Mad Men C to Z S4E1 Podcast Transcript for Public Relations

This is the full, human-edited transcript of our Mad Men podcast about Season 4, Episode 1: Public Relations.
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Mad Men C to Z S4E1 Public Relations Episode Transcript
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us who discover new things with each rewatch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men, C to Z.
 
Jenna: Hello, Jenna here. Thank you for joining us for season four.
When we recorded this episode, something unusual happened a few times with our recording in the second half.
My speech sounds like I'm cutting in and interrupting Steve while he's talking, which I promise did not happen in real time.
 
We could edit and clip a few of them, but in a couple of cases, we left the overlap so the end of his idea can be heard, and the beginning of mine is still included.
We apologize for that issue in this episode. And we're so excited to get into Mad Men, Season 4.
 
 
Today we're talking about Mad Men Season 4, Episode 1, Public Relations.
This episode was written by Matthew Weiner, Brett Johnson, and Erin Levy, and directed by Phil Abraham, who also directed the first episode of season three.
 
The theme of this episode explores public and private spheres, and from a plot standpoint, it establishes the reset of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, as well as the changes after Don and Betty's divorce.
 
We left the Mad Men cast right before Christmas of 1963 with Shut the Door, Have a Seat, and this episode opens about a year later, in November of 1964.
 
The episode opens with Don being interviewed by a reporter from Advertising Age. This reporter, Jack Hammond, is played by Chris McGarry, who has credits from The Sopranos, the Fosters, and Barry.
 
Steve: We can see that Jack is having difficulty getting Don to talk about himself.

 
Jenna: In the whole scene, Don asks more questions than he answers.
He explains that he's from the Midwest: “We were taught that it's not polite to talk about yourself.”
 
I'm from the Midwest. People totally talk about themselves and their neighbors. They just do it on the way home from events.
 
And this is obviously just Don's excuse, because he spent his whole adult life not giving too much away.
Remember in the second episode when he and Betty were at dinner with Roger and Mona, and they were just casually chatting, and Don wouldn't give anything away there, either.
 
Steve: We also learned that the  Glo-coat ad has really created a buzz in the industry, and that's considered to be representative of the genius of Don Draper.
 
Jenna: It feels like that's the only thing Don does like talking about. He likes talking about his work. But in an episode called Public Relations,
Don is terrible at selling this product that is himself, which is odd because he's been selling a version of himself for his entire adulthood.
 
Steve: The interview limps along, and then Roger and Pete join them.
As Jack stands up, we learn that he has an artificial leg due to an injury he suffered in Korea.
 
Jenna: Matt Weiner says this is supposed to represent this idea of having a phantom limb, because Don has lost his family and it's like an itch he can no longer scratch, that there's a presence of the absence, basically.
 
Steve: Matt Weiner is the creator and main writer of the series.
So, you know, as we've said before, you know, when the writer says, this is what it's about, I guess that's what it's about.
The part of it for me that I was thinking about was this connection between Don and Jack, that they both served in Korea.
 
And then as well, you know, Roger is very proud of his service in World War II. Yet with his little quips and comments as Jack departs,
you don't get a sense of any sort of respect from Roger for an injured former, you know, service member.
And as well, Don doesn't seem to make any connection with Jack on this point.
 
Jenna: Pete offers a cursory, “we're grateful for your sacrifice,”t
but he's just being an account man there. There's no sincere interest or appreciation, and that's evident.
 
In the next scene, we see Pete, Roger and Don meeting with the Jantzen people. They're super effusive, and so happy to meet with Don because his Glo-coat ad has been received so well.
 
As they explain their needs, they insist they don't make a bikini; they make a two piece bathing suit. The bikini, as we know it, was introduced in 1946, but it was scandalizing to some in the U.S., and it didn't become widely accepted until the 60s.
 
Jantzen insists they're a family company and they want a bigger sales impact without advertising that “looks like they're playing in the gutter,” as they put it.
 
Steve: This seems to be the classic Mad Men scene between the creative Don Draper, struggling to get clients to see the world through his eyes and to understand where they need to go.
 
So in this case, we have the prudish client wanting to cling to the past,
yet wanting all the benefits and advantages of this exciting new future.
And we see Don struggling here to bend them and influence them and awaken them to the possibilities, if they would just let go of clinging to the past.
 
Jenna: They're pretty clear about what they want with their advertising.
I think when you picture the mid-60s, you think about a specific fashion sense and the youth movement.
 
And I appreciate that Mad Men shows us these other old fashioned clients struggling against the times, just like we saw Don doing in season two. Not everybody's ready for change at the same time.
 
Steve: I like Don's question to the client here where he says, do you want women who want bikinis to buy your two piece,
or do you just want to make sure that women who want a two piece don't suddenly buy a bikini?
And even the client admits that he's flummoxed by that question.
 
Jenna: Well, the pretense these clients have, to say our two-piece isn't scandalous like a bikini is . . .
Ii's sort of like Don pretending that his moral code is superior to Bobbie Barrett's. But in their heads, there is a difference.
 
Steve: Yeah, I think a distinction without a practical difference is, may be a good way to sum it up.
 
Jenna: After that meeting, which was at a hotel, because the offices are small, Don, Roger and Pete return to their new offices.
 
Notice that on the left door you see just “Sterling Cooper” as they go in on the left side there. But the lobby has these giant SCDP letters on the wall for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
 
We get this upbeat music as viewers get their first look at the SCDP offices in the Time Life building.
The colors give us a 60s feel, like that classic with the red, orange, and the lime green, some turquoise, and wood paneling.
 
Steve: And we've also seen this way of starting a season for Matt Weiner before, where you're thrown right into the middle of things. And as the viewer, you need to catch up with what's occurred, and figure out how we got to where we're at.
 
He's not going to take you by the hand and walk you from the end of last season to now.
You just need to know it's 11 months later, there's been some success,
and it really does feel like a reset or a fresh start or almost a vibe you would get in the pilot of the series, rather than saying, oh, this is just the first episode of the fourth season.
 
Jenna: It's funny because the characters are walking us through the new offices, but you're right, he's not holding our hand as we do it. And the dialogue is so efficient, it does that really well.
 
Very quickly we get a glimpse of Allison. So even though Don left without a note at the end of last season, she's back as his secretary again.
 
We see Bert greeting Don, and we find out they have a second floor, but apparently there's nothing up there and they don't have a conference table, which some clients assume is a modern approach and not a financial limitation.
 
Steve: We can see, I think, a partnership that has been pretty long in coming, given the frictions between Pete and Don previously, it seems and feels now, based on this, that at least they've got a working relationship that's not totally dysfunctional.
 
Jenna: As Pete follows up with Don about Jantzen, it feels like he's managing Don every bit as much as he would manage a client, while Don is just venting.
 
Don is invested in gaining clients, and he knows that big firms have more resources.
And Pete has this very flattering line to Don.
He says, the bigger firm, Y and R, “is not capable of living in this neighborhood. You know why?
Because you don't work there.”
 
Steve: There's also friction remaining, though, and Don makes a rather pointed statement that Pete needs to get him in a room where he has a chance, that his time is valuable and it needs to be spent where there's a good possibility of a win, not sort of throwing good time after bad in a futile chase.
 
Jenna: Already this episode, we've had the reporter, the client, Bert, and Pete approaching Don like he's a big deal, and they care about what he thinks. So it is really setting us up, like this is our hero: root for him.
 
 
In the next scene, we get a John and Marsha bit that Peggy and Joey are reenacting. This is from a comedy skit by Stan Freeberg that only uses those two words, John and Marsha, through throughout the whole skit.
I'll link it on our webpage for this episode at madmenctoz.com.
 
Peggy and Joey are clearly comfortable together. They're joking and brainstorming. It's a good relationship, even if he's just there three days a week.
 
And the writing is so good, we don't have to have more than this quick scene to get caught up with this relationship.
Joey Barrett is played by Matt Long. You might recognize him from Manifest, Private Practice, or Jack and Bobby with Mad Men co stars John Slattery and Jessica Pare.
 
Steve: Pete has come to Peggy because he wants to talk about the Sugarberry ham work.
It looks like Sugarberry has donated a ham complimentary to the office, but only one, and Pete reads that as being an indication of client dissatisfaction.
 
More importantly, Pete lets Peggy know that Don hated the work.
Peggy comes back with the line, you know, give the ham to Don, then.
 
Jenna: Joey pipes up and offers, Don's probably having Thanksgiving in there alone.
But Peggy won't play on that point.
She stops him and she says, that's not nice.
 
Do you think she's just continuing to be protective of Don in particular because they have this special relationship?
Or do you feel like this is Peggy's code of standing up for somebody who's not in the room to defend himself?
 
Steve: I don't really think it's either. I think it's just Peggy is business oriented, mission oriented. The mission here is to get Sugarberry Ham more satisfied with their ad campaign.
So I think she just doesn't want the distraction or dalliance of going off into how Don may or may not be spending his Thanksgiving.
 
Jenna: I can see that, but I think I disagree. I think I do feel like Peggy has a certain soft spot for Don and that she won't stand for hearing negative things about him.
Like it's okay for her to say them, but for other people it's a bridge too far.
 
 
Steve: The next scene has Don in his office meeting with his accountant, going over personal matters related to finance, life insurance and the situation with Betty.
 
Jenna: The accountant is played by Jack Laufer. You might recognize him from Star Trek Into Darkness, Masters of Sex, or The Day After Tomorrow.
 
Steve: Even some 11 months after we know they agreed to part and go their separate ways, Betty is still in the house, and we learn from their conversation that she was supposed to vacate it by October 1.
 
The accountant points out that Don's paying the mortgage, he's paying insurance, he's paying the taxes on a place he doesn't even live in. His advice to Don is to get her out of there and sell the home.
 
Jenna: Don isn't in a hurry to push that. He says, why start World War 3?
Also, the accountant assumes he's enjoying his newly single life.
But I don't get the sense that Don is especially joyfu,l or that there's a new relief or lift he's carrying around after his divorce from Betty.
 
Steve: I get that impression as well.
He's busy, and he's got this new version of his business that he's working on.
 
But on the personal side, you don't get the sense that he's in a settled place or in a specially happier fulfilled place.
It feels a bit like he's kicking the can in terms of wrapping up the marriage with Betty.
 
Jenna: We saw him give those same exasperated sighs about Betty when he was married to her. And as a divorced man, you might expect to see those.
 
But it's funny how that relationship basically seems the same. He's exhausted by every mention of her or having to deal with her.
 
 
In the next scene, Peggy sits on the table in the creative conference room brainstorming with Joey and Pete about Sugarberry Ham.
It's great seeing her think off the top of her head. Here she's confident she's the thinker in the room.
 
There's a great moment when she suggests a PR stunt about two women fighting over a ham.
And Joey says, because it's the last ham.
And offhand she goes, well, we don't have to write a play.
 
It's such a great callback to Paul's Aqua Net convertible spot when Don said, every time you say “and then,” attention can wander.
So Peggy has absorbed that, and she uses it going forward.
 
Steve: It's interesting here as well that their solution to the creative problem of how to move away from old fashioned ad campaign for canned ham, a product which we know from our perspective is going to fade away completely, because I don't think I could find a canned ham if I tried today, but the solution they arrive at is a PR stunt, right?
 
It's something fake that they're going to put out there and try and create a stir in the market and see if they can't get some free press by making a scene somewhere in a bit of a time capsule.
 
Pete helpfully volunteers that he can expense it on the pretense that the women were escorts. Which is kind of funny to imagine that that's a tax deductible legitimate expense for an expense report through modern eyes.
But we are in 1964 here, so I guess we'll take Pete at his word.
 
Jenna: Escorts? Expensable. PR stunts? Frowned upon. Noted.
 
 
Next, Roger comes into Don's office trying to set Don up with Jane's friend Bethany. Predictably, Don is not thrilled about this.
We know how little he liked it when Jane was in his business as his secretary, partly because it meant Roger had undue access to his information.
 
Steve: Even if he were interested in dating a young woman you know, similar to Jane's age, he would not want the connection to Roger for that exact reason, so that's probably the second strike against it.
 
But Roger's pretty persistent, and he keeps pushing it and twists Don's arm to ensure that he has dinner with Bethany.
 
Jenna: Roger goes,
“I was thinking what happens when you leave here. It made me upset.”
And Don goes, “I could say the same for you.”
Poor Jane.
 
There's a truth call out when Roger says, “I'll paint you the picture in my mind, but if it's true, I'll kill myself.”
So I get from this that it seems like in the last year, as far as Roger's concerned, Don hasn't had much of a social life, in spite of what his accountant thinks.
 
Steve: In the commentary, Jon Hamm mentions that Don Draper is bearing this guilt for the breakdown of his marriage,
and that part of his unwillingness to engage probably represents some sort of sense that he's earned or deserves some punishment for what he's done. I assume that Jon Hamm gets this from his conversation with the writers.
 
It does feel like this theme is permeating the writing here, that Don has regrets, feels some shame about his journey that brought him to this place, some regret that perhaps had he done things a little differently, it wouldn't get to this point.
 
Jenna: And being set up for a date also references back to the public private theme of this episode, because when your partner slash boss sets you up on a date, it feels a lot more like that's a public thing than if you just meet somebody independently.
 
The date Roger sets up is at Jimmy's LaGrange, which was a real restaurant, apparently known for not having menus, so the owner would come by and tell people at each table, this is the food you're going to be eating this evening.
And the restaurant was known for its chicken Kiev.
 
 
Steve: The next scene has Don's private life as he returns to his apartment, and we see he's got a domestic helper, Celia, cooking some food for him.
And as Don plops down in the chair, he catches the Glo-coat ad.
 
Jenna: Don's apartment is in Greenwich Village.
In this area in 1964, the neighborhood was an artistic hub, with coffee houses, off-off Broadway shows, and musicians like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
It's about 10 miles from Madison Avenue, so Don's improved his commute time significantly.
 
And Greenwich takes its name from the Dutch, meaning green district. And it was formerly home to Newgate Prison.
And Don has moved away from Ossining home to Sing Sing Prison.
So it might be unintentional, but it's not a reach to say Don lives in a prison of his own making, whether he's married or single.
 
So we were just talking about this idea of punishment.
And to reinforce this, his whole apartment is dark, and even though it's spacious, it's not welcoming.
 
As we get into this commercial connecting to this prison idea,
this ad is about a little boy trapped behind bars of a chair in the prison, under the kitchen table,
waiting for the mopped floor to dry so he can be set free.
Over and over, he says, “let me out of here.”
 
Steve: And given that Mad Men spends a lot of time showing us the glamour and the flash of the Madison Avenue life, and the corporate reality at that time, you know, this is a portrayal of the city that's rather dark.
 
So we know about Don's perfect home, perfect wife, perfect kids, perfect house in the ‘burbs.
And this is a very different vibe here in Greenwich Village, where his apartment is dark. It feels a bit lonely. The only person to talk to is this domestic help.
 
And it certainly doesn't feel like Don has upgraded his life or that there is any glamour to where he's found himself now.
It feels a little cold. It feels a little lonely.
And I wouldn't say it's depressing, but it feels like depression is in the neighborhood.
And what does Don have in this world? It seems like he just has boring routines.
The Don Draper we know is this handsome man with this trophy wife, and this is a real step back from all of that.
 
Jenna: Yes, Don's Friday night is, he's at home shining his shoes in front of the TV and this Glo-coat ad that has gained all his attention. He's watching it alone.
 
I also noticed that the boy in the commercial has a cowboy hat on. And we've seen this theme quite a bit with Don,
the man who doesn't want to talk too much about himself,
like the stoic cowboy,
the guy who wants to go it alone, the man who wondered in season one what women want. And he says, you think they want a cowboy to bring the cattle home safe.
 
And then Don had this unique connection to Conrad Hilton, who was known to wear a Stetson.
And there's always, of course, the tension with Don about the past and the future, with cowboys representing the old traditional ways,
even though Don is espousing this motto of moving forward.
 
 
Steve: From his dreary apartment, the next scene takes us to Don having dinner with Bethany.
Now, we know how much effort Roger had to go to in order to get Don to attend this dinner, and which version of Don Draper is going to show up here.
 
Jenna: Yes, Don seems pretty disinterested in this date as it gets started.
Bethany is played by Anna Camp, and you might have seen her in Pitch Perfect, The Help, The Mindy Project, True Blood, or The Good Wife.
 
We know part of Don's disinterest is his resistance to have Jane and Roger involved in his private life.
 
Because Bethany looks so much like Betty and even their names are similar, I thought that had to be an intentional way of showing Don at this same crossroads, that he could choose this young, optimistic, image conscious model type again and rinse and repeat what he's already lived through with Betty.
 
It made sense to me to show this as an option he was rejecting at this point in his life.
But from the commentary, it sounds like it was accidental that Anna Camp has the same look as January Jones.
And Jon Hamm mentioned in the commentary that when they were filming, she looks so similar, people thought it was Betty and not Bethany.
 
And Matt Weiner says it's just that this woman is too young for Don. And that's immediately evident.
 
Steve: I also picked up on this difference between Don and Roger,
where Roger finds his Jane and thinks that's what he wants and gets it,
and he wants to set Don up with a version of Jane.
 
And in the case of Don Draper, I think we can clearly see he's not looking for that. He doesn't have some romanticized thought of youth or reclaiming lost youth or first love the way Roger did.
 
Jenna: Don knows the script for this date.
Bethany tries to get immediately personal with him, but he keeps it casual.
He offers very few details about himself. It's almost like the interview with a reporter.
 
And she seems pretty happy to perform for him.
She's this young combination of sunny overconfidence with insecurity.
You can imagine Betty Draper being this way 12 years ago or so.
 
Bethany also mentions Andrew Goodman, who, along with James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, were murdered by KKK members when they were in Mississippi to register voters and establish freedom schools as part of the civil rights movement.
 
So these pieces of 1964, these critical, notable moments in history,
are infiltrating this optimistic, model type person in the middle of her first date.
 
Steve: They do a little, but they're also not enough to drag down the evening in any real sense of the word. So it's passing. It's superficial, and then they move on.
 
So I like the writing here because I think it does portray a reality that these events, which were so horrific and that crime was so tragic and terrible, yet it's a passing mention at a dinner in New York City in 1964,
and then the two people at the table move on to things that are more relevant or important for them.
 
It's sometimes not the way things are presented,
you know, of history, where, you know, we know stuff is significant, and then in hindsight, everybody feels it mattered a lot at the time.
To me, this feels much more real in terms of how people were actually coping and interacting with this nation-shaking news.
 
Jenna: And what's your take on Bethany? I mean, she's too young for him.
I like your point about how Don is not the same as Roger looking for a Jane.
So she doesn't really seem to hold that magnetic curiosity for him other than he's just idly curious about other people's stories.
And I always get the sense he's looking to see what he can use in his work. But do you think she seems like a well-meaning person, or what do you think about her?
 
Steve: I get a sense that both of them are somewhat wary towards the other.
I think Don to Bethany is this older, divorced,
somewhat emotionally damaged man who's not unpleasant to the eye and she's willing to give him a chance and hear what he has to say,
but she's not really leaning in, or desperate to earn his attentions or favors.
 
Simultaneously. I feel Don is very similar to her. She's very beautiful.
It's not that he's put up a wall,
but we don't see him turning on the full power Don Draper charm here in order to get her into bed.
 
And then it feels like it warms up over the course of the scene until it progresses to the drop off outside her hotel.
It becomes that sort of moment of truth to sort of see how will this date resolve then.
 
Jenna: My take is a little bit different.
I agree with your point about Don,
but I feel like she's been told a story from Jane and all of this is a performance designed to get him.
 
I think she's all in on Don Draper and we understand that brokenness and all. I think we can get that.
But for me, when I look at how she speaks to him and it's this combination of condescension and she pretends to know everything about him and she knows nothing.
 
And we know exactly how little she knows and it just reads very false.
It's like an ad that doesn't land.
Like the interview and the reporter, she's not advertising herself well to this particular client, I think.
 
Steve: Well, and in his commentary, Matt Weiner suggests that from Bethany's perspective, Don is a viable long term romance possibility because he is actually available as opposed to, you know, a dalliance with a married man.
 
So Weiner suggests that she won't jump into bed with him too quickly because this could be the real deal for her potentially. So I think that fits with what you're saying is she's interested, and she's proceeding carefully and properly because she doesn't want to mess this up.
And this isn't a one and done situation for her.
 
Jenna: And she says something about that. She wants to make him wait. She says, let's see where we are New Year's Eve. If it's meant to be, it'll keep.
So I don't think Don is thinking about New Year's Eve, but she's definitely looking ahead.
 
Steve: Yeah, and we're before Thanksgiving, so she's talking, what, you know, five, six weeks into the future.
 
Jenna: I do want to mention about the Barbizon Hotel. This is a residential hotel.
And I'll link an article on our episode page about it. It housed a number of famous women, including Sylvia Plath, Grace Kelly and Joan Crawford.
 
And this line Bethany has here, she tries to be so knowing.
She says,
“Oh, I'm sure the holidays are very complex,” alluding to Don's divorce and his kids.
And it really does feel like in trying to be understanding, she demonstrates exactly how wrong she is for him.
 
Steve: They do share a passionate kiss before she says good night.
As she says to him, you know, it's. It's a weak no, that she knows the trick about Don walking her up to her room.
 
Jenna: The girl wants to leave him something to remember her by.
 
Steve: And as she leaves the cab, Don looks frustrated. He looks irritated.
 
 
Jenna: The next day, Peggy meets with the actresses they hired to fight over the ham for the publicity stunt. She's very pleased with how it went.
Pete shows up, gives them their money. He's also really pleased.
Until things go off the rails.
 
Steve: The two people paid to pretend to fight have now created genuine animosity between the two.
So one pulls the other's hair, the continuation of what had been a fake fight over a ham, you know, as the stunt.
 
But it is clear that both Peggy and Pete are quite happy with the results of their PR stunt.
 
 
Jenna: Back at SCDP, Joan welcomes Harry back from LA.
He's very sunburned, and he also mentions seeing Lucy and Desi.
Harry's very excited that he sold the Jai Alai special, and California is wearing off on him: he says he hopes somebody can get him a grapefruit juice.
 
Steve: I like the line when Harry says,
shares his news with Joan that they've sold Jai Alai in a TV special to ABC, but that this is his news to share.
 
And Joan cuts him down. She won't even tell people after the special is aired.
 
Matt Weiner points out that this scene really shows that Harry's new status as head of media has in fact made him into a show business person. He's out in California.
 
He's in that media space now in a real way. Whereas I think last season,
Harry as head of TV basically meant he was in his office watching TV most of the time. So it does feel like these 11 months have allowed Harry to progress into something more than a glorified head of the one person TV department.
 
Jenna: When Don comes into his office that morning, Roger is ready, reading from the article in Advertising Age that he had planned to frame. And now he hopes nobody will see it.
 
As Roger reads, “Don Draper is a handsome cipher” in the article that compares him to Dorian Gray, Don says, offhand, for a guy from Ad Age, he can really write.
 
And I like that because Peggy did that last season, too . . .
Duck's card had some good phrasing, and she has so much to think about in that moment, but she has time to comment. You know, I wonder who wrote that for him.
And I love that as writers, they're constantly evaluating others’ work.
 
Steve: We can see that Roger is not happy with the article.
And the root of that is they've got a lot of buzz on the street with the Glo coat ad, and this was a chance to really lock in and promote the firm and the Don Draper brand.
It's a missed opportunity to jazz up on the PR side and get some momentum going here in the marketplace.
 
Don starts to chafe and feel irritation at this criticism, as if it's not Don's fault, but Roger's point, and I think this is an account man point,
is you need to give the writer the article that you want to see,
not expect him to organically come up with it.
 
And in this case, that's the root of the failure here.
Any account man would know that fact. I think that's Roger's frustration back at Don is, you know, how are you not getting the game?
 
Jenna: And we get this identity theme again, because Don resists Roger's complaint that it didn't go well, because he says,
my job is to write ads, not go around talking about who you are.
 
And we know he avoids that at all costs, all the time.
The article referring to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, that's a novel about a man who sells his soul so his portrait can age instead of himself, while he descends into a hedonistic life that only leads to tragedy.
So, you know, that's not in any way comparable to our protagonist.
 
Steve: They've missed a major opportunity to pitch the firm.
 
Jenna: And Don continues to try to minimize how bad it actually is. He's really avoiding reality and trying to shine it up as much as he possibly can.
He says, oh, they'll be lining bird cages by Friday.
It's done. I learned a valuable lesson.
 
He never says, I'm sorry. He doesn't try to make amends, to do something about it.
He's not interested in fixing it for him. It's just over. Move forward.
 
Steve: Roger’s made his point about the article, and shifts the topic to his date on Saturday night with Jane's friend.
Roger reports via Jane that Bethany found him charming, although he was a little handsy in the cab.
 
Jenna: Charming but grabby. Seems like a fair summary of Don.
Maybe Bethany got more of a true look at Don than that reporter did.
 
Steve: As the scene wraps up, Don tries again to defend the article. They raise you up and they knock you down.
Roger responds, I believe you were being modest, but he didn't.
Being modest isn't appropriate anymore.
 
 
Jenna: The next scene takes us to Joey and Peggy going into Pete's office to hear about what happened with Sugarberry Ham.
There were some tense moments, but eventually other papers picked up the story about their fight and their stunt turned into a success.
 
And Peggy can't stop brainstorming about new ads right on the spot. She says, “The winner of the ham battle is you”
and “Our hams are worth fighting for” with a tug of war.
And when they land on that idea to sort of weaponize the stunt into a new ad, she turns to Joey the art guy, and she says,
“Black crayon, chop chop. I need it in an hour.”
 
And that is such a contrast from her relationship with Sal, who wouldn't let her keep the poster from her first assignment.
Now here she is dictating when and how high he should jump.
 
There doesn't seem to be any resentment there, though,
and Pete is also approving without being condescending.
So this all seems like a pretty good working relationship.
 
Steve: And I think it harkens to a comment from back when Peggy was promoted, about how people who knew you when you were a secretary will always have trouble accepting you as, you know, a leader of the creative department.
 
Someone like Joey has never known Peggy not to be his boss versus some of the old hands who may have trouble accepting it. And even on that line, we have Pete complimenting Peggy on the idea.
 
You know, we know Pete has had trouble accepting her talent and abilities here, but he's offering this up freely.
And Peggy's response is a slogan is nothing when you have a good idea. So it really does feel like she's stretching her legs, settling into her role as a leader of Creative.
 
Jenna: On a side note, when Pete talks to his secretary, he calls out to Clara.
So I'm just wondering, what happened to Hildy? Where'd you go? Did you finally have enough of Pete?
 
 
In the next scene, the partners are meeting in the table Less conference room when Pete comes in to say Jai Alai is leaving.
Ho Ho was offended that Don didn't mention them in his Advertising Age article.
Just when Don thought he was done being punished for his bad interview, it rears its head again, and he tries to make excuses, but it's just bad.
 
Steve: And Lane is there this time to point out that Lucky Strike represents 71% of their billings after the departure of Ho Ho.
So they are untenably reliant upon one single large client.
 
Jenna: Of course, Harry is furious. He just sold the Jai Alai special, and he never even got to accept all the kudos that come with that success.
Why would Harry do anything if he couldn't take credit for it? And now it doesn't even matter.
 
So he exits, saying, “I wish we had a second floor so I could jump off of it.”
Bert starts in. He says Don will need to do another interview.
And Don insists he doesn't know what he could have done differently.
 
We get a truth call out. He says, “I told them the truth. My work speaks for me.”
And when you go back and you look at what Don said in that interview, it was so little.
His idea of telling the truth, as we know, has always been pretty warped.
 
But I get the sentiment here.
He wants attention for his creative ads. He doesn't want to have to talk about his personal life, but that's what the job is demanding from him, to be more public about that, which is private.
 
It seems like he wants the good parts about being the man of the hour without the unpleasant bits.
 
Steve: His role, his responsibilities are morphing and changing.
And these new responsibilities are integral and essential to success as they go forward here.
And here we have Don Draper. Mr. Always go forward,
clinging to the past, and wanting to stay in his cubby of what he thinks a creative director is and needs to do and being pushed uncomfortably out of that shell.
 
And Bert Cooper makes it very clear what his mission is. He says, you know, turning creative success into business is your work, and you failed.
And that pronouncement by Bert is quite brutal in the context of an audience.
First Roger, now Bert Cooper, making it clear he needs to do this again with the Wall Street Journal.
 
Jenna: It's like Dustin Hoffman said about Sidney Pollock in Tootsie:
If you don't play my agent, I might not put on the dress.
 
Don can avoid Roger and Lane and Harry,
but when Bert says it's failure, Don can't argue his way out of that.
 
Steve: All right. And I can't let a reference to Tootsie go by without saying how much I love that film.
Sidney Pollock is brilliant in his scenes with Dustin Hoffman, and I think they're among some of the funniest in the film.
 
Jenna: As everyone makes their way out of the conference room, I appreciate that Joan stops for a minute to say to Don kindly,
it'll pass.
She can see he's taken a beating here.
 
Steve: And this is unusual because we don't really see Don Draper taking a beating in a work situation, right.
 
He's had some serious beatings on the personal side, not to mention hitchhikers, but here he is getting it in the conference room.
 
 
Jenna: The next scene takes us to Thanksgiving at Henry's family's house.
Pamela Dunlop plays Pauline Francis, Henry's mother.
This actress has credits going back to 1963, so she was working during the Mad Men time period.
Her appearances include Gunsmoke, Happy Days, Celebration, St. Elsewhere, Boston Legal, and Blue Bloods.
 
We're meeting Henry's mother, Pauline for the first time, and she has an opinion or two.
 
Steve: It is sort of a tragic confluence of a couple different things.
We've got Betty trying hard to make a good impression with Henry's family. Of course, it's going completely sideways with Sally at the Thanksgiving Day table.
 
And we can see Henry's judgmental and high powered mother casting a judgmental eye across Betty and her ill behaved child.
 
And we can see Henry there simply trying to manage these, these two women and this situation and avoid as much drama as possible here.
 
I love the writing because it's so true of that typical family tension that arises. And for all the talk we make about how much we love time with family and this and that, there are these agendas, these tensions, these challenges that pop up.
 
Jenna: Betty has always done a good job at Don's dinners for work, so I think she expects to do well here too.
Sally is honest and rude. Both things are true. When Pauline asks, oh, don't you like the food, dear? And that reflects poorly on Betty, who is focused on her image.
 
And her solution is to spoon feed Sally a gigantic, gigantic, heaping spoonful of sweet potato, which Sally promptly spits out in front of everyone.
And there are multiple responses that Betty could have chosen that would have been so much better than that particular one.
 
And as you say, you can see Henry's embarrassment.
He wanted this to be very successful and seamless and nothing about it is going well.
 
 
While Betty and the kids are with Henry's family for Thanksgiving,
Don is also having a guest over.
Candace is played by Erin Wheeler, and you might recognize her from Detroit 187 or The Astronaut Wives Club.
 
Steve: Candace gets right down to business, and it's clear that she's a professional, and that she knows Don Draper and this is a regular arrangement that they have.
 
It's fairly graphic for Mad Men with Candace on top of Don, and she tells him that she knows what he wants, and he tells her to give it to him and she slaps him.
I think it ties in well with the earlier themes we had mentioned about Don feeling guilt and potentially seeking a little bit of punishment.
 
Jenna: He seems into it in the moment,
but also with that punishment theme, it's not like it's joyful or it's free.
He seems every bit as burdened as he did when he was with any one of his mistresses or when he was unhappy with Betty.
It's just this burden that he's carrying around with him.
 
Steve: Still, it almost feels like it's routine,
similar to shining his shoes in the living room and working on a Saturday. Now he's with this escort going through the routine of having sex with her.
 
Your point about there's doesn't seem to be a great deal of joy or pleasure here. I think that's really important and significant.
 
Jenna: And even though it's a short scene, we also get the information that Candace is going to Thanksgiving dinner with her family later.
So it reinforces this idea that everybody else has someplace to be,
but Don is alone.
 
 
Steve: The scene dissolves into Don dozing on the bed. When Candace wakes him up to tell him that the phone is rung,
it turns out it's Peggy on the phone and she needs $280 for bail. The Sugarberry Ham stunt has gone wrong.
 
Jenna: One of the ham fighting women pressed charges for assault against the other.
“Call Pete,” Don barks.
“Do you think you're my first call?” Peggy asks.
 
She's pretty calm, even when she shows up at his door in the next scene with a guy in tow.
Mark is played by Blake Bashoff. You might recognize him from Lost or Judging Amy.
 
Steve: Don is aggravated with Peggy, and makes it very clear that he doesn't approve of these sorts of stunts and he's not happy to find out about it now that it's gone sideways.
 
Mark steps up and says that he's Peggy's fiance and Don doesn't even entertain responding to him, but turns to Peggy and asks, who is he?
 
Jenna: I love the short line that Mark has when he says “There's no need for name calling.” And he goes, “She's been agonizing.”
And that's so true. You totally would, having to go to this boss and get bail money for this stunt. I mean, that would come with a boatload of worry on the ride over.
 
With Mark, we can also see that at least Peggy has gotten rid of Duck, but now she's got a Mark.
And if we're ranking Peggy's boyfriends in terms of compatibility or general ick, the nicest thing I can say about Mark is that he might be better than Pete and Duck, but he's probably worse than everybody else.
 
It does feel like she's in control in their relationship, much like Joey at work, just from their brief interaction here.
 
Steve: Clearly, Don is not amused. He hands Peggy the money and closes the door without even saying goodbye.
 
 
Jenna: Later that Thanksgiving night, Betty and Henry have a new bed and a new headboard in the same Draper house.
They're kissing, but Betty gets up when she hears Sally on the phone in the hall. She's trying to call her father.
Naturally, there's a negative confrontation between them.
 
Steve: Yeah, Betty is pretty harsh with Sally here, especially if we think about the emotional state of Sally. And why would Sally be calling her father at night?
And there's no motherly care exercise by Betty here. She's irritated and frustrated and basically threatens Sally.
 
Jenna: “Don't expect any sympathy from your father when he hears my side of the story.”
And it's not about that, but for Betty, it's about winning.
 
Steve: As Betty returns to the bedroom, Henry suggests that they take a small trip and have a nice dinner at Griswold in Essex.
Maybe leave the baby with Carla so it's just the two of them.
 
Jenna: Betty can go from being crabby at Sally in the hall, right to being snugly in bed with Henry.
But Henry isn't into that anymore.
 
In the commentary, Matt Weiner says that Henry and Betty went to Reno and it was romantic, but now the kids are intruding on that fairy tale life.
Although Gene did go to Reno with them, too.
 
It feels to me like maybe Henry is disappointed that Betty's not a very loving parent to Sally, that she can be really sweet to him, but also snappish to her.
And it doesn't say that anywhere,
but I mean, Henry isn't a fool. He's got to see this, and it's got to wear on him a little bit, even though his own mother is similarly snappish to others.
 
Steve: I think Henry also wants Betty to move on in her life with him. And the fact that she's still in this house, he's still in this house. I think that's a major mood killer for him.
 
This is Don and Betty Draper's bedroom, and he doesn't want to be there. He. He wants that new house, the house that is only theirs, not the leftovers from Don Draper.
 
 
Jenna: The next day, Don comes by to pick up the kids. Baby Gene is away with Carla, but Sally and Bobby are excited to see him.
You can tell Jon Hamm is really good with kids, just naturally. The way he picks up Bobby in this scene is really joyful and fun, and maybe even more so than Don Draper ought to be.
 
Steve: It's all business on the pickup of the kids, so there's really no small talk with Betty or Henry and Don.
And as Don collects the kids and heads out the door,
we see Betty and Henry in the garage,
where they exchange a passionate kiss. And then Henry starts to remove his jacket as they sit in the car.
 
Jenna: Yeah, it feels like Henry's proving something to her and himself here.
She smiles. She's into it. She's very happy.
 
You know, the man after Don Draper might be ten kinds of great, but is there going to be a slice of insecurity?
I mean, that makes sense.
 
Steve: It seems a little tawdry in the garage, but as you mentioned, Betty seems very attuned to it and interested at this particular moment.
 
Jenna: I noticed that Betty's pink suit and pearls, and her hairstyle for her going away getaway weekend, they make her look quite a bit older than before.
I know a year has passed. It feels like she's aged a little too rapidly for me.
 
 
Steve: The next scene is back at Don's apartment, and we see Don tucking the kids into bunk beds with the swinging doors, which, in his commentary, Matt Weiner talks about. They're reminiscent of almost a saloon in a cowboy film or something. And he talks about in his childhood how having some doors similar to that.
 
The next day,
Don's working in front of the TV.
So even when he has the kids, Don Draper's working, and the kids aren't doing anything especially unique or special.
 
Jenna: I noticed that, too. This is probably a modern eyes thing,
but I'm looking at that, and I see such a wasted opportunity there.
 
Maybe they went to the zoo together or something before or after this scene, but it always feels like the Draper kids are being sent to watch TV to get out of the way.
 
I grew up as an only child, so I definitely had times when I was expected to go be with adults, and be quiet and not disturb whatever they were doing.
Today it's much more, I think, about enriching the kids experience at every moment.
 
But it does feel like these family members are strangers to each other to some extent.
They're not having conversations, they don't really know each other that well.
Bobby and Sally are growing up to be individual people.
Don might know what foods they eat, but how much does he really know about them?
 
Steve: I wonder how much of it is a deliberate time capsule of quality time isn't the parents’ responsibility for the kids. So if I hearken back to my own childhood, parents didn't do things with you.
They would tell you get out of the house or stop making noise or go downstairs or go to your room.
 
But what you did there was entirely up to you. And you didn't have a sort of program day with helicopter parents guiding you from playdate to playdate or anything like that.
 
I agree. I see it through these modern eyes and think, hey, why isn't Don doing something enriching with the kids? But then when I think back to my own childhood, that would have been really strange to me if one Saturday my father said, hey, what are we going to do today?
And programmed a day for me. I knew he would be off doing things, typically work and other responsibilities for the family.
 
But as kids, it seemed like our childish world was completely separate from the adult world. And if we were pulled into the adults’ world, like you mentioned, we had to be quiet and not cause a problem and sort of stay in our place.
 
We would actively avoid going into the adults’ world for exactly that reason. We'd rather be out in the yard or out in the woods or off on our bicycles because we had freedom then.
 
Jenna: It's interesting to me how excited Sally and Bobby seem to be to see their father, because the time that they spend together doesn't seem to be so meaningful or joyful.
 
And yet they value it. And that's evident that they're happy to see him.
And maybe that's more of a reflection of how negative Betty is in her her interactions with the kids than anything special that Don does.
 
 
Steve: Later in the scene, we see Don carrying a sleeping Bobby into the (Draper/Francis) house.
And the house is completely dark,
so we can tell that Betty and Henry aren't back yet at their agreed time.
 
Don sits down in front of the TV, smoking in the dark with the dog next to him, waiting for Betty and Henry to get back.
 
Jenna: When they return, they're laughing and happy, until they see him there.
Don's angry that they're 45 minutes late, and Betty's answer is that she waited for him plenty of times, and we know she has,
but this answer makes me know she was late on purpose.
 
This is just payback.
She absolutely said nine o'clock, not ten o'clock, and she knows that.
 
Steve: In their defense, they're a little late, but it's not crazy late. You know, it's not saying that they it's okay to be late, but they didn't leave him hanging for six hours or something crazy like that either.
 
Jenna: There's a public, private theme again when Don asks Henry to excuse them, and Betty insists that Henry stays for the conversation.
 
And maybe Don is trying to be discreet or maybe just try to press his advantage over Betty.
Betty isn't very interested in private conversations with him anymore.
 
Don had told his accountant he wasn't going to start World War III over the house.
But now, with Henry living in his former house with his former wife, and him waiting around for them, now it seems Don is going to bring up the issue.
 
I think if Betty had been back on time and not made him wait,
I don't think Don would have pressed the point.
 
Steve: Yeah, I think that that sounds about right to me.
I also don't think he presses it in a really aggressive or rude manner.
 
I think the threat of I will need to collect rent sets Betty off and she snaps back at him. But it is a legitimate point, and it is something that Betty has previously agreed to in terms of the scorekeeping here.
 
I think Don Draper has a legitimate point.
And then to me, that shines the light onto Betty as to why are you dragging your heels here and why did you agree to something that you don't seem to be putting any effort into complying with?
 
Jenna: Well, I wonder about that when Don leaves. Betty is officially upset now, where she was really, really happy just a few minutes ago.
 
And Henry, out of earshot of Don, agrees with Don. He does want to move, and Betty's excuse is the kids.
But why do you think Betty hasn't found a new house for her new life?
I mean, I would think she would be happy to put the past behind her when it comes to Don in that house.
 
Steve: I'm going to go off the commentary from Matt Weiner.
It does seem like Betty wants it both ways.
She wants the new relationship and the new life,
and she wants to hang on and cling to certain elements of the old life.
 
And she's just caught between two worlds here and unwilling to positively step forward into the new one because that will mean completely shedding the old one.
 
And right now, she can cling to that house, that familiar place, and I think, honestly hide a little bit in saying that, oh, it's for the benefit of the children.
I don't think it is. I think it's because Betty Draper doesn't want to say goodbye to that home. It represents a period and a dream and a life that ended.
 
Jenna: I wonder in an episode where we're focusing on punishing Don if that isn't part of it, too.
When she gets rid of that house, she still has the kids as a connection.
I wonder if maybe this is another way that Betty can punish Don because Don, in coming to that house and seeing her happy in her new life, maybe that's a way she can hold it over him, the way that she felt he punished her while they were married.
 
Steve: That. That makes a lot of sense to me,
especially, I think, in Betty's head,
she has said to Don, you know, you're the one who destroyed this.
What we had. You. You were the agent for this.
 
So in this case, does she want a little bit of payback or to squeeze a little pain onto him?
And this is a way she can do it in a manner which she has plausible deniability.
 
That makes total sense to me, and I suspect it is a subtle, subtle way of poking at him.
And I would also think that in Betty's mind, what is the life Don Draper's living now?
 
Well, he blew up his marriage, so he's probably living his great life. This dashing man about town,
you know, a different woman every night, the madman, et cetera.
I don't think she's privy to just how dark and sort of glum his existence is here, eleven months after they split up.
 
 
Jenna: At the office the next day, Peggy comes in with a Sugarberry ham for Don.
Now, they sent one for everybody at SCDP, and they sold more hams.
 
Don is not softening. He says he tries to stay away from these kinds of shenanigans.
Let's put a pin in that line.
 
Peggy doesn't hide or deny what happened, like Don did when he was being criticized for the way he handled the interview.
She says “It was going great until it wasn't.
I should have told you.”
 
Steve: I like Peggy's professionalism here. She doesn't make excuses.
She accepts that she should have told him.
 
And it's clear that Don isn't cutting her any slack. He calls her out for bringing along her supposed fiance in a strategy that he'll be less harsh when he opens the door to her. That blew up.
 
And I think Don takes a little bit of joy in demonstrating to Peggy that she can't manipulate and control how he's going to speak to her.
 
Jenna: The man who noticed Peggy's haircut the moment he returned from California, he asked about her fiance in that context, even though it wasn't directly connected. He wondered.
 
They don't have a romantic relationship, but he is interested in her life, at least a little bit.
And this opens up more of a conversation between them.
She was on her way out of the door, but then he gets into lecturing her, just like Bert did to him earlier.
 
And he says, “You need to think about the image of this agency.”
In other words, our public face matters.
 
And she says,
“No one knows about the ham stunt, so our image remains pretty much where you left it.”
And it's the first time she gets snippy in this scene, but it's earned and it's honest.
She's saying, this ham stunt is private.
I kept my business discreet, and she knows he values that.
 
Steve: And I honestly, from a managerial standpoint, think this is a fair point that Don Draper is making,
because I feel like he's been pushed and challenged as head of Creative as to what his obligations and responsibilities are. And now he's pushing that down to one of his direct reports.
 
And we know there's other emotions and frustrations and reasons for him doing it, but I think this represents some growth in Don Draper, the manager, in realizing that his entire department needs to be thinking along similar lines.
 
It wraps up with Don saying that she won't be needed in the Jantzen presentation.
And Peggy interprets that exclusion in the context of what they're talking about and his dissatisfaction with her and says he's being spiteful.
 
And Don clarifies,
no, it's better not to have a woman in the room because of the nature of the client.
 
Jenna: He says it in this particular scene, at this particular moment, I think it is a little bit spiteful.
 
Steve: Oh, absolutely. But I don't think the root of excluding her is simply spite.
 
Jenna: Peggy tells Don, another honest thing:
“We are all here because of you.
All we want to do is please you.”
 
And she's speaking for herself. But you can see that's also true for Pete and Allison, probably for Joan and Roger and Lane in this series.
 
Peggy seems to be frequently reminding Don that he isn't alone.
That he is part of a team, sometimes to support him, and sometimes to demand that he do better.
 
Steve: And I think there's also a truth here.
Peggy's not the person who needs to be chastised or put down or spoken harshly to.
You know, she's highly motivated, highly professional.
It's excessive. And I think Don Draper's letting his emotions get the best of him here when he vents on Peggy or hits her harder than he needs to.
 
And if he thought at all about her and her motivations and how she behaves, he'd know that that's not required at all.
 
And it's interesting that Peggy makes a point of telling him that directly to his face in this moment.
 
 
Jenna: The next scene takes us back to Pauline Francis’ house, where Henry is helping put away the formal table leaves.
 
Pauline is pretty snarky. She refers to what happened with Sally at the table. Henry's defending it, saying, a little girl got sick.
And Pauline whips out a bunch of truths of her own about Betty.
And they're all negative:
The children are terrified of her. She's a silly woman.
You could have gotten what you see in her without marrying her.
Henry tries to make it right, but there's no saving it.
 
Steve: We can really see what a strong role Henry's mother still plays in his life.
And her last comment to him, where she says, how can you stand living in that man's dirt?
Is especially harsh and biting.
 
And the fact that Henry doesn't rise to the bait suggests to me that almost like we talked about,
you know, Don not wanting to start World War 3 with Betty, it feels to me like Henry's got a choice here, to escalate and respond, or to let this pass and he just walks away with the table leaf.
 
He knows his mother.
There's nothing to be gained here from making a stand.
 
Jenna: I think it’s clear Pauline has hit a wound,
because he doesn't like living in that man's dirt. And it does bother him, all the things that she's saying.
 
This is not a constructive conversation. It shows more about Pauline being terrible than Henry being wrong, I think,
because now Betty and Henry are married, and he loves her and he's committed to her.
So at this point, Pauline needs to keep that to herself.
 
It is a testament to Henry that he can see this about Betty and he still defends her. And as far as we can tell, he genuinely loves her.
 
And we wanted this for Betty, I think, all this time. So it would be great if this were enough, and she could start being kind to her kids, and live happily ever after.
 
Steve: Well, and to extend it, I guess, even, right, and if Pauline stopped sticking the knife in and twisting it on her son.
You know, what positive or constructive purpose does this fill? It's really Henry's mother venting to him about a decision she doesn't like that he took.
 
And as you point out,
Henry entered into this with his eyes open. You know, he's intelligent, he's serious, and he seems quite objective.
 
It's funny how the people closest to us sometimes are the ones who spend the most time slashing us.
 
Jenna: Indeed. [Laughing]
 
In the Jantzen presentation, Don gives the clients an ad for a bathing suit with a rectangle across the model's chest and a tagline that says,
“So well built, we can't show you the second floor.”
 
This ad is a nod to how SCDP owns a second floor, but there's nothing really there - we can't show it to you.
It also calls out the public - private theme of this episode.
 
The client isn't pleased. It's not what they asked for.
“It's a wink, not a leer,” Don says.
“We don't want a wink,” the client answers.
 
Steve: Don's trying to pitch the competitors as being crude and obvious with their bikinis, and he's simultaneously trying to move Jantzen closer to a more modern, open perspective on their two pieces.
 
I think Don really hopes he squared the circle with this ad campaign,
and it's readily apparent that the client is not buying it at all.
 
Jenna: A while back, Don insisted there had to be advertising for people without a sense of humor, and he told Paul to stop writing for other writers. This feels more like what he's done with this ad.
 
Steve: Actually, Don does seem to be rather dug in here to say that he's decided that the client is scared of skin that comes with the two piece.
 
And he basically offers a rather rude and abrupt choice for the client. You can be comfortable in dead or risky and possibly rich.
 
Jenna: The client isn't pleased, and Don is not able to convince them to go with it.
Don walks out of the room. Roger follows to cool him down.
 
But at the suggestion of doing more ideas the next week, Don goes back in and throws the clients out of the conference room.
He snaps his fingers at them. It's beyond disrespectful.
And this is an environment where they need every client.
 
Steve: It's a full on diva moment for Don Draper here,
and we can see the horror on Roger and Pete's face.
So we have that account man perspective of you do not treat clients this way under any circumstances.
 
And here's Don as the creative diva, who's frustrated by the clients who are too prudish to see the brilliance of his ad campaign.
 
In some ways, this hearkens back to earlier Don Draper interactions with clients, where he got abrupt and aggressive in a way that was inappropriate.
But in this circumstance, given we know how he's been chastised earlier about failing to accomplish the mission with his interview and the newspaper article,
it feels even more inappropriate and out of place here that partner Don in this new firm they founded, as you pointed out, that needs more business, is now walking away from a client that by simply dialing it down on the creative side, they can probably happily bill them and earn off of this client.
It seems like a real breaking point.
 
Jenna: Maybe this is about Don's frustration with Betty and Henry being in the house.
He didn't have that conversation this disrespectfully, but maybe he wanted to.
So in throwing them out of the conference room, it's like ejecting them from his space.
 
And this frustration with people pretending to be proper and pleasant and forthright when they're causing him pain and disrupting his way of life - that whole frustration with the world, the weight against him –
 
Part of it is always that he thinks he knows better, and he believes he can talk any client into anything.
And you know that Peggy wasn't in on this account, but maybe if she had been, this would have gone differently.
 
Steve: I think it's a good question.
You know, in cases where Don Draper feels like he lacks control or isn't able to take the course he wants to take, does he then overdo it?
 
Vent, you know, through channels where he feels he has the ability to do so?
And I wonder if this comes back to the earlier treatment of Peggy,
where I think we agree that he's harsher than he needs to be for something that didn't really have any consequence in the end either.
So sort of a no harm, no foul situation.
 
And then getting here into this scene, I really feel he's in conflict with himself. It's partner Don Draper and then creative prima donna. The creative prima donna Don Draper prevails in this circumstance in a way that really undermines the objective and mission of partner Don Draper.
 
Jenna: He absolutely didn't meet the brief. He thought that he could show them a vision of something new and different and that they would accept it and love it.
But when you saw that ad, I mean, you had to know somebody in accounts probably looked at that and said, this doesn't seem like a good fit for this client, right?
 
Steve: I think as viewers, we look at it and find it surprisingly risque for a Jantzen that to this point, we know as being so uptight and prudish.
 
So I think the writing does a great job of setting us up to realize Don's drank his own Kool Aid here, if he thinks this was ever going to fly with Jantzen.
And maybe he can bully it through and push them, but when they dig in and say no, nobody is surprised in that room. And honestly, in his heart of hearts, I have to think Don Draper can't be surprised either.
 
 
Jenna: As the Jantzen clients leave, Don tells Allison to get an appointment with the Wall Street Journal reporter.
 
In the next scene, we see Don talking all the way through this interview.
He has his story ready. It's the shiny, picture-perfect version everybody wants him to be.
And it's true,
sort of.
 
Steve: And for this guy who earlier hid behind the notion that I'm from the Midwest and we don't talk about ourselves,
it feels like we were getting the exact reciprocal of this.
 
And we can see the reporter almost salivate at the juicy tidbits he's about to get from Don Draper here.
 
Jenna: The closing song is Tobacco Road by the Nashville Teens.
In the commentary, Weiner said he resisted using this song for a while because it was so pointedly a match for Dick Whitman.
 
The lyrics say, I was born in a trunk, my mama died, and my daddy got drunk,
left me here to die alone in the middle of Tobacco Road.
 
Dick Whitman's mother died having him. His father drank a lot.
And now, with Lucky Strike claiming 71% of their billings, Tobacco Road isn't a terrible description of their current business setup.
 
It's interesting that Lucky Strike pops up again here with the reinvention of their company, just as it did in the pilot episode.
 
Steve: In his commentary, Matt Weiner talks a lot about that this is a much harder rock and roll type sound than they've ended most of the episodes with, and it does really strike the viewer's ear as being rather modern.
 
At least modern for 1964 in that sort of aggressive, edgy rock and roll style. So I think it's the perfect music choice episode.
 
Jenna: I'm impressed by this episode's ability to start over and change things, but still bring what I love about Mad Men.
 
As a fan of The Wire, I really struggle when they start season two and they focus on brand new characters, because I want to see the original band together doing their thing.
 
It's just not easy to reset the show and make it feel believably new without subtracting what the fans love, or without being too repetitive.
And I feel like they really hit it out of the park.
 
Steve: I agree. I really think they succeed in that. And I was thinking in our real lives, we're in these circumstances all the time where we're the new person at the party or the workplace place,
and we have to gather and collect our bearings, you know, from what's going on, and nobody's going to sit us down and walk us through exactly who is who and how they came to be here.
 
It feels to me like a very real and natural situation.
We're never told what Joey's relationship is to Peggy.
I think subconsciously we don't even realize how we're collecting all those little data points to start reconstructing it.
 
And I agree with you. To accomplish what they've accomplished in setting up this office eleven months later in a new firm with the lives of these characters having evolved, and it feels like we've come a long way in the course of 48 minutes.
 
 
Jenna: Our listener shout out today goes to Alyssa F.
Thank you for subscribing to Mad Men C to Z.
 
We so appreciate all the listeners who subscribe, follow, and listen to our show.
 
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.
 
Jenna: You can find us on Instagram and YouTube at Mad Men C to Z. And please listen, like, and subscribe. That's what the podcast's for!
 
Steve: Thanks for listening, everybody.