Stylistically, this episode is a departure from the series as a whole, and this season in particular. The episode opens with a Don voice-over. I believe this is the first time that the series has employed any outside narration, but Don's film noir exposition actually makes sense as the episode plays out.
In the first third of the episode, the director intentionally confuses the viewer as to what is going on, and with that confusion comes revelation and change.
At the outset, Don journals about his childhood and we learn that he didn't finish high school. For someone who claims to never write more than 250 words, Don sure has a handle on elaborate noir prose.
As he describe his days as Dick Whitman, the camera cuts to Don doing laps in a pool. The quick transition coupled with the mention of the past make the viewer at first believe that we are seeing Dick Whitman swimming in Indiana, but, after the character emerges from the water, he unleashes a coughing fit brought on by years of smoking, and we realize that we are seeing Don do something other than drink or work (or canoodle) for the first time in many years.
Don's newfound sobriety is a theme throughout episode, and this is communicated both through stylistic choices by the director and through the action onscreen. The lighting is much brighter than recent episodes have been. Don refuses an armful of bottles from Miss Blankenship (the queen of perversions) and is seen drinking beer instead of liquor when he is writing.
At one point, in a staff meeting, Don gazes lustfully across the room and the camera assumes his point of view. It then focuses on Peggy taking a sip of scotch, leading one to believe the that Don is beginning to desire Peggy, before the camera quickly cuts to a shot of Harry Crane's hand pouring liquor into a glass. Wiener and company tease the viewer with a Peggy/Don romance, but show that, ultimately, Don really lusts after a drink.
As for Don's Tracer Bullet compositions, I'm not quite sure what they are yet. They could be journal entries, or perhaps he was inspired by Roger into writing his own memoirs. The latter seems unlikely for a man who has spent his whole adult life hiding from who he is.
The B story in this episode is lady-centric, with Joan struggling to retain the respect of the younger male employees. The showrunners. have gone noticeably bluer this season in an effort to show the changing national consciousness toward sex and decorum in general, and it shines through particularly with the young men in creative. (Although Roger is not immune to the wiles of a dirty joke either).
After being repulsed by what he feels is a gay come-on by Harry, Joey in turn uses sexuality to belittle Joan and try to exert some power over the office's queen bee.
(As for Harry, I don't feel like he was coming onto Joey, he just seems to be playing up his Jewishness recently, tossing in Yiddish words, and here he seems be acting out the Jewish Mother stereotype, telling Joey, "You're so handsome," and pretending that an acting job is a guarantee for him. This may be the result of his spending so much time in Hollywood).
Joan goes home after Joey's harassment and we get another uncomfortable interaction between her and her husband. Despite his inadequacies as a husband and human being (although there was a cute moment a few episodes ago when he stitched up Joan's hand and told her the donkey dick joke. It also showed he wasn't utterly incompetent as a doctor, as i expected him to somehow botch that operation) she is clearly distraught at the idea of him going to Vietnam. There interaction here is mostly pointless except to establish Joanie's distress and give the viewer the first concrete image of the war as Joan's husband has already had his hair buzzed into a military flattop.
The fruit of Joan's trip home after her next encounter with the boys in creative, where after she is again disrespected (this time with a tasteless drawing) she tells them she can't wait until a year from now when they are in Vietnam dying in the jungle, and hopes they remember that it's not her they're dying for, because she doesn't care about them. It was an excellent monologue for Hendricks, and showed a side of Joan we'd never encountered before.
Peggy, mostly on the backburner this episode steps in at this point and shows Don the drawing, which allows for some nice comic relief, "Forced perspective? Narrative? Are you sure Joey drew this?" Rather than solving her problem, Don tells Peggy to grow up and confront Joey on her own, a sign of his growing respect for the young ad lady.
Puffed up by Don's confidence in her, Peggy calls Joey into her office, demands that he apologize to Joan, but when he refuses, she fires him. What follows is an uninteresting exchange between Peggy and Joan where Joan points out that all that Peggy did was make it seem like Joan was powerless while at the same time coming across as a "cold bitch."
Luckily we've resolved the B-story and can get back to Don.
One thing I noticed about Don's attempts to get sober is that, unlike the buffoonish Freddie Rumsen, Don doesn't need to go cold turkey or attend any meetings to stay sober. While he refuses the extra bottles from the Queen of Perversions, he still drinks a glass of liquor at the staff meeting, but only one. He drinks beer at home. On his date, he orders a glass of chianti. At the end of the episode, he pours a glass of scotch, but only about a pinky.
I have to assume that this is Weiner showing that Don is stronger than the other characters in the show, having the willpower to stop getting hammered but still imbibe on occasion, and without the help of any support groups. After all, Don is an island.
This episode also ratchets up the Don/Henry Francis rivalry, with Henry and Betty spying Don on a date with Bethany. Predictably, Betty acts like a child about it. In the car on the way home, Henry tells Betty that she is being a child (harking back to the psychologist from the first season who claimed Betty was emotionally a still a girl) and Betty gets angry at him. Unfortunately for the off and on impotency of Henry Francis, he didn't get a useable rage-boner. We're reminded again, like at the Thanksgiving dinner, that Henry has gotten himself into a very sticky wicket as he tells Betty that she doesn't hate Don, just like he doesn't hate his ex-wife. Everything is in extremes for child-Betty, love or hate. And in the case of Don, Weiner seems to be hinting that one could be masking the other.
Betty kicks Henry out for a night but he returns the next morning to play husband before work, but not before he smashes some of Don's boxes in the garage out of jealousy and resentment toward the man who owns his house.
Don has a better date than old HF, he has a pleasant evening with Bethany that culminates with a discussion on intimacy (i think, he may just have this with Faye) and some orals. Don being willing to consider openness and intimacy with another person is an almost impossible development from the closed inaccessible character we met in the first season, who was so afraid of anyone knowing him that he led his own brother to commit suicide.
HF and Don share a tense phone conversation where HF insinuates that Don is not welcome at baby Gen's birthday party, and Don appears to acquiesce to this insinuation. When Don swings by to pick up the boxes, he doesn't even notice Henry's petulant vandalism, in fact, he just trashes the boxes. Don has built his life on not just ignoring his past, but exterminating it, and here, rather than burying his life as Dick Whitman, he buries his life as Don Draper, the unfathomable, inhuman bastard.
With Don's new sober outlook on life, he manages to charm Faye into a date, bringing back some of that classic Draper swagger. The date goes well, and, we again see Don opening himself to the possibility of real intimacy. When Faye propositions him, he rebuffs her and says that taking her to her door is "as far as he can go right now."
The episode ends as Don enters his house for Gene's birthday party (with an awesome elephant) he greets his kids and Betty. Betty snuggles up to Henry Francis, but gives a look that is the opposite of hostile to Don as he picks up Gene and gives him a kiss. The episode ends without any music (although it did begin with a Rolling Stones song, so that was a departure from the norm) much like Lost did whenever it was a particularly good episode.
The stylistic departures seem to reflect Don's departure from the character we've come to know over the past 4 seasons. As Don walks away from his past for the second time and into the volatile 60s, the show appears to be prepared to do the same by abandoning its iconic style to pursue uncharted territory.
Style Hi-lights:
Don in casual wear is always a treat, and his cuffed chinos and plaid shirt were a great, simple combo.
Joey's pink shirt and knit skinny tie
Peggy's blue dress with red pleats
Henry Francis khaki slacks and checkered shirt.
Style Lo-lights:
Don's navy slacks and heavy tweed jacket combo for dinner with Faye.
The lazy art director whose name escapes me's pleated slacks and striped polo
Until next week friends.
I totally agree with you about Don's adaptive character. However, you mentioned that the audience glimpsed a part of Joan we've never seen before. I disagree with this; if anything, I think Joan is one of the few static characters. Save for a few occurrences such as her marriage (which was not even covered in an episode), she is the same as in the first season. Perhaps that bitterness toward Joey and the other guys is her realization that her feminine charm and sex appeal will not get her everything. And Peggy is a a constant unintentional reminder of that.
ReplyDeleteKyle, I look forward to next week's post. Until then, I will only dream that I could secure a dress like Peggy's pleated one to sport on Halloween...and other occasions..
Let's go back to the scene in Don's office- Peggy has a drink in hand, Ken passes a drink to Don then pours one himself. Don's colleagues have in some part learned to follow his lead, and as he rediscovers himself he also stumbles across those who already know him. Don is aware of the drinking and pervasiveness of liquor around him, exaggerated by the sudden silence of the action.
ReplyDeleteI felt like especially in this episode where for the first time Don serves in part as narrator this silence was particularly telling. For all we have learned previously and are being let in on now, for me the drama of Mad Men is there is so much we still don't know about the mysterious Don Draper.