My Old Kentucky Home S3E3 Transcript

Below, find the full, human-edited transcript of our Mad Men C to Z podcast episode from Season 3, Episode 3: My Old Kentucky Home.

You can listen to the podcast episode here.
Visit the episode webpage for quotes, opinion questions, and more details.

Mad Men C to Z S3E3: My Old Kentucky Home Full 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: Welcome to Season three, Episode three, My Old Kentucky Home.
This episode was written by Dahvi Waller and Matthew Weiner and directed by Jennifer Getzinger.
 
There are several reasons I feel uncomfortable saying that I like this episode, and Roger in blackface is at the top of that discomfort list.
 
But I do look forward to this episode in rewatches, and I think maybe it's because we get to see these flashes of talent and small wins throughout the episode, while the last episode we saw seemed to be so much about people losing agency and direction.
 
Steve: Yeah, I'm more on the ick scale for this episode. There are some glimmers, I think, but there are also these moments where, if not behaving badly, then people are depressingly predictable or not at their best.
 
Jenna:  [Laughing] So let's get into this depressing episode.
It'll be great.

Yeah, I see what you mean. I think that's also true.
 
This episode takes place on and around May 4, 1963, which was Derby Day. The first Kentucky Derby day was in 1875 at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
This race has a lot of traditions, like the winning horse getting a garland of red roses, fancy hats, the singing of My Old Kentucky Home, and mint juleps.
 
And since Betty was was serving mint juleps at Sally's birthday party in season one in The Marriage of Figaro, it's likely that Sally's birthday is either upcoming or has just happened.
 
I'm just hoping there was birthday cake.
 
Steve: The episode kicks off with a casting call and we've got the guys ogling the women. We've also got Peggy in the room having to endure this ogling.
 
The part of this scene that's probably the funniest to me is Peggy calling out Harry for being there, saying that he doesn't really need to be there, he doesn't have a job or a place, and Harry's just quite happy to be there ogling the women.
 
Jenna: Yes. And for somebody who seems so perpetually anxious about what bad thing will happen next, it's a little unusual to me that Harry is so confident here, but he's asking the girl who's auditioning for the Bye Bye Birdie Patio commercial, I'd love it if you could do the twist one more time. And it's just disgusting. What's up with that, Harry?
 
Then we see Ken and Pete coming in to make the news about Bacardi and the fact that they have to work on the weekend.
 
So Ken and Pete are delivering this news together, and they seem to be trying to appear on the same page and speak with one voice, which, of course is a major contrast from where Pete was with Ken two episodes ago.
 
Steve: Well, and we also learn that Ken and Pete are invited to Roger's Derby Day party. And you can see this is a source of frustration for Paul, who realizes he's not in that tier to which Pete and Ken are party.
 
Jenna: Yes. Roger didn't even know Harry's name when he went in to ask to start the television department, so Harry has gained a lot of professional clout that he's included.
 
It seems like Paul is really feeling left out. And Sal goes,
I've been here six years longer than you have.
So both of them are feeling put out.
Steve: And Peggy says they hate creative, pushing that friction between the business and the account side of things and the creative artistic geniuses.
 
Jenna: Paul's open jealousy is annoying, but it's such good writing.
People absolutely keep score about who's in what tier and who has the boss's ear.
And it's so realistic that there's that one guy verbalizing his discontent about where he finds himself.
 
Next we see Joan coming into the office, presumably after lunch, with Allison and another secretary, and she runs into Jane.
 
Joan, I notice, doesn't use her name, but another secretary says,
lovely to see you here, Jane - I mean, Mrs. Sterling.
 
Jane doesn't know about Joan and Roger, and Joan, I don't think, wanted to marry Roger, but it still doesn't make this pleasant. And plus, Jane and Joan have their own power play history.
 
And Jane sends a whole series of pings to Joan.
And Joan can't squash them the way she normally would because of Jane's status as Roger's wife.
In the last episode, we saw Joan treating Betty like royalty in the office,
and she won't do that for Jane, but she can't be overtly rude either.
 
Steve: They know exactly how they feel about each other, but they're going to keep things polite and behave the right way. And that just makes the tension all the more intense.
 
Jenna: I think Jane's outfit here is really gorgeous, I have to say,
but her words are pure poison. She says Roger is having her rings resized because she keeps losing weight.
 
And she says that she gets a nosebleed above 86th street, as a shot about her more prestigious address.
 
I feel like if Jane hadn't snagged Joan's former lover and manipulated her way against Joan's office decree, Joan would probably be proud of Jane for this outcome. I mean, Jane is the epitome of what Joan expected Peggy to dream of on her first day at work.
However.
 
Steve: Yeah, I think that's a good point, but it's, it's a lot more personal for Joan and she ends the scene just glaring as Jane walks away.
 
Jenna: The worst shot is when Jane gives Joan an assignment and she says, could you have one of the girls run down to get my driver at 1:15?
And Joan is so composed, but she is not going to kiss Jane's ring.
 
 
Steve: The next scene cuts to Peggy, who's talking to her new admin, Olive. And she's squaring away the point that Harry isn't to be scheduled for future casting calls. We see Olive looking after Peggy's needs as an admin assistant.
 
But there's also a strong sense of this motherly attention.
Just the age difference and Olive caring for Peggy - the writers really intend for us to perceive Olive as a mother figure here at introduction.
 
Jenna: Yes, she's quite a bit older than Peggy and they're still getting used to each other. This is another dynamic that Peggy needs to navigate in the office.
 
It was one thing for Peggy to boss Lola or Lois around, but Olive is something else.
By the way, Olive is played by Judy Kain, and her resume goes all the way back to 1981, with guest appearance on dozens of well-known TV shows.
 
 
Steve: We next cut back to the Draper residence where Betty's talking about the party and that she wants to go and that she bought a dress for it.
 
Jenna: I should have been tracking earlier - I think we see Don agitating to get out of every single social gathering unless he's planned it. I will have to watch for exceptions, but Betty is really excited about having this social outing to Roger's party. And then of course, Don doesn't want to go.
 
They're also having this conversation in front of a whole bunch of potatoes that Gene peeled while Betty went out - something about KP duty. So we can see these flashes of Gene's unwellness and why he's living with them in the first place.
 
Steve: Yeah, Gene's in a funny spot in this episode, because we don't really get any blatant scenes of his unwellness, like we did at the prior episode with the Prohibition raid fear.
 
But it's always lurking in the scenes with Gene and it creates a tension, I think, as to is he all there? Is he understanding, you know, what's he going to do next? So as a viewer, it keeps me on the edge of my seat even when it doesn't manifest itself.
 
 
Jenna: And what's Gene doing? Well, Sally's reading to him.
She's reading the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which is a six volume series by Edward Gibbon, and she's reading it out loud to her grandfather. This is clearly a habit that they've built together.
 
And when Don comes up and says it's bedtime, Sally clearly doesn't want to go. She waits for her grandfather's okay before she puts the book away and she hugs him good night.
 
We haven't seen Sally reading with her parents since the first season,
and you can tell she's growing close to her grandfather.
Even though I feel like his reading choices for her leave a little something to be desired.
 
Steve: Yeah. But I think from Sally's perspective, maybe there's the appeal of him treating her more as an adult. Right. It's not a children's book and notably, you know, the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire -
so we've got this theme of decay and deterioration that's pervaded this season to this point.
 
And I think it's also a nice relationship that we see that Gene has a relationship with Sally in a way that perhaps is lacking with both Don and, and Betty. They always seem too busy or to view Sally as some sort of nuisance or hassle rather than, you know, interacting with her for, for her own sake.
Now, I don't know, maybe Gene just wants somebody to read him, you know, this history. There feels like there's a warmth there between the two of them.
 
Jenna: Yes. And I definitely think that's the point.
He could choose any book and she would be just as happy to sit there and read it to him and be with him and have attention from somebody, because we've seen she doesn't really get that from her family.
So maybe another author option once in a while, Gene? [Laughter] Maybe. Maybe flexibility.
 
Steve: Yeah, the, the selection that Sally's reading aloud is, is really quite comical, you know, in terms of a, a young girl reading this to her grandpa and, you know, it's talking about the decline of Roman society and, and the different peoples and the rest.
 
Jenna: “Fashion was the only law, pleasure was the only pursuit.” Every eight year old reads this, right?
 
 
Steve: We cut back to the office, where Peggy, Paul and Smitty are now working on the weekend. They're wearing their weekend attire, they're having some drinks. They're not happy to be in the office, but it seems like they're trying to make the best of it.
 
Jenna: Oh, I don't know that they're making the best of it. Peggy has her head on her desk and Kurt says Mary Jane is his muse and booze puts him to sleep.
 
And Paul is only talking about what's happening at the garden party.
I'm really not sure why they came into work at all, because they aren't getting a ton done.
 
In three different storylines across this episode, there are strivers who are losers. And Paul gets this unhappy distinction. Here he so desperately wants to be invited to Roger's party, instead of being forced to work, while, in contrast, Olive voluntarily came in to work on Saturday since Peggy is.
 
She mentions that her son is in college. I kind of get the feeling that Olive doesn't have a lot to do at home, so she comes here.
 
Steve: Yeah, and there's also this funny dynamic between Olive and Peggy where it does feel like Olive is mothering Peggy to some extent. So she's not a normal admin assistant. Her age and experience have put her in a different dynamic with Peggy.
 
It's ironic that Paul's whining about not getting invited because Don would happily cough up his invitation and, you know, Ken goes stag to the party. I think Pete would be happy not to go. So it's funny that the ones who do go would be happy not to go. And meanwhile, Paul is just seeing it as the status knock.
 
Jenna: Maybe Paul should have invited Roger to his party at the opening of season two. Now he's paying the price.
 
Steve: Yeah, perhaps in terms of making the best of it. I mean, they're going to make a frappe.
So that seems like, you know, early smoothie action in the office.
 
Jenna: Bacardi-Lightful.
 
While Paul is whining about not feeling important and describing Pete as being to the manner born, emphasizing the contrast in class,
he seems to begrudge Ken and Harry's inclusion more than Pete's.
 
But Kurt doesn't care about any of that. He just wants to get high. And he says, you must know a guy. And because Paul wants to feel important, somehow, he figures out someone he can call.
 
And they just need five ideas. So if they just did the work, they could go home, but instead they have this whole diversion now.
 
Steve: Yeah, and I think we see, you know, that aspect of Paul's character where he likes to put up the image and to present as something he's not. He's got a guy because he likes to smoke marijuana.
 
And I almost get the sense that Smitty is kind of measuring Paul against this request a little bit. Like, he tees it up as a bit of a challenge, and Paul rises to it.
 
Jenna: It's so easy and predictable to push Paul's buttons, because he just wants to feel important everywhere he goes.
 
 
Steve: We cut back to the Draper residence, and Betty's getting dressed, and she calls Sally over to zip her.
Sally says she looks pretty.
Betty doesn't really have any time for her, you know, tells her to go off and watch tv.
This season is when we start to see more the tragedy of Betty's parenting that we haven't really seen a lot to this point.
 
Jenna: Yeah. Sally is in her little-kid world for a second, and we realize how adult she has to be, a lot of the time with her parents.
She goes, I just walked backwards all the way from the living room.
 
Her mother has nothing to say to that. She doesn't even smile at her.
Okay. It's not exactly a marketable skill. But Betty doesn't seem interested in what Sally's doing unless it's something wrong.
 
And Sally already knows what her mother likes to hear. So when she says, you look pretty, and I think Betty really does - it might be one of her prettiest looks ever. She's lovely.
 
And you would think that would make Betty happy to hear, but she doesn't particularly seem to.
 
And then Sally says that Grandpa says, you're going to a soiree. And Betty doesn't talk about the party.
She doesn't define the word.
She doesn't do anything to promote Sally's relationship with her grandfather. She just says, don't bother him. Go watch TV.
That is Sally's story for Betty, and it's so sad. I agree.
 
Steve: Yeah. And I think the truth of the writing for me is if a parent isn't interested in their child, I. I don't think they can fake it. Even if they say the words or go through the motions,
I think the child sees through it and feels that absence of interest.
 
And I think for the character Sally, we're starting to perceive that she's realizing this is the case with her own mother, and this is going to cause issues for her throughout her life.
 
Speaking of getting up to no good, Sally does walk by Grandpa's room and spots his money clip on the bedside table and helps herself to a $5 bill. While Gene is in the washroom, she is getting up to some mischief, it seems.
 
Jenna: Why do you think she does this?
 
Steve: Having listened to Weiner's commentary about it, and I think he said that this was a story from his own youth where he'd done something similar, I think it's just one of those weird, random kid things where being adult enough to realize that money has value and there's an opportunity to help yourself to some money.
 
But at the same time, she's not a thief. She doesn't want to be that or to steal from her grandfather, whatever. I just took it as one of those nonsensical, illogical, impulsive, childlike moves. What was your take?
 
Jenna: That makes sense to me. And I understand that this act really drives the story. Yes. It doesn't seem to me like there's any clear reason why she does it. It just seems to be a crime of opportunity.
 
 
Our next scene takes us to Greg and Joan's apartment.
I've missed seeing more of Joan this season. I can't say I enjoy this episode for her because her dreams come true. But I do like seeing her story developing more.
 
And everything about this scene speaks to her competence again, which I so admire, especially next to Paul's sniveling.
 
So Greg is vacuuming. She admonishes him not to pull the cord out from the wall. She says, you're going to break it. And he says, who told you that? And she says, I've done it.
Again, it's her experience, her expertise.
 
And they're setting places for the table and she and Greg have this argument. He says the chief of surgery has to sit at the head of the table. It's where he always sits.
 
And Joan insists it's Greg's house. Greg is the head of the table, and she won't budge because then their wives will think she doesn't know better.
 
Steve: Yeah, Joan is the one who's correct here on the etiquette and sets Greg straight. He's not incorrect that the head of surgery is the senior person, but listening to Weiner's commentary, Greg is the old fashioned husband.
 
He's handsome, he's a doctor, but Joan is the one who's really in charge and she knows how things go and how things need to go. So she's managing her husband, she's setting up for the party and sort of keeping all the plates spinning.
 
She doesn't strike me as unhappy about this. Like it feels to me, in many ways, this is what she signed up for with this relationship with Greg. Right. He brings the qualities he brings, but there's a bunch of other qualities that she's going to be responsible for and delivering.
 
Jenna: Yes, good point. Just like at work, she's behind the scenes making sure everything is going as it should.
 
And Greg and Joan have this fantastic exchange. He says, I don't want to have a fight right now. And she says, then stop talking.
It's great.
 
And she's so resourceful, too. She sees his concern about Dr. Ettinger and understands that this gathering is about Greg's ascendance. So she finds a different solution:
They're going to have a buffet, and they're going to put the chafing dish that the Ettingers gave them for their wedding present in the center.
At every turn, she's the one who knows better.
 
Steve: Yeah. And. And as Greg removes his shirt, she gets a good look at him, and he's a good looking guy. So I think we see that affirmation of her husband's easy on the eyes, and that's something that appeals to her.
 
 
Jenna: Back at the Draper household, Don sees Betty looking gorgeous, and at least he comments on it. But then Gene comes in saying he's been robbed.
 
And we know his memory can be shaky, so they aren't convinced he's correct.
And Betty just says, Don, give him something. And Don tries to give him $5.
Gene complains, you people, you think money is the answer to every problem. And Don replies, no, just this particular problem.
 
Although we have talked about Don's behaviors in the face of conflict, and money definitely is one of Don's favorite strategies. So it's kind of a fair accusation on Gene's part.
 
Steve: And we as the viewer know that Sally's taken the money. I wonder how the scene would play out for the viewer if we hadn't seen that take place.
So then we would have that uncertainty about, is Gene even correct? Is he missing any money, or is he just befuddled? Again, I also sense this racial tension or class tension probably combination with Carla there as well, because you can feel this specter of, oh, well, maybe they're going to accuse Carla.
 
Gene doesn't do that in the scene, but the first time through watching this, I really got the sense of feeling like, oh, he, he suspects Carla in this case. And in listening to Matt Weiner's commentary, he says, Gene knows all along what has happened or, you know, strongly suspects what has happened. I sense more of that class / race tension.
 
Jenna: Yes. I didn't think that Gene suspected anything about Sally at this point, but I think he is rightly frustrated that Betty and Don are brushing past him about this. I think it's more than the money to him.
 
Steve: And the dismissiveness, the disdain that  - he says the line about, you people, you know, think money solves everything.
It just underlines that apathy that Gene has towards Don. You know, he doesn't like this guy. He's never going to like him.
 
And even when he's trying to make him whole with some money out of his own pocket that's somehow wrong or not good enough, you know, you can't win as Don Draper with Gene.
 
Jenna: The next scene takes us back to Sterling Cooper, and we see Paul's friend showed up with some weed and this Tom Cruise slash Christian Bale lookalike. And really, Tom Cruise sound-alike. This is the actor Miles Fisher.
 
We find out that Paul and Jeffrey went to Princeton together,
and they graduated in 1955, which means Paul is about 30.
 
Steve: And Jeffrey makes a point of calling out Paul's failure to call him. So, you know, Paul's caught in that lie of, oh, here's my guy that I sourced my marijuana from. And now it's clear to Smitty that he's not having conversations or much interaction with Jeffrey. But they've got the weed. They're there in the office, holed up. I guess they're going to relax and sit around together.
 
Jenna: When Jeffrey says, you ever look out this window?
I feel like it's an unintentional reminder for Paul to touch grass, pun intended, instead of just spinning on his hamster wheel of comparison stress.
Because for Jeffrey, it's amazing. The city is before you. And Paul and Kurt are taking that view for granted, their opportunities, their status, for granted. They're only looking up at what they don't have, or at least Paul is.
 
 
Next we get to see Roger and Jane's Derby Day party.
We hear When the Saints Go Marching in, which was a spiritual tune popularized by Louis Armstrong's 1938 recording.
 
The whole party is beautiful, and Betty is clearly happy to be on Don's arm. As they arrive, Jennifer and Harry head toward them, but Trudy and Pete get there first.
 
And Jennifer brings up Betty's pregnancy. Even though we see Trudy is left out of this discussion, and we know it pains her, she is 100% at work and she understands the assignment. Don is important, so Betty is important, so that's where Trudy is going to be. And she takes Betty's arm and she says, shall we take a tour?
 
And as they walk away, they both talk about how they grew up in clubs just like this one. Trudy is so on mission here, even though the discussion of pregnancy and Betty's obvious pregnancy has to make her feel a little bit envious.
 
Steve: Yeah, and I just feel for the Trudy character because we, we know any of this talk about babies, little daggers sticking her and she has to keep a smile on her face.
 
 
Jenna: Back at the Drapers’ house, Carla is looking through the bedding for $5 and Gene says, you're being ridiculous. I didn't say you took it.
“Not yet,” she says.
So that brings up what you were mentioning earlier.
 
And then Gene calls her Viola, confusing her with his housekeeper of many years.
She corrects him, and then he asks if she knows Viola, who lives in another city.
We don't all know each other, Mr. Hofstadt, Carla tells him.
 
Steve: Yeah, I like Carla standing up for herself to Gene.
And again from the commentary, Matt Weiner suggests that Gene realizes what's occurred here.
 
I don't know if Carla realizes Sally's the one who's done it,
but when Sally comes out prematurely from supposedly looking for it and Gene confronts her and says, oh, are you already done looking? And Sally sort of reads between the lines and goes back to look some more.
I feel for Sally in this moment because she's, she's caught in this web and there's no easy escape.
 
Jenna: That's where I think that it really crystallizes for Gene, that that's what happened, when he sizes her up in that moment.
 
Steve: Yeah, Gene may be a little fuddled, but he's no dummy.
 
Jenna: Don is such a good liar all the time. And seeing Sally not being a good liar is kind of refreshing. I mean, I'm glad she didn't get that trait.
 
 
Steve: We cut back to Sterling Cooper's office and we've got Peggy napping in her office.
 
So to your earlier point, you know, they could get the work done and be out of there. Instead this, this day is dragging out.
Peggy wakes up and Olive rats them out. Paul and them being in the office. And she says, you know, she knows what they're doing, and they don't want to work.
 
It's kind of funny because Jeffrey's riffing on commercials and Paul's talking about inspiration. And then Jeffrey hits on Peggy.
 
Jenna: Olive says, you don't want to go in there to Peggy.
Peggy doesn't verbally confront her, but Peggy does what Peggy wants. So she does in fact go into the office and Paul says, you know, you can go home, but she knows better. She says, are you kidding? We'll end up with nothing.
She's always the one who gets the work done.
 
She says, I'm Peggy Olson and I want to smoke some marijuana. It's such a semi famous line, but I really prefer her line after it.
 
Paul says, you won't like it. And that's what Olive was telling her too: you should go home.
And she answers, how do you know what I'll like? You never ask me what I think about anything, except brassieres and body odor and makeup.
 
And I love that she calls him out and stares him down about this.
And granted, Paul Kinsey isn't the world's most giant obstacle, but bravo, Peggy.
 
And Paul nods. It isn't an apology, just permission to partake. And she does.
 
Steve: Let's just add Peggy to the list of women who put Paul in his place. And he's smart enough to know she's correct.
 
 
Jenna: Back at the garden party, we see Roger with Jane. Roger is in blackface and he's singing My Old Kentucky Home to Jane.
Don looks icky, Pete looks really unsure, and Betty, Trudy, Jennifer, and Harry all look really amused by this performance.
 
I didn't get the sense that Don was as bothered by the racism as much as he is by the overt display. He thinks Roger is making a fool of himself.
 
And looking ahead to another famous Mad Men moment: it's almost like singing in front of your guests is something that makes Don uncomfortable.
 
Steve: Yeah, I had the same vibe. So, not that Don necessarily is any more racist than anybody else at the party, but I interpreted his unhappiness with just, he doesn't want to be there.
 
And again, like you mentioned, a more heavier emphasis on Roger's delusion of having found love again with Jane, this silly fantasy, and he needs to exit himself.
 
I noticed Pete also seemed very disgusted by it. What was your take on Pete's thoughts?
 
Jenna: He didn't seem clear. He looked unsure. He definitely was not amused the way that his friends were, but it was hard to read from his face. He definitely looked uncomfortable about it, but it wasn't overt disgust, I didn't think. It certainly wasn't approval.
 
Steve: Yeah. And as you mentioned, there were a lot of other guests who seemed amused and entertained and, you know, no, no sense of any discomfort whatsoever.
 
Going back to the Weiner commentary, he talks about, you know, this is fiddling while Rome is burning again, with this decay and deterioration taking place. And yet, you know, the people in charge who should know better are just going back to the same old tired, well, oblivious to the fact that changes need to be made, or changes are in fact occurring whether they like it or not.
 
Jenna: So Don asks Betty if they can go, but she's having a good time. They haven't watched the horse race yet. They haven't eaten dinner yet. And she tells him, don't disappear. I want to dance.
But he walks away. He never asks her to dance.
 
Steve: We kind of wished Don Draper would be willing to lean forward a little bit into, you know, making his very pregnant wife happy.
 
Jenna: Exactly.
 
Steve: Don goes inside to find himself a drink, and bumps into an older gentleman at the bar.
 
Jenna: He introduces himself as Connie, played by Chelcie Ross. You might recognize him from shows like Hoosiers, Billions, A Simple Plan, Basic Instinct, and Major League.
 
Connie and Don share stories about growing up poor and working their ways up and their distaste for social gatherings like these.
Connie says other people's weddings make him nervous. All those expectations, and the one he's hiding from right now is a match made in the boardroom.
 
And it's interesting how both of them belong, but they're apart.
Connie reveals that no matter how expensive his cufflinks, he feels like an outsider among the country club crowd.
 
And true to form, Don tells his truths to strangers.
He grew up in Pennsylvania by way of Illinois, losing their farm and ending up in coal country. And again, we get a detail here that we didn't know yet.
 
Steve: Yeah, and the other parallel, I think here, too, is if the people laughing at the stupid blackface gag is fiddling while Rome burns,
here's two serious men who are not doing that.
 
They wrestle with their sense of outsiderness,
but as we'll learn later, as we learn more about who Connie is,
you know, he's a serious businessman who's built an empire.
And I think in many ways, we could argue Don Draper, you know, has achieved, you know, a similar migration from very humble, modest beginnings to being highly successful in a very competitive, demanding field.
 
Jenna: Yes. And if Don knew who this person was, the whole interaction would have gone differently. He would have said so much less. He would have been much more guarded, even though Connie seems pretty open.
 
And Don is also a little condescending. He corrects him that the title is A Midsummer Night's Dream, when Connie refers to the movie as A Midsummer Dream.
And Connie clocks that. He says, by golly, you're prickly.
Which I think shows that they're pretty evenly matched. Don is calling him out for the mistake. Connie is calling him back for being nitpicky.
And so I think they have respect for each other, even here.
 
Steve: Yeah. And I think also if we put ourselves in Connie's shoes, he's in a world where people are pandering to him all the time.
So these little interactions where he interacts with somebody who doesn't know who he is - I mean, Don jumps the bar in front of him and proceeds to mix up an old fashioned for him.
 
I get the sense that Connie is entertained by this. Seeing people the way they really act, you know, when they don't know who the other person is. So that there's a sense of bemusement, I think, on Connie's face throughout the scene.
 
Jenna: Everybody Don sees is seeing him act and they don't know who he is. That's a great comparison.
 
I also felt like Connie was sort of Don's version of Father Gill to Peggy.
There's this connection between them, because they identify something in common that most people around them don't share.
 
In Peggy and Father Gill's case, it's youth and openness to societal change.
And in Don and Connie's case, it's this disdain for corporate culture and discomfort with the moneyed traditions.
 
 
Steve: Back at Sterling Cooper, the marijuana is working its magic. Everybody is stoned, giggling, Paul's munching on chips.
 
Jenna: Bacardi Eisenhower makes them all giggle.
 
Steve: And then Jeffrey starts spilling the beans a little bit on Paul's history, talking about him as a real Jersey.
 
Jenna: Okay. Paul fires the first shot. Jeffrey seems semi into Peggy, and he says she makes him wish he had a job. And Paul says, you do have a job, Jeffrey. You're a drug pusher.
 
So Jeffrey wasn't firing shots until that.
 
Steve: Well, it quickly escalates, because Jeffrey says that Paul can't sing and got kicked out of the Tiger Tones because he was too tall.
Paul says he left just because he had mono.
 
And then Jeffrey challenges him to sing and let them all judge.
So we've got Jeffrey calling out Paul's lower class origins, and his lack of singing ability. He's kind of putting Paul on the spot here.
 
Jenna: Yes, and it's a bridge too far. He tries to throw Jeffrey out. And as you say, Jeffrey suggests that he should sing, and let Peggy and Kurt decide whether he's good or not.
 
So Paul sings hello, My Baby. And midway through the song, he extends a hand to Jeffrey to join in, which he does, and they make peace as they finish the song together.
 
Peggy watches and her verdict is the line, I am so high, as she smiles.
 
Steve: It is kind of a sweet little healing of the rift between Jeffrey and Paul, because it could keep going the wrong way. But somehow the singing and the invitation to join reiterates the connections and shared history they have together.
 
So it's a little heartwarming to see them wrap up together and you realize that's water under the bridge and they're back to an even keel.
 
Jenna: I agree.
 
Steve: Maybe it was just the marijuana.
 
Jenna: The Tiger Tones is a real aca-awesome all-male Princeton a capella group founded in 1946.
Hello, My Baby was a Tin Pan Alley song from 1899, incorporating elements of ragtime, a black music tradition.
 
So here are these white Princeton grads singing a ragtime song while country club white Roger sings My Old Kentucky Home, which was a minstrel tune, each of them using the music to celebrate and elevate their status.
 
Or make peace with their friends while high, I guess.
 
 
Steve: Back at the party, Betty's waiting outside the bathroom, and she bumps into a gentleman.
I wish you were waiting for me.
And he asks her who she's waiting for.
Betty, always proper, says, a friend, and Henry asks what it's like to be pregnant and then asks to touch her stomach. What did you think of that?
 
Jenna: A lot of Mad Men fans talk about this moment as being a super creepy thing for Henry to do, when he puts his hand on Betty's pregnant belly.
And it is overly familiar and he's a stranger, so I get why people see it that way.
 
But he did ask and he waited for consent. So I guess on the Mad Men creepy scale, this didn't register so high with me.
Was it odd? Sure. But I didn't see him as some kind of monster.
 
I thought, though, that his first words to her were pretty direct.
I wish you were waiting for me.
I mean, given how obviously pregnant she is. And this is the country club set in 1963, so she's certainly married when he says this.
And then he confesses that he brought a date, but he wishes he hadn't, now that he's seen her.
He seems pretty into Betty.
 
Steve: Yeah. And if we put ourselves in Betty's shoes, I mean, she feels unattractive, unseen, she's neglected by her husband,
and then just the general physical discomfort of being so pregnant.
 
I mean, he's really providing everything she was hoping for out of this party in this instant. And I think that bridges whatever inappropriateness there is of his comments and his request, I think that gets eclipsed by the fact that she's seen and he's obviously dumbstruck by her beauty here. And in that moment, I think she's starving for that sort of attention.
 
Jenna: I'll point out he acknowledges that it's a little bit odd when he says, I'm gonna blame the martinis on this, before he asks to touch. So he isn't just overtly - I mean, it could be a lot weirder, I think.
 
Steve: And again, I like the writing because I think life is that way. That there are certain things that in a different set of circumstances or conditions would be inappropriate or unacceptable or called out or whatever.
 
But there are variables that if you adjust them in certain ways, suddenly things that were on the edge cease to tip over the edge of the cliff and become, if not acceptable, then at least tolerated or overlooked because of other aspects that have the focus.
 
And I think this rings to me as a realistic possibility, not a common one, but not impossible.
 
Jenna: This man, this character is played by Christopher Stanley, and he has also been in shows like the TV mini-series Waco, as well as American Horror Story and Argo. We'll see him again in a minute.
 
 
Steve: We cut back to Greg and Joan's party.
 
Jenna: Yeah. So the chief of surgery and the chief surgical resident and their wives are there.
Jud Tyler might be recognizable from Charlie Wilson's war and that 70s show, while her character's husband, played by Jamieson Haase, was in Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Tim Snay is Ronald Ettinger, and he also had a small part in Ocean's Eleven, while Pamela Roylance plays his wife. She was in The Social Network, Days of Our Lives, and Little House on the Prairie way, way back in the day.
 
These characters here, Honey Stolich and Rick Stolich, they don't seem to have the closest relationship. So before the women go into the kitchen, I really dislike this scene. I mean, you do not want to be done with Greg or Betty with Don.
 
But Honey seems a little bit clueless with her husband's frat boy jokes.
I don't know, maybe she is just smiling through the pain. But this thing about the Code Pink, the call over the PA at the hospital when there's an attractive, unconscious female, that's terrible.
 
And then they laugh at when she says she'll cut the cheese. And she says everything seems like some private joke. This is not a match that revels in respect.
 
Steve: Yeah, and Greg's nervous about this whole party.
He's walking on pins and needles. And lucky for him, he has Joan, who’s  so confident and so dialed in,
she's going to show well no matter what, and that'll be helpful to Greg.
 
Jenna: And the class issue comes up again here in this situation, because Mrs. Ettinger tells Joan in the kitchen that one day they'll look back on these hard times - meaning that Greg doesn't make a lot of money right now - and they'll smile.
She remembers when she was a kindergarten teacher, and she made so much more than he did when they were starting out.
 
Honey agrees. She says it will be easier when Greg becomes the chief resident.
And Mrs. Ettinger has this line already recognizing Joan's capabilities, as you say, as Greg does.
And she says, the fact that Greg can get a woman like you makes me feel good about his future, no matter what happens.
 
She likely knows a thing or two about Greg's future from her husband. So that is pretty foreboding.
 
Steve: Yeah, and Joan picks up on it right away, too. So Greg obviously hasn't shared any challenges or setbacks at work. And now Joan is starting to get some insight into the fact that there have been some setbacks.
 
 
Jenna: Back at the Draper house,
Carla tells Gene he should eat, but he's still concerned about his money.
You don't even know you lost it, Carla says to him.
I get why she feels that way, but it also, I think, amplifies his frustration.
 
Did you think he was making a bigger deal out of this than he should?
 
Steve: I'm going to go to Weiner's commentary that Gene knows Sally has taken it. So my take is he's making a deal about it to put pressure on Sally, because the lesson he wants to teach Sally about this is you can't do things like that. It's a mistake, and he wants her to sweat here.
 
I don't think Carla knows that Sally took it at this point. So I think Carla's at face value when she says, you know, you don't even know if you lost anything.
 
So to me, it's kind of an amusing friction between Carla and Gene,
even with Sally not in the room. You know, she does the little fiction of putting the money on the floor and then pretending that she spotted it. And at that moment, there's a camera shot of Carla's face.
And I think Carla's read in at that point, too. Oh, this is what's going on.
 
And it wasn't about me and Gene at any point, you know, just because Carla's a little, I think, defensive and worried that it's going to get hung on her.
 
Jenna: Rightly.
 
Steve: So that shot of Gene where he beckons with his finger after Sally picks up the money she just found on the floor, it's such a perfect one, because I think we can see Gene as the maestro of this little moment.
He's going to squeeze her a little bit further here. We're not just going to celebrate the found money and move past it.
 
Jenna: And let's also call out her acting here.
When Gene beckons Sally toward him and, you know, she brings the money and he stares her down and she gives it to him and he goes, yeah, that's it, all right. And she looks really scared.
 
And it's just this very tense moment and she's not saying anything, and he's not letting her out of it. And Carla breaks it. She says, well, that's a relief. Sally, your food's getting cold.
So Carla kind of swoops in as the savior, but what a great piece of acting between the two of them.
 
Steve: Yeah, I have lower standards for child actors, you know, just because of the challenges. But I think in this scene she really nails it and does just a brilliant job.
 
Jenna: Shout out, Kiernan Shipka. Well done.
I did also think it was sad that as Gene and Bobby and Sally sit at the table eating dinner together, Carla stands in the kitchen eating apart from them.
I know, it's 1963.
 
Steve: Yeah. I'm thinking it's probably Gene's presence. If he weren't there, if it was just Carla and the children, I'd imagine they'd eat at the table together.
 
 
Jenna: Next, we see Don and Betty sitting at the party with Pete and Trudy. If Trudy weren't so socially gifted, I don't think Don would be sitting at the same table as Pete.
 
Jennifer and Harry are sitting somewhere else, but she recognizes they are not at the cool kids table. And she pushes Harry to go make chit chat. And Harry's terrible at it and he knows it. And he says, I don't want to. All I have to talk about is work, which is verboten.
 
She says, come on, I'll talk. So they go, and Jennifer offers to Betty and Don, oh, I haven't seen you on the dance floor yet.
 
And we know Betty does want to dance, but Don hasn't asked her.
So she makes the excuse that she doesn't move that well right now.
And she says, Don loves to dance. I'm afraid I'm disappointing him.
And we've heard Don say he doesn't dance,
so it's a little sad to see Betty making excuses for him again. And that also doesn't go right for Jennifer.
 
It would be one thing if Jennifer were just awkward, but still trying to talk to anybody. I feel like Peggy would do that. She's not great at small talk.
 
But Jennifer only wants to talk to the important people, and level up Harry's importance too, just the way that Betty and Trudy are leveling up Don and Pete, the way that Joan levels up Greg.
 
Steve: We know that Betty invited Don back home after their separation.
We've been wondering, what is the status of their relationship? Is it getting better? You know, are they - is it any different than what it was?
 
I think this scene really makes it clear their relationship hasn't really changed, you know, is Don behaving any more differently, trying to do more? It doesn't seem feel like he is at all.
 
Like you say, we're back into the old pattern where, you know, Betty socially is covering up for Don versus airing that dirty laundry, you know, in front of everyone that she desperately would like to dance and he just won't do it.
 
Jenna: I did notice that Lane wasn't invited to this party. We don't get to see him in this episode.
But of course Roger would have invited Bert. So finally we get to see him.
 
Roger and Bert come over to their group and Bert introduces Don and Betty to Henry Francis. This is the man who was charmed by Betty and put his hand on her stomach.
 
Henry has just come from the wedding of Nelson and Happy Rockefeller. Happy had four kids and was divorced just one month earlier. So it was quite the scandal. And Betty and Bert discuss that.
 
Steve: Yeah. And out on the dance floor, we see Pete and Trudy dancing up a storm with the Charleston, basically clearing the floor. And everybody's marveling at their talents. And Pete and Trudy are both excellent dancers. And it really shows in this scene.
 
Jenna: The Charleston was a dance popular from the 1920s. In the commentary, Matthew Weiner says that even though it's well before their time, Pete and Trudy would have definitely taken classes and grown up to have learned these dances in their various social circles and training as part of their education.
 
And yes, they're really good and they're laughing and having fun.
And this is so rare for Pete. We haven't seen him be good at anything outside of work.
And he and Trudy are really enjoying each other, which is a important contrast to what we just talked about, where Don refuses to dance with Betty.
 
I really like seeing Pete this good at something that isn't bringing anybody else down, except, I guess he's bringing Jennifer Crane down.
 
As this song progresses, Trudy and Pete are taking more space on the dance floor and the other couples make way.
And I think that Jennifer wants Harry to want to be more of a star.
She's been pushing him to be part of the in group all night.
And now they've been pushed off the dance floor.
 
And Harry doesn't mind. He's smiling and he's happy. He doesn't need a star moment. He's also not paying attention as much to her as he is to Ken. I feel sorry a little for Jennifer, even though she's not very likable.
 
 
In the last episode, Love Among the Ruins, there were allusions to things being torn down, like the grandeur and the fall of Rome. And of course, we see that also in the book that Sally and Gene are reading together.
 
And this does feel a bit more like this idea of fiddling while Rome burns, in that it's not terribly meaningful work to be able to Charleston well at some party with cocktails and fancy hats.
 
Steve: We cut back to Sterling Cooper. Jeff is now gone. Paul's morbid, talking about the Cuban Missile crisis that had had occurred several months earlier, talking about how everyone almost died.
 
Smitty wants to go out on the roof with Peggy.
But we can see Peggy is back on task. She's thinking about the work.
She's ready to get down and knock out the assignment.
 
Jenna: Yes. Paul is lying on the floor quoting a poem by T.S. Eliot called The Hollow Men, which deals with hopelessness and feeling stuck.
 
And even though we know Paul is youngish and trying so hard to be modern and progressive, it's interesting how often he looks back instead of forward.
Because when Sterling Cooper was being sold, he said, I like this company the way it is.
And he was arguing in favor of keeping Penn Station to the Madison Square Garden clients.
 
And Kurt doesn't have a philosophy about that. He just seems like he's trying to interest Peggy in hanging out with him. Do you want to go on the roof? And she's like, why? Actually, that's a good idea. A hammock between the clotheslines is still Daiquiri Beach.
 
And they both ask her, are you working?
She's like, I think so.
 
I love that Peggy is so into her work that that's where her mind goes. I mean, Kurt was using work as an excuse to get high. But for Peggy, getting high was just an incidental part of her work day.
She was always here to work.
 
 
Steve: Peggy goes out, and Olive is still there. And we can see all of his concern for Peggy.
 
Jenna: I didn't get concern. I felt like she was judgy.
 
Steve: I think there's judgment in there, but I think there's concern as to the repercussions or the risks that Peggy's running here.
 
She's this alien creature to Olive and Olive's existence.
So she's trying to keep her safely behind the barricades, you know, in the world that she knows.
And I think Peggy has this realization that what's Olive is perceiving is, you know, a threat to Peggy. And Peggy realizes it's not a threat to her or at least, you know, doesn't feel threatened.
 
Jenna: So Olive's line, I know what you've been doing in there. I don't know what to say.
And Peggy isn't cowed by this. She says, I've got nothing to hide. She stands up for herself.
 
She says, the thing is, I have a job. I have my own office with my name on the door and I have a secretary. That's you.
And Weiner says that Peggy's lines here are what Peggy might say to her own mother that she's never said.
 
She reiterates she's not scared of any of this. And you get the sense that she is really confident about who she is, or growing. And that's such a change from where she started in the pilot.
 
Steve: I think Olive is scared and I think Peggy's looking to reassure her. So Olive's not trying to ping her or control her. She's looking out for her. And Peggy realizes she doesn't need to be looked out for.
 
And I think she's rather kind and gentle with Olive to just say, thanks, but no thanks. I've got this.
 
Jenna: Don't worry about me. I'm going to get to do everything you want from me. I'm going to be fine. I really am.
Yeah, I want that for Peggy.
 
 
Steve: Back at Joan and Greg's, we have Joan still talking to the wives.
They're in awe of her. You know, you know everything.
And then it comes up that Greg had a bad result on an operation.
 
And then we get this other perspective of this is some of the trouble Greg's having at work because it's clear the other surgeon is thought of very highly by the chief surgeon.
But Greg has struggled with this operation.
 
Jenna: Everyone gets a bad result once in a while.
That's one way to put it.
 
Steve: And Greg's trying to change the subject. So he asks for Joan to play the accordion and sing to everyone.
 
Jenna: If Paul feels like the left-out striver in the office and Jennifer is the left-out striver at the garden party, Greg is the left-out striver here.
 
When he hears the chief surgeon complimenting the chief resident, saying how they'll miss him and that he has great hands,
Greg looks at his own hands.
 
And Rick catches that moment and he says, look, Greg, it's a complicated operation. It happens.
Joan has never heard what happened,
and Greg explains, oh, I don't like to worry Joanie about these kinds of things.
 
So even though she's on top of everything,
he pretends like he's excluding her so she won't worry.
And the truth that Joan is just starting to learn here is that Greg isn't just bad at home. He's ineffective at work, too.
 
He practically begs her to play for them.
Joan doesn't want to. She's the hostess. She's not a performing monkey. He's so insistent, there's really no graceful way to decline.
 
Steve: Well, he goes and gets the accordion and hands it to her. You know, like, to your point,
how do you take the accordion from him and then say, well, no, no, I'm not going to play, and go, put it back.
 
She gives in and in effect bails him out, I think, because it changes the subject and the conversation stops. And then she performs and, you know, performs well and sings in French.
So again, we just see Joan and her talents again in service of Greg.
 
Jenna: The song she sings and plays is C'est Magnifique, which was written by Cole Porter for his 1953 musical Can Can.
 
Sadly for Joan, love is not so “magnifique” as she sings and she plays. As you say, the rest of the crowd is so charmed, and Greg is visibly relieved by how great she is for his guests.
 
But she sends him the most searing look during her performance.
It isn't just that she didn't want to play, and it's not just that he's not good at his job. It's also that he's not honest with her.
She can't fix what she doesn't know about.
 
And of course, Greg doesn't want her to be his fixer until he needs her to be, as in this scene.
 
Steve: Yeah, and honestly, I'm not sure Joan can fix, you know, his profession. I mean, as a surgeon. Greg's on his own there, and he's not been impressive to this point.
 
Jenna: I wanted to go back to this moment: I really dislike when Honey says, do you want to play charades? And her husband says, come on, you're terrible.
And she says back, no, I'm not.
 
So they have a very different perception about her charades talents,
and to dismiss her in front of colleagues this way is so terrible.
And they're reasonably newly married, so, you know this is only going to get worse.
I mean, he thinks he knows everything.
 
But this kind of marriage Joan I think was prepared for.
She could handle that type of exchange very well and manage that.
She just wasn't prepared for her husband to be professionally inept when she chose a good looking doctor.
 
So you thought that she made all of her plans and she always has all her ducks in a row. And Greg is this outlier she did not prepare for.
 
 
This scene cuts to a horse ice sculpture, although we never saw anyone watching the horse race for Derby Day.
 
And Betty, who also elevates her husband at social gatherings,
heads to the table to get another bite and runs into Jane, who's very drunk.
 
Steve: Yeah. And Jane blurts out that she knew the two of them would get back together.
 
What did you think of that? Because Jane was on Don's desk at the time, so it's not really a secret that we would expect her not to be aware of.
Is it just the fact that she blurts this out publicly that horrifies and irritates Betty so much?
 
Jenna: Well, Betty was completely caught off guard because Jane starts out by saying, oh my God, you're pregnant, you're so beautiful.
And Betty loves hearing this, right? So this is some great attention for her.
 
And instantly it changes when Jane says, aren't they a beautiful couple? I knew you two would get back together.
 
At that moment, Don shows up and Betty's whole face changes. She just glares and she walks away.
And now Don is irritated because Jane just made trouble for him with Betty, and she's wailing at him: You don't like me. But I'm a nice person!
And this is the scene that Roger happens upon.
 
So there's so much history wrapped up here.
I don't think it even matters at this point if Betty suspects being with Jane specifically.
She's just a reminder of the type of person that she expects Don to cheat with. This is the story that she imagines when she's worried about what Don does when he's at the office.
 
Nothing even has to have happened with Jane for Betty to be upset about this.
 
Steve: Yeah, that makes sense to me. And I think just the physicality where Jane is sort of grabbing Don as Roger spots the two of them. I think that gets Roger's now got concerns about what's going on there.
 
Everything's going off the rails for Don. He's at a party he doesn't want to be at. His wife is irritated.
He's now having Roger question him about his interaction with his new wife. Don's In a pretty dark place at this moment.
 
Jenna: Roger tries to talk to Don. He says, I don't know what I did to get under your skin.
 
It does seem like Don is awfully judgy about Roger and Jane, which seems pretty hypocritical given Don's tendencies.
 
But I don't know that it's Jane. Again, I think she's. She's just a stand in. I think that Don's issue is more about his disgust with Roger for his displays of emotion.
I mean, do you think he judges Roger because he disapproves of Jane, specifically?
 
Steve: The tidbit I got from Matt Weiner's commentary was that Don thinks Roger has ruined everything, that this indulgence is what made him sort of cash hungry, which then led him to supporting this acquisition, which has totally changed the work dynamic.
 
And we haven't seen Don in the office this episode, but just the prior episode, we can see his powerlessness, and how he's having to follow directions and do what he's told, as opposed to making the decisions himself.
 
From that perspective, then it makes sense to me that Don is really angry at Roger about this, and Roger's oblivious to it because Roger just says, well, I'm in love, I guess people are jealous of me or something.
 
Jenna: They trade this set of killer lines and they are designed to wound most deeply.
And unlike Paul and Jeffrey, they're not going to sing it out.
 
Don says, no one thinks you're happy, they think you're foolish.
 
And Roger says, that's the great thing about a place like this.
You can come here and be happy and you get to choose your guests.
Don does not belong here.
 
Roger has insisted to everybody how happy he is with Jane and no one will give that back to him. And I don't know why he looks for that in Don.
He's not the most reassuring type.
But these two sets of lines, I don't know how they recover from this.
 
Steve: Yeah, it's certainly not resolved as they part in that moment.
 
 
Jenna: It's bedtime and Sally is very hesitant about approaching Grandpa Gene that night. She calls goodnight from the hall and he calls her into his room.
She's slow and quiet, not looking at him.
Where were we? He asks. And he hands her the book and she continues to read.
 
Steve: Yeah, I really love this scene, because Gene could give her a lecture or he could reiterate his point, but he's made his point.
It's coming from a place of love, I think, ultimately, because we've seen this harsh brusque Gene, and he's rough with Don and the family.
 
In this moment, I think we see a grandfather who really does love his granddaughter.
And the lesson's over now. It's time to heal and get back to that loving relationship. And as we talked about at the start of this episode, we know how important his role is for Sally at this moment in her life.
 
So it's such a small, lovely little scene that life goes on, the lesson's been learned, and now they're back to reading this, you know, inappropriate book.
 
That's their connection, and it's not disturbed by it. And as Sally relaxes into the reading again, I think some really nice acting there you can get a sense of children bounce back quickly, and things are back where they started.
 
Jenna: Some other show would have had Grandpa Gene coaching her out of a bullying situation at school, or maybe passing on his love of chess that she carries with her into adulthood.
 
But in Mad Men, we get to see this love established between them because Grandpa Gene actually spends time with Sally.
He doesn't send her to go watch TV, and he forgives her,
even though they both know that he knows she took the money.
 
Steve: Yeah. And I think just for my own personal life, I think that love between a child and their parent or a child and their grandparent, you know, that's that unconditional nature of it.
You are going to wrong each other,
and you need to forgive each other.
 
And it's that ability to do that and to do it without keeping score or begrudging or clinging to it, you know, that's what differentiates that love from so many others, where there's a mark left, you know, or in the file that that will be retained.
 
And in this case, I just get the sense that that that doesn't exist in Gene's mind.
And they've learned something, but they've reaffirmed that love they have. And again, for characters we see so little of, it's striking to me that they achieve that, you know, with such little exposure, you know, they're not hitting us over the head with it.
We're getting little quick glimpses and peeks of it, and it's adding up to this. This larger thing.
 
 
Jenna: As the country club party winds down, Don takes Betty's coat and purse, and he passes Roger and Jane slow dancing.
The orchestra is playing Memories of You.
 
Don can see from the way they're dancing (that) Roger is in love.
And Roger saw that in his daughter with Brooks, and he envied it.
Do you think that Don is envying Roger here?
 
Steve: I did get a bit of that vibe.
And also, I think Weiner mentions in his commentary that Don perceives that it's not a put on by Roger. He really does love Jane, and he recognizes a truth there, you know, whether it's foolish or ill advised or whatever, that it's real.
 
Like you, I got a sense of him perceiving perhaps something that he's missing in his own life and his own relationship, because as the scene wraps and he sees Betty out there alone and he goes to her,
we know about these tensions and frictions, and, you know, he seeks her out in this moment.
 
But I. I'm left with this concern as a viewer as to, you know, how much damage is irreparable at this point or, you know, is there a gap that can't be closed between the two of them?
 
And again, I think as a viewer, I default to wanting that gap to be closed and wanting things to be successful.
In this case, it's much more ambivalent and uncertain, and I think it's unnerving as a viewer and maybe part of the overall ick I have from this episode.
 
Jenna: Don walks across the lawn toward Betty, who's standing alone.
They never do get their dance, but he kisses her and she kisses him back. And it seems sweet and real.
 
But I don't know that this is genuine forgiveness, like the way that Gene forgave Sally. This feels more like they're pretending again, and they agree to put more things behind them.
Even though we know that Don didn't cheat with Jane, this reminder of what they're putting behind them is difficult and uncomfortable. And it will be. It will continue to be.
 
Maybe it's practical to pretend, given that their baby is due at any moment, but it's not the thing that Don witnessed with Roger and Jane.
I don't know if that's even possible for him, if it ever was possible.
 
Steve: That's a good question. You don't think it existed back. If you think back to Don telling Anna about this woman he'd met and the rest?
 
Jenna: Well, we had that conversation about how it seemed like a put on that. It's just really hard to believe that Dick Whitman could ever be in a place where he lost himself so completely.
 
Because at that point, he really was pretending to be Don Draper. So I think he would just always have that guard up, and it would always be difficult for him to lose himself in that level of optimism that you see in that scene where he says that to Anna.
 
So I just don't buy it. I think that he's too guarded, he's too careful. He is the one in his own way, as Anna told him.
So he's the one not letting himself be that or have that with people.
 
Steve: Yeah, I don't disagree with that, but it's kind of a depressing conclusion about Don Draper or limitation, I guess. You know, he can step out of his own way, at least in theory, but will he ever succeed in doing so?
 
And is this relationship doomed? You know, with a new baby on the way and 10 years invested in it? That's a depressing thought, too.
 
Jenna: In the commentary, Matthew Weiner says that Don and Betty are both kissing other people in this scene. That he's kissing who he wants her to be, and she's kissing who she wants him to be.
 
And that's pretty depressing too.
 
Steve: Yeah, I find it a tough episode. You know, again, there's. There's some silver linings in there, but for me, there's just a lot of hard elements to it.
 
Jenna: I was thinking about this too, and how I generally don't like when the show leaves the office so much. I tend to like the office scenes more.
But I guess when you take the whole office and you put them in a party,
I found that really interesting.
 
And the Joan and Greg stuff is really difficult.
But I also, I'm so impressed by her skill and ability.
And I also appreciate that she really faces - she's coming to terms with this plan she made, this fail-safe plan,
the thing she always was taught to want, is not going to work out the way that she expected.
 
And even though that's a really hard thing, she won't roll over. Like, she will persevere. She will find a way, because that's who she is. Just like Peggy is finding that strength, too.
And I'm so happy that Sally has a family relationship that's somewhat positive. That's good.
 
And I mean, I'm sorry, Pete and Trudy Charleston-ing is the best.
So, yeah, there's. There's a lot to like. But I agree with you. When you start to unpack any of it, it goes dark pretty quickly.
 
We'd like to give a listener shout out to David from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Thank you so much for your kind comments and for supporting 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.