Mad Men C to Z Transcript for S1E12 Nixon vs. Kennedy

This is the full, human-edited Mad Men C to Z podcast transcript for Season 1, Episode 12, Nixon vs. Kennedy.
You can listen to the episode here.

Please visit the episode webpage for more details - offer your insights and vote on your favorite lines.

Mad Men C to Z  Podcast Transcript for S1E12 Nixon vs. Kennedy
 
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 Mad Men fans like us, who pick up something new with every rewatch.
 
Steve: Be advised, this podcast will include spoilers so we can talk about character arcs all the way through the final season of the series.
 
Jenna: We're breaking down each episode of Mad Men, discussing the big and small moments, and posing questions to listeners so we can get your insights. Let's get started with Mad Men, C to Z.
 
Welcome. Today, we're talking about season one, episode 12, Nixon versus Kennedy. This episode was directed by Alan Taylor.
 
It's election day, November 8, 1960.
Senator John F. Kennedy and his running mate, Lyndon Johnson, versus Vice President Nixon and his running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge, the UN Ambassador.
 
Steve: This episode opens with a news broadcast talking about the election.
 
Jenna: As Don walks Duck Phillips into Bert’s office,
it's important to recognize that Don does bring Duck into Sterling Cooper. He might have wished he'd gone with Pete when all is said and done.
 
And speaking of Duck Phillips, this is Mark Moses, the actor.
You might have seen him in Desperate Housewives, Homeland, and Platoon.
When Don brings Duck in to meet Bert Cooper, it's a very brief measure of the man, a formality, and a weird non-interview.
 
You can see that Duck understands the assignment here. He's ready with the sales pitch, and he's hungry, and he can read the room.

Steve: Yeah, I get the sense that that's all that Bert's really looking for here. So when he asks him what's his political leanings, Duck basically thinks out loud about whether he says Nixon or Kennedy, and then goes with Nixon.
 
When Bert says, that's nice to see, I got less that it was about any sort of political conviction and more just about reading the room,
trying to say the right thing to the audience at this moment in time,
which would be Bert Cooper in order to land the job.
 
And it seemed to me that that's what Bert was checking for, in terms of his disposition for this account management job.
 
Jenna: And it's interesting, because Duck is very ready and willing to please. And we can see that in Pete too, for sure.
But Pete's is so much more naked and hungry.
 
And this is a little more, I don't want to say tame, but it's, it's dressed up a little more. It fits the room better. It fits the mood better.
 
Steve: As Duck and Don wrap up in Bert's office, they walk Duck out of Bert's office through the common area, and our frat boy crowd at Sterling Cooper are there gossiping about Duck, who's clearly here to interview for this account manager job.
 
All of them indicate that they're going for Nixon. They start to gossip about Duck's personal life, that he was divorced, lived in a hotel, was damaged goods, that Sterling Cooper's potentially bargain hunting.
It's clear Pete wants this job.
 
Jenna: Yeah. So as they're gossiping, Ken and Harry both have a little background knowledge, showing that they are dialed in somewhat.
 
While they have some reservations about his personal life, they do say he is a killer in the business sense and quote, the best one Draper's paraded in here.
 
And Pete is not dialed in. He doesn't have any details to share.
He comments about his name, though. He says, I grew up with a Tuck. At least that has an air of dignity.
And I am here to ask, does it? Is Tuck appreciably better than Duck?
Maybe a little.
 
But obviously Pete would not be pleased with anyone up for the job that he wants.
 
Steve: Yeah, I mean, that's par for the course with Pete. It's all about him. So anything hostile to what he wants, he's going to put down and be against and lose all objectivity.
So that's normal for him.
 
Jenna: And speaking of Pete and hostility,
he pushes his way past Peggy in reception. So she's still Don's secretary, even after her promotion the last episode.
 
And she makes a point of pausing him by saying, can I help you?
On another show, Pete would just show up in Don's office. We wouldn't get this power play moment between them. But here Peggy makes a point of buzzing and saying, Mr. Campbell is here to see you.
 
And then Pete sighs and says, thank you, sweetheart. And that's kind of a Southern bless your heart moment on his part. Even this tiny little exchange gives us some really good conflict between these two characters.
 
Steve: Yeah, and Peggy's only doing her job here. So again, we can see Pete really doesn't give any thought to that or put himself in the other person's shoes.
 
It's about him. He wants to go in and make a pitch for himself to Don, which he marches in the office and starts proceeding to do, getting batted down by Don at every turn.
 
Jenna: Yeah, with Peggy, just to make the point. I appreciate that she doesn't roll over, and she doesn't just let him go in, either. She's standing up. She's a little more assertive.
 
She's a little bit more taking up space, which is nice to see from her, Even a tiny moment and taking up space.
 
Pete is really direct with Don. He's asking to be considered for this top job. Don is not taking him seriously. Do you think Don should have taken him more seriously from the beginning here?
 
Steve: I guess my take is I think Don perceives Pete as being green and unseasoned. I would think Don probably views Pete's tactics here as indicative of that lack of seasoning and lack of judgment.
 
Because isn't this exactly the job Pete's interviewing for? It’s reading people and what pitch is going to work with them? He can't read Don here, or his ambition gets in the way of his objectivity.
 
So as he rattles through the lists of things to his credits, like the biggest clients trust him, Don doesn't enter into an argument about them, but he basically minimizes and sets them aside.
 
And I think the conclusion I drew was Don's point is, none of these show why you should be the next head of accounts.
 
Jenna: Yeah, we all know that guy nobody likes and nobody wants to work with.
 
And Pete seems to believe that the harder he pushes, the more he'll convince Don. And it has the exact opposite effect.
 
I think Don does take more joy exerting power over Pete, because Pete annoys him. But any sense that Don is being unfair to ignore Pete is downgraded because Pete starts being so petulant.
 
He's almost yelling. And Don is pretty calm. He stays vague and he says, I'll keep you posted, which I think is infuriating to Pete, who's so invested in this request.
 
Steve: And I think it rubs Don the wrong way as well, like Pete, you know, threatening to jump ship if he doesn't get what he wants again. Don just bats it away and shows sort of a blase attitude about it and just giving every indication that nothing Pete is saying is moving him any closer to placing Pete in this role that he covets.
 
So clearly, the next scene shows Don walking out at the end of the day.
Harry, ingratiating himself as usual, sees Don out the door. And then we suddenly realize, oh, it's because they want to have this election results party in the office. And they're waiting for the last responsible adult to leave, which happens to be Don.
 
So as soon as he's out the door, the party kicks off.
And then we have a whole bunch of things happening over the course of the evening in the office party.
 
Jenna: Yeah, they're running out of booze and they ask,
hmm, what do we have too much of?
 
And Joan, of course, is the keeper of the supply closet. So she knows that they have a lot of rum and creme de menthe, which, in the next scene, we see a shot of them filling the entire water cooler with the mix after they raided the supply closet.
 
Let's take a second to talk about Ken,
because while they're running out of the alcohol, they consider Don's office. But the camera pans over to see Peggy sitting in front of the door. She is working, she's not partying.
Ken suggests we could ask her to join us. That might soften her up a bit, and that doesn't really go anywhere.
 
A while later, we see Ken chasing Allison around the office. He catches her. He forces her skirt up to see the color of her underwear, which was apparently a bet.
Then he gets up and offers her his arm, which she takes. And then they join the party together.
 
And Marge and Peggy just look on in distaste. And Marge goes, I used to think I'd find a husband here.
What did you think about this?
 
Steve: Well, listening to Weiner's commentary where he said there was a game called Scuttle, upon which this scene is based, and in the actual version, it was the removal of the panties, not just finding the color.
 
It's all kind of jaw dropping to the modern eye. And hard to imagine that this was, I don't know, considered good fun at the drunken part party as well.
 
You're sort of watching for some sort of backlash or negative reaction from Allison,
but when they pop up as if, okay, that round of the game is over, and she willingly takes his arm as they march off to get another drink, it really does a great job, I think, of just conveying what a different time and place this is.
Something I found as a modern viewer, very difficult to imagine.
 
Jenna: We've seen some really ugly comments from Ken this season and I think this is one of his worst moments in this series.
 
But he still commonly comes off as one of the nicest office guys in that group of Paul and Harry and sometimes Sal and Fred.
And that brings us to this episode Double Dip question for our listeners.
What do you think of Ken? Is he a step above the other office guys, or is he just like the rest of them?
 
Please share your insights with us at www dot Mad Men C to Z dot com,  and we look forward to sharing your opinions on a future episode.
 
Steve: We get a scene where Don arrives home. Betty's drinking, and displays surprise to see him. She mentions that she thought he would have stayed at the office to watch the returns on the election.
 
They get an update that JFK is closing the gap on Nixon's lead, but it still looks bad for Kennedy at this point. It's an interesting scene, I think, from the - about the state of the marriage between Betty and Don at this point. What was your impression?
 
Jenna: Well, I noticed that Betty reported that the line was long and Nixon won their precinct. She seems kind of proud of that. So we know that she voted, but we don't have any indication that Don did, true to his self reporting, earlier in the series.
 
And then there's this moment. So Sally is wearing a sweater over a tutu. And I love that detail because it's so exactly what kids would do. They lie around the house in the tutu, because why wouldn't you?
 
And Sally says, Mommy said to ask you, what's the electoral college? And Don answers, I don't think that's an appropriate conversation for children.
Which makes me think maybe he just doesn't know and he doesn't want to have to explain it. Or maybe he wants to get Sally to bed as soon as possible.
 
But either way, he doesn't seem any more involved with Sally than he is with Betty. Which, to your point, is sad to see him so disengaged.
 
Steve: Yeah. And I think there's a tension in this scene. The director points out that there's no eye contact really between them in the scene. So they're talking to each other, but they're not really talking with each other in a meaningful way.
 
It almost feels like they're just going through their paces. And I really like the writing, because I think that is the reality of a relationship in trouble and the kind of things that happen, which again, no fireworks, nothing big to note, but there's a coolness, a disconnect, a gap between them.
 
What potentially would be a happy thing, him coming home, you know, surprising her. Now they can have an evening together on this big occasion of the big election results. And there's no warmth and no sense of connection there.
 
Jenna: Yeah. He tosses her an easy win. He says, can I get you a drink? And she negates it. She says, no, I'm all set. So even the simple ask gets a no in the volley back and forth.
You just feel like neither of them can get anything going that's positive.
 
Steve: We also have a scene back at Pete's house, and Pete's got the box that was mailed by Adam Whitman.
 
Jenna: Let's talk about this for just a second. Because Pete has his square print pajamas on. I love those.
 
And his bangs are loose on his forehead, and they make him look really young. It's just such a good look. I love the whole costuming thing here that Janie Bryant does. It's fantastic.
 
Steve: And you get a sense that he's hung onto this box for some amount of time. And this isn't the first time that he's looking through it.
 
Which later in the scene, Trudy confirms that she's seen him going through it over and over.
 
At first, Trudy gives the impression that she doesn't know what's in the box. But later, it becomes very apparent she knows what's in it.
 
Jenna: And Trudy says, Peter, I don't want secrets. Which, of course, they already have between them.
 
And she says multiple times, it's peculiar, this habit he has of coming out late at night looking at this box. And she says, it's not yours. Give it back.
 
And he says, I got it by mistake. Which kind of. I mean, when he was sitting in somebody else's office and, you know, took the box, that clearly did not have his name on it. [Laughing]
 
When we talk about identity, which we're definitely getting into this episode for Don, we also have this mirrored in Pete's behavior here.
 
Steve: And I also get the sense that Pete is contemplating weaponizing the box. So, you know, later in the episode, we're going to see how he tries to weaponize it. I get the sense that this scene is really him toying with that idea.
 
He will stop at nothing to try and get this Head of Accounts job. And he's realizing that this box potentially could be a lever to help him obtain it.
 
Jenna: And in another parallel with Don,
even though Pete and Trudy have conflicts and they disagree,
it seems like they might be doing a little better with their marriage than Don and Betty.
Maybe just because it's on the same downward trajectory. But it's newer.
At least they're still talking about real things, even though Pete is lying to her.
 
Steve: Yeah, that's interesting, because I think if we compare the two marriages, it feels like Trudy is a much stronger player,
much more present and forceful with Pete about what she believes or wants, even though she does try to be accommodating.
 
And she does back down on cases where Pete gets too upset or emotional.
And it's an interesting contrast, I think, to Betty, who just seems to be deferring all the time to Don. And even in the times where she's stood up to him, it doesn't feel like she's bringing the same arguments that Trudy brings, that are difficult for Pete to argue against.
 
It's almost like when Betty's pushing back against Don, she's trying to provoke him further as he's displayed a flash of temper.
What's your thinking of the contrast between the two relationships?
 
Jenna: Oh, I agree with what you said right up to that last point. I agree. I think Trudy is a stronger partner and really a partner. It feels like Betty is waiting around for Don Draper to be the man she wanted him to be.
 
And when he isn't, she kind of goes along. But every time she goes along with something she didn't want to do, she's more and more sad, more and more depressed. She doesn't take agency the way that Trudy does.
 
I mean, here Trudy says again, you know, give it back. This is exactly what to do. Betty would not tell Don . . . I mean, she would tell him to go get a cake for a birthday party.
Not that he would do it, but, you know, Trudy is just much more confident.
 
Whereas I think Betty is waiting for Don to be this person who none of us know if he can ever be. I don't feel like she generally provokes him intentionally unless she's just completely ignored.
 
I think that was starting to pop up in the last episode in Indian Summer with the A/C salesman.
 
Steve: Yeah, but remember where he grabs her arm after the encounter? I think it's with Roger in the kitchen. And she says to him, you know, do you want to bounce me off the walls?
 
And it really feels she's calling him out there for his physicality and challenging him to say, do you want to go further with this?
It's an interesting challenge in the moment because at that point, she ceases to apologize and really is standing her ground.
 
I was going to say, as well, in her failure to stand up,
I think it also breeds resentment in her because she's waiting for Don to be the right thing or do the right thing or see her unhappiness, and he doesn't.
 
And I think that just builds a continuing pile of resentment. I don't get that sense of resentment in Trudy with Pete. It feels like she speaks her peace. She speaks it forcefully and in many ways, I think, wins.
But, you know, it's not that it's a competition, but carries a lot of the arguments and points that she makes to Pete in a way that he really doesn't have a counter.
 
Jenna: And ironically, I think Don respects Midge and Rachel, who do challenge him and who do speak more honestly, whereas Betty is trying to go along to get along more. And I think that Don finds her less interesting and he doesn't respect her as much because of it.
 
 
Steve: Well, let's go back to the party in the office, which is in full swing at this point.
Really love the humor and the writing here where Ken has gone through Paul's office and found his script, his play.
 
You can tell Paul's upset, Ken's reading from it. And then the next - the scene morphs quickly into them actually performing the play with Paul acting as the director.
 
It looks like a take on the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. So we've got Sal playing the John Galt-esque noble character.
We've got Joan as his love interest.
It's a hilarious sort of office moment.
 
Jenna: Ken sees the synopsis and he says, it's about a man who is an animal in the boardroom and the bedroom. And everybody laughs. And then just the idea that they would take a moment and shut everything down around the party and have this reenactment of it.
 
And this great line as the character says that hack Cosgrove.
Because,
of course, remember, everybody was so jealous when Ken had the story published. And especially I think, Paul. Paul doesn't even bother to change that character's name. Probably never intending this draft to see the light of day.
 
And here it is, publicly performed when the scene calls for a kiss. Sal, as the lead, leans over Joan and kisses her.
 
Then he smirks to the crowd. He really gets the performance required of him. And the whole crowd whoops and hollers, and Joan looks at him thoughtfully. What did you think about that moment?
 
Steve: I guess my take on it was. It was just another indication where perhaps Joan thinks she's all that and there would be more passion or emotion in the kiss from Sal and he should be so lucky to get to kiss her.
 
And then she realizes he's truly acting here and he doesn't have any interest in her. So I thought it was just another little signpost about Sal's sexuality and questions he has.
 
Jenna: And I wonder, too, if her awareness is heightened because of Carol's confession in a previous episode. She's just a little more aware of what Sal might be keeping from her and the rest of the office.
 
Steve: There's also a clear indication that the office is rooting for Nixon here. So again, tilting against sort of the modern view back, that everyone was for Kennedy and all the youth movement was for Kennedy, and just showing that that really wasn't the case.
 
And throughout the election night, Kennedy was fighting to come from behind as Nixon threatened to lock up the presidency. There's a lot of alcohol going on.
And the scene folds into Hildy and Harry sharing a kiss.
 
Jenna: They stare at each other afterward, really uncomfortable.
And she, looking completely sober, says, I'm really tipsy, because that is a good justification, I guess.
 
And he goes to his office. He seems shaken by this, that this has happened.
But he leaves the door to his office open, and she follows and she says she feels awful.
 
He blames himself. He says, I'm drunk, because again, this is an excuse they can both rely on.
And then they start kissing and close the door.
 
Steve: There's a lot going on in the office party. I like the scene where Joan is talking with Paul and it's clear that they. They've had that fling previous to the start of the series, but it's long past now.
 
It seems pretty clear that Paul still has interest and feelings for Joan that she does not reciprocate.
And what did you think of the dialogue in this little scene between them? Because it's intimate and very touching and very human, I think in the midst of this drunk bash.
 
Jenna: I think some of the Paul / Joan moments are some of the most interesting scenes in the series.
I like this detail where Joan steps out of her heels; it's like she's taking off a little bit of her armor, but she still keeps that armor up in this conversation.
 
So as they talk about their past relationship, Paul keeps throwing out lines where she could accept, and she never does.
She rejects all of them. So he says, did you like the play? And she says, no.
 
And he says, the meaner you are to me, the more I like you.
And she smiles and agrees. And they get to the heart of this, which we might be wondering, too. He asks what went wrong.
 
And you know this about Paul, you know, he's a little bit needy. Before, he was asking the guys, do you think Draper likes me? So he is this kind of needy soul. So he wants to know postmortem, you know, what happened.
 
She simply says, you have a big mouth. And he starts to deny it. He says, Joan, I never.
She just repeats, you have a big mouth. And to his credit, he admits it.
 
He says, I'm not proud of it. And he agrees. And you get the feeling that he wishes this relationship hadn't ended.
 
They dance together without music, and it feels cozy. And it doesn't feel to me like it has pressure or expectation that they're going to revive this relationship. It's just a sense of two people being close to each other,
having that moment together, which is nice between them.
 
Steve: Yeah, I love the writing exactly for that honesty. Because I think it's honest that his reflex is to deny what she asserts about him having a big mouth.
 
And then he concedes the point. And I think that's a very humble, honest, vulnerable display by Paul. And I suspect that is what opens the door for them to share this little dance.
 
And that he's owned up to a shortcoming in his character and something that potentially had played a big role in Joan ending this. And him acknowledging and owning that then allows them to share this moment together, which feels a little whimsical and very sweet again, in the midst of all the debauchery.
 
Jenna: And I think, particularly in this episode,
honesty, even in a difficult moment, admitting something about yourself, about who you really are . . . We see some characters are able to do this, but not Don Draper.
 
Paul Kinsey, even though we might not line him up and say he's our favorite guy, but you have to admire him a little bit here for being able to own who he is.
 
And Joan, of course, in a very Rachel Menken way, calling it. And she's not wrong.
 
Steve: I did like him stalking around as the director, too, for the performance of the play. He's got his pipe.
It's almost like an Alfred Hitchcockian sort of moment as he directs them and guides them. It was really, really funny. Really entertaining.
 
Jenna: Oh, me too. And at first he's so embarrassed, and he wants them to put it away and hide it. And then it's like, okay, no, it's on. We're gonna do this correctly, and I'll be in charge of it.
And then he loves it.
I know. I love that, too.
 
 
Steve: Finally, the party's over, and the next scene cuts to Hildy and Harry sleeping on the sofa in his office.
They need to get dressed after the the night before.
 
She seems to want to reassure him that he doesn't need to be worried, that this doesn't mean anything. He seems embarrassed and awkward himself. He can't find his glasses. They turn up broken.
 
Jenna: This scene showing how upset Harry is is important because, unlike Don, this isn't normal for Harry.
Although this is a show that almost normalizes infidelity, it reminds us the cost.
 
So this next morning, it's so awkward, you know, Hildy trying to reassure him, like you said.
I don't want you to be worried. It doesn't mean anything.
Harry won't even look at her.
 
Harry's glasses are broken, and as Hildy passes them to him, she says, that's too bad. And that's the same thing that Peggy said when Pete ripped her collar during their office sex a couple of episodes back.
 
That phrase again. It's just this evidence, right, that this thing really did happen. You can't quite pretend it away. There are artifacts they carry.
 
And you can see Harry trying to be polite. And he also is so upset and guilty, he can barely hold himself together.
Such a huge contrast to Don, who emphasizes he tries not to think about it, and it doesn't even come close to falling apart with guilt about infidelity.
 
Steve: Yeah, And I don't get the sense Hildy has any guilt here.
She seems to want to reassure Harry, because she can see he's out of sorts. But I don't get that vibe out of her at all.
 
And I think if Harry were to react, say the opposite, and say, hey, I enjoyed this.
This is the beginning of something, I think Hildy would be open to it.
 
Jenna: She does seem into him.
Also, at the very end of the scene, Hildy's leaving and Harry is awash with all kinds of emotion.
 
And then we see Allison tiptoeing out of an office. We can presume it's Ken, since we saw them dancing together a lot and at the party. So for some people, the party is a good time, I guess.
 
 
Steve: Which is a great intro to somebody who didn't enjoy the party. Peggy, who worked well into the party before leaving,
and she comes back to find the garbage can next to her office is filled with creme de menthe puke.
 
Also, her locker in the lunchroom has been opened up and rifled through, so some money has been taken.
She comes off as a bit of a killjoy here and says that she's going to report this to building security.
 
Of course, none of the hungover partygoers have anything nice to say, other than asking her to keep her voice down.
 
Jenna: Yeah. In the DVD commentary, Matthew Weiner describes Peggy as square and no fun.
 
At the risk of showing my age or just my personality, I absolutely empathize with her here. For the office guys, there's no thought to the cost of their fun.
 
There is a cost. She said she had $3 in there.
Remember last episode, she got a $5 a week raise. So that would be a fair amount of money for her. Her shirt is gone, and there's no reason for people to have rifled through her things like that.
 
She has every expectation that her workspace and her private things won't be disturbed. And I have all my sympathy for her. Whereas these hungover guys, I kind of want to yell in their ears.
 
Steve: I don't disagree with that. But given that it was a massive party,
almost everybody in the office was participating in it and all the craziness we know took place.
And it's an election party, too, so it's not like this is another Friday night where they trash the office.
 
I do get a bit of the vibe that Peggy's being a little uptight here. And probably next time, hey, maybe empty out your little locker and hide the stuff in your desk or whatever it is so that drunken revelers won't discover it and take it.
 
It's not right that they took her stuff, but she does seem to be fighting the tide here a little bit.
 
Jenna: And every time Peggy seems to fit in a little bit more,
there's another scene showing how she doesn't, too. No matter which environment it is, whether it's being one of the guys for a presentation, or aligning with Joan in the office, or with her mother's date set up, she doesn't quite seem to fit in anywhere.
 
Steve: Yeah, agreed. And it's not through anything that she's doing wrong. It's just her differences, I think, to the mainstream.
 
 
Jenna: In the next scene, we have Bert and Don discussing the election results, which aren't completely clear. Don says, I've read three different newspapers with three different results. I'm sure you, Bert, know something that I don't. And Bert has been hobnobbing with a bunch of people.
 
It's notable that the show has the characters dealing with the aftermath of a close election.
This first season of Mad Men aired in 2007. So George W. Bush was president, having defeated John Kerry in 2004, a much closer contest against Al Gore in 2000.
 
So whether the discussion is about hanging chads or corpses in Cook county, this election aftermath is unsettling to people.
 
Steve: Yeah, and it's pretty clear where Bert's head is on this. He's not interested in the ideology or injustice of it.
He's just focused on the results and what that practically means for the business.
 
It seems like there's a strong vibe here of they can work with either side. It's not a problem.
Don seems a little more hung up on Nixon should have won, that it's not quite fair. And Bert just doesn't seem to give that the time of day.
 
Jenna: It's a great piece of writing. When Don says, it doesn't seem fair, and Bert takes a beat and says,
fair, very good.
As if considering that fairness is noble and unusual somehow.
 
Steve: And Bert even references the politics of is JFK this threat, or this real break with the past.
And Bert expresses his confidence that JFK will go along, play along with the establishment like everyone else has to this point.
 
So even in terms of the substance of what's the difference between JFK and Nixon, it seems Bert's point is it's not going to make that much of a difference here for us.
You know, business goes on as usual.
 
Jenna: And while Don is standing there, and certainly Bert is getting a massage, so he certainly doesn't seem to be upset too much about the issue.
 
Steve: I think too, there's probably a little element here again of just emphasizing Don identifies with Nixon.
So this unfairness to Nixon, it feels like it's a little personal to Don.
 
Jenna: Yeah, that makes sense.
 
 
Steve: The next scene is a major one where Pete goes into Don's office and basically presents the box that he intercepted from Adam.
 
Jenna: Let's make sure that we notice too: Pete marches past Peggy again. So they had this little power play before,
and this time she says, where do you think you're going?
 
And he barely looks at her and says, from now on, I would be very careful about the way you speak to me.
And he marches into Don's office.
 
I want to take a minute here and say, Pete looks a whole bunch like Tom Riddle when he's asking Slughorn about the Horcruxes in this scene, when he says, I wish I knew more. [Laughing]
Just pause there for a second and tell me I'm wrong.
 
Steve: It feels kind of cloying by Pete here. He's so ruthlessly focused on becoming head of accounts, he is essentially trying to blackmail Don to appoint him to that role or threaten to reveal his secret identity.
 
And anything that deviates from that ruthless pursuit, just feels very fake and sleazy and slimy because it's sort of slime on top of slime. Since the actual focused effort here is greasy enough.
 
Jenna: I think there's great writing in this scene, back and forth. And we also get two it's true call-outs.
The first is from Pete saying that Don isn't really Don.
He says, I know it's true. I can see it in your face.
 
And the second is from Don on the same topic.
Assuming this is true, which it isn't, it sounds to me like you're blackmailing me.
Those truth call outs are useful again in this series, all about image and identity.
 
But the other lines, the back and forth, it's just a can't look away scene. We've seen Pete grasp and clamor for more of everything all season.
 
And we've seen Don evade and hide himself all season.
And this scene breaks everything open.
 
In a lesser show,
it would be a cliffhanger in the season finale. And instead we get the space for these small details and the evolution of their reaction. So we see Don's denial and evasion and dismissiveness and his threatening stance, and Pete's relentless ambition and his fake reasonableness.
 
It's all at play here. And I love that this show gives space for that.
 
Steve: I also really like the difference in the two men.
Pete. Pete is posh. He comes from privilege. He knows what he wants. He's trying to do a little exchange here to get what he wants.
 
And when Don stands up and comes out from behind the desk,
I really get the vibe of that's not what Don is. You know, he's physically bigger than Pete, much thicker, stronger. And there is a sense of potential violence lurking as he walks up to Pete.
 
And the fact that Don puts his hands in his pockets almost seems to draw a line to say, this isn't violence. I'm not going to come and grab you by the collar or threaten you, but the physical intimidation of closing the distance between the two men.
 
And you can really see Pete's discomfort with this movement. He doesn't know what to do. If this were to go to fisticuffs, you can tell he has no idea.
I get the feeling Don's been in plenty of fights given his upbringing. And I just love the way the scene plays out in that physical manner because it really rings true to me that this would be something that would be jumping to Don's mind.
 
Yet this civilized part of his mind, of what he's got, you know, was reigning that in and saying, you know, you're not back wherever it was he came from and you can't resort to this, but he's making it very clear that it lurks there.
And it adds to Pete's discomfort because again, Pete just wants to cut a deal here.
 
Jenna: And Pete's backing up physically, too. And Don's words are threatening. He says, you should be aware, if your information is powerful enough to make them do what you want, what else can it make them do?
 
And then Pete pretends, he says, it's very simple, it's not a threat, it's just a job.
Let's also be sure that we acknowledge the symbolism here with the title and the Nixon versus Kennedy storyline here in this conflict.
 
So Don is an older self-made man and Pete is born with a silver spoon, younger and more open to change, more like Kennedy, say, than Nixon.
 
Steve: Yeah, it's a really great scene, really entertaining.
It kind of ends indecisively in the sense that Pete reiterates, hey, think about it, and wants to leave it with Don to stew.
 
Don's put on a brave face, but as soon as the scene's over and we see him, we can see how much this has rocked his world.
 
 
Jenna: That moves us into a flashback where we first meet the original Don Draper, played by Troy Ruptash. Audiences might recognize him from Firsts and General Hospital.
 
And there's a lot of contrast between his confidence,
the original Don Draper, and Dick Whitman's relative powerlessness. He gets dropped off wherever he lands. He doesn't have any agency when he's told he's going to be doing all the digging here in Korea.
 
We saw him doing the digging as a kid growing up, so it doesn't seem like he's traveled too far from that.
As this lieutenant asks Dick Whitman,
what misconception traveled down the road and made you want to be here? A movie?
 
This is a great detail because we discover that our Don Draper does, in fact, love the movies.
And he answers, I just wanted to leave. And it is striking to hear him being honest with someone about himself, even if he is in the middle of a war with no control.
 
He made it away from home, and he's honest about himself here for this short segment of time in this scene.
 
Steve: Well, and it's also an interesting class contrast between desperate Dick Whitman, who just wants to get out of his lousy life in his lousy town,
and this lieutenant, who is an engineer and says, I should be building swimming pools, not latrines.
 
You can just see the lieutenant really has no insights into what would possess somebody enlisting in the army at a time when there's a war going on would still be a better choice than staying where you are.
 
So I love that contrast and distance between the two of them, because it really gives us more about that foundation of the ambition that Dick Whitman had or the desire for something better, which has fueled him to a very high point in a career which is now in mortal peril,
given the box that Adam sent back to the office.
 
Jenna: We see that Don is really upset. There's a lot of agitation and indecision in his office.
 
He picks up the phone and reconsiders and replaces the receiver,
but it still has the veneer, it has the mask in a way that when we see Dick Whitman in the flashback in Korea, he hasn't developed that mask. He hasn't perfected it. He hasn't applied it yet.
 
Steve: Where does Don go? When Don is upset and doesn't know where to turn, he goes to Rachel's office.
 
Jenna: It's interesting. She's happy to see him. He kisses her.
She notices immediately that he's off.
 
And he's so childish. When he speaks to her, he says, something happened, and I want to go, and I want you to come with me, and I don't want to come back.
Which sounds like something a child would say.
 
Steve: Yeah, it's totally childish. And the other thing I would note on it, too, is it's really fueled by emotion. It's fueled by fear.
Rachel is very much the opposite here. She's all questions, she's all practicality, she's all rationality.
 
And as she tries to get out of him, you know what. What has occurred? What has triggered this change in you? And he's seeking to. To avoid that question and just jump straight to his - it seems generous to call it a plan - jump to his plan.
 
And then she starts to pick that apart, because there is no plan here. It's just panicked flight.
And that's what he's trying to pitch to her. And she's too smart, she's too practical, too logical. And she just cuts right to the core of what's going on.
 
Jenna: Maggie Siff does a fantastic job in this scene, because there's so much she's playing. She's still in love, thrilled to see him, happy with the invitation to go away somewhere, and then detecting that something's wrong. So there's confusion.
 
And then he tries pity. He tries angry pressure. He tries flattery.
You know me better than anyone.
And he tries peer pressure. He says about leaving his life, people do it every day, and it's not enough for her.
 
So you see her wanting to be with him,
but she won't accept it like this.
So it's fantastic what you see happening. The lines are great, but what is happening in her face and her body language is really, really well done.
 
Steve: Yeah. In Weiner's commentary, he says, you know, Rachel does have this romantic fantasy that one day she'll run off with this man. But this is so much the opposite of that fantasy.
 
This is a guy who's panicked, who's fleeing from something, and he just wants to drop everything with no thought about his responsibilities and commitments. Again, we know from Rachel's background she has very strong feelings of responsibility and dedication to things that she believes in as she asks the questions to figure out where Don's head is.
 
And given his terrible answers or inability to answer the questions,
she reaches some pretty harsh conclusions about Don.
 
And given his line about, you know more about me than anyone, it's even more devastating that this person who's privy to your background has a pretty harsh judgment of the character it's left you with.
 
Jenna: Yes, you can see the moment it really pivots. He says, there's nothing here. And she says, what about your children?
 
And he says, I'll provide for them. And she's just disgusted because having grown up without a parent herself and knowing that he did as well, that's the moment I think that it really shifts for her.
 
Interesting too, that Don was ready to run away to Paris, maybe not permanently, but to go to Paris with Midge, and she declined there. Now Rachel is turning him down.
 
Don is comfortable changing his skins and starting over in a way that few others are. Remember, Harry had such a hard time with Hildy in a previous scene. And Don showing Rachel how comfortable he is with this deception I think is very off-putting as well.
 
Rachel is proud of her store and the life she's building and connected to her family.
And Don, in contrast, is drifting. He's not connected to his family, and if he doesn't have his job as an anchor, he's reaching for Rachel, hoping that she's real.
And of course, the problem is that he isn't real.
 
The heart of it always comes back to this question.
She asks, what kind of man are you?
And again, she drops the truth on him.
You don't want to run away with me,
you just want to run away.
 
Steve: And she says, you're a coward.
And that's a terrible indictment of Don's character. And I think as a viewer, I have to agree. I think she's dead on with this.
 
And it's devastating because she's just chopped the legs out from under him. So this escape hatch, he thought his life moves only in one direction, forward.
 
And suddenly a giant steel door has dropped down and it's like it won't move forward in this particular direction with this person.
Not only that, this person that you've confided in has called you one of the most terrible things they could call you in this moment of your angst and emotional upset.
 
It's such a devastating scene for Don.
And as a viewer, I'm sorry to say I really agree with Rachel's assessment here.
 
Jenna: Me, too. How good for her that she sees this now and how sad for him that he didn't find her first.
I wonder if he hadn't buried himself so much and he had met Rachel, if he would have found his real self and become brave, instead of hiding.
 
A few minutes ago, we were talking about how Betty's tendency to acquiesce to whatever Don wants actually kind of makes Don the worst part of himself.
 
I wonder if Don had been with Rachel and been more able to be real, I think Betty represents so much what's conventional, and it kind of enhances his need to pretend.
So I think Rachel would have been a great partner for Don, but it's not clear if he ever had it in him to be a great partner to her.
 
Steve: You pulled me back there with your last statement because that's exactly where my head was going. I don't think he has it in him. I don't think he ever did. It's just an inevitable matter of time until he's exposed as a coward and as weak, really.
 
That's a weird statement, given what this character's achieved in done and come from in terms of his hardscrabble roots. But along the way, he hasn't arrived at the values and those features of that real strength of character that a quality person like Rachel is looking for in their partner.
 
And I just have a hard time imagining any scenario where he could arrive at that place given where he's at and where we know he's been to get to this place.
 
Jenna: So Don, willing or not, has a pretty significant relationship with Pete at this point, and then with Rachel. The next scene takes us back to his office, where he finds Peggy crying on his sofa.
 
And he's so frustrated and so irritated because he's just had a really difficult day.
She feels guilty because she reported the missing money and it got the wrong people fired.
 
In spite of all the things that he's carrying in his head, he feels guilty for snapping at her. And of course, because this is how you solve all problems, he hands her a drink.
 
Steve: Yeah. And she says, you know, bringing up this fairness comment again.
Peggy says, you know, she tries to do her job, follows the rules, but people hate her. And then innocent people get hurt. Other people, they do whatever they want. It isn't fair.
 
And that's such an interesting statement in this moment where we know Don basically limped back to the office.
His runaway with Rachel is not going to happen, and he's working on plan B with this diversion for Peggy.
 
I think it's helpful to him in his emotional state, because I think it takes him out of his own predicament and allows him to focus a little bit on bolstering her and getting her a drink and trying to get her settled so that he can move on to whatever he's going to do next.
 
So it has a nice comedic touch, I think, too, in contrast to the prior scene where it just feels like Rachel's looked inside Don's heart and found that it’s black.
 
Jenna: It's so raw.
Don had just talked about it doesn't seem fair to Bert, who felt that fairness was irrelevant. And now it's Don's turn.
 
You know, Don doesn't care about anybody else, but Peggy does. And Don knows it is relevant. He gets Peggy out of his office.
He stares for a minute, and then he closes his eyes and he recalibrates.
 
Steve: Yeah. And in Weiner's commentary, he talks about how Peggy's presence helps him pull himself together and think about things.
 
And I wonder if her statement of it isn't fair, but that's the way it is.
I'm wondering how that plays in his mind vis a vis his situation.
 
Is it fair? It probably isn't fair how he was raised. It probably isn't fair how he came to have this Don Draper identity. But on the other hand, Don Draper the Mad Man has earned his chops.
There's nothing fake about it.
Don Draper is this creative genius.
So in the midst of all these lies and fakeness,
there is a core of ability and performance here, which I think comes into play later in the episode.
 
Jenna: I think that's what saves him. I think that's what we're able to admire about him.
But just as with Pete, it's so disgusting to see him making himself into a victim. Oh, poor me, when he inflicts so much damage everywhere.
 
And Pete, it's the same, you know, oh, I'm alone and nobody, he doesn't say, nobody loves me.
But he and Trudy are strangers.
 
They are both suffering from the same misplaced victimhood. It's hard to take, and you do appreciate his talent when he has has those moments.
But he pulls himself together, and he walks with renewed confidence into Pete's office.
 
Pete's sitting and drinking. Don says, I thought about what you said. Pete says, he's glad to hear it.
And Don goes, and then I thought about you and what a deep lack of character you have.
 
While that's funny, it's also just like,
really, Don, Really? The deep lack of character that Pete has.
So talk about fair.
 
Steve: I, I, yeah,
well, and it's such a great contrast coming so close to the scene when it's Rachel taking apart Don. Now Don is taking apart Pete. I do love the way it plays out in this episode.
 
And. And you can see Pete's surprise, because I think Pete really feels he's got the trump card here. Draper has no alternative but to give in.
And now things are going horribly sideways for Pete.
 
Jenna: Pete thinks he's engineered this thing. There's this great line. Pete is getting a little more frantic, and he's practically chasing Don across the office now as he heads toward Burt Cooper's office.
 
And Pete goes, is this a thing like in the movies, where I have a gun and you think, I won't shoot you? Because I will shoot you.
 
And I feel like in the back of our head, are we all just remembering that he does have that rifle he exchanged for the chip and dip? Is anybody thinking about this as a possibility, that it all goes that sideways?
 
Steve: Honestly, I didn't think of the rifle, but that's a funny thought, now that you mention it.
 
Jenna: It's the Chekhov thing. You know, if you see a rifle in the first act, it has to go off by the third act.
 
 
Steve: They go across the office,
Pete chasing Don, trying to talk him off the ledge here.
Pete doesn't want to have to spring this. He knows that it's not going to look great on him, even if it is totally destructive to Don's future.
 
But it becomes clear. Don's determined here. Pete's bluff has failed. He's called it, and Pete's gonna have to go through with it. And I love the line where Pete reassures him that, you know, he will do it if Don forces him to.
 
Jenna: And in this conversation,
finally, they have some moments of honesty, and Don speaks to some of his real frustration with Pete, instead of just quippy avoidance or put downs.
 
He says, you know, I deserve this.
And Don says, why do you deserve it? Because your parents are rich, because you went to prep school and you have a $5 haircut, which is funny in present day.
 
And then he says,
you've never worked for anything for a day in your life.
And we see that Don is not like Bert Cooper. He is not indifferent to those around him.
It matters to Don whether Pete is trying hard enough and in the right way. It isn't just about results.
 
By all accounts, pardon the pun, it seems that Duck Phillips is a quality choice.
But it is impossible to believe that Don would pick Pete for the job, even if he were the most qualified.
 
Steve: Yeah, I'm not sure I buy that Don does care so much how people do things.
The vibe I was getting was very much one of Don as Nixon, Pete as JFK, child of privilege, being served up the presidency at a young age,
that this isn't fair, this isn't right on the merits. Someone like Nixon, who served his time, did the hard work, should prevail here.
 
My sense is Don will not allow himself to be part of that mechanism of rewarding the unworthy.
 
Jenna: That's what I mean. The right way is to work your way up, right? If Pete were just that talented and he were the best guy for the job, because it came too easy for him, that doesn't sit right with Don.
 
Whereas for Bert, I think whatever gets the best results is the best thing.
 
Steve: One thing I like about the writing here for Pete is he says, why is it so hard for you to give me this?
Because from Pete's perspective, what is the problem with giving him this? It solves a problem for Don.
 
Pete's happy, you scratch my back, et cetera, et cetera. Pete can't even conceive why this is something that Don is willing to go to the wall for,
because Pete would never do this.
 
If the spots were reversed, Pete would say probably in the first five minutes of the conversation. Sure, you got it.
 
Jenna: Yes. He would much rather wheel and deal.
 
We come to the moment, and we know we're really going to do it, because they take off their shoes.
Because we always take off our shoes before we go into Bert Cooper's office.
And they go in, Pete tattles on Don to Bert.
And Don says nothing. He lights a cigarette.
 
Steve: It's such a great scene as a viewer. You're just sitting there waiting and wondering how this is going to play out.
 
Pete lays it all out. You know, his real name is Dick Whitman. He died in Korea 10 years ago.
He's a deserter and who knows what else.
 
And as Bert comes around the desk and says, Mr. Campbell, who cares?
Pete's got no answer to that.
And it's, he's a fraud and a liar and a criminal even.
And Bert again says, who cares? This country was built and run by men with worse stories.
 
How surprised were you the first time you saw that,
to see Bert's reaction?
 
Jenna: Incredibly surprised. Especially because they set us up earlier where Don and Roger were going to fire Pete, and then Bert insisted he could not be fired.
Basically, he was untouchable.
So when Pete comes in here, you really think Don is going down.
 
Steve: Yeah, I really thought he was, too, because I just couldn't conceive of how this wouldn't just take the legs right out from under Don Draper.
 
Now, with subsequent viewings and all the clues we've gotten about where Bert's head is at, I can start to see how Bert's reaction makes a lot more sense to me. He's results-focused.
 
You've got this sterling creative genius in the firm who's delivering for your business.
Bert has no appetite to upend this,
especially on the principle that somebody's not who they claim to be or has secrets in their personal life or whatever their history is.
You can see that Bert honestly has no interest in any of this.
 
It doesn't matter. Does it threaten his business?
It doesn't threaten it to keep Don Draper, but to eject him would rock it to the core. And we've already seen the issues with the Lucky Strike folks where, you know, there's concern as Roger fades.
 
Have they locked up Don? So, such a delicious scene. And the shock and pain on Pete's face here as his big reveal has not gone the way he planned is - it's just so delightful, you know, especially if you're. You're very anti Pete.
 
Jenna: And the shock on Don's face, too.
It's ultimately pretty depressing that there are no rules.
It's echoed in the idea of Kennedy stealing the election, of course, and the office workers getting fired after no wrongdoing. Pete's treatment of Peggy, Don lying and faking his identity.
 
I mean, Peggy is correct. Some people do just walk around doing whatever they want, and they get away with it.
And it becomes an interesting challenge of the show to have this protagonist who does so many unlikable things.
 
How do you continue to care what happens to him?
 
Steve: But again, I want to emphasize Don is an advertising creative genius. He's earned that. That's exactly who Don Draper is. And I think that's the core of Bert's point.
 
Maybe he's not the guy who was Lieutenant Draper in Korea, but Don Draper is in the room, and that's a creative genius of Sterling Cooper.
Bert's not going to mess with that. He has no appetite for what Pete wants to do to it.
 
Pete was willing to throw that away as just part of his personal game to become head of accounts. It really shows the contrast where Pete's focus is so selfish that he doesn't even give a thought as to where Bert's head might be.
 
So he's as stunned as most of us viewers were. I think it's such a powerhouse scene, and I think, you know, given this one and the earlier one with Rachel, two of my favorite scenes in the entire series.
 
Jenna: And the writers really do this critical underline here with Bert's dialogue where he says, the Japanese have a saying:
A man is whatever room he's in.
And right now, Don Draper is in this room.
,
Of course, Don Draper already has so many different identities. He's a bohemian hipster guy, maybe, with Midge, but then doesn't quite fit there.
 
And he's the conventional married guy in suburbia with Betty, but he doesn't quite fit there.
And then in the office, does he really have friends in the office?
He's kind of buddies with Roger, but it's funny that he is in so many different rooms and seems to fit and yet he doesn't.
 
Bert leaves us with this line after Pete leaves. He says,
fire him if you want to, but one never knows how loyalty is born.
 
I'm glad that Pete sticks around in the show because he makes such an interesting character,
but I don't really believe that Don wouldn't rush right out and fire Pete immediately after this confrontation. I’m 100% sure he would.
 
Steve: I agree with you. I think he has the emotional desire to do that. But I also think Pete would blab around town about this.
Whereas if Pete stays there working at Sterling Cooper, he's young, so really being head of accounts would be a surprising and very quick advancement. He can play for time.
 
So I think by keeping him around, it serves some useful purposes for Don in terms of maintaining his secret.
Because this isn't something anybody wants to get out and go around the room.
 
Either Pete that, hey, I tried to blackmail him and failed, or Don to say, oh, I'm someone other than who I pretended to be.
 
So to me, it is a very fascinating statement that Bert makes to Don. And thinking about it in that way, I can start to make sense of why he might choose to keep Pete around.
 
Jenna: They're stuck together a little while longer.
 
 
We move next into another flashback.
We see Don and his commanding officer,
and Don is terrified he's being shot at.
As you mentioned, Rachel called Don a coward earlier,
and here we see him quivering in the ditch.
 
He's asking questions he would never ask today, no matter how worried or undone he felt. We saw that in this previous scenes.
He's saying, sir, what do we do? Is it over? Will they be back?
 
Maybe it is Rachel's accusation of cowardice that makes him square his shoulders and face that music with Bert and Pete.
 
He can't escape his cowardice as long as he isn't honest with himself.
And the cost of that dishonesty is relationship after relationship. Betty and Adam and Rachel, these people who look to him to be real.
And he's just an illusion.
 
Steve: Yeah. And I think as well,
from whatever else he is, he has been under enemy fire. And then there's this horrible accident and explosion that kills, you know, the real Don Draper.
Dick Whitman wets his pants in the midst of the artillery fire and the sniper fire they're under.
 
But that's not an experience most of us will ever face.
So, honestly, we don't know how we would perform under similar conditions. And watching it, I got the sense of just how human and normal it was for Dick Whitman, and that if this continued and had his military career gone on, he would have got to a place where that was normal and he would handle it a lot better.
 
But we're seeing the first time, and it really frightens him. And then this terrible accident.
Again, just the insanity of war and. And just these strange little events that have such profound consequences for the characters. There's no rhyme or reason to it.
 
I think neither of us are really big fans of the flashbacks generally, but I do feel that this one really drives home just the insanity of war and the shaping effects it had on Dick Whitman,
which I think in future episodes, we're going to see more elements of this in that brotherhood and connectivity has to veterans.
 
Jenna: It's a brilliant juxtaposition here because you might look at this scene and think that this is the cowardice, right. But I agree with you, that is a completely normal human reaction.
And we don't see our Don Draper having completely normal human reactions very often.
 
Everything is masked. To see him here,
which you would probably describe as cowardly, although it's understandable, right?
 
But then the real cowardice is this mask he puts on, and this refusal to be genuine with anybody, even people he purports to love.
That cowardice, I think, is what's unforgivable.
That cowardice is what is tragic.
Not being afraid in the dirt while people are shooting at you.
 
 
Steve: We then continue the flashback. He gets the Purple Heart in the hospital,
and there's the mistaken identity because he's taken lieutenant's dog tags from the corpse.
 
And we can see it's almost a conveyor belt of awarding these Purple Hearts to these men who have been injured.
And he gets the good news that he's going to be sent home early.
They're also going to have him deliver Dick Whitman's coffin to his guardians.
 
Jenna: Yeah. You know, all of the big six characters, except probably Roger, are reaching for identities beyond their realities.
 
And Don and Pete and Peggy, I think, too, they both want increased power and respect.
And I have to wonder why is Pete's straightforward, naked ambition. Why does that seem so much more distasteful than the other means of reaching for power? Like Don's ascent to power, for instance.
 
Steve: That's a good question. I think, for me,
Pete is so bald about it and so selfish and doesn't seem to have any qualms about whatever it takes to climb up the slippery pole.
He'll literally do anything to anyone.
The goal is to get on top of the pole.
 
As we move down the spectrum from Pete, lots of characters are going to do some fairly unsavory things,
but it does seem that they've got other codes, values, norms,
responsibilities, commitments that, to some greater or lesser extent, they're going to adhere to.
 
To me, Pete just feels like he's at one end of the spectrum where it's just all safeties are off, and he will literally do anything to anyone to get what he wants.
 
Jenna: But in a weird way, at least it's out in the light, where Don is moving and lurking in the shadows about who he is and what he wants.
 
And he almost - I don't even think he knows what he wants, where at least Pete is direct. It's such an interesting comparison between the two of them because they are so similar and yet they're miles apart.
 
 
Steve: I really love the scene of the train delivering the coffin home,
and we can see Don's stepmom, stepfather, and little Adam. Don can't get off the train and makes a point of saying, hey, he can't do this.
 
So his partner from the military is going to go out and deliver the coffin, and Adam spots him and then, of course, says,
oh, Dick's there on the train. I can see him, and gets dismissed.
 
But it's so heartbreaking because we know where Adam's going to end up in his loneliness as he tries to preserve some sort of family and belonging.
 
And it's also an interesting sneak peek into the future of Don Draper and his womanizing,
as the woman on the train says, you know, let me buy a soldier a drink, and puts her hand on top of Don's, which, you know, at this time, which would be in the early 1950s, is a pretty brazen move.
 
Jenna: Yeah, there's a lot packed into a really short space in this scene.
Quick call-out: this guy on the train who's taking the original Don Draper's body home as Dick Whitman - he was James Gandolfini's stand in on The Sopranos. So he's included in this short scene, which is an interesting nod.
 
The scene where the new Don Draper will not face his old family. He's gone undercover, so there are reasons why he doesn't want to show himself. It gives up his switch, right.
 
If it were just the parents, you might still take issue with the lie, but not the fact that he abandons them without further contact. But it isn't just the parents.
It's abandoning Adam, too.
 
You know, Dick Whitman has to die so that he can live, he thinks. And another key moment with the train, is Don looking away from his old family.
 
The young woman comes along and says, did you know him?
A little, Don says. And that's true.
Both of the original Don Draper, of course, and himself.
And this name he takes, or Don's, if you will, draping himself in a new identity.
 
And she says,
you've got your whole life ahead of you.
And this idea of moving forward with Don Draper is always important.
 
Forget that boy in the box.
Look at you. Let me buy a soldier a drink.
 
And we can imagine this pattern unfolding again and again as Dick Whitman tries to forget the boy in the box, over countless drinks with multiple women.
 
Steve: Yeah. And the train is carrying him off to his future life as Don Draper, which at this point, I'm sure he has very little idea of where it's going to take him.
 
He's escaped his hometown,
but his career in the army is over.
So where does he go next? And if you just put yourself in his shoes at that moment on that train, it really is a fork in the road for the rest of his life.
 
Jenna: And the trains figure so prominently. We've mentioned this before.
Waiting at the train tracks at Sally's birthday, deciding which path to take.
Just like the hobo told him, riding the rails makes you free. And Don moving ahead here on a train and starting a new life.
 
And then this transition. The next scene focuses on Don Draper's hat on a train, going home to Betty in suburbia.
 
Steve: And it is a great last scene to wrap up this pivotal episode, where we have the Nixon concession speech on the television.
We've got Betty sleeping on the sofa.
 
This train, commuter train that Don has taken home has brought him to this point in his life, which he was ready to cut and run from earlier in the episode.
 
And now he's back in the house,
almost like a defeated Nixon at this point. Where will Nixon go next? You know, we have no idea. And it feels like Don Draper in some ways is at a similar point, at least in terms of his relationships, if not professionally, where he's been made partner recently.
 
So everything is ship shape for the creative genius.
 
Jenna: Yes. And Betty sleeping is so critical here. She doesn't know these things about Don that Pete and Bert and to a lesser extent Rachel know about him. She's literally in the dark as he stands over her,
not paying attention to her, but focusing on the loss.
 
 
Steve: And Nixon's concession speech is very, very notable and was considered very sad and a difficult thing for him to face defeat on those terms at that time and especially in hindsight where now we know that Nixon's going to be back in eight years and win,
you know, two elections as president and then leave in shame.
 
So it is so difficult with modern eyes to look back at this younger Richard Nixon as a losing presidential candidate in 1960 rather than the disgraced two term president.
 
 
Jenna: As we wrap up today,
we'd like to give a shout out to our listeners, especially Del P. From New York, New York. We appreciate the social media shares and follows and all your support for our podcast.
 
If any of our listeners would like to leave us a positive review, wherever you listen to podcasts, or share our podcast with a friend, we are really happy to grow connections and find other fans of this amazing show, Mad Men.
Thank you so much.
 
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.