What hotel are they at? The Bev Hills Hotel? I just stayed there in April and the pool looks familiar, but if it is, they obviously had to set it back a bit, especially the valet and front entrance.
Oh if ever there was a wrong question for the wrong person! Don denies himself nothing and even though he lectured Pete about staying focused on work (“You want to be on vacation, Pete? Cause I can make that happen") he decides to go to Palm Springs with the random woman he met at the bar. Poor Pete was left in the lurch.
Don just grows women. People are forever trying to figure him out.
I like that grifting idea, greensweater. For once, Don looks out of his element and weak. Cally, back then and still a little, is a totally different world than what we're used to on the East Coast (just got back after a month so no disrespect!). Hope he makes it out! He's a PW'd fool!
I think "grifted" is a possibility. These foreigners who have no jobs seem a tad suspicious, like a band of poseurs living off others. Very odd. I must admit, seeing Don blow off work seems weird. Unless he looked at all this talk of missles and decided it was a foolish errand.
Those people seem very weird, I think Don is going to get into alot of trouble with this girl! I get bad vibes. Don is so damn stupid he put pleasure before business its the other way around. I love the fact he made pee brain stay with the business partners and refuse to let him have fun! yeah don on that part!LOL
Oops, they finally slipped up…
As best I can tell, the convertible Joy was driving is a 1963 Mercedes 230SL. But according to the shows time line it’s August or September of ’62 and that car wasn’t even introduced to the public until March of ’63, a full six months later. Gotcha!
He cuts his boyfriends hair... or he was at beautican before... that was funny... Peggy didn't look as horrified as most gals c.1962 would have been...
Did they use the word "homosexual" then? I thought it was referred 'queers' or 'gay'? Any feedback? Don's hair looks weird! For once, he turns me off, I only like him in the 'strong man' position~I know, I'm fickle!
This young lady, a friend of another young lady who works for me, was his GF in college and for a while after. Now she's married, and whenever MM comes on, her husband asks her "Did you sleep with that guy?" She always replies "No, of course not." But, as an aside, she told my friend, "Of course I did, what am I? Crazy?"
Stephanie Jo19 - The usage of "gay" started in the 70's. In 1962 that word wasn't used, or it wasn't in mainstream use.. Homosexuality was thought to be a psychological disorder then. "Queer" was insulting as was "fag" - but they were used, anyway!
So Don see's Someone whom looked EXACTLY like Peggy in the hotel bar. Then he's introduced to this group. While Joye is leaving for palm springs or some place , she speaks just like Betty. Then in the pool Joye 's eyes appear to be Betty's.
Peggy's hair doesn't appear very different, except the colour. Don has run away, for the moment... Now he Dick Whitman. Don's airline bag at the Door ... Damn this was a short episode. We all had better watch it again , probably missed it all.
Hello and HELP! I travel extensively for my company, and although I stay at nice locations - Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, I can't always get AMC - is there a way to download the full length of the CURRENT episodes and watch them on my laptop??!! The 3 minute snip-its from past episodes don't get me there with what's happening NOW! Please help!!
Don leaves Pete high and dry with the clients! I love it! Anything to get that guy. I love Don in casual clothes! How ironic that he would ask Joy "Who are you?" Did anybody think he was having that heart attack people have been predicting when he fainted at the pool? The gay guy giving Peggy a make-over; what a hoot! I love all the literature in bed. Duck is a real skunk; I guess it was a matter of time when he picked up with everybody shoving it in his face all the time. I guess he will finally get his comeuppance now. Advertising must have been like being a bartender and trying to maintain sobriety.Now, I know the closing song tonight,
"What'll I do?" sung by Johnny Mathis. I thought Don might have been calling home to talk to his kids except for that he was looking up the number. Who is he meeting? I love the way they said "Kurt is a homo" when Pete came back .
In the coming attractions, Don says to Betty that 'she made him do it' and I'm going back to her Dad telling Don that he has nobody. Now he feels that he has to account for some family, who Dick Whitman was calling.
Don leaves Pete high and dry with the clients! I love it! Anything to get that guy. I love Don in casual clothes! How ironic that he would ask Joy "Who are you?" Did anybody think he was having that heart attack people have been predicting when he fainted at the pool? The gay guy giving Peggy a make-over; what a hoot! I love all the literature in bed. Duck is a real skunk; I guess it was a matter of time when he picked up with everybody shoving it in his face all the time. I guess he will finally get his comeuppance now. Advertising must have been like being a bartender and trying to maintain sobriety.Now, I know the closing song tonight,
"What'll I do?" sung by Johnny Mathis. I thought Don might have been calling home to talk to his kids except for that he was looking up the number. Who is he meeting? I love the way they said "Kurt is a homo" when Pete came back .
Anybody remember how Betty said two episodes ago that 'she had a dream about luggage' or something? When she was on the phone with Don telling him about her father? Then the luggage shows up on the doorstep? Looks like Don's skipping town. Jesus! I thought seeing those kids were going to compel him to go back home. Also, good call on the grifters.
I must admit, while there were some excellent bombshells dropped, I found Don's interlude overlong. Anyone else think so? Rare criticism from me. However, it did strike me that Don the Moviegoer had stepped into one of his decadent foreign films from the early 60s.
I like how the Duck gets courage with the booze. Reminded me of that speech in the Lost Weekend Ray Milland delivers -- 'I'm Michaelangelo, molding the beard of Moses...I'm John Barrymore before movies got him by the throat.' Duck's clearly an artist when he soused.
Who'd Dick call? I'm guessing the woman at the car dealership.
I agree, those people Don met up with are trouble, and if he isn't careful, he is going to have more trouble than he ever imagined. It did seem odd he passed out after the 'strange drink' they gave him at the pool. I don't like this route they are taking Don down, but love to see him out of that suit! He may need this West Coast experience to bring things into perscpetive. Not sure. SO GLAD Peggy agreed to have that pony tail chopped off!!!
I have to agree that they jumped the shark on this episode. It was completely convoluted and contrived. I'm disappointed - well, except for the fact that someone finally cut Peggy's hair.
I"m sorry so many found this episode boring .... I LOVED it!
The music in California was perfect, so dream-like. The colors, the style of the Palm Springs house, the clothes .... Don au naturel. This was truly one of the more scrumptious episodes.
I'll suffer through any phase Don/Dick is going through ... only it won't be suffering.
Don has found hisself the real-life Hotel California. "Up ahead in the distance/ I saw a shimmering light/ My head grew heavy and my eyes grew dim/ I had to stop for the night." Oh, Don--he's in way over his head. These people could take him for all he's worth. Something very trippy is happening--Joy has Betty's voice EXACTLY.
Don didn't send his bag home, he never showed up at the hotel, so they shipped it to the address on the tags.....just think what Betty will think when she finds it. And Pete had to make his way home, not knowing whether Don had flown back on his own.
Don off on a lost weekend-ish fling with the international leisure crowd......I think he'll be brilliant, knowing his ability to take on a new persona at will.
I see Duck as a short-timer, SC will never let the Brits buy them out, even if Roger needs dough.
Yes, the luggage is definitely a recurring motif.
I was wondering what Betty meant in last weeks's episode when she called Don at his hotel room to tell him that her
father had suffered a stroke, and prefaced that news with the remark that she'd dreamt of a 'suitcase'.... I assumed it was some reference to something in the first season (which I still haven't seen), Does anyone remember or know or want to hazard a guess at to what she meant by that somewhat cryptic remark? TIA
Actually, the use of the term "gay" was common way before the sixties....even Cole Porter used to use it in songs in the 1930s (he did a song about why George Raft's bull wouldn't sire: "Georgie's bull is beautiful/ but he's gaY"). It was "code", though, so it would be more accurate to say that it didn't filter through to mainsteam culture until the 1970's.
What is the tune playing when Don sees the Betty look-a-like from behind at the bar?
I'm female and the "Don naked" comments are just embarrassing. Is that all it takes for some of you to watch?
I've been telling everyone about this show and tonight it hit rock bottom. I'm sorry I recommended it. Jane made a reference to taking "magic mushrooms" at the beginning, and I think somehow the mushrooms invaded the whole episode.
I agree with producer bonnie. I think the writers took the week off and gave us crap. Give us back our show.
It is a scam - drugged at the pool...the strange beat when Don assumed out loud that they were wealthy...the weird interchange when the old geezer comes into Joy and Don's bedroom ("oh, he's beautiful", followed by her "Papa, ne touches pas"). Yes, the kid at the pool did look like a young Dick Whitman, that's when there's a noticeable change in Don's/Dick's demeanor. What name does he say on the phone? Phillip??
The question is who did he call that he knew the number and they answered? Seems like he has called before as Dick and we didn't know it. There seemed to be no surprise or drama on the other end because Don didn't react to anything. And what did he write down? Looked short whatever it was.
@NRG101: You can download every full-length episode of Mad Men on iTunes, although sometimes the latest episode isn't available for a day or two, sometimes longer.
C'mon guys....Peggy is now officially hot!!
Smarts and a great haircut.
I lost a bet though....would have bet everything they would have closed this episode with a Dylan song
I just thought of something
They gave him a drink and then,.,,
later, one of them says "Oh your wallet fell out" ...that's how they know he's in advertising...
Something is rotten in Denmark,
This episode did not keep my attention. It was too far out there. It was all over the place. I remember the previews thinking this was going to be a good show. What happened? I was very disappointed.
I loved this epi--very lyrical and poetic. Lots of mirroring. Roger and Don are mirroring each other's lives in being swept away by young dark-haired nymphets, but Roger is feeling the tentacles of civilization wrap around him more tightly while Don has the illusion at least of total liberation--he doesn't even have his things with him (though they're waiting for him at the house--symbol symbol symbol). Then there is all the Hitchcock-Vertigo business of Don seeing Betty everywhere he goes. And every woman is Betty, while Peggy turns out to be multiple women. And there's Duck on substances in NY paired with Don on substances in Cali.
If all these themes weren't clicking in, I'd still be totally grooving on the Eero Saarinen designs. Plastics, baby.
Someone mentioned that "What'll I Do" is sung in the Redford "Gatsby"--another work of art setting the old East against the young West, the past against the future.
i don't think the writers are going to take don out of the office for long, at least i hope not. the office setting is more entertaining. it's weird that don was attracted to joy-i don't think she's his type. In the past he has gone for the stronger, independent type. he usually has affairs with women who are very different from betty.
Yes very dreamlike..though I think Don is breaking out a bit, from what? Well don't know..but he likes it...and am curious...who did he call at the end..he called as himself..not Don..Hmmmm!!!
But gotta say...those Eurotrashers seemed a bit cartoony, bad casting or intentional?
I agree that this is the first time we have seen Don as a "fish out of water" and not the alpha male. He could be in trouble, but I think he will leave the Jet Setters and meet this person who knows him as Dick Whitman.( Not the woman in the car agency; she was looking for the real Don Draper.) The guy on the train who recognized him as Dick from the army is a possibility, but it could be someone we don't know. (He does have the person's phone number written down in his "little black book.") Remember that Don has blood pressure problems too, which could account for his passing out. I agree that the suitcase was sent by the airline and not by Don; also agree that the boy at the pool is the same actor who plays Don/Dick as a child.
This show is never boring. It's all in the dialogue. If Shakepeare was a 21st century guy and he was writing screenplays for TV..this is what he would be writing. The best dialogue ever...even when the scene seems irrelevant (of course, it never is). To all the writers....YOU ARE THE BEST/
It appears my prediction from last week that the show would begin to change and many of you wouldn't hang with it may be coming true. I knew it! People get out of your shark tanks! This was one of the best episodes ever. They've opened up tons of new directions for storylines. Not to mention we're finally going to get some answers about Dick Whitman.
Peggyann, perhaps, but recall she knew he wasn't Don Draper -- and it was pretty clear he wasn't going to convince her otherwise.
tamtam, that's what I thought about the luggage, too -- when Don didn't turn up, they sent it home.
Visan, I figured you'd love this one. While I love Big D and his character is the most compelling, his companions were incredibly boring and self-indulgent. I actually found the Duck's plotline more compelling than Don's. Never thought I'd say that.
Loved that Peggy got the makeover. She looked good. Poor Sal. At least five more years in the closet for him.
Dr. D, "jump the shark" refers to an episode of Happy Days, when Fonzie announces that he is going to jump (on water skis) over a shark or sharks. In TV parlance, it is used to mean a show has run out of ideas and has proceeded to the ludicrous.
The glass Don was staring at at the end had a crack in it. I wonder why that prompted him to make the phone call as Dick? I loved this episode! Lots of new plots and stories to follow. I say Don ends up opening a west coast division of SC! California is perfect for him. Lots of people floating about with bizarre pasts.
Someone here was asking about the music during the
hotel lounge scenes. It was so familiar to me as well, but
couldn't quite place it. I'm going to make a wild stab and
say it's the score, written by ______ ????? for Lawrence
of Arabia, and just to quell my curiosity googling LoA to see
when it came out.... 1963? So what year does this episode purportedly take place? Someone upthread said 1962.....
Well, I gotta say I hated the whole California part of this episode - I thought Don was a jerk to ditch Peter Dykeman Campbell after telling him he had to work and not play - I did not like that group of "nomads" at all - that whole scene is going to come back and bite him in the seat of his white boxers. Then, of course, we get the whole "Hello, this is Dick Whitman" scene, and I guess that made everything all better.
I refuse to even acknowledge Roger and his little poet in bed together - I hope Mona gets it all.
I always love the office scenes so much and tonight we had some good ones, didn't we?
Poor Sal - I wanted to just throw my arms around him - anything to shield him from that world of hurt that was thrown all over him. But, on the other hand, now he knows he is not alone in the office. I bet Ken gets his lighter back post haste!
I am getting really worried about Paul and Sheila.
Finally, let us all raise a glass in memory of Peggy's late, unlamented ponytail - not you, Duck, you've obviously had enough - here, have a donut!
This storylines in this episode seemed shorter. This episode pissed me off as well because why would Don be cooped up with these weird ass people that talk in codes right in front of him. I can't understand why Don is doing this. I hope Betty leave him for good he is really a true man slut. In all I love the hell out of this show and always will!! Also, Poor Sal he looked like he wanted to choke at the damaging comments.
This episode was kinda trippy. Love the Palm Springs modern house! Awesome to see Don there in 60's casual. Most importantly Don between the sheets! He's like a fish out of water though w/the jet setters.
Spys? I don't think so. These people have always existed. People of this kind of wealth are used to getting what they want and how they want it. I think Joy made that clear. Her dad checking in on them in bed was a bit creepy though!
I knew Kurt was gay! I loved how matter of fact he was! I'm glad that he and Peggy are becoming buds. She so needed a gay man's touch on her style!
Came in late from helping out a friend. Just getting to watch encore presentation. So far lovin' it!! Don fits in soooo well with these group of nobodys. I'm sure everyone is who they'd like to be. I don't think they're grifters but there are always that set of people who seem to go to the best places & stay at the best hotels without ever worrying about paying. They hook up with just the right realtor or celebrity who has connections & sweet talk right into hanging out with them.
Oldfashioned, you are right - Betty told Don last week that she had been having a dream about luggage when she was on the phone with him telling him about her father's stroke.
This episode was awful. My respect for Don slipped several notches - leaving work to go dilly dally with a girl almost young enough to be his daughter. He looked like Roger Sterling, making love to a child. She wasn't even pretty, just kind of cute. Her speech pattern was just like Betty's, which made it all the creepier. Then there was the Betty lookalike at the bar.
Besides the sexual cavorting, it seems obvious Don is being set up by these people. The dad of Joy, the supposed Viscount, has an accent that comes and goes and these people don't spend much time in one place.
Writers, please spare us any more romantic scenes with Jane and Roger - looks like she's in bed with her father. Disgusting.
Duck is going to end up with nothing. Somehow, Roger will come out of this unscathed, I predict.
Sal's reaction to Kurt's pronouncement that he was a homosexual (acceptable word at the time, despite what some people have posted) was priceless, as was his response to Cosgrove's line about working with "queers." Poor Sal! Such a gentle soul and there he is in the lion's den.
I think Peggy's friendship with Kurt will great for her. Tonight he changed her look - next week maybe he'll give her some self-confidence.
Very disappointing episode overall. First time I've regretted spending an hour with this show.
""The family falls victim to those vices which Faulkner believed were responsible for the problems in the reconstructed South: racism, avarice, selfishness, the psychological inability of individuals to become determinants. Over the course of the thirty years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically.""
NOTICE, the TV was showing the news of Kennedy's solution to segregation in the schools? Racism is in the book, and so is DON life.
""The family falls victim to those vices which Faulkner believed were responsible for the problems in the reconstructed South: racism, avarice, selfishness, the psychological inability of individuals to become determinants. Over the course of the thirty years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically.""
NOTICE, the TV was showing the news of Kennedy's solution to segregation in the schools? Racism is in the book, and so is DON life.
I missed the part when Duck was in a meeting with the business people. He has a nerve to do a business deal that dont exist! He is going to get his ass chewed for this one. Oh man! If Roger and Bert only knew what was thrown at the table. No partner deal for him. Sneaky bastard!
I'm with you Visan. The dreamlike pace had me hypnotized but in a good way. Well a lot of that was Jon Hamm too. :)
I don't know about the grifting thing. That just seems too obvious.
I felt so bad for Sal. Horrible to have to stand there being called a pervert by the guy he has a crush on.
Nice touch with Johnny Mathias (who's gay) doing the closing song. Someone else mentioned the song being in one of the Gatsby movies and Don is a definite Gatsby-like character.
Jetan: The music prior to his seeing the Betty lookalike was "Miserlu". Then when he saw her the music was "Song of India" the same song that played on Valentine's Day when he and Betts were at the Savoy Hotel.
Hey vermillion, I didn't think what Don saw in his glass was a residue...I thought it was a crack and it was meant to symobolize Don's realization that the whole scene, while seemingly perfect, was in fact flawed in some kind of profound way.
Anyway, anyone pick-up on the music? The theme that kicks in when he sees Joy in slo-mo on her way to get her car is a slowed-down, dreamy version of Miserlou...the 60s surf guitar classic by Dick Dale made famous (again) in Pulp Fiction. Awesome.
Hi all! Does anyone know what this episode's (The Jet Set) music is -- the cocktail/Oriental- sounding music that seems to follow Don around in L.A.? Any help would be appreciated!
The accents in this episode were so grating. The only one I knew to be genuine was Charles Shaughnessy's, but by that point I had to pause the TV and just groan aloud at the aural fruit salad in this episode.
But anyway, Don is taking this running away stuff too far. He's going to find out the hard way what happens to people who run away from all their cares and responsibilities when he gets in too deep with these "nomads". It feels like they're all having a lying contest and trying to see which of them can see through the others first (those folks went through his wallet - not sure where that will lead).
What's even worse is that Don's running away is making Pete Campbell look like the most upstanding person currently employed at Sterling Coo!
Seeing that suitcase left at the Drapers' front door gave me a chill - reminded me of that casket left at the train station last season.
Question: in the scene with Don/Dick and Joy in bed when Papa comes in...who is he saying is "beautiful", Don or Joy...I don't know French so, can someone please translate what she remarked to her father. Something like...Papa - don't touch? maybe?
Okay, no one's responding to my grab at the music being
the score from Lawrence of Arabia, but it was definitely
'exotic' and definitely schmaltzy in the grand tradition of old
Hollywood scoring.....So what was it??! Brazil ??? Dance of the Seven Veils ??!!! It's a clue.... just like Telstar was foreshadowing. ;-)
Who else recognized Don Draper in that shot from the
Day the Earth Stood Still trailer ? Hmmm Jon Hamm...... or
Michael Rennie (sp?). Seems the 're-makers' have taken alot
of liberties with the original movie. Looks more like The War of the Worlds, than the other.
sooo someone thinks JH is being written out, as he's embarking to greener pastures. Maybe he should talk to Dave Caruso first....... (Just joking, I think Hamm is more
versatile/talented than DC, but that's just my opin......
I've been watching MM from the beginning and this is the 1st time that I've said this about an episode: what a piece of crap. However, I think it may be a little early to post my comments on jumptheshark.com, although several viewers have already done so. I'm hopeful that the remaining two episodes will make up for this one. Many of the positive posts on this thread seem to mention Don half-naked and back in the sack. It's too bad that's enough for some of you.
I'm confused - in the last scenes when they were in the pool. Before Don's stares at his drink..... she says looks like someone doesn't want to sleep..... did she swim away from Don and screw her father??????!?!!?!?!?!? Who was that other couple in he pool?
Looks like the posting is going out of sequence again. I'll try this again.
Question: in the scene with Don/Dick and Joy in bed when Papa comes in...who is he saying is "beautiful", Don or Joy...I don't know French so, can someone please translate what she remarked to her father. Something like...Papa - don't touch? maybe?
these people Don is chilling with in Palm Springs are strange.
but it's becoming a pattern in Don's life.
As a child Don met that hobo guy, then he hooked up with the beatnik chick and her friends and now he's with these people who also reject conventional life.
What strikes me as the dominant theme of this show is the struggle between conforming or rejecting society.
It should be easy to dislike Don for cheating on his wife all the time but this struggle and confusion cause empathy for him.
this was a great episode.
the drama between the characters is almost secodnary in this series.
In my opinion it's just used to help the viewer focus on something while the main, complex ideas are slowly formed.
just a speculation, maybe I'm pulling these ideas out on my own.
Who the hell were those people!?! I agree with the others who said this episode was strangely paced. Don's day in paradise was slow and seductive and the office stuff was cathartic and premature. Still Cant Wait for the next episode.
OH and how much would it suck if Duck becomes President. Don needs to get his shit together. I miss when he made his killer pitches...
hese people Don is chilling with in Palm Springs are strange.
but it's becoming a pattern in Don's life.
As a child Don met that hobo guy, then he hooked up with the beatnik chick and her friends and now he's with these people who also reject conventional life.
What strikes me as the dominant theme of this show is the struggle between conforming or rejecting society.
It should be easy to dislike Don for cheating on his wife all the time but this struggle and confusion cause empathy for him.
this was a great episode.
the drama between the characters is almost secodnary in this series.
In my opinion it's just used to help the viewer focus on something while the main, complex ideas are slowly formed.
just a speculation, maybe I'm pulling these ideas out on my own.
I think many of us are disappointed because there were just too many new characters in the show. We don't care about these people and it felt like we got robbed from spending our evening with our Mad Men folks.
I think it's interesting that when Don sees the Betty look-alike in the bar, an upbeat version of "Song of India" is playing, just as it was on Valentine's Day when Betty came down the stairs at the Savoy.
i agree with bc. the show's original focus on problems at work/home is the main reason i started watching. although i didn't care for this episode, i will continue to be a faithful viewer in hopes that MM will return to roots
mcmere- R u in St. Louis too? Jon Hamm went to Burroughs here and then studied acting at Mizzou (GO TIGERS!) 4 anyone who is not from St. Louis, the most common question no matter where you are from is,"Where did you go to high school?"
Jon was 4 years behind me in school so I didn't really know him. Too bad. He's was a cutie then too!
Thank you !! Was There :-) Song of India and Miserlu.
Well Miserlu is Greek folk music long before the Surfers ratched it up. ..... am forever confusing Song of India with
Brasil ..... lol.....
That may have been a Saarinen interior, but that was a Bertoia chair (had the bright red wool covering --- in the background
as he's dialing as Dick Whitman. Dick Whitman is a name from early century americana, isn't it? It's also a double entendre on Wit-man.... and he's certainly that.
Amazing posts so far.
In the final scene of the preview Don is at a parking area from what I can tell. It looks like two sailors walking down the sidewalk. San Diego...maybe?
I had a sick feeling that Joy and entourage are sophisticated "Euro-trash" grifters. The scene at the hotel when the Viscount introduces Joy to Don seemed like a set up. One question: who was the man with the two young children by the pool? I missed the first minute of that scene. Also, the Viscount indicated he was Joy's father. But Joy is soooo American. That whole crowd rang false to me. This episode of MM was just so baffling, I don't know what to think.
Jeri 18: These people Don has hooked up with remind me of people my date and I met at Regine's in NYC in the 1980's. There was a "so-called princess from South America" and her crowd that sat next to us on one of the couches. She was looking for her diamond that she dropped. They were ordering champagne like it was going out of style. On the drive home, my date told me that they charged everything to his bill!! I was furious for him, but he took it for what it was worth.
When Joy swam away from Don (as he stared at his drink) was that her across the pool screwing her father????!!!!! I am confused. Who was that couple? Where did Joy go?
Don's a spy. That's why he was visibly nervous when looking at that Russian map. "Dick Whitman" is code...for something. Cold war and all that. Any takers?
Roger seems to be happy to be with Jane because she makes him feel young and vibrant again. Peggy is one ugly girl but her appearence is better she needs to stay with this and never go back, she looks like a decent woman now. I posted three times now Im hitting the sack. Nice talking Madmen Family check in 2morrow!! Have fun
I really enjoyed this episode, even though I think because of the West Coast setting it perhaps was a jarring change of pace for many.
Honestly, being a New Yorker, Southern California always seems like such a surreal departure and the mood of the scenes there reminded me of the kind of startling culture shock I always experience there. I love Cali, but it's completely different and I've met a host of people who make the "nomads" look quite sane and in touch with reality!
My friend once described the difference as: "If New York is like the Flinstones, L.A. is like the Jetsons." Same premise; completely different set of references. So if anything went down in this episode that was bizarre, it was appropriate and credible.
---
The d'Alsace clan, for all their laxed sexual mores, do not seem as happy go-lucky as one would believe. I feel like at the pool when the kids come in, we see the limits of their care-free lives. Their lack of boundaries clearly ruins healthy child-rearing. Here's some poor dad saddled with his kids and in the throes of a possibly haphazard divorce.
Honestly, Joy and family display a little bit of self-loathing from their self-absorbed existence.
I think when Don sees the kid who resembles young Dick, he's reminded of how he's basically abandoned his core persona as Dick by indulging Don Draper's reckless whims.
---
Was not surprised by Kurt's revelation. I picked up on that in his first episode. Praise Jesus for that haircut, Peggy! Who did not sigh in relief at that?
Bryan Batt's quiet pain was so wrenching to watch. He does a great job.
__
I'm still trying to work out what gears were turning in Don's mind at the missile presentation. Someone enlighten me.
@ reppmo... I think the glass Don was holding and staring at at the pool was cracked. but he could have been contemplating his next move.
Joy looks and sounds like Betty with her little girl voice but at one point at the pool she even had Betty eyes. So to me, in a sense Betty was all over the place tonight.
Those people Don is hanging out with are bad, Convenient that Joy is"21". Do you really think she is? But this could be the only time we see them.
This is not a crossroad...It's leading up to a huge cliffhanger!
JimK, I love that Mad Men's writers take us out of our comfort zone. I just don't like that they plopped us and Don down with boring, self-indulgent poseurs. As foolish as Midge's crowd was, those scenes had a real, narrative tug -- an energy. And the Hobo Don met was fascinating. These people were drips -- they made a sybaritic lifestyle look boring. How is that possible? First time in 24 episodes I felt disappointment in this show. Oh, well.
That said, I buy in to what people were saying about the 'dream like' state. I think McMere noted earlier about Don facing 'apocalypse' -- there is something to this. Don is always looking to 'the future,' and that slide presentation showed him a pretty awful future. This was post-apocalpyse Don, no-future Don.
Also, thanks to the people who pointed out that the little boy looked like Don as a child. He did.
As for Duck, I don't think he fails this time. I think he gets the deal done, and maybe even Pete tries to throw him over again.
I think it was music to lawrence pf Arabia 2 metaphors to think on
Nomad theme in lawrence of arabia
The emotionally moving and visually stunning biopic of a man blinded by his own ego and desire to be extraordinary, Lawrence of Arabia succeeds on all levels. Working with epic themes of fate, loyalty, diplomacy and war, David Lean weaves a complex tapestry of diametrically opposed motives which leaves Lawrence as a dark, blank shadow in the brightly-lit desert. Thoughts, dreams and needs remain barely touched in a film which explores his status as a catalyst and figurehead far more than the man himself. Thus the enigma of Lawrence survives unbreached. The amazing thing is that even with this largely successful attempt to distance the audience from the film (apart from a few characters like Sherif), Lean still forces you to care about Lawrence. No one wishes to end their time as a pawn of powers beyond their control, be they of human or god-like origin, yet the pain of betrayal wounds so much more deeply for Lawrence. Having fought constantly to rise above the limits of humanity, his destiny forced him to confront the desperate reality of his efforts. This is the tragedy that emerges from Lawrence of Arabia
Of sound and fury
Out, Out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5
When Macbeth learns of his wife's death, he cries out the above lines, which can be used as a clue to the meaning of the novel or to the structure of the novel. Certainly Faulkner plays with the idea that life is nothing but a shadow. The word shadow appears continually throughout Quentin's section, and it also occurs frequently throughout the rest of the novel.
The implication that life is a shadow is used also by Faulkner to suggest that the actions performed by modern man are only shadows when compared with the greater actions performed by men of the past—that modern man is only a shadow of a being, imperfectly formed and inadequate to cope with the problems of modern life. Man is forced to commit
I'd like to know what age group the writers are trying to appeal to with MM. Anybody have an opinion? I'm thinking it's a much older crowd (like 40's and 50's). My daughter is 24 and they lost her for good tonight. She will not watch anymore. She normally likes period pieces, like American Dreams, movies like Brideshead Revisited, etc. So it's not because the show takes place in 1962. She is disgusted with the Don character. She thinks he is the biggest jerk to ever walk the face of the planet.
I have to admit that he isn't that appealing to me anymore either. His looks just aren't enough, he needs to be more likeable. His sexual conquests are just outrageous and annoying. So he had a bad childhood, big deal. So did a lot of people and they don't go around treating the most important people in their lives (their wife and kids) like crap. Even in 1962. The only thing about Don I'm still curious about is who Dick Whitman is going to see. The name on the piece of paper looked like Ray somebody
However, I will continue to watch (at least for awhile) even without my daughter because I am interested in the other characters. Peggy looks great with her new hair, Duck seems to be trying to take over the company, the gay aspect, I hope Mona takes Roger to the cleaners, I can't wait for Joan to smack Jane over the head with that bottle of Tanqueray when she finds out Roger is marrying her, and of course I want to see more of Betty (my favorite character). But I'm not sure I want her with Don. She deserves much, much better than him.
Quentin's section focuses on the idea that modern people cannot exist long enough to see the end of the tragedy. For example, in classical tragedy, the hero (or protagonist) is killed in the final scene of the tragedy and has suffered for his mistakes. In contrast, in the modern world, humanity is not capable of existing throughout the entire tragedy. Therefore, even though Quentin might be considered the central character, his life must end halfway through the work. As a consequence, the question arises as to why the novel should continue if the main character is dead at the halfway mark. The answer lies in the fact that the remaining sections illustrate, support, and justify Quentin's decision to commit suicide. If he had lived, we see in the last two sections the unbearable world that he would have had to face. Essential to Faulkner's structure is the fact that Quentin represents the modern person who cannot cope with the problems that have to be faced in the course of a tragedy; he must end his life by merging with his shadow in the water beneath him.
Jason's section, the third section, is told in the simplest prose of the novel. Whereas Benjy's section presented the confusion of time and Quentin's presented the intricacies of the mind, Jason's section races along as it records the simple thoughts of a mean, nasty, amoral man—a man who makes no attempt to disguise
I enjoyed the episode. Don sits in the meeting, sees the possibility of total nuclear annihilation. Decides to live in the moment in case there is no tomorrow. I guess you could say these were common themes of the era for many. Didn't the 60's culture originate in California? Were some of the aspects of it taken from this type of Euro-trash jet-setters with enough money to live the way they wanted with no restrictions? Don was facing the sexually liberated woman to come--he seemed surprised when she shamelessly undressed in front of him and took the top position over him. He did seem on some sort of chemical thru the whole experience. Yes, I loved seeing him with fewer clothes on! It was definitely "California Dreamin'"..
It would have been very shocking to announce your homosexuality back then! I don't remember it even being discussed! My only experience up to that point was a creepy man in a movie theatre fondling himself and sticking his foot thru the seat of a neighbor boy I was with and rubbing his backside with his foot. We didn't even know enough to complain to someone since we didn't understand what was going on....we just moved to another seat.
I'm even more curious now after reading some of the posts. Is there anyone out there watching this show who is in their 29 or younger? Because they lost my 24 yr old daughter tonight for good. She won't be watching anymore.
You aren't paying attention Jim K. (I'm guessing you're not Black.) That so-called "civil rights stuff" you speak of had been going on all over the country since the 1950s and if you know what to look for, you'll see hints of it in damn near every episode of Mad Men. Take tonight for example when Pete gets back from his trip. The scene where everyone is in the office gathered around the TV when he arrives with oranges. If you listen closely you can hear the news story on the TV of James H. Meredith, the first African-American to enroll in the University of Mississippi on October 1, 1962. 3000 National Guardsmen and 400 U.S. Marshalls with rifles and tear gas were called in to stop the rioting. More than 200 students were also involved. It was a pretty big deal. Last week there was the bus leaving NY going to Mississippi to register voters. The show is littered with these kinds of historical civil rights moments. No need to wait for next season.
Quentin's section focuses on the idea that modern people cannot exist long enough to see the end of the tragedy. For example, in classical tragedy, the hero (or protagonist) is killed in the final scene of the tragedy and has suffered for his mistakes. In contrast, in the modern world, humanity is not capable of existing throughout the entire tragedy. Therefore, even though Quentin might be considered the central character, his life must end halfway through the work. As a consequence, the question arises as to why the novel should continue if the main character is dead at the halfway mark. The answer lies in the fact that the remaining sections illustrate, support, and justify Quentin's decision to commit suicide. If he had lived, we see in the last two sections the unbearable world that he would have had to face. Essential to Faulkner's structure is the fact that Quentin represents the modern person who cannot cope with the problems that have to be faced in the course of a tragedy; he must end his life by merging with his shadow in the water beneath him.
Jason's section, the third section, is told in the simplest prose of the novel. Whereas Benjy's section presented the confusion of time and Quentin's presented the intricacies of the mind, Jason's section races along as it records the simple thoughts of a mean, nasty, amoral man—a man who makes no attempt to disguise
wasthere I guess I should watch "Heartbreakers" with Ray Liotta & Sigourney Weaver again. Although "the Grifters" is playing on Universal HD channel.
As kooky as some of the things were in this episode, there is definitely something BIG coming up out of left field!
Best line: Roger to Duck:"Everyone thinks you're a fine fellow, but if I were you, I'd go out there & make rain".
Runner up Joy to Don:"Why would you deny yourself something you want". So much meaning said in that one line.
As for Jon Hamm on the couch just before making the phone call. The man's been working out!!! Maybe it's all the love scenes he's has to shoot?! LOL
I'm a little confused. When they were at the pool and Joy said the "someone looks like they don't want to sleep" when Don gave their room away.... she swam away and he stared at his glass. Did she go to her father and mess around?? Who was that other couple in the pool???? Where did Joy go? WOW incest too?!?!? What an epi
Grifters? What would they con him out of? Unless they think he's loaded rather than merely successful. I think they just see him as an amusing plaything to be enjoyed for a week or so and then tossed aside.
I believe that the person Don called as Dick Whitman is the person he mailed the book of essays to at the beginning of the season.
I know a lot of people here hate Duck but I like him. Nice to see he'e's finally growing a pair.
(Speaking of which, won't Roger have fun when he learns Don's real name? "Dick, Duck - Duck, Dick.")
This is my first time to write . . . I love this show, however, this episode was sub-par. No one commented on that too long slide show scene in the space presentation. I switched back to catch the score of the Dodgers/Phillies game which was opposite in my location.
I love this show because I was 27 in 1962. I just wrote a jazzy song about this time with lines like:
Kids ate their Pop-Tarts/Washed down with our dregs/We had bloody Mary's and scrambled eggs! Betty Crocker is not allowed to scream/That's what it's all about!
In an earlier show on the summer episode reruns, I just about flipped when I saw Don's daughter pouring the vodka in the glass and adding that little bit of
Libby's tomato juice.
Didn't Don give Dick Whitman's age to Joy? 36, I think. Don Draper is older than that, isn't he. So, was Don being Dick this whole episode? And, I am thinking that the person he called might be the one he sent the book to.
If so what do you think of this Don is like quenton
All of Quentin's actions are only shadows of real actions, and unlike a tragic protagonist who loses his life at the end of the drama, Quentin takes his life at the mid-point in the novel. The implication is that modern man cannot bring himself to cope with the problems of the final act of the drama and destroys himself in the middle of the drama. Quentin's final act is that of jumping into the river, where his shadow rises from the water below to meet him.
Grifters? What would they con him out of? Unless they think he's loaded rather than merely successful. I think they just see him as an amusing plaything to be enjoyed for a week or so and then tossed aside.
I believe that the person Don called as Dick Whitman is the person he mailed the book of essays to at the beginning of the season.
I know a lot of people here hate Duck but I like him. Nice to see he'e's finally growing a pair.
(Speaking of which, won't Roger have fun when he learns Don's real name? "Dick, Duck - Duck, Dick.")
I agree with greensweater and everyone else who thinks Don is gonna get grifted. All that flattery--- asking Don "Are you an actor?...blah blah blah" from that "viscount" asshole with the rotten accent!
Wonder what that "Dr." had in that hypo???
This show is continually a cut above every other series on tv. To me, its not even close. This episode took on a strange, David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) type quality; I completely agree with the 'grifting' aspect of it.
Don's tearing out the last page of the book Ms. Euro-Trash was still reading....(giggle). (He wrote the address of whomever he was talking to on the phone down--saying he didn't bring it with him).
Roger's comment to Duck: "Did you get me something...?" (After Duck's fawning announcement that (their) 2-year anniversary (together) was coming up).
Roger's question to Duck: "Is this as solid as American Airlines?"
Joan's comment to Duck when she brought in the crate of Tanqueray that she'd already opened..."Mr Crane opened this by mistake..."
On another note, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that one could make a long distance call in 1962 without going through the AT&T Long Distance Operator. And I'm pretty sure that 3-digit area codes weren't in play then...but didn't Don "dial" 10 numbers?
If I'm wrong, and it wasn't a "long distance" call, then maybe that's the reason he impulsively decides on the Palm Springs junket--it gets him closer to the locale of the person he called?
Hello and HELP! I travel extensively for my company, and although I stay at nice locations - Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, I can't always get AMC - is there a way to download the full length of the CURRENT episodes and watch them on my laptop??!! The 3 minute snip-its from past episodes don't get me there with what's happening NOW! Please help!!
Great episode. Don has an anxiety problem and turns to sex, escapism and smokes/drinks too much. Some people would call it a disorder and blame all sorts of bad behaviour on his condition. Nuclear annihilation freaked him out, he loses his luggage, he is away from home, has pressures at home and chicks are tempting him. These are all the perfect conditions to jump in a car with the strange girl!
Don is sexy and enjoyable to watch, but he is a total fake. You admire him yet feel bad for him. He lacks character, yet people are charmed by him, even men, because they presume he is 'someone'.
Are you an actor? An astronaut? He is really nobody who has become someone else. No wonder he can consider abandonment of his life and join the Euro-trash. They are morally flexible like him. He kinda fits with them. The girl, Joy, is so lost and desperate for attention that she throws herself at him. She does echo Betty in many ways – the voice, the vulnerability.
Don is all about shame: mother prostitute, unwanted by step mother, stern father, war deserter, abandoned little brother….and on and on. Expect him to swim through many more shameful situations…he feels comfortable in those waters.
Don returns to NYC to find Duck as his new boss. What a great plot twist and realistic given how many of the top firms grew - by acquisition. Even more exciting times ahead for Sterling Cooper. Duck is a leader and has a lot of fortitude to take it on the chin, persist and maneuver his way, however, self serving it may be.
I was cheering when Betty got the "straight talk" from the gay guy. He was courageous for announcing himself. Ouch for Mr. Italiano.
Younger people take for granted how repressed and hidden society could be. It wasn't the Phil Donahue/Oprah/Dr. Phil kind of self-help / therapy / open society it is today.
"What'll I Do" was used in the Great Gatsby w/Redford. I know that Gay meant happy back in my Mom's days, but I didn't think the word 'homo' was acceptable or used in 60's. Anybody know the hotel in Cally?
I thought I read somewhere that next season is fast forwarded 2 years & the question is: is he Don or Dick?
I think he will find his "family" in Cali, go back save the day @ SC, Betty's Dad dies & he is her hero.
Or he confesses all to Betty...& still loses her.
--
Yes I found the episode confusing as well & agree that the "grifters' were a bit too convenient. I almost thought that they were swingers...
And at the end, the Viscount was with "Rockie" in the pool. And why was that old lady so cranky?
But it made me want to know more; ask more about who the H#@! these people were & why were they messing with Don.
I think the dreamy effect around seeing the woman from behind that looked like Betty & Joy talking like Betty is Don moving towards realizing that he does truly love Betty. And he has lost his possession & his original dream. I really, really think he will confess all to Betty...
...also I'm not sure if this prediction is out there already...but Peggy gets with the Priest (Colin Hanks). She just has to break through his phony pious veneer...
I agree, this was a really boring episode. Except for Peggy finally losing that damn ponytail (yesss!!) it felt like a complete waste of time.
Gotta wonder, what was the point? Don impulsively runs after the latest piece of tail that walks in front of him. Don has meaningless sex. Don looks very hot when he's half-dressed. Don says something to Ms. Piece of Tail along the lines of "who are you?". Don makes a mysterious call/quip/expression. Back to the office for a tantalizing few minutes. Yawn. Come on, writers.
The person Don called is the same person he sent the book to at the beginning of the season.
Grifters? What would they con him out of? They've already determined he's just an upper-middle-class stiff; they'll play with him for a week and then toss him aside. (How's THAT taste, Don?)
Sal can still cuddle in the closet with the other Mr. Smith, I think.
Very disappointed. At least I'll have peace next week and won't be counting the day until next Sunday. Hopefully they can make sense of this in the next two episodes.
This episode kicked ass!!! First, any reason to get Don naked and with a brunette in bed, gets kudos from me!!! Peggy bringing out all her cuteness is wonderful!! Mr. Smeeth not being ashamed to be gay...fantastic revelation! Emphasis on Sterling Coop was well overdue! Snivelin' Silver Foot being dumped by Don the Magic Wand was priceless!
I loved this episode so much, I wanna marry it!
(But cheat on it with Dancing With the Stars! LMAO!)
From the previews for next week, looks like Cooper and his sister are going to vote for the deal to sell Sterling Cooper. As a result Roger would be out as President, replaced by Duck.
Who has the decided percentage? Mr. 12 percent himself--minority partner Donald Francis Draper. Once he hears Creative reports to Duck under this new regime, he'll back Roger against the deal.
UNLESS ... He decides to remain in Los Angeles as DICK WHITMAN!
Roger better hope Don wants to stay Don--or he's on the one way road to Duck Phillipsville--cleaned out by his wife and out of his job.
Pete is talking about Don "not coming back--he's done it before--deserting." Who is he talking to? Peggy? Will Peggy finally give Don the lowdown on who fathered her baby?
For anyone out there who found the show lacking in plot--too focused on introspective stuff and not on the corporate intrigue--this should fill your pie hole for a while.
Is MW in a hurry to develop plotlines? In one ep we have:
1. Don mixed up with foreign spies/grifters/jetsetters.
2. Peggy re-doing her look.
3. An openly gay male in 1962 boardroom America.
4. Don suffering from heat stroke/heart attack.
5. Duck engineering a coup at SC.
6. Don going on a walkabout.
For a show which has developed it's characters and story lines with a beautiful cadence, we seem to be rushing into some sort of ratings grab. I too was happy at the lack of a Self Absorbed Bitch but am truly devastated at the loss of what has been to date, a superior pacing.
I totally picked up on the Pulp Fiction theme/Dick Dale and his Deltones song, but apparently my own presence on the West Coast has kept me from being first to note it.
But Matt W. is usually right so let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
But if the show is jumping the shark, we'll know soon--if Don starts seeing a comely italian american psychologist to deal with those fainting spells---it's Fonzie over the tank for sure...
Does anyone think that it was weird for the aerospace co. to be displaying all their seemingly secret wares to the general public?
Is Mad Men going to be Don having one adventure after another with outrageous-types?
Roger is going to be taken to the cleaners by the manipulative, lying second wife.
Joy's voice -- cadence, everything, was just like Betty's.
Isn't there an international party-playboy set who just parties at each other's houses year round?
I had a friend who had lots of well-heeled family contacts. She quit her job to figure some stuff out and spent a year staying at their cottages/summer homes. I think people of a certain social strata do this sort of thing.
The Dick Whitman phone call is bugging the hell out of me!
He was absolutely AMAZING! His body was PERFECT on the sofa... his Swagger while walking up to he hotel was Earth Shaking. His hair all Wet and Stroked Back was beautiful. And, didn't you see him in those White Pants! It certainly did deserve an applause... He is the most SEXIEST man on TV!
The cliff hanger was very good. Obviously, Betty is not home and when she see's Don's clothes, she is not going to know what to think. I'm not sure if he told her he was going to CA, but the office will if she asks. I don't think Don is ever going back... I think he hates living a lie and can now face his real demons.
It's period for sure, and at least the British version was great, but I feel like that's a totally different premise to exploring the past than what "Mad Men" does.
Meanwhile, calm those fears of hackneyed network plot gimmicks and see what happens with these next couple(?) of episodes. I feel like things will tie up a little bit. There's still some exciting mysteries to solve on MM.
The change of pace, literally, was cool with me! A half hour of some whiny housewife, gazing at her navel, is be a chore! So Don's fling, Peggy's 'do over, Duck's shennigans, and "Smeeth" were all good!
bc--
I loved the show as it was--but this is what creative teams do--they get us out of our comfort zone. Otherwise they'd be writing for CSI:Miami.
Boy, I really don't know what Don will do next! Is he repelled by a no limits world when really offered it?
I can guess the corporate stuff--Don, the unreliable guy, open open to blackmail--saved by peggy's stopping pete from going to duck about don's past with her potential revelation--but man, I'm totally watching this from Don's perspective and right now, I don't know if he'll care about this stuff in NYC at all-
My mind was blown when he said,"this is Dick Whitman." It was like Batman calling himself Bruce Wayne while in costume.
Oh, and the Madmen opening pose at the end--is clearly done to freak us out--he's deciding whether he's had enough--he's in free fall and looking at all the images he's aspired to and helped create.
Wow. 'Some whiny housewife, gazing at her navel.' I kind of thought that's what made the show intriguing. It's that conflict between the awakening of the American woman and the alphamale boardroom being besieged by the realities of the modern world that made this show appealing in the first place.
This whole show to me anyway, is Don trying to find himself...think about it...gets in bed with the girl in Greenrich Village, you know where I'm going, but Dan is a thinker...also look at what's going on in the world at the time...Cuban Missile crisis, the riots in the South, the mores' are starting to change, Don's always thinking. Look at him at the bar when he spots the back of a blonde head who he thinks might be Betty (sure looked like her) you get the slow motion for just a second as he is approaching her and has a smile on his face...like OK the decision is made for me ...she really does want me even though I can't say I love her spontaneously...
I have to admitt though that the trip to Palm Springs got a little tedious, picked up when Don was nearly naked, tanned and tossed hair. But the look at the little boy and the cracked drink glass was a reminder at what he had not faced and needed to...a trip to find a Whitman family member, his brother is dead, so maybe it's his dad (no real mommie type pleasantries in the oneside conversation on the oneside we heard
Just a thought
Ok JimK, I'm willing to see where the creative team is going with the show but, I still think this episode was too crowded. For a literal interpretation of the left arm pose we should be thinking evil Dick versus good Don as we all know the left is sinister.
The title of this program is "Mad Men;" not the "Betty Show!" It's about time "Mad Men" got back to the Sterling Cooper office drama, which is what I loved!
Peggy's a modern American woman, in 1962 terms. And became even more modern, in a fashion sense! She's not some navel-gazing fool! She made things happen for herself, without whining!
Willie, Joy's dad--is a vision of Don with no structure--twenty years from now, still making out with married far younger women, aimless.
Joy--is just that--a perfect woman for the part of Don that wants complete freedom. She likes sex, will let him sleep with who he wants and has a dad who will take care of the money.
But no. Don's going to meet this person who only needs to hear the "Dick Whitman" name to invite him over.
He mentioned Los Angeles to Rachel when she asked where they'd run away to. What will this lead to? Wow, I don't know..
Duck was great in this episode. Finally I see why he's here--they made him credible with the way he slapped Roger back at the end of the episode. The old, liquor-fueled Duck, taking a monster risk in a last ditch attempt to save himself.
I agree about the "crowded" feel to the episode. But I'd place that at the feet of Smith's gay revelation and the stuff about the freedom rides.
Don in Crisis is an ongoing thing and Sterling Cooper Corporate intrigue makes a reasonable b story.
Smith is gay and cuts hair? Clunk much?
And Poor Peggy, three shots in Dallas is going to finish that hairstyle next year...
Perhaps the writers are reading these posts. Many I've read want more of the 60's as we all expect them--civil rights changes etc. But I always felt that much of that stuff followed JFK's assassination. Mad Men Season 3, set in 1964 seemed more like the time for the ferment that is now suddenly hitting the show.
If last week was all about growing up, this week was all about fantasy. Don takes a dive through the rabbit hole and sees a whole world of fascinating things that could be his world if he decides to ditch his currently life as Don Draper and become someone else, or perhaps just Dick Whitman again. He seemed completely bemused as he hung out with the nomads and saw how they lived. When he asked, “Who are you?”, and the girl answered “Joy”, it seemed perfect. Here was the potentially care-free happiness he could have if he ran away. But there’s a crack in the glass – the girl has a creepy dad, there’s no real emotional connections, and …. this isn’t real life! He’ll have to come back home at some point, doesn’t he?
‘nuff analysis, now some random stuff:
SAB was in this episode – I swear they used January Jones during the Betty look-alike scenes. And Joy totally had Betty’s voice. As a brunette, I guess she’s a great cross between Betty and all his brunette mistresses, with some 20-something Jane mixed in
Poor Sal having to hear the Frat Pack make fun of Kurt. Ken was especially prick-ish.
The guy from The Nanny having drinks with Duck, Duck falling off the wagon, Duck growing a pair and trying to pull the mat out from under Roger-the-horndog – wow!
Peggy picking “the wrong boys” – bittersweet and funny. At least she got a make-over!
Who did he call as Dick Whitman? It will kill me until next week!
Well you can always count on the Betty haters to flush me out.
bc..Thank you for the vote of confidence for the "whiny housewife" that makes MM that much more intriguing for many of us.
I thought last week's episode was very blah..but boy did I LOVE this episode...NOT because Betty wasn't in it. There was SO MUCH to wonder about and too many allusions to list.
One I haven't heard anyone mention yet is "The Last Time I Saw Paris". The father and family of Elizabeth Taylor's character in that movie remind me of a very cleaned up (read "censored") version of the Southern Cali group that have waylaid Don. Not to mix metaphors but he has really fallen down the rabbit hole now. He is not so much a fish out of water, since he is somewhat of a kindred spirit to these people. It is more like he's a "day late and a dollar short, IMHO.
This episode, with the jet setters, jumped the shark for me. MM nails life in New York during the 60s, but I think they totally missed it in California. The pickup was a little unbelievable for a show that is so true to reality in the 60s. And, in the early 60s, New York was as much a mecca for show biz as California.
Did anyone notice that Don wrote on and tore out the last page of The Sound and The Fury? My copy is buried in a box in the basement. Can anyone help out with what the last paragraph or so are? Might they be pertinent?
Is it possible that the MM sound crew might have dubbed in Betty's voice over Joy's? In most scenes, where her speaking was clear, her voice was a dead ringer for Betty's!
Could Dick Whitman be paying off someone for the right to use Don Draper's name? I mean, whatever happened to Don Draper's family after the war? Certainly there were other family members who were left behind who had to be "taken care of". I think the woman at the car dealership was a friend of some sort of the real Don Draper's who may ultimately have led to Dick Whitman's need to pay off someone for their silence (or worse). Who knows....the man is so detached about death and loss that nothing would surprise me.
Pete's such a dork...he didn't like CA because of the "people." Duh, Pete...I think it was the other way around...
He couldn't make time with the girls who picked up his papers at the pool but didn't even give him a second glance...
Even Count-Willy-Trash is eager to get away from him...("I don't remember faces," (!) he says to Pete. Yeah, right).
Right after that, he's put down by Don's asking him if Tony Curtis was "handing out towels." Poor Pete, so starry-eyed, the put-down doesn't even register with him, and he dreamily remarks: "A thing like that!"
Tell me, who in LA is going to understand you, Pete, with your stilted-talking ways?
The whole LA experience (which Pete had been SO looking foward to) turned out to be not so much fun. He saw that there's another world beyond his world, and it's populated with people who aren't impressed with him, to say the least.
That'a a rude awakening to Pete, and I think it's going to make him more ready to give up thinking that the world is still his oyster, and be ready to adopt his and Peggy's child. (I believe that's what's got his wife so upset in the next episode).
JimK: LOL! I wish I had the talent to write such a kick-ass show, but Matthew Weiner actually wrote this episode! He did a great job of making my wishes come true of more Don naked, more of the office intrigue, discussion of Civil Rights and absence of she who shall NOT be named!
Loved the episode. Whoever remembered Betty's luggage comment from last week, great one.
Duck seems evil... something's about to explode. Poor Sal — so sad for him, that look on his face.
Yeah, the crack in Don's glass almost too obviously symbolic of his trip/life.
Is it possible that the MM sound crew dubbed in Betty's voice over Joy's? In most scenes, where her speaking was clear, Joy's voice was a dead ringer for Betty's! Other than that, the actress was just mumbling, so it was hard to tell....
Could Dick Whitman be paying off someone for the right to use Don Draper's name? I mean, whatever happened to Don Draper's family after the war? Certainly there were other family members who were left behind who may have been "taken care of" in some way by Dick Whitman. I think the woman at the car dealership was a friend of the true Don Draper, and she may link the story to what ultimately happened to Don Draper's mourning family members. The real Don Draper was young enough to have had a family after all.....
I've been following this forum for weeks now, but have never commented before, but SO MANY questions arise out of this episode.
To Tangfl: I'm younger than 29, but appreciate everything I can't understand about this show. I agree--- Don is disgusting, yet provocative enough that I can't get enough.
I'm confused about a couple of things:
Who does Joy swim to at the end of the episode? Her father? If not, who were the people making out in the pool? And, is her father gay? Doesn't she say something like, "Papa, don't touch," when she's in bed with Don? WHO ARE THESE FREAKS?
This episode was nuts, but I think Don is heavy comtemplating the glass "half full, or hall empty." Can wait to see who's he meeting soon!
And, I loved how Joy said, "Have you ever had Mexican food?" Being 26 years old, this amazed me! Who hasn't had Mexican food???? How odd to think of international food as a somewhat "new" concept.
....RE: the presentation of rockets, that a previous poster (hmmm...a male?) thought went on too long? REALLY?
Rockets bursting into flames! Hitting their marks!
Spewing their missils far and wide. I will leave erotic symbolism of that scene to others more versed in such areas.
But I don't think Don was thinking about the world being annihilated by those rockets....
Visan:
I dig Don--for his nihilism-- or is it existentialism--I think he's deciding that now--but I also dig Jan Jones's Betty. It's a great "iceberg" performance--much is below the surface.
JimK: I respect your opinions. In a TV character, the underdog always gets my vote! Don coming from such a humble and abusive background will be the role I find most intriguing. Just as Peggy is another favorite. I enjoy watching her come back from adversity and trying to crack the glass ceiling. That's the characters I like most and view as having much more depth because they've succeeded despite not having a silver spoon, or in Pete's case, silver foot, in their mouths! To each their own!
I see the iconic mirror image of Don on the sofa in this episode (from the back, with his bare left arm stretched out) more representative of the true person he is; whereas the iconic image we are used to seeing of him from the back with his suit on and right arm stretched out on the sofa is representative of the image he is trying to project. This is just two sides of the same coin here. Also, in this episode, this image shows the real man - skin and all - on the sofa, whereas the iconic image we are used to seeing is simply a black silhouette form - not even the real man!
Might have missed it if somebody already posted, but my immediate thought when he met the foreigners was that they were spies. When the show hung on the old map of the Soviet Union, it seemed to me not only a psychological portent of a collapsing world (Don's marriage and family, Rodger's marriage and family, perhaps even the firm itself), it also seemed like a foreshadowing of a plot twist involving the other big social/political theme of the period, the Cold War. With one shoe in Civil Rights, seems like this would be an obvious direction for the writers to take. A "Love Bomb" at a hotel hosting a defense industry convention would seem pretty plausible here. And isn't it Russian that Joy speaks to her "father" when he approaches them at the foot of the bed? Could only make out "papa" but the rest of the phrase sounded Russian, not a latin-based language. She's also reading The Sound and the Fury (the title also suggests a collapsing world, in the novel, the Old South), part of her survey of American literature. What else would a young Russian spy be studying? Then comes the comment about spies during dinner and a later revalation that one of the characters is a "daughter of an ambassador." At that time, it would be almost implausible that an ambassador to the United States wouldn't be involved in intelligence. And did Don really have heat stroke, or was it the drink? Why would they go through his wallet while he was unconscious?
Of course, grifting is also hinted at when Don asks if they are people of means, but it seems like grifters would have hand an answer for that. On the other hand, the spy theory almost seems too obvious. It might just be an interesting diversion.
The phone call was a great ending. It's clear that Don (Dick) had a reason to insert himsef into the trip to California. I would guess he called the woman in the earlier flashback who confronts "Don" at the car dealership. She is the only one we've seen who must know of Don's deception, and probably his true identity. Is she perhaps the wife/sweetheart of the real Don Prager? Did she an Don have a relationship after her discovery? And earlier, when he was discovered, he wanted to go to Los Angeles? Certainly no coincidence, but a lover there wouldn't have been the reason in that case. I forgot about his mailing of Meditations in an Emergency until reading it here. That would be a poem to send to a lover, but it also has deep meaning for Don's life, especially. Christ, some of the middle verse's fit him like a glove. One might think they've written his whole character around that poem:
...I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pasutre. No.
One need never leave the confines of New York...
...My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time;
they are indiscriminate but fleeting, entirely specific and disloyal, so that no one trusts me. I am always looking away.
Or again at something after it has given me up. It makes me restless and that makes me unhappy, but I cannot keep them still. If only i had grey, green, black, brown, yellow eyes; I would stay at home and do something...
There are some heavy twists taking place in this episode. But if they all go as far as they could, it seems like the show would be too much altered. Why screw with a good thing? Maybe "The Sound and the Fury" has a different meaning, not Faulkner but Shakespeare. Maybe Duck's plan comes to nothing, the jet-setters turn out relatively harmless, and, as in the full Shakespeare verse, it all ends up "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." But the phone call, at least, will be very illuminating.
Visan--
Actually, I think Pete, Peggy, Don and Betty are all fish out of water in their own ways, outsiders. However I don't want to defend this right now.
Why? Because I was hit by a much, much more troubling thought:
Does anyone here remember the last season of "Thirty something"?
Set in Philly, Ken Olin played Michael Steadman, a sort of uglier, wimpier version of Don--in advertising but not happy. In a marriage but not satisfied. Basically what circa 1990 broadcast tv could provide us --thin gruel compared to Don D.
HOWEVER-- In the last season of the show, Michael and his side kick and former small agency partner, Elliot Weston try to take over the agency where Michael is Creative Director and Elliot is Art Director after Elliot runs afoul of the big boss Mile Drentell and gets canned.
The agency was called "DAA" I think.
Anyway, there's this takeover battle and it revolves around a handful of partners--strangely similar to what's now been hatched on Madmen.
Indeed Thirtysomething's Mile Drentel was a mix of Roger Sterling's evil, aging lothario selfish, "let's screw with their heads" persona and Bert Cooper's mysticism covering hardball one.
They can't get rid of Don for this show. I am not sure what all will happen in Cali but they need to keep him no matter what. He will wonder around Cali for a while and then head back for NY. I am wondering by the previews for next week if Betty isn't talking to him when she says something about how she didn't make some one do something.
death of a president
march on washington
mini dress
american bandstand
pepsi generations,
ford mustang
roger goes back to mona,
pete finds out he is a dad
someone claiming to be dons mom shows up
I agree with SoFlaKate (at 11:53). I think that whoever Don called, identifying himself as Dick Whitman, is the same person that he sent "Meditations in an Emergency" to in the first episode of Season 2. I don't think this person is necessarily in California - though he or she might be - I noticed that Don called a long-distance number from L.A., and in 1962 there just weren't that many area codes. I think the whole Southern California area was (213).
does anyone think that this episode is a "dream Sequence for Don? It seems like there is alot of symbolism involved that is indicative of his own inner struggle. Like with the Sound and the Fury, the girl who clearly represents Betty but whose name is Joy who isn't possesive and Don can see whoever he wants which is his problem with Betty right now. The little boy had Bobby's personality but was the same actor who played a young Don in another episode. Didn't Don also ask Rachel to run away to L.A. with him when Pete discovered his true identity? Maybe L.A. represents escape and starting over and Don is resigned to confronting his true identity as Dick Whitman which seems to be what is his greatest conflict.Plus he tells Roger in the last episode that you have to move forward and think about the future. I just don't see any of this episode as being real......just what I think
Holy moly, but Brian Batt as Sal just rocked in the scene where Kurt reveals his sexuality!! The scene, by rights, should have belonged to Kurt, but thanks to Brian Batt's acting talent, he walked away with it. Fear, envy, pride, compassion--all these emotions washed across Batt's face without his saying a word. Truly, this was a master's acting class in about 10 seconds. Beautifully, beautifully done, Mr. Batt!
All you necromorph's who keep complaining about how this episode is bad sound like a bunch of prude's. What do you want, for MM to stay stuck in the early 60's? You sound so old. (at Heart) This was a great episode, and cheers to the writers to finally move forward with this series. Let's face it; it has to end sooner or later, and they certainly have to develop the characters, but let's move on with it. THANK YOU MM WRITER's for growing a set. I think tonite Hamm's character grew 100 fold more fascinating. Brilliant. I really hope this new crew are great, and I can't believe all you do is criticsize their accents. Alway's some armchair quarterback with no talent who makes the most negativity out of nothing. How pathetic. I notice it's alway's the same neanderthal's commenting and addressing each other like if they are friends. All they are is a bunch of mindless ass kissers.
Oh, and one more quick comment. Don Draper is a handsome man...but in my opinion, his body is just...okay. Most men back then did not work out. His chest and arms aren't overly developed. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the muscle-bound types...but Jon Hamm's body is very representative of the times his character lived in. All this yammering about his body...like I say, to me, it's just average. That said, I wouldn't kick him out of bed.
I bet JimK, if you tried hard enough you could come up with a more creative dispute.....to rule out how they are representing Don's emotional turmoil then to compare it to Dallas who was trying to overcome a ratings slip. And when was the last time anyone had some beautiful wealthy intriging totally available no strings attached with a liberal Father ( think back to the problems Betty's father brings into the picture) proposition them?
Dream on Don!!
My impression is that Joy's father is bi-sexual. He came into the room while Joy and Don are in bed and made the comment about Don being beautiful, and then Joy says (in French), "Papa, don't touch." So obviously the old man goes both ways, and the daughter knows it. There's something more than a little odd about the father sitting down on the bed with his naked daughter and her lover in it. Also, when Joy swam off in the pool scene, I thought she was making out with someone else while Don watched. Then he stares at the glass...and then passes out. So who knows what actually went on?
I just think that the "it's a dream" stuff is kinda silly like the "Joy and her dad are spies or grifters" conclusion that is floating through this thread.
Matt Weiner says in the "Inside Mad Men" clip for "Jet Set" that these people are who they say they are.
This doesn't make them normal or not freakish and alien to Don. But it doesn't make them spies or figments of Don's imagination.
Also--Peter Dykman Campbell (As he calls himself to them) meets and as usual, strikes out with, Joy and Willie at the hotel.
Don lives what regular men only dream about Swinging 60's girl. .
Great episode. Certainly not dull. I have to say, I think Mona's going to hand Roger his hide in this divorce. But overall, I think his hard- and fast-living days are about to catch up with him all across the board, if the next episode preview is any indication. Peggy's new hairstyle does wonders for her appearance, and poor Sal has to be hurting now that he knows his colleagues' feelings towards homosexuals. Duck Phillips's new intrigue with his British friends brings some long overdue spice to his character. I will be very interested to see what becomes of him as the story continues.
Now, about Don....
First of all, who on Earth *are* these people? There is something very disturbing about their entire premise. Who pops up out of thin air, walks up to a total stranger, and invites them to a carnal romp in Palm Springs? Joy is extremely attractive, but there is something deceptively wrong about her, some secret about their entire group that has yet to be revealed. They call themselves nomads, but what are they really? Are they forerunners of the counterculture, like those pot-smoking people whom Midge was hanging around with towards the end of last season? My first bet is that they are Communists, but we shall see.
Lastly of course, who was Don talking to on the phone? Obviously, it was someone with a connection to his past since he used his real name, but who? Adam and his parents are dead, so who's left? One thought is that it is that fat fellow who we saw early in the first season, the one who cornered Don on the train and said, "we should catch up". But this person may be someone else, since Don sounded somewhat intimate. What shall happen next? What will Betty think when she opens Don's returned suitcase? (We all know she'll do it, I think) What's the story with Pete's wife? Who knows? Who knows?
What an episode. I agree with many others that I think Don is getting grifted. What can I say? Some people just can't handle Cali....
Seriously, Don is broken somewhere deep inside. It is not that he is just flawed like other human beings, he is missing a core. I always return to feeling really sorry for Don.
"in the primal sympathy which having been must ever be"(Woodsworth)
I think the couple who were making out in the pool was the other woman who was there when they first met. I think her name was Rocky. I also thought that Joy's father looks and acts like Oleg Cassini (Jackie Kennedy's chief designer when she was First Lady) and Rocky looks like Jackie Kennedy
Isn't the "Jet Set" also a temptation for Don? In the meeting with Roger and Mr. Cooper they tell Don he has arrived and is being invited to become a part of some elite group and despite Don wanting to stay behind the curtain Mr Cooper tells Don "the Vail is being lifted." When Don is at the country club function with Betty he is so uncomfortable around the people there he tells Betty he has to go to work which he doesn't and leaves. I think Don wants to be around and is being pushed to be around the "Jet Set" but feels out of place because of his past in being and seeing himself as what he calls a whore child.
I love this episode...it presents so many new possibilites for each character involved in it...
re: "Don's new best friends...." : while this may be some sort of "alternate reality" sequence" it is possible that these folks are not totally malevolent. while they have 'no viable means of support ' that fact could be attributed to something so simple as the fact that they are the adult children of some very wealthy parents living off of their inheritance or trust funds wisely invested...yea yea I know that they for the most part are middle aged but I one had a friend who was in her 50s and still had money from her trust fund and also a very large and consistent divorce settlement from her wealthy ex-husband...so there are legitimate ways for folks to be in the "jet set'....I really feel Don will continue to hang with them because they allow him to be his hedonistic self and not have to fear being "found out" in his assumed identity...
Hello, I am new to this blogging. I watched the entire last season online, as I don't actually have access to a cable system on TV. I saw the season 2 premier online but thought that the next show wasn't going to be on until October sometime, and they have never had another show on their website as a 'full episode' - what's up with that?
Anyway, now I find out the second season is well underway, and now they no longer have it available online...anywhere that I can locate. Does anyone know where I can watch from 202 onwards? I'm so bummed out about this. This is my favorite show.
HELP!!!!!
Foreshadowing: Don's lost suitcase -- he's about to lose (or regain?) his identity. (Reminder: Tony Soprano had a similar loss of suitcase and identity and became Kevin Finnerty, or Kev Infinity, if you please. Same writers, I believe.) By the pool in the opening scene, the musical backdrop -- faux Arab-casbah-snake-charmer -- foreshadows that Don is about to come under a spell. His insistence on work-not-play to Pete foreshadows the break (methinks he protesteth too much). The meeting at Cal Tech provides motivation. Unlike the others in the room, he has actually been to war. Horror lurks beneath his usual poker face. M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) is one product he doesn't want to sell. Don peers into the Abyss and the Abyss peers back. But what can he do? Joy -- playing the role of Calypso (the enchantress, the "concealer") in The Odyssey -- supplies the answer. If she drugged his drink, then she's more like Circe than Calypso. Either way, physical collapse heightens the sense that Don is undergoing a transformation. Is Joy a grifter, as another writer suggested? Equivocal evidence: the viscount's uneasy and rapid departure when Pete said, "Don't I know you?" is behavior consistent either with upper-class-out-of-sight Eurotrash OR with a grifter who don't want to be I.D.'ed. Speaking from experience, the casual amorality of the deadbeat rich is dead on. But if they are really grifters, does it occur to anyone that they were recruiting, not conning Don? After all, with their keen eye for character, they may have spotted a kindred spirit in him. He, too, is an imposter, after all. "Are you an actor?" asks the viscount. When Don says "No," he lies.
Who was Don calling? The person whose address he scribbled on the back page of "The Sound and the Fury"? My bet is that it was the woman who confronted him a few episodes back, saying "You're not Don Draper." That story thread was left dangling like a 10,000-volt live wire.
That was certainly a strange episode. Liked Don's slick back Andy Garcia/Untouchables look.
I actually thought Don might have been slipped a mickey by those people. How did they know he was in advertising? I didn't think he volunteered that info.
Whoever Don called at the end certainly wasn't surprised to hear from him, and didn't hesitate to invite him over. Wonder who it could be? Obviously Dick Whitman has been keeping in touch with someone, but they never had a means to contact him? Don must have a PO Box somewhere or an answering service he's paying for so this person could contact him, too. Hmmm.....
Are Roger and Bert going to fall for another Duck story? Would Roger and Bert throw Don under the bus, and give Duck all the power (as Duck outlined the sale terms to that guy he met)? Would Roger and Bert give up all their power to Duck? Bert is old enough to want to retire with a hefty retirement package - Roger's got a divorce that will clean him out, so who's preference of a sale is going to prevail: Bert or Roger's? The next episode preview shows Roger defending himself to someone. Ironic if it's to Duck, and Duck is holding the reins of power to boss Roger around.
I agree that the episode where the "You're not Don Draper" comment occurred might be tied into this episode. Don could be working anywhere at any car dealership. The woman who made this comment was possibly the real Don Draper's sister or fiance. However, I also wonder if the hobo who was kind to Don in the Hobo's code may have come back into his life at one point. Don or Dick seemed drawn to him and he was one of the first if not the first person to be kind to Don as a child. The hobo seemed like an intelligent fellow who was down on his luck and perhaps he was the advisor who helped Don become a refined fellow. Don may be in contact with him to go over the changes in his life periodically.
That wasn't luggage, that was Don's baggage, left on Betty's doorstep without even a note to explain. I wonder what he packed to take to California and what Betty will make of its contents.
I thought it was a great episode, and I don't think we'll see a lot of those loose ends tied up within season 2. Seems like they're building up to a giant cliffhanger like "Twin Peaks," where Cooper was left gasping for breath with two bullet holes in him.
Although I was only 11 back in 1962, I distinctly remember that long-distance calls had to be made through the operator.
Also, that edition of Faulkner did not come out until 1969 or 70. Before that, it was the old Vintage paperback edition, with just the title in large type on the cover. The design Joy is holding is a later edition.
And Mexican food was pretty much a novelty in white-bread early 1960s America. I'm not surprised that Don doesn't know what a chile relleno is.
Totally off topic:
Nobody had credit cards in 1962 - so unless Don is carrying wads of cash, or maybe American Express checks, he's not going to be able to finance his Cali walkabout and will be totally dependent on his new "friends."
I too was very disappointed with this episode. I’m still trying to figure out how these weirdoes play into such a sophisticated series. It seems to me that whenever Don is reminded in some way of his time in the service the bad boy comes out in him. Could be PTSD, or have we been seeing more of Dick in the last few episodes. Remember how upset little Dick was when his father sent the hobo away? (much the way Betty sent Don away). This boy was very sensitive. In this episode, I think he has come to a milestone in his life. He needs to go back before he can move forward. He has to make a decision. Personally, I think Dick fell in love with Betty, not Don. Maybe he’ll come clean about his true identity so that he can move on with his life. At this stage of the game, it would do Betty’s self-esteem a lot of good to have a hot affair with Don’s equal, in looks as well as personality, and let Don find out about it. Betty needs to embark on her own road to self-discovery. Let Don work hard for what he wants.
This Roger/Jane thing is really a bore.
Did anyone else think that Joy was lying about her age? She looked to be about 15, 16 yrs. old. She hesitated when he asked how old she was...
My guess is she is underage, and Don/Dick had his "Lolita" moment.
Joy did not remind me of Betty. The bar scene was freaky when Don spotted a Betty look a like though!
What was with Pete calling himself: Peter Dyckman Campbell, and trying to shmooze that weird guy at the bar. Then he tries to say he thinks he knows the guy from Newport?
Then Pete, being extra snobby, says "How Do I get a drink around here?" to the bartender. And before that he bitches that the Valet service isn't snapping to attention for him when they get to the hotel?
The funniest line for me was when Pete comments on Peggy's new "do" back at the office, and Ken says "Kurt is a homo?!!" It make sense to me that it took a gay man to help Peggy with her look!!
And, he just happens to be a hairdresser? And he helps her after she confides in him that she can't find a decent guy (or something like that).
POOR SAL!! The look on his face during the breakroom scene when Kurt decides to "come out", and all the boys share their feelings!!
Did anyone else think Kurt and the other Smith were a couple? I guess I was off on that one.
I was glad that the writers weaved in the Dylan thread, the Kennedy speech, and the coverage of the desegregation of the U. of Alabama.
Hope they will continue with the Cuban missile crisis in Oct. of '62, and the continued Civil Rights struggle.
how can the european people take him for all he is worth ... don/dickis a grifter also ... this will likely be a match made in heaven/hell and he can probably teach them a few things
don/dick is a liar and a cheat so they should all get along just fine
I thought the young lady looked like Midge the beatnick from the 1st season
The previews with Betty saying something like "I didn't make you do anything" makes me think she did....Don wants her and his family back, can't get them until he is honest with Betty, so he's trying to figure out a way to come clean.
The "Nomads" are just Euro-trash, or jet-setters as they came to be called as soon as that mode of travel became popular. They would not need to grift Don -- he would not have anywhere enough money for their needs. These are trust fund/rich divorce settlements/sold my fake title for cash types; that's why they looked so uncomfortable when Don made the crack about "oh, you all must be well-off." Simply de Classe to say such a thing out loud! That whole segment reminded me of Bonjour Tristesse, with David Niven as the amoral father and his young but jaded daughter, played by Jean Seaberg -- remember it, anyone?
No, Don recognized these people as more exotic versions of himself -- people who are chronically dissatisfied and who make themselves up as they go along. He was bemused by them until he saw the little children by the pool and it made him remember that there are sometimes unwilling victims to that type of life. When he made that call to someone from his past as "Dick Whitman," he was claiming some authenticity -- however that may come out. And I think that his writing the address on the last page of Joy's book and tearing it out was symbolic of him "ruining her ending" by not sticking around to become her plaything.
Very interesting! Be sure the writers won't go where we think they will.....
As someone born in 1949 I experienced Don's visit.
My brother moved to Newport Beach and as a single, attractive female I visited him several times a year. I was in college on the east coast and couldn't leave. I had similar experiences like Don but avoided the drug scene until late 70's. Always felt more free on the west coast.
Don can be anything he wants because he's not Dick. When he becomes Dick again, you'll start seeing some real changes in his life. I don't see him living the west coast lifestyle for long...neither did I...too much of an easterner.
My brother experienced SANDSTONE...anyone out there remember that...similar to this episode.
Love Don to pieces...in my 20's, had a Roger Sterling romance. Every single woman in her 20's should have it...they bring you a certain sophistication.
Would like Don to visit the Playboy club...did you notice someone in the boardroom reading Playboy? I went to the Chicago one in the 60's.
Then the hippie movement appeared and dress, manners...well, you know what happened. We all have bought into the casual look now.
Hi protester! Welcome!
Yes, someone was reading Playboy in the boardroom...it was Sal!!
I couldn't help but wonder if he was looking at the pictures and saying: what's the big deal? LOL!
To bridieo: sorry this took so long, I had to find my copy of The Sound and the Fury. The last page goes:
"The broken flower drooped over Ben's fist and his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more from left to right, post and tree, window and doorway and signboard each in its ordered place."
I don't see any connection to Don or this episode, do you?
Hi Visan!
I thought of you when Don was on the couch barely covered!
I got a kick out of Joy's choice of literature too. I have already said that I think she is a lot younger than she told Don she is, because she looked so young. Then, Don asks her about the book, and she tells him it's reading for school, or something like that? Then, the whole thing with her father? Very starange.....
Visan-
I want to marry this episode too! Don was sizzlin' hot! The stories with Roger's divorce and the stylin' nomads make me want to marry this show, too! I want moooooorrrre!!!!!
Visan-
I want to marry this episode too! Don was sizzlin' hot! The stories with Roger's divorce and the stylin' nomads make me want to marry this show, too! I want moooooorrrre!!!!!
Don saw Betty everywhere. Joy's mannersisms in the pool were Betty's. I think he missed the stability of his life at home while he was thinking in the pool but when he thinks about his wife's drinking and questioning, he really enjoys his playtime and being away from her. When he impulsively jumped into Joy's car proves that he still likes to play.
I thought Joy was strikingly similar to Jane, not Betty. Jane is 20 and writing poetry in bed with Roger; Joy is 21 and reading "The Sound and Fury" in bed with Don. And both women look a bit alike to me.
On another note, I, too, think it's a good theory Don may be getting grifted - these people are up to something, for sure. Of course it's striking that hanging out with a bunch of transient poseurs leads he to reconnect with who he really is. Although did he say it was "Dick" Whitman when he made that call on the phone at the end of the episode? I thought I heard him say "Dave" Whitman, but I was tired.
For anyone out there who have ever been around very privleged people, or as Don said, "Well off" the nomads are what they are. Although I myself am not that privledged, I have been around people like this because of my private prep school education. Even as a teen I knew people who lived like this. We always called them "Trust Fund Babies".
They were a lot more obscure and usually engaged in very risky and sometimes odd behavior. Their world was very much like the nomads.
They know Don is not one of them, but they are intrigued I think by how naive he is. He's like a toy or a pet to them. These kind of people are always facinating for a short time, but because they don't live in a reality like most of us, they are very hard to understand and be around for long.
It's funny because Jon Hamm probably knew some kids like this when he was younger too. He went to a very privledged prep school in St. Louis like I did.
Again, I don't think them to be spys at all.
TANGFL: Hey Im 26 and I love this show it gives me an idea of how life was in the business atmosphere. Like all movies or T.V. shows they have a downfall sometime. Tell her to keep watching it gets interesting as this show goes on. This was the first show that seemed out of scene and this is season II. Hopefully that helped alittle for ya.
Regarding the incest overtones between Joy and her father (if that IS her father)...incest is a big theme in "The Sound and the Fury," though it's brother-sister incest. Incest in Faulkner (traces appear in other works) seems to me a metaphor for not being able to leave the past alone...either the cultural past, like the antebellum South, or the personal past. Wanting to get so close to it you're actually f**king it.
What a complete reversal! Don as the one who blows off work and Pete's the one with his nose to the grindstone, albeit at poolside. I had to laugh when Pete's attempt to talk to the two bikini babes who helped pick up his papers went nowhere.
The blonde at the bar. I think that J. Jones was the one who passed Don in the scene although before and after it was someone else.
I also think that the MIRV presentation made Don want to be somewhere else. Very scary stuff. Which is why he left with Joy rather than staying at the hotel. Especially after the presentation was made on a Kodak Carousel.
I think Joy, her father and company are just who they say they are. Nomads. They have a home somewhere, just rarely go there, going from one vacation home of one friend to another and those friends use theirs. There were servants so they weren't squatting. Old, old money where a Dyckman family connection wouldn't count but looks and personality would.
The scene of Don arriving for dinner reminded me of a Sean Connery/James Bond film with the dark top and the white trousers. Dr. No?
Don calling someone on the phone and identifying himself as Dick Whitman. Obviously someone he knew before he went into the service. If he's 36 in 1962, he would have been 19 in 1945, probably on an Agriculture/Farmer draft deferment. We don't know what he was doing between 1944 and 195(?) when he entered the Army. The person he called probably does know. And is probably the person he mailed the book to, signing it simply "D."
Don writing on and tearing out the final page of the book. Now she'll never know how it ends!
I also thought Pete had to feel "hit upside the head" when he finds Don isn't even back or called, Kurt is a "homo" and Peggy changed her hairstyle. And he doesn't even know what Duck's doing! Think how strange it will feel to Don when he returns.
In the preview, Betty saying: "I didn't make you do anything." How many think she was talking with Don and how many think she was talking to Sarah Beth?
I love the mood of every part of this show. I think the scenes with Don in this episode were a dream of Betty's - she's dreaming of the luggage like she said before. The characters that don meets are such cliche's and the dinner party by the pool looks like it is right out of a "60's" movie - ala "the Graduate" - Betty would imagine Don like that.
By dmarie on October 13, 2008 9:13 AM
Even though I like the series, as a person who was 20 at that time --in 1962, (Jane's age), neither I nor most of my friends had the sex appeal or beauty to attract a man of Roger Sterling's status. I am having jealousy issues because I so, so admire John Slattery. This is troubling because Roger Sterling is not an admirable figure. So while I'm thinking how luckly Jane is, there is also the realisation that at the end of day, Roger is NOT a "good catch", not the prize one would think, because of his character flaws. Slattery, however, IS a great guy.
Donna
First - I have to defend Duck. I remeber all of the critical blogs when he left his dog. the dog was taking him back to a place he did not want to go, to alcohol. For some of us, alcohol make a total mess of life. the memories were to much for him. Better to lose the dog than drink. Now, he has found something that is taking him back that he wants/needs more than the dog, success. In the Madison Avenue of his day - he succeeded with alcohol -to a point. For all of you who feel Duck is more villan than flawed man trying hard - don't worry, last night was the first sign of a huge train wreck in the making.
Who cares who the Erotrash were or what they were doing - let's just hope they go away!
Anyone else notice the TV was tuned to a news story about James Meridith entering Ole Miss, in Oxford, MS and the novel of the night The Sound and the Fury was written by William Faulkner in Oxford, MS. Did the writers make that link?
Sorry, but this episode irritated me. Don is barely talking, letting these bizarro people with unbelieveably fake accents whisk him away to some luxury locale. I think he was challenged by the comment, "No one ever does that", when he say he couldn't meet with them the first night. He has no idea where he is but he stays for days without a phone call to anyone. He has no car, misses the meeting and his flight home so his luggage gets to his house before he does and Pete hasn't tried to find him? In fact, Pete doesn't mention to anyone at the office that he hasn't seen him since before the meeting? I was hoping when Don made that phone call, he realized he had been drugged and how strange these people are, and that he was calling a cab to get the heck out of there! Joy said they were going to the Bahamas next, something about taxes. I hope he's not planning on joining them, just because 'daddy will take care of you'. What the heck does that mean and what is he thinking! The minute he saw those kids come, he should have scrammed because the guilt should have been overwhelming. That didn't seem like any environment for kids with everyone half naked. Then Joy is off kissing someone else in the pool, I think because he gave up 'their' room. There's no spying going on here, just weirdness!
Response to abaghdadi and everyone else who asked this or thought he was being grifted.
Who the hell were those people!?!
Don/Dick has stumbled into a rare situation even for a NY businessman. Ever read any Scott Fitzgerald novels? There have always been groups of very rich, very sophisticated people in this county who don't work - just roam around in small groups from one rich playland to another. Didn't you catch that one of the men was Douglas Fairbanks, Jr? Also represented was Greta Garbo and her South American lover, Gloria Vanderbilt, Claus Von Brulow - I am not sure who Joy and her father were supposed to be, but all they are after is to have fun. No, these people are not grifters, even thought they will lead Don/Dick far away from his real livf unless he goes home.
Visan: I feel the same way about the "perv" comment. It made me cringe when I was watching.
Ritt: Good call on who Betty is actually talking to on the phone in episode 12! I think that would be a great twist if it was Sara Beth or even her stepmother.
Does anyone know the non-english translations from the "vagabond" group? When Greta and her friend Carlos are introduced, he says something to Joy, and she basically ignores him and starts shedding her clothes (right before Don faints). I'm trying to figure out what Carols said.
Unlike some, I loved this episode, especially the very end. Although I've enjoyed this season, there was something missing, and "It's Dick Whitman" were the words I've been waiting to hear. Dick Whitman lives! I want to know what happened between 1950 and 1960 to make Dick Whitman into Don Draper. For me, this is the most important theme of the whole show. It's always out there, regardless of what happens at the office, at his home, etc. There's somebody out there (besides Pete Campbell and Bertram Cooper) who knows that Don is really Dick and has a history with him (possibly ongoing) that dates back to 1950-60. Is it the woman from the car showroom? Is that who he sent the book to?
Or is this a "Manchurian Candidate" situation?
First of all, Don ran over Paul to get an opportunity to "escape" to California. (Don has a history of wanting to "escape" from one environment to another.) Did he ever really intend to use the time in California as a business trip, or was he going there for some other purpose? At first, it looked like it was business as usual until he saw the slide show about nuclear weapons, then, suddenly, he wanted to escape again. Was the slide show a trigger? So, he went with this exotic crowd to Palm Springs, and, at first, it looked like he was going to have himself a nice adventure, but then he realized that the folks he was with were actually shallow, self indulgent jerks. He looked in the glass and suddenly decided to escape again, to "go home", back to being Dick Whitman, back to someone who really knows who he is. The person on the other end of the phone did not seem surprised to hear from him, and he did not hesitate to call the person.
Last season, they saved the best for the end, and I think they're doing it again this year. This episode is pivotal, not just in terms of Don/Dick, but also with regard to Duck trying to take over SC. Last year, Don redeemed himself with the Carousel presentation. This year I think that, after an absence, he's going to come back to SC and save it from Duck, just in time.
Another thing about this episode, particularly with regard to Pete and his reaction to California: prior to the early 60's, the tv industry was centered in New York. Little by little, it shifted to California (one example is The Tonight Show) and one of the constant themes back then was the difficulty that New Yorkers had in adjusting to the California environment. Most of them hated it at first and made jokes about it all the time. Some (like Woody Allen) never adjusted. Pete's comments reflect that attitude. (I was surprised that he doesn't know how to drive and, therefore, had to have the meeting come to him. I also laughed when he introduced himself giving his mother's maiden name in addition to his last name, thinking that the people in CA would recognize the name and be impressed. It didn't take him long to realize that his pedigree didn't mean jack in CA.
Another comment: Joy had Betty's voice. I wonder if January Jones dubbed her lines.
I didn't quite get the details of the merger talks that Duck had with (his former employer?) and his subsequent presentation to Cooper and Roger. It seemed that he was offering up (without authority) the opportunity to buy controlling interest in Sterling, but when he talked to Cooper and Roger, he seemed to be saying that Sterling could buy the American division of the other company. Either way, Duck could go to jail, but I would love to undersand the business transaction better. Any ideas?
Misc. comments after catching up with this thread:
Swanky K: I am not in St. Louis, but the young lady in question is.
Brian Batt's acting as he listens to Ken's comments about "queers" was amazing. What a fine performance.
Cracked glass: an echo of Henry James's The Golden Bowl.
Back to my favorite theme of the show, Don's existentialism/nihilism. First the rocket guy talking about a future of "total annihilation" and then The Sound And Fury, evoking (as an earlier poster noted) Macbeth: life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Hey! Don has been gone for how long - a weekend? His wife kicked him out and he opted for CA and started looking at the big, wide world. We have no idea where this will go, if anywhere. I don't see Duck as master of the universe - even if his deal goes through he will get his turn to wet his pants from his liquid courage (gin) - it is all pretty open ended, isn't it!
This morning's mail brought me an authentic Mad Men pen, courtesy of Clay, for having written one of the comments he quoted in his "What You're Saying" piece.
Anybody think that Don, passing out at poolside, didnt pass out from heat stroke or whatever it is we heard, but instead, was slipped something he was drinking.. ie, he was drugged? And everything that happened after that was a dream sequence?
i'm new to this blog and i'm sorry if i'm being ignorant. what is the cultural significance of the two guys kurt and smitty? there seems to be more of a backstory prior to them being hired by don.
The music confirmed Don was on safari, into a strange land of Jet Setting money... a non reality as most of us define living... it was a TOTAL HEDONISTIC existence... endless sun, fun, sex, travel, wine, drugs (the doctor with his needle), self-indulging of the emollient moment...
Like the girl's car, Don jumped in... Don taking his own physical beauty out for a spin under the sun... looking right into the blinding light of total temptation... so of course at first he faints from sun stroke (what symbolism!)...
Don in the pool, AFTER THE SUN has gone down... can begin to see things up close, the glass, the wine, the guy with the kids (which is a version of a future him, of course) and he is given pause... next morning, alone on the couch, his JOY having swam away Don reveals himself to be Dick... an interesting regression (the sun in the fun a fantacy future he's exploring hedonistically as a 'beautiful person') a regression to his former self looking for something else he discarded, lost, left to become Don... great writing...
I thought it was revealing to Joy that Don didn't want to bring any "baggage" with him. No matter why he had come to the hotel, he was willing to leave it to come with her, unemcumbered. He was one of them, so to speak.
I was ready for a dream or flashback sequence when he passed out. Then there wasn't one. Heat stroke is a very real medical situation, quite possibly brought on by wearing a full suit made for the New York climate in Southern California and not drinking enough water.
On another note, in the preview Cooper's sister (?) is wondering where Don stands in the buyout. Which tells me his opinion will be the deciding factor. If neither faction has a majority, they will need his 1/8th share to settle on Yea or Nay, otherwise it's an automatic Nay.
My Dad was a MAD MAN in the 1960's - Chicago and later New York so I remember all of these characters from my childhood. The show strikes a raw nerve at times and also explains a lot as to my parents dis-functional marriage. I am hooked. In this episode I think we see Don's mind at work - thru a bit of LA fog, heat and fantasy. It may be that in reality the woman at the bar was not the spitting image of his wife nor does Joy have the same voice as Betty nor did the kid at the end resemble himself as a child but in his mind he is connecting the dots. In reality these appear to be gypsy-type jet setters who most likely have no agenda other than being LA weirdos (as Pete alluded to upon his return that the LA people were different). I pretty much think this is Don's head trip.
It IS INTERESTING how Don keeps seeing Betty around... and we do remember/understand from this that Betty was his ideal, his dream girl when he was younger and was becoming DON... the girl like the girl from the movies, a model (Grace Kelly-ish, who didn't want Grace Kelly?) until the girl, the ideal, over time, becomes who she is, a reality, his wife, a person, who herself, is becoming who she is more fully, someone who's leaving her mother created role...
And I also thought that Joy - AT FIRST - looked like Midge and then became Betty's younger persona but in a dream fantasy way of Jet Setting hedonism... like having a younger Midge-Betty in his own dreamscape, escape world of endless pleasure... which of course IS eventually a form of personal ruin... all of the Euro-trashers were trashed, superficial, bored, bathed in the sunlight of absolute self-indulging luxury which leads no where, creates nothing, just cycles from resorts to resorts looking for new "beautiful people" to come on board for a while, ala Don... Don saw the industrial-corportate reality in the slide show, how man has the capasity to kill EVERYTHING... by 1962, we technologically live at the end of time, man had gained the power for total annilhilation... and Don's reaction was to run to arcadia, the lotus land of modern eroticism... "you can get a set of trunks or just go o'natural"
Don maybe great looking but, he has real head problems and he's sinking deeper. The more of see of him, the more I am really starting to dislike him. Who cares if he goes back to Betty? She deserves better.
those people were weird, and Don knows it. I think after the whole pool scene towards the end, he had enough and wants to meet this person who knows him as Dick Whitman. Notice how almost everywhere Don saw Betty. He saw in the bar lounge which was really haunting and creepy. Eventhough we think he didnt see her in Joy, some of us who caught her mannerisms and voice knew exactly that was Betty, maybe when Don first met her. Remember Don met Betty while she was a glamourous high fashion model. Maybe Don got attracted to Joy because she reminded him of Betty years ago. Also what I got from the broken glass scene is not the crack in it, but the wine. We all know that Betty likes to drink Wine, she practically is a WINE-O and then when we see who I am guessing Joy's friend or Brother or possible relative with the two children whom he says that he is divorced from their Mother, we see Don look at the young boy. He almost looks sad, as if he misses Betty and the kids. But I think once he had the heat stroke, which I am guessing is his blood presssure or a mini-heartattack, Don got scared, and wanted to be young and hot again, so he jumped Joy's underage bones. No way that girl was 21! She atleast looked about 16. Well hopefully Don leaves them next week, and while I did enjoy we got a break from Betty this week, I am sort of glad she is back next week. Her story and Don's story are so interesting. The writers want us to think that they will get back together, but then they change it. As of right now, I want Betty to seperate herself from Don. He is on a destructive path. Those people seemed fishy, and Don is getting deeper and deeper into trouble. Those people to me, made Bobbie Barrett and Jimmy Barrett look like saints! Something is off with them. I did enjoy this episode, and next week looks to be amazing, and there is something building for the finale! Maybe something will happen to Don over there, and Betty has to rescue him. All I know is that the office of SC is looking pretty awesome without Don there.
I know this is stupid, but I was kind of shocked to see that Don didnt do it with almost every woman he saw. He only chose one. A little girl. A weird little girl, which I think Don saw Betty in.
Another comment or two: I'm wondering about the spy possibility. When he and the people in Palm Springs were playing the "places" game, he was able to participate with the best of them, knew all of these foreign place names. Why would a farm boy know of these things unless he had had specialized training and, possibly, had been an agent and had actually visited some of the places? (Actually, the whole LA/Palm Springs segment reminded me of an old James Bond movie. It had that atmosphere.)
Was the places game a recruitment tool? Once when I was alone having dinner in a restaurant in Athens on vacation, two American men asked me to join them at their table. They were going around the world as part of their job. During the course of our conversation, they asked me questions about my eduational background and foreign language abilities and I eventually suspected that I was on a job interview. They ultimately asked me to contact them after I got back to the U.S., but I never did. They declined to tell me whom they worked for but I suspect CIA.
I think this episode was a companion to the Hobo Code, only the drifters in this episode had European accents and access to money and material possessions. How they got that access is left to the imagination. I predict that we will not see them again; they were simply a one episode plot device, used to illustrate how Don can insert himself into just about any situation. Don is the ultimate drifter who can drop in and out of situations (recall his brief flirtation with bohemia last year with Midge and her gang) and be whatever the situation calls for. His credo, as he explained to Rachel Mencken in Episode 1, Season 1 is: "I am living like there is no tomorrow because there isn't one," a point which was reinforced with the MIRV missle promising total annihilation, brought courtesy of the Kodak Carousel, aka The Wheel. Yet, wherever Don is and whatever he is doing, there is always the nagging thought of "who am I?" and "should I be someplace else?"
The situation with Betty has been weighing on Don, and he probably feels that he has stayed in one place too long and should get the heck out of Ossining and go west or north, or south or wherever. But despite the temptation to "ride the rails" with Joy and Co. he will likely go back to Ossining. He has unfinished business at home and at S&C.
Loved the visuals in this episode. The California sunshine; the initial discomfiture of the man in the gray flannel suit standing by the pool, and then the sudden realization of "hey, I could yet used to this"; Joy's earrings (the dangling balls and then the disks); the mid century modern splendor in Palm Springs; Pete looking like an idiot in his bathing suit; Peggy's new 'do and the dark, stifling atmosphere of the bar where Duck tries to sell Sterling Cooper for 40 pieces of silver as contrasted with the the bright California sunshine in which Don is temporarily frolicking. All in all, a real visual treat.
Yes, the time stamps are off again.
mcmere- I'm assuming Hamm and your friend met at Mizzou where he went to college. He studied acting on a scholarship I believe. (Brad Pitt was there too for a short time) That's funny that your friend pretends that she didn't sleep w/ him to her husband. I, of course would have to brag on that a bit w/ the gals, but a little more descrete w/ my husband. He has to know she's lying!
As for the pen you received that is very cool, but not as cool as the coffee mug I received a few weeks back. It has the MadMen logo on it and there is a dotted line near the rim that says," Fill whiskey to this line"---------------------It's a hoot! all of my MadMen fan friends are very jealous!
To 60s Child & Don's Chick: Yeah, it's always good to see Don just chillin'! Also, it was about time we got to see the back-end business deals and office politics. Thanks you MM writers for all that!!
Harry's on my "character shit list" for calling Smeeth a perv!
I really did not like this episode.. UNTIL I came here and read all these posts. So many of you have thrown out ideas/perspectives that I hadn't considered. I thought those "people" were very strange, but I didn't consider they'd be grifters until it was offered here. Now I think that Joy was "bait" for Don to get him to Palm Springs, I DO think he was drugged so he'd pass out, and they could go through his wallet, etc. I also didn't like that needle that was ready to go into Don's arm before he stopped the "doctor". The others looked disappointed. The way they all applauded when Don showed up at dinner? It's like they're all in on the secret plan, whatever it is... And maybe it's nothing and I'm reading more into all this. We shall see.
When I saw Don and Joy drive up to the Palm Springs house, here's what I thought would happen: I thought he was going to be introduced to Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr and whoever else would be hanging out at Frank Sinatra's. That house looked JUST like Sinatra's did then. The Rat Pack would have been much more fun than the pack of weirdos we got this episode. OK, that' my 2cents.
Don must have had a 'real' father figure... mentor... either a sort of con man when he was younger OR that old Greek guy at the fur company where he first worked in New York... will we see that side of him... is that coming up?
Visan- I totally agree! Smitty was so comfortable w/ his identity and yet the rest, especially Harry and Ken, were uptight idiots. I laughed out loud at the look on their faces when he said he makes love to men so matter of factly! (I must have laughed very loudly because my neighbor asked me this morning what I was laughing at last night and she lives across the street!)
I also loved how Smitty helped Peggy. He was very sweet about it and matter of fact w/out hurting her feelings. He did more for her self image w/ that hair cut and some fashion advice then anyone else could.
I wanted to slap Harry for the perv comment after Smith left! And poor Sal is just getting a taste of what he's up against if he ever comes out of the closet.
I was disappointed in the lack of detail in this episode - you couldn't place long distance calls directly back then - all calls were operator assisted. If you dialed an area code, you had to have an operator.
No one, not even in the entertainment business woud have come out and said they were "homosexual" back then - it was illegal still in many states. People thought being gay meant you were a pervert (hence Harry's comment - "so he's a pervert") and they arrested you for "deviant behavior". This is millennium behavior forced into a 60s show. It didn't happen.
The lack of details were disappointing after being spoiled by them being spot on for so long.
I think that Don came to his senses and realized he had to address the "Dick Whitman" thing once and for all in order to come back to his old life.
I don't think the 'nomads" were grifters - think Barbara Hutton - she had people like that around her all her life. They obviously drugged him and went through his wallet assuming he might be able to finance their party, but actual grifters - no...just hanger-ons.
I enjoyed your posts PatrickKehoe and Jimk...
The show did feel a little Manchurian Canidate though, and some of the symbolism was extremely obvious.
I believe the voice of Joy was dubbed by Betty's voice or she was coached to sound exactly like her. The show jumped from last weeks ep of being in Betty's stilted, repressed home to the rich nomads eclectic home...neither seemed all that happy and the incest theme was loud and clear.
SandraJoy I not only agree with you, but I think his memories of Dick Whitman are fake...I think Pete hit the nail on the head when he said the Russian's are already doing it, speaking of human bionics. I think Don is totally "manchurian candidate" which also came out in 1962. Maybe he will be the real person that killed Kennedy..okay, that was pushing it, but you all know what I mean.
I agree with your post regarding the Jet Set of the title. Don sees Willie and his relationship with Joy and is repelled on some level.
Don is absolutely at the edge. Did his "baggage" get sent to Ossining for good--or will he come back as Don to NYC to save Roger from the Duck takeover?
If Mad Men is ending this year, Matt Weiner could just send Don off into the sunset in LA. But if it is going to continue, how can it be a cliffhanger if they're then going to pick up after the Kennedy Assassination in 1964?
I guess we could see Duck in charge at SC. But it feels wrong. Duck has the vibe of a character created with a plot purpose in mind, not a character we're meant to care all that much about.
Boy now I realize how much I've missed the connections between the pitches that were part of several season one shows (most notably in "The Carosel) and the lives of the characters.
Because we're so unsure now just what Don is capable of--it's hard to handicap what's next.
This is probably a sign of my limited personality but if Don is really just tossing his kids aside and heading for a new life 3000 miles away after what he's lived through as a boy, then I've probably invested too much in the character.
You watched Tony Soprano like you watch a tiger in a zoo, or rubberneck a traffic accident. He was a compelling character--you had to look. A clear sociopath whose life choices were really very narrow from the start. Dick Whitman was plausible as Don Draper, but Tony as Kevin Finnerty? No way. Tony was kidding himself. He wasn't selling lawn furniture or graduating from Rutgers back in the 70's, no way.
Don Draper seemed like someone struggling with choices we all make-yes he acted out more--but now, I don't know. There's a tipping point with a character. If he is capable of anything, truly anything, than he's not really a flesh and blood person -- he's a construct--a magic carpet for writers to take where they want.
I mean when does Don learn the lesson that most existential heroes do?--That it is the connections we have with others in the here and now--the simple life of the peasant--as Dostoyevsky puts it--is where the meaning comes from in life. They help us pull our eyes away from the abyss and in doing so weakens it's power over us.
Those connections can be formed by family or by art, or by any number of things. But not by continued wholesale re-invention.
I may just have brought to conventional a world view to this show. I wanted some version of the "happy" false ending of "The Carosel," at the end of season one.
Maybe Don doesn't stay with Betty. But does don the man stand by anything he's started at all? If not, then maybe he is as awful as some (especially scorned women) on these boards have insisted he is.
I agree with your post regarding the Jet Set of the title. Don sees Willie and his relationship with Joy and is repelled on some level.
Don is absolutely at the edge. Did his "baggage" get sent to Ossining for good--or will he come back as Don to NYC to save Roger from the Duck takeover?
If Mad Men is ending this year, Matt Weiner could just send Don off into the sunset in LA. But if it is going to continue, how can it be a cliffhanger if they're then going to pick up after the Kennedy Assassination in 1964?
I guess we could see Duck in charge at SC. But it feels wrong. Duck has the vibe of a character created with a plot purpose in mind, not a character we're meant to care all that much about.
Boy now I realize how much I've missed the connections between the pitches that were part of several season one shows (most notably in "The Carosel) and the lives of the characters.
Because we're so unsure now just what Don is capable of--it's hard to handicap what's next.
This is probably a sign of my limited personality but if Don is really just tossing his kids aside and heading for a new life 3000 miles away after what he's lived through as a boy, then I've probably invested too much in the character.
You watched Tony Soprano like you watch a tiger in a zoo, or rubberneck a traffic accident. He was a compelling character--you had to look. A clear sociopath whose life choices were really very narrow from the start. Dick Whitman was plausible as Don Draper, but Tony as Kevin Finnerty? No way. Tony was kidding himself. He wasn't selling lawn furniture or graduating from Rutgers back in the 70's, no way.
Don Draper seemed like someone struggling with choices we all make-yes he acted out more--but now, I don't know. There's a tipping point with a character. If he is capable of anything, truly anything, than he's not really a flesh and blood person -- he's a construct--a magic carpet for writers to take where they want.
I mean when does Don learn the lesson that most existential heroes do?--That it is the connections we have with others in the here and now--the simple life of the peasant--as Dostoyevsky puts it--is where the meaning comes from in life. They help us pull our eyes away from the abyss and in doing so weakens it's power over us.
Those connections can be formed by family or by art, or by any number of things. But not by continued wholesale re-invention.
I may just have brought to conventional a world view to this show. I wanted some version of the "happy" false ending of "The Carosel," at the end of season one.
Maybe Don doesn't stay with Betty. But does don the man stand by anything he's started at all? If not, then maybe he is as awful as some (especially scorned women) on these boards have insisted he is.
BEGINS: "Gone is the romance that was so divine/It's broken and cannot be mended/You must go your way/And I must go mine/But now that our love dreams have ended/What'll I do when you are far way.../
AND ENDS: "When I'm alone with only dreams of you that won't come true, what'll I do?"
audreyj- Yes I agree with you. This for me was the WORST EPISODE EVER. I expected much more. It actually was boring to me. And disappointing. No questions being asked, of him or of those people. DD asked Joy "who are these people" she says "friends"...how vague....but DD just accepts it. Weird how that guy was trying to inject DD with something after his heat stroke. He said he was a Doc but didnt explain what the shot was or what it would do for him.
Plus, DD just let Pete handle all the business after bustin his balls over wanting to hang by the pool- he goes off on his own vacation. DD isn't acting like a partner of an advertising firm. Even his work is suffering from his internal conflicts.
And shame on him for living like some college-aged vagabond and not a father and responsible business man. I am a parent myself and if I was doing something like that, then saw those two kids by the pool- I would feel so guilty and return to my own kids immediately. But what does he do, bang some strange 'girl'.....
Goes from washed-up cougar Bobbie to some crazy young Joy. Extremes, anyone?
I was also perplexed when Joy was telling Don "Your father likes you, he thinks your beautiful" odd. They met, what 18 hours ago and now he is this guy's "son"?? Reminded me of the episode "3 Sundays" when Bobby tells him "we need to get you a new daddy"....
Will Don stay with these weirdos or just take his experiences with him back home?
Wow! I, too, thought of the Tony Soprano/Kevin Finnerty episode!!! That's where a briefcase (i.e., piece of luggage) was symbolic of Tony's soul--- his very life, as it were, since at the end, he chose not to die when he wouldn't hand it over--- remember that? This lost piece of luggage does seem to play the same sort of role. Don is adrift in LA with a bunch of meaningless jet-setters, but his soul/life are back home on BETTY'S DOORSTEP.
By coincidence, I just happened to watch the Fellini movie "La Dolce Vita" a few weeks ago, and as I watched this episode it kept coming back to me. All those beautiful, aimless, bored young Europeans having pointless sex, going to nightclubs, drinking, dancing, swimming, being naked, playing party games just to pass the time because they had nothing else to do. This bunch seemed lifted right out of that movie (which incidentally was released in 1960, so I wonder if it inspired this episode?).
About the Dick Whitman phone call: this was shocking to me because he said his name so casually, and the person obviously wasn't surprised to hear from him. So clearly, he has been maintaining contact with SOMEONE who knows that Dick Whitman is not dead.
I like the theory from the earlier poster who said perhaps it is the hobo who was kind to him as a boy. I don't see it being a woman, for some reason--- a woman would want too much from him, would threaten his new life too much.
I do think this was kind of a dull episode, however. All Don ever seems to do is fall into bed with one woman after another. Yes, he's fine to look at, and yes, he's on a quest and so on, but it's just kind of dull. Personally, I find the Sterling Cooper gang a lot more interesting. Would really like to see more of Peggy and Joanie, as I've said before.
And I agree: Brian Batt's face during the "homo" discussion just broke my heart. I thought it was the most moving and memorable moment in the entire episode.
I just couldn’t believe that Don would just disappear and give Pete the creep more ammunition. His leaving with Joy reminded me of the day he was suppose to pick up the birthday cake – and didn’t return.
And to “coop” my initial reaction when I saw the needle almost in Don’s arm coupled with stupid accents, drugging him in the first place, checking his wallet to learn he was in advertising, the purpose of the trip, etc led me to believe these people were a Russian spy group. It may just have been the writers fueling our imaginations. It did make it interesting.
Duck must have been inspired by Roger’s gotcha’ meeting. Roger will need Don’s 12%. So Duck’s devious plan will backfire and Don slides in safe once again. And we get our Mad Men back.
A very interesting episode, that spark a lot of questions for me- and no jumping of the shark. I think this episode was a way of setting up the whole Cuban Missle Crisis to come in a later episode. The whole business meeting in California, with the missles creating total annihilation. The Cold War race with Russia. The foreignors that take him that are involved in what? in, "you must be well off?" Are they Communists? Red walls. Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury. Who were these people, and what do they truly want with Don? Spies who know why he's out there and what business he is doing? Is Joy bait for something? Don is now on an Existential journey, not a mid-life crisis which is opposite of Roger's new direction which does appear to be a mid-life crisis. Don is on a search or quest for something more meaningful.
I think that the chatter about grifters and spies is off. I'm wondering if those of you who are thinking on these lines may also be the kind of people who are always suspicious of people who are not like you too. It's funny but some of you sound like you're from the early 60's thinking that "foreigners" are all spies, thieves or commies.
How we react to things in this show says a lot about our personal beliefs. Many of you sound like you buy into fear created by media easily.
Don went on this trip at the last minute. No one was waiting to bait or lure him. Joy is just a very privleged girl who is used to seeing something she wants and just assuming she can have it. She liked what she saw in Don (can you blame her) and had her Daddy approach him. Odd as it may seem, this was who they were.
Who could it have been on the phone? As far as I can remember Don really doesn't have any family. Maybe the woman from the car dealership? She searched for him and found him and knew he wasn't the real Don Draper. I'm assuming she was probably the fiance of the real Don Draper, or sister maybe??? I can't wait to find out! I love this show, it's the only thing on tv I look forward to watching all week.
First time I have posted-- ADDICTED to Mad Men since I saw the first TV commercial promo. . .
When Betty & Don had sex at her Dad's house, I think she got pregnant and that is going to factor in soon. . .
Last night's episode was so unusual-- I don't mind, but do mind that I have to wait until Sunday 'til the next episode! Arghh. . .
Who the hell could Don be calling as Dick Whitman?? Can't wait for the answer to that one. Not even just "Dick," but "Dick Whitman." Got to be someone he knew before the war because I presume from the day of the war blast forward, he was Don Draper.
I agree that the weird Palm Springs foriegners were grifters. Especially since they looked through Don's wallet.
I am also waiting to find out where the hell Peggy's baby is? Will Pete ever mention that they are adopting and will Peggy say, "Oh, I know a kid you'll want to adopt!" ;o)
Funny I just thought of the characters at dinner in Palm Springs w/ Don like out of Alice in Wonderland. Don is like Alice in this funny little world that he fell into to.
I thought the episode had a trippy feel the whole time.
Interesting observations jamsavy.
AshUnabashed asked what Carlos said to Joy when she introduced DD to everyone at the Palm Springs pool. I think he asked her (in Spanish) "Someone important?" and Joy replied "What goes Carlos?". Just my .02.
Misssugar - really interesting theory on the seam in the glass. I was wondering what that was all about. But does Don really miss Betty or is he afraid of running into her?
I also thought, what an odd choice for the closing song. "What'll I Do?" is a beautiful song, but of all the songs they could have chosen for a final commentary on this odd episode-- why that one?
The connection to "The Great Gatsby" is pretty obvious, since it was used in that movie, but the song is actually much older--- it was written by Irving Berlin, was it not? and dates back to the 1920s.
Perhaps the writers meant to draw a parallel to Gatsby--- a beautiful man who wasn't born wealthy or privileged or anything special, but who made up his mind to create himself anew, through sheer willpower, and ended up rich beyond his wildest dreams (and hanging out with a bunch of aimless rich people). Yet he comes to a tragic end, and loses his chance to be with the only girl he ever loved.
The words of the song really sound more like Betty's POV than Don's.
What'll I do when you are far away, and I am blue?
What'll I do when I am wondering who is kissing you?
What'll I do with just a photograph to tell my troubles to?
When I'm alone, with only dreams of you that won't come true.... what'll I do?
Earlier people were commenting on the group DD meets in CA as drifters. After sleeping on the episode I think Don maybe was a drifter immediately after the war as well. It would explain how he went from being the somber but obedient child/soldier to the slick, confident man he presents today. The phone call where he identifies himself as Dick Whitman was probably to the person who introduced him to the life of being a drifter. An older con man who Don may have developed an attachment to and learned how to read people, assume identities, con. Similar to his "father/son" like relationship with Roger. I also wonder if the Joy and her drifter set recognized that Don is a drifter as well? Maybe meeting Betty started as another drift for Don but he ended up finding what he always wanted in the form of the "perfect" family but he's still feels compulsively drawn to the drift thus his dalliances.
I don't remember what episode it was but it was season 1. Don was travelling home on the train and some guy he was in the service with recognizes him as Dick Whitman...
It seems to me that this episode, which is so masterful in so many ways, is about identity. Who are you? Who do you present to be? Who do you want to be? Who are the people around you?-- was carried through like a well crafted short story. One in which you think you know what is going on, but you have to re-read it several times to really start to understand what is taking place. It was almost like a dream sequence within the "reality" of the larger show. What I took from this is that Don has found himself with others who pick and choose who they want to be, and nothing is revealed below a certain level. For example, when the conversation at dinner among the "jet set" in Palm Springs gets too personal, a game of places is suggested and the entire mood of the evening is changed. I also think rather than being "grifted" Don is beging welcomed by those assembled at the home in Palm Springs as a kindred spirit. I do think the aerospace presentation revealed a "fracture" in Don's personality that has brought Dick back to life to some degree. This ties back to the cut scene (last season?) in which he is at Peggy's bedside in the mental hospital, encouraging her to put this behind her and return to work. I don't remember the exact verbiage Don used, but I do remember it being very indicitive that he may not just have assumed Don's personality during the war-- but actually internalized it to a degree. Now, it appears Dick may have been unleashed by the presentation and the ensuing turn of events related to Joye. I think that is what Don's passing out at the pool has actually illustrated for us. Prior to that he was still very reserved and very much the "Madison Avenue Suit". After pasing out and awakening, he comes to dinner in casual clothes and "emerges" a very different person.
everyone looked so familar to Don's life...a woman as Bobbie Barett and the man as Jimmy,, Joy as Betty, a woman like Midge and the whole scene as her friends... the madness of it all.
===================
Maybe this is like "his entire life flashed before his eyes."
Bank credit cards as we think of them today have been around since 1958; Diner's Club cards earlier than that. And the first direct dial long distance phone call (according to AT&T) was made in 1951, between the mayors of Englewood NJ and Alameda CA. No errors there.
Did Roger and Coop not notice Duck say 51%? That's a controlling interest. Coop would be ensconced in his office as figurehead and trotted out on state occasions; Roger would be off swanning around with his Janie, out of the business entirely; and Don would be reporting to Duck? I think not. Since Don has no contract he'd be off like a shot, maybe opening his own agency (and taking Sal, Peggy and maybe Harry for the TV business) - if, that is, he decided to stay an ad man.
One great part of the episode were the folks being who they are and not apologizing for it! The Jet Setters were rich and didn't have jobs but were OK with that! Just like Smitty was gay and had no problem telling a room full of essentially phony co-workers that he makes love to other men! Also, liked the smackdown Smith gave them, telling 'em Smitty wasn't the only gay in the ad world! Ha!
Matt Weiner stated that things would build up towards the end of the season. I think this episode was the gateway to answering some questions about Dick Whitman. Obviously, a lot of people found this episode boring but I thought it was terrific!
After last night I thought I disliked the show, but as I went for a run all I did was think about it and came to the conclusion it WAS very interesting, but as a detour from the New York way of doing things and I hope they get back to it and DD's life as it relates to SC, family etc. I too think he misses Betty and is trying to reconcile his past in a way he can be "honest" with her and they can move on. I can feel the dislike of Betty practically radiating from my monitor and started wondering if good writing supposed to be able to change peoples perspectives/opinions on characters (cough, cough, Betty) as the story unfolds or is it supposed to be ambiguous enough to allow us to keep our original opinions intact?
Thanks JackieMonroe for confirming the singer of the song, Johnny Mathis. There are so many versions out there. I thought it was him. Even more appropriate to the show, since he is gay.
Had to look up the significance of Joy reading "The Sound and the Fury." Per WIkipedia:
Explanation of the novel's title
The title of the novel is taken from Macbeth's soliloquy in act 5, scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth:
"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
The story of a family's fall into ruin. How appropriate.
Well Don drives to P.springs w/ Joye , arrives takes a drink and collapses.
In my head the song " White Rabbit " was playing as he hit the pool deck. One pill makes you larger , one pill makes you small.
However JeffersonAirplane was not a group i don't think yet to have suppled the song for this episode.
But this episode has Everyone thinking , Spies , Mind bend a real twisted plot.
Is Don a ? ... Shit we all know he's Not anything we think he is. Dick Whitman roled off his lips like an old fashion as sure as he's Don Draper.
I kept waiting to see Paul Kinsey on a stretcher in an ambulance from a brick in the head.
Joye's in the pool with Don and then poof who is then kissing in the pool , another couple or was that Joye with another ? Just as Don has no loyality to Betty nor does Joye to Don. Or was it someone else another couple completely ?
Did anyone notice the isolation between Don's time and the Agency side of the story. Don's floating thru the episode and Sterling Copper is being put up for Bidding. Pete's working as planned , Homosexual in the mix, Peggy's getting her hair cut and Rogers putting Jane on a pedistal while getting a divorce. These are all serious issues and Don's having another drink and pounding a 21year old.
And now as convoluted as the episode I change directions ...
Also at dinner Don mentions are you all independ and well off. The lady (someone ) at the table makes a face and everyone cringes, hoping nothing else is said.
Jane will disappoint Roger she trusts no one, especially him who just dropped his wife after 25years.
This episode was one of the best as we all have seen and we can not as a Blog predict anything about this writer and this enjoyable show.
We are all Kindergarteners small shallow wide eyed WorthLess as a talk forum and the MadMen have the last as well as all the laughs.
I'm sad I missed some of the great conversations going on in this thread. JimK, your insights are, well, insightful. My comment (#3) I had to throw out there as soon as la Visier and his nymphette daughter wandered up and introduced themselves. I thought, how out of place Don and Pete look in laid-back Cali. Immediately my wife said "who the heck are these grifters" and I thought it was so perfect. However, with some of the ideas in this thread I'm finding more of the nuances. The weirdos, jet-setters or whatever you call them may not be "grifters" in the lowest sense but they're definitely untrustable. Lots of suggestions of drugging, casually mentioning "your wallet fell out," the resident Dr. Feelgood etc. A weird bunch but nothing Don's unaccustomed to. Why couldn't they be spies, where else would they be other than a defense contractors' trade show? And they would know Don would be the most likely to get his foot in the door.
Speaking of drugs, Jane's mention of mushrooms at the beginning was a reference to Alice in Wonderland, not to be taken literally. The iconic shot of the shirtless Don, gone through the looking glass. Alice was asleep, as was Don for much of the time. We'll find out how deep the rabbit hole goes next time.
The last page of the book looked like it was full of blurbs to me. Could anyone with hi-def read his writing?
Oh, and the music was "Rhythm of the Rain" by Dan Fogelberg. It is available on amazon.com.
I don't think Joy looked or sounded like Betty at all. Betty is older but emotionally she is the same age as her little friend Glen. While Joy is very young in years, she understands the score. As does the young Jane Roger is infatuated with. I think Joy and her group were just jet setters.
Don has an internal struggle about his infidelity and I could see that at the beginning of the show. Infidelity back in the early 60's was not viewed like it is today. Men could have affairs as long as they were discreet, and still have the other life of wife, children, Golden Retriever, white picket fence. Don lacks discretion. When the children came to the pool, I think he thought of his own children. The man definitely has a conscience and is a thinker. He's just not cut out to be a philanderer. I predict Don and Betty will stay together.
Another poster commented that there were no credit cards in the early 60's and that he could not have dialed directly. Wrong on both accounts. The show is unerringly accurate in its details, one of the things I love about it.
The suitcase Betty was dreaming about in the previous episode? The airline had Don's lost luggage delivered to his home. Love it.
What an extraordinary show. I've been following it since the first episode when I was drawn to it by the awesome graphics that were its promotion. II don't feel like there's been another show with better intro graphics. I love the figure falling falling falling. I 'm sure glad I didnt miss it from the beginning. The writing for every episode is flawless...as once again demonstrated last evening. Just when you hypothesize some ideas on where the story lines might be evolving, they throw you such a left curve that there is no way in heck you could have anticipated it. I don't know what to make of last evening's episode. The acting from everyone across both seasons is just fantastic. Jon Hamm's facial expressions and body movements really project all the nuances that give "Don Draper" life and the complexity which generates sympathy for him while simultaneously making him a liar/cad. I so enjoy him and the rest of the cast. I hope someone from the program reads this board and can communicate back to the entire cast how much their acting is appreciated. Now, back to last night:
1. At the end of the previous episode, the combination of the music selection and the light coming through the airplane window and rising up on his face, I thought, DD was in trouble. He did his best, in what seemed sincere, to help Betty with the visit to her Dad's. That seemed like Don trying to do the right thing. I think the sex really happened at her parents and wasn't a dream. (Although I'm not totally sure in light of his percepton of the blond at the bar last night being Bets.) While she could still be mad about his infidelties she could have at least acknowledged his efforts at being kind (telling her to eat, etc) in this special circumstance. When she kicked him back out at their house without even saying thanks for helping, I thought he's gone. The thing on the airplane just "illuminated" that for me. I'm not saying that his acting in a husband role during a family crisis was the "pass" card for his affair but she could have at least acknowledged his effort. I keep thinking back to a remark he made to Bets a few episodes back (when she accused him) that "nothing happened." Maybe in his mind all this sex is just sex and has nothing to do with what he has/had going on with his family. Sorry, I'm rambling!
2. There is something about this group that seems suspicious on so many levels. When they were sitting around the table eating and Don steps out to join them, someone says, "here he is." Like how people stop talking about someone when that person enters the room. Also, I wondered if there wasn't something in the drink they gave him at pool side. And what was in the syringe that this "doctor" was about to give him (Don turned it away). I don't know of any medication that would be given to someone for heatstroke...
2. In one of the previews on amc this morning (Tuesday) it shows Bets yelling into the phone, "No one told you to sleep with him!" I wonder who she's talking to and why. Is it Bobbi? Why would she be talking with Bobbi?
3. I thought he steered the children away from the pool not just cause they were tired but because they were young and people were making out in the pool. And who was the guy accompanying them? As sexually loose as DD is, he seems to have some limits around the kids....like the time Sally and Bobbie walked in to the bedroom when he and Bets were starting to make love.
4. What really threw me at the end was the telephone call he made identifying himself as Dick Whitman. That blew me away. Who still knows him as Dick Whitman???
Well, this has been a long post! I think this show should be on year round!!! It's the best show on TV. The person who posted that it's literature got it right!
Oh and one final thing. Yes, Jon Hamm should be on the next cover of People or a similar magazine as the sexiest man of the year. It takes nothing away from his acting skills!
I think Don is in a fugue state, brought on by stress of being separated, triggered by the missile demonstrations and possibly drugs in the drinks he is being served.
This is a well documented psychiatric condition, albeit extremely rare. People in this state are in a dreamlike state where they travel away from home, adopt other identities, leave their responsibilities and families etc. What distinguishes this from people just "running away" is that whatever happens is subconscious. Not only is there no clear motive for this, people get themselves into big trouble by not showing upto work, not calling home etc. The motives are presumed to be subconscious.
He is so calm, worry free, and the clincher: using his real name. I think he has forgotten about his life in New York.He may be a philanderer, but it would be extremely uncharacteristic for Don to miss his flight, not return to work. Despite everything he has shown up for work.
To those who thought last night's episode was boring: MM may not be for you. If you like crazy soap-opera storylines filled with excitement: MM may not be for you. This is a show that's centered around character development not ratings. Which is why i love it.
Don surprised me by leaving everything and embracing Joy given his status that he so values. I guess i shouldn't have been considering his lack of commitment and the fact that "he has no people." I think he's confronting this ideology of youth that he's been resisting the whole season, notice how Willy "doesn't want people to know he's old." There's no way of knowing what effect the Jet Set had on him till next episode. Hopefully he realizes how infantile most of his ambitions really are.
I think that the mystery person will either be Anna (blonde in the car dealership) although some of you have discounted her she could still know that he's dick whitman maybe they have some sort of arrangement, or it's an estranged child or lover in which case its useless to speculate.
One last thing Betty is my fave this season. She is the most unique and authentic character in Television history, in all dramas really.
peggyann- agreed with your post of 10/13 1:46 pm. I think that Daddy Willy would like to get it on with Don...and his own daughter. I thought it very intrusive for him to walk in on them when they were in bed. What father would walk in on his partially covered but nude daughter and some guy that he just met and who is also nude and barely covered with the sheets....All I can say is, "Run Don, Run!"
I agree with the theory that Don misses Betty. He saw her everywhere. Even in Joy. She had the look of betty, even the mannerism..."The sex was great, the book boring" that is something Betty would totally say. Also did anyone else notice the wine drinking, we all know Betty loves her glass of wine. Then when Don sees the Kids, I think he knows what he has back home, and is using them as a safety net. Right now he is trying to find himself. That person he called could be a close friend or a relative, we dont know. I do know is that those people were not "Dons people" he seemed a bit bored with them towards the end, and when he noticed how intimately Joy and her Father were, he was somewhat turned off. Don really needs to get it together. All I have to say is that if he indeed went with RACHEL to LA last season, I think he would have been a manwhore also, thus making Rachel regret their affair. I think its over between them. Now he is starting to see Betty eveywhere, not Rachel anymore.
If anyone has already posted this, I apologize, but does anyone think that the person "Dick" called might be that "mentor" guy (forget his name) from the fur company that taught him all about how to sell (Don mentioned him in "The Wheel")? Maybe he and Don/Dick have been communicating ever since, all this time (just because we haven't seen it in epis, it still could have been going on) and that man is now living in California? Not any more far fetched than anything else I've seen on the show lately! lol
This is my favorite show and cannot believe how addicted I've become. After each episode I get on this sight to read the comments of my fellow MM addicts ...343 so far, amazing.
1st of all I was born in '62, so it's fun to see what was going then. Anyhow, my thoughts after last night:
This whole episode had me nuts! The ending comments of Don to the person on the phone as Dick Whitman..what? Reminded me of my respond in the ending of No Way Out with Kevin Costner. All along in that movie, Kevin was portrayed as someone else and in the end was the very one everyone was looking for: a spy.
Before the presentation, Pete and Don were at the bar and Pete had mentioned something about the Russians making men like robots fit for space and Don just smirked. The scene at the pool and the table, everyone looked so familar to Don's life...a woman as Bobbie Barett and the man as Jimmy,, Joy as Betty, a woman like Midge and the whole scene as her friends... the madness of it all. Then the little boy who I believed played a young Dick, was as sad looking when the Hobo came passing by. I think the person on the phone was the Hobo, he was the only one in young Dick's life who ever spoke some truth to him.
The luggage at the door. Who knows what will be inside... in the last few episodes Betty has been rummaging through everything to find any hints of Don's infidelities.. maybe she'll find a whole suitcase full and more.
I don't know, what I do know is the writers of this show are geniuses (sp?) and the last minutes I'm left with .. what????
I was concerned for Don - if these people have evil intent, how is he going to get the hell out of there? Maybe that was the purpose of the Dick Whitman phone call. I really think they're out to rip him off or blackmail him somehow.
Looking ahead to next week, I wonder what Trudy's upset about. I don't like her - I don't think she cares for Pete at all and just married him because she wanted to be a wife and he was a "catch."
Auburn Annie Next time you Google, scroll down a bit. Most cities were not equipped to be able to direct dial long distance until into the 1970s.
The telephone industry made a United States "first" in the New Jersey communities of Englewood and Teaneck with the introduction of what is known now as Direct Distance Dialing. Starting on November 10, 1951, customers of the ENglewood 3, ENglewood 4 and TEaneck 7 exchanges (who could already dial New York City and area) were able to dial 11 cities across the United States, simply by dialing the three-digit area code and the seven digit number (which at the time consisted of the first two letters of the Exchange Name and five digits).
The 11 cities and their area codes at that time were:
* Boston, Massachusetts (617)
* Chicago, Illinois (312)
* Cleveland, Ohio (216)
* Detroit, Michigan (313)
* Milwaukee, Wisconsin (414)
* Oakland, California (415)
* Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (215)
* Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (412)
* Providence, Rhode Island (401)
* Sacramento, California (916)
* San Francisco, California (318) - San Francisco required the special area code 318 for temporary routing requirements[1]
Many other cities could not yet be included as they did not yet have the necessary switching equipment to handle incoming calls automatically on their long distance circuits.Other cities still had either a mixture of local number lengths or were all still six-digit numbers; Montreal and Toronto, Canada, for example, had a mix of six- and seven-digit numbers from 1951 to 1957, and did not have DDD until 1958. Whitehorse, Yukon, had seven-digit numbers from 1965, but the necessary switching equipment was not in place locally until 1972.
Atlanta gets direct dialing, 1960!Long distance phone calls are made without a second thought nowadays. I have a very reasonably priced cell phone plan that allows me to converse with my brothers, who live a long ways from me, for no added charge. You can buy cards in convenience stores that give you long distance for pennies a minute. In fact, international calls have gotten cheap. And many take advantage of Skype and similar services to talk to friends and relatives all around the world for next to nothing.
But go back to the 60's, and many of us were having to speak to an operator to make a call outside our immediate area. And those calls didn't come cheaply, either.
The first direct-dial long distance phone call was made in 1951 when the mayor of Englewood, NJ called the mayor of Alameda, CA. Before that, most long-distance calls required an operator at both the calling AND receiving end.
But AT&T launched the direct dial system, which necessitated the adoption of area codes, and the long distance operator began a slow but sure path to extinction.Operators in action, circa 1955
Once upon a time, you will recall, you began your long distance call by dialing 0. When the operator answered, you told her (most of the time, although male operators have existed since the early days) what number you wished to dial, in what city, and what method you preferred. Your choices were person-to-person (expensive, but if your party was unavailable, free) or station-to-station (cheaper, but a voice, ANY voice, on the other end meant the meter began ticking).
Of course, the person-to-person method allowed imaginative individuals to communicate free of charge. Placing a call to "Joe S. Aboy" would announce the gender and name of a newborn free of charge to a relative in Minnesota circa 1965.
By the 1970's, most of the country was capable of dialing directly, although many chose to do it the old fashioned way. I recall AT&T running many commercials about the reduced cost of 1+ long distance in the early years of that decade.
My thrifty father picked up on the new technology early in the game, insisting that in the unlikely event that a long distance call WAS necessary, it must be made by dialing directly. We were on a party line in Centerton, Arkansas when it finally made it to our home, and the operator would ask you what number you were dialing from, and that was the end of the dialog. After that, you had your own direct long distance connection, "untouched by human hands" (as a local potato chip maker liked to advertise about their wares).
So if you remember JFK, there's a good chance you also recall when a long distance call meant dialing 0, instead of 1.
Someone mentioned above that Don was not wearing his wedding ring in this episode. Don hasn't worn a wedding ring in a long time. In fact, I'd have to go back to season 1 to see if he wore it there. Anybody know? He didn't even wear it when he was not separated.
Also, I do believe as soon as he got to LA, he became Dick Whitman. He left Don Draper behind in NY. Notice this is the first time he had a sexual encounter without telling the girl he was married. Before the women always knew. In fact, he interrupted his first kiss with Rachel just to tell her he was married. That way they know right off the bat that he is a liar and a cheat. Let's face it; Don doesn't really have a high opinion of himself like he may portray to the rest of the world. He is Don Draper when he is married to Betty so he must perpetuate these lies. But when he becomes Dick Whitman, he is not, in his mind, married to Betty (after all Betty has no idea Dick Whitman even exists). He is, for all intents and purposes, a single guy free to have sex with anyone he chooses.
I think Pete sent the suitcase to on's house. Pete knows they are separated and probably heard Don went off with Joy. Slick Pete was just to cool when he came back to work.
There was no reason for him and Don not to have come back together. Pete is acting like he did when he took Don's box from his brother.
As for the foreigners, they were just rich trust fund junkies who reminded Don of his days as a boy staying at the Whitman brothel. Remember, he was raised with prostitiutes and moraless people so why not jump in and have some fun.
Has anyone noticed how in every affair except the first one, it seems as if Don is being raped. It's like he gets women hot and gets all coy like he is the girl. Bobby, Joy especially.
I loved last nights episode, so much going on. I have to agree with soflaKate. Don's new friends just see him as an handsome amusing plaything to be enjoyed until they tire of him. These people are clearly living the hippie lifestyle that became popular a few years after 62: Free love , sex with no strings attached, drugs. This crowd is early hippies not grifters. I think Don is way out of his league with them. When Don made the comment that they must be rich and was ignored proved that.
What was strange though was Pete did not look for Don and he went back to New York without him. Doesn't matter if they don't like each other, I would still expect him to be concerned.
Again I think that Mad Men stepped out of their time when Kurt freely admitted he was gay. All he got was some snickers and shocked expressions and then everyone laughed it off. Just like the previous episode when the interracial couple were accepted. Not 1962 behaviour.
Visan, I believe as long as he is Dick Whitman and not Don Draper, he will whore around as you say. He is only married when he is Don Draper. As soon as he got to LA, he became Dick Whitman, a single man free to have sex with whomeve he chooses.
I think Don hanging out with this group of nomads is reminicent of his time with the bohemians and that woman we saw him have his first affair with: trying on a different lifestyle for size and not fitting in. That, or Don realizes he can't do whatever he wants like travel aimlessly around the world. He does have a family and a prestigious job, but if he could escape, maybe it would be to become Dick Wittman again.
jamm, I also think the jet setters were going to give Dick more drugs when that one guy, supposedly a doctor, had a syringe in his hand. But Dick refused. I say Dick because I think he left Don and Don's entire life behind in NY and became Dick as soon as he got to LA.
I agree with "JENDALSSAN": I was waiting all week for the show, and feel like I only saw half an episode. The rest was a story with too many new "who-gives-a-hoot?" characters. I thought the California episode was going to be alot of fun!
What a disappointment.
This week's "Entertainment Weekly" issue revealed that John Slattery is married to the actress playing "Mona" in real life.
With Don, it was all "reaction" shots - no scences of him throwing toy robots across the kitchen (one of my all-time favorite DD scaenes).
The scene with Sal's "reaction", about Kurt, was my favorite part of the episode. Yes, homosexuality at t
Now...who is Miss Babushka and what does this mean?
I also predict a very nasty divorce for Rog.
What hotel are they at? The Bev Hills Hotel? I just stayed there in April and the pool looks familiar, but if it is, they obviously had to set it back a bit, especially the valet and front entrance.
Don just saw the future — "total annihilation" — and decided Palm Springs with a hottie was not such a bad idea.
My wife predicts Don's being grifted.
“Why would you deny yourself something you want?”
Oh if ever there was a wrong question for the wrong person! Don denies himself nothing and even though he lectured Pete about staying focused on work (“You want to be on vacation, Pete? Cause I can make that happen") he decides to go to Palm Springs with the random woman he met at the bar. Poor Pete was left in the lurch.
Don just grows women. People are forever trying to figure him out.
Don isn't wearing his wedding ring.
"I'm Joy" - she sure is for Don...
I like that grifting idea, greensweater. For once, Don looks out of his element and weak. Cally, back then and still a little, is a totally different world than what we're used to on the East Coast (just got back after a month so no disrespect!). Hope he makes it out! He's a PW'd fool!
Nice of him to abandon Pete so he could go off on his little mini-vacay..
I think "grifted" is a possibility. These foreigners who have no jobs seem a tad suspicious, like a band of poseurs living off others. Very odd. I must admit, seeing Don blow off work seems weird. Unless he looked at all this talk of missles and decided it was a foolish errand.
Is that the entire female population of this board I hear screaming/melting?
:))))))))
P
errrr....I think Don is having a dream. There's something eerily dreamlike about it.
Those people seem very weird, I think Don is going to get into alot of trouble with this girl! I get bad vibes. Don is so damn stupid he put pleasure before business its the other way around. I love the fact he made pee brain stay with the business partners and refuse to let him have fun! yeah don on that part!LOL
Don between the sheets! That BODY!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, Don't experience did seem dreamlike.
Poor Sal. That "I knew queers existed but I don't want to work with them" comment from Ken must've made him so uncomfortable.
The actors' accents are horrific this episode! But Don naked makes up for it!!!
Lame Duck fell off the wagon!!!!
and Duck falls of the wagon ...
good to see how focused on work the men of Sterling Cooper are this episode
Oops, they finally slipped up…
As best I can tell, the convertible Joy was driving is a 1963 Mercedes 230SL. But according to the shows time line it’s August or September of ’62 and that car wasn’t even introduced to the public until March of ’63, a full six months later. Gotcha!
I totally think Don's getting grifted... and Duck's a bastard.
queer eye for the straight girl?
Finally, someone told Peggy about those damn bangs!!!
OMG Peggy's ponytail is history!!!!
I'm sooo happy to see the SC crew getting face time!! They deserve it!!!
Eh, and didn't that guy drop his accent when he said, "it's okay, it's good"?
Yah, poor Sal. He was so upset.
Every girl must have that gay best friend who'll tell you your style sucks! Really!!!
Hey Visan, I have the inside dope from someone who slept with John Hamm.
"It's OK... I am very good!"
He cuts his boyfriends hair... or he was at beautican before... that was funny... Peggy didn't look as horrified as most gals c.1962 would have been...
P
Did they use the word "homosexual" then? I thought it was referred 'queers' or 'gay'? Any feedback? Don's hair looks weird! For once, he turns me off, I only like him in the 'strong man' position~I know, I'm fickle!
Okay Mcmere ... spill! That's totally cruel to throw that comment out there and leave us hanging (no pun intended)
seriously, what's the inside dope?
McMere: That's between Mr. Hamm and whomever! I'll stick to lusting after him in Don Draper mode!
Is Don consorting with Russian spys?
joy is curiously similar to betty
Hi
first time comments here but I have been reading your board for the entire season. I am totally hooked.
side issue: Anyone else sick of the hotels.com commercial with the guys blowing straws into the bath tub?
back to the show. Don is an idiot to be getting wrapped up with that gang.
Don's gonna let his love for his kids get in the way of another romp!!
Okay, what's with the glass Don was staring at in the pool?
Duck is soooo going to get fired.
love peggy's do.
Peggy finally looks stylish! Thank God! She's a pretty girl and needs to show that more. Women with beauty and brains rock!!!
This young lady, a friend of another young lady who works for me, was his GF in college and for a while after. Now she's married, and whenever MM comes on, her husband asks her "Did you sleep with that guy?" She always replies "No, of course not." But, as an aside, she told my friend, "Of course I did, what am I? Crazy?"
don passed out right after the weirdos gave him a drink. something is going on
"Hello, It's Dick Whitman." Whoa!
More Don flesh!!!! To hell with them damn gray flannel suits! He should wear the least amount of clothes each show!! LOL!
I hate this episode.....
Who the crap did Dick Whitman just call???
Don sent his bag home. WOW!!
Don's got a contact in cali that know's him as Dick Whitman.....OMG
OHMIGOSH!
The shot of Don on the couch, with his LEFT arm over the couch .... like a reverse negative of the MM logo.
I love this show. I could just eat it with a spoon!
Absolutely no Self-Absorbed Bitch this episode!!! Fabulous!!!!! One of my favorite episodes evah for that reason alone!!!!
Dick Whitmen ?!?!
certainly opening some pretty large storylines
Stephanie Jo19 - The usage of "gay" started in the 70's. In 1962 that word wasn't used, or it wasn't in mainstream use.. Homosexuality was thought to be a psychological disorder then. "Queer" was insulting as was "fag" - but they were used, anyway!
Oh, I don't want to suffer through Don's/Dick's extended West Coast mid-life crisis.
So Don see's Someone whom looked EXACTLY like Peggy in the hotel bar. Then he's introduced to this group. While Joye is leaving for palm springs or some place , she speaks just like Betty. Then in the pool Joye 's eyes appear to be Betty's.
Peggy's hair doesn't appear very different, except the colour. Don has run away, for the moment... Now he Dick Whitman. Don's airline bag at the Door ... Damn this was a short episode. We all had better watch it again , probably missed it all.
Dick Whitmen ?!?!
certainly opening some pretty large storylines
Baffling episode. I don't think he sent his bag home. I think the airline lost it and then delivered to his home.
this episode was boring...hope they're building up to something good
Lucky Strike -- I think maybe the airline lost his luggage, or something happened with the hotel? Watching the rebroadcast now ....
Hello and HELP! I travel extensively for my company, and although I stay at nice locations - Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, I can't always get AMC - is there a way to download the full length of the CURRENT episodes and watch them on my laptop??!! The 3 minute snip-its from past episodes don't get me there with what's happening NOW! Please help!!
Don leaves Pete high and dry with the clients! I love it! Anything to get that guy. I love Don in casual clothes! How ironic that he would ask Joy "Who are you?" Did anybody think he was having that heart attack people have been predicting when he fainted at the pool? The gay guy giving Peggy a make-over; what a hoot! I love all the literature in bed. Duck is a real skunk; I guess it was a matter of time when he picked up with everybody shoving it in his face all the time. I guess he will finally get his comeuppance now. Advertising must have been like being a bartender and trying to maintain sobriety.Now, I know the closing song tonight,
"What'll I do?" sung by Johnny Mathis. I thought Don might have been calling home to talk to his kids except for that he was looking up the number. Who is he meeting? I love the way they said "Kurt is a homo" when Pete came back .
In the coming attractions, Don says to Betty that 'she made him do it' and I'm going back to her Dad telling Don that he has nobody. Now he feels that he has to account for some family, who Dick Whitman was calling.
Don leaves Pete high and dry with the clients! I love it! Anything to get that guy. I love Don in casual clothes! How ironic that he would ask Joy "Who are you?" Did anybody think he was having that heart attack people have been predicting when he fainted at the pool? The gay guy giving Peggy a make-over; what a hoot! I love all the literature in bed. Duck is a real skunk; I guess it was a matter of time when he picked up with everybody shoving it in his face all the time. I guess he will finally get his comeuppance now. Advertising must have been like being a bartender and trying to maintain sobriety.Now, I know the closing song tonight,
"What'll I do?" sung by Johnny Mathis. I thought Don might have been calling home to talk to his kids except for that he was looking up the number. Who is he meeting? I love the way they said "Kurt is a homo" when Pete came back .
My mother was born in 1949 and her mother named her Gay.
Yup, airlines lost his luggage, found it, and sent it to the house.
My mother was born in 1949 and her mother named her Gay.
I s Don being drugged by the exotic foreigners?There was some sort of residue in his glass
Did anyone notice one of the young kids looked exactly like Don as a child?????
Anybody remember how Betty said two episodes ago that 'she had a dream about luggage' or something? When she was on the phone with Don telling him about her father? Then the luggage shows up on the doorstep? Looks like Don's skipping town. Jesus! I thought seeing those kids were going to compel him to go back home. Also, good call on the grifters.
I must admit, while there were some excellent bombshells dropped, I found Don's interlude overlong. Anyone else think so? Rare criticism from me. However, it did strike me that Don the Moviegoer had stepped into one of his decadent foreign films from the early 60s.
I like how the Duck gets courage with the booze. Reminded me of that speech in the Lost Weekend Ray Milland delivers -- 'I'm Michaelangelo, molding the beard of Moses...I'm John Barrymore before movies got him by the throat.' Duck's clearly an artist when he soused.
Who'd Dick call? I'm guessing the woman at the car dealership.
I agree, those people Don met up with are trouble, and if he isn't careful, he is going to have more trouble than he ever imagined. It did seem odd he passed out after the 'strange drink' they gave him at the pool. I don't like this route they are taking Don down, but love to see him out of that suit! He may need this West Coast experience to bring things into perscpetive. Not sure. SO GLAD Peggy agreed to have that pony tail chopped off!!!
I have to agree that they jumped the shark on this episode. It was completely convoluted and contrived. I'm disappointed - well, except for the fact that someone finally cut Peggy's hair.
Elsie:
I closed my eyes momentarily when Joy was speaking to him--
and the intonation, cadence, everything was Betty. What's
up with that !!! MM creative?!
Don recognized that blonde at the hotel bar. She pretended she didn't see him.
NRG101, not sure. Try hulu.com.
Oh yeah, Betty's luggage dream!
Maybe Don had the mushrooms Jane was worried about and fell down the rabbit hole.
Yes, that was his lost luggage returned by the airline. He said his luggage was lost when they got to the hotel.
NRG101 - we can't help. You don't need to ask over and over.
I think Don is heading for trouble with his new friends.
The hotel looked like the Peninsula to me.
Don is off the deep end! What do you all think Joy's entourage is involved in? Talk about it at the the Mad Men Lounge Mad Men Forums.
MAYBE THAT was DONS WIFE AT THE BAR????
Had to get your attention
So what's that Don is drinking, absinthe?
I"m sorry so many found this episode boring .... I LOVED it!
The music in California was perfect, so dream-like. The colors, the style of the Palm Springs house, the clothes .... Don au naturel. This was truly one of the more scrumptious episodes.
I'll suffer through any phase Don/Dick is going through ... only it won't be suffering.
Didn't Peggy's hair look a lot redder after her makeover? Did he have some hair dye in his jacket?
Don has found hisself the real-life Hotel California. "Up ahead in the distance/ I saw a shimmering light/ My head grew heavy and my eyes grew dim/ I had to stop for the night." Oh, Don--he's in way over his head. These people could take him for all he's worth. Something very trippy is happening--Joy has Betty's voice EXACTLY.
Don didn't send his bag home, he never showed up at the hotel, so they shipped it to the address on the tags.....just think what Betty will think when she finds it. And Pete had to make his way home, not knowing whether Don had flown back on his own.
Don off on a lost weekend-ish fling with the international leisure crowd......I think he'll be brilliant, knowing his ability to take on a new persona at will.
I see Duck as a short-timer, SC will never let the Brits buy them out, even if Roger needs dough.
I also thought this episode was great! Don is so freaking handsome but looks so lame and goofy with these freedom riders! LOL
What does "jump the shark" mean?
Whoa, when Don got into the car she asked if he needed or wanted to get any of his things and he said NO.
Gosh, this really should be a nightly series, Darn AMC
Yes, the luggage is definitely a recurring motif.
I was wondering what Betty meant in last weeks's episode when she called Don at his hotel room to tell him that her
father had suffered a stroke, and prefaced that news with the remark that she'd dreamt of a 'suitcase'.... I assumed it was some reference to something in the first season (which I still haven't seen), Does anyone remember or know or want to hazard a guess at to what she meant by that somewhat cryptic remark? TIA
Actually, the use of the term "gay" was common way before the sixties....even Cole Porter used to use it in songs in the 1930s (he did a song about why George Raft's bull wouldn't sire: "Georgie's bull is beautiful/ but he's gaY"). It was "code", though, so it would be more accurate to say that it didn't filter through to mainsteam culture until the 1970's.
What is the tune playing when Don sees the Betty look-a-like from behind at the bar?
I'm female and the "Don naked" comments are just embarrassing. Is that all it takes for some of you to watch?
I've been telling everyone about this show and tonight it hit rock bottom. I'm sorry I recommended it. Jane made a reference to taking "magic mushrooms" at the beginning, and I think somehow the mushrooms invaded the whole episode.
I agree with producer bonnie. I think the writers took the week off and gave us crap. Give us back our show.
NRG101, as a guess try .tvchannelsfree.com
It is a scam - drugged at the pool...the strange beat when Don assumed out loud that they were wealthy...the weird interchange when the old geezer comes into Joy and Don's bedroom ("oh, he's beautiful", followed by her "Papa, ne touches pas"). Yes, the kid at the pool did look like a young Dick Whitman, that's when there's a noticeable change in Don's/Dick's demeanor. What name does he say on the phone? Phillip??
Download episodes on I-tunes
The question is who did he call that he knew the number and they answered? Seems like he has called before as Dick and we didn't know it. There seemed to be no surprise or drama on the other end because Don didn't react to anything. And what did he write down? Looked short whatever it was.
@NRG101: You can download every full-length episode of Mad Men on iTunes, although sometimes the latest episode isn't available for a day or two, sometimes longer.
C'mon guys....Peggy is now officially hot!!
Smarts and a great haircut.
I lost a bet though....would have bet everything they would have closed this episode with a Dylan song
I just thought of something
They gave him a drink and then,.,,
later, one of them says "Oh your wallet fell out" ...that's how they know he's in advertising...
Something is rotten in Denmark,
Heat exhaustion my ass! Don takes a drink from these people an 30 seconds later he passes out. WTF?!
Right on, JimK!
This episode did not keep my attention. It was too far out there. It was all over the place. I remember the previews thinking this was going to be a good show. What happened? I was very disappointed.
I loved this epi--very lyrical and poetic. Lots of mirroring. Roger and Don are mirroring each other's lives in being swept away by young dark-haired nymphets, but Roger is feeling the tentacles of civilization wrap around him more tightly while Don has the illusion at least of total liberation--he doesn't even have his things with him (though they're waiting for him at the house--symbol symbol symbol). Then there is all the Hitchcock-Vertigo business of Don seeing Betty everywhere he goes. And every woman is Betty, while Peggy turns out to be multiple women. And there's Duck on substances in NY paired with Don on substances in Cali.
If all these themes weren't clicking in, I'd still be totally grooving on the Eero Saarinen designs. Plastics, baby.
Someone mentioned that "What'll I Do" is sung in the Redford "Gatsby"--another work of art setting the old East against the young West, the past against the future.
I HEART this show!
i don't think the writers are going to take don out of the office for long, at least i hope not. the office setting is more entertaining. it's weird that don was attracted to joy-i don't think she's his type. In the past he has gone for the stronger, independent type. he usually has affairs with women who are very different from betty.
Yes very dreamlike..though I think Don is breaking out a bit, from what? Well don't know..but he likes it...and am curious...who did he call at the end..he called as himself..not Don..Hmmmm!!!
But gotta say...those Eurotrashers seemed a bit cartoony, bad casting or intentional?
I agree that this is the first time we have seen Don as a "fish out of water" and not the alpha male. He could be in trouble, but I think he will leave the Jet Setters and meet this person who knows him as Dick Whitman.( Not the woman in the car agency; she was looking for the real Don Draper.) The guy on the train who recognized him as Dick from the army is a possibility, but it could be someone we don't know. (He does have the person's phone number written down in his "little black book.") Remember that Don has blood pressure problems too, which could account for his passing out. I agree that the suitcase was sent by the airline and not by Don; also agree that the boy at the pool is the same actor who plays Don/Dick as a child.
Sorry for being dense, but is Self Absorbed B**ch supposed to be Betty? If so, I don't see her as self-absorbed. If it's someone else, whom?
This show is never boring. It's all in the dialogue. If Shakepeare was a 21st century guy and he was writing screenplays for TV..this is what he would be writing. The best dialogue ever...even when the scene seems irrelevant (of course, it never is). To all the writers....YOU ARE THE BEST/
What’s with all this Jump the shark talk?
It appears my prediction from last week that the show would begin to change and many of you wouldn't hang with it may be coming true. I knew it! People get out of your shark tanks! This was one of the best episodes ever. They've opened up tons of new directions for storylines. Not to mention we're finally going to get some answers about Dick Whitman.
Peggyann, perhaps, but recall she knew he wasn't Don Draper -- and it was pretty clear he wasn't going to convince her otherwise.
tamtam, that's what I thought about the luggage, too -- when Don didn't turn up, they sent it home.
Visan, I figured you'd love this one. While I love Big D and his character is the most compelling, his companions were incredibly boring and self-indulgent. I actually found the Duck's plotline more compelling than Don's. Never thought I'd say that.
Loved that Peggy got the makeover. She looked good. Poor Sal. At least five more years in the closet for him.
Dr. D, "jump the shark" refers to an episode of Happy Days, when Fonzie announces that he is going to jump (on water skis) over a shark or sharks. In TV parlance, it is used to mean a show has run out of ideas and has proceeded to the ludicrous.
Does anyone think Don is being wrote out of the Mad Men script in order to pursue his "silver screen" career?
You can tell how bad this episode was by the lack of comments. Last week they were burning up the board, this week - meh.
The glass Don was staring at at the end had a crack in it. I wonder why that prompted him to make the phone call as Dick? I loved this episode! Lots of new plots and stories to follow. I say Don ends up opening a west coast division of SC! California is perfect for him. Lots of people floating about with bizarre pasts.
DR. D — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark
Someone here was asking about the music during the
hotel lounge scenes. It was so familiar to me as well, but
couldn't quite place it. I'm going to make a wild stab and
say it's the score, written by ______ ????? for Lawrence
of Arabia, and just to quell my curiosity googling LoA to see
when it came out.... 1963? So what year does this episode purportedly take place? Someone upthread said 1962.....
Well, I gotta say I hated the whole California part of this episode - I thought Don was a jerk to ditch Peter Dykeman Campbell after telling him he had to work and not play - I did not like that group of "nomads" at all - that whole scene is going to come back and bite him in the seat of his white boxers. Then, of course, we get the whole "Hello, this is Dick Whitman" scene, and I guess that made everything all better.
I refuse to even acknowledge Roger and his little poet in bed together - I hope Mona gets it all.
I always love the office scenes so much and tonight we had some good ones, didn't we?
Poor Sal - I wanted to just throw my arms around him - anything to shield him from that world of hurt that was thrown all over him. But, on the other hand, now he knows he is not alone in the office. I bet Ken gets his lighter back post haste!
I am getting really worried about Paul and Sheila.
Finally, let us all raise a glass in memory of Peggy's late, unlamented ponytail - not you, Duck, you've obviously had enough - here, have a donut!
This storylines in this episode seemed shorter. This episode pissed me off as well because why would Don be cooped up with these weird ass people that talk in codes right in front of him. I can't understand why Don is doing this. I hope Betty leave him for good he is really a true man slut. In all I love the hell out of this show and always will!! Also, Poor Sal he looked like he wanted to choke at the damaging comments.
This episode was kinda trippy. Love the Palm Springs modern house! Awesome to see Don there in 60's casual. Most importantly Don between the sheets! He's like a fish out of water though w/the jet setters.
Spys? I don't think so. These people have always existed. People of this kind of wealth are used to getting what they want and how they want it. I think Joy made that clear. Her dad checking in on them in bed was a bit creepy though!
I knew Kurt was gay! I loved how matter of fact he was! I'm glad that he and Peggy are becoming buds. She so needed a gay man's touch on her style!
Came in late from helping out a friend. Just getting to watch encore presentation. So far lovin' it!! Don fits in soooo well with these group of nobodys. I'm sure everyone is who they'd like to be. I don't think they're grifters but there are always that set of people who seem to go to the best places & stay at the best hotels without ever worrying about paying. They hook up with just the right realtor or celebrity who has connections & sweet talk right into hanging out with them.
NRG101: e-mail me at: catpants2@msn.com about catching you up...... I'm Susan~~
Oldfashioned, you are right - Betty told Don last week that she had been having a dream about luggage when she was on the phone with him telling him about her father's stroke.
This episode was awful. My respect for Don slipped several notches - leaving work to go dilly dally with a girl almost young enough to be his daughter. He looked like Roger Sterling, making love to a child. She wasn't even pretty, just kind of cute. Her speech pattern was just like Betty's, which made it all the creepier. Then there was the Betty lookalike at the bar.
Besides the sexual cavorting, it seems obvious Don is being set up by these people. The dad of Joy, the supposed Viscount, has an accent that comes and goes and these people don't spend much time in one place.
Writers, please spare us any more romantic scenes with Jane and Roger - looks like she's in bed with her father. Disgusting.
Duck is going to end up with nothing. Somehow, Roger will come out of this unscathed, I predict.
Sal's reaction to Kurt's pronouncement that he was a homosexual (acceptable word at the time, despite what some people have posted) was priceless, as was his response to Cosgrove's line about working with "queers." Poor Sal! Such a gentle soul and there he is in the lion's den.
I think Peggy's friendship with Kurt will great for her. Tonight he changed her look - next week maybe he'll give her some self-confidence.
Very disappointing episode overall. First time I've regretted spending an hour with this show.
GOT THE PLOT
Check out the story line in the book Joy was reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_and_the_Fury
""The family falls victim to those vices which Faulkner believed were responsible for the problems in the reconstructed South: racism, avarice, selfishness, the psychological inability of individuals to become determinants. Over the course of the thirty years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically.""
NOTICE, the TV was showing the news of Kennedy's solution to segregation in the schools? Racism is in the book, and so is DON life.
Rich
GOT THE PLOT
Check out the story line in the book Joy was reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_and_the_Fury
""The family falls victim to those vices which Faulkner believed were responsible for the problems in the reconstructed South: racism, avarice, selfishness, the psychological inability of individuals to become determinants. Over the course of the thirty years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically.""
NOTICE, the TV was showing the news of Kennedy's solution to segregation in the schools? Racism is in the book, and so is DON life.
Rich
Thanks, McMere. I don't know how I missed that expression before.
I missed the part when Duck was in a meeting with the business people. He has a nerve to do a business deal that dont exist! He is going to get his ass chewed for this one. Oh man! If Roger and Bert only knew what was thrown at the table. No partner deal for him. Sneaky bastard!
I really hated this episode. I was waiting all day to see this and then it felt like a let down.
I hate the sex scene with Joy. I didn't see an ounce of chemistry with those two.
I'm with you Visan. The dreamlike pace had me hypnotized but in a good way. Well a lot of that was Jon Hamm too. :)
I don't know about the grifting thing. That just seems too obvious.
I felt so bad for Sal. Horrible to have to stand there being called a pervert by the guy he has a crush on.
Nice touch with Johnny Mathias (who's gay) doing the closing song. Someone else mentioned the song being in one of the Gatsby movies and Don is a definite Gatsby-like character.
Jetan: The music prior to his seeing the Betty lookalike was "Miserlu". Then when he saw her the music was "Song of India" the same song that played on Valentine's Day when he and Betts were at the Savoy Hotel.
Hey vermillion, I didn't think what Don saw in his glass was a residue...I thought it was a crack and it was meant to symobolize Don's realization that the whole scene, while seemingly perfect, was in fact flawed in some kind of profound way.
Anyway, anyone pick-up on the music? The theme that kicks in when he sees Joy in slo-mo on her way to get her car is a slowed-down, dreamy version of Miserlou...the 60s surf guitar classic by Dick Dale made famous (again) in Pulp Fiction. Awesome.
Hi all! Does anyone know what this episode's (The Jet Set) music is -- the cocktail/Oriental- sounding music that seems to follow Don around in L.A.? Any help would be appreciated!
The accents in this episode were so grating. The only one I knew to be genuine was Charles Shaughnessy's, but by that point I had to pause the TV and just groan aloud at the aural fruit salad in this episode.
But anyway, Don is taking this running away stuff too far. He's going to find out the hard way what happens to people who run away from all their cares and responsibilities when he gets in too deep with these "nomads". It feels like they're all having a lying contest and trying to see which of them can see through the others first (those folks went through his wallet - not sure where that will lead).
What's even worse is that Don's running away is making Pete Campbell look like the most upstanding person currently employed at Sterling Coo!
Seeing that suitcase left at the Drapers' front door gave me a chill - reminded me of that casket left at the train station last season.
Question: in the scene with Don/Dick and Joy in bed when Papa comes in...who is he saying is "beautiful", Don or Joy...I don't know French so, can someone please translate what she remarked to her father. Something like...Papa - don't touch? maybe?
Okay, no one's responding to my grab at the music being
the score from Lawrence of Arabia, but it was definitely
'exotic' and definitely schmaltzy in the grand tradition of old
Hollywood scoring.....So what was it??! Brazil ??? Dance of the Seven Veils ??!!! It's a clue.... just like Telstar was foreshadowing. ;-)
Who else recognized Don Draper in that shot from the
Day the Earth Stood Still trailer ? Hmmm Jon Hamm...... or
Michael Rennie (sp?). Seems the 're-makers' have taken alot
of liberties with the original movie. Looks more like The War of the Worlds, than the other.
sooo someone thinks JH is being written out, as he's embarking to greener pastures. Maybe he should talk to Dave Caruso first....... (Just joking, I think Hamm is more
versatile/talented than DC, but that's just my opin......
I've been watching MM from the beginning and this is the 1st time that I've said this about an episode: what a piece of crap. However, I think it may be a little early to post my comments on jumptheshark.com, although several viewers have already done so. I'm hopeful that the remaining two episodes will make up for this one. Many of the positive posts on this thread seem to mention Don half-naked and back in the sack. It's too bad that's enough for some of you.
I'm confused - in the last scenes when they were in the pool. Before Don's stares at his drink..... she says looks like someone doesn't want to sleep..... did she swim away from Don and screw her father??????!?!!?!?!?!? Who was that other couple in he pool?
Looks like the posting is going out of sequence again. I'll try this again.
Question: in the scene with Don/Dick and Joy in bed when Papa comes in...who is he saying is "beautiful", Don or Joy...I don't know French so, can someone please translate what she remarked to her father. Something like...Papa - don't touch? maybe?
these people Don is chilling with in Palm Springs are strange.
but it's becoming a pattern in Don's life.
As a child Don met that hobo guy, then he hooked up with the beatnik chick and her friends and now he's with these people who also reject conventional life.
What strikes me as the dominant theme of this show is the struggle between conforming or rejecting society.
It should be easy to dislike Don for cheating on his wife all the time but this struggle and confusion cause empathy for him.
this was a great episode.
the drama between the characters is almost secodnary in this series.
In my opinion it's just used to help the viewer focus on something while the main, complex ideas are slowly formed.
just a speculation, maybe I'm pulling these ideas out on my own.
Who the hell were those people!?! I agree with the others who said this episode was strangely paced. Don's day in paradise was slow and seductive and the office stuff was cathartic and premature. Still Cant Wait for the next episode.
OH and how much would it suck if Duck becomes President. Don needs to get his shit together. I miss when he made his killer pitches...
hese people Don is chilling with in Palm Springs are strange.
but it's becoming a pattern in Don's life.
As a child Don met that hobo guy, then he hooked up with the beatnik chick and her friends and now he's with these people who also reject conventional life.
What strikes me as the dominant theme of this show is the struggle between conforming or rejecting society.
It should be easy to dislike Don for cheating on his wife all the time but this struggle and confusion cause empathy for him.
this was a great episode.
the drama between the characters is almost secodnary in this series.
In my opinion it's just used to help the viewer focus on something while the main, complex ideas are slowly formed.
just a speculation, maybe I'm pulling these ideas out on my own.
The call - whoever he called knows him as Dick Whitman AND knows he didn't die in Korea.
Was anyone able to see what the paper says when he rips the page out of the book at the very end? Or is it purposefully blurry?
Roszie, she said "ne touche pas" (don't touch).
we have "life is a tale told by an idiot" Don/versus "what"ll I do" Betty
I think many of us are disappointed because there were just too many new characters in the show. We don't care about these people and it felt like we got robbed from spending our evening with our Mad Men folks.
Just my opinion
I think it's interesting that when Don sees the Betty look-alike in the bar, an upbeat version of "Song of India" is playing, just as it was on Valentine's Day when Betty came down the stairs at the Savoy.
i agree with bc. the show's original focus on problems at work/home is the main reason i started watching. although i didn't care for this episode, i will continue to be a faithful viewer in hopes that MM will return to roots
bttblg and Madchen: I called it...the music is Dick Dale's Miserlou, slowed down and given the psychedlic-lounge treatment.
Can someone tell me what's up with the suitcase at the door?
mcmere- R u in St. Louis too? Jon Hamm went to Burroughs here and then studied acting at Mizzou (GO TIGERS!) 4 anyone who is not from St. Louis, the most common question no matter where you are from is,"Where did you go to high school?"
Jon was 4 years behind me in school so I didn't really know him. Too bad. He's was a cutie then too!
Remember that the person on the other end of the phone call knows Don as Dick AND knows he didn't die in the war...
Thank you !! Was There :-) Song of India and Miserlu.
Well Miserlu is Greek folk music long before the Surfers ratched it up. ..... am forever confusing Song of India with
Brasil ..... lol.....
That may have been a Saarinen interior, but that was a Bertoia chair (had the bright red wool covering --- in the background
as he's dialing as Dick Whitman. Dick Whitman is a name from early century americana, isn't it? It's also a double entendre on Wit-man.... and he's certainly that.
Did any of you notice how much Joy resembles and speaks like Betty?
Something is funky about the posts tonight...
Amazing posts so far.
In the final scene of the preview Don is at a parking area from what I can tell. It looks like two sailors walking down the sidewalk. San Diego...maybe?
I had a sick feeling that Joy and entourage are sophisticated "Euro-trash" grifters. The scene at the hotel when the Viscount introduces Joy to Don seemed like a set up. One question: who was the man with the two young children by the pool? I missed the first minute of that scene. Also, the Viscount indicated he was Joy's father. But Joy is soooo American. That whole crowd rang false to me. This episode of MM was just so baffling, I don't know what to think.
Jeri 18: These people Don has hooked up with remind me of people my date and I met at Regine's in NYC in the 1980's. There was a "so-called princess from South America" and her crowd that sat next to us on one of the couches. She was looking for her diamond that she dropped. They were ordering champagne like it was going out of style. On the drive home, my date told me that they charged everything to his bill!! I was furious for him, but he took it for what it was worth.
When Joy swam away from Don (as he stared at his drink) was that her across the pool screwing her father????!!!!! I am confused. Who was that couple? Where did Joy go?
Don's a spy. That's why he was visibly nervous when looking at that Russian map. "Dick Whitman" is code...for something. Cold war and all that. Any takers?
Roger seems to be happy to be with Jane because she makes him feel young and vibrant again. Peggy is one ugly girl but her appearence is better she needs to stay with this and never go back, she looks like a decent woman now. I posted three times now Im hitting the sack. Nice talking Madmen Family check in 2morrow!! Have fun
there is no way john hamm is leaving MM for a film career. that would be like gandolfini leaving sopranos
....Visan, you are so cool...
Ever heard of Mary Tyler Moore, JimK? Three shots in Dallas didn't finish that hairstyle, Farrah Fawcett did!
I really enjoyed this episode, even though I think because of the West Coast setting it perhaps was a jarring change of pace for many.
Honestly, being a New Yorker, Southern California always seems like such a surreal departure and the mood of the scenes there reminded me of the kind of startling culture shock I always experience there. I love Cali, but it's completely different and I've met a host of people who make the "nomads" look quite sane and in touch with reality!
My friend once described the difference as: "If New York is like the Flinstones, L.A. is like the Jetsons." Same premise; completely different set of references. So if anything went down in this episode that was bizarre, it was appropriate and credible.
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The d'Alsace clan, for all their laxed sexual mores, do not seem as happy go-lucky as one would believe. I feel like at the pool when the kids come in, we see the limits of their care-free lives. Their lack of boundaries clearly ruins healthy child-rearing. Here's some poor dad saddled with his kids and in the throes of a possibly haphazard divorce.
Honestly, Joy and family display a little bit of self-loathing from their self-absorbed existence.
I think when Don sees the kid who resembles young Dick, he's reminded of how he's basically abandoned his core persona as Dick by indulging Don Draper's reckless whims.
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Was not surprised by Kurt's revelation. I picked up on that in his first episode. Praise Jesus for that haircut, Peggy! Who did not sigh in relief at that?
Bryan Batt's quiet pain was so wrenching to watch. He does a great job.
__
I'm still trying to work out what gears were turning in Don's mind at the missile presentation. Someone enlighten me.
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Someone report NRG101 as a spammer, por favor!
re: Jane's magic mushroom comment--it's a reference to Alice in Wonderland, not a drug reference.
I thought this was an awesome episode--a lot of people are going for broke here. Risks are being taken. A lot of things happened in this episode.
@ reppmo... I think the glass Don was holding and staring at at the pool was cracked. but he could have been contemplating his next move.
Joy looks and sounds like Betty with her little girl voice but at one point at the pool she even had Betty eyes. So to me, in a sense Betty was all over the place tonight.
Those people Don is hanging out with are bad, Convenient that Joy is"21". Do you really think she is? But this could be the only time we see them.
This is not a crossroad...It's leading up to a huge cliffhanger!
These posts are out of order!! ugh!
JimK, I love that Mad Men's writers take us out of our comfort zone. I just don't like that they plopped us and Don down with boring, self-indulgent poseurs. As foolish as Midge's crowd was, those scenes had a real, narrative tug -- an energy. And the Hobo Don met was fascinating. These people were drips -- they made a sybaritic lifestyle look boring. How is that possible? First time in 24 episodes I felt disappointment in this show. Oh, well.
That said, I buy in to what people were saying about the 'dream like' state. I think McMere noted earlier about Don facing 'apocalypse' -- there is something to this. Don is always looking to 'the future,' and that slide presentation showed him a pretty awful future. This was post-apocalpyse Don, no-future Don.
Also, thanks to the people who pointed out that the little boy looked like Don as a child. He did.
As for Duck, I don't think he fails this time. I think he gets the deal done, and maybe even Pete tries to throw him over again.
I think it was music to lawrence pf Arabia 2 metaphors to think on
Nomad theme in lawrence of arabia
The emotionally moving and visually stunning biopic of a man blinded by his own ego and desire to be extraordinary, Lawrence of Arabia succeeds on all levels. Working with epic themes of fate, loyalty, diplomacy and war, David Lean weaves a complex tapestry of diametrically opposed motives which leaves Lawrence as a dark, blank shadow in the brightly-lit desert. Thoughts, dreams and needs remain barely touched in a film which explores his status as a catalyst and figurehead far more than the man himself. Thus the enigma of Lawrence survives unbreached. The amazing thing is that even with this largely successful attempt to distance the audience from the film (apart from a few characters like Sherif), Lean still forces you to care about Lawrence. No one wishes to end their time as a pawn of powers beyond their control, be they of human or god-like origin, yet the pain of betrayal wounds so much more deeply for Lawrence. Having fought constantly to rise above the limits of humanity, his destiny forced him to confront the desperate reality of his efforts. This is the tragedy that emerges from Lawrence of Arabia
Of sound and fury
Out, Out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5
When Macbeth learns of his wife's death, he cries out the above lines, which can be used as a clue to the meaning of the novel or to the structure of the novel. Certainly Faulkner plays with the idea that life is nothing but a shadow. The word shadow appears continually throughout Quentin's section, and it also occurs frequently throughout the rest of the novel.
The implication that life is a shadow is used also by Faulkner to suggest that the actions performed by modern man are only shadows when compared with the greater actions performed by men of the past—that modern man is only a shadow of a being, imperfectly formed and inadequate to cope with the problems of modern life. Man is forced to commit
I'd like to know what age group the writers are trying to appeal to with MM. Anybody have an opinion? I'm thinking it's a much older crowd (like 40's and 50's). My daughter is 24 and they lost her for good tonight. She will not watch anymore. She normally likes period pieces, like American Dreams, movies like Brideshead Revisited, etc. So it's not because the show takes place in 1962. She is disgusted with the Don character. She thinks he is the biggest jerk to ever walk the face of the planet.
I have to admit that he isn't that appealing to me anymore either. His looks just aren't enough, he needs to be more likeable. His sexual conquests are just outrageous and annoying. So he had a bad childhood, big deal. So did a lot of people and they don't go around treating the most important people in their lives (their wife and kids) like crap. Even in 1962. The only thing about Don I'm still curious about is who Dick Whitman is going to see. The name on the piece of paper looked like Ray somebody
However, I will continue to watch (at least for awhile) even without my daughter because I am interested in the other characters. Peggy looks great with her new hair, Duck seems to be trying to take over the company, the gay aspect, I hope Mona takes Roger to the cleaners, I can't wait for Joan to smack Jane over the head with that bottle of Tanqueray when she finds out Roger is marrying her, and of course I want to see more of Betty (my favorite character). But I'm not sure I want her with Don. She deserves much, much better than him.
Quentin's section focuses on the idea that modern people cannot exist long enough to see the end of the tragedy. For example, in classical tragedy, the hero (or protagonist) is killed in the final scene of the tragedy and has suffered for his mistakes. In contrast, in the modern world, humanity is not capable of existing throughout the entire tragedy. Therefore, even though Quentin might be considered the central character, his life must end halfway through the work. As a consequence, the question arises as to why the novel should continue if the main character is dead at the halfway mark. The answer lies in the fact that the remaining sections illustrate, support, and justify Quentin's decision to commit suicide. If he had lived, we see in the last two sections the unbearable world that he would have had to face. Essential to Faulkner's structure is the fact that Quentin represents the modern person who cannot cope with the problems that have to be faced in the course of a tragedy; he must end his life by merging with his shadow in the water beneath him.
Jason's section, the third section, is told in the simplest prose of the novel. Whereas Benjy's section presented the confusion of time and Quentin's presented the intricacies of the mind, Jason's section races along as it records the simple thoughts of a mean, nasty, amoral man—a man who makes no attempt to disguise
I enjoyed the episode. Don sits in the meeting, sees the possibility of total nuclear annihilation. Decides to live in the moment in case there is no tomorrow. I guess you could say these were common themes of the era for many. Didn't the 60's culture originate in California? Were some of the aspects of it taken from this type of Euro-trash jet-setters with enough money to live the way they wanted with no restrictions? Don was facing the sexually liberated woman to come--he seemed surprised when she shamelessly undressed in front of him and took the top position over him. He did seem on some sort of chemical thru the whole experience. Yes, I loved seeing him with fewer clothes on! It was definitely "California Dreamin'"..
It would have been very shocking to announce your homosexuality back then! I don't remember it even being discussed! My only experience up to that point was a creepy man in a movie theatre fondling himself and sticking his foot thru the seat of a neighbor boy I was with and rubbing his backside with his foot. We didn't even know enough to complain to someone since we didn't understand what was going on....we just moved to another seat.
I love that Duck is the villain of this show.
I'm even more curious now after reading some of the posts. Is there anyone out there watching this show who is in their 29 or younger? Because they lost my 24 yr old daughter tonight for good. She won't be watching anymore.
You aren't paying attention Jim K. (I'm guessing you're not Black.) That so-called "civil rights stuff" you speak of had been going on all over the country since the 1950s and if you know what to look for, you'll see hints of it in damn near every episode of Mad Men. Take tonight for example when Pete gets back from his trip. The scene where everyone is in the office gathered around the TV when he arrives with oranges. If you listen closely you can hear the news story on the TV of James H. Meredith, the first African-American to enroll in the University of Mississippi on October 1, 1962. 3000 National Guardsmen and 400 U.S. Marshalls with rifles and tear gas were called in to stop the rioting. More than 200 students were also involved. It was a pretty big deal. Last week there was the bus leaving NY going to Mississippi to register voters. The show is littered with these kinds of historical civil rights moments. No need to wait for next season.
Quentin's section focuses on the idea that modern people cannot exist long enough to see the end of the tragedy. For example, in classical tragedy, the hero (or protagonist) is killed in the final scene of the tragedy and has suffered for his mistakes. In contrast, in the modern world, humanity is not capable of existing throughout the entire tragedy. Therefore, even though Quentin might be considered the central character, his life must end halfway through the work. As a consequence, the question arises as to why the novel should continue if the main character is dead at the halfway mark. The answer lies in the fact that the remaining sections illustrate, support, and justify Quentin's decision to commit suicide. If he had lived, we see in the last two sections the unbearable world that he would have had to face. Essential to Faulkner's structure is the fact that Quentin represents the modern person who cannot cope with the problems that have to be faced in the course of a tragedy; he must end his life by merging with his shadow in the water beneath him.
Jason's section, the third section, is told in the simplest prose of the novel. Whereas Benjy's section presented the confusion of time and Quentin's presented the intricacies of the mind, Jason's section races along as it records the simple thoughts of a mean, nasty, amoral man—a man who makes no attempt to disguise
wasthere I guess I should watch "Heartbreakers" with Ray Liotta & Sigourney Weaver again. Although "the Grifters" is playing on Universal HD channel.
As kooky as some of the things were in this episode, there is definitely something BIG coming up out of left field!
Best line: Roger to Duck:"Everyone thinks you're a fine fellow, but if I were you, I'd go out there & make rain".
Runner up Joy to Don:"Why would you deny yourself something you want". So much meaning said in that one line.
As for Jon Hamm on the couch just before making the phone call. The man's been working out!!! Maybe it's all the love scenes he's has to shoot?! LOL
I'm a little confused. When they were at the pool and Joy said the "someone looks like they don't want to sleep" when Don gave their room away.... she swam away and he stared at his glass. Did she go to her father and mess around?? Who was that other couple in the pool???? Where did Joy go? WOW incest too?!?!? What an epi
It's too bad the posts are out of order. Everyone has an interesting opinion on tonight's episode.
Loved this episode! A few theories and responses:
Grifters? What would they con him out of? Unless they think he's loaded rather than merely successful. I think they just see him as an amusing plaything to be enjoyed for a week or so and then tossed aside.
I believe that the person Don called as Dick Whitman is the person he mailed the book of essays to at the beginning of the season.
I know a lot of people here hate Duck but I like him. Nice to see he'e's finally growing a pair.
(Speaking of which, won't Roger have fun when he learns Don's real name? "Dick, Duck - Duck, Dick.")
This is my first time to write . . . I love this show, however, this episode was sub-par. No one commented on that too long slide show scene in the space presentation. I switched back to catch the score of the Dodgers/Phillies game which was opposite in my location.
I love this show because I was 27 in 1962. I just wrote a jazzy song about this time with lines like:
Kids ate their Pop-Tarts/Washed down with our dregs/We had bloody Mary's and scrambled eggs! Betty Crocker is not allowed to scream/That's what it's all about!
In an earlier show on the summer episode reruns, I just about flipped when I saw Don's daughter pouring the vodka in the glass and adding that little bit of
Libby's tomato juice.
Thanks Matthew!
This smells like a 'jump the shark' ep. after last week, i'm dissapointed.
Didn't Don give Dick Whitman's age to Joy? 36, I think. Don Draper is older than that, isn't he. So, was Don being Dick this whole episode? And, I am thinking that the person he called might be the one he sent the book to.
Has any one read the sound and fury
If so what do you think of this Don is like quenton
All of Quentin's actions are only shadows of real actions, and unlike a tragic protagonist who loses his life at the end of the drama, Quentin takes his life at the mid-point in the novel. The implication is that modern man cannot bring himself to cope with the problems of the final act of the drama and destroys himself in the middle of the drama. Quentin's final act is that of jumping into the river, where his shadow rises from the water below to meet him.
Loved this episode! A few theories and responses:
Grifters? What would they con him out of? Unless they think he's loaded rather than merely successful. I think they just see him as an amusing plaything to be enjoyed for a week or so and then tossed aside.
I believe that the person Don called as Dick Whitman is the person he mailed the book of essays to at the beginning of the season.
I know a lot of people here hate Duck but I like him. Nice to see he'e's finally growing a pair.
(Speaking of which, won't Roger have fun when he learns Don's real name? "Dick, Duck - Duck, Dick.")
I agree with greensweater and everyone else who thinks Don is gonna get grifted. All that flattery--- asking Don "Are you an actor?...blah blah blah" from that "viscount" asshole with the rotten accent!
Wonder what that "Dr." had in that hypo???
This show is continually a cut above every other series on tv. To me, its not even close. This episode took on a strange, David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) type quality; I completely agree with the 'grifting' aspect of it.
Humor in this episode...
Don's tearing out the last page of the book Ms. Euro-Trash was still reading....(giggle). (He wrote the address of whomever he was talking to on the phone down--saying he didn't bring it with him).
Roger's comment to Duck: "Did you get me something...?" (After Duck's fawning announcement that (their) 2-year anniversary (together) was coming up).
Roger's question to Duck: "Is this as solid as American Airlines?"
Joan's comment to Duck when she brought in the crate of Tanqueray that she'd already opened..."Mr Crane opened this by mistake..."
On another note, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that one could make a long distance call in 1962 without going through the AT&T Long Distance Operator. And I'm pretty sure that 3-digit area codes weren't in play then...but didn't Don "dial" 10 numbers?
If I'm wrong, and it wasn't a "long distance" call, then maybe that's the reason he impulsively decides on the Palm Springs junket--it gets him closer to the locale of the person he called?
Hello and HELP! I travel extensively for my company, and although I stay at nice locations - Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, I can't always get AMC - is there a way to download the full length of the CURRENT episodes and watch them on my laptop??!! The 3 minute snip-its from past episodes don't get me there with what's happening NOW! Please help!!
My take…
Great episode. Don has an anxiety problem and turns to sex, escapism and smokes/drinks too much. Some people would call it a disorder and blame all sorts of bad behaviour on his condition. Nuclear annihilation freaked him out, he loses his luggage, he is away from home, has pressures at home and chicks are tempting him. These are all the perfect conditions to jump in a car with the strange girl!
Don is sexy and enjoyable to watch, but he is a total fake. You admire him yet feel bad for him. He lacks character, yet people are charmed by him, even men, because they presume he is 'someone'.
Are you an actor? An astronaut? He is really nobody who has become someone else. No wonder he can consider abandonment of his life and join the Euro-trash. They are morally flexible like him. He kinda fits with them. The girl, Joy, is so lost and desperate for attention that she throws herself at him. She does echo Betty in many ways – the voice, the vulnerability.
Don is all about shame: mother prostitute, unwanted by step mother, stern father, war deserter, abandoned little brother….and on and on. Expect him to swim through many more shameful situations…he feels comfortable in those waters.
Don returns to NYC to find Duck as his new boss. What a great plot twist and realistic given how many of the top firms grew - by acquisition. Even more exciting times ahead for Sterling Cooper. Duck is a leader and has a lot of fortitude to take it on the chin, persist and maneuver his way, however, self serving it may be.
I was cheering when Betty got the "straight talk" from the gay guy. He was courageous for announcing himself. Ouch for Mr. Italiano.
Younger people take for granted how repressed and hidden society could be. It wasn't the Phil Donahue/Oprah/Dr. Phil kind of self-help / therapy / open society it is today.
"What'll I Do" was used in the Great Gatsby w/Redford. I know that Gay meant happy back in my Mom's days, but I didn't think the word 'homo' was acceptable or used in 60's. Anybody know the hotel in Cally?
I thought I read somewhere that next season is fast forwarded 2 years & the question is: is he Don or Dick?
I think he will find his "family" in Cali, go back save the day @ SC, Betty's Dad dies & he is her hero.
Or he confesses all to Betty...& still loses her.
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Yes I found the episode confusing as well & agree that the "grifters' were a bit too convenient. I almost thought that they were swingers...
And at the end, the Viscount was with "Rockie" in the pool. And why was that old lady so cranky?
But it made me want to know more; ask more about who the H#@! these people were & why were they messing with Don.
I think the dreamy effect around seeing the woman from behind that looked like Betty & Joy talking like Betty is Don moving towards realizing that he does truly love Betty. And he has lost his possession & his original dream. I really, really think he will confess all to Betty...
God I hope Betty has her own hot, steamy affair.
* complete random *
...also I'm not sure if this prediction is out there already...but Peggy gets with the Priest (Colin Hanks). She just has to break through his phony pious veneer...
I agree, this was a really boring episode. Except for Peggy finally losing that damn ponytail (yesss!!) it felt like a complete waste of time.
Gotta wonder, what was the point? Don impulsively runs after the latest piece of tail that walks in front of him. Don has meaningless sex. Don looks very hot when he's half-dressed. Don says something to Ms. Piece of Tail along the lines of "who are you?". Don makes a mysterious call/quip/expression. Back to the office for a tantalizing few minutes. Yawn. Come on, writers.
Nope, Don wasn't calling the woman from the car dealership. She was from the real Don Draper history. He called as Dick Whitman.
The person Don called is the same person he sent the book to at the beginning of the season.
Grifters? What would they con him out of? They've already determined he's just an upper-middle-class stiff; they'll play with him for a week and then toss him aside. (How's THAT taste, Don?)
Sal can still cuddle in the closet with the other Mr. Smith, I think.
Very disappointed. At least I'll have peace next week and won't be counting the day until next Sunday. Hopefully they can make sense of this in the next two episodes.
This episode kicked ass!!! First, any reason to get Don naked and with a brunette in bed, gets kudos from me!!! Peggy bringing out all her cuteness is wonderful!! Mr. Smeeth not being ashamed to be gay...fantastic revelation! Emphasis on Sterling Coop was well overdue! Snivelin' Silver Foot being dumped by Don the Magic Wand was priceless!
I loved this episode so much, I wanna marry it!
(But cheat on it with Dancing With the Stars! LMAO!)
From the previews for next week, looks like Cooper and his sister are going to vote for the deal to sell Sterling Cooper. As a result Roger would be out as President, replaced by Duck.
Who has the decided percentage? Mr. 12 percent himself--minority partner Donald Francis Draper. Once he hears Creative reports to Duck under this new regime, he'll back Roger against the deal.
UNLESS ... He decides to remain in Los Angeles as DICK WHITMAN!
Roger better hope Don wants to stay Don--or he's on the one way road to Duck Phillipsville--cleaned out by his wife and out of his job.
Pete is talking about Don "not coming back--he's done it before--deserting." Who is he talking to? Peggy? Will Peggy finally give Don the lowdown on who fathered her baby?
For anyone out there who found the show lacking in plot--too focused on introspective stuff and not on the corporate intrigue--this should fill your pie hole for a while.
Don was weird this episode, but that won't stop me from trying to get tickets to SNL for his gig. Anybody have any contacts? I'll buy dinner!
NRG101 - I download the current episodes from I-Tunes - it will be available the day after airing.
I knew the moment Don saw that presentation on ICBMs that he'd pursue Joy. I thought once he saw that young boy poolside that he'd get back in line.
What's the difference between the "nomads" and the bohemians of Season 1 besides money? Remember when Don told them to "make something of yourselves?"
episodes are available from I-Tunes the day after airing. They cost $1.99 each, or you can buy the whole season for something like $19.99
Is MW in a hurry to develop plotlines? In one ep we have:
1. Don mixed up with foreign spies/grifters/jetsetters.
2. Peggy re-doing her look.
3. An openly gay male in 1962 boardroom America.
4. Don suffering from heat stroke/heart attack.
5. Duck engineering a coup at SC.
6. Don going on a walkabout.
For a show which has developed it's characters and story lines with a beautiful cadence, we seem to be rushing into some sort of ratings grab. I too was happy at the lack of a Self Absorbed Bitch but am truly devastated at the loss of what has been to date, a superior pacing.
"Deciding" percentage. Sorry.
I predict he's going to San Diego, family was retired Navy?
Sterling Cooper is leading Duck on, and will drop out of deal.
What did he see in the glass? Cheap plastic glass? A crack?
I totally picked up on the Pulp Fiction theme/Dick Dale and his Deltones song, but apparently my own presence on the West Coast has kept me from being first to note it.
What version of "What'll I Do" was used in tonight's episode? As in, who sang the song tonight?
I agree with bc. Don't like the pacing.
But Matt W. is usually right so let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
But if the show is jumping the shark, we'll know soon--if Don starts seeing a comely italian american psychologist to deal with those fainting spells---it's Fonzie over the tank for sure...
What was the deal with the glass?
I bet Sterling Cooper dump Duck andhis planed buy out.
Does anyone think that it was weird for the aerospace co. to be displaying all their seemingly secret wares to the general public?
Is Mad Men going to be Don having one adventure after another with outrageous-types?
Roger is going to be taken to the cleaners by the manipulative, lying second wife.
Joy's voice -- cadence, everything, was just like Betty's.
Isn't there an international party-playboy set who just parties at each other's houses year round?
I had a friend who had lots of well-heeled family contacts. She quit her job to figure some stuff out and spent a year staying at their cottages/summer homes. I think people of a certain social strata do this sort of thing.
The Dick Whitman phone call is bugging the hell out of me!
Duck is played to smarmy, creepy perfection.
Are we really sure this isn't all a dream?
Betty look-alike at the bar (at least from the back) and Betty sound-alike in Joy.
Good memory regarding comment regarding Betty's dream about the suitcase (apparently it's come home to haunt her).
Good thing cell phones did not exist in Don's world---they would have made his do-as-he-pleases life a whole lot more difficult....
Perfect JimK. I'll wait for the credits to read Don Soprano.
He was absolutely AMAZING! His body was PERFECT on the sofa... his Swagger while walking up to he hotel was Earth Shaking. His hair all Wet and Stroked Back was beautiful. And, didn't you see him in those White Pants! It certainly did deserve an applause... He is the most SEXIEST man on TV!
The cliff hanger was very good. Obviously, Betty is not home and when she see's Don's clothes, she is not going to know what to think. I'm not sure if he told her he was going to CA, but the office will if she asks. I don't think Don is ever going back... I think he hates living a lie and can now face his real demons.
"Life on Mars" Seriously, JimK?
It's period for sure, and at least the British version was great, but I feel like that's a totally different premise to exploring the past than what "Mad Men" does.
Meanwhile, calm those fears of hackneyed network plot gimmicks and see what happens with these next couple(?) of episodes. I feel like things will tie up a little bit. There's still some exciting mysteries to solve on MM.
The change of pace, literally, was cool with me! A half hour of some whiny housewife, gazing at her navel, is be a chore! So Don's fling, Peggy's 'do over, Duck's shennigans, and "Smeeth" were all good!
bc--
I loved the show as it was--but this is what creative teams do--they get us out of our comfort zone. Otherwise they'd be writing for CSI:Miami.
Boy, I really don't know what Don will do next! Is he repelled by a no limits world when really offered it?
I can guess the corporate stuff--Don, the unreliable guy, open open to blackmail--saved by peggy's stopping pete from going to duck about don's past with her potential revelation--but man, I'm totally watching this from Don's perspective and right now, I don't know if he'll care about this stuff in NYC at all-
My mind was blown when he said,"this is Dick Whitman." It was like Batman calling himself Bruce Wayne while in costume.
Oh, and the Madmen opening pose at the end--is clearly done to freak us out--he's deciding whether he's had enough--he's in free fall and looking at all the images he's aspired to and helped create.
We get it: CROSSROADS...
Wow. 'Some whiny housewife, gazing at her navel.' I kind of thought that's what made the show intriguing. It's that conflict between the awakening of the American woman and the alphamale boardroom being besieged by the realities of the modern world that made this show appealing in the first place.
This whole show to me anyway, is Don trying to find himself...think about it...gets in bed with the girl in Greenrich Village, you know where I'm going, but Dan is a thinker...also look at what's going on in the world at the time...Cuban Missile crisis, the riots in the South, the mores' are starting to change, Don's always thinking. Look at him at the bar when he spots the back of a blonde head who he thinks might be Betty (sure looked like her) you get the slow motion for just a second as he is approaching her and has a smile on his face...like OK the decision is made for me ...she really does want me even though I can't say I love her spontaneously...
I have to admitt though that the trip to Palm Springs got a little tedious, picked up when Don was nearly naked, tanned and tossed hair. But the look at the little boy and the cracked drink glass was a reminder at what he had not faced and needed to...a trip to find a Whitman family member, his brother is dead, so maybe it's his dad (no real mommie type pleasantries in the oneside conversation on the oneside we heard
Just a thought
Not sure if my original message posted. Was wondering if anyone knows who sang the song "What'll I do?" in tonight's episode?
Ok JimK, I'm willing to see where the creative team is going with the show but, I still think this episode was too crowded. For a literal interpretation of the left arm pose we should be thinking evil Dick versus good Don as we all know the left is sinister.
Ugh, I don't know if I can stand yet another dream sequence theory.
The title of this program is "Mad Men;" not the "Betty Show!" It's about time "Mad Men" got back to the Sterling Cooper office drama, which is what I loved!
Peggy's a modern American woman, in 1962 terms. And became even more modern, in a fashion sense! She's not some navel-gazing fool! She made things happen for herself, without whining!
Don't think Joy and her Dad are spies.
Willie, Joy's dad--is a vision of Don with no structure--twenty years from now, still making out with married far younger women, aimless.
Joy--is just that--a perfect woman for the part of Don that wants complete freedom. She likes sex, will let him sleep with who he wants and has a dad who will take care of the money.
But no. Don's going to meet this person who only needs to hear the "Dick Whitman" name to invite him over.
He mentioned Los Angeles to Rachel when she asked where they'd run away to. What will this lead to? Wow, I don't know..
Duck was great in this episode. Finally I see why he's here--they made him credible with the way he slapped Roger back at the end of the episode. The old, liquor-fueled Duck, taking a monster risk in a last ditch attempt to save himself.
bc--
I agree about the "crowded" feel to the episode. But I'd place that at the feet of Smith's gay revelation and the stuff about the freedom rides.
Don in Crisis is an ongoing thing and Sterling Cooper Corporate intrigue makes a reasonable b story.
Smith is gay and cuts hair? Clunk much?
And Poor Peggy, three shots in Dallas is going to finish that hairstyle next year...
Perhaps the writers are reading these posts. Many I've read want more of the 60's as we all expect them--civil rights changes etc. But I always felt that much of that stuff followed JFK's assassination. Mad Men Season 3, set in 1964 seemed more like the time for the ferment that is now suddenly hitting the show.
If last week was all about growing up, this week was all about fantasy. Don takes a dive through the rabbit hole and sees a whole world of fascinating things that could be his world if he decides to ditch his currently life as Don Draper and become someone else, or perhaps just Dick Whitman again. He seemed completely bemused as he hung out with the nomads and saw how they lived. When he asked, “Who are you?”, and the girl answered “Joy”, it seemed perfect. Here was the potentially care-free happiness he could have if he ran away. But there’s a crack in the glass – the girl has a creepy dad, there’s no real emotional connections, and …. this isn’t real life! He’ll have to come back home at some point, doesn’t he?
‘nuff analysis, now some random stuff:
SAB was in this episode – I swear they used January Jones during the Betty look-alike scenes. And Joy totally had Betty’s voice. As a brunette, I guess she’s a great cross between Betty and all his brunette mistresses, with some 20-something Jane mixed in
Poor Sal having to hear the Frat Pack make fun of Kurt. Ken was especially prick-ish.
The guy from The Nanny having drinks with Duck, Duck falling off the wagon, Duck growing a pair and trying to pull the mat out from under Roger-the-horndog – wow!
Peggy picking “the wrong boys” – bittersweet and funny. At least she got a make-over!
Who did he call as Dick Whitman? It will kill me until next week!
Well you can always count on the Betty haters to flush me out.
bc..Thank you for the vote of confidence for the "whiny housewife" that makes MM that much more intriguing for many of us.
I thought last week's episode was very blah..but boy did I LOVE this episode...NOT because Betty wasn't in it. There was SO MUCH to wonder about and too many allusions to list.
One I haven't heard anyone mention yet is "The Last Time I Saw Paris". The father and family of Elizabeth Taylor's character in that movie remind me of a very cleaned up (read "censored") version of the Southern Cali group that have waylaid Don. Not to mix metaphors but he has really fallen down the rabbit hole now. He is not so much a fish out of water, since he is somewhat of a kindred spirit to these people. It is more like he's a "day late and a dollar short, IMHO.
... three shots in Dallas "are" going to finish that hairstyle. Man I can't write tonight.
I guess I'm in shock.
Revelation: Non-stop Naked Don, civil rights suddenly being talked about and no Betty--VISAN wrote this episode.
Fess up oh charter member of the "Sisterhood of The Get Into Don's Pants" ...
This episode, with the jet setters, jumped the shark for me. MM nails life in New York during the 60s, but I think they totally missed it in California. The pickup was a little unbelievable for a show that is so true to reality in the 60s. And, in the early 60s, New York was as much a mecca for show biz as California.
Did anyone notice that Don wrote on and tore out the last page of The Sound and The Fury? My copy is buried in a box in the basement. Can anyone help out with what the last paragraph or so are? Might they be pertinent?
Is it possible that the MM sound crew might have dubbed in Betty's voice over Joy's? In most scenes, where her speaking was clear, her voice was a dead ringer for Betty's!
Could Dick Whitman be paying off someone for the right to use Don Draper's name? I mean, whatever happened to Don Draper's family after the war? Certainly there were other family members who were left behind who had to be "taken care of". I think the woman at the car dealership was a friend of some sort of the real Don Draper's who may ultimately have led to Dick Whitman's need to pay off someone for their silence (or worse). Who knows....the man is so detached about death and loss that nothing would surprise me.
Pete's such a dork...he didn't like CA because of the "people." Duh, Pete...I think it was the other way around...
He couldn't make time with the girls who picked up his papers at the pool but didn't even give him a second glance...
Even Count-Willy-Trash is eager to get away from him...("I don't remember faces," (!) he says to Pete. Yeah, right).
Right after that, he's put down by Don's asking him if Tony Curtis was "handing out towels." Poor Pete, so starry-eyed, the put-down doesn't even register with him, and he dreamily remarks: "A thing like that!"
Tell me, who in LA is going to understand you, Pete, with your stilted-talking ways?
The whole LA experience (which Pete had been SO looking foward to) turned out to be not so much fun. He saw that there's another world beyond his world, and it's populated with people who aren't impressed with him, to say the least.
That'a a rude awakening to Pete, and I think it's going to make him more ready to give up thinking that the world is still his oyster, and be ready to adopt his and Peggy's child. (I believe that's what's got his wife so upset in the next episode).
JimK: LOL! I wish I had the talent to write such a kick-ass show, but Matthew Weiner actually wrote this episode! He did a great job of making my wishes come true of more Don naked, more of the office intrigue, discussion of Civil Rights and absence of she who shall NOT be named!
Kudos!!
Oh, Happy Columbus Day, Kiddies!
Loved the episode. Whoever remembered Betty's luggage comment from last week, great one.
Duck seems evil... something's about to explode. Poor Sal — so sad for him, that look on his face.
Yeah, the crack in Don's glass almost too obviously symbolic of his trip/life.
Is it possible that the MM sound crew dubbed in Betty's voice over Joy's? In most scenes, where her speaking was clear, Joy's voice was a dead ringer for Betty's! Other than that, the actress was just mumbling, so it was hard to tell....
Could Dick Whitman be paying off someone for the right to use Don Draper's name? I mean, whatever happened to Don Draper's family after the war? Certainly there were other family members who were left behind who may have been "taken care of" in some way by Dick Whitman. I think the woman at the car dealership was a friend of the true Don Draper, and she may link the story to what ultimately happened to Don Draper's mourning family members. The real Don Draper was young enough to have had a family after all.....
There is something to why every one of Don's side pieces is some shade of brunette! Was there any mention on the DVD of season one?
Just wond'rin'....
--Visan
A Founding Member of the Sisterhood of Getting Into Don's Pants
Hi All,
I've been following this forum for weeks now, but have never commented before, but SO MANY questions arise out of this episode.
To Tangfl: I'm younger than 29, but appreciate everything I can't understand about this show. I agree--- Don is disgusting, yet provocative enough that I can't get enough.
I'm confused about a couple of things:
Who does Joy swim to at the end of the episode? Her father? If not, who were the people making out in the pool? And, is her father gay? Doesn't she say something like, "Papa, don't touch," when she's in bed with Don? WHO ARE THESE FREAKS?
This episode was nuts, but I think Don is heavy comtemplating the glass "half full, or hall empty." Can wait to see who's he meeting soon!
And, I loved how Joy said, "Have you ever had Mexican food?" Being 26 years old, this amazed me! Who hasn't had Mexican food???? How odd to think of international food as a somewhat "new" concept.
....RE: the presentation of rockets, that a previous poster (hmmm...a male?) thought went on too long? REALLY?
Rockets bursting into flames! Hitting their marks!
Spewing their missils far and wide. I will leave erotic symbolism of that scene to others more versed in such areas.
But I don't think Don was thinking about the world being annihilated by those rockets....
Visan:
I dig Don--for his nihilism-- or is it existentialism--I think he's deciding that now--but I also dig Jan Jones's Betty. It's a great "iceberg" performance--much is below the surface.
JimK: I respect your opinions. In a TV character, the underdog always gets my vote! Don coming from such a humble and abusive background will be the role I find most intriguing. Just as Peggy is another favorite. I enjoy watching her come back from adversity and trying to crack the glass ceiling. That's the characters I like most and view as having much more depth because they've succeeded despite not having a silver spoon, or in Pete's case, silver foot, in their mouths! To each their own!
I see the iconic mirror image of Don on the sofa in this episode (from the back, with his bare left arm stretched out) more representative of the true person he is; whereas the iconic image we are used to seeing of him from the back with his suit on and right arm stretched out on the sofa is representative of the image he is trying to project. This is just two sides of the same coin here. Also, in this episode, this image shows the real man - skin and all - on the sofa, whereas the iconic image we are used to seeing is simply a black silhouette form - not even the real man!
Might have missed it if somebody already posted, but my immediate thought when he met the foreigners was that they were spies. When the show hung on the old map of the Soviet Union, it seemed to me not only a psychological portent of a collapsing world (Don's marriage and family, Rodger's marriage and family, perhaps even the firm itself), it also seemed like a foreshadowing of a plot twist involving the other big social/political theme of the period, the Cold War. With one shoe in Civil Rights, seems like this would be an obvious direction for the writers to take. A "Love Bomb" at a hotel hosting a defense industry convention would seem pretty plausible here. And isn't it Russian that Joy speaks to her "father" when he approaches them at the foot of the bed? Could only make out "papa" but the rest of the phrase sounded Russian, not a latin-based language. She's also reading The Sound and the Fury (the title also suggests a collapsing world, in the novel, the Old South), part of her survey of American literature. What else would a young Russian spy be studying? Then comes the comment about spies during dinner and a later revalation that one of the characters is a "daughter of an ambassador." At that time, it would be almost implausible that an ambassador to the United States wouldn't be involved in intelligence. And did Don really have heat stroke, or was it the drink? Why would they go through his wallet while he was unconscious?
Of course, grifting is also hinted at when Don asks if they are people of means, but it seems like grifters would have hand an answer for that. On the other hand, the spy theory almost seems too obvious. It might just be an interesting diversion.
The phone call was a great ending. It's clear that Don (Dick) had a reason to insert himsef into the trip to California. I would guess he called the woman in the earlier flashback who confronts "Don" at the car dealership. She is the only one we've seen who must know of Don's deception, and probably his true identity. Is she perhaps the wife/sweetheart of the real Don Prager? Did she an Don have a relationship after her discovery? And earlier, when he was discovered, he wanted to go to Los Angeles? Certainly no coincidence, but a lover there wouldn't have been the reason in that case. I forgot about his mailing of Meditations in an Emergency until reading it here. That would be a poem to send to a lover, but it also has deep meaning for Don's life, especially. Christ, some of the middle verse's fit him like a glove. One might think they've written his whole character around that poem:
...I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pasutre. No.
One need never leave the confines of New York...
...My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time;
they are indiscriminate but fleeting, entirely specific and disloyal, so that no one trusts me. I am always looking away.
Or again at something after it has given me up. It makes me restless and that makes me unhappy, but I cannot keep them still. If only i had grey, green, black, brown, yellow eyes; I would stay at home and do something...
There are some heavy twists taking place in this episode. But if they all go as far as they could, it seems like the show would be too much altered. Why screw with a good thing? Maybe "The Sound and the Fury" has a different meaning, not Faulkner but Shakespeare. Maybe Duck's plan comes to nothing, the jet-setters turn out relatively harmless, and, as in the full Shakespeare verse, it all ends up "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." But the phone call, at least, will be very illuminating.
Visan--
Actually, I think Pete, Peggy, Don and Betty are all fish out of water in their own ways, outsiders. However I don't want to defend this right now.
Why? Because I was hit by a much, much more troubling thought:
Does anyone here remember the last season of "Thirty something"?
Set in Philly, Ken Olin played Michael Steadman, a sort of uglier, wimpier version of Don--in advertising but not happy. In a marriage but not satisfied. Basically what circa 1990 broadcast tv could provide us --thin gruel compared to Don D.
HOWEVER-- In the last season of the show, Michael and his side kick and former small agency partner, Elliot Weston try to take over the agency where Michael is Creative Director and Elliot is Art Director after Elliot runs afoul of the big boss Mile Drentell and gets canned.
The agency was called "DAA" I think.
Anyway, there's this takeover battle and it revolves around a handful of partners--strangely similar to what's now been hatched on Madmen.
Indeed Thirtysomething's Mile Drentel was a mix of Roger Sterling's evil, aging lothario selfish, "let's screw with their heads" persona and Bert Cooper's mysticism covering hardball one.
Dear God, is Mad Men becoming "thirty something"?
If so, it's next stop: "Life On Mars," for me ...
season 4 the end of roger 1968 age 60
Visan I like your comments about more naked Don.
They can't get rid of Don for this show. I am not sure what all will happen in Cali but they need to keep him no matter what. He will wonder around Cali for a while and then head back for NY. I am wondering by the previews for next week if Betty isn't talking to him when she says something about how she didn't make some one do something.
Wonder if he's calling Rachel?
season 3 preview
death of a president
march on washington
mini dress
american bandstand
pepsi generations,
ford mustang
roger goes back to mona,
pete finds out he is a dad
someone claiming to be dons mom shows up
JimK: I never watched Thirtysomething. And glad I didn't because it sounds corny....Again, YMMV....
Sgt: If I had my druthers, each episode would feature at least one shot, lingering shot, of Don Draper unclothed! Hee!
YMMV?
@Visan: OK. We get it. You love seeing Don naked. You hate Betty. Thanks for the big shocker that you loved this episode. Anything else?
I agree with SoFlaKate (at 11:53). I think that whoever Don called, identifying himself as Dick Whitman, is the same person that he sent "Meditations in an Emergency" to in the first episode of Season 2. I don't think this person is necessarily in California - though he or she might be - I noticed that Don called a long-distance number from L.A., and in 1962 there just weren't that many area codes. I think the whole Southern California area was (213).
does anyone think that this episode is a "dream Sequence for Don? It seems like there is alot of symbolism involved that is indicative of his own inner struggle. Like with the Sound and the Fury, the girl who clearly represents Betty but whose name is Joy who isn't possesive and Don can see whoever he wants which is his problem with Betty right now. The little boy had Bobby's personality but was the same actor who played a young Don in another episode. Didn't Don also ask Rachel to run away to L.A. with him when Pete discovered his true identity? Maybe L.A. represents escape and starting over and Don is resigned to confronting his true identity as Dick Whitman which seems to be what is his greatest conflict.Plus he tells Roger in the last episode that you have to move forward and think about the future. I just don't see any of this episode as being real......just what I think
...to Patrick...
If you haven't found out already, it was Johnny Mathis singing "What'll I Do" at the end of the episode.
Holy moly, but Brian Batt as Sal just rocked in the scene where Kurt reveals his sexuality!! The scene, by rights, should have belonged to Kurt, but thanks to Brian Batt's acting talent, he walked away with it. Fear, envy, pride, compassion--all these emotions washed across Batt's face without his saying a word. Truly, this was a master's acting class in about 10 seconds. Beautifully, beautifully done, Mr. Batt!
YMMV=Your Mileage May Very
Just another way to say "To Each Their Own...."
All you necromorph's who keep complaining about how this episode is bad sound like a bunch of prude's. What do you want, for MM to stay stuck in the early 60's? You sound so old. (at Heart) This was a great episode, and cheers to the writers to finally move forward with this series. Let's face it; it has to end sooner or later, and they certainly have to develop the characters, but let's move on with it. THANK YOU MM WRITER's for growing a set. I think tonite Hamm's character grew 100 fold more fascinating. Brilliant. I really hope this new crew are great, and I can't believe all you do is criticsize their accents. Alway's some armchair quarterback with no talent who makes the most negativity out of nothing. How pathetic. I notice it's alway's the same neanderthal's commenting and addressing each other like if they are friends. All they are is a bunch of mindless ass kissers.
A Dream?
Yep, and next episode Don opens thee shower door and Victoria Principal climbs in make love with him.
You see his real name isn't Dick Whitman after all...
It's Bobby Ewing.
Oh, and one more quick comment. Don Draper is a handsome man...but in my opinion, his body is just...okay. Most men back then did not work out. His chest and arms aren't overly developed. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the muscle-bound types...but Jon Hamm's body is very representative of the times his character lived in. All this yammering about his body...like I say, to me, it's just average. That said, I wouldn't kick him out of bed.
I bet JimK, if you tried hard enough you could come up with a more creative dispute.....to rule out how they are representing Don's emotional turmoil then to compare it to Dallas who was trying to overcome a ratings slip. And when was the last time anyone had some beautiful wealthy intriging totally available no strings attached with a liberal Father ( think back to the problems Betty's father brings into the picture) proposition them?
Dream on Don!!
My impression is that Joy's father is bi-sexual. He came into the room while Joy and Don are in bed and made the comment about Don being beautiful, and then Joy says (in French), "Papa, don't touch." So obviously the old man goes both ways, and the daughter knows it. There's something more than a little odd about the father sitting down on the bed with his naked daughter and her lover in it. Also, when Joy swam off in the pool scene, I thought she was making out with someone else while Don watched. Then he stares at the glass...and then passes out. So who knows what actually went on?
Not looking for a "dispute" Swinger.
I just think that the "it's a dream" stuff is kinda silly like the "Joy and her dad are spies or grifters" conclusion that is floating through this thread.
Matt Weiner says in the "Inside Mad Men" clip for "Jet Set" that these people are who they say they are.
This doesn't make them normal or not freakish and alien to Don. But it doesn't make them spies or figments of Don's imagination.
Also--Peter Dykman Campbell (As he calls himself to them) meets and as usual, strikes out with, Joy and Willie at the hotel.
Don lives what regular men only dream about Swinging 60's girl. .
He's supernatural really. Just ask Visan.
Great episode. Certainly not dull. I have to say, I think Mona's going to hand Roger his hide in this divorce. But overall, I think his hard- and fast-living days are about to catch up with him all across the board, if the next episode preview is any indication. Peggy's new hairstyle does wonders for her appearance, and poor Sal has to be hurting now that he knows his colleagues' feelings towards homosexuals. Duck Phillips's new intrigue with his British friends brings some long overdue spice to his character. I will be very interested to see what becomes of him as the story continues.
Now, about Don....
First of all, who on Earth *are* these people? There is something very disturbing about their entire premise. Who pops up out of thin air, walks up to a total stranger, and invites them to a carnal romp in Palm Springs? Joy is extremely attractive, but there is something deceptively wrong about her, some secret about their entire group that has yet to be revealed. They call themselves nomads, but what are they really? Are they forerunners of the counterculture, like those pot-smoking people whom Midge was hanging around with towards the end of last season? My first bet is that they are Communists, but we shall see.
Lastly of course, who was Don talking to on the phone? Obviously, it was someone with a connection to his past since he used his real name, but who? Adam and his parents are dead, so who's left? One thought is that it is that fat fellow who we saw early in the first season, the one who cornered Don on the train and said, "we should catch up". But this person may be someone else, since Don sounded somewhat intimate. What shall happen next? What will Betty think when she opens Don's returned suitcase? (We all know she'll do it, I think) What's the story with Pete's wife? Who knows? Who knows?
Thoughts?
What an episode. I agree with many others that I think Don is getting grifted. What can I say? Some people just can't handle Cali....
Seriously, Don is broken somewhere deep inside. It is not that he is just flawed like other human beings, he is missing a core. I always return to feeling really sorry for Don.
"in the primal sympathy which having been must ever be"(Woodsworth)
I think the couple who were making out in the pool was the other woman who was there when they first met. I think her name was Rocky. I also thought that Joy's father looks and acts like Oleg Cassini (Jackie Kennedy's chief designer when she was First Lady) and Rocky looks like Jackie Kennedy
No grifting here. If they wanted to "grift" someone--they'd have hit on Pete Campbell. Don looks a lot tougher and smarter.
Isn't the "Jet Set" also a temptation for Don? In the meeting with Roger and Mr. Cooper they tell Don he has arrived and is being invited to become a part of some elite group and despite Don wanting to stay behind the curtain Mr Cooper tells Don "the Vail is being lifted." When Don is at the country club function with Betty he is so uncomfortable around the people there he tells Betty he has to go to work which he doesn't and leaves. I think Don wants to be around and is being pushed to be around the "Jet Set" but feels out of place because of his past in being and seeing himself as what he calls a whore child.
I love this episode...it presents so many new possibilites for each character involved in it...
re: "Don's new best friends...." : while this may be some sort of "alternate reality" sequence" it is possible that these folks are not totally malevolent. while they have 'no viable means of support ' that fact could be attributed to something so simple as the fact that they are the adult children of some very wealthy parents living off of their inheritance or trust funds wisely invested...yea yea I know that they for the most part are middle aged but I one had a friend who was in her 50s and still had money from her trust fund and also a very large and consistent divorce settlement from her wealthy ex-husband...so there are legitimate ways for folks to be in the "jet set'....I really feel Don will continue to hang with them because they allow him to be his hedonistic self and not have to fear being "found out" in his assumed identity...
just my 2 cent worth
Hello, I am new to this blogging. I watched the entire last season online, as I don't actually have access to a cable system on TV. I saw the season 2 premier online but thought that the next show wasn't going to be on until October sometime, and they have never had another show on their website as a 'full episode' - what's up with that?
Anyway, now I find out the second season is well underway, and now they no longer have it available online...anywhere that I can locate. Does anyone know where I can watch from 202 onwards? I'm so bummed out about this. This is my favorite show.
HELP!!!!!
Foreshadowing: Don's lost suitcase -- he's about to lose (or regain?) his identity. (Reminder: Tony Soprano had a similar loss of suitcase and identity and became Kevin Finnerty, or Kev Infinity, if you please. Same writers, I believe.) By the pool in the opening scene, the musical backdrop -- faux Arab-casbah-snake-charmer -- foreshadows that Don is about to come under a spell. His insistence on work-not-play to Pete foreshadows the break (methinks he protesteth too much). The meeting at Cal Tech provides motivation. Unlike the others in the room, he has actually been to war. Horror lurks beneath his usual poker face. M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) is one product he doesn't want to sell. Don peers into the Abyss and the Abyss peers back. But what can he do? Joy -- playing the role of Calypso (the enchantress, the "concealer") in The Odyssey -- supplies the answer. If she drugged his drink, then she's more like Circe than Calypso. Either way, physical collapse heightens the sense that Don is undergoing a transformation. Is Joy a grifter, as another writer suggested? Equivocal evidence: the viscount's uneasy and rapid departure when Pete said, "Don't I know you?" is behavior consistent either with upper-class-out-of-sight Eurotrash OR with a grifter who don't want to be I.D.'ed. Speaking from experience, the casual amorality of the deadbeat rich is dead on. But if they are really grifters, does it occur to anyone that they were recruiting, not conning Don? After all, with their keen eye for character, they may have spotted a kindred spirit in him. He, too, is an imposter, after all. "Are you an actor?" asks the viscount. When Don says "No," he lies.
Who was Don calling? The person whose address he scribbled on the back page of "The Sound and the Fury"? My bet is that it was the woman who confronted him a few episodes back, saying "You're not Don Draper." That story thread was left dangling like a 10,000-volt live wire.
Thanks to an earlier writer who pointed out the "casbah music" at poolside at the hotel was Miserlou (Dick Dale): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UmmbF1Zyvk
The shot of Don on the couch, with his LEFT arm over the couch .... like a reverse negative of the MM logo
I was thinking the same thing.
jamm54 - they said they knew he was in advertising because when he passed out his wallet fell out...
no comments on my guess he is calling Rachel Mencken?
That was certainly a strange episode. Liked Don's slick back Andy Garcia/Untouchables look.
I actually thought Don might have been slipped a mickey by those people. How did they know he was in advertising? I didn't think he volunteered that info.
Whoever Don called at the end certainly wasn't surprised to hear from him, and didn't hesitate to invite him over. Wonder who it could be? Obviously Dick Whitman has been keeping in touch with someone, but they never had a means to contact him? Don must have a PO Box somewhere or an answering service he's paying for so this person could contact him, too. Hmmm.....
Are Roger and Bert going to fall for another Duck story? Would Roger and Bert throw Don under the bus, and give Duck all the power (as Duck outlined the sale terms to that guy he met)? Would Roger and Bert give up all their power to Duck? Bert is old enough to want to retire with a hefty retirement package - Roger's got a divorce that will clean him out, so who's preference of a sale is going to prevail: Bert or Roger's? The next episode preview shows Roger defending himself to someone. Ironic if it's to Duck, and Duck is holding the reins of power to boss Roger around.
I agree that the episode where the "You're not Don Draper" comment occurred might be tied into this episode. Don could be working anywhere at any car dealership. The woman who made this comment was possibly the real Don Draper's sister or fiance. However, I also wonder if the hobo who was kind to Don in the Hobo's code may have come back into his life at one point. Don or Dick seemed drawn to him and he was one of the first if not the first person to be kind to Don as a child. The hobo seemed like an intelligent fellow who was down on his luck and perhaps he was the advisor who helped Don become a refined fellow. Don may be in contact with him to go over the changes in his life periodically.
That wasn't luggage, that was Don's baggage, left on Betty's doorstep without even a note to explain. I wonder what he packed to take to California and what Betty will make of its contents.
I thought it was a great episode, and I don't think we'll see a lot of those loose ends tied up within season 2. Seems like they're building up to a giant cliffhanger like "Twin Peaks," where Cooper was left gasping for breath with two bullet holes in him.
Although I was only 11 back in 1962, I distinctly remember that long-distance calls had to be made through the operator.
Also, that edition of Faulkner did not come out until 1969 or 70. Before that, it was the old Vintage paperback edition, with just the title in large type on the cover. The design Joy is holding is a later edition.
And Mexican food was pretty much a novelty in white-bread early 1960s America. I'm not surprised that Don doesn't know what a chile relleno is.
Totally off topic:
Nobody had credit cards in 1962 - so unless Don is carrying wads of cash, or maybe American Express checks, he's not going to be able to finance his Cali walkabout and will be totally dependent on his new "friends."
I too was very disappointed with this episode. I’m still trying to figure out how these weirdoes play into such a sophisticated series. It seems to me that whenever Don is reminded in some way of his time in the service the bad boy comes out in him. Could be PTSD, or have we been seeing more of Dick in the last few episodes. Remember how upset little Dick was when his father sent the hobo away? (much the way Betty sent Don away). This boy was very sensitive. In this episode, I think he has come to a milestone in his life. He needs to go back before he can move forward. He has to make a decision. Personally, I think Dick fell in love with Betty, not Don. Maybe he’ll come clean about his true identity so that he can move on with his life. At this stage of the game, it would do Betty’s self-esteem a lot of good to have a hot affair with Don’s equal, in looks as well as personality, and let Don find out about it. Betty needs to embark on her own road to self-discovery. Let Don work hard for what he wants.
This Roger/Jane thing is really a bore.
WOW! I'm finally at the end!!
Hi fellow Maddicts!
Did anyone else think that Joy was lying about her age? She looked to be about 15, 16 yrs. old. She hesitated when he asked how old she was...
My guess is she is underage, and Don/Dick had his "Lolita" moment.
Joy did not remind me of Betty. The bar scene was freaky when Don spotted a Betty look a like though!
What was with Pete calling himself: Peter Dyckman Campbell, and trying to shmooze that weird guy at the bar. Then he tries to say he thinks he knows the guy from Newport?
Then Pete, being extra snobby, says "How Do I get a drink around here?" to the bartender. And before that he bitches that the Valet service isn't snapping to attention for him when they get to the hotel?
The funniest line for me was when Pete comments on Peggy's new "do" back at the office, and Ken says "Kurt is a homo?!!" It make sense to me that it took a gay man to help Peggy with her look!!
And, he just happens to be a hairdresser? And he helps her after she confides in him that she can't find a decent guy (or something like that).
POOR SAL!! The look on his face during the breakroom scene when Kurt decides to "come out", and all the boys share their feelings!!
Did anyone else think Kurt and the other Smith were a couple? I guess I was off on that one.
I was glad that the writers weaved in the Dylan thread, the Kennedy speech, and the coverage of the desegregation of the U. of Alabama.
Hope they will continue with the Cuban missile crisis in Oct. of '62, and the continued Civil Rights struggle.
Enough for now...
how can the european people take him for all he is worth ... don/dickis a grifter also ... this will likely be a match made in heaven/hell and he can probably teach them a few things
don/dick is a liar and a cheat so they should all get along just fine
I thought the young lady looked like Midge the beatnick from the 1st season
The previews with Betty saying something like "I didn't make you do anything" makes me think she did....Don wants her and his family back, can't get them until he is honest with Betty, so he's trying to figure out a way to come clean.
The "Nomads" are just Euro-trash, or jet-setters as they came to be called as soon as that mode of travel became popular. They would not need to grift Don -- he would not have anywhere enough money for their needs. These are trust fund/rich divorce settlements/sold my fake title for cash types; that's why they looked so uncomfortable when Don made the crack about "oh, you all must be well-off." Simply de Classe to say such a thing out loud! That whole segment reminded me of Bonjour Tristesse, with David Niven as the amoral father and his young but jaded daughter, played by Jean Seaberg -- remember it, anyone?
No, Don recognized these people as more exotic versions of himself -- people who are chronically dissatisfied and who make themselves up as they go along. He was bemused by them until he saw the little children by the pool and it made him remember that there are sometimes unwilling victims to that type of life. When he made that call to someone from his past as "Dick Whitman," he was claiming some authenticity -- however that may come out. And I think that his writing the address on the last page of Joy's book and tearing it out was symbolic of him "ruining her ending" by not sticking around to become her plaything.
Very interesting! Be sure the writers won't go where we think they will.....
As someone born in 1949 I experienced Don's visit.
My brother moved to Newport Beach and as a single, attractive female I visited him several times a year. I was in college on the east coast and couldn't leave. I had similar experiences like Don but avoided the drug scene until late 70's. Always felt more free on the west coast.
Don can be anything he wants because he's not Dick. When he becomes Dick again, you'll start seeing some real changes in his life. I don't see him living the west coast lifestyle for long...neither did I...too much of an easterner.
My brother experienced SANDSTONE...anyone out there remember that...similar to this episode.
Love Don to pieces...in my 20's, had a Roger Sterling romance. Every single woman in her 20's should have it...they bring you a certain sophistication.
Would like Don to visit the Playboy club...did you notice someone in the boardroom reading Playboy? I went to the Chicago one in the 60's.
Then the hippie movement appeared and dress, manners...well, you know what happened. We all have bought into the casual look now.
Hi protester! Welcome!
Yes, someone was reading Playboy in the boardroom...it was Sal!!
I couldn't help but wonder if he was looking at the pictures and saying: what's the big deal? LOL!
To 60's child: You should remember that no 15-year-old girl looked like Joy in the early 60s. The actress, Laura Ramsey, is actually 26.
To bridieo: sorry this took so long, I had to find my copy of The Sound and the Fury. The last page goes:
"The broken flower drooped over Ben's fist and his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more from left to right, post and tree, window and doorway and signboard each in its ordered place."
I don't see any connection to Don or this episode, do you?
Hi Visan!
I thought of you when Don was on the couch barely covered!
I got a kick out of Joy's choice of literature too. I have already said that I think she is a lot younger than she told Don she is, because she looked so young. Then, Don asks her about the book, and she tells him it's reading for school, or something like that? Then, the whole thing with her father? Very starange.....
To 60's chick:
Wrong, I looked 23 when I was 15...Was modeling and had a great time.
Visan-
I want to marry this episode too! Don was sizzlin' hot! The stories with Roger's divorce and the stylin' nomads make me want to marry this show, too! I want moooooorrrre!!!!!
Visan-
I want to marry this episode too! Don was sizzlin' hot! The stories with Roger's divorce and the stylin' nomads make me want to marry this show, too! I want moooooorrrre!!!!!
Either these posts are way out of sequence, or I had some bad mushrooms.....
Don saw Betty everywhere. Joy's mannersisms in the pool were Betty's. I think he missed the stability of his life at home while he was thinking in the pool but when he thinks about his wife's drinking and questioning, he really enjoys his playtime and being away from her. When he impulsively jumped into Joy's car proves that he still likes to play.
No clue about the phone call...I am baffled!
Elsie,
I thought Joy was strikingly similar to Jane, not Betty. Jane is 20 and writing poetry in bed with Roger; Joy is 21 and reading "The Sound and Fury" in bed with Don. And both women look a bit alike to me.
On another note, I, too, think it's a good theory Don may be getting grifted - these people are up to something, for sure. Of course it's striking that hanging out with a bunch of transient poseurs leads he to reconnect with who he really is. Although did he say it was "Dick" Whitman when he made that call on the phone at the end of the episode? I thought I heard him say "Dave" Whitman, but I was tired.
maybe gosh heavin forbid perhaps Jon Hamm wants to leave the show because he has moved on to the big screen???
For anyone out there who have ever been around very privleged people, or as Don said, "Well off" the nomads are what they are. Although I myself am not that privledged, I have been around people like this because of my private prep school education. Even as a teen I knew people who lived like this. We always called them "Trust Fund Babies".
They were a lot more obscure and usually engaged in very risky and sometimes odd behavior. Their world was very much like the nomads.
They know Don is not one of them, but they are intrigued I think by how naive he is. He's like a toy or a pet to them. These kind of people are always facinating for a short time, but because they don't live in a reality like most of us, they are very hard to understand and be around for long.
It's funny because Jon Hamm probably knew some kids like this when he was younger too. He went to a very privledged prep school in St. Louis like I did.
Again, I don't think them to be spys at all.
TANGFL: Hey Im 26 and I love this show it gives me an idea of how life was in the business atmosphere. Like all movies or T.V. shows they have a downfall sometime. Tell her to keep watching it gets interesting as this show goes on. This was the first show that seemed out of scene and this is season II. Hopefully that helped alittle for ya.
NRG - download the episode on itunes.
Regarding the incest overtones between Joy and her father (if that IS her father)...incest is a big theme in "The Sound and the Fury," though it's brother-sister incest. Incest in Faulkner (traces appear in other works) seems to me a metaphor for not being able to leave the past alone...either the cultural past, like the antebellum South, or the personal past. Wanting to get so close to it you're actually f**king it.
What a complete reversal! Don as the one who blows off work and Pete's the one with his nose to the grindstone, albeit at poolside. I had to laugh when Pete's attempt to talk to the two bikini babes who helped pick up his papers went nowhere.
The blonde at the bar. I think that J. Jones was the one who passed Don in the scene although before and after it was someone else.
I also think that the MIRV presentation made Don want to be somewhere else. Very scary stuff. Which is why he left with Joy rather than staying at the hotel. Especially after the presentation was made on a Kodak Carousel.
I think Joy, her father and company are just who they say they are. Nomads. They have a home somewhere, just rarely go there, going from one vacation home of one friend to another and those friends use theirs. There were servants so they weren't squatting. Old, old money where a Dyckman family connection wouldn't count but looks and personality would.
The scene of Don arriving for dinner reminded me of a Sean Connery/James Bond film with the dark top and the white trousers. Dr. No?
Don calling someone on the phone and identifying himself as Dick Whitman. Obviously someone he knew before he went into the service. If he's 36 in 1962, he would have been 19 in 1945, probably on an Agriculture/Farmer draft deferment. We don't know what he was doing between 1944 and 195(?) when he entered the Army. The person he called probably does know. And is probably the person he mailed the book to, signing it simply "D."
Don writing on and tearing out the final page of the book. Now she'll never know how it ends!
I also thought Pete had to feel "hit upside the head" when he finds Don isn't even back or called, Kurt is a "homo" and Peggy changed her hairstyle. And he doesn't even know what Duck's doing! Think how strange it will feel to Don when he returns.
In the preview, Betty saying: "I didn't make you do anything." How many think she was talking with Don and how many think she was talking to Sarah Beth?
I love the mood of every part of this show. I think the scenes with Don in this episode were a dream of Betty's - she's dreaming of the luggage like she said before. The characters that don meets are such cliche's and the dinner party by the pool looks like it is right out of a "60's" movie - ala "the Graduate" - Betty would imagine Don like that.
By dmarie on October 13, 2008 9:13 AM
Even though I like the series, as a person who was 20 at that time --in 1962, (Jane's age), neither I nor most of my friends had the sex appeal or beauty to attract a man of Roger Sterling's status. I am having jealousy issues because I so, so admire John Slattery. This is troubling because Roger Sterling is not an admirable figure. So while I'm thinking how luckly Jane is, there is also the realisation that at the end of day, Roger is NOT a "good catch", not the prize one would think, because of his character flaws. Slattery, however, IS a great guy.
Donna
First - I have to defend Duck. I remeber all of the critical blogs when he left his dog. the dog was taking him back to a place he did not want to go, to alcohol. For some of us, alcohol make a total mess of life. the memories were to much for him. Better to lose the dog than drink. Now, he has found something that is taking him back that he wants/needs more than the dog, success. In the Madison Avenue of his day - he succeeded with alcohol -to a point. For all of you who feel Duck is more villan than flawed man trying hard - don't worry, last night was the first sign of a huge train wreck in the making.
Who cares who the Erotrash were or what they were doing - let's just hope they go away!
Anyone else notice the TV was tuned to a news story about James Meridith entering Ole Miss, in Oxford, MS and the novel of the night The Sound and the Fury was written by William Faulkner in Oxford, MS. Did the writers make that link?
Sorry, but this episode irritated me. Don is barely talking, letting these bizarro people with unbelieveably fake accents whisk him away to some luxury locale. I think he was challenged by the comment, "No one ever does that", when he say he couldn't meet with them the first night. He has no idea where he is but he stays for days without a phone call to anyone. He has no car, misses the meeting and his flight home so his luggage gets to his house before he does and Pete hasn't tried to find him? In fact, Pete doesn't mention to anyone at the office that he hasn't seen him since before the meeting? I was hoping when Don made that phone call, he realized he had been drugged and how strange these people are, and that he was calling a cab to get the heck out of there! Joy said they were going to the Bahamas next, something about taxes. I hope he's not planning on joining them, just because 'daddy will take care of you'. What the heck does that mean and what is he thinking! The minute he saw those kids come, he should have scrammed because the guilt should have been overwhelming. That didn't seem like any environment for kids with everyone half naked. Then Joy is off kissing someone else in the pool, I think because he gave up 'their' room. There's no spying going on here, just weirdness!
It isn't out of the realm of possibility that Don would have been recruited as a spy - not at all.
Phillips had better watch it... Duck season is coming!
P
Response to abaghdadi and everyone else who asked this or thought he was being grifted.
Who the hell were those people!?!
Don/Dick has stumbled into a rare situation even for a NY businessman. Ever read any Scott Fitzgerald novels? There have always been groups of very rich, very sophisticated people in this county who don't work - just roam around in small groups from one rich playland to another. Didn't you catch that one of the men was Douglas Fairbanks, Jr? Also represented was Greta Garbo and her South American lover, Gloria Vanderbilt, Claus Von Brulow - I am not sure who Joy and her father were supposed to be, but all they are after is to have fun. No, these people are not grifters, even thought they will lead Don/Dick far away from his real livf unless he goes home.
Visan: I feel the same way about the "perv" comment. It made me cringe when I was watching.
Ritt: Good call on who Betty is actually talking to on the phone in episode 12! I think that would be a great twist if it was Sara Beth or even her stepmother.
Does anyone know the non-english translations from the "vagabond" group? When Greta and her friend Carlos are introduced, he says something to Joy, and she basically ignores him and starts shedding her clothes (right before Don faints). I'm trying to figure out what Carols said.
Thanks!
Unlike some, I loved this episode, especially the very end. Although I've enjoyed this season, there was something missing, and "It's Dick Whitman" were the words I've been waiting to hear. Dick Whitman lives! I want to know what happened between 1950 and 1960 to make Dick Whitman into Don Draper. For me, this is the most important theme of the whole show. It's always out there, regardless of what happens at the office, at his home, etc. There's somebody out there (besides Pete Campbell and Bertram Cooper) who knows that Don is really Dick and has a history with him (possibly ongoing) that dates back to 1950-60. Is it the woman from the car showroom? Is that who he sent the book to?
Or is this a "Manchurian Candidate" situation?
First of all, Don ran over Paul to get an opportunity to "escape" to California. (Don has a history of wanting to "escape" from one environment to another.) Did he ever really intend to use the time in California as a business trip, or was he going there for some other purpose? At first, it looked like it was business as usual until he saw the slide show about nuclear weapons, then, suddenly, he wanted to escape again. Was the slide show a trigger? So, he went with this exotic crowd to Palm Springs, and, at first, it looked like he was going to have himself a nice adventure, but then he realized that the folks he was with were actually shallow, self indulgent jerks. He looked in the glass and suddenly decided to escape again, to "go home", back to being Dick Whitman, back to someone who really knows who he is. The person on the other end of the phone did not seem surprised to hear from him, and he did not hesitate to call the person.
Last season, they saved the best for the end, and I think they're doing it again this year. This episode is pivotal, not just in terms of Don/Dick, but also with regard to Duck trying to take over SC. Last year, Don redeemed himself with the Carousel presentation. This year I think that, after an absence, he's going to come back to SC and save it from Duck, just in time.
Another thing about this episode, particularly with regard to Pete and his reaction to California: prior to the early 60's, the tv industry was centered in New York. Little by little, it shifted to California (one example is The Tonight Show) and one of the constant themes back then was the difficulty that New Yorkers had in adjusting to the California environment. Most of them hated it at first and made jokes about it all the time. Some (like Woody Allen) never adjusted. Pete's comments reflect that attitude. (I was surprised that he doesn't know how to drive and, therefore, had to have the meeting come to him. I also laughed when he introduced himself giving his mother's maiden name in addition to his last name, thinking that the people in CA would recognize the name and be impressed. It didn't take him long to realize that his pedigree didn't mean jack in CA.
Another comment: Joy had Betty's voice. I wonder if January Jones dubbed her lines.
I didn't quite get the details of the merger talks that Duck had with (his former employer?) and his subsequent presentation to Cooper and Roger. It seemed that he was offering up (without authority) the opportunity to buy controlling interest in Sterling, but when he talked to Cooper and Roger, he seemed to be saying that Sterling could buy the American division of the other company. Either way, Duck could go to jail, but I would love to undersand the business transaction better. Any ideas?
Misc. comments after catching up with this thread:
Swanky K: I am not in St. Louis, but the young lady in question is.
Brian Batt's acting as he listens to Ken's comments about "queers" was amazing. What a fine performance.
Cracked glass: an echo of Henry James's The Golden Bowl.
Back to my favorite theme of the show, Don's existentialism/nihilism. First the rocket guy talking about a future of "total annihilation" and then The Sound And Fury, evoking (as an earlier poster noted) Macbeth: life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Hey! Don has been gone for how long - a weekend? His wife kicked him out and he opted for CA and started looking at the big, wide world. We have no idea where this will go, if anywhere. I don't see Duck as master of the universe - even if his deal goes through he will get his turn to wet his pants from his liquid courage (gin) - it is all pretty open ended, isn't it!
This morning's mail brought me an authentic Mad Men pen, courtesy of Clay, for having written one of the comments he quoted in his "What You're Saying" piece.
Now girls, who wants me?
Anybody think that Don, passing out at poolside, didnt pass out from heat stroke or whatever it is we heard, but instead, was slipped something he was drinking.. ie, he was drugged? And everything that happened after that was a dream sequence?
Kitch, people were saying the mystery Euros in Palm Springs were Grifters (not drifters), ie, con men.
i'm new to this blog and i'm sorry if i'm being ignorant. what is the cultural significance of the two guys kurt and smitty? there seems to be more of a backstory prior to them being hired by don.
Loved that Joy read Faulkner!
does don have blackouts due to trying to block out his terrible upbringing
@Ritt and Polignacgreat posts:
The music confirmed Don was on safari, into a strange land of Jet Setting money... a non reality as most of us define living... it was a TOTAL HEDONISTIC existence... endless sun, fun, sex, travel, wine, drugs (the doctor with his needle), self-indulging of the emollient moment...
Like the girl's car, Don jumped in... Don taking his own physical beauty out for a spin under the sun... looking right into the blinding light of total temptation... so of course at first he faints from sun stroke (what symbolism!)...
Don in the pool, AFTER THE SUN has gone down... can begin to see things up close, the glass, the wine, the guy with the kids (which is a version of a future him, of course) and he is given pause... next morning, alone on the couch, his JOY having swam away Don reveals himself to be Dick... an interesting regression (the sun in the fun a fantacy future he's exploring hedonistically as a 'beautiful person') a regression to his former self looking for something else he discarded, lost, left to become Don... great writing...
P
I thought Don took in the whole experience in Palm Springs with wariness.
I thought it was revealing to Joy that Don didn't want to bring any "baggage" with him. No matter why he had come to the hotel, he was willing to leave it to come with her, unemcumbered. He was one of them, so to speak.
I was ready for a dream or flashback sequence when he passed out. Then there wasn't one. Heat stroke is a very real medical situation, quite possibly brought on by wearing a full suit made for the New York climate in Southern California and not drinking enough water.
On another note, in the preview Cooper's sister (?) is wondering where Don stands in the buyout. Which tells me his opinion will be the deciding factor. If neither faction has a majority, they will need his 1/8th share to settle on Yea or Nay, otherwise it's an automatic Nay.
My Dad was a MAD MAN in the 1960's - Chicago and later New York so I remember all of these characters from my childhood. The show strikes a raw nerve at times and also explains a lot as to my parents dis-functional marriage. I am hooked. In this episode I think we see Don's mind at work - thru a bit of LA fog, heat and fantasy. It may be that in reality the woman at the bar was not the spitting image of his wife nor does Joy have the same voice as Betty nor did the kid at the end resemble himself as a child but in his mind he is connecting the dots. In reality these appear to be gypsy-type jet setters who most likely have no agenda other than being LA weirdos (as Pete alluded to upon his return that the LA people were different). I pretty much think this is Don's head trip.
It IS INTERESTING how Don keeps seeing Betty around... and we do remember/understand from this that Betty was his ideal, his dream girl when he was younger and was becoming DON... the girl like the girl from the movies, a model (Grace Kelly-ish, who didn't want Grace Kelly?) until the girl, the ideal, over time, becomes who she is, a reality, his wife, a person, who herself, is becoming who she is more fully, someone who's leaving her mother created role...
And I also thought that Joy - AT FIRST - looked like Midge and then became Betty's younger persona but in a dream fantasy way of Jet Setting hedonism... like having a younger Midge-Betty in his own dreamscape, escape world of endless pleasure... which of course IS eventually a form of personal ruin... all of the Euro-trashers were trashed, superficial, bored, bathed in the sunlight of absolute self-indulging luxury which leads no where, creates nothing, just cycles from resorts to resorts looking for new "beautiful people" to come on board for a while, ala Don... Don saw the industrial-corportate reality in the slide show, how man has the capasity to kill EVERYTHING... by 1962, we technologically live at the end of time, man had gained the power for total annilhilation... and Don's reaction was to run to arcadia, the lotus land of modern eroticism... "you can get a set of trunks or just go o'natural"
Indeed...
P
Don maybe great looking but, he has real head problems and he's sinking deeper. The more of see of him, the more I am really starting to dislike him. Who cares if he goes back to Betty? She deserves better.
those people were weird, and Don knows it. I think after the whole pool scene towards the end, he had enough and wants to meet this person who knows him as Dick Whitman. Notice how almost everywhere Don saw Betty. He saw in the bar lounge which was really haunting and creepy. Eventhough we think he didnt see her in Joy, some of us who caught her mannerisms and voice knew exactly that was Betty, maybe when Don first met her. Remember Don met Betty while she was a glamourous high fashion model. Maybe Don got attracted to Joy because she reminded him of Betty years ago. Also what I got from the broken glass scene is not the crack in it, but the wine. We all know that Betty likes to drink Wine, she practically is a WINE-O and then when we see who I am guessing Joy's friend or Brother or possible relative with the two children whom he says that he is divorced from their Mother, we see Don look at the young boy. He almost looks sad, as if he misses Betty and the kids. But I think once he had the heat stroke, which I am guessing is his blood presssure or a mini-heartattack, Don got scared, and wanted to be young and hot again, so he jumped Joy's underage bones. No way that girl was 21! She atleast looked about 16. Well hopefully Don leaves them next week, and while I did enjoy we got a break from Betty this week, I am sort of glad she is back next week. Her story and Don's story are so interesting. The writers want us to think that they will get back together, but then they change it. As of right now, I want Betty to seperate herself from Don. He is on a destructive path. Those people seemed fishy, and Don is getting deeper and deeper into trouble. Those people to me, made Bobbie Barrett and Jimmy Barrett look like saints! Something is off with them. I did enjoy this episode, and next week looks to be amazing, and there is something building for the finale! Maybe something will happen to Don over there, and Betty has to rescue him. All I know is that the office of SC is looking pretty awesome without Don there.
THE SUITCASE AT THE END...
Betty is pregnant...
A little bundle on her doorstep... :))
An unexpected package...
Unwanted luggage... :))))
P
I know this is stupid, but I was kind of shocked to see that Don didnt do it with almost every woman he saw. He only chose one. A little girl. A weird little girl, which I think Don saw Betty in.
Another comment or two: I'm wondering about the spy possibility. When he and the people in Palm Springs were playing the "places" game, he was able to participate with the best of them, knew all of these foreign place names. Why would a farm boy know of these things unless he had had specialized training and, possibly, had been an agent and had actually visited some of the places? (Actually, the whole LA/Palm Springs segment reminded me of an old James Bond movie. It had that atmosphere.)
Was the places game a recruitment tool? Once when I was alone having dinner in a restaurant in Athens on vacation, two American men asked me to join them at their table. They were going around the world as part of their job. During the course of our conversation, they asked me questions about my eduational background and foreign language abilities and I eventually suspected that I was on a job interview. They ultimately asked me to contact them after I got back to the U.S., but I never did. They declined to tell me whom they worked for but I suspect CIA.
I think this episode was a companion to the Hobo Code, only the drifters in this episode had European accents and access to money and material possessions. How they got that access is left to the imagination. I predict that we will not see them again; they were simply a one episode plot device, used to illustrate how Don can insert himself into just about any situation. Don is the ultimate drifter who can drop in and out of situations (recall his brief flirtation with bohemia last year with Midge and her gang) and be whatever the situation calls for. His credo, as he explained to Rachel Mencken in Episode 1, Season 1 is: "I am living like there is no tomorrow because there isn't one," a point which was reinforced with the MIRV missle promising total annihilation, brought courtesy of the Kodak Carousel, aka The Wheel. Yet, wherever Don is and whatever he is doing, there is always the nagging thought of "who am I?" and "should I be someplace else?"
The situation with Betty has been weighing on Don, and he probably feels that he has stayed in one place too long and should get the heck out of Ossining and go west or north, or south or wherever. But despite the temptation to "ride the rails" with Joy and Co. he will likely go back to Ossining. He has unfinished business at home and at S&C.
Loved the visuals in this episode. The California sunshine; the initial discomfiture of the man in the gray flannel suit standing by the pool, and then the sudden realization of "hey, I could yet used to this"; Joy's earrings (the dangling balls and then the disks); the mid century modern splendor in Palm Springs; Pete looking like an idiot in his bathing suit; Peggy's new 'do and the dark, stifling atmosphere of the bar where Duck tries to sell Sterling Cooper for 40 pieces of silver as contrasted with the the bright California sunshine in which Don is temporarily frolicking. All in all, a real visual treat.
Yes, the time stamps are off again.
mcmere- I'm assuming Hamm and your friend met at Mizzou where he went to college. He studied acting on a scholarship I believe. (Brad Pitt was there too for a short time) That's funny that your friend pretends that she didn't sleep w/ him to her husband. I, of course would have to brag on that a bit w/ the gals, but a little more descrete w/ my husband. He has to know she's lying!
As for the pen you received that is very cool, but not as cool as the coffee mug I received a few weeks back. It has the MadMen logo on it and there is a dotted line near the rim that says," Fill whiskey to this line"---------------------It's a hoot! all of my MadMen fan friends are very jealous!
These time stamps are wonky again!
To 60s Child & Don's Chick: Yeah, it's always good to see Don just chillin'! Also, it was about time we got to see the back-end business deals and office politics. Thanks you MM writers for all that!!
Harry's on my "character shit list" for calling Smeeth a perv!
THE SUITCASE AT THE END:
Don's naked now... being reborn... looking for thee cloths to fit the new man...
AND his endless quest is moving backwards from reality-pretend (Betty) to fantasy-hedonism (Joy) to discarded origin (?)...
In American modernism you reinvent yourself as you would wish VS. Know thy self???
P
FYI: I'm posting this at 11:39am 10/13. OK....
I really did not like this episode.. UNTIL I came here and read all these posts. So many of you have thrown out ideas/perspectives that I hadn't considered. I thought those "people" were very strange, but I didn't consider they'd be grifters until it was offered here. Now I think that Joy was "bait" for Don to get him to Palm Springs, I DO think he was drugged so he'd pass out, and they could go through his wallet, etc. I also didn't like that needle that was ready to go into Don's arm before he stopped the "doctor". The others looked disappointed. The way they all applauded when Don showed up at dinner? It's like they're all in on the secret plan, whatever it is... And maybe it's nothing and I'm reading more into all this. We shall see.
When I saw Don and Joy drive up to the Palm Springs house, here's what I thought would happen: I thought he was going to be introduced to Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr and whoever else would be hanging out at Frank Sinatra's. That house looked JUST like Sinatra's did then. The Rat Pack would have been much more fun than the pack of weirdos we got this episode. OK, that' my 2cents.
@Kitch great post...
Don must have had a 'real' father figure... mentor... either a sort of con man when he was younger OR that old Greek guy at the fur company where he first worked in New York... will we see that side of him... is that coming up?
P
Visan- I totally agree! Smitty was so comfortable w/ his identity and yet the rest, especially Harry and Ken, were uptight idiots. I laughed out loud at the look on their faces when he said he makes love to men so matter of factly! (I must have laughed very loudly because my neighbor asked me this morning what I was laughing at last night and she lives across the street!)
I also loved how Smitty helped Peggy. He was very sweet about it and matter of fact w/out hurting her feelings. He did more for her self image w/ that hair cut and some fashion advice then anyone else could.
I wanted to slap Harry for the perv comment after Smith left! And poor Sal is just getting a taste of what he's up against if he ever comes out of the closet.
I was disappointed in the lack of detail in this episode - you couldn't place long distance calls directly back then - all calls were operator assisted. If you dialed an area code, you had to have an operator.
No one, not even in the entertainment business woud have come out and said they were "homosexual" back then - it was illegal still in many states. People thought being gay meant you were a pervert (hence Harry's comment - "so he's a pervert") and they arrested you for "deviant behavior". This is millennium behavior forced into a 60s show. It didn't happen.
The lack of details were disappointing after being spoiled by them being spot on for so long.
I think that Don came to his senses and realized he had to address the "Dick Whitman" thing once and for all in order to come back to his old life.
I don't think the 'nomads" were grifters - think Barbara Hutton - she had people like that around her all her life. They obviously drugged him and went through his wallet assuming he might be able to finance their party, but actual grifters - no...just hanger-ons.
I enjoyed your posts PatrickKehoe and Jimk...
The show did feel a little Manchurian Canidate though, and some of the symbolism was extremely obvious.
I believe the voice of Joy was dubbed by Betty's voice or she was coached to sound exactly like her. The show jumped from last weeks ep of being in Betty's stilted, repressed home to the rich nomads eclectic home...neither seemed all that happy and the incest theme was loud and clear.
SandraJoy I not only agree with you, but I think his memories of Dick Whitman are fake...I think Pete hit the nail on the head when he said the Russian's are already doing it, speaking of human bionics. I think Don is totally "manchurian candidate" which also came out in 1962. Maybe he will be the real person that killed Kennedy..okay, that was pushing it, but you all know what I mean.
Sorcha--
I agree with your post regarding the Jet Set of the title. Don sees Willie and his relationship with Joy and is repelled on some level.
Don is absolutely at the edge. Did his "baggage" get sent to Ossining for good--or will he come back as Don to NYC to save Roger from the Duck takeover?
If Mad Men is ending this year, Matt Weiner could just send Don off into the sunset in LA. But if it is going to continue, how can it be a cliffhanger if they're then going to pick up after the Kennedy Assassination in 1964?
I guess we could see Duck in charge at SC. But it feels wrong. Duck has the vibe of a character created with a plot purpose in mind, not a character we're meant to care all that much about.
Boy now I realize how much I've missed the connections between the pitches that were part of several season one shows (most notably in "The Carosel) and the lives of the characters.
Because we're so unsure now just what Don is capable of--it's hard to handicap what's next.
This is probably a sign of my limited personality but if Don is really just tossing his kids aside and heading for a new life 3000 miles away after what he's lived through as a boy, then I've probably invested too much in the character.
You watched Tony Soprano like you watch a tiger in a zoo, or rubberneck a traffic accident. He was a compelling character--you had to look. A clear sociopath whose life choices were really very narrow from the start. Dick Whitman was plausible as Don Draper, but Tony as Kevin Finnerty? No way. Tony was kidding himself. He wasn't selling lawn furniture or graduating from Rutgers back in the 70's, no way.
Don Draper seemed like someone struggling with choices we all make-yes he acted out more--but now, I don't know. There's a tipping point with a character. If he is capable of anything, truly anything, than he's not really a flesh and blood person -- he's a construct--a magic carpet for writers to take where they want.
I mean when does Don learn the lesson that most existential heroes do?--That it is the connections we have with others in the here and now--the simple life of the peasant--as Dostoyevsky puts it--is where the meaning comes from in life. They help us pull our eyes away from the abyss and in doing so weakens it's power over us.
Those connections can be formed by family or by art, or by any number of things. But not by continued wholesale re-invention.
I may just have brought to conventional a world view to this show. I wanted some version of the "happy" false ending of "The Carosel," at the end of season one.
Maybe Don doesn't stay with Betty. But does don the man stand by anything he's started at all? If not, then maybe he is as awful as some (especially scorned women) on these boards have insisted he is.
Hurrrrmmm.
Sorcha--
I agree with your post regarding the Jet Set of the title. Don sees Willie and his relationship with Joy and is repelled on some level.
Don is absolutely at the edge. Did his "baggage" get sent to Ossining for good--or will he come back as Don to NYC to save Roger from the Duck takeover?
If Mad Men is ending this year, Matt Weiner could just send Don off into the sunset in LA. But if it is going to continue, how can it be a cliffhanger if they're then going to pick up after the Kennedy Assassination in 1964?
I guess we could see Duck in charge at SC. But it feels wrong. Duck has the vibe of a character created with a plot purpose in mind, not a character we're meant to care all that much about.
Boy now I realize how much I've missed the connections between the pitches that were part of several season one shows (most notably in "The Carosel) and the lives of the characters.
Because we're so unsure now just what Don is capable of--it's hard to handicap what's next.
This is probably a sign of my limited personality but if Don is really just tossing his kids aside and heading for a new life 3000 miles away after what he's lived through as a boy, then I've probably invested too much in the character.
You watched Tony Soprano like you watch a tiger in a zoo, or rubberneck a traffic accident. He was a compelling character--you had to look. A clear sociopath whose life choices were really very narrow from the start. Dick Whitman was plausible as Don Draper, but Tony as Kevin Finnerty? No way. Tony was kidding himself. He wasn't selling lawn furniture or graduating from Rutgers back in the 70's, no way.
Don Draper seemed like someone struggling with choices we all make-yes he acted out more--but now, I don't know. There's a tipping point with a character. If he is capable of anything, truly anything, than he's not really a flesh and blood person -- he's a construct--a magic carpet for writers to take where they want.
I mean when does Don learn the lesson that most existential heroes do?--That it is the connections we have with others in the here and now--the simple life of the peasant--as Dostoyevsky puts it--is where the meaning comes from in life. They help us pull our eyes away from the abyss and in doing so weakens it's power over us.
Those connections can be formed by family or by art, or by any number of things. But not by continued wholesale re-invention.
I may just have brought to conventional a world view to this show. I wanted some version of the "happy" false ending of "The Carosel," at the end of season one.
Maybe Don doesn't stay with Betty. But does don the man stand by anything he's started at all? If not, then maybe he is as awful as some (especially scorned women) on these boards have insisted he is.
Hurrrrmmm.
Oops. it double posted me...I've never had that happen. Sorry.
ENDING Johnny Mathis singing "What'll I do"
BEGINS: "Gone is the romance that was so divine/It's broken and cannot be mended/You must go your way/And I must go mine/But now that our love dreams have ended/What'll I do when you are far way.../
AND ENDS: "When I'm alone with only dreams of you that won't come true, what'll I do?"
P
audreyj- Yes I agree with you. This for me was the WORST EPISODE EVER. I expected much more. It actually was boring to me. And disappointing. No questions being asked, of him or of those people. DD asked Joy "who are these people" she says "friends"...how vague....but DD just accepts it. Weird how that guy was trying to inject DD with something after his heat stroke. He said he was a Doc but didnt explain what the shot was or what it would do for him.
Plus, DD just let Pete handle all the business after bustin his balls over wanting to hang by the pool- he goes off on his own vacation. DD isn't acting like a partner of an advertising firm. Even his work is suffering from his internal conflicts.
And shame on him for living like some college-aged vagabond and not a father and responsible business man. I am a parent myself and if I was doing something like that, then saw those two kids by the pool- I would feel so guilty and return to my own kids immediately. But what does he do, bang some strange 'girl'.....
Goes from washed-up cougar Bobbie to some crazy young Joy. Extremes, anyone?
I was also perplexed when Joy was telling Don "Your father likes you, he thinks your beautiful" odd. They met, what 18 hours ago and now he is this guy's "son"?? Reminded me of the episode "3 Sundays" when Bobby tells him "we need to get you a new daddy"....
Will Don stay with these weirdos or just take his experiences with him back home?
Wow! I, too, thought of the Tony Soprano/Kevin Finnerty episode!!! That's where a briefcase (i.e., piece of luggage) was symbolic of Tony's soul--- his very life, as it were, since at the end, he chose not to die when he wouldn't hand it over--- remember that? This lost piece of luggage does seem to play the same sort of role. Don is adrift in LA with a bunch of meaningless jet-setters, but his soul/life are back home on BETTY'S DOORSTEP.
By coincidence, I just happened to watch the Fellini movie "La Dolce Vita" a few weeks ago, and as I watched this episode it kept coming back to me. All those beautiful, aimless, bored young Europeans having pointless sex, going to nightclubs, drinking, dancing, swimming, being naked, playing party games just to pass the time because they had nothing else to do. This bunch seemed lifted right out of that movie (which incidentally was released in 1960, so I wonder if it inspired this episode?).
About the Dick Whitman phone call: this was shocking to me because he said his name so casually, and the person obviously wasn't surprised to hear from him. So clearly, he has been maintaining contact with SOMEONE who knows that Dick Whitman is not dead.
I like the theory from the earlier poster who said perhaps it is the hobo who was kind to him as a boy. I don't see it being a woman, for some reason--- a woman would want too much from him, would threaten his new life too much.
I do think this was kind of a dull episode, however. All Don ever seems to do is fall into bed with one woman after another. Yes, he's fine to look at, and yes, he's on a quest and so on, but it's just kind of dull. Personally, I find the Sterling Cooper gang a lot more interesting. Would really like to see more of Peggy and Joanie, as I've said before.
And I agree: Brian Batt's face during the "homo" discussion just broke my heart. I thought it was the most moving and memorable moment in the entire episode.
I just couldn’t believe that Don would just disappear and give Pete the creep more ammunition. His leaving with Joy reminded me of the day he was suppose to pick up the birthday cake – and didn’t return.
And to “coop” my initial reaction when I saw the needle almost in Don’s arm coupled with stupid accents, drugging him in the first place, checking his wallet to learn he was in advertising, the purpose of the trip, etc led me to believe these people were a Russian spy group. It may just have been the writers fueling our imaginations. It did make it interesting.
Duck must have been inspired by Roger’s gotcha’ meeting. Roger will need Don’s 12%. So Duck’s devious plan will backfire and Don slides in safe once again. And we get our Mad Men back.
A very interesting episode, that spark a lot of questions for me- and no jumping of the shark. I think this episode was a way of setting up the whole Cuban Missle Crisis to come in a later episode. The whole business meeting in California, with the missles creating total annihilation. The Cold War race with Russia. The foreignors that take him that are involved in what? in, "you must be well off?" Are they Communists? Red walls. Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury. Who were these people, and what do they truly want with Don? Spies who know why he's out there and what business he is doing? Is Joy bait for something? Don is now on an Existential journey, not a mid-life crisis which is opposite of Roger's new direction which does appear to be a mid-life crisis. Don is on a search or quest for something more meaningful.
I think that the chatter about grifters and spies is off. I'm wondering if those of you who are thinking on these lines may also be the kind of people who are always suspicious of people who are not like you too. It's funny but some of you sound like you're from the early 60's thinking that "foreigners" are all spies, thieves or commies.
How we react to things in this show says a lot about our personal beliefs. Many of you sound like you buy into fear created by media easily.
Don went on this trip at the last minute. No one was waiting to bait or lure him. Joy is just a very privleged girl who is used to seeing something she wants and just assuming she can have it. She liked what she saw in Don (can you blame her) and had her Daddy approach him. Odd as it may seem, this was who they were.
Peggyann--
Would Cooper use his knowledge of Don's past to blackmail him into supporting the sale?
Who could it have been on the phone? As far as I can remember Don really doesn't have any family. Maybe the woman from the car dealership? She searched for him and found him and knew he wasn't the real Don Draper. I'm assuming she was probably the fiance of the real Don Draper, or sister maybe??? I can't wait to find out! I love this show, it's the only thing on tv I look forward to watching all week.
First time I have posted-- ADDICTED to Mad Men since I saw the first TV commercial promo. . .
When Betty & Don had sex at her Dad's house, I think she got pregnant and that is going to factor in soon. . .
Last night's episode was so unusual-- I don't mind, but do mind that I have to wait until Sunday 'til the next episode! Arghh. . .
Who the hell could Don be calling as Dick Whitman?? Can't wait for the answer to that one. Not even just "Dick," but "Dick Whitman." Got to be someone he knew before the war because I presume from the day of the war blast forward, he was Don Draper.
I agree that the weird Palm Springs foriegners were grifters. Especially since they looked through Don's wallet.
I am also waiting to find out where the hell Peggy's baby is? Will Pete ever mention that they are adopting and will Peggy say, "Oh, I know a kid you'll want to adopt!" ;o)
About the grifter idea. Isn't Don a grifter of sorts? Taking someone elses identity? I don't think he would be fooled by those people. They were odd.
Funny I just thought of the characters at dinner in Palm Springs w/ Don like out of Alice in Wonderland. Don is like Alice in this funny little world that he fell into to.
I thought the episode had a trippy feel the whole time.
Interesting observations jamsavy.
AshUnabashed asked what Carlos said to Joy when she introduced DD to everyone at the Palm Springs pool. I think he asked her (in Spanish) "Someone important?" and Joy replied "What goes Carlos?". Just my .02.
JimK Good point. But would that be a good plot to continue the Mad Men series?
Unless Don & Rog buddy up to start their own agency. How would they divide up? Thad would open up the juices for twists and turns in the plots.
I like the way the writers shake things up.
Also, Cooper is the most intriguing character in this series.
Misssugar - really interesting theory on the seam in the glass. I was wondering what that was all about. But does Don really miss Betty or is he afraid of running into her?
Don is soul searching.
The glass has a seam. it has two pieces but its the same glass. It isn't a crack.
he misses betty that is why he is seeing her every where. Joy is an escape and Don knows something isn't right with those people.
I also thought, what an odd choice for the closing song. "What'll I Do?" is a beautiful song, but of all the songs they could have chosen for a final commentary on this odd episode-- why that one?
The connection to "The Great Gatsby" is pretty obvious, since it was used in that movie, but the song is actually much older--- it was written by Irving Berlin, was it not? and dates back to the 1920s.
Perhaps the writers meant to draw a parallel to Gatsby--- a beautiful man who wasn't born wealthy or privileged or anything special, but who made up his mind to create himself anew, through sheer willpower, and ended up rich beyond his wildest dreams (and hanging out with a bunch of aimless rich people). Yet he comes to a tragic end, and loses his chance to be with the only girl he ever loved.
The words of the song really sound more like Betty's POV than Don's.
What'll I do when you are far away, and I am blue?
What'll I do when I am wondering who is kissing you?
What'll I do with just a photograph to tell my troubles to?
When I'm alone, with only dreams of you that won't come true.... what'll I do?
Earlier people were commenting on the group DD meets in CA as drifters. After sleeping on the episode I think Don maybe was a drifter immediately after the war as well. It would explain how he went from being the somber but obedient child/soldier to the slick, confident man he presents today. The phone call where he identifies himself as Dick Whitman was probably to the person who introduced him to the life of being a drifter. An older con man who Don may have developed an attachment to and learned how to read people, assume identities, con. Similar to his "father/son" like relationship with Roger. I also wonder if the Joy and her drifter set recognized that Don is a drifter as well? Maybe meeting Betty started as another drift for Don but he ended up finding what he always wanted in the form of the "perfect" family but he's still feels compulsively drawn to the drift thus his dalliances.
I don't remember what episode it was but it was season 1. Don was travelling home on the train and some guy he was in the service with recognizes him as Dick Whitman...
It seems to me that this episode, which is so masterful in so many ways, is about identity. Who are you? Who do you present to be? Who do you want to be? Who are the people around you?-- was carried through like a well crafted short story. One in which you think you know what is going on, but you have to re-read it several times to really start to understand what is taking place. It was almost like a dream sequence within the "reality" of the larger show. What I took from this is that Don has found himself with others who pick and choose who they want to be, and nothing is revealed below a certain level. For example, when the conversation at dinner among the "jet set" in Palm Springs gets too personal, a game of places is suggested and the entire mood of the evening is changed. I also think rather than being "grifted" Don is beging welcomed by those assembled at the home in Palm Springs as a kindred spirit. I do think the aerospace presentation revealed a "fracture" in Don's personality that has brought Dick back to life to some degree. This ties back to the cut scene (last season?) in which he is at Peggy's bedside in the mental hospital, encouraging her to put this behind her and return to work. I don't remember the exact verbiage Don used, but I do remember it being very indicitive that he may not just have assumed Don's personality during the war-- but actually internalized it to a degree. Now, it appears Dick may have been unleashed by the presentation and the ensuing turn of events related to Joye. I think that is what Don's passing out at the pool has actually illustrated for us. Prior to that he was still very reserved and very much the "Madison Avenue Suit". After pasing out and awakening, he comes to dinner in casual clothes and "emerges" a very different person.
everyone looked so familar to Don's life...a woman as Bobbie Barett and the man as Jimmy,, Joy as Betty, a woman like Midge and the whole scene as her friends... the madness of it all.
===================
Maybe this is like "his entire life flashed before his eyes."
Just a thought.
Bank credit cards as we think of them today have been around since 1958; Diner's Club cards earlier than that. And the first direct dial long distance phone call (according to AT&T) was made in 1951, between the mayors of Englewood NJ and Alameda CA. No errors there.
Did Roger and Coop not notice Duck say 51%? That's a controlling interest. Coop would be ensconced in his office as figurehead and trotted out on state occasions; Roger would be off swanning around with his Janie, out of the business entirely; and Don would be reporting to Duck? I think not. Since Don has no contract he'd be off like a shot, maybe opening his own agency (and taking Sal, Peggy and maybe Harry for the TV business) - if, that is, he decided to stay an ad man.
Swanky K, I have cup-envy.
One great part of the episode were the folks being who they are and not apologizing for it! The Jet Setters were rich and didn't have jobs but were OK with that! Just like Smitty was gay and had no problem telling a room full of essentially phony co-workers that he makes love to other men! Also, liked the smackdown Smith gave them, telling 'em Smitty wasn't the only gay in the ad world! Ha!
Matt Weiner stated that things would build up towards the end of the season. I think this episode was the gateway to answering some questions about Dick Whitman. Obviously, a lot of people found this episode boring but I thought it was terrific!
Maybe Don is not a deserter!
After last night I thought I disliked the show, but as I went for a run all I did was think about it and came to the conclusion it WAS very interesting, but as a detour from the New York way of doing things and I hope they get back to it and DD's life as it relates to SC, family etc. I too think he misses Betty and is trying to reconcile his past in a way he can be "honest" with her and they can move on. I can feel the dislike of Betty practically radiating from my monitor and started wondering if good writing supposed to be able to change peoples perspectives/opinions on characters (cough, cough, Betty) as the story unfolds or is it supposed to be ambiguous enough to allow us to keep our original opinions intact?
Yeah, Dimples: that's what I said: "is that Betty at that bar?"
Thanks JackieMonroe for confirming the singer of the song, Johnny Mathis. There are so many versions out there. I thought it was him. Even more appropriate to the show, since he is gay.
Had to look up the significance of Joy reading "The Sound and the Fury." Per WIkipedia:
Explanation of the novel's title
The title of the novel is taken from Macbeth's soliloquy in act 5, scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth:
"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
The story of a family's fall into ruin. How appropriate.
Well Don drives to P.springs w/ Joye , arrives takes a drink and collapses.
In my head the song " White Rabbit " was playing as he hit the pool deck. One pill makes you larger , one pill makes you small.
However JeffersonAirplane was not a group i don't think yet to have suppled the song for this episode.
But this episode has Everyone thinking , Spies , Mind bend a real twisted plot.
Is Don a ? ... Shit we all know he's Not anything we think he is. Dick Whitman roled off his lips like an old fashion as sure as he's Don Draper.
I kept waiting to see Paul Kinsey on a stretcher in an ambulance from a brick in the head.
Joye's in the pool with Don and then poof who is then kissing in the pool , another couple or was that Joye with another ? Just as Don has no loyality to Betty nor does Joye to Don. Or was it someone else another couple completely ?
Did anyone notice the isolation between Don's time and the Agency side of the story. Don's floating thru the episode and Sterling Copper is being put up for Bidding. Pete's working as planned , Homosexual in the mix, Peggy's getting her hair cut and Rogers putting Jane on a pedistal while getting a divorce. These are all serious issues and Don's having another drink and pounding a 21year old.
And now as convoluted as the episode I change directions ...
Also at dinner Don mentions are you all independ and well off. The lady (someone ) at the table makes a face and everyone cringes, hoping nothing else is said.
Jane will disappoint Roger she trusts no one, especially him who just dropped his wife after 25years.
This episode was one of the best as we all have seen and we can not as a Blog predict anything about this writer and this enjoyable show.
We are all Kindergarteners small shallow wide eyed WorthLess as a talk forum and the MadMen have the last as well as all the laughs.
Move over " Lost " MadMen is in the house.
What's on your mind ???
I'm sad I missed some of the great conversations going on in this thread. JimK, your insights are, well, insightful. My comment (#3) I had to throw out there as soon as la Visier and his nymphette daughter wandered up and introduced themselves. I thought, how out of place Don and Pete look in laid-back Cali. Immediately my wife said "who the heck are these grifters" and I thought it was so perfect. However, with some of the ideas in this thread I'm finding more of the nuances. The weirdos, jet-setters or whatever you call them may not be "grifters" in the lowest sense but they're definitely untrustable. Lots of suggestions of drugging, casually mentioning "your wallet fell out," the resident Dr. Feelgood etc. A weird bunch but nothing Don's unaccustomed to. Why couldn't they be spies, where else would they be other than a defense contractors' trade show? And they would know Don would be the most likely to get his foot in the door.
Speaking of drugs, Jane's mention of mushrooms at the beginning was a reference to Alice in Wonderland, not to be taken literally. The iconic shot of the shirtless Don, gone through the looking glass. Alice was asleep, as was Don for much of the time. We'll find out how deep the rabbit hole goes next time.
The last page of the book looked like it was full of blurbs to me. Could anyone with hi-def read his writing?
Oh, and the music was "Rhythm of the Rain" by Dan Fogelberg. It is available on amazon.com.
I don't think Joy looked or sounded like Betty at all. Betty is older but emotionally she is the same age as her little friend Glen. While Joy is very young in years, she understands the score. As does the young Jane Roger is infatuated with. I think Joy and her group were just jet setters.
Don has an internal struggle about his infidelity and I could see that at the beginning of the show. Infidelity back in the early 60's was not viewed like it is today. Men could have affairs as long as they were discreet, and still have the other life of wife, children, Golden Retriever, white picket fence. Don lacks discretion. When the children came to the pool, I think he thought of his own children. The man definitely has a conscience and is a thinker. He's just not cut out to be a philanderer. I predict Don and Betty will stay together.
Another poster commented that there were no credit cards in the early 60's and that he could not have dialed directly. Wrong on both accounts. The show is unerringly accurate in its details, one of the things I love about it.
The suitcase Betty was dreaming about in the previous episode? The airline had Don's lost luggage delivered to his home. Love it.
What an extraordinary show. I've been following it since the first episode when I was drawn to it by the awesome graphics that were its promotion. II don't feel like there's been another show with better intro graphics. I love the figure falling falling falling. I 'm sure glad I didnt miss it from the beginning. The writing for every episode is flawless...as once again demonstrated last evening. Just when you hypothesize some ideas on where the story lines might be evolving, they throw you such a left curve that there is no way in heck you could have anticipated it. I don't know what to make of last evening's episode. The acting from everyone across both seasons is just fantastic. Jon Hamm's facial expressions and body movements really project all the nuances that give "Don Draper" life and the complexity which generates sympathy for him while simultaneously making him a liar/cad. I so enjoy him and the rest of the cast. I hope someone from the program reads this board and can communicate back to the entire cast how much their acting is appreciated. Now, back to last night:
1. At the end of the previous episode, the combination of the music selection and the light coming through the airplane window and rising up on his face, I thought, DD was in trouble. He did his best, in what seemed sincere, to help Betty with the visit to her Dad's. That seemed like Don trying to do the right thing. I think the sex really happened at her parents and wasn't a dream. (Although I'm not totally sure in light of his percepton of the blond at the bar last night being Bets.) While she could still be mad about his infidelties she could have at least acknowledged his efforts at being kind (telling her to eat, etc) in this special circumstance. When she kicked him back out at their house without even saying thanks for helping, I thought he's gone. The thing on the airplane just "illuminated" that for me. I'm not saying that his acting in a husband role during a family crisis was the "pass" card for his affair but she could have at least acknowledged his effort. I keep thinking back to a remark he made to Bets a few episodes back (when she accused him) that "nothing happened." Maybe in his mind all this sex is just sex and has nothing to do with what he has/had going on with his family. Sorry, I'm rambling!
2. There is something about this group that seems suspicious on so many levels. When they were sitting around the table eating and Don steps out to join them, someone says, "here he is." Like how people stop talking about someone when that person enters the room. Also, I wondered if there wasn't something in the drink they gave him at pool side. And what was in the syringe that this "doctor" was about to give him (Don turned it away). I don't know of any medication that would be given to someone for heatstroke...
2. In one of the previews on amc this morning (Tuesday) it shows Bets yelling into the phone, "No one told you to sleep with him!" I wonder who she's talking to and why. Is it Bobbi? Why would she be talking with Bobbi?
3. I thought he steered the children away from the pool not just cause they were tired but because they were young and people were making out in the pool. And who was the guy accompanying them? As sexually loose as DD is, he seems to have some limits around the kids....like the time Sally and Bobbie walked in to the bedroom when he and Bets were starting to make love.
4. What really threw me at the end was the telephone call he made identifying himself as Dick Whitman. That blew me away. Who still knows him as Dick Whitman???
Well, this has been a long post! I think this show should be on year round!!! It's the best show on TV. The person who posted that it's literature got it right!
Oh and one final thing. Yes, Jon Hamm should be on the next cover of People or a similar magazine as the sexiest man of the year. It takes nothing away from his acting skills!
I think Don is in a fugue state, brought on by stress of being separated, triggered by the missile demonstrations and possibly drugs in the drinks he is being served.
This is a well documented psychiatric condition, albeit extremely rare. People in this state are in a dreamlike state where they travel away from home, adopt other identities, leave their responsibilities and families etc. What distinguishes this from people just "running away" is that whatever happens is subconscious. Not only is there no clear motive for this, people get themselves into big trouble by not showing upto work, not calling home etc. The motives are presumed to be subconscious.
He is so calm, worry free, and the clincher: using his real name. I think he has forgotten about his life in New York.He may be a philanderer, but it would be extremely uncharacteristic for Don to miss his flight, not return to work. Despite everything he has shown up for work.
To those who thought last night's episode was boring: MM may not be for you. If you like crazy soap-opera storylines filled with excitement: MM may not be for you. This is a show that's centered around character development not ratings. Which is why i love it.
Don surprised me by leaving everything and embracing Joy given his status that he so values. I guess i shouldn't have been considering his lack of commitment and the fact that "he has no people." I think he's confronting this ideology of youth that he's been resisting the whole season, notice how Willy "doesn't want people to know he's old." There's no way of knowing what effect the Jet Set had on him till next episode. Hopefully he realizes how infantile most of his ambitions really are.
I think that the mystery person will either be Anna (blonde in the car dealership) although some of you have discounted her she could still know that he's dick whitman maybe they have some sort of arrangement, or it's an estranged child or lover in which case its useless to speculate.
One last thing Betty is my fave this season. She is the most unique and authentic character in Television history, in all dramas really.
woof woof -- Why isn't your name "meow meow"?
You look like a cat to me!
peggyann- agreed with your post of 10/13 1:46 pm. I think that Daddy Willy would like to get it on with Don...and his own daughter. I thought it very intrusive for him to walk in on them when they were in bed. What father would walk in on his partially covered but nude daughter and some guy that he just met and who is also nude and barely covered with the sheets....All I can say is, "Run Don, Run!"
I agree with the theory that Don misses Betty. He saw her everywhere. Even in Joy. She had the look of betty, even the mannerism..."The sex was great, the book boring" that is something Betty would totally say. Also did anyone else notice the wine drinking, we all know Betty loves her glass of wine. Then when Don sees the Kids, I think he knows what he has back home, and is using them as a safety net. Right now he is trying to find himself. That person he called could be a close friend or a relative, we dont know. I do know is that those people were not "Dons people" he seemed a bit bored with them towards the end, and when he noticed how intimately Joy and her Father were, he was somewhat turned off. Don really needs to get it together. All I have to say is that if he indeed went with RACHEL to LA last season, I think he would have been a manwhore also, thus making Rachel regret their affair. I think its over between them. Now he is starting to see Betty eveywhere, not Rachel anymore.
If anyone has already posted this, I apologize, but does anyone think that the person "Dick" called might be that "mentor" guy (forget his name) from the fur company that taught him all about how to sell (Don mentioned him in "The Wheel")? Maybe he and Don/Dick have been communicating ever since, all this time (just because we haven't seen it in epis, it still could have been going on) and that man is now living in California? Not any more far fetched than anything else I've seen on the show lately! lol
This is my favorite show and cannot believe how addicted I've become. After each episode I get on this sight to read the comments of my fellow MM addicts ...343 so far, amazing.
1st of all I was born in '62, so it's fun to see what was going then. Anyhow, my thoughts after last night:
This whole episode had me nuts! The ending comments of Don to the person on the phone as Dick Whitman..what? Reminded me of my respond in the ending of No Way Out with Kevin Costner. All along in that movie, Kevin was portrayed as someone else and in the end was the very one everyone was looking for: a spy.
Before the presentation, Pete and Don were at the bar and Pete had mentioned something about the Russians making men like robots fit for space and Don just smirked. The scene at the pool and the table, everyone looked so familar to Don's life...a woman as Bobbie Barett and the man as Jimmy,, Joy as Betty, a woman like Midge and the whole scene as her friends... the madness of it all. Then the little boy who I believed played a young Dick, was as sad looking when the Hobo came passing by. I think the person on the phone was the Hobo, he was the only one in young Dick's life who ever spoke some truth to him.
The luggage at the door. Who knows what will be inside... in the last few episodes Betty has been rummaging through everything to find any hints of Don's infidelities.. maybe she'll find a whole suitcase full and more.
I don't know, what I do know is the writers of this show are geniuses (sp?) and the last minutes I'm left with .. what????
I was concerned for Don - if these people have evil intent, how is he going to get the hell out of there? Maybe that was the purpose of the Dick Whitman phone call. I really think they're out to rip him off or blackmail him somehow.
Looking ahead to next week, I wonder what Trudy's upset about. I don't like her - I don't think she cares for Pete at all and just married him because she wanted to be a wife and he was a "catch."
Auburn Annie Next time you Google, scroll down a bit. Most cities were not equipped to be able to direct dial long distance until into the 1970s.
The telephone industry made a United States "first" in the New Jersey communities of Englewood and Teaneck with the introduction of what is known now as Direct Distance Dialing. Starting on November 10, 1951, customers of the ENglewood 3, ENglewood 4 and TEaneck 7 exchanges (who could already dial New York City and area) were able to dial 11 cities across the United States, simply by dialing the three-digit area code and the seven digit number (which at the time consisted of the first two letters of the Exchange Name and five digits).
The 11 cities and their area codes at that time were:
* Boston, Massachusetts (617)
* Chicago, Illinois (312)
* Cleveland, Ohio (216)
* Detroit, Michigan (313)
* Milwaukee, Wisconsin (414)
* Oakland, California (415)
* Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (215)
* Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (412)
* Providence, Rhode Island (401)
* Sacramento, California (916)
* San Francisco, California (318) - San Francisco required the special area code 318 for temporary routing requirements[1]
Many other cities could not yet be included as they did not yet have the necessary switching equipment to handle incoming calls automatically on their long distance circuits.Other cities still had either a mixture of local number lengths or were all still six-digit numbers; Montreal and Toronto, Canada, for example, had a mix of six- and seven-digit numbers from 1951 to 1957, and did not have DDD until 1958. Whitehorse, Yukon, had seven-digit numbers from 1965, but the necessary switching equipment was not in place locally until 1972.
When We Learned to Dial Direct
Atlanta gets direct dialing, 1960!Long distance phone calls are made without a second thought nowadays. I have a very reasonably priced cell phone plan that allows me to converse with my brothers, who live a long ways from me, for no added charge. You can buy cards in convenience stores that give you long distance for pennies a minute. In fact, international calls have gotten cheap. And many take advantage of Skype and similar services to talk to friends and relatives all around the world for next to nothing.
But go back to the 60's, and many of us were having to speak to an operator to make a call outside our immediate area. And those calls didn't come cheaply, either.
The first direct-dial long distance phone call was made in 1951 when the mayor of Englewood, NJ called the mayor of Alameda, CA. Before that, most long-distance calls required an operator at both the calling AND receiving end.
But AT&T launched the direct dial system, which necessitated the adoption of area codes, and the long distance operator began a slow but sure path to extinction.Operators in action, circa 1955
Once upon a time, you will recall, you began your long distance call by dialing 0. When the operator answered, you told her (most of the time, although male operators have existed since the early days) what number you wished to dial, in what city, and what method you preferred. Your choices were person-to-person (expensive, but if your party was unavailable, free) or station-to-station (cheaper, but a voice, ANY voice, on the other end meant the meter began ticking).
Of course, the person-to-person method allowed imaginative individuals to communicate free of charge. Placing a call to "Joe S. Aboy" would announce the gender and name of a newborn free of charge to a relative in Minnesota circa 1965.
By the 1970's, most of the country was capable of dialing directly, although many chose to do it the old fashioned way. I recall AT&T running many commercials about the reduced cost of 1+ long distance in the early years of that decade.
My thrifty father picked up on the new technology early in the game, insisting that in the unlikely event that a long distance call WAS necessary, it must be made by dialing directly. We were on a party line in Centerton, Arkansas when it finally made it to our home, and the operator would ask you what number you were dialing from, and that was the end of the dialog. After that, you had your own direct long distance connection, "untouched by human hands" (as a local potato chip maker liked to advertise about their wares).
So if you remember JFK, there's a good chance you also recall when a long distance call meant dialing 0, instead of 1.
Detail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don identifies himself as "STEVE WHITMAN" not Dick Whitman
Someone mentioned above that Don was not wearing his wedding ring in this episode. Don hasn't worn a wedding ring in a long time. In fact, I'd have to go back to season 1 to see if he wore it there. Anybody know? He didn't even wear it when he was not separated.
Also, I do believe as soon as he got to LA, he became Dick Whitman. He left Don Draper behind in NY. Notice this is the first time he had a sexual encounter without telling the girl he was married. Before the women always knew. In fact, he interrupted his first kiss with Rachel just to tell her he was married. That way they know right off the bat that he is a liar and a cheat. Let's face it; Don doesn't really have a high opinion of himself like he may portray to the rest of the world. He is Don Draper when he is married to Betty so he must perpetuate these lies. But when he becomes Dick Whitman, he is not, in his mind, married to Betty (after all Betty has no idea Dick Whitman even exists). He is, for all intents and purposes, a single guy free to have sex with anyone he chooses.
I think the visitor (and children) are probably Joy's husband and her kids. Pretty creepy, the way her father pimped her out to Don, though.
Important detail missed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don identifies himself as "STEVE WHITMAN" not
Dick Whitman.
I think Pete sent the suitcase to on's house. Pete knows they are separated and probably heard Don went off with Joy. Slick Pete was just to cool when he came back to work.
There was no reason for him and Don not to have come back together. Pete is acting like he did when he took Don's box from his brother.
As for the foreigners, they were just rich trust fund junkies who reminded Don of his days as a boy staying at the Whitman brothel. Remember, he was raised with prostitiutes and moraless people so why not jump in and have some fun.
Has anyone noticed how in every affair except the first one, it seems as if Don is being raped. It's like he gets women hot and gets all coy like he is the girl. Bobby, Joy especially.
abaghdadi I hate comments like yours. If we choose to not like an episode doesn't mean we shouldn't watch the program. Stop being so high and mighty.
I loved last nights episode, so much going on. I have to agree with soflaKate. Don's new friends just see him as an handsome amusing plaything to be enjoyed until they tire of him. These people are clearly living the hippie lifestyle that became popular a few years after 62: Free love , sex with no strings attached, drugs. This crowd is early hippies not grifters. I think Don is way out of his league with them. When Don made the comment that they must be rich and was ignored proved that.
What was strange though was Pete did not look for Don and he went back to New York without him. Doesn't matter if they don't like each other, I would still expect him to be concerned.
Again I think that Mad Men stepped out of their time when Kurt freely admitted he was gay. All he got was some snickers and shocked expressions and then everyone laughed it off. Just like the previous episode when the interracial couple were accepted. Not 1962 behaviour.
Visan, I believe as long as he is Dick Whitman and not Don Draper, he will whore around as you say. He is only married when he is Don Draper. As soon as he got to LA, he became Dick Whitman, a single man free to have sex with whomeve he chooses.
I think Don hanging out with this group of nomads is reminicent of his time with the bohemians and that woman we saw him have his first affair with: trying on a different lifestyle for size and not fitting in. That, or Don realizes he can't do whatever he wants like travel aimlessly around the world. He does have a family and a prestigious job, but if he could escape, maybe it would be to become Dick Wittman again.
jamm, I also think the jet setters were going to give Dick more drugs when that one guy, supposedly a doctor, had a syringe in his hand. But Dick refused. I say Dick because I think he left Don and Don's entire life behind in NY and became Dick as soon as he got to LA.
Important detail missed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don identifies himself as "STEVE WHITMAN" not
Dick Whitman.
Nope, he says Dick.
I agree with "JENDALSSAN": I was waiting all week for the show, and feel like I only saw half an episode. The rest was a story with too many new "who-gives-a-hoot?" characters. I thought the California episode was going to be alot of fun!
What a disappointment.
This week's "Entertainment Weekly" issue revealed that John Slattery is married to the actress playing "Mona" in real life.
With Don, it was all "reaction" shots - no scences of him throwing toy robots across the kitchen (one of my all-time favorite DD scaenes).
The scene with Sal's "reaction", about Kurt, was my favorite part of the episode. Yes, homosexuality at t