MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "At The Codfish Ball"

Welcome to the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"At The Codfish Ball"

Season 5, Episode 7

airdate: April 29th, 2012

Jon: Welcome back to another installment of the Partners' Meeting where someday you can spread your legs and fly away.

This week we start our trip to the codfish ball (whatever that is) by checking in on my homeboy Glen, who is now even extra worldly with a hint of a crustache and post-breakup scars marking his soul. Sally has continued to keep in touch with him via phone since they last parted ways, talking about what pre-teens talk about, which is pretty much nothing. But since she must take the phone from across the hall into her bedroom in order to gab comfortably in private, the outstretched phone cord leads to a sloshed Grandma Pauline to trip over it and be even more unfit than usual to care for Sally and Bobby. However, Grandma Pauline's misfortune is Sally's gain, and now she gets to spend a few days with her father.

But it's not just Don she has the pleasure to join this week as Megan's intellectual French-Canadian parents have come to New York for a visit. Their marriage is hanging on by a thread, with her hitting on a suprisingly unsuspecting Don at every opportunity while Megan's father seeks solace in a phone call from his publisher's rejection from his latest grad student tryst. The kids arrive downtown in time for dinner, but Sally doesn't like the fish the rest are having, so Megan makes her some spaghetti. The next day at the office, Megan finally cracks the Heinz account after being inspired by her and her family's past with spaghetti and applies it to baked beans. During the usual SCDP dinner courting of the visiting Heinz executive and his wife before their morning pitch, Megan learns that they're about to lose their account after all the lackluster work we've seen over the course of the season (bean ballet, anyone?). She warns Don about it and then prods him to make the new pitch here and now before he flips out and they're fired on the spot. It was vintage Don Draper, enhanced by Megan's presence, and it worked. Everyone's ecstatic over this grand success. Except for Megan, who is horrified to learn from Peggy that this is as good as this job gets.

Meanwhile, Peggy's relationship with Abe takes a turn for the more serious with a big decision. Unfortunately for him, Joan has psyched Peggy up for a marriage proposal, not the "let's move in together" one he nervously offers. She accepts with concealed disappointment, then invites her mother over for a meal at their new abode to break the news of them shacking up in sin. That goes predictably awful, so badly in fact that they don't even get any cake out of the deal.

But they weren't the only ones left cakeless. The other big event of the episode was Don receiving an award from the American Cancer Society for his previous work at a hoity-toity dinner, accompanied by Megan and her parents. Sally asks her daddy to be included and he agrees, so long as she leaves the make-up and go-go boots at home. She may finally be allowed to sit at the grown-up's table, but she's still his little girl, after all. Roger, who has been telling everyone under the sun about how great his LSD experience was, is her date and adds to the masquerade by treating her like a Mona in training by bouncing business party etiquette off her and handing out a Shirley Temple when she's showing signs of needing to taper off. All of these moves are incredibly charming to Megan's mother, who finally has a willing partner in Roger to flirt with. Those flirtations quickly escalate to something far more adult than Sally was prepared for after she walks in on them. By the time a dazed Sally makes her way back to the table, she's forever finished with those Shirley Temples and later that night tells Glen that the city is simply dirty. Whether or not she meant dirty in a good or bad way is yet to be seen, but she's officially primed for a new level of trouble to get into.

Just before that, we also learn why Megan isn't excited as everyone else for her big Heinz win. Her father taught her that "giving up" and selling your soul is the worst offense possible in this world, because Karl Marx said so. She's viewed as being handed all of her successes, even the ones she's illegitimately earned, for no other reason than because she's married Don. Apparently being a secretary by day and a struggling actress by night is the path to a more righteous existence. Has she given up or has she found what makes her happy? Her father certainly has shamed her into thinking she's failing at life, but who is he to talk? She and Don may not be together forever, but when they're on, they're amazing together. But I think Megan's rearing is the latest clue these two won't be able to make it work in the end.

And with my final observation about this week, I'd like to point out how wonderful the score of the episode was in "At The Codfish Ball." Outside of something overt like "Bye-Bye, Birdie" and this season's use of "Zou Bisou Bisou" being integral to the plot and unlike the bell-ringing that the inclusion of "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" induced last week, the music on Mad Men (and most other shows, really) is often something that rarely makes itself known while residing in the background. But there were multiple times this week where a classical riff from a clarinet (or was it an oboe?) and a piano struck me. It's not necessarily important to the episode, but is indicative of the show's subtle qualities I appreciate from week to week and it was especially nicely done this week to counteract the silence of the characters in those moments.

Enough about boring background music. What say you, Mike?

Mike: I’m not as good at recapping events like my cohorts Jon and Mark here, but I do want to look at a bunch of stuff in this episode that really resonated with me.  So, here goes:  Not to put too fine a point on it, but Sally Draper really fucking scares me.

No -- not her, so much as what she could become, so much of which is completely out of her control.  For an entire episode which could actually be summed up as “how to screw your daughter up, sometimes without even knowing it or meaning to,” we saw time and time again how circumstances have created the Peggy and Megan that we know and love, and also got some terrifying glimpses of what might be going on inside Sally’s head.

It’s a credit to the young actress Kiernan Shipka that her portrayal of Sally is so well-rounded.  We can see the all-but-seething discontent with her life in that huge mansion in upstate New York somewhere, the only respite being her flirtatious, precocious conversations with good ol’ creepy Glenn who, lest we forget, in times past had shared in an emotional affair with Sally’s own mother.  Now, Sally has what really in all truth seems like a loving, caring father in Don, especially the seemingly more well-adjusted “Season Five Don,” but he’s also kept at a distance because she does not live with him.  Her everyday life is filled with what seems like an absentee mother and father figure, two ciphers as brothers, and a domineering (but plucky) stepgrandmother whose respect she still has yet to earn.  With this living situation, alongside the serial killings and the brewing cultural-societal tumult of the ‘60s, it’s no wonder that she’s starting to feel a lot of pressure that she might not even be able to give a name to yet.

That said, we also see another side of Sally in this episode that I also buy into -- the girl who loves shopping with her cool young stepmom and showing off her short-skirted dress, who wants her daddy to think she looks pretty in it, and who wants to go watch that same guy, the apple of her eye, win a prestigious award with all of the other adults.  Too bad everyone but Sally’s aforementioned dad and stepmom are determined to behave like children all night.  If it’s not Megan’s constantly warring parents, it’s Roger taking full advantage of his newly hippified, freethinking outlook on life and also, as coincidence may hold, full advantage of Megan’s mom too.

Full disclosure time: I have a gorgeous, funny, brilliant, insane and creative two-and-a-half-year-old daughter who’s got me eating out of the palm of her hand.  (I’ve got an infant son, too, but I’ve only just begun to fear for his future.)  Like I hope most parents do of their own children, I think the world my daughter, and simultaneously balance the thought that I can’t believe how lucky we are to have her with the desperate desire for the sacred and sweet relief of her 8:00pm bedtime.  Maybe those of you out there who are parents can relate.

Anyway, when I see Sally, through virtually no fault of her own, embarking upon the process of losing faith in humanity at such a young age, it terrifies me to think that as much as I would like to protect my own daughter from such experiences, there isn’t any honest way to guarantee her safety.  And does it really do you any good to have faith in humanity in the first place?  Well, this probably isn’t the right place for that discussion.  I guess, at the very least, I would like my kids to have the opportunity to give humanity the chance to prove itself.  And for a child of her temperament, and who has gone through the things that she has, I’m afraid that poor Sally Draper may have already cast her vote.

In other developments this episode, we also saw Peggy seek out a truthful relationship with her mother, who hasn’t been around for a while, at least not onscreen.  From the outset, I knew the whole dinner thing was not going to go well, and I spent some tense moments waiting for what was surely to be the elder Mrs. Olson’s reaction to Abe and Peggy shacking up.  It takes a pretty nuanced hand to show a child you still love them while perhaps not completely agreeing with the path they have chosen in life, and Peggy’s mother has none of it.  As a young father, I (perhaps naively) have a hard time believing that I will ever find myself in that kind of situation with my children, but should that ever be the case, I hope I handle it a whole lot better than Mrs. Olson did.

Finally, I wanted to mention that this may have been the episode where Megan finally won me over for good.  I’ve been so focused on watching the warning signs in Don’s behavior and predicting what tragic turns her and Don’s relationship might (still) take that I might have missed all the good there, too.  Especially in comparison to Megan's parents!  Simply put, the copywriting and advertising magic that the Don and Megan team create in this episode really show that she’s not just some arm candy who humped herself out of a secretary job and into the creative field.  She, like Peggy before her, has really got some talent in the ad arena, and it’s beginning to bear fruit.  I really enjoyed the masterful interplay between Don and Megan as they used every trick in the book to snare a client.  I saw a lot of mutual respect and depth in their relationship, with both Don and Megan knowing when it was time to act and when it was time to step back and let the instincts of the other partner take control.  It was a thing of beauty to see unfold, and I hope there’s more of this kind of success for them in store.

Now, last episode, Burt criticized Don for being on “love leave” in recent times and urged him not-so-gently to get his shit together.  Could it be, though, that this very same love will be the key to his creative resurgence?  Or will Megan’s burgeoning talent begin to outshine Don’s, resulting in an ugly display of bruised pride?  I’m really hoping for the former, to be honest, but as usual I’m intrigued to see what comes next.

Jon: Hey, I'm back! Aren't you excited? Anyway, while trying to find that wonderful piece of piano and clarinet/oboe music I mentioned above (btw, I'm still looking), I figured out what this episode's title is in reference to. Turns out there's a Shirley Temple number in 1936's Captain January called, you guessed it, "At The Codfish Ball." So to know one's surprise, Sally's nibbling on that giant fish while at a "ball" wasn't to be taken literally. Obviously Roger's line about cutting her off from her glass of Shirley Temple had another layer to it. Here's the song if you're curious:


Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "Signal 30"

Welcome to the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"Signal 30"

Season 5, Episode 5

airdate: April 15th, 2012

Jon: DING-DING-DING! Obviously the big moment of the week was the board room duel between two previously unlikely participants, but we'll have plenty on that in a bit. While last week's "Mystery Date" focused on many of the ladies on the show, "Signal 30" was all about the fellas, as many of them flirted with or completely wallowed in their unhappiness and dashed dreams.

The big exception to this was Don who continued to ride high, while also doing his best at being the ultimate party pooper this season. He's reluctantly dragged back to suburbia by Megan and cunning of Trudy (man, did she out-Don Don, or what?) for an evening at the Campbell's abode, home of a lovely piece of furniture also known as the seven-foot stereo. He assumes he's going to hate it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't as bad as he expected it to be. However, when you literally get to take off your shirt and tie while turning into Superman and receiving an uproarious round of applause when the damsels are safe from disaster, that'll probably exceed some expectations. The kitchen sink Pete previous thought he had fixed exploding into a geyser was the highlight of the party (at least it was for everyone aside from Pete, who was left feeling completely inadequate - but more on that later). The Megan/Don pairing knows no bounds right now, with her constant pushes him to being more outgoing finding success and his deepening contentment with their marriage becoming more obvious. Unlike the rest of his coworkers, his unhappy past seems further behind him than ever, even addressing Pete's inquiries about his forming philandering ways with, "I wouldn't have, if I had what I have now." We've never seen him this emotionally stable before, and because of that, I'm now convinced their relationship will come crashing down by the end of the season (this is a show that opens each week with the image of a man in a suit falling from a skyscraper window after all). It still feels like Don's changed to me, so it may come with a betrayal of some kind on Megan's part, instead of his.

Anyway, back to the theme of the week -- emasculation.

This season has made Roger's presence at the firm less useful by the day completely obvious, but even when he's trying earnestly to coach up Lane for securing his first prospective big cat client, his tactics yet again fail and he has nothing to show for it. However, plenty of this blame falls to Lane, who despite being handed the Jaguar account on a silver platter via a chance social connection, can't close the deal. We've seen this sort of behavior time and time again from Lane. His ability to mishandle a simple situation knows no bounds -- he can't just return a misplaced wallet to the cabbie, he has to track down the owner himself and have lurid phone calls with his wife; he can't just have sex with a Playboy bunny, he's going to fall in love with her; he can't just go to dinner, he's gotta get blasted out of his mind and rub his steak on his nether region. He is who he is. Lane's new-found British friend senses this as well, and waits for the SCDP cavalry to come in and show him the good time he's looking for. And, boy, do they ever.

The foursome's subsequent trip to a nearby "classy" brothel gives some interesting insight into the current state of mind of Don but more so Pete. Don stays faithful to Megan as he sits on the sidelines (further supporting my "changed man" theory), essentially just coming along for the ride for the sake of closing the Jaguar deal. However, Pete thrusts himself into a hooker's bedroom, but does not consummate the transaction before ensuring she'll be able to deliver with a role-play suitable for his needs. The winner? "You're my King." Boom. Done. After dropping off the belligerently delighted client who has assured them his business is theirs, Pete's sulks with Don in the cab and it's clear his professional success and sexual dalliances still left him unfulfilled. The next day during a Partners' Meeting, Lane furiously barges into the board room to announce that deal was off after our Jaguar magnate's activities from the previous night were discovered rather hilariously by his wife. One smart-ass comment from Pete undercutting Lane's value to SCDP shortly thereafter, and Lane challenges him to a duel.

Sure, it's exciting for us as viewers, but how did the two most timid members of SCDP culminate to this extreme result?

Pete may be the star of company these days, but he's out of place among the other partners in their basic attitudes of the world, shaped by such trying life experiences as having fought in a war not to mention going through all that without the benefits of a silver spoon at birth (aside from Roger, of course). His attitude has always reeked of the upper-crust privilege his family squandered away decades ago, but his missteps in the office tended to keep that in check to a degree. Now that he's batting near 1.000 in every deal, those reservations are gone. He's lashed out impetuously at just about everyone recently, but he finally met his match in Lane. Of course, this wasn't the first time Mr. Campbell has been called out to defend his smarmy quips, as Roger proposed the two step outside a few episodes ago. It was, however, the first time he ran into a challenge he couldn't backtrack his way out of with a seething Lane Pryce staring him down, refusing any other course of action.

As much of a low blow as Pete's cruel statement was, it garnered Lane's reaction because he knew it to be true. He really can't provide any additional value to SCDP, and even he admits his current role is would be better administered by Joan. Lane's list of items to feel inadequate over has grown quite lengthy since we've come to know him, and they likely reached an all-time high at the outset of that meeting.

The convergence of these two frustrated men results in the Board Room Brawl, each awkward fighter dishing out and taking blows from the other. Ultimately, it resulted in a TKO by Lane, and utter embarrassment for Pete. I suspect the combination of Lane's rage with some training from Her Majesty's Armed Forces long ago gave him the edge over the clearly ill-prepared youngster.

Now, the boxing match and the sink incident weren't the only occurrences send Pete into his latest fit of self-loathing. He'd also been lusting after young Jenny who's taking the same driver's ed course at the local high school he is. He's buoyed by her initial signs of interest, but when another classmate of hers (a guy literally called Handsome) walks into the room one evening mistaking Pete for the instructor, it's yet another blow. For all his success and achievement, Pete's still just a dude watching the cool guy in class fingerbang the girl he's crushing on during a high school movie.

Essentially, he and Don have swapped places from the outset of the series. Pete has the beautiful wife, a cute little munchkin, a house in the suburbs and is absolutely thriving at his work, yet none of it is enough for him, as he claims to Don he has nothing as they descend down the elevator together. For the first time, I've begun to wonder if getting that office window a couple of weeks ago has pushed him one step closer to becoming that faceless man we've watched drop down to the street each week during the opening credits.

Okay, wow. I wrote a lot this week. I went on for so long on all the above, I didn't even mention Ken Cosgrove! (Who probably got more screentime this week than over the past three seasons combined.) I suspect the subtle notes of his story in "Signal 30" will lead to a big shake-up at SCDP in the coming weeks, possibly involving Peggy. And I'll also leave it to you boys to discuss Joan and Lane's moment. But this was a crazy-good episode! What else did I fail to mention?

Mike: Man, I tell you what -- I was over the moon for this episode. Going back years and years to when Jon first let me borrow all of his "Angel" DVDs, I have wanted to see Vincent Kartheiser get his ass handed to him onscreen, and this week's episode delivered in full. But it wasn't just that which really hit the spot this time. For me, this was the first week in the new "Mad Men" season where I felt the old Must See TV magic. Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed season five thus far, but with this one, the entire team was firing on all cylinders. The whole episode, I was alternately on the edge of my seat, not believing that they're actually going to go through with this, wondering at the character development, and pausing it to catch my breath and exchange bewildered glances with my wife. What a show! What an era of TV we live in!

(SIDE NOTE: It didn't hurt that we watched this as part of a double-bill with the penultimate episode of "Ringer." Which, if you haven't ever watched it, don't bother. But the second-to-last episode of that series, though not far from the exact opposite of the definition of "great TV," finally delivered on all the trashy, loopy, soapy promise of the series. Unfortunately, the finale went right back down to depressing underachievement. We'll always have episode 21! But I digress.)

Jon's done a great job above of outlining Pete Campbell's plight, and I'm totally on board with the idea that he and Don have, at least up to this point in the season, exchanged places in their lives. Will this last? Well, in my experience at least, "Mad Men" rarely goes to expected places and directions. Ever since the brazen, joyful season three finale, I've been wary of even trying to predict what might come next.

As regards Pete, here's a little secret about me: I'm a sucker for the "Mad Men" writers' room when it comes to character allegiances. I'm buying what they're selling. What I mean is to say is, my feelings towards pretty much all the characters more or less depend on what's going on in each episode. My wholesale suspension of disbelief with shows I trust is probably more of a fault than an asset, but I'm always in the moment and not thinking about what something might mean or its implications. This episode, though, I swung back and forth a few times.

Now, I think most people would generally say it's up for debate as to whether Pete Campbell is a flawed but sympathetic character, or an irredeemable jerk. You know, despite that extremely punchable mug, you've got to admit, ol' Pete has his moments. Maybe not good ones, though. Just ask Peggy, Trudy, or any of the various co-workers, relatives and in-laws he's let down over the years, in big ways and small. In this case, I felt for him a little bit as he sniffled his way down in the elevator with Don, but that doesn't excuse his years of privileged, loutish behavior. Nor do I imagine anyone really would stand up for Pete's side of things in this most recent bout of Lane vs. Pete.

(And I gotta say, I just love the looks on Peggy and Joan's faces when they get a glimpse of the post-duel carnage in the conference room.)

Speaking of allegiances, though, one character I've never wavered on at all is Lane. Despite the occasional straying from his wife, he seems like a solid enough chap. And even though what Pete said in his incident-sparking comment was partially correct -- probably Lane's most crucial contribution to SCDP thus far has been his complacence in their plot to get rid of their former British overlords -- it's Lane's day-to-day efforts that are keeping the lights on in the office, as it were, and which enable the other three elder partners to go about their business in the ways in which they are accustomed. Bert and Roger are used to their idiosyncratic methods, which are productive but certainly not cost-effective or particularly reliable in theirs or anyone else's hands, and even Don has in recent times moved much closer to their side of things than Pete's ethos of unsung toil and hard work. It takes someone like Lane to count the beans and make sure that everything is as it should be every Monday morning without fail. This kind of position doesn't come with a lot of glory, though, and that seems to have been weighing on Lane, especially with the loss of the Jaguar account which he had been counting on as one for the "win" column. After the fisticuffs at the partners' meeting, this is the state in which Joan finds Lane.

And then he makes the classic sad-sack's error, which is to mistake the kindness of another for a romantic approach. It is to Joan's credit that she opens the office door again, to erase any impropriety and make her intentions very clear, but then sticks around to finish their conversation. I don't see this as the beginning of any love affair. I really don't even see this as being a stumbling block for Lane and Joan's cordial, even warm, working relationship. In the twisted world of office politics at SCDP, Joan probably simply chalked this one up in her head to the cost of being a woman who appears as she does, and who holds the power and position that she does. Only time, and maybe next week's episode, will tell if I'm correct.

One final note before I have to go. I know there's still a lot left unsaid here about Ken Cosgrove and his secret literary career, but all I could think of when hearing about his various short stories was, "I'd love to read some of them!" Like Jon said, there are definitely some side elements here that will be boiling over into the larger SCDP picture, and sooner rather than later. It's just too bad that Ken's too-adoring wife was the cause of "Ben Hargrove"'s literary end. I hope he doesn't hold it against her too much, especially since he starts right over again that night under a new pen name. Go, Ken!

Any way you slice it, guys, I'm more on board after "Signal 30" than ever. If anything was missing in previous episodes (which I'm really not saying at all!), this one was a masterpiece. Can't wait for the next one.

Jon (again): I decided I really wanted to talk about Ken Cosgrove after all, so I'm back! I've already watched "Far Away Places," so I'll be mum on those details here, but Ken's character took a backseat in favor of others, so I'd like to spitball about him before I forget what I found so intriguing about him in "Signal 30."

Mike, I'm glad you agree with my speculations about Ken playing a part in the future drama at the firm. Apparently Ken and Peggy have an agreement to take the other with them if and when they depart SCDP (is this the first we heard about the pact? I don't recall it). It seems very plausible to me that he'll eventually find enough success with his writing career that he'll feel confident enough to leave his day job and focus on writing entirely, or at least find employment at another business that Peggy would also be a fit for.

But Peggy isn't the only one who learns of his writing career this week, as his wife spills the beans on it at casa de Campbell to the group. Ken's summary of his robot and the bridge story is a pretty clear indictment of his role as an account man, taking directions without choice devoid of any possible better judgement. (Btw, don't you think there should be a blog of Ken's short sci-fi stories on AMC's website for us curious fans?!) But Ken's clearly not a robot deep down, he just plays one at the office. If his comments to Megan are taken at face value, Lane may not be the only one Pete has to look out for after ratting Ken out to Roger.





















By the close of the episode we see that Ken will continue to spend his free moments with pen and paper in hand, composing away under a presumably new pseudonym (although I think Peggy is the only one who knows what it is, so perhaps not). If he doesn't, he has firsthand knowledge of what turning into an unappreciated author looks like -- Roger. From the little we've seen of Cynthia, I gather she's a sweetheart and Ken appears to be a pretty genuine guy all-around as well. Right now, he looks like the only character on the show capable of finding happiness, and that won't come as long as he remains at SCDP.

Mark: Hey, guys. Sorry I’m late! I’m currently in the process of setting up my own little suburban (see: Greenpoint, Brooklyn) love shack, suitable for drunken dinner parties and sink-related heroics. Note to prospective DIY interior designers: everything is expensive, but you can’t put a price on a gigantic sectional couch. Ours will comfortably seat two Wilt Chamberlains end-to-end. You’re all invited to our housewarming party, and we won’t take no for an answer.

Hoo boy! I’m calling it: Best episode of the season so far. This was Mad Men at its absolutely best. A lot of people complain about its deliberate pace and relative lack of plot, but when this show is firing on all cylinders its like reading the best short story collection that has ever graced an English Lit syllabus. With amazing performances all around and assured direction from John “Roger Sterling” Slattery himself, “Signal 30” was a bonafide series classic. Maybe I just don’t recall offhand from past seasons, but it seems like this year the show is taking some new stylistic chances with scene transitions. I loved the match cut from the tapping foot of Pete’s high-school object of obsession to the dripping faucet as he lay in bed, the dripping water and the unattainable girl both taunting the poor, pathetic, angry little shithead. It’s funny. I was talking about Pete and Trudy a few entries ago as perhaps the only functional couple on the show, and this was already in light of Pete’s past infidelities. Maybe I spoke too soon. Jon and Mike, you guys are right, Pete’s dream of being Don Draper is finally coming true, he just didn’t realize what that life entailed.

Call me crazy, but I feel for Pete. He is a terrible guy in so many ways, from the huge (multiple infidelities, outright rape, denying his child with Peggy) to the mundane (did you see the way he strutted out of the office a couple weeks ago? What a dope!) . But I can’t help but “read” the character as a complete blank who is trying to approximate what he has been told or has observed as being the ideal adult life. How can you be mad at someone who is essentially a non-entity, even if he constantly behaves like a total creep? Okay, maybe my argument is flawed, but hear me out. Pete looks up to Don and seeks to emulate him, but the young Mr. Campbell has no soul. Don is no great shakes as a person, but he has a level of self-awareness that Pete will never possess. Whereas Pete’s blankness makes him ideal for his job, he can be an adaptable worker bee as he brings no prejudices, preconceived notions or any personality at all really to business in the way stubborn Roger does (accidental alliteration!), but it causes a profound loneliness and alienation in his personal life. The guy has seemingly got it all, the perfect wife, the perfect baby (look at that smile!), a high-paying job, and now with a window office, but there is an all-consuming black hole at his core. Sure, he blames the emptiness he feels on everybody but himself and acts out in the most petty, destructive way possible, but I still find it profoundly sad and relatable to watch Pete continually bang his head against the wall. Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy seeing the little pipsqueak get his face rearranged by Lane, the brawling dandy. Don’t get me started on Lane. Fair enough, Mike, Lane is the unsung hero of SCDP. He keeps the lights on, which is an important but distinctly unsexy job. He doesn’t get the accolades or the wide berth that the cool kids get. He’s the whipping boy, who like Pete is trying to assume the secretly empty role of the swaggering All-American hero. Jared Harris has a way of smiling and laughing nervously as Lane that is incredibly heartbreaking. It’s the laugh of the world’s saddest nerd, who longs to be in anyone else’s skin.



With Pete and Lane, and Roger too, it’s becoming more clear that this season is paying off the threat of obsolescence that has been hanging over the world of Mad Men since the beginning. However, it’s starting to go deeper than just the wide-ranging social upheaval of the 1960s and manifest itself in a more personal way. Pete for instance is starting to realize that he is no longer as young as he thinks he is. He’s no longer a viable candidate for the affections of his nubile Driver’s Ed classmate, if he ever was, and as much as he tries to push against it he has a family that depends on him. He can’t handle this, and being the asshole he is he rushes off to indulge his gross, empty power fantasy at a high-class brothel. The life that Pete never understood how to live is closing in on him, and as he weeps in front of Don for the possibilities he never took advantage of that are increasingly lost to him now, I’m compelled simultaneously to give him another sock in the nose and weep right alongside him. I’ve known Pete Campbells, I’ve felt like a Pete Campbell at times in my life, and I want to wring his neck for saying “I have nothing” in the face of all the privilege and good fortune that has been handed to him. But I think sometimes in the back of all of our minds, there is a dripping faucet that we can’t fix.

I don’t know if I have much to add about Ken Cosgrove, other than he seems like a swell, well-adjusted guy. I’ll say this, as someone who labors over every sentence I’m able to sputter out, I’m a little jealous of Ken’s ability to let go and write so prolifically and with such ease, but I think he primarily exists in the show as sort of a control group. He is the one guy who will keep his head down and make it through unscathed by Mad Men’s special brand of personal torment. Sounds like fun! See ya next time!

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "A Little Kiss"

Welcome the inaugural installment of a new feature here at LBM, the Mad Men Partners' Meeting -- a roundtable discussion of this week's episode from your friendly neighborhood LowBrowMedia savants.
This is a spoiler-heavy zone. You have been warned.

"A Little Kiss"

Season 5, Episodes 1 & 2

airdate: March 25th, 2012

Jon: Ah, yes... the long-awaited premiere of season 5. Eighteen months have passed since season 4 wrapped up, which you'd think would be plenty of time for things at our favorite Madison Avenue advertising agency to alter radically from where we last left them.

However, much to my surprise, things are basically the same with most of the folk of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as we left them. Business is "stable" at SCDP, aka money isn't a colossal concern but, as Lane reiterates throughout "A Little Kiss," they're not hiring for any new positions at this time. Relationship-wise, Don and Megan are now married and beaming at the outset of the episode, complete with a (I think) pleased Sally fixated on them at every moment; Peggy is still with her activist/journalist boyfriend from last season; Joan's rapey jerk of a hubby has yet to return from Vietnam, but sadly she's still technically with him; poutyface Pete has the audacity to be all pouty with Trudy (who I keep waiting to break scene and laugh with Abed every time she's onscreen), but they too appear stable-ish at the moment; Roger and Jane probably won't last much longer because Roger is Roger, but they're hitched too; Lane has visions of striking up another affair but continues to abide by his wife's nagging; Kenny Cosgrove is still with the grown-up version of the girl who played Alex Mack; Harry remains married and pathetically embarrassing as ever; and, shocker, Stan's still single and rushing off to the bean ballet. Oh, and Bert appears to need nothing more than office space to pace about in his socks. We don't get to see what Betty's been up to this episode, but I'm sure it'll be something to allow us to despise her in new ways.

Meanwhile, most of the differences here at the outset of season 5 are relatively minor but enough to mix up the dynamic at SCDP a bit, namely Joan has given birth to a baby boy and has been on maternity leave for a number of weeks, and Megan has now graduated from her secretary post to a junior copywriter at the firm.

Undoubtedly, this episode belonged to Jessica Pare's Megan Draper, who took an amazing leap from just the intriguing, yet ultimately random girl with the crazy teeth Don decided to propose to rather impulsively at the close of season 4 to a fully rounded character who while revealing her great joys and sorrows allowed us to examine Don's in new ways as well. Which leads me to the crux of the "A Little Kiss" and perhaps some insight to one of the major themes of season 5: is Don Draper a new man?

Following the disastrous meeting with the executives from Heinz where Don failed to save the pitch as we've become accustomed to, a distraught Peggy has this exchange with Stan:

"I don't recognize that man. He's kind. And patient."
"And it galls you."
"No, it concerns me."

Of course, this happy version of Don doesn't last long. But even after his fury over the party subsides, he does seem to possess a sort of peacefulness when he's with Megan that has alluded him for any length of time with Betty and his many conquests we've been privy to. There lies the possibility he's entered a new stage in his life.

So what say you? Am I way off-base with my Don theory? Were you as mesmerized by Megan as I was? Is Pete going bald?

Mark: Jon, I don’t think you’re completely off-base with your Don theory. He certainly seems more at ease with himself this year, and the fact that he is able to be so open with Megan about his past speaks volumes about his emotional development and the overall health of their marriage (at least relative to Don’s marriage to Betty). By the way, how great is this show at trickling out exposition? Megan knowing that Don is actually Dick Whitman is quite a bombshell, but Weiner and the other writers let that information pass breezily in the midst of a conversation. That kind of stuff requires you to do some work as a viewer, but that naturalism makes the Mad Men viewing experience such a treat. Anyway, Don is definitely still closed off in his way, but at least now when he is mortified by his surprise birthday party and the unwanted attention it brings, he is able to stick it out and sulk off to bed at the end of the night. I can see the Don of earlier seasons instead slipping out of the party and disappearing for a week with one of his bohemian conquests, leaving Megan in the lurch.

Don also seems more comfortable and happy around his kids. I’m always thoroughly pleased to see scenes where Sally Draper is at ease, and isn’t being blithely ignored, treated like garbage or forced to endure some other emotional torment from her horrible mother or sometimes-distant father. Sally is intense, and her curiosity about Megan may cross boundaries in an accidentally-creepy kid way in the coming weeks, but Don and Megan’s warmth towards her was nice to see. Happiness is hard to come by in Mad Men, and I will discuss my worries about Don and Megan below, but damn I just hope Sally ends up okay, and maybe Megan could be a good female role model for her. Or maybe not. Oh, Sally, you never had a chance.

Let me tell you why I’m not quite ready to sign off on Mr. and Mrs. Draper, Jon. There are some crazy power games going on between these two. Megan must have known that Don would be uncomfortable with the hilariously square party and her "Zou bisou bisou” routine, but I think she did it to playfully challenge his repression. But after the party, when she and Don had their Dick Whitman discussion, she seemed to be outright using her knowledge as a weapon. Likewise, Don paws at Megan during seemingly every private moment, coolly commanding her to unbutton her shirt for him in one scene, partly out of attraction but maybe also as a way of putting her in her place. They do seem to generally have an open dialogue and emotional honesty with each other that never in a million years existed between Don and Betty, but just as easily they can put up walls or resort to weirdly sexual antagonism like that whole “You can’t have this!” underwear display/wrestling match. Maybe they’re perfect for each other, but there’s a tinge of creepiness for me. Maybe they have so much in common that they are just going to destroy each other.

As a child of acrimoniously divorced parents, this show is not helping me with my fears about marriage. With the utterly miserable and vicious Roger and Jane serving as a possible outcome for Don and Megan’s marriage once the passion cools off, the vibrant and intelligent Joan stuck in her prison cell, and stupid, bored Harry and Lane lusting after various fantasies, it’s getting to be that Pete Campbell is somehow the most well-adjusted of the lot. Whereas Pete once seemed like an alien trying to approximate human behavior (in an intentional and compelling way, that’s not a knock against Vincent Kartheiser’s great performance), he and Trudy seem to be coming into their own as the show’s most successful marital team. Again, relatively-speaking. Who knows when Pete’s complaints about marriage on the train ride to work will start coming from a real place, and won’t just be used to pacify that dipshit he plays cards with.

Pete is very easy to root for in his push against Roger, who for all his supposedly charming and debonair qualities is really just an epic piece of shit. Pete, like Roger, is as blue-blooded as it gets, but he has shown a remarkable ability to engage with the times, and his rise at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and the increasing obsolescence of Roger and Bert (at the company, anyway – Bert is still a bizarrely singular, cockroach-like dude), nicely coincides with the big wave of change that Roger’s old-school-business-dickhead “want ad” is bringing to the company’s door. Mad Men has kind of tip-toed around race so far. I’m looking forward to that being in the forefront this year.

What do you think, Mike? Are Don and Megan a little creepy, or am I an ineffective couples therapist? Am I nuts, or does the whole show really hinge on Sally Draper? What stuck out to you?

Mike: You know what? I think you guys are being a little too sunny, in your not-really-altogether-that-sunny evaluation of this season's iteration of Don Draper. Yeah, he does seem a bit more at ease with his kids, and I'm feeling the heat of Don's lust for his new wife Megan -- but the cracks are showing. Megan's got the entry-level copywriting job that Peggy had to sweat blood for, but she doesn't think her co-workers at SDCP like her (and she doesn't think she likes them, either.) We're not led to believe that she's earned the position through legitimate channels, right? Either way, Don doesn't have much interest in his job anymore except to use it as a platform to make time with his wife. He drops the ball in the meeting with the Heinz people, placating Peggy with words that may be true-ish, but seriously, Don! The look on Peggy's face said it all -- the man has lost his edge. He's come through for her dozens of times before, charming the customer into accepting far weaker copy material. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this won't end well for Peggy and Don.

Or, Megan and Don. Just watch how easily he falls back into his earlier pattern of stony, ice-cold detachment with Megan as he drunkenly reclines in bed after the disastrous birthday party. His cruelty in that scene, and Megan's burgeoning understanding of exactly the kind of man he can be, were painful to observe. And let's face it, guys: Don gave up a sure thing with Faye, the delightful market researcher who captured all of our hearts last season, for a fling with a sexy young secretary that kind of turned into a permanent gig. If that doesn't come back to bite him then I'd be surprised. (That said, I'm often surprised by "Mad Men.")

So, yes -- from outside appearances, Don may seem to have made some personal progress, but he's just "this" far away from joining the good-ol'-boys' club of the senior SDCP partners. Along that same vein, I found it fascinating how Don and Pete have essentially switched places in their lives. While Don now resides in a hip, fashionable metropolitan apartment and lives the life of a well-to-do city dweller, Pete and Trudy have moved to what appears to be a modest country homestead. (I actually thought, for just a moment at first sight, that Pete's kitchen was Don's old one from his days with Betty and the kids.) The miserable train ride in from the outskirts leaves Pete plenty of time to bitterly lament how he's the only SDCP partner who's still hungry. His frustration is palpable. His pathetic meeting with the other partners about his business needs ended with disinterest and a few grumbled platitudes from the older men.

(But what was it, then, that moved Roger, who still far surpasses Don in his disconnection -- forget about Bert, who's in another league entirely -- to take action and move Pete into Harry's office? I'm not entirely sure.)

Now, young Sally Draper, as Mark alludes to above, is the lynchpin of it all. Well, not really, but I think she is a good thermometer for how the selfishness of both of her parents are going to affect all of the Draper kids -- even little Eugene, who Don admitted in a tragic scene last season was born out of desperation, and thinks that another man is his father. I actually thought that the scene at the beginning with the kids was great, a rare moment of happiness in a show that doesn't often present that kind of thing undiluted by pathos.

And I may be all on my lonesome in "Mad Men" fandom here, but I was a little disappointed that we didn't see much (any) of Betty in this episode. (I understand that January Jones was on a much-needed maternity break at the time.) I'm really hoping to see more of Don and Betty interacting this season, because I for one found their shared scenes in season four to be electric. Ms. Jones gets some bad press as an actress for reasons I won't get into here, and a lot of it deservedly so, but she has been an important part of the series up to this point, and I don't want to see that particular thread dropped.

There's a so much more that I could talk about here: douchey Hollywood Harry, the hilarious way that race politics barges its way into the SDCP reception area, the delightful relationship between Lane and Joan that I must have forgotten about over the long break, Roger throwing money at everything (except for his unacknowledged son) while poor Lane, for his part, seems to be experiencing a bit of a shortfall.

This was a table-setting episode in every sense of the word except, you know, the negative one. I think we needed one, after an almost two-year hiatus, and I absolutely can't wait to see where we go from here. Welcome back, "Mad Men"!