'There's Eggs In My Bed!': Mad Men Recapped
Freddy Rumsen, holler! At least one burning question about this young season of Mad Men was answered last night as an old friend made a comeback -- albeit one of the cryptic, suspicious variety. Christmas came and went, meanwhile, while libidos soared and egos crashed. Oh, and the creepiest kid ever paid his latest visit to the Draper/Francis household. Let's sort it out.
For all the nifty office drama this week, the most harrowing interlude of the night might have occurred off-site in the first scene: No sooner had Henry and Betty settled on a Christmas tree than young Glen -- the pubescent, backyard-crashing Betty-kisser from seasons one and two -- literally stalked out of the shadows to accost Sally. Puppy love! Or... something. With young, aspiring psychopaths like this you can never be too sure. Their halting conversation tumbles one line over another in the dark suburban cold: She compliments his winter attire; he says he might call her. She is rescued by her brother; he will have his revenge on Bobby soon enough. For now, can he get you some twine?
A far less squirm-inducing resurgence occurred at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, where out of nowhere, in walks Freddy Rumsen with, in Roger's words, a $2 million present under his arm. Sober 18 months now, the erstwhile pee-er of pants walked out of his agency with his Pond's Cold Cream deal apparently still intact. It's quite the boost for SCDP, which Roger equates to Potemkinville, a façade of progress and affluence belying the fledgling firm's many pressing crises. But Freddy has one precondition for parking the account there: "I don't want Pete Campbell anywhere near this." Done and done.
Which doesn't mean Freddy doesn't have to see Pete, officious as ever, kicking the old man's tires before Roger can intervene. Peggy hardly shares his reservations, virtually bursting with glee at Freddy's entrance. Don, meanwhile, does what Don does: Offer the recovering alcoholic a drink. Nice.
It's an interesting variation on Don's evolving aloofness -- some deadened outgrowth of his bachelorhood that disables him even from closing the deal with, say, the hot nurse Phoebe. Granted, their meet-not-so-cute the next day involves hammers, nails and garland at the crack of dawn, yet Don -- who spends his holidays with whores, remember -- doesn't simply ignore the young woman's signals. He doesn't receive them. A similar event occurs with Dr. Faye Miller, an appealing consultant whose attempt to psychoanalyze the SCDP crew with a test meets with Don's polite but direct recusal.
On the one hand, he seems to be above all this misjudgment -- the drunken self-immolations, the presumptuous come-ons, the predatory headshrinkers. On the other, of course, he is the standard-bearer for all three, somehow not recognizing his own reflection in the culture he helped shape as one of most influential ad men on Madison Avenue.
And so it appears Don has moved into a little hotter circle of hell. He can't close (or really even start) the deal with Phoebe, who helps him stagger to bed one soggy night, shimmying in her cocktail dress to remove his shoes before he blacks out. He has nothing for Dr. Miller, whose attendance at the office Christmas party comes with a diagnosis ("You're the kind of man who doesn't want to take the test"). And the one tryst he does manage -- with his secretary, no less, to whom he earlier entrusted the intimacy of reading him Sally's letter to Santa -- is a soused byproduct of having clumsily left his keys at the office. And it lasts even less time than his slappy-prostitute interlude. And it results in one of Don's most truly tone-deaf acts to date: Putting the secretary's promised bonus -- $100 cash -- and added thanks for bringing him his keys in the place where some acknowledgement of their quickie should go. Nicer.
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Lee Garner Jr. was just awful. The crack about Roger having a third heart attack.. ouch, that was humiliating and cruel.
The shifting power structure(s) will continue to be a major theme throughout this season no doubt, last night typified greatly by Joey's "He's _pathetic_!" line. The young generation does not hold the older generation in high esteem? That's probably a bit of an oversimplification of what's happening, but I'm really enjoying watching this season begin to unfold.
The minute Sally and Glen form a gang and start killing people is the moment I stop watching.
At least no one lost a foot.
This show is getting to such a point of creepiness that it makes my stomach hurt to watch it.
One particularly creepy moment was the slight smile on Sally's face when she found the "trinket" on her bed - like it didn't even occur to her to be scared or creeped out. And when Glen was talking about his parents "doing it" and she didn't know what it meant - you got the feeling he is definitely planning on letting her in on it.
Don nauseates me - I, too, was struck by the payments for "services rendered" to his poor secretary. He caused everything he's going through - he needs to man up. Blech.
There's a darkness and ugliness around the show from beginning to end - I don't know how to explain it.
I kinda alluded to this, but I purposely left some of the Glen/Sally stuff (including the phone call) out of the recap because it's just more prurient Weiner overkill. It's like Don's family now exists only to be openly mocked, humiliated, and systematically destroyed. I can't believe a guy who gave us so many rich, multi-dimensional and dynamic characters over three seasons could suddenly be so vicious to some of them.
I really liked this episode. The whole thing with the secretary was really cool to me because she's this small character that's been on the show for a while and suddenly she gets this huge moment.
I like Glen coming back but not like this. The whole family thing is getting ridiculous. They should have been written off the show.
And Peggy's new characterization became less annoying this week. She's turning into Don with all the lying and deceit with her boyfriend.
Can't wait to see where this season is going to go. But honestly watching Betty's character ruined is really killing me.
I kept waiting for Lee to announce that he is pulling his account from SCDP. Between the way they kept declaring the percentage of their business (in both the re-cap and the actual episode) that Lucky Strike commands and the escalating level of humiliation of that office party, I think it is a foregone conclusion.
Just a great episode last night. Loving this season!
But real life isn't often pretty in the way Tv shows sometimes like to present. I think Draper's collapsing and the world's falling down around him thanks to his own doings.
It's time to pay the piper and them bagpipes are sounding pretty ominous.
I LIKE the turn this is taking.
I am enjoying this season, I think. I'm sure Weiner is telling us that "everything is off kilter" as the 60s move along. Marriages, business partnerships -- all dissolving. It's turning out that Don's as much of an "old guard" as Freddy. Drinking all day, changing wives -- Roger Sterling without the trust fund (and again, the best lines go to Roger...'with my hair, you can't even see me in here' 'my father said this was the best business in the world except for one thing...the clients'). Good to see old gay Lee making all the men sit on Santa's lap for pictures. And, yes, Peggy's calm deceitfulness is leading her to be Don Draper in a skirt.
Sally and Glenn need to run away to the circus together and never return.
I totally agree as far as what's affecting Don. But Betty et. al. seem to only be there now as objects of derision and/or misfortune. The complexity is gone. What was so entrancing about last season was how Betty became a kind of activist in her own life, for better or worse. And that activism was arguably justified. Now she is made to look simply foolish, spoiled or worse, which we know isn't how she is. At least not exclusively.
I guess it's one of those "What's my motivation?" things. What's her motivation? What's Henry's motivation? Until I know, I'm not so sure of their purpose. And of course Sally's motivation is to be the most sociopathic little girl ever. Or... not? That's the point -- I sincerely don't know.
January Jones has to stop giving acting lessons to Matt Weiner's son.
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