horrible over the phone.
And then we get Betty alone, discovering something horrible over the phone.
She looks a little bit relieved when she's looking through the card. She sees some normal things. And then we see her face.
There's something to concern her. And then we get this great camera shot of her sitting on the floor in the hall, smoking and dialing a number.
 
And she's so worried because she knows this happened to Francine.
So she's just expecting, oh, this is gonna be my truth now, too, and now I'm gonna know it, and I can't pretend anymore.
 
And when a man answers, you can see her relief. Everything is better because the man answers. And then when he identifies himself as Dr. Arnold Wayne, she has a whole new kind of infidelity to deal with that she wasn't prepared for at all.
 
Steve: I think it's a real parallel to the earlier scene with Don and her, where Don is fearful of what he's about to be confronted with by Betty, feels the relief when it's Francine and Carlton's infidelity.
 
And then the scene morphs into a conversation about Betty confronting Don with his own infidelity. This scene sort of runs a similar path. Betty's so relieved to hear a man answer.
And I think January Jones’ acting in this particular episode at several of these scenes is just outstanding. And I think she kills it in this scene.
 
And like you pointed out, when that relief morphs into a kick in the gut at the discovery of it's your therapist and all these things you've been saying, I've been betrayed. And there's no confidentiality between you and your therapist.
 
I think January Jones just sells that in this very simple, straightforward scene. And like you pointed out, she looks very almost childlike in her nightgown and, and learning this, this awful betrayal.
 
Jenna: Do you feel like this is a worse thing for her to discover than if a woman had answered the way that Francine found out?
 
Steve: That's a good question. I, I, I think it would have been worse if it was a woman. But in a world where you lack friends and support and contacts and who can you talk to?
And you've got this therapist where presumably building that rapport and that connection, so, so that you do have someone to talk to as supposedly this life preserver, to have that ripped out of your arms like this has just gotta be so devastating.
 
Jenna: And she had to kind of fight Don to get access to this conversation. And it turns out, no, it's not really her own conversation after all. It's, it's really devastating.
 
 
In the next scene, we see Don at the office, and he bumps into Harry, who's in his underwear carrying a wastebasket late at night.
 
Don doesn't ask Harry about anything. He doesn't say, why are you here overnight in your underwear? Everybody else is just an audience and a vehicle for Don's needs. So because Harry happens to be there, he says, I want to talk to you.
What did you think about that?
 
Steve: Well, the interesting thing about this to me was, you know, we know Don's got a bunch of stuff going on in his life.
So what does Don want to talk to Harry about? And I guess my default assumption was it's going to Be something personal.
 
And given that Harry's in the doghouse with his wife, my thought leaped to, oh, they're going to talk about their relationships or being married or the ups and downs of marriage or something.
The fact that Don's focus, even drunk in the middle of the night in the office is about the project and about what can they do with this Kodak device.
 
Again, I think it's an interesting insight into Don's mind and where his head goes, you know, is he escaping into work? Does he hide in his work to avoid the implications of his personal life?
Or is he just that dedicated and devoted to it? It really is his raison d'etre on the earth.
 
Jenna: And I guess you could see it as resourceful. From the very first episode, we saw him grilling the waiter about his cigarette habits, and we saw him talking to Midge about smoking and Right Guard getting closer.
It doesn't feel resourceful to me, because he doesn't give things back. It feels like he is a thief. He gets Harry talking about his photography in college, and Harry says some disparaging things about his artsy youth.
 
But this is the very first time we get to see that Harry had any artsy or thoughtful inclinations.
He talks about being fascinated by the cave paintings of Lascaux. Harry says, there were these handprints, tiny by today's standards. I thought it was like someone reaching through stone, right to us, saying, I was here.
 
Mad Men is always reminding us that identity is a universal question.
Who sees us and how do we appear and who are we really?
 
Don interviews him about this a little bit, and keeps him talking and captures some new input. And then he starts to nod off and he just dismisses Harry like, okay, you're done.
 
And it's such a Don thing to just discard a human being who is expressing something important to you and to use what you can and then throw it away.
 
Steve: And it's also a further emphasis of Don's relationships in the office.
Even with Harry sitting there in his underwear and his undershirt in the middle of the night drinking, there's no friendship, there's no camaraderie. When Don's got what he wanted out of Harry, then Harry's dismissed. He can leave.
 
So that hierarchy and gap between the two of them, you know, who knows who Don is? It's retained. You know, there. There is no breakdown of the wall or no connection built in that moment between Harry and Don, which is striking because how could there not be,
given the circumstances?
 
Jenna: Yes, they have a lot in common, even if they don't say it.
 
 
Steve: The next scene is Betty going to the phone company.
She sees Glenn in the car and approaches him. Glenn mentions he's not supposed to talk to her.
 
And it's clear that Betty's very upset at this point and in a bad state.
She's starting to cry. Glenn urges her not to. Betty expresses she has no one to speak to. Glenn extends his mittened hand in a really sweet sort of childlike gesture.
Betty says that, you know, grownups don't really know what they're doing. What did you think of this scene?
 
Jenna: Yeah, adults don't know anything, Glenn. That's kind of the opposite message of it gets better, isn't it?
 
I am not a fan of Glenn in the series. I'm just not. But this is a probably my favorite scene of his.
Betty says some of her first honest things in the whole show. Not to her husband or her father or her friend, but to this little boy.
She says, I can't talk to anyone. It's so horrible. I'm so sad.
 
Obviously it is not fair of her to drop this on him. She's an adult. This might be her, one of her worst moments.
It is reasonable to point out too that that she has safety and beauty and education and financial stability. So compared to a lot of other people on the planet, it might be hard to feel sorry for her.
 
But she does finally reach out about how she feels to someone. And even when he says no at first, I'm not supposed to talk to you and my mother's going to come out, she says, I don't care.
 
This is a real turning point for Betty, because she cares about how things look and how she is perceived. And it's not cool that she ignores his boundaries. But Glenn says, I wish I was older, which all kids seem to wish sometimes.
 
She pleads with him, please tell me I'll be okay.
And this is such a call out. Notice this is what Don always says to comfort people. It's very empty. He says, it's going to be okay. And in the last episode flashback, we saw the origin story of that when he was in the hospital receiving his medal and he's told, you're going to be okay, you'll feel like yourself within a week.
 
This feeling of being okay is the mask.
And sometimes it's comforting. But here we see to Betty, it's really never been okay. How hard it is for her to admit that.
 
And my favorite line from Glenn ever is when he looks toward the store where his parents are and back at Betty. And he goes, I don't really know how long 20 minutes is.
And it's so childlike that it shifts her back into adulting and she goes, of course, dear. She goes back to her car and never does the errand that she arrived to do.
 
Steve: Yeah. And it seems like there's this drum that's being beaten as to how childish Betty is. Betty's the childish one, yet she's in a world surrounded by people behaving very childishly much of the time.
 
I do think unloading on a child in the parking lot is truly childish and inappropriate on Betty's part. But I'm also sympathetic because it's the sheer desperation in her. Where does she turn at this point, you know, to whom she's really bereft of any alternatives, totally alone in the universe and has this moment of weakness and vulnerability with Glenn.
So it makes me feel very sympathetic for the character.
 
Jenna: I came to the same place. Yeah. To echo what you said, there is a theory among Mad Men fans that Glenn is a stand-in for Don for Betty, that she wants someone who will look at her and find her perfect and beautiful and be everything he needs without complications.
 
And that follows Matthew Weiner's assertion that Betty isn't very mature.
That's just not as interesting to me as the idea that both Don and Betty are reaching out to other people.
Don, because he's broken and he doesn't know how to be real. And Betty, as you say, because she's lonely.
 
That brings us to our double dip question for this week: What is the best course of action for Betty Draper at this point in this time period?
Should she confront Don? Should she confide in Francine?
Should she find some other eight year olds and park cars?
 
Visit our episode page on www.MadMenCtoZ.com to share your insights. We look forward to discussing your thoughts on a future episode.
 
 
Steve: We next move to our man child, Pete, walking into Don's office and proudly announcing that he's brought in the Clearasil account.
 
He owns up that it's because his father in law, former salesman and now executive, is his line in to get Clearasil. But he's still awfully proud of having landed the account.
 
And it's, you know what Bert told Pete was a significant investment in the company. And Pete expresses to Don that it matters to him that Don be impressed.
 
Jenna: It seems implied, maybe, that Pete's softening up to Trudy about being willing to try for a baby might have indirectly led to this account happening from his father in law. Did you get that sense?
 
Steve: I didn't, but it's an interesting thought.
 
Jenna: When he says, it matters to me that you are impressed to Don again, to me, that's a little bit similar.
It's funny that these hard charging men like Duck and Pete are still coming to Don and needing his approval. As if his quietness or his reluctance to share almost make them covet a little bit more.
 
Kind of like when Paul Kinsey said to Joan, the meaner you are, the more I like you, it feels like that's operating with them too.
And Pete brings back Don's words from Duck's meeting. He says,
self worth and status. You said it.
 
And it's like Pete can feel comfortable in his skin if only he can earn Don's approval.
 
Steve: And it also seems that Pete shows a certain resilience, which I hate to say anything nice about the character, but he's taken some real knocks here through the first season, and he continues to pick himself back up, dust himself off and keep going.
 
So maybe we don't admire his raw ambition and ruthlessness as the greatest source of motivation, but it does seem to fire him and fuel him. Here he is back again, making a step and having a success.
What could possibly go wrong, Pete?
 
Jenna: I wondered why Pete retained this care about Don's opinion. After learning that Don's identity is fraudulent, I thought he would care less or something would shift in him, and it doesn't seem to.
 
And I also wonder a little why Pete doesn't tell everybody else in the office about Don.
In some ways, that might be a favor to Don to work through his issues ultimately, but that's a whole different story.
 
Steve: I like your question, because coming from status and background, you'd think that Pete would be very programmed to care and value that.
 
Getting to Bert's comments when he did the big reveal and Bert said, you know, a man is whatever room he's standing in.
And it's clear that Don Draper truly is this creative genius. And I'm putting myself in Pete's head, wondering how does he reconcile what he's been taught about status and background and blood his whole life with his own ambitions to create and have something that he can attribute to himself.
 
And then if he looks at the reflection of Don, Don is exactly the opposite. A man of no status and no background, who has built himself up on the merits of his abilities. So in some ways is Don maybe what Pete aspires to be.
 
And Pete sets aside the status and things he's been brainwashed from his WASPy socioeconomic status. And truly, whether he'd want to admit it or not, Pete would aspire to have the success of a Don Draper or a Dick Whitman for that matter.
 
Jenna: Yeah, he looks good from the outside.
 
Steve: He looks fantastic from the outside. Yeah.
 
 
Jenna: The next scene takes us to Betty at Dr. Wayne's office. So now she knows he talks to her husband about her.
She opens with some calm, I'm cured dialogue about how coming here and talking has helped. And then she fires shots directed at both men.
 
She says casually, I think I'd be happy if my husband were faithful to me. It's all there in my face every day, she says, but I put up with it like some ostrich. It's interesting, isn't it? And she sits up and she looks at Dr. Wayne, who says nothing, as per usual.
 
Maybe she's daring him to correct her or reassure her or maybe she's thinking about how awkward that phone call is going to be with Don later. But I appreciate that she looks directly at him even when he says nothing the whole time.
 
Steve: I love the scene. I love the way it's performed. I love the writing here.
And again, I think January Jones’ acting in this scene is fantastic.
And it's this low key conflict, almost a sort of emotional violence of this scene, of the betrayal is known and we're having the confrontation,
but it's all happening under the surface and it's in this icy coldness as she grabs a cigarette and lights it up and speaks her truth.
 
All of which we know as viewers is absolutely dead on and in some ways confesses to both the therapist and we, the viewer just how much she knows about what's been going on.
Because to this point, there hasn't been a lot of sort of open confrontation about it in a way that would suggest, hey, maybe she does know less than it seems about it.
And all that is washed away in this scene as it becomes very clear she knows exactly what's going on.
 
Jenna: And the crux of Don and Betty's whole relationship comes out of her when she says,
I suppose it means I'm not enough, but maybe it's just him.
 
And she's right.
Don's brokenness isn't about Betty.
Betty has always been a shield to hide the ways that Don is broken,
but it's just like it's not enough for Midge to be his medicine, Betty is an individual. She's not a placeholder.
 
But Don takes whatever he can from the people around him without worrying about giving anything back.
There are always ways we aren't enough, any of us. But this is not about Betty. This is about him.
 
Steve: And maybe I'm betraying something about myself personally, but I just love the confidence and fierceness that Betty takes into this session. She's been betrayed, betrayed by her husband, betrayed by her therapist.
 
Again and again, she's caved and turned, given others the benefit of the doubt, made excuses for others, ran away from the conflict. And in this scene, it feels like a major breakthrough to me.
 
She's done with that now, and her rage and her fury and her pain is the fuel now. That's giving her the strength to confront those who have betrayed her. I just find myself really rooting for the character.
You know, she's showing an inner strength and focus that I haven't seen from the character to this point. And it's just very compelling.
 
Jenna: It is such a relief to see that in her, even though, you know, it involves a lot of hurt and pain.
You know, this is the way through to the other side, is to face it and name it. And she's been reluctant to do that for 13 episodes. And here she is.
 
At the same time, it kind of highlights Don's failure or inability to be able to do that in himself.
Adam committed suicide, and he just found out. We learned it earlier, but he just found that out. He's stuffing that down inside. He's just not handling his own mask, his own issues.
 
Rachel's leaving him and refusing to build a future with him has to be causing him some pain. All of his issues with Betty, there's just a lot that he's carrying around.
 
She's taking the mask off here, and that is a huge step, but it really highlights how he isn't there. He isn't even close.
 
Steve: Yeah, agreed. It's a tremendous contrast between the two characters, and it really seems to foreshadow there are going to be changes coming here driven by Betty if she stays in this mode.
 
Jenna: And it's such an issue because in any other show,
you're looking at Don. He's the protagonist. We want things from our hero. We want him to change, and we want him to grow, and we want him to improve and come to realizations.
 
And it's the season finale. You know, we want better for him, and he still just seems stuck. And I think that kind of leaves us with a wah, wah feeling about the season, if not the show. It's very hard to invest in this character who is so determined not to grow.
 
 
Steve: We then cut to the presentation to Kodak, which is well known by Mad Men fans as one of the most glorious moments for Don Draper.
As the creative director of Sterling Cooper, he's presenting on the Carousel.
 
And it's Don Draper at his best and most powerful, pitching a product to a client in a way the client hasn't consciously thought of it, but somehow, when they hear it described that way, rings so fundamentally true.
 
We have Harry leaving the room at the end of the presentation weeping because of the emotional power of what Don has said about this product and Harry relating that to where he is in his own relationship with his wife.
 
The technological aspect is touched on a little bit. It's not a spaceship,
it's a time machine. It goes backwards, it forwards, takes us to a place where we ache to go again, lets us travel the way a child travels, around and around and back home to a place where we know we are loved. It's so ironic to hear those words coming out of Don Draper's mouth, given what we know about his background.
 
Jenna: If you are a huge Mad Men fan, you might want to check out Matt Zoller Seist's book called Mad Men Carousel: the Complete Critical Companion, which takes its title from this scene, and it refers to the scene a lot throughout the book.
I enjoyed that book as a deeper look at the show.
 
I also felt like the author didn't talk a lot about my favorite details and moments, which eventually led me to podcasting about it so I could talk about my favorite details and moments.
 
And I also felt that the author repeated some of the same points a lot. He talks about the oo-topos / you-topos conversation between Don and Rachel a lot. Still worth a recommendation, especially if you're really invested in the show as we're looking at this scene.
 
Again, Don is such a taker. Lots of professions use their family in their work. I mean, presumably comedians, songwriters, novelists do it all the time. So for Don to take pictures of his family to tell this ad story is not unseemly by itself. The fact that he doesn't give back to that family is the problem.
 
He's done the same thing with Harry. Harry's comment about the cave paintings reaching through time inspired Don.
Don critiqued Peggy about using a Latin root in her relaxicizer presentation, and here he uses Greek to discuss nostalgia, just like Rachel did to discuss Utopia.
 
Don is pulling value from all the people in his life, and the question is, what does he give back?
So it's interesting to me that this is considered by many Mad Men fans to be his best ad pitch ever.
 
And he's synthesizing it, but he's pulling it from all these other forces in his life. This lucky guy who has these resources, and yet he uses them for his self advancement, for advertising for a mirage instead of for something real.
 
Steve: I think another big piece of this scene is Don is presenting to us, the viewers, because we know his story, we know his life.
So we're seeing these slides of him with his children, his beautiful wife.
They do such a great job with the old photographs and making them look like snapshots from a life well lived. A perfect life of the late 50s.
 
And we know all the problems and flaws and lies therein. And it's so painful and heartbreaking because we know where Betty is at the current moment.
It's just such a powerful scene that hits on every level.
 
We can see the brilliance of Don Draper, the creative, the lies of his life, and the using of everyone else, like you mentioned, it's just such a thrilling ride through the entire scene. And we have no doubt that the Kodak executives are just knocked off their feet.
And everybody in the room is just realizing what a gift Don has for the creative presentation.
 
Jenna: Duck says, good luck at your next meeting.
 
Steve: Which is a. Yeah, a great sort of smarmy comment from Duck, as if anybody is going to live up to what they just saw here. And in fact, we find out later that the next meeting canceled.
They don't even bother. So it draws an underline under the genius of Mr. Draper.
 
Jenna: Yeah. Don's story moves Harry so deeply that he breaks down, and it's just a screen. And these fragments of Don's life don't seem to move him as part of his own real life.
It's just something he's selling.
 
I was looking for any trace of grief over Adam in this scene as he talks about nostalgia, but I don't see it. I just see the sale.
 
Steve: Yeah. And I think another parallel here, too is Don Draper understands what true love is for the rest of us.
And he understands that we value family, but he doesn't feel those things himself.
 
So he sort of poo-poos and is very cynical with Rachel when she talks about love, and she says, you know, I think she says, I feel sorry for you if you think that's how it is.
 
And here to see him so ruthlessly pitch family and memories and childhood, none of which he seems to value or even seek to build now, in the future, going forward, but to leverage that against both us as the viewers and Kodak, it's such a cynical gesture, and I think really gets to the heart of the brilliance of the characters that have been created to this point.
 
Jenna: It was even more cynical in the commentary when Weiner says, I don't believe there was ever a Teddy at the fur company who gave him advertising advice. I think this is just part of the story he's making up.
 
And I was like, wow, that's. That's even extra harsh that he's inventing this story about his advertising past. This imaginary mentor you learned from.
 
Steve: And also the cosmetic piece, which Weiner points out in the commentary, where he says, you know, we know Don has been up all night. He's drinking, he slept in the office, but he looks like a million bucks making the presentation because he is the beautiful man pitching the incredible idea.
 
And this wonderful contrast between how broken and hollow he is on the inside and just what a magnificent cosmetic, flashy package he is on the outside.
 
 
Jenna: So he came through. Kodak loved it. Duck shows up with a crew of guys to come into Don's office and celebrate.
Then they also share Pete's good news about booking the Clearasil business. He's getting some congratulations in front of the whole crowd in Don's office.
 
And Don's response is to announce that Peggy should write for the Clearasil account, which upsets Pete.
It seems to me that is exactly why Don suggests Peggy for the account.
Don was feeling success over his own Kodak presentation, and he wants to make Pete feel irritated instead of celebratory about the Clearasil.
 
And it's not that Don doesn't believe in Peggy, but the fact that he announces it in this way at this time, it feels a lot more like Don wants to kick Pete than to high five Peggy.
What's your take?
 
Steve: Yeah, I'm going to go with C. All of the above.
I think Don objectively feels Peggy is the right writer for Clearasil and perfect for it. And then he weaponizes her as a means to humiliate Pete in his moment of triumph.
 
The way the scene is shot and the look on Don Draper's face as he says that, and the smugness and the way he delivers it in front of everybody.
It really does seem like he is taking a special glee and slapping Pete down in his moment of triumph. At least we know Pete deserves this.
 
I liked how Ken jumps in and defends Peggy when Pete sort of balks at the initial suggestion by Don, and then Don reinforces it to make it clear.
I'm not suggesting. This is going to happen.
And I love the way when Pete says, but she's not even a copywriter, Don uses that occasion to leverage his power, call her in there, and promote her to copywriter on the spot.
 
Jenna: I had that note about Ken, too. Peggy is not in the room at that point. There's no benefit to him to telling the group how well she did in the booth for the commercial.
This is a sincere step up for her. He talks about Belle Jolie, he talks about her in the booth. It's sincere. So I appreciate that he's willing to step up and speak up for her.
 
Don, on the other hand, gives the promotion by barking, “Peggy.” And she comes in, he goes, you're now a junior copywriter. She's completely overwhelmed. Is this really happening? And Don looks at Pete, not at Peggy, when he goes, yes, it is.
 
And again, you know, she found out from Joan, who was really catty with her, that she got to do her first writing assignment, and she managed to still be happy.
So here, same thing. She's so pleased. I will do my sincere best, she says.
 
Everybody in the room is just determined not to do right by her. I guess Ken did, but Paul has this slight jealousy. He goes, please don't act surprised, which maybe is a great confirmation about her qualifications that he saw that coming.
 
Steve: I love the contrast here between the savagery of Don humiliating Pete in front of everyone, because it's clear Pete doesn't like this,
doesn't want this, and Don is going to force it to happen.
 
And then the contrast with the sheer joy on Peggy's face as she walks into the middle of it, not having any idea of this dynamic in the room.
And all she can think are positive, happy thoughts at this great thing that's happened to her.
 
I also liked it as Pete skulks out of the office, obviously irritated and angry, and everyone's sort of looking at him and can read that on him. His defeat has been both total and very public.
 
Jenna: Just a quick note, too, that we see as Pete and Don are talking about Peggy, Duck has a line where he goes, who is she?
That's just kind of a fun thing to notice because we know what's going to happen later. It's kind of fun to see that little first contact there.
 
 
Steve: The next scene is Peggy talking to Joan, making arrangements for her new role as a copywriter.
 
Jenna: Yeah, Joan walking Peggy to her new office really echoes the pilot where Peggy walked in with Joan as the new girl.
And here she ends the season with a promotion.
 
Steve: And it's funny how Joan is sort of biting in both directions here. So I think there is an element of congratulations, but there's also a line drawing of don't confuse yourself that you're like the other ones yet or I'm going to take orders from you.
 
Joan puts her in an office with Victor Manning, whose prior office mate was fired. And the office is full of junk. But still, as much as that maybe takes a bit of the shine off of the promotion and getting an office,
I get the sense Peggy's happy and excited about success and getting good progress on what she's seeking.
 
Jenna: Yes, a couple of great details in this writing here. Joan is still giving advice about how to act, but at least not how to dress.
Don't forget just because you now have a door, remember once you didn't.
Rremember to think of the other girls, or they won't think of you.
She's still dispensing her advice to Peggy, even though Peggy is transitioning into a new role.
 
I caught some bite there too. She said. I said congratulations, didn't I? You don't get the sense she's truly warm and happy for her.
Where later in the series you can see what that looks like when Joan is genuine, this still seems like a performance.
 
And I thought it was a good detail that Peggy's new office mate immediately announces, we had a deal. We don't take meetings in here and we don't play any music, which is a really great current office kind of a vibe. But in that time period, what a contrast.
 
He's not trying to flirt with her. He doesn't seem surprised that she's there. His goal is just to maintain his comfort. So I love that Peggy gets more of a normal vibe instead of, okay, now you're going to have to beat off your office mate every time you come into work too.
We know that's not what she's going to have to deal with.
 
Steve: That's an unfortunate choice of words.
[Laughter]
 
Jenna: Peggy says she feels sick. She's eaten a bad sandwich or something. And we can tell she really doesn't feel like herself, because normally I think we would see her being much more thrilled at this turn of events that she has an office.
 
This is such a visible symbol of her status as a writer. So the fact that she is talking about going home is really serious for her.
 
Steve: Yeah. And the next scene is Peggy at the doctor, where they're investigating her not feeling well. And it becomes clear Peggy is pregnant.
 
Jenna: I know pregnancies are different to individuals, but one universal commonality about pregnancy is change.
It is so hard to believe someone could not know they're pregnant. In my experience, it completely changes everything about the way you go through the whole world: the way things smell, and the vivid dreams, and the weight gain, and the baby's movement.
So this I didn't know I was pregnant plotline, especially for somebody who's an observant and generally honest person, seems like a stretch.
 
Steve: As a man, I'm going to go onto some dangerous ground here and say, I understand what you're saying and it makes total sense to me logically.
But the evidence from society suggests there are large numbers of people who do not connect the dots and realize they're pregnant until the very late stages of the pregnancy.
 
I can't pretend to understand it. But I think the writers are on solid ground here in terms of the human experience in our society. Throw in some oppression, sexism, denial, ambition, distraction. I'm going to suspend disbelief and accept it.
 
Jenna: Look, they need it for the plot, so I'm not going to hammer the point too much, but I am going to say every time I hear this type of story,
no, it doesn't fly for me. It's just. Just it's not possible.
 
Speaking of not possible, it's important that Peggy's response to the doctor saying she's going to be a mother is that's impossible. And it isn't.
She has a career in mind and motherhood can't be part of that. She cannot be both of those things.
 
The day she gets promoted, which is life-changing for her, this is something even more life-changing. Here she is at this moment and it's just - I wanted to feel so excited for her about her promotion. And here this is something that is really, really crashing right into this thing that she's wanted for a long time, with something that we can guess she isn't wanting at all.
 
Steve: I don't see why she can't bring Pete Jr. to the office.
 
Jenna: I actually had notes about that too. You want her to take her baby and get herself some childcare and go kick ass at Sterling Cooper. But being a single mother in the 1960s is not financially or socially viable for Peggy.
 
 
Steve: Let's go visit the father of the baby. Pete walks into the apartment in Manhattan. The in-laws are there, of course, with Trudy. And he has had his beat down in front of everybody.
And he's obviously drunk as a skunk as he comes in.
 
Jenna: And you can see he's totally about to unload all his frustrations on Trudy. And then he looks over and notices her parents are there. So now he has to act politely.
 
Steve: Trudy's embarrassed by her parents, I think,
but I think she's also embarrassed about Pete coming in drunk.
 
And Pete says he's not feeling well and begs off going out with them. Trudy's father makes a knowing comment about, you know, sleep it off, but, you know, be awake later.
 
As Pete shuffles into the bedroom, he drops his jacket on the floor of the hallway, you know, doesn't even bother to put it anywhere. So it's just a perfect shot of sadness and destruction of Pete Campbell.
 
Jenna: Trudy, who we know likes to manage everything efficiently -
here she is in the living room with her parents, embarrassed by her father, and frustrated with her husband as well. She's got to pick up all these pieces.
 
 
Steve: The next scene cuts to Peggy recovering after giving birth.
A nurse brings the baby in and asks if she would like to feed him.
The part I liked about that is women didn't breastfeed in the 60s, you know, at least that wasn't the opinion of the medical experts.
So in terms of feeding her baby, she means feeding the baby with the bottle of formula that the nurse is holding and would give it give to Peggy.
Peggy just looks away, doesn't say a word, obviously doesn't want to take the baby, and the nurse retreats with it.
 
Jenna: This might be the most painful scene in the entire series.
It is so hard that she refuses to take the baby. She won't hold the baby, look at the baby, feed the baby.
It is really hard to see this total rejection.
 
And we got the clue from the way she handled the commercial before that nurturing people is not her strong suit. But it's so sad. You want her to sing to it and hold it and have it all, but she looks away.
 
Steve: It's a heartbreaking scene, and it's our last scene with Peggy for the season. So this is where we're left with Peggy.
 
 
Jenna: We transition to the next scene where Don is on the train home. It's unusually noisy and busy with people carrying food baskets and energized about gathering for Thanksgiving.
 
Don comes home and we see him greet Betty and the kids and decide to go with her to their Thanksgiving celebration after all. And Betty and the kids are genuinely happy with this news.
 
And then the scene rewinds.
Don has been on the busy, happy train, and he comes home to an empty house.
His family has left for Thanksgiving without him, the way he insisted it should be.
And he sits at the bottom of the stairs in his house, alone in the dark.
 
Steve: It really feels like the consequences of his choices and his behavior are all coming home to roost on him. So again, in a moment of what should be total triumph, you know, skipping in the door, they've landed this big account.
He's masterfully delivered on his creative mission and focus.
 
And what's the prize in a world where he has no family? He's alone in a darkened home. It's so tragic.
 
Jenna: The closing song is Bob Dylan's 1963 - so a little ahead of November 1960 in the show - the song is called Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.
 
It's very well suited to this moment, as Don has just imagined two different realities with his family, but he has to live with just the real one. He can't think twice. These lyrics include lines like,
I once loved a woman, a child I'm told
I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul
and
ain't no use in turning on your light babe
I'm on the dark side of the road
Still I wish there was something you would do or say
to try to make me change my mind and stay
we never did too much talking anyway,
so don't think twice, it's all right
 
Don is always thinking twice about which reality he's going to seize,
and this one is not working out the way he hoped, I think.
 
Steve: In his commentary, Weiner expresses that Betty is the one singing this song. Her eyes are opened and she's starting to reassess where this relationship has taken her.
As we'll see in subsequent seasons, where she wants it to go.
 
 
Jenna: As we wrap up the first season of Mad Men in our podcast, I want to revisit the show's appeal overall.
I know that some critics accuse Mad Men of being self-congratulatory as it points out the flaws of the past, as if society is over those problems now.
 
Others seem to think the show is an excuse for watching an excess of vices and pretty people and pretending it's okay because it's considered a smart show.
 
I don't get either of those things from the show. It seems more like a cautionary tale that invites us into the headspace of so many different perspectives.
It shows us you can be well-meaning but broken,
or an ignorant product of your time,
or generally a good person who sometimes does awful things.
 
I definitely don't think Mad Men is showing us how great we are as a society now or in 2007 when it first aired, but that all these flaws are recognizable and real decades later.
What's your take?
 
Steve: I'm not sure that Mad Men has a lesson or drum it's trying to beat in terms of a message.
It feels to me like it's observing characters who behave in ways and manners that we'll recognize from our own lives and our own world and is very realistic, I think in terms of the flaws and challenges and obstacles between maybe what we do on our best day or ideally and where we we find ourselves as a consequence of things we control and as well things we don't control.
 
So I guess my personal enjoyment of the series is from that realism and authenticity I guess I feel about these characters.
It's just an incredible journey and I'm happy to ride along.
 
 
Jenna: We'd love to hear more from you. If you would like to visit our website, www.MadMenCtoZ.com, you can vote on your favorite lines from the show, you can respond to our Double Dip questions, and give us feedback about our podcast.
 
And we are really excited about moving forward into our second season of Mad Men, coming soon.
 
Thank you so much for listening and if you like our podcast, please help us out with a great review, or share our podcast with other Mad Men fans.
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Steve: That's it for this episode of All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou. Visit our website, Mad Men C to Z dot com to vote for your favorite Sterling lines and to share your opinions on our Double Dip questions for each episode.
 
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Steve: Thanks for listening, everybody.