The Mountain King Transcript - Mad Men C to Z S2E12

Below, find the full written transcript for Mad Men C to Z S2E12: The Mountain King.

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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 two, episode 12, The Mountain King. This episode was written by Matthew Weiner and Robin Veith, directed by Alan Taylor.
 
Steve : Scene one opens with Betty at home. She's busy and barking at her kids a bit. She signs a check on behalf of Don. She then notices things are strangely quiet. Maybe she smells the odor. (She) busts in on Sally smoking in the bathroom and chastises her pretty sternly.
 
Jenna: It's interesting to get this view of what Betty looks like in the household without Don. Remember, Helen Bishop said it wasn't that different without her husband gone. And now here's Betty seeming to make it work here.
 
When she smells something and opens the bathroom door and sees Sally, who is 8, smoking, she starts piling on the punishments. You're not going to play with your friends! I'm going to take away Barbie!
 
Can we just agree that if taking away Barbie is a punishment for you, you're probably too young to smoke?
 
And finally, Betty shuts Sally in a closet. Does that seem like too harsh a punishment to you?

 
Steve : Yeah, she's pretty physical here. I mean, she yanks on Sally's hair and physically stuffs her in the closet. It's not the best look for Betty.
 
Jenna: I was just thinking about how she leaned on punishments for Bobby, about how he should just wait till his father gets home. So it is an example of how it's different with Don gone and she's not really thinking it through or maybe sure what to do.
 
Or maybe this is how she was raised and that's just the example she's following.
 
Steve : I was thinking maybe she's venting her own frustrations with her marriage and her life and it's coming out in this excessively harsh treatment of her children.
 
Sally does lie to her. I mean, she's caught red handed and Sally, you know, says, oh no, I wasn't doing anything. So, you know, that lights Betty up as well.
[Note: This pun was not intended, but appreciated after the fact.]
 
Jenna: So we hear Sally's voice coming through the closet door. You're mean.
And Betty's still mad. She goes, you bet.
 
And then Sally adds, he left because you're Stupid and mean. Why won't you let him come home?
 
And that is what seems to make Betty's anger melt. She opens the door and says, is that what you think?
 
And Sally explains that his suitcase is here, but he's not. And we saw that suitcase delivered at the end of the last episode. But Don didn't make it home, so he's leaving his literal baggage behind him. Of course, he's still carrying his emotional baggage around, no matter how light he travels.
 
But Betty evades Sally's request to call Don, saying, oh, it's long distance. And the truth is, she doesn't know where he is.
 
Steve : Yeah, I think Betty flips here from being angry with Sally to starting to feel some sympathy and realizes that she loves her daughter and her daughter's hurting, too, because of this circumstance.
 
And it feels like things morph in the latter half of the scene to, you know, their mutual challenge here of the circumstances they're in and they're not thrilled about it and trying to cope with it. And it seems like Betty comes around.
 
Jenna: In a contrast, in the very next scene, we see Don getting off a bus near the ocean. He doesn't really seem to be missing his family or having any anxiety about them at this point.
 
Steve : Well, he's moving on.
 
My Mother Did It, Too
 
Jenna: Next, we get prep for the Popsicle account in a meeting in Peggy's office,
where, remember, the copier is also located.
 
Ken and Sal aren't impressed with the noise and the distractions, but Peggy called the meeting, so she's hosting.
 
Steve : Yeah, it's funny where Ken says he can't think in the office. It's a storage closet. But Peggy's called the meeting, so they're stuck using her facility. And Peggy takes a joy in subjecting them to what she's subjected to every day.
 
Jenna: In the meeting, Sal mentions his mother used to break popsicles in half, which inspires Peggy to come up with an idea. And sharing popsicles is like communion, which, remember, she hasn't been taking at church.
 
Steve : I like this because, you know, we know Peggy's got the chops when it comes to being creative.
 
This scene demonstrates how she can take an idea or a little glimmer of something,
this time provided by Sal, and see the creative possibilities around it. So it's almost that Draper talent as well. And we can see that parallel here with Peggy leveraging Sal's comment across the office.
 
Jenna: Hildy mentions to Pete that he has an appointment at Spence Chapin, an adoption agency.
This is the most positive we have ever seen Hildy be With Pete, I think she says, oh, I have to say something. It's one of the most blessed things to give a home to an abandoned child.
 
We can't help but be reminded that Pete's child with Peggy was placed for adoption when we hear lines like this. But. But of course, Pete doesn't realize that.
 
And Pete doesn't argue with Hildy here. He's happy to soak up her approval. But he also doesn't call Trudy back about the appointment either.
 
Steve : Did you think he was happy soaking up her approval? I got the sense that it riled him right up because she's making assumptions about his life. It's something that's touchy and not something that he's necessarily signed onto. And I get the sense that he's infuriated by Hildy's comments.
 
Jenna: I think there's a difference between being infuriated that he knows Trudy went behind his back to the adoption agency, but then here's Hildy piling on praise for his benevolence, and I think he loves that. Pete Campbell loves that. it's Trudy he's angry with.
 
Steve : Oh, yeah, for sure. He's angry at Trudy. It's also interesting to see Hildy's super positive response to adoption because, you know, we've come out of the prior episodes with Mother Dyckman making it very clear he'll be written out of the inheritance and struck from the family register if he goes down this path.
 
Jenna: And speaking of families, in the next scene, we get to meet Bert Cooper's sister, Alice. I feel like this has to have been a joke that they named his sister Alice Cooper.
 
But this scene with Alice tells us a lot more about Bert than we get with most people.
We find out she's younger than he is, but she helped him out financially. At one point she says, mother thought you were a failure. And he doesn't argue.
 
I thought that was an interesting parallel with Pete.
 
Steve : I really like the subtlety of the writing here because it feels like these are two characters that know each other. There's a lot of water under the bridge between them.
 
We're not getting a bunch of exposition here as the viewer. We're just joining this relationship in mid-step. And I just love the realism of that. And it feels so natural.
 
She seems quite interesting. I mean, Bert's a very interesting secondary character and she seems cut of the exact same cloth. So I find myself as the viewer hearing this interaction and pondering all the history that's gone on between them and what it signifies.
 
Jenna: And even more of that history is revealed when Bert says he promised he would take care of Roger. At first, he uses that as an excuse not to want to sell the business.
 
But then the truth comes out. He says, I can't imagine what I'll do.
And we learn he built a ranch or a home of some kind and he has cattle in Montana and we know he doesn't go there very often. I feel like Cowboy Bert is a whole new look for this New York germaphobe. I can't even picture it.
 
Alice has this great line here talking about selling the business when she says,
let Roger Sterling have what he's always wanted, to die in the arms of a 20 year old.
 
Steve : And she calls Bert out, says, you don't want to retire.
And I like when she mentions the Montana ranch.
Bert gets a little whimsical and starry eyed and you can see him pondering.
 
And he's -- in reference to the cattle, he says, I do love them. Which again is just really hilarious coming from Bert, who is earlier in the scene chastising his sister for not taking her shoes off.
 
Jenna: Yes, she's the only person we've seen so far who tells him what to do. And that includes being the only person who won't take her shoes off. He's like, damn it, Alice, I asked so little of you.
 
She goes, oh, please, my stockings cost more than your carpet. Nobody talks to Bert like that. But she does.
 
And I appreciate when she says something like, I know you don't want to hear it, but you are old, Bertram. You are old. And he doesn't fight her or bat her away,
but you can see him not being ready yet. He's not ready to give this up.
 
Steve : I think there's an another important little tidbit line in this scene when Bert says, you can't trust the Brits.
 
So we get a perception of that Anglo American friction that is going to become more relevant here, assuming the merger proceeds.
 
Jenna: In the last episode, we talked about the story of Peer Gynt.
And even though Don is moving away from the Mountain King and his daughter, the next scene brings it right back. We get to hear In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg as Anna gives piano lessons.
 
And we move right into a flashback where we can see Anna confronting Don Draper about his identity: Stop lying. You've been caught.
 
While not exactly a truth call-out in a show about self deception, identity and awareness, this is a pretty notable moment from Anna to Don here. And then he tells her the truth.
 
Steve : Yeah, Don certainly resists coming clean with Anna and persists multiple attempts to gaslight her into thinking that he's a legitimate Don Draper that she's just mistakenly chased down and Anna's not having any part of it.
 
Finally, he gives up and confesses.
It's interesting when he says, what are you going to do to me? This sense of powerlessness and being at her mercy in this moment.
 
Jenna: Also, he talks to her, saying he didn't know Don very long. And he tells her that the original Don Draper was killed in combat, which she hadn't known any details about.
 
And then Don goes on to say he never said he had a wife.
And this might be slightly redeeming for our Don Draper. He says, I didn't think I was hurting anyone.
 
But I think it must also be awfully painful for Anna to know that he never mentioned her, even though we know they were only together for a few days.
 
Steve : Yeah. And I think it's an interesting contrast between the two characters in this scene. Anna's looking for closure. Anna's looking for answers about what happened to her husband. She's not gunning for Dick Whitman per se.
 
It's just Dick Whitman is standing there in the shoes of Don Draper, and that's what brings Anna to this place.
 
Over onto Dick Whitman's side of the ledger. He's fearful he's built up something. He's taken this identity and run with it, and now it's collapsing around his ears. So he's all defensive and fearful of what are the implications of this for what he's attempted to build up and how he's attempted to move on with his life.
 
So I enjoy the contrast in this scene as she's drilling into, did he talk about me?
You know, getting these details, and they're all very personal to Anna and what she needs to move on with her life.
 
Meanwhile, Don's lens, or Dick's lens, is completely defensive in self preservation at this point.
 
Jenna: And as part of the flashback, Anna tells him that the original Don Draper wanted to marry her sister. So we don't get that whole story, but apparently it wasn't the world's happiest marriage.
 
And it matters that we see the cost here. The original Don Draper's death was an accident, but Don is at least partly responsible for Anna's husband's death.
 
There was a mistake and he turned it into an advantage and he leveled up,
and I don't think he should hit himself over the head about it every day. But it also matters that he comes face to face with Anna here and her loss at his hands.
 
And then at the same time, from this confrontation in the past, we see that they have eventually moved to a place of mutual affection and trust.
 
And it seems very sincere.
 
Steve : Yeah. As the scene goes on, we exit the flashback. The door opens, and we see Don looking very hobo-esque at the door, warmly greeted by Anna. And she invites him in to hear what turns out to be one of Matt Weiner's children as a piano student playing In the Hall of the Mountain King.
 
Jenna: There's a great moment when he's leaving and he says, Bye, Mrs. Draper. And it's so jarring because our established understanding of Mrs. Draper is so solidified as Betty that our brains just resist, even though obviously Anna was Mrs.
Draper first.
 
Steve : Anna's clearly puzzled by Don's sudden appearance here and the fact that he doesn't bring any suitcase or things with him. She immediately leaps to, you know, are you in trouble? And Don says no, reassures her he's not.
And Don doesn't seem to be in the mood to open up just yet.
 
Jenna: In the commentary, Matt Weiner says it was important for him to establish that the relationship with Anna between Anna and Don isn't romantic.
 
She's the one person who knows the truth about him, although we understand she doesn't know the whole truth. But it's really important for Don Draper that there is somebody in his life who knows something about him.
 
But it bothers me that she shows up to this relationship without her own needs. And I get that she needs to function in a very specific way for the show's protagonist to develop.
 
But like in middle grade novels, there's often this character who's the perfect adult, like a parent or teacher, who always says the right thing and never gets impatient or expresses her own needs or dissatisfactions.
 
You know, Anna mentions a few of these things occasionally in passing, but it is mostly all about Dick Whitman all the time.
 
This selfishness is really frustrating, even though Don is more attentive and caring to Anna than he is to almost anybody else in his life. So it's weird because he's not giving enough to her, and at the same time, he gives more to her than anybody else.
 
 
Steve : Yeah, I think your comment is right on. She, this character seems to exist to allow the Dick Whitman character to open up and have a safe place.
 
And like you say, we really get no sense of what drives and motivates Anna. What are her needs? Where is she coming from? Where does she want to get to? She's just this perfect passive friend to Dick Whitman.
 
I think that's a little bit of an anomaly in the series compared to what we see for most of the other characters.
 
Jenna: I think also that because it's set in California here, the setting is supposed to be doing a lot of this work, too, this contrast of this other place and time and option for Don Draper, our Don Draper.
 
But I do feel like in a show that's so rich with characterization, we could get more from Anna as a real, true friend who lives with her own needs, I mean, they brush by it a little bit, but a little bit of detail here would have gone a long way with her character.
 
Steve : Yeah. And I think you make a good point about the role California's playing here. It really is this utopic, escape, la la land location, and you leave your troubles behind. It's full of potential.
 
You don't have any baggage. It is a rather mystical, fantastic place, at least at this stage in the series.
 
 
Jenna: Our next scene between Pete and Trudy is memorably epic.
Hang on to your roasted chicken, my friends, because Pete comes home from work barking about the adoption agency appointment the moment he comes through the door.
 
Steve : Yeah. And in the commentary, I think Matt Weiner mentions that this is a true story he heard from a friend about a spouse throwing the chicken off the balcony. So it has great comedic value.
 
But it's a pretty fierce scene between the couple. Pete trying to put his foot down and lay down the law with Trudy and Trudy being very upset and not accepting him doing this.
 
I love the portrayal of Pete in this scene. And just the way it's written, it's somebody who's not really a leader trying to act that way in the moment, and it's not going very well for him.
 
Jenna: Trudy says, I put us on the list and our name went right to the top.
She mentioned earlier that she and Pete were ideal candidates. And even though she didn't tell Pete about this appointment, no doubt she researched very carefully to get every single advantage so they would go right to the top, no matter what.
Trudy would not have left anything to chance.
 
But now here's Pete, as you say, storming around declaring they aren't adopting, and that's final.
 
And just so she knows how serious he is, he adds, Hell's bells, Trudy! which probably should live on a T shirt somewhere.
 
And then she's got dinner on the table, which we know is her job. She does a lot of work to make this happen. And he takes the whole platter, throws it off the balcony.
And it's funny because it's so petulant, but also so infuriating, given the amount of work she had to do to prepare this.
 
She slams the bedroom door. He pours himself a drink. It is only a matter of time before he is running away to California like his creative director.
 
Steve : Yeah, and Vincent Kartheiser really does a great job with the physical actions here, and I think he really embodies that. A non leader trying to act like a leader.
 
And this - these are the movements you would have. And even the pouring of the drink, I think, is masterfully inept, the way he goes about it. But we can see that he's all aflutter emotionally and out of his comfort zone.
 
And now his wife is furious and stomped off. So there's just a boiling tension to this scene that's really interesting. And I think the actors do a great job, and I think the writing really supports them in this intense scene.
 
Jenna: That's a great point. The physical blustering is awkward. It's not smooth or natural. It's a performance for his wife to show how much he's in charge, while he isn't.
 
Steve : Personally, I don't buy into this nonsense about the alphas and the betas, but it’s a beta acting the way they think an alpha would act and sort of getting it, but missing some of it, it seems to lack the legitimacy and the honesty of it.
 
And it's like, oh, okay, you're all puffed up and putting on a show right now. And I just love the way Vincent Kartheiser portrays it in the scene.
 
Jenna: You can also see this as a callback to Betty and Don's relationship,
because Don does assume this I'm-in-charge role much more naturally and smoothly, even though it is a role.
 
And Betty typically acquiesces to his demands, although lately she doesn't have so much time for that.
 
Of course, Pete and Trudy are younger and their marriage is newer, but you can just see this pattern coming down inevitably to land on everybody with these same results. This is where this is headed. You know, the slammed doors and the poured drinks. This is a pattern we've seen before.
 
Steve : In keeping with the theme of awkwardness and tension, the next scene takes us to Joan and Greg, who are in bed.
 
Things aren't going well. It seems that Greg is uncomfortable with Joan's efforts to stimulate him and get things moving. He's making excuses, saying he's tired.
Joan's worried something's wrong with him. What did you think with this whole interaction?
 
Jenna: Well, I think it's important that when Joan and Greg are in bed together, she moves on top of him and he tells her to stop - he's tired. That action is really what seems to make him uncomfortable.
 
And again, if I'm the alpha, then this shouldn't be happening between us.
And so when she says, what's wrong?
He asks, where'd you pick that up?
And she says, oh, stop, Greg. You know there is no before.
 
Right, Joan.
I get why she lies. Because it's what he wants to hear. It's what he wants to believe.
But he is having a hard time really believing this. And he says, I'm sorry, I don't know all the things you want.
 
And she has the perfect answer. But you do. You do know all the things that I want.
And he's got some doubt, and she needs to reassure him. Already in their relationship, which is even newer than Pete and Trudy's.
 
Steve : Yeah, the fragility of the male ego, I think, is a prominent theme that we're seeing in this episode.
 
I feel almost a little sorry for Greg at this point in that he's bought into this expectation and standard that he's supposed to be large and in charge and the confident, experienced one. Clearly, he isn't.
 
So how do you reconcile that now that you're with someone like Joan, who has all the confidence and experience in the world? His ego shatters under that pressure, and it's all in his head.
 
Joan is very kind and accommodating here, but you can see it's his own hangups and baggage that won't let him proceed. And you just wonder how the two of them could have a more awkward scene together. Oh, wait, it's coming up later.
 
Jenna: I do think it's interesting how much Joan and Trudy have in common. They have different styles, but both of them are extremely competent, extremely in charge.
 
They know all the rules. They know how to pull levers and make things work.
And at the same time, in their society, they understand how to leave the impression that the man is in charge when really they're the ones making everything happen.
 
And so I think this is an interesting scene back to back with Pete and Trudy's conflict to see Joan and Greg in the same way, because nobody who knows Joan would look at her and be like, oh, yeah, she's passive - she'll just follow along with whatever you say.
 
I mean, things don't always go her way, but she has the answers. And Trudy is very similar, I think.
 
Steve : Yeah. And if the men could just let go of their unwillingness to embrace that truth, that reality, then they could strike a real partnership here and leverage and embrace this truth about their partner in a way that's more amenable to both sides.
 
But the men can't – you know, they're clinging to something, desperately holding onto it, even as it's, you know, escaping their grasp.
 
Jenna: Yes. And in both cases, Trudy and Joan are so invested in their husbands’ success, so they have somebody completely on board and in their corner, and yet it's threatening somehow.
 
And in complete contrast to that, we get a very quick scene of Peggy alone in the office, and she's working. It's late at night.
 
She steals a cigarette from a coworker's desk drawer. And presumably she doesn't smoke enough to have her own pack, I guess.
 
And it's such a minor thing, but it shows us she stays late. She's dedicated.
And it seems similar to Don staying late and being very focused on a particular job. Although not right now, obviously.
 
But nobody else is there working on the Popsicle account. It's just Peggy.
 
Steve : Yeah. And when we think about the Peggy character and what we know about her and some of her personal relationships, it seems clear that the one area where she excels and where she's truly focused and dedicated is professionally.
 
That's her focus. That gets her first attention. Always. It's the priority.
And I think this scene just underlines that truth.
 
Jenna: Next, we get Don and Anna in the present day in California.
They talk briefly about a man she says she kicked out. So we know she's had relationships after her marriage to the original Don.
 
Our Don and Anna sit on the porch together companionably, and we find out that Don sends her money. He helped her pay for the porch they're sitting on, and she asks about his kids. We find out definitively that Sally's eight and Bobby is five.
And they talk.
 
Steve : Yeah. And again, I think, as we mentioned earlier, California is this, you know, wonderful escape place where, you know, you sit on this lovely porch with this beautiful view and the breeze.
It's this safe place with this safe person, this foil for Don: Anna Draper.
 
It feels like maybe one of the most honest conversations we've seen Don Draper have with anyone else. He's letting down the mask here. So he talks about, I ruined everything. My family, my wife, my kids. My brother came to find me. I told him to go away.
 
I've told you things I've never told Betty.
Why does it have to be that way? And it feels like this is the most open and transparent Don Draper's been, at least to my memory.
 
Jenna: It's also so interesting because they sit very quietly, and you feel this tension because women always seem to try to get closer to Don by asking him questions or being sexual with him. He shuts down like this a lot, and that's typically what happens.
 
But Anna sits there, and she says, if you don't want to talk about what happened, that's fine. But you can, you know.
 
And she means both of those things. She is equally comfortable with hearing whatever truth he has to say or him not being ready to say it yet. And that does feel like the thing that invites him to talk.
 
We do get a truth call-out here when he says, I ruined everything. And that clarification is important that you mentioned where the ruining, he says, is my family, my wife, my kids.
And she says, I'm sure that's not true.
 
But I was really glad that he said, I ruined everything. My wife, my family, my kids, because he also walked away from his job. And you're not really sure.
 
He's like, Peggy, he's about the work. So at first, I wasn't sure - okay, are you talking about you left your job without saying anything?
But, no, he is talking about his family.
 
And I love this exchange where he says,
why is it I've told you things I've never told Betty?
And she says, you love her. You don't have to tell her everything.
 
And she adds this really important thing. She says, I'm sure there are things about her you don't know.
 
And she's adding a dimension to Betty with that comment that Don regularly forgets to consider. And she's also reminding Don that he loves Betty, so he does care about her approval. Or he did at some point.
 
Steve : Do you think Don Draper loves Betty?
 
Jenna: I don't think he does anymore. I think maybe he wants to still, and I think he remembers maybe when he did, but I feel like it's over. What do you think?
 
Steve : I wonder if Don Draper knows what love is. If you define love as that devotion and commitment to another person, I struggle to see how he could get to that place.
 
In a later flashback in this episode that we're gonna see, the flashback where he's telling Anna about meeting Betty and what appeals to him about her, Betty ticks all the boxes.
 
But somehow it feels like it's the superficial boxes or the boxes that society expects.
I struggle to see where Dick Whitman loves Betty truly and deeply. And if he did, he wouldn't have told things to Anna that he hadn't shared with Betty. At this point, Betty would know these things as well.
 
And it's that contrast that's highlighted here, I think, that tells me there's a relationship there and a commitment and all the rest of it. But is it full romantic love in the classic sense? I, I, I struggle to see it.
 
Jenna: I'm not sure I disagree, but I will point out that I think Don wants to impress Betty in a way that he's not trying to impress Anna. And part of that is because he met Anna when she knew this thing that he desperately tries to hide from Betty.
 
So I don't think Don knows how to love himself or be confident in himself or that he deserves love. And so I think that's a huge issue for him that he brings to Betty, and that's the problem.
 
So he's always trying to prove to himself maybe that he can deserve some love, or if he can't, then I guess he can go collect sex somewhere. And he's trying to fill that hole in himself.
 
So it isn't really personal to Betty. And as you say, like, she's the symbol of this life he's trying to have, and she's a placeholder of it. So I think it walks the line between he wants to impress her and not let her down by knowing the real him.
 
But as you say, if, if he trusted her and if it were more than superficial, then you would think that trust would come together and they would know each other better.
 
Steve : You see, I think you've really led to the later conversation in this scene of that Don wants something in life and, and he's got this model that he feels he's chasing and trying to get to.
 
And when he says, I've been watching my life, it's right there. I keep scratching at it, trying to get into it. I can't.
 
And that, to me feels like that gap, that one step removal from you've got the perfect wife, or at least what society would say, oh, you've got the perfect wife, but Don Draper's not there. He's one step removed.
 
He may move closer to it, or he may move away from it, depending on what's going on, but he never quite gets there. He can't get into his life.
 
Jenna: I also want to talk - before we get into that, because I think there's a lot of interesting things coming up - I want to talk a little bit more about Anna in this scene. We see her being comforting and supportive.
 
She doesn't ask anything of Don in this conversation. She's a good friend to him.
And I don't love the suggestion that she's a mother figure to Don here.
I feel like it reduces her role. And I've seen this - I don't know if it was in the commentary specifically . . .
 
It feels like this is a show that has respectful, complex relationships between people that aren't necessarily traditional.
 
And I don't need to see Anna as a mother figure to Don to understand why he appreciates her support in his life. I feel like it's simpler to put it that way, just so that it's clear it's not a sexual relationship, but it's so much less interesting for her character.
 
She's much more than a friend, and at the same time, she's not a love interest.
And that's layered and compelling in a way that being available to Don as needed isn't.
 
What was it that Joan said?
Most of the time, they need something between a mother and a waitress.
 
Anna is more than either of those things to Don, I think. And I understand that he's never had a mother figure who loved him, and undoubtedly that's related to a lot of his relationship issues here.
 
But women aren't just Jackie or Marilyn. They aren't just mothers or sex symbols. Saying, well, Anna is like a mother to him . . . Ugh, I don't love it. I think, let it be this interesting, unique person in his life that's difficult to define. I think that's okay.
 
Steve : Well, and again, it gets back to our earlier conversation about the Anna character. We don't know a lot about her and her motivations. What is she after in life?
 
Okay, great. It's nice having a foil where Dick Whitman can open up.
We can get this side of him. But again, I struggle with the lack of depth and detail about Anna.
 
And then even with this analogy to being a mother figure. Okay, maybe first Dick Whitman, who lacked a mother in any real sense of the word, this is as close as a character comes to filling that role.
 
But I don't view a mother solely from the child's perspective.
What motivates the mother? What would the mother do for the child? And if we think about the best mothers, they would sacrifice themselves for their child. Their child is more important than themselves.
 
And I don't have any reason to think Anna would or should do this as much as Don Draper's largess and commitment to look after her has been very helpful to her in her life and allowed her to live a certain way.
 
That seems to be where the limits of what we know about this character's motivation. So again, I just struggle with this. I'm happy to see Don Draper opening up. I guess I'd like to know more about the Anna character.
 
Jenna: Yes, I agree.
 
In the next scene, back at the office,
Roger and Bert have the discussion about selling to Putnam, Powell and Lowe.
Roger's for it. Bert's still reluctant.
 
They're both really honest.
Bert says, I don't like being in the position of selling out my life's work because you have a sudden increase in overhead.
 
Meaning, because Roger is divorcing Mona and marrying Jane. He's got expenses now and the cash flow can help.
 
And Roger says some things that I think have been building for most of his adulthood, basically that Bert knew him as a child, but he's also served the company as an adult for 20 years. And that should count for something.
 
We see that Bert is judgy and not very affectionate.
And when you think about him saying before to Alice, he promised he'd take care of Roger, was it only financial and reputational care?
 
What did he mean by that and for how long? I mean, Roger is a man with gray hair. How long is Bert going to view him as a child?
 
Steve : Yeah, it almost seems like you're suggesting that Bert is frozen in his view of Roger, that Roger remains this junior person. I think to this point we haven't really seen a lot from Roger in terms of his own perceptions of his professional career and what he has or hasn't achieved in his lifetime.
 
These now seem to be bubbling out a little bit here. At the risk of benefiting from 20/20 hindsight, I get the vibe here that Roger's got some insecurities about this.
His entree to the firm was through his father.
 
What has he really tangibly achieved?
And now he's off chasing his latest young woman and romantic love of youth. That is a strange fit on a middle-aged man.
 
Jenna: So he's making this case for his dependability, his trustworthiness, his adulthood to Bert.
And then the scene takes the most interesting turn because Roger adds,
like Pete would, you know, like a petulant teenager. He says,
“And for your information, Jane makes me very happy.”
 
And this sounds like a guy talking himself into it, mostly because no one else seems to be encouraging to him about it.
 
And Bert doesn't even look up from his paperwork when he replies,
that's good to know.
 
Steve : And if this is a scene where Bert is taking Roger to task, it's a delicious contrast to the prior episode where Roger takes Duck to task and Duck says, oh, I want to be a partner, this and that.
 
And what does Roger say? He's like, then make it rain. Show me the tangible results of your performance instead of trying to argue the point and win it in a sort of rhetorical battle.
 
It feels like Roger's on the receiving end of that treatment in this scene.
 
Jenna: Yes, good catch. It feels like what Roger told Duck in the last episode is more something we would hear from Bert telling anybody else.
Because it's practical, it's pragmatic. That's what Bert usually is.
 
So to have that from Roger was interesting.
 
Steve : I also feel in this scene, Bert is in a bit of a debate with himself. That is just a carry on from that prior scene with his sister where there's all these good reasons for him to take this and to retire, and Bert wrestling with that.
 
And, you know, what will I do if I retire? And it has a certain applicability to Roger as well. But I feel like half of Bert's conversation in this scene is with himself.
 
Jenna: I agree.
 
Across the office, Pete is working and takes a call from his father in law.
Maybe we should give him a little credit for taking this call, because even Pete is socially astute enough to know this is not going to be a comfortable conversation.
 
And it's even worse than he expects because Tom opens by basically threatening to take his business away from Pete's company unless Pete goes along with Trudy's adoption plans.
 
And he says, she's my wife, that's between us, and you can respect that.
What do you think about Tom here?
 
Steve : Yeah, I mean, in an episode that just keeps building on the awkward scenes, the father in law sticking his nose into the marriage seems to evoke from Pete a legitimate forceful response.
 
He doesn't look like someone play-acting being irritated and insulted and drawing a line in this scene. I buy that he is drawing that line saying, you know, it's my marriage, we'll deal with it ourselves.
 
Tom is not accepting no for an answer and is in the full court press here. And, you know, he's gone to bat for his daughter. I imagine his wife is also listening in on the other end of the phone, you know, at least spiritually.
 
Pete is having none of it. So again, for somebody who's as weasely as Pete Campbell is, it's interesting to me that by the later stages of the call he says, well, you might as well pull it right now, because, you know, I'm not going to give you what you want. And he really draws a firm line.
 
Jenna: I feel like this is really an echo of the previous scene with Roger and Bert as Pete is talking to Tom here.
 
Because at first, you have this respect where he's drawing a line and you say, oh, yeah, she's my wife. This conversation is between us. It's our decision.
 
I mean, he's throwing a chicken off the balcony, so, you know, he's not really having a genuine conversation. But, you know, presumably they would get there.
 
But then he turns around just like Roger did, and he Petes it up a little bit. You know, he says, I was in love with Trudy when I met her. And then you stuck these ideas in her head.
 
And that's just like Roger saying, I'm really in love with Jane, okay?
 
Because it's such a terrible thing for so many reasons. He suggests to her father that he no longer loves Trudy. And Trudy's parents probably didn't push adoption. That seems to be coming from Trudy, so it's really a miss to blame them for sticking ideas in her head. And he doesn't even credit her for being a thinking human being when he says that anyway.
 
And then their whole inability to talk about adoption rationally together . . . maybe Pete was right in episode five this season when he said, I sure as hell wouldn't want a kid here watching this donnybrook. Because now we have the in laws mixing it up.
 
Steve : Yeah, I hope none of our viewers are exposing their children to donnybrooks. That would be terrible.
 
Jenna: So Tom ultimately does decide to fire Sterling Cooper as the ad company for Clearasil. They're out.
 
Steve : The next scene cuts to Anna buying and giving some clothes to Don, since, as we know, he's arrived with nothing.
 
And it rolls into a flashback to an earlier Christmas where they're exchanging presents. Dick reveals to Anna that he's in love. He's met a girl, beautiful, model, educated, good family. Likes the way she laughs and looks at him. He's going to propose to her.
 
[Pause]
Jenna: I love this show. Best writing on TV, in my opinion. And I have some strong opinions about its mistakes.
 
I've already said I don't believe Peggy lets Pete in the door in the pilot.
I don't think Glenn is respectful to Betty's storyline.
I think we deserve to know that Chauncey found a good home in the end.
 
And I am prepared to do some serious groveling about this if I ever get the opportunity to interview Jon Hamm or meet him. But I don't believe him in this scene.
 
It's like In Les Mis, when Russell Crowe starts singing, you go, hey, Russell Crowe is singing. It's not that it's bad. It's just that I'm looking at Russell Crowe, and not Javert there.
 
And here Jon Hamm is looking to be innocent and happy and caught up in optimism.
I don't believe it.
 
This man needs permission from Anna to be happy because she means something to him. It's not just permission to get a divorce. He needs her to say everything's going to be okay.
 
He's trying to talk himself into how happy he can be with Betty or anyone, really, because he's carrying so much doubt about whether or not he can be loved.
Betty is a personality he's trying on, like Peggy going out to the club with the guys after work. You know, maybe I can be this person.
 
But I don't see that complexity here. In this scene, he's just smiley with sales words, and it's like couch jumping. He's just not as effective light and silly as he is dark and brooding.
 
Don't hate me.
 
Steve : I think Jon Hamm is cast in the role of Don Draper because he is able to convey a darkness and a burden that's weighing upon him. And he's got this brooding, tall, dark, and handsome quality that really works well for Don Draper's character 98% of the time, because that's where Don Draper's character inevitably is.
 
I don't think he's at his strongest point here. You know, light, happy, in love.
He puts an honest effort in this scene to convey that. And, okay, that's what the script calls for.
 
Getting back to the character of Dick Whitman, I think it gets to our earlier conversation where Betty ticks all the boxes. She's everything you could ask for in a potential wife, and he rattles them off as if he's, like you say, selling her and saying, wow, she's beautiful, and she's got a great laugh, and she's educated, and she looks at me the right way and this and that.
 
For the purposes of the character Dick Whitman in this scene, I don't detect any hesitation or fakeness listing off those qualities and making this pitch to Anna.
 
But knowing who Don Draper is down the road and knowing that despite all these qualities, this relationship is going to be fraught and start to disintegrate, I wonder again, what's going through Dick Whitman's head.
 
Has he fallen for society's ideals and his understanding of what he's supposed to be looking for at the price of what he really should be?
Looking for what would ultimately work and be a perfect match for him?
As the viewers with 20/20 hindsight know, there's going to be issues here.
 
I guess that's the part I struggle with because I think the writing to me here suggests he's all bought in and doesn't appreciate that he won't be happy.
 
Jenna: Yes, I don't believe that adult Don has been that naive as to fully buy in or believe that this is possible for him.
 
This lightness, this giddiness - I don't think he's capable of feeling it or believing it until he works through all these things that he's got with him, including in this scene, even though it's a flashback.
 
And, yes, he doesn't know all the specific complications that are going to come up, but he has so many with him already.
 
So the ability to feel light and giddy and really believe it, I think there would be a complexity there. And I do want to wait till we get to this specific scene, but later, when we see Joan talking herself into marriage, she's telling the story, and I can see her doubt, even though she's telling this same story - as it happens, to Peggy here.
 
Don is telling this story to Anna. Like, look how great it's going to be.
And we see Roger to Bert: Look how great it's going to be. But we can see the doubt.
We can see the doubt in Roger, we can see the doubt in Joan, we can't see it in Don. And I just. I think he would have it.
 
Steve : Yeah, I agree with you 100%. And I think that that's exactly where I've landed, is Don Draper would totally have doubts and cold feet about this sort of leap, because it's a leap going into something he's got no experience with.
 
It's a leap that potentially jeopardizes what he's built up to this point.
And it's a leap that's going to encumber him with things that he won't easily be able to shed on his keep moving forward philosophy of life.
 
So I wish we saw some hint of that here. I think it would be truer to the character that we know.
 
Jenna: And I think also that Anna's response is a particularly distinctive expression.
She says, oh, you're in the lavender haze, which, by the way, inspired a Taylor Swift song.
 
And she seems genuinely happy for him, if maybe a little bit sad that their Christmases together are coming to an end.
 
But again, she is in this flashback, serving up what he needs.
Yes, I'll give you a divorce. I hadn't thought about that. She understands that he's going to build his own family. And she says, oh, it'll be good for you to have it again.
 
She's completely there for what he needs in that moment.
 
 
 
In the next scene, we see Peggy's Popsicle presentation.
She talks about how when she was little, her mother would break a popsicle and give half to her and half to her sister. It's a ritual.
 
The art is more than a little reminiscent of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, with an orange halo circle behind her head and her open arms extended to either side.
 
And remember that Father Gil talked to Peggy about not taking communion. And here she is incorporating this idea of ritual into her work.
 
Just like Don takes ideas from his family and his mistresses and idle conversations,
Peggy has less life experience to draw from, but she's using what she knows.
 
Steve : Yeah. And here we see Peggy delivering professionally. You know, she wins the clients over with the idea. She carries it through.
 
The clients reveal things they were looking for, such as the word love in the tagline which Peggy has hit upon. And you can see the look on the face of the account.
Men like Ken realizing, oh, this is a home run. So this scene really underlines Peggy's competence and effectiveness in this creative role. She can sell products.
 
Jenna: In our next scene, Betty calls Sarah Beth, her friend from the stables, and she's asking about private schools. She doesn't reveal that she caught Sally smoking, but this is no doubt at least part of why she made the call.
 
She also wants to gossip about Tara and Arthur's wedding next weekend.
And then Sarah Beth confesses that her relationship with Arthur was more than a crush.
 
And it seems to me like Sarah Beth thought that Betty blessed Sarah Beth's affair with Arthur because she set up their lunch together.
And instead, Betty takes an opportunity to be extra mean and judgmental. What did you think?
 
Steve : I struggle with Sarah Beth's mentality in this scene. She's got the commitment to her family.
 
Yeah, it's not helpful that Betty tees them up for whatever's happened between her and Arthur. And it does feel like it was kind of a teenage girl get together crush, flirty thing that went on.
 
But once it goes into action, Sarah Beth's unwillingness to take full ownership of this rubs me the wrong way. You're a grown woman. You chose to do this. You need to own it.
 
Now, I'm not pleased with Betty's behavior behind all of this because why indulge in that sort of mischief? And in earlier episodes, we talked about what a break it was because Betty was the one sort of pouring cold water on things until suddenly she's throwing gasoline on the fire.
 
So Sarah Beth and Betty come off looking pretty poorly in this scene to my eyes.
 
Jenna: I think we can forgive her for being overly sensitive on the subject of infidelity right now, but Betty does seem to revel in feeling righteous and innocent in comparison to Sarah Beth. And it's not a great look.
 
And it really doesn't make sense to me in terms of story.
Why did Betty throw them together with that lunch? Like, what was her purpose? Or, I mean, is it just to show that Betty's a mean, selfish person?
 
It doesn't make sense to me. I know that people do random things for not really good reasons, but orchestrating this just to prove, I guess, that she's a good person because she didn't sleep with Arthur, and Sarah Beth and Arthur are bad, and she can feel better about it. That's kind of what I got from that.
 
Steve : Yeah. That almost superiority complex that Betty seems to be manifesting here. Okay, you didn't do what Sarah Beth did.
 
But there doesn't seem to be any grounds for having any moral superiority here, and it feels like Betty wants to cling to that, which is what lights up Sarah Beth in her reaction. t's not a great look for Betty Draper.
 
 
Jenna: In our next very short scene,
Peggy gets to hear the lecture from the coffee machine repair guy about not sitting on the glass or banging on the buttons. And of course, the responsible person who spends all her time at work has to suffer through the machine being in her office in the first place has to hear this lecture.
 
And the look she gives him afterward is the absolute best.
 
Steve : That glare from Elisabeth Moss at the end of the scene, it's gotta be one of my favorite looks in the whole series. It's brilliant.
I also love the line from the Xerox repair dude where he's like, you can tell your little friends . . . As if somehow Peggy is associated with these delinquents who are damaging the Xerox and abusing it. It's. It's a really comedic scene.
 
Jenna: “This is a delicate piece of machinery.”
 
[Laughter]
 
So Peggy has put up with this for a while. She has lived with the copier in her office. Thanks, Joan.
 
And she goes and finds Roger, and he's in a hurry.
 
By the way, as an aside, I feel like almost every scene between Roger and Peggy is a great one. I don't know what it is about their chemistry, but it totally works for me.
 
So she goes, I'm a copywriter. And he's like, did I call you something else?
And she's like, I don't know if you're aware, but I brought in the Popsicle account today on my own. And he's like, oh, Ginger  (his secretary), did you hear about this?
Good. I gotta go.
 
And so she. She reads it, and she gets to the point, and she says,
it's hard to do business and be credible when I share with the Xerox machine. Freddy Rumsen's office has been vacant for some time. I think I should have it.
 
And Roger says, it's yours.
 
He's condescending in granting her wish. He says, you young women are very aggressive. It's cute.
 
But in a weird way, it also seems like he respects her for asking for it in the first place.
 
Steve : I think he totally does because he says, there are 30 men out there who didn't have the balls to ask me. He's condescending, but simultaneously almost reminiscent of Freddy Rumsen, he recognizes the power and strength of this request and who it's coming from, even though he wraps it in this condescending perspective.
 
Jenna: Roger is further delayed getting out the door when Joan comes up with her fiance, Greg.
 
And here, by the way, is an error on my part. A couple of episodes ago, when Joan was reading the scripts in her apartment with Greg, I thought that they were married, and I mentioned how it would have been a great audience moment to get to see Joan's wedding, and we missed it.
 
But here she introduces Greg as her fiance, so they are apparently living together and not yet married.
 
I feel like we should definitely keep a running tally of all the times that Roger puts his foot in his mouth and it lands badly for Joan so far:
He hired someone for Harry that took Joan's work away that she loved.
 
And he told Jane that Joan was under pressure, which Jane weaponized to keep her job after Joan fired her.
 
And here Roger says, I thought you hated French food, which is a pretty personal giveaway.
 
And Greg says afterward: That Sterling guy knows an awful lot about you.
 
Steve : Yeah, and I love the acting in this scene because it's very clear that something has been revealed here that Greg picks up on. There's a very knowing look on his face,
 
but of course, everybody's behaving properly and nothing further is drawn to it. So it's subtle, but just so real and so revealing for the characters in the moment.
 
 
 
Jenna: There are a lot of disturbing scenes in Mad Men, but this next one might be the worst. So Greg closes Joan into an office and he forces her to the carpet. It's absolutely horrifying.
 
Steve : It's an awful scene. And I was tracking what Joan expresses, and these are the literal comments of Joan: Don't. It isn't my office. No, I mean it.
Come on, Greg. This isn't fun.
Stop, Greg.
No.
 
This is all taking place as Greg proceeds with what he's doing.
And it feels so intimate and awful. And we're right there as the viewer. The capper of the horror of this scene for me is the way Greg puts his hand on Joan's face and sort of turns her head to the side and his hand remains there through the scene.
It's a brutal scene to watch.
 
Jenna: I agree. I agree. That's really. It's completely ugly every which way. But that particular piece is so horrifying. And she's staring at a lamp, and it is completely awful.
 
We see Greg after waiting outside the office, and she comes out. And the complete opposite of what I expect happens. They're going to go to dinner together.
 
She leaves the bouquet of roses on the desk, and she doesn't look at him. He doesn't want to miss the reservation.
 
And it is so awful to imagine her going to dinner with this man and pretending she's okay when everything about their relationship has fundamentally changed forever.
 
And you want her to kick him to the curb.
And at the same time, you can also see this thing - she always thought she wanted this - he's going to be a doctor. He's good looking. He ticks the boxes, just like Betty ticks the boxes.
 
He's also a terrible human being. So is she going to cling to this illusion and hope for the best or call him out and reveal how wrong this is?
 
I know I said last time that I don't like to skip episodes during rewatches, but I can barely make it through this scene.
 
Steve : I think another thing that makes the scene so powerful for me is to this point,
Joan is this empowered, confident character. She's in charge. She's laying it out. She's putting Paul in his place. She doesn't take crap from anyone.
 
So to see a character who's so dominant in so many circumstances suddenly be victimized in this way, it really strikes me as a viewer and shocks me because I'm thinking, if any character can hold their own or evade this or prevent this or stop this,
surely it's this powerful character.
 
And yet we see what happens in this scene, and it's devastating all the more just because we know who she is and just how well she handles and manages every circumstance. And yet now she's put in a terrible situation and she's unable to extricate herself from it.
 
Jenna: Congratulations, Pete Campbell. There's somebody worse than you.
 
Steve : Let's take a minute to talk about Greg here, though. He says at one point, this is what you want, isn't it?
How much of Greg is - I don't know what the word is - evil.
And how much of this is his ignorance or him being misguided, responding, you know, trying to defend his ego, his own confusion?
 
I mean, I'm not trying to make excuses for his behavior in any way here, but what's going through Greg's head? How does Greg look at what's just occurred, and how does he think Joan perceives it?
 
Jenna: I wonder if we could define the show in some ways as how women live with the mistakes of men, as men try to prove how manly they are, because it is a function of that, for sure.
 
Just like we see Roger and Don and Pete and others making these decisions that have these awful ramifications for other people in propping up their masculinity,
and that's what he's trying to do. But he is also completely ignoring his partner.
 
And Pete is doing that with Trudy. Don is doing that with Betty.
Roger is certainly doing that with Mona and with Jane.
So it's that this expression of it is so ugly and so cruel.
The others are, to different degrees as well, of course.
 
Steve : Yeah, it's not a great look for the dudes.
 
[Pause]
 
Jenna: That's how you're gonna cap this?
 
[Laughter]
 
 
In the next scene, the partners, minus Don, vote to sell Sterling Cooper to Putnam, Powell and Lowe. Bert is somewhat reluctant.
 
Alice's fur still has two mink heads attached to it. And Roger at one point says, I'm sorry, I don't know whose eyes to look at.
 
And it's a great line. But he also seems really overly cheerful and blase about this pretty major decision. And you can't help wondering if he really knows what he's getting into.
 
Steve : Yeah. And for all the ink that's been spilled about Betty Draper being childish, I don't know. I think Roger Sterling may win my vote for the most childish here. Childish in his love life and blowing up his marriage and now just skipping into this major decision that's going to profoundly affect the firm and how everything operates.
 
Jenna: Let's grab this really clever dialogue right here, too.
Alice says, you know, what does Mr. Draper think?
 
And they say, well, oh, his 12 and a half percent makes him mathematically insignificant.
And she says, well, still, I'd like to know what he thinks. Wouldn't you?
 
And, Roger, this is the account man, Roger we see. He says, he took a business trip to California. He's taking some time. Marital troubles. Don't write that down. He stands to make over half a million dollars. Let's proceed, shall we?
He's just - he's powering through.
 
Steve : Yeah. And. And it just underlines the sheer flakiness of Don. Right. He's disappeared at this critical moment.
 
You have to think that Bert is furious about this absence. You know, we made you a partner, and now you're MIA when there's a decision that needs to be taken by the partners. It's an awful look for Draper.
 
Jenna: And yet Bert doesn't express that at all. He says his 12 and a half percent makes him mathematically insignificant.
So, again, this is pragmatic Bert here.
 
He doesn't express emotion about it, which is interesting.
 
And the contrast with this next scene is where we see Don in California with a bag of groceries.
And this is maybe the only evidence we have of Don with a hobby outside of infidelity and work.
Weiner says he's curious, but his curiosity almost always seems to have a utility value. You know, how can he use it for advertising or for escape or as an excuse to be with another woman?
 
You know, he doesn't play golf. He resists the neighborhood card games and parties. He only tolerates family and work gatherings.
 
Here he's got this interest in cars.
And it's really notable because it's not to appear to get him into somebody's arms or ahead with a client.
 
And he's asking these questions, and here's Roger saying, well, we're going to give him half a million dollars, and he's taking some time.
 
Don has not communicated any of that to his partners. Here he is just like, oh, drag racing - that seems cool. I mean, for all we know, he's just moving away from everything. Maybe he's permanently walked away. And this scene is really giving us a hint of that.
 
Steve : Yeah. And in listening to the commentary from Matt Weiner, he talks about Don, you know, trying on an identity, I guess, you know, as the grease monkey car guy in this scene. And that the cars themselves represent identities. You know, they started as one thing, they've fixed up and changed and turned into another as this guy’s hobby.
 
Don introduces himself as Dick in this scene, which further reinforces that sense of trying on or leveraging an old identity, but potentially trying on a new one. So it does, I think, convey this sense of possibilities out here in California. He could have a fresh start.
 
Jenna: Does it feel uncomfortable to you? Because when I look at it, I'm just like, this is not who you are.
You don't carry groceries by the drag racers. Get yourself back to work. Do you have any of that sense, or is it just me?
 
Steve : No, I, I, I, I would share it with you because I think this whole creative aspect, you know, is, is core to his being and his professional fulfillment.
 
Could he find the same fulfillment in, in working on cars?
Perhaps. But it does feel a little forced and a little unrealistic. It feels like Don Draper's indulging this, this escapist desire. You know, I've got these tough problems behind me.
 
Maybe I could just, you know, skip away and go buff cars, you know, or whatever. And it's like, I think as a viewer, I think, no, that, that's not going to work out for you either, Don Draper.
 
But again, if you're looking for a short term escape, I guess this is a door you could go through.
 
Jenna: It's a little interesting for working-man Dick Whitman.
He rejects the jet setters, so that's not okay.
 
But here, the working men, drag racer, hobbyists, maybe that would be okay for him to escape to and try. Maybe that personality is a better fit for him. So it is interesting that he goes from the one thing to the other.
 
And I also can't resist the comparison with Peggy, who often tries on different personalities too. Like, is this who I am? Is is this who I could be? And ultimately they seem to come back to work.
 
Steve : Yeah. And what I like about the writing is it feels realistic to me in the sense of you can morph and change in your life, and most of us have and do, but the elements of what you were in the past don't completely disappear or vanish.
 
They inform your current identity and they influence it in important ways. And it's, I guess the pejorative term for it would be to call it baggage, but it's a critical part to who you are at your, this current moment in time.
 
And it travels with you. And I like that the characters seem to bring this with them and it informs it because I do think that's how people operate in the real world and appropriate to a character who's traveled as far in so many different ways from his origins to where he finds himself today, flaking out in California while this company's merging.
 
 
Jenna: I thought it was weird that they split this scene at Sterling Cooper, where they're having the discussion before they have the vote.
 
So we come back to the office and we see the official vote about whether or not to sell Sterling Cooper to PPL.
 
But I think that it's, of course, as with Mad Men, it's very intentional that we see Don potentially grabbing onto this other life before the official vote happens.
So he's away, he's looking at cars, and they sell.
 
Bert votes yes, reluctantly. But they decide to proceed.
 
And of course, Alice has to burn Roger on her way out the door.
She says, oh, this is good for you, too.
You have your children to think of. And he goes, I just have the one.
Really? She says.
 
[Laughter]
 
Steve : And. And one of his children's going to turn out to be very expensive.
I love the ending shot of this scene, which is Bert in the office and this major moment where they've done this merger. I think Bert has no illusions of what this is going to mean about the nature of the firm and his role in it going forward.
 
And you just have a sense of the consequence of this decision weighing upon Bert's face as he sits there alone. And the camera pans back. It's beautifully filmed.
 
Jenna: Yes. The camera backing up away from him, so he's farther and farther away in his office with the door open, alone. Ugh. Yeah. Super powerful.
 
 
So Peggy is going into her new office.
Joan is telling Peggy the story of Greg here that Don was telling Anna and himself about Betty. And Roger's telling himself a story about Jane right now, too.
 
At the beginning of these relationships, these stories are used to convince themselves that they can work.
And I understand why it's not easy for Joan to turn away from this dream, this plan for herself, but I really wish she would burn this to the ground right here.
 
[Note: see what we did there?]
 
 
Steve : Yeah. And it's a device we've seen previously in the series where somebody who's not knowledgeable about the reality is complimenting about, you know, the cosmetic surface aspects, which all look so picture-perfect for so many of our characters.
 
And as the viewers, we're privy to just how broken and damaged things are behind the scenes. So it gives a poignancy to this scene that I think is very striking.
 
Jenna: Paul has come back. He wants to pretend he's been a very brave adventurer, but we find out that Sheila broke up with him.
 
Steve : Can I just jump in there? Harry's line, you know, Sheila dropped him three days into it. It just sort of is like a bucket of cold water on any pompous illusions that Paul wants to spin out to the crowd.
 
Jenna: He's very true to character. He's not running away to look at cars or change his life. Paul is just right on brand. Then we see Paul and Harry are both shocked and extremely jealous when they see that Peggy got Freddy's office.
 
And Peggy isn't even bothered by it. She says, I have some unpacking to do.
Someone asks if they've heard from Don, and Joan doesn't miss a beat. She says, yes, he called. He wants you to go back to work.
 
Steve : It's also interesting, you know, Joan, in response to Peggy,
is bragging a bit on Greg and you know, what his specialty is, and continuing to reinforce this notion of what a fine catch he is. But as the viewer, we know there are real, really large problems behind the scenes here.
 
And I feel sorry for Joan in this moment. You know, she's. She's sticking to the pitch when we know the product is not good.
 
Jenna: Well. And as the jealous men move away, Joan and Peggy finish up that conversation. And Joan says she's getting married at Christmas.
And Peggy says, that's wonderful. And then she goes into her office and closes the door, leaving Joan on the outside.
 
And that moment makes this show so great because Peggy is not jealous of Joan's engagement. She's really happy for her to get what she's always wanted. And we know how toxic it is.
 
And normally Joan would get to revel in comparison to Peggy's single status,
but not here. You know, Peggy has never wanted Joan's path, but this is the first time Joan has ever questioned whether she did.
 
 
Steve : The next scene rolls into Betty talking with Sally,
and it's clear that Betty realizes that she hasn't been the best mother and hasn't been fair to Sally, given what's been going on.
 
So she gives her some riding boots, and it's clear that Sally's finally going to be allowed to go riding horses, which she's been chasing Betty for, you know, all season to this point.
 
And then they get into a discussion where Betty starts to reveal some of the marital stresses and realities that, you know, Sally's seeing the consequences of, but to this point, hasn't been read into the troubles that are at the heart of them.
 
Jenna: You know, on a couple of watches with this scene, when Betty gives Sally the riding boots, it felt like, oh, she's trying to buy her love, right? She's giving her this present.
 
And Sally has said, oh, you're mean. So it's like, I'm gonna give you a present and make you happy, and then you're gonna like me best. And I kind of read it that way.
 
But when I watch it again, I feel like this is more Betty being an adult with her daughter. She doesn't criticize Don to Sally, which, given her conversation with Sarah Beth, would not be totally out of character for her.
 
And she's honest with her about Don being gone. She says, I don't know where he is or when he's coming back. We're having a disagreement.
 
And the other thing is, you know, the stables have been a symbol of Betty's freedom from her home and family life, that this is her escape. And she has denied Sally the opportunity to share in that with her, partly, I think, because of her flirtation with Arthur or her ability to have Arthur flirt with her while she is standoffish, or however it is, you know, from day to day.
 
So this invitation for Sally to come and join her at the stables is saying she is fully embracing Sally as part of her life, and she's not trying to hide that piece when she goes to the stables anymore.
So I feel like that is an important moment for Betty. That's not as dark as I had read it initially.
 
 
Steve : And it kind of twins nicely with Don Draper being very open and honest with Anna here. Betty is surprisingly honest and open with Sally.
 
And, you know, when she doesn't know the answer to questions, she confesses, you know, I don't know how long this is going to be or where this is going to go.
 
You get a sense of maybe this is a hard message for the child to hear, but ultimately, it's better for the child to hear the truth and know the uncertainty and then grapple with it than continue to feed some sort of illusion or lie that undermines Betty's credibility.
 
And the lie doesn't change the reality of her father's not present, and she misses her father. So it's quite a beautiful scene of the two of them together, especially given, I think, some of the stress and pain we've seen in the prior scenes.
 
Jenna: At the close of the scene, Betty stands up and Sally says, Mommy, you're bleeding.
And she realizes she has - I don't want to spoil completely, but yeah. So we're given a little sign here of something to come in the future.
 
She's going to go change, and then we're led to believe they're going to go to the stables together.
 
 
In our next scene, we go back to California. I have to point out that Don is both doing grocery shopping and fixing a chair for Anna, which was a huge point of contention with Betty. And that really takes us back to the A Night to Remember episode. Betty did the grocery shopping and she smashed the dining room chair for the dinner party, after Don was very slow to look after the items on the list.
 
So this is a little bit of irony, seeing him step up so much for Anna when he didn't for Betty, to your point earlier.
 
Steve : He’s such a good husband. mean, he does the honey do list, fixes the chairs. You know, he'd be a great catch.
 
Jenna: We get some closure on the fact that Anna was the person Don mailed the book Meditations in an Emergency to.
And she's underwhelmed. She says, it reminded me of New York and it made me worry about you.
And he's similarly distrustful of California and her would-be hippie mindset with the tarot cards.
 
But unlike all of Don's other relationships, it doesn't feel like he's pushing hard against her because of her different beliefs. They accept each other.
 
Steve : I think there's a real truth of the Don Draper character revealed in this scene.
Anna declares, you know, he's kept from happiness because he cannot accept that he is not alone.
And I think that really distills down the crux of the the Dick Whitman / Don Draper paradox.
 
Moving forward, being independent, not letting anything hold him back, is his freedom, his escape.
 
But simultaneously, the cost for that is it keeps him alone.
 
And we've seen him through chew through several relationships. It feels like he's in the midst of chewing through his relationship with Betty at this point.
What is it all worth or for in a world where you ultimately end up alone?
 
Yet the character can't seem to let go of the freedom and flexibility. The independence that being alone provides needs to be surrendered in order to then not lack for companionship and that partnership.
 
To me, this is the tragedy of the Don Draper character revealed right in this scene. And it feels like Anna lays it out for him to contemplate. But you don't get a sense of any decision or resolution on Don's part.
 
Jenna: Yes, it's such a powerful set of lines.
And we get our truth call-out here again, too. She says the only thing keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone. And Don asks, what if that's true?
 
Then you can change.
And he says, people don't change.
 
So for all his walking around trying on the personality, people don't change, he says.
 
I also want to talk a little bit about the tarot cards.
This is an interesting callback to Peggy's Popsicle presentation.
If you look at the world card, Anna says, she is the soul of the world.
Every living thing is connected to you.
 
And when you notice on the tarot card, her arms are out to her sides holding these wands or batons, it's much like in Peggy's art, how the mother is holding the popsicles out and bringing the family together.
 
As we see Don looking out the window in California,
the transition goes to Peggy looking out of the window in her new office.
It's brilliantly done.
 
Steve : Yeah, and I love the line as Pete walks in and asks how she swung this, you know, to have this new office. And Peggy, without batting an eye, responds, I'm sleeping with Don. It's really working out.
 
Jenna: And to his credit, Pete laughs. And they have that exchange, which is nice between them.
 
You know, even when he is trying to be affable, he's awful. He goes, you should get some pictures in here of your family or something. Shut up, Pete.
 
And Peggy says she wants to put up her campaigns, which I think is perfect for Peggy's office decor plan.
Some of us have Rothko paintings and some of us have ant farms. I mean, an ad campaign, that seems like a sound plan.
 
Steve : Pete confesses that Clearsil's pulling out and mentions, you know, Don's going to dance on my grave here since, you know, that was the whole sort of nepotistic angle, which is how Clearasil came into their possession.
 
Peggy asks if something happened in Los Angeles. And Pete confesses to her that Don disappeared, you know, didn't even check out.
 
And then he sort of mysteriously says to her, he didn't surprise him. He knows some things about Don. He might not be coming back. He's done it before.
 
Jenna: Peggy's tone really shifts here in this part of the conversation.
And when you said the thing about Clearasil, she's supportive of Pete. There's a truth call out actually there.
 
So Pete confesses this to Peggy that, you know, they've lost Clearasil. I guess I'm not doing my job. And she says, I'm sure that's not true.
 
And remember in her old office with the copy machine, she was saying, you do your job, I do mine, implying that his job was to keep his father in law happy. And here, this is a callback to that, I guess I'm not doing my job.
She is really kind to him by saying, I'm sure that's not true.
 
Then, though, it really shifts because she was protective of Don with Lois, and she remains so with Pete. She says she's not interested in gossip. And she insists that whatever Don does or doesn't do, she's sure there's a good reason. She will not unite with Pete against Don.
 
And this is a little bit irritating because Peggy is so loyal to this man and Don believes he's alone. I mean, Peggy is alone, right? I mean, she didn't run off to California. She brought in the Popsicle account.
 
Steve : Yeah, but I don't necessarily attribute it to loyalty to Don.
My take on it is Peggy is just that professional. She's not focused on gossip. Gossip doesn't serve any purpose.
 
She's focused on the mission, you know, being creative, serving the clients and the rest.
Not saying she's disloyal to Don either, because I. I don't think that's true. But I didn't interpret this as some favor to Don't. I just took it as this is mission-focused Peggy and gossip about Don Draper from Pete - it's nothing she's interested in.
 
Jenna: Maybe, but it was a softer turn. You know, she made a joke with him about the office.
She told him her decoration campaign plans. She consoled him about the loss of his account.
 
It's only when he brings up Don and says, I know something about him and he might not be coming back. He's done it before.
That is a hard no.
 
I think you're right. There is the professionalism piece of it. It's not just one thing.
But I think with Don, there is a hard loyalty line.
 
And I'm not saying I want Peggy to conspire with Pete against Don. I don't. But it's too bad that Don doesn't return Peggy's goodwill as reliably or dependably.
 
 
Steve : We cut to the final scene of the episode with Don wading into the surf in California.
He's got his eyes closed, the waves are hitting him, his arms are extended.
 
It alludes back to these religious images that we've mentioned from a couple prior scenes. Matt Weiner mentions that this is the baptism of Don occurring in the surf. He's got choices to make now.
He's got the potential for a new start. And Don Draper is entering into this next phase of his life.
 
Jenna: The closing song, Cup of Loneliness, has a rural revival sound, and the lyrics really fit Anna's message that happiness is eluding Don because he believes he is alone.
 
Steve : Yeah. Another big aspect of the lyric is others doubting and mocking you for your faith and you walking the righteous path, sipping from the cup of loneliness with the Lord and that loneliness created by others who don't see that he is the savior,
faith being a lonely place.
 
So it suits Don Draper in this moment because it's his loneliness - you know, we've talked about it being his choice or a price he pays for other choices he elects, but that loneliness seems very fundamental to where this character's at.
 
 
Jenna: We'd like to give a fan shout out to Kyle E. and say thank you so much for your kind comment on our blog post. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen and share such positive feedback. Thank you so much for your support.
 
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 .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.