MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "The Phantom"

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.

"The Phantom"

Season 5, Episode 12

airdate: June 10th, 2012

Mark: Damn. Well, Jon and Mike, I guess we have an answer for you regarding Don’s place on the spectrum of Goodness. With the final scene of season 5, Weiner seems to suggest that Don is getting back to his old tricks, and that the flashes of a compassionate, supportive and emotionally available Don Draper that we got over the last 13 episodes were not signs of an evolved cad but rather part of a larger routine of selfishness that keeps perpetuating itself over and over again. There have been suggestions here and there that Don had once been as loving and present with Betty as we have seen him with Megan, and it was only when Betty gave up her career in order to embody the picture perfect housewife stereotype that Don both demands and despises in equal measure that their relationship started to sour. Megan striking out on her own as an actress seemed to threaten Don, but when Megan lowered herself to ask Don for a part in a commercial, her dependence on him was almost a worse fate. Don doesn’t know what he wants. He wants the dream, the excitement and possibility and glamour promised by the campaigns he, Peggy, Stan and Ginsberg dream up. But life is always messy. It’s the same with Peggy as with Megan. Don wants Peggy there, he wants to mentor her and nurture her creativity, but the minute she challenges him or threatens to surpass him, she’s a stranger. Now that Megan is “just somebody’s wife”, she has compromised herself, like Joan with Mr. Jaguar, and tarnished the perfect veneer that Don craves. This is certainly not the final nail in the Don-Megan marriage, it’s more like the first trip to the hardware store to buy nails. And while I hoped Don and Megan would build something nice with those nails - like a birdhouse or a garden shed - I’m afraid it is going to be just another coffin, as the saying goes.

This was all very upsetting, but I have to say I was a little taken aback with overt nature in which a lot of this stuff was presented and explored in the script and through Weiner’s direction. Usually this show is a little more elegant in its treatment of symbolism and subtext. Many times in “The Phantom” I felt as though I was being hit over the head with Weiner’s laptop, and as a result the finale was a little dissatisfying for me. It’s fun to speculate on what is going on under the surface with Don, what impulses and fears are guiding his actions, and to be able to draw your own conclusion that there is a void within Don that can’t be filled. It’s not quite as fun to be told point black that Don has a big, rotting symbolic tooth that he tries to ignore and convince himself will go away but that is causing him incredible pain. Sounds a lot like all of those pesky emotions the characters are repressing all the time. Furthermore, I suppose leaving us on a bit of a lingering note was better than cutting straight to Don having a threesome with the two girls from the bar, but do we have to have Don go straight from the commercial set to picking up chicks? The season has been building Don up very deliberately all season, to knock it all back down so quickly felt a little uneven. However, I will say that the shot of him walking off of the soundstage and into a pitch black void of negative space was a striking image, and half-way subtle in its symbolism. Half-way.

There were some pretty on-the-nose moments, too, in the story of Pete Campbell, the saddest little boy in the world. The whole thing with Alexis Bledel and Pete’s train buddy being such an over-the-top monster is pretty brutal. I don’t doubt that things like this happened in those days, but having this guy go so far as to force his wife into electroshock therapy so that he can carry on cheating on her and keeping her as essentially an indentured servant? Villains are all well and good, even necessary in good fiction, but maybe they could have given this guy some shading. And Pete’s grand speech to an amnesiac Bledel about his “friend”, while very well-acted and certainly moving, was another case of Mad Men telling and not showing. Great dialogue, great performances, but let us do some work as viewers, you know? Am I crazy? This episode just seemed out of character for a show that pretty much shows everything and tells next to nothing. Pete getting knocked around never gets less funny/sad, though. It all just ended on such a note of defeat. Even as Sterling Cooper Draper... Campbell? expands to a new floor and new possibilities, the partners seem mostly burnt out. Even Roger’s LSD enlightenment seems to have worn off. Or has it? I know not to come to Mad Men to be uplifted, but whereas previous seasons have gone out with a big push forward (“Shut the Door. Have a Seat.”), this finale just seemed to signal decay.

What do you guys think? Am I being a crabapple? A stick in the mud? A grouchypants? A complete and utter moron who should be taken out into the street and shot? Did I miss something? Did Weiner stick the landing? Am I just grumpy because this finale featured zero Sally Draper? What’s the verdict on the season overall?

Jon: Mark, you certainly aren't alone in your displeasure of the season 5 finale among Mad Men internet fandom. And I don't blame you for feeling that way, because not a whole lot happened in this episode when it came down to it, which gave me fits when trying to assess it. Usually I try to stay away from the pundits until after having written my peace on the episode in question, but this week I couldn't. "The Phantom" was a tricky bastard to write about. However, I think expressing too much disappointment in it overlooks how much crazy shit went down in the two preceding episodes. I mean, between Joan becoming partner, Peggy's departure the SCDP and Lane's suicide, we haven't exactly been short on monumental shifts in the show's dynamic. Now, that said, big goings on in previous episodes do not make this a good finale. As finales go, it was on the weaksauce side. But I began to appreciate "The Phantom" a bit more when placed it in context of the entire fifth season, and while it's far from a season highlight, it caps off a couple of storylines we've been following over the last 13 episodes.

In my mind, "The Phantom" serves as a sly intro to season 6 as much as it was a capper to season 5. There are constant hints of Lane's void, from his empty office and conference room chair to Joan's sudden transition into the financial prude (because someone has to bloody do it). I think it was smart to tackle this now; they'd have to address it eventually, and showing us the group mourning and moving on in their individual and collective ways while the audience is still coping with a world without Lane Pryce gets that unpleasant but important business out of the way instead of months from now when the show returns. Also, they're expanding! Man, that gorgeous shot of the five partners gazing out from what will become the second floor of SCDP (or whatever they end up calling it post-Lane), does anything point to a triumphant future more than that? Gets you pumped up for next season already. But before I get too far ahead of myself, there a couple of other matters to wrap up.

Plotwise, we get the conclusion to Pete's doomed tryst with Beth and Megan's first acting job since leaving the advertising game. Mark, you totally nailed it by pointing out how overt Weiner and company was with their intentions this time around. And no moment was more explicit than Pete's admission of the chronic unhappiness of his "friend" to Beth in her hospital room, now devoid of any memory of their brief affair, so extreme that he comes to the conclusion that "life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound." I mean... damn. That's harsh, bro. I too would've preferred the show's usual elegance in delivering such a message, but at least it all let him getting his bitch-ass face decked again this year, not once but twice in a span of two minutes!

Now let's talk about Megan's latest acting defeat. Things have gotten continuously worse for her prospects at work, and we get a literal explanation from her mother for the episode's title as Megan chases the phantom of her dreams. I was a little surprised she reduced herself to stealing her friend's idea to get Don to pull strings to cast her in a commercial. We've never seen her so petty before. And his initial reaction was the appropriate one to me, but Megan really is just that desperate to take the next step in her career that she'd ask this of him. We know she can turn on the magic in a moment of inspired desperation, like the Heinz dinner when she and Don salvaged the account at the last moment, but really we have no idea if she's actually any good at acting. Every moment we've glimpsed of her acting has been part of a montage, spinning around at a casting call, or a silent film reel. But that reel did its job, because it sold Don. If his marriage to Betty disintegrated when she stopped modelling and became a suburban housewife, one has to wonder if helping Megan jumpstart her acting career will allow their marriage to strengthen or just push them to the same fate. After all, as Megan Calvet, the actress, her double life has now begun. And Don, as Nancy Sinatra reminds us, is no stranger to living twice. Can they make it work? I guess that all depends on whether or not Don decided to take up the two girls at the bar up on their offer in the closing seconds of the episode. Many online people assume he'll steal a few moments away with them, but I'm not yet convinced. Guess we'll have to wait until next season. Hopefully it won't be another 18 months like last time!

One final comment -- will this be the last we see of Ms. Olson, smiling in her Richmond hotel room in spite of the fornicating dogs outside her window? I doubt it, but I fear now that she's left SCDP, she could be regulated to guest-character status, much like Betty was this year. Sure, January Jones' real-life pregnancy may have forced Weiner's hand in that matter, but if you're not in Don Draper's inner circle in some capacity, you're not likely to get any screen time on Mad Men (unless I'm forgetting about someone). Anyway, hit us up with your thoughts, Mike!

Mike: A controversial episode, to be sure!  Like you both, I'm definitely questioning my responses a little bit to the finale here.  I've heard the "too on-the-nose" criticism about this from a bunch of different outlets, and you know what?  Sometimes a toothache is just a "hot tooth".  Sometimes seeing a vision everywhere of your brother who killed himself after being rejected by you, immediately following an arguably comparable situation with a co-worker is just... well, you get the idea.  In this case, though, could it be that Weiner and company don't trust us to figure it out?  Or are we, as fans and armchair critics, just getting too good at picking apart the stories?  Or, as a vocal minority have opined, have Weiner and the writing staff simply shifted their style to match the more loud, blatant, and unsubtle '60s?  I think that's a terrible theory myself, in that it is essentially stating that they wrote things poorly on purpose.  It couldn't be further from the truth, since in my opinion at least, "Mad Men" has been and is still a showcase for some very fine writing.

Yet, consider the opposite for a moment.  Is it possible that, despite an otherwise master-class performance this season (and, let's face it -- every season up until this point) they simply dropped the ball on this one and erred on the side of telling and not showing?  Sure, it's not outside of the realm of possibility.  But if that is the case, what happened to their quality control?  Is Matthew Weiner's hubris and white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel so great that nobody else on the staff would say something when his metaphors are getting a little too obvious on a finale, from which he's got to know that critics and viewers, detractors and fans alike, are expecting so much?

I, too, felt let down and a little disappointed at the end of this episode.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the answers to its puzzles aren't quite as cut-and-dry as they first appeared. My initial response was based on expectations for some kind of huge revelation or turnaround like the third-season finale.  When I started to try to understand the episode on its own terms, outside of what I thought I wanted it to be like, I started liking it a whole lot more.

I'm still in the process of trying to find a way to look at this episode that still trusts that the series creators know what they're doing.  While I'm probably giving it a little too much credit, there's actually a lot to like about this episode.  There were all sorts of small rewards, nuances and charater revelations about every one of our favorite characters here.  The explosive scene between the widow Pryce and Don was, well, dynamite.  Even the (possible) final appearance of Peggy was heartwarming and a little sad.  The callbacks to previous seasons, what with Adam Whitman's ghostly reappearances, and Pete's outright vocalization about what's been eating him this entire time, well -- I'll be honest, I didn't have a huge problem with those scenes. What I'm trying to say here is, if this was a lesser episode of the fifth season, perhaps it's only in retrospect because of the high points so many of the other episodes reached.

Much has been made of the HBO dramatic series model (cross-reference: "The Sopranos" and "The Wire", especially) wherein episode 12 of the 13-episode season is where the climax of the season arc hits, and then traditionally the final episode is a denouement of sorts.  Since the creator of the show has that sort of pedigree, it's not surprising that, like Jon mentioned above, this finale was more of a lead-in for the next season than an exciting conclusion to the swingin'-from-the-rafters (yeah, I said it) roller-coaster ride that was Lane's final downfall and suicide in the penultimate episode.

You guys have already covered a lot of what happened in the show, and done a great job picking it apart. What I want to look at mainly is what this last episode is trying to say about Don. This whole season, I was expecting the very worst from him.  Despite some quite conspicuous flare-ups of "old Don," what we've seen until this episode is a man trying to be better than his instincts, even going against them in the name of love, and experiencing a lot of joy but also a lot of disappointment as well.  What is different between my interpretation of the final scenes in this episode and the consensus opinion seems to be that I don't believe Don has made up his mind yet about what he is going to do.  Yes, he is clearly disappointed in Megan's betrayal of his principles that he surely thought she had shared.  Yes, when he reached a kind of breaking point like this in his relationship with Betty, that is undoubtedly when the death knell for their relationship was first sounded.  But "new Don" has shown us time and time again this season that he has, at the very least, been attempting to learn from his mistakes.

As Don watched Megan's reel being projected onto the screen, I didn't feel like he was disgusted by her or what she was about to have him do.  I definitely sensed his admiration, tempered with more than a touch of sadness.  This expression, I propose, is not that of a man who has given up on his wife -- at least, not yet:

I mean, were we supposed to think Megan's rejected audition film was awful? I'm going to put myself out there and say that even though it may have lessened his regard for her a bit, Don submitted Megan's film for the audition process because he saw something there.  I did, too!  And then, it seems, so did the clients, since they ended up picking her for the part after all.  Megan's mercenary and disloyal tactics aside, she really looked the part in the tiny fragment of the commercial that we glimpsed.

Don may or may not have learned from his loss of Peggy and the slip of at least the initial iteration of his relationship with Megan through his fingers.  Seasons six and (I hope) seven are going to fill us in on that, I'm sure.  As for whether Don stays faithful to his wife when propositioned by an attractive female at the very end, I think that still remains to be seen.  As much as others have complained that they were spoon-fed information this episode and even a few before it, this episode's end did not provide a clear answer.  I think it goes without saying that Don was feeling a bit lonely, but did that mean that he truly was in fact alone?  Was that an innocent yet regretful smirk on his face, or the hum of the ol' charm engine getting started after a brief hibernation?

Dramatically, it probably makes more sense that Don would start to delve into his darker nature again. But as I've said before here, "Mad Men" for me has always been a show that swerves in another direction whenever I think it's going to head a certain way.  I'm crossing my fingers that Don doesn't take that path again, because there aren't a whole lot of terribly interesting storylines I can think of down that particular rabbit hole that haven't been explored already.  That said, I would certainly relish the opportunity to be proven wrong!

In conclusion, I'll just say this: to say I loved this season of television would be an understatement.  Nobody wants to see the quality of a favorite show go downhill, but I really think that we are all being a little over-sensitive on this one.  I'll agree that this was not my favorite episode of the season, but in the greater mosaic of what they're trying to do here, I think it will be an important piece.  Of what, only time, and the impending end of the series a few years out, will tell.

(P.S. Thanks to Jon and Mark for keeping this thing going all season long, even when I flaked out towards the end a little.  Great work, everyone involved.)

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See you in season 6!

Previously:
Episodes 1 & 2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"
Episode 7 - "At The Codfish Ball"
Episode 8 - "Lady Lazarus"
Episode 9 - "Dark Shadows"
Episode 10 - "Christmas Waltz"
Episodes 11 & 12 - "The Other Woman" & "Commissions and Fees"

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "The Other Woman" & "Commissions and Fees"

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.

"The Other Woman" & "Commissions and Fees"

Season 5, Episodes 11 & 12

airdates: May 27th and June 3rd, 2012

Jon: Hey, hey! Long time no talk. My vaycay was great, thanks for asking. But we have more important items to discuss: the two most recent episodes! Since we've been behind recently, I'm gonna combine the most recent two into a single post to expedite things for Sunday's season finale. Some great items will be overlooked in the name of speed and the greater good of the further adventures of the Partners' Meeting.

First up, a look at "The Other Woman." This episode's focus was on three of the most important ladies in Don Draper's life - Megan, Peggy and Joan - and SCDP's continued pursuit of the Jaguar account. All along their angle was to sell the Jaguar brand as the equivalent of a man's mistress. Which leads us to first to discuss  Joan, who despite always being one of the strongest female characters on the show, if not all of television, is routinely reduced to a slab of flesh. Part of this is because she has never been shy at using her looks to command what she wants; it works more often than not, but the events of this episode are an explicit reminder of the cost of that tactic. One of the key decision-makers on the British luxury brand's side proves himself to be an even sleazier car magnate than what the other characters on the show led the audience to believe (and they didn't exactly mince words on this topic), and all but demands to Pete and Ken during a dinner that if he doesn't get a night with Joan then SCDP won't have a prayer of getting the account. She immediate shuts down Pete's shameless broach of the subject, but ultimately Lane's suggestion of demanding partnership and 5% of the account's profits as a reward for the dirty deed end up being enough to sway her. But I think the real reason Joan agrees to sleep with the Jag-off is because she is led to believe that all the other partners are on board with this decision, even Lane and Roger, her "champions" at the office. Who can blame her if she begins to believe she really is just a pretty face and a set of dynamite curves tasked with being a divorced single mother at time when that was considered downright immoral by society. There must have seemed as if she really didn't have a better option. Of course, what she doesn't know is Don was one dissenting voice who was so disturbed by the idea that he left the room after Pete brought it up, which only allowed them to vote without his counter-point to dissuade them from going forward with the distasteful proposition. Majority rules, after all. When Don finds out that she was planning on going through with it, he rushes to her apartment to tell her she's better than that. He thinks he's made it to her before she met with the dealership owner, but after some crafty editing, we learn before the close of the episode that Joan had only just returned from her rendezvous with the creepazoid before Don arrived. After his speech, she says, "You're a good one, aren't you?" which was just beyond heartbreaking. (More on Don in a bit.) Ultimately, SCDP gets the Jaguar account the next day and a shocked Don learns that Joan, in fact, did her part in reeling them in.

Meanwhile, Megan has continued with her acting plans while the grumbling Don remains reluctantly supportive. That is until Megan reveals that her new possible gig will take her to Boston for a couple of months of rehearsal if she lands it. Don is absolutely furious. Not only is his bride no longer working side-by-side with him, now the very real possibility of her leaving town to pursue her dreams has arrived as well, and that is more than he's able to handle. They have a spat over it, but the issue remains unresolved since Megan has yet to actually land the part. But, much like Joan, Megan can do little more than turn around for the male casting trio for her role in the play, and she is passed over for it; one of the other cutlets looked better on display, I suppose.

Then there's Peggy, who's continuously fought against being just a pretty face, a pawn in the workplace or even seen as a woman working in a man's world. She's always just tried to be an equal through intelligence and hard work. So while she took charge of all SCDP's creative business while Don and his team obsessed over nothing but Jaguar, you can understand her frustration when Don (frustrated by the Joan and Megan developments) treats her inhumanely by tossing money at her face during an argument. That was her final straw. And a couple of meetings with good ol' Freddy Rumsen and a SCDP competitor later, she gave her notice to Don, and there was nothing he could do in that moment to win her back. He lost her days before.


So, is Don one of the good ones as Joan attests? In her experience, absolutely. He's worlds above the other partners and just about any other man she's been in the company of that we've been privy to on the show. And we've seen him be amazing to lots of characters. But Don continues to treat Megan and Peggy atrociously whenever that infamous Draper temper flares up. So... I guess he is sometimes? It's such a hard question to answer, which is why it's so fascinating to contemplate.

And it's a subject that was similarly broached in "Commissions and Fees." While checking the books to see how Jaguar's unique payment request would effect business, Bert Cooper discovers Lane's forged check from "Christmas Waltz." However, since Don's name is on it, he accuses Don of having given Lane a bonus behind everyone's back and being "the good little boy while the adults run this business." And he may have a point, because even though Don cleans up the Lane mess a heartbeat later, he does so in about the most decent way possible by giving Lane an opportunity to devise a story for his resignation. Unfortunately things unravel quickly from that point for Lane, and he ultimately decides to hang himself in his office over the weekend. Continuing with the Don is a good guy evidence, he refuses to let Lane hang there any longer once he learns the body has yet to be moved, enlisting Pete and Roger to help him cut him down. The easy thing would have been to leave him there as Pete, Ken and Harry decided to do (hard to blame Joan or Bert for it though). And he also treated Glen surprisingly well considering the day he had, not only giving the youngster a ride back to school but letting the boy drive the car there himself.

I don't know. Maybe I'm looking too hard for reasons to like Don right now after all the sadness the Joan and Lane stories brought and the prospect of no more Peggy in our lives. He's obviously a complicated man who cannot be easily classified as a villain or a hero in any traditional sense. There does seem to be more good in him now than we've seen in some time, perhaps ever, and I think it's worth putting a spotlight on that for a moment.

Shifting back to Lane for a sec... ugh, that was so depressing. I guess I don't have a lot to say about his suicide. Ever since Joan rejected his advances after the fight with Pete, things have been going downhill for him, and life wasn't particularly rosy for him before that to boot. Once we saw him reduced to embezzlement, it was a good guess his time at SCDP was likely coming to a close and

So many questions are lingering now. Will Joan hold any form of resentment against Pete, Roger and Bert for what they pushed her into? Don't see how you could blame her if she did. How does SCDP deal with Lane's suicide? Practically speaking, Joan will be able to slide into his duties rather seamlessly (there's been a running joke much of this season that she really did all he was responsible for), but this is not Mrs. Blankenship were talking about. The man was a partner and killed himself in his office; there will be constant reminders for all of those characters. Will it drive someone like Pete to change their outlook on what they have in life? And have we seen the last of Peggy Olson? She could easily join the ranks of Kinsey, Rumsen and Sal, the former key members of this group of ad men barely ever seen again after stepping outside their inner circle. Like Joan replacing Lane, Ginsberg could fill the void she'll leave, but at what cost? His volatility may get the better of him. These may not be addressed in the finale, but I'm sure they'll continue to be relevant down the line.

Man. These last two episodes were big downers, but had so much great material packed in. I haven't even talked about really major stuff with Sally, some interesting tidbits on Betty, or even my homeboy Glen! Mark, any thoughts on those characters or were you as consumed with Joan, Peggy and Lane as I was?

Mark: Hey, Jon! Glad you had a good vacation. Geez, where to begin? Well, you know I always have something to say about Sally. It doesn't take much for this kid to break my heart, so you can imagine my reaction to her in this episode. Things are never easy for Sally, so it was appropriate that she would experience her first period while playing hooky at the Natural History Museum with Glen. This show is so adept at portraying the rollercoaster of confusion that is adolescence, and Kiernan Shipka is turning out to be quite a thoughtful actress. I thought the whole subplot, from Sally's reticent crush on Glen "Holden Caulfield" Bishop to her panicked dash back home to Betty, was handled very well. It was also touching to see Betty have a rare moment of selflessness and compassion for her daughter in a moment when Sally desperately needed her mother to put these scary things into perspective. Betty's speech about the life-affirming nature of menstruation was an uncharacteristically upbeat moment for Mad Men. For once this show wasn't convincing me that life is a meaningless nightmare.



And God knows I needed it these last two weeks, as this sweet story was surrounded by the destruction or near-moral-destruction of one of my favorite characters (Joan) and the one I most wanted to pat on the back and tell to calm the fuck down and smell the roses (Lane). First off, Lane. I agree, Jon, this was so depressing, and even though it was laced with some traditional Mad Men gallows humor, the death of Lane Pryce hit me hard. I feel like it is something that is going to irrevocably change the landscape of this show. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything else like this that has hit the SCDP crew so close to their own turf. Even though his reasons were not made clear to the rest of the partners, and I doubt Don will make them clear, I think each character will see what they want in themselves through Lane's suicide and won't be able to help being changed by it for better or worse. I've read elsewhere the theory that Lane gave too much and never claimed anything for himself. I don't know if I agree with that, at least not in the literal sense. I think the problem with Lane is that he allowed himself to be a shadow that the rest of the world passed through. He sat on the sidelines of his own life, and like Pete he daydreamed about being Don Draper, a big bold American bad-ass, until he got backed into a desperate corner, and the only way out was to swallow his pride and take a long look at himself and where he was. And Lane couldn't do that. He couldn't admit to himself that he needed help or that he made a mistake, and he certainly couldn't bear the humiliation of Don (being relatively compassionate, in a Don way) calling him on his actions. Don gave Lane the option of starting over, but that's where Lane and Don differ. That's why Don is the ultimate ad man. He is able to believe in some pie-in-the-sky ideal so strongly that it becomes a reality. Lane hated himself to the very core. He could never be Don Draper, because Dick Whitman would always be there eating away at him from the inside.









Lane snapping his glasses in half right before doing the deed was such a powerful physicalization of that self-hatred. Now the gallows humor I was talking about. I did love Lane as a character, but he is one of those Coen Brothers-esque heroes where its kind of fun and cathartic to see him be endless shit upon as a result of his own stupidity and bad luck. When Lane's wife surprised him with that Jaguar. Damn it. Jared Harris totally nailed the sinking dread of the situation. And after hearing so much about Jaguar's being substandard vehicles, I have to admit I did not see the punchline coming of Lane being unable to start the car and asphyxiate himself with the exhaust. It feels a little weird to say that was a great moment, but it was thematically on-point, it was totally appropriate for the character, and the subtext of the Jaguar-as-mistress being unreliable in a show filled with desperately unhappy philanderers was not lost on me. Just good writing.




I would say poor Joan, but I almost feel like I should be saying poor Don. Sure, Don is essentially our main character, but it almost seems like Don is suffering more for Joan's (and Lane's) decisions than they are. As gross as the SCDP partners were for entertaining the sleazebag Jaguar guy's offer... Well, let's face it, Pete is the gross one, although for as much as the others protested they didn't exactly stop it from happening. I feel like Lane was at least looking out for Joan in his own fucked-up way by suggesting that she get some financial leverage in the negotiation, and ultimately Joan made her own decision. I worry that this is one of those things that Mad Men characters carry around all of their lives that poison them slowly, but as a single divorced mother in the mid-1960s Joan is a stigmatized, ostracized figure. And with Greg off playing GI Joe in the Mekong Delta, Joan only has herself on which to rely when the bills start rolling in and the fridge goes on the fritz. It is horrible and depressing, such is the Gospel According to Weiner, to have to compromise yourself and give up pieces of your soul each and every day in order to stay afloat, and this was an extreme illustration of that in Mad Men's short-story mold. I'm glad to see Joan claiming some more power for herself, but at what cost? I just hope that some day down the line Joan doesn't have to suffer the indignity of being reminded of how she got to where she is by some pigheaded and petty SCDP shithead (I'm looking at you, Pete.)

This whole thing really gives some mileage to Don's downward spiral. Jon, it's interesting to try to pin Don down as being either a good or bad person. He's a complicated guy, definitely flawed and hypocritical, but not evil. Like anyone, I think Don is a good person when he wants to be. It's not easy to be good. It's downright impossible to be good all the time. I think Don is a good person who has been scarred by his experiences. He was discarded as a child and taught to disappear if things aren't going his way. There is an emptiness to him, a fluidity to his identity and how he perceives the world that others don't share. He's a bit of a sociopath in that way. We've joked before about Don being capable of murder. He does have a psycho tinge to him in his ability to disappear or change on a dime when things get too real, but more and more I feel like Don is just a kid who is trying to embody a childish ideal. And in accordance, he definitely acts childish. He is overflowing with respect and admiration for Joan, but when she compromises his idealized vision of her, he is crestfallen. I believe he is genuinely hurt and saddened that Joan was taken advantage of, but I also think there is an element of him feeling let down by her. The same with Peggy. He gets wrapped up in his own stuff and treats Peggy like garbage, and completely disrespects her by throwing money in her face. And when she stops taking it and seeks a new opportunity, he begs her to stay, in a touching scene that has just enough of a dash of "abusive boyfriend swearing he'll never do it again" to make it that special brand of "Mad Men complicated". Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe that Don respects Peggy and cherishes their professional chemistry and history, but I also think it is important to him that he always remain the mentor and she remain the adoring pupil. But I think Don can be a great person in the moments that he chooses to be kind, which you're right, Jon, these moments seem to be more plentiful these days (credit to Megan, whom I didn't get to discuss much), whether it's paying some respect to Lane's body or taking it easy on the scared and stranded Glen. But Don always gets something out of it. In his night drive with Glen, Don was able to escape from the complications and compromises of living in the world and experience the optimism of childhood. As confusing and scary as adolescence can be, it's amazing how all of those fears can be washed away (at least temporarily) by something as simple as a grown-up letting you take the wheel.

Again, this may just be me not wanting to let go of Peggy, but I don't see this as her exit from the show. I think this is just the next chapter in Peggy's evolution as a young woman in the career world, which has provided such a nice spine for the show. It was great to see her step into a whole new world of possibilities as the Kinks tore down a few more shreds of the good-old-boy business tactics of SCDP. Maybe I'm selfish, but I don't want Peggy to stray to far from us.

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"
Episode 7 - "At The Codfish Ball"
Episode 8 - "Lady Lazarus"
Episode 9 - "Dark Shadows"
Episode 10 - "Christmas Waltz"

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "Dark Shadows"

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.

"Dark Shadows"

Season 5, Episode 9

airdate: May 13th, 2012

Mark: Oh, Betty. Despite Ms. Francis doing the epically shitty thing of using her daughter as a pawn against her ex-husband, I think some of that season one sympathy that she instilled in me is creeping its way back in. Who, like Betty, wouldn’t be a little peeved to witness Don and Megan’s swinging Manhattan pad and genuine affection for each other when all they had to go back home to was a dark, empty house and a distant daddy-husband? You know you don’t mess with Sally if you want to stay in my good graces, but damned if I didn’t feel for Betty that her greatest source of pleasure in her life currently is a meticulously portioned glob of sweet potatoes. I’m definitely sensitive to weight issues, so maybe that has something to do with it. But I also know how deeply it hurts to be jilted, and although she does not process her feelings in anywhere near a healthy way, there is something to Betty’s anger and disappointment over Megan somehow having access to a sensitive, loving Don Draper that Betty herself never knew. Don’t get me wrong, Betty can be such a dope. After all, she is thankful because “I have everything I want, and no one has anything better”. It’s important to her that everyone else be on a lower rung. That line actually made me laugh out loud and exclaim “What a Betty thing to say!” Yes, I’m an obnoxious TV watcher sometimes. Well, anyway, chalk another one up for Sally’s dying innocence. Sorry, Sal, not even the grown-ups have it figured out. Good luck!

Now that Megan has flown the Sterling Coop to pursue guest spots on Dark Shadows (in theaters now!), Don has no choice but to reengage with his work. And he’s a little rusty. Not only does his cartoon devil pitch lack that Don Draper feeling, it looks downright quaint next to Ginsberg’s literally in-your-face Snoball campaign. It was painful to hear Don have to justify – TWICE – that his devil ad will work if you hear the scary devil voice in your head. When it comes down to it, Don predicates his idea entirely on the fact that kids like cartoon devils, which to paraphrase Roger Sterling, sounds like a client’s idea if I’ve ever heard one. Like Betty, Don feels jilted and passed up, in this case by the changing world of advertising. He has been checked out for a while (Ginsberg condescendingly congratulates Don on being able to write after not doing it for so long), and is jealous of the new kid on the block. Shades of Betty and Megan. And like Betty, Don takes the petty route and ditches Ginsberg’s mock-up in the cab ride to the presentation, and he sells the client on his cartoon devil after Ginsberg’s work was unanimously chosen as the stronger pitch by the SCDP partners. Maybe Don and Betty are more alike than we thought, and as genuinely supportive as Don is of Megan’s choice to pursue acting, maybe Don can only go so far. As Joan reminded us, Don was once this smitten with Betty back when she was a bright-eyed model plucked from a casting call. As Roger says (I’m quoting him a lot today), it’s every man for himself, and who’s to say Don won’t jump ship the minute he tires of his worldview being challenged? Megan, Ginsberg and the entire world aren’t going to stop moving forward, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Don just ripped the needle off the record in frustration and walked away from it all. Don vacillates between being with and behind the times, but ultimately I’m afraid he just can’t handle all those sitars and tape loops. By the way, I missed the last couple of weeks, but I can’t believe this show was able to license “Tomorrow Never Knows”. How expensive must that have been?

Gratuitous side-boob image brought to you by the good people of LowBrowMedia.

Continuing the theme of “Everybody’s Selfish!” is Mr. Pete Campbell and his dogged pursuit of Beth. This is more from last week’s episode, since I didn’t have a chance to weigh in, but gosh... It’s the same with Betty. Weiner and pals have a special talent of making their characters act like utter scumbags but having them still somehow be sympathetic. Pete’s motivations come from the most selfish and petty of places, all from his thwarted sense of superiority and unfulfilled need to be seen as important and to guide the narrative of his life, but damn his depression is palpable. He is the saddest little fuck I’ve ever seen, and his need to turn the tables on Beth in order to correct some misplaced idea that women shouldn’t have the ability to guide the course of action if a man believes things should go another way is just mindblowing. Wait a minute, Pete! That tiny speck of ground you have to stand on is crumbling! Watch out below!

I also appreciated that the fog of dread that has been hanging over this entire series became literal this week, in the form of the poisonous smog which apparently was a real thing and killed 169 people in 1966. I feel like that’s the kind of metaphor that causes Matthew Weiner to literally drool. After that and the incredibly ominous open elevator shaft from two weeks ago, I’m really starting to feel the cold hand of death hanging over this show. Or perhaps it’s the cold hand of Satan gripping his ice cold Snoball treat!

Jon: Ask and you shall receive! Last week I petitioned for some overdue Betty action and, man alive, did I get it this time. She's been busy trying to lose some of that excess weight we were introduced to earlier this season by engaging in some serious portion-controlled meals and attending some therapy sessions (also known as Weight Watchers). Things seem to be on the upswing for her, but the combination of getting glimpses of Don's swanky new apartment, his new wife's banging physique and their lovey-dovey correspondence prove to be too much, and she immediately regresses into the childlike behavior that drove her into this mess in the first place. But as awful as it was of her to spill some of Don's secret past to Sally, it was probably the most fun thing I've seen her do since she was gunning down birds with a ciggy hanging out of the side of her mouth. As much as her character drives me bonkers, "Dark Shadows" was a wonderful reminder how necessary Betty is to the show. She makes almost everything around her more interesting. A lot of trouble was caused this week, as she accelerated a lot of things into motion involving Don and Megan, as well as Don and Sally for the final episodes of season 5.

In addition to Betty's return, there were a couple of important shifts with other characters that occurred this week, namely the rest of the Drapers -- Megan, Sally and Don -- and young, enigmatic Michael Ginsberg.

Megan continues to buy into her father's disappointment in her life, with this week bringing us a peek at a similar sentiment from her acting friend we last saw at the "Zou Bisou Bisou" party. As her lovely ginger friend points out, Megan's pretty far away from the struggling actress reduced to reading for a cheesy gothic soap opera. At this point, I'm wondering if she'll leave Don to pursue her stage dreams just to struggle for the point of struggling, or if he'll become completely disenchanted with her before she has the chance.

But cute redheaded actresses aren't the only ones giving Megan a hard time this week, as Sally cuts deep at her with Betty's claws. The revelation of her father's dark secrets hurt Sally immensely, shattering her idealistic view she's allowed herself to build of him as an absentee parent, an image very unlike what Sally's cultivated for Betty. Soon enough, she'll be free of any simple vision of either one of her parents. But Sally's further ascent into adolescence does stop there. This week has shown us she is an absolute master at manipulating every adult in her proximity. She circles around each of Betty, Don and Megan with amazing tact, and one can only marvel at what she'll be able to pull off next season.

After having spent most of the season avoiding work at such an astonishing rate Roger has probably been the more productive SCDP employee this season, Don finally heads back into full workaholic mode. Bert's chastization from a few weeks back has finally become undeniable, so Don spends part of the weekend alone in the office brainstorming on the pitch for a new client. Really though, this is little more than a residual effect of Megan's decision to leave the advertising industry, as Don's physical and creative wanderings around the office seem a result of escaping his homelife now that it's no longer intertwined with his work.


And this new-found immersion in work brings him head to head with rising creative supernova Michael Ginsberg. A few weeks ago, Mark mentioned that we weren't talking enough about Ginsberg, and he was completely right. Season 5 has been peppering tidbits of information on the newest copywriter almost every week, but I never felt I had enough to really sink my teeth into with him until now. As great at their jobs as we've seen Peggy and Don be, Ginsberg has a wild, unpredictable streak that allows for his work to possibly reach another level of greatness. He's incredibly young and knows he's supremely talented, a difficult combination to harness. When he learns Don never brought his Snoball idea to the client -- one that was clearly superior to his boss's idea -- he goes berserk, partly because he knows Don did it intentionally and also because he has no filter. Ginsberg confronts Don in the elevator the following morning. As much as my hearts goes out to the kid for calling him out, Don so effectively swats him away that I'm immediately sent back into his corner. Ginsberg will receive his due accolades if he swallows a smidgen of pride. It just may not be within the offices of SCDP.

The only other major event that happened this week was Roger hooked up with Jane in her new apartment basically because he decided he wanted to. Not sure if anything significant will come of that, but it gobbled up enough of the episode that it's worth mentioning.

On a closing note (and also because it actually worked last time with Betty), I'm calling for the return of Lane. I miss that crazy British bastard! Did Pete mess up his face so much, he's gone into hiding? I need to know. And also please more sideboob. See you all again in a few days!

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"
Episode 7 - "At The Codfish Ball"
Episode 8 - "Lady Lazarus"

Peggy wasn't a big player this week, but we couldn't bring ourselves to leave this shot on the cutting room floor.

MAD MEN Partners' Meeting - "Lady Lazarus"

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.

"Lady Lazarus"

Season 5, Episode 8

airdate: May 6th, 2012

Jon: Welcome back, everybody. This week brought us an episode I really enjoyed for a bunch of different reasons, but kinda feels like it'll be one of those that becomes more obvious what it was doing once we wrap of season 5. That makes it a little tricky to review, but we'll attempt it anyway.

We begin with Pete's insurance salesman friend from the train, Howard, who hasn't been brought up much in our discussions here, but has consistently affirmed my initial suspicions of his being a complete ass-clown in his brief appearances this season. He's so repugnant in his boasts of infidelity, even Pete, who's hardly offended by such behavior, is disgusted by him. Later in the episode we're introduced to Howard's wife, Beth -- played by Rory Gilmore! -- who is stranded at the train station. Pete gives her a ride home, and during their car ride, Pete all but confirms her suspicions regarding her husband's whereabouts. Pete follows her into the house, in part out of concern for her well being but mostly because he seems to want to lie about his lying to her, which rather abruptly escalates into a tryst in Howard's living room. He instantly becomes smitten with her, but for her it was one and done. But if we've learned anything on Mad Men over the years, it's Peter Campbell wants what he doesn't already, or can't, have. Unfortunately for him, Beth may be even less emotionally developed than Betty. Despite all his pursuits of her thereafter -- a midday phone call, a surprise visit to her home, a hotel room reservation -- she does little more than brush him off each time only to tease him enough in the process to goad him into trying again. Judging by her final message at the close of the episode, I doubt we've seen the last of Beth or Pete's chasing after her.

But the biggest event this week was Megan's departure from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce to go back to an actress full time. Picking up where Mike left off last week, it really is a shame Megan doesn't enjoy working in advertising the way the rest of the folks at SCDP do. She's absolutely brilliant at it, as we saw during the Heinz dinner in "At The Codfish Ball." But that's probably because she's an exceptional actress when she has to be, and as we were shown by her father's scolding and her obvious unfulfillment after that wonderful Heinz deal closure, this is not what she wants to do with her life. I don't think she's playing a part when it comes to her and Don. I think they both genuinely love each other. That said, Don was certainly more enthralled to have her eating clients alive by his side, so we'll see if he falls into the same indifference with Megan as he did with Betty, which Joan kindly reminds us of. At the end of the day Don wants her to be happy (or at least he tells Roger as much), so maybe he just needs a little time to process it. But would anyone be surprised that this is what drives them apart?

Ultimately, this is just the latest example from this season of Don's resistance to change with those turbulent 60s swirling around him. While Megan has spent her first days away from SCDP cooking barefoot while enjoying the latest and most experimental album yet from The Beatles, Don has been trying to find an acceptable Beatles knock-off group so they can make their latest client happy. (Sidenote - I take a bit of issue with the inclusion of The Zombies with the other bands mentioned, only because their wonderful album Odessey and Oracle is hardly one-hit wonder fodder. But, to be fair, that album wouldn't see release for nearly another year after the events of  "Lady Lazarus." So because "She's Not There" and "Tell Her No" were their only hits of note to that point, they must have seemed as just another group riding the Fab Four's coattails in the summer of 1966. Also, AMC seems to be doing okay with that whole zombie thing lately, so maybe they were name-dropped for promo-spot purposes.) In the middle of the episode, a perplexed Don asks Megan, "When did music become so important?" From her point of view it's always been important, but Don has only ever seen it as an advertising tool, not an art form.

For me, the best part of this episode was the prevalence of music, particularly the inclusion of my favorite Beatles album, Revolver. I'm a massive Beatles nerd, becoming obsessed with them in junior high when all the Anthology stuff was coming out, and proceeded to get my hands on all their albums while devouring a number of biographies. That the earlier part of "Lady Lazarus" was spent by Stan, Ginsberg and Ken finding a song to replicate their A Hard Day's Night era sound, The Beatles themselves had already abandoned the sound that made them famous before becoming stale, which would eventually elevate them to the iconic experimental and inventive songwriters we now recognize them as.

It's curious that Megan would direct Don to listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows" first. Not only is it the final track on side two, it's probably the least likely cut off the album he'd enjoy (that or George Harrison's "Love To You," a droning sitar number). Obviously he didn't have the patience to finish it.

I gave Revolver a listen this week while thinking how it relates in terms to the current state of Mad Men was quite enlightening. Roger would likely enjoy "Doctor Robert," a song about a Dr. Feelgood who has a pill for whatever ails you; Lane would appreciate "Taxman," Harrison's tongue-in-cheek critique on the British tax system; I suspect Ginsberg would be drawn to "Eleanor Rigby," a sublime tale of a lonely woman who's funeral had no attendees, save for the priest; and Pete, at least this week, would identify with "Got To Get You Into My Life." But the song that has really been hard to ignore is "For Know One," Paul McCartney's somber ballad that with lyrics such as And in her eyes you see nothing/No sign of love behind her tears/Cried for no one/A love that should have lasted years could be a harbinger for Draper marriage.



Because Mad Men never sticks any of the characters directly in a monumental event of the time Forest Gump-style, it's easy to forget exactly how much the world is changing around them. But subtle examples are sprinkled in, like the evolution of The Beatles from a mere pop group to the most influential rock and roll band ever. Of our main characters, Peggy and Megan have always been driving toward change and embracing the new, Pete and Joan generally seem to welcome it but are just old enough not to completely abandon the previous generation's ways, and Don and Roger (and the rest of the old coots) have actively resisted these newfangled ideas for the most part. Roger's LSD trip may allow him to be ride this wave of change to a safe harbor of success, but Don seems poised to be headed down a path of diminishing success at the office and a divorce from his young bride all stemming from either his inability to adapt to his surroundings or his mere stubbornness to pine for the good 'ol days. He's going to have set his dreams higher than indoor plumbing if he's going to be able to morph into yet another version of Donald Draper. If he doesn't, then he's likely to have quite a bit of hardship in the coming years.

Random thoughts...
-- Catty Joan is back! I missed her.
-- Pete may not be as down as he was at the close of "Signal 30" a couple of episodes ago, but he's still an incredibly depressed individual. If the internet rumor mill about a death during this season of Mad Men turns out to be true, I'd say he's our most likely suspect. He just purchased some extra life insurance after all...
-- Ginsberg really works up a sweat during presentations. That was intense!
-- Poor Peggy. When will she learn that staying late at the office alone is little more than a surefire way to get mixed up in her coworkers' relationships?
-- I'm a little surprised I'm saying this, but I'm kinda going through a little Betty withdraw. It's been six weeks.
-- Speaking of absent cast members, I know he's been causing havoc as David Robert Jones over on Fringe this year, but Jared Harris has been missed as well. Would it kill him to use some of that mad scientist tech to transport back to 1960s Earth Prime so I can have a little Lane action?
-- Man, life outside of Bayside High is hard. Mr. Belding is even fatter than when he on Always Sunny a few years a go, Screech is a complete disaster of a human, and Lisa Turtle looks like this now.
-- I never liked Vincent Kartheiser much when I was introduced to him as Connor on Angel, but now having to watch him be miserable with Alison Brie and actually get mad at Alexis Bledel for being a little difficult, he's gotta be among the greatest actors of our time. (I kid... mostly.) 

 Mike: Really laughing at that last one, Jon.  (But also, I gotta agree!  And nice work on the Beatles song character analogies.)  You know, now that I said that, there's actually a lot I agree with in your write-up above.  I think you were spot-on when you said that the significance of this episode won't really be revealed until we get a better idea of where the story is going this season, for any of the plot threads that it follows.  I've got to say that at least initially, I didn't find a lot that I needed to write about for this episode.  It was reasonably entertaining, and moved the pieces around on the chessboard a bit, but it's still difficult to see where all of this is going.

To take it from the top, then, Pete's initial success with Alexis Bledel's underappreciated cuckquean (per Google, a female cuckold) housewife was a striking scene, fraught with undercurrent that I hope I never really come to understand in my personal life.  Now, we've got a now rather well-established cheater in Pete cheating with the cheated-on, while her husband is in the city cheating on her.  On a show where Don Draper has become the poster child for marriage fidelity, I've been trying to figure out who else has been faithful.  (Maybe Ken?  Is Bert even married?  Oh yeah, I forgot about his wartime groin injury.)  C'mon, Mad Men and Women, you need to learn to keep it in your pants!  If only the cheating wasn't so fun to watch, at least most of the time.

Now, Bledel's character Beth clearly doesn't have Pete's best interests at heart, but on the other hand, her husband Howard is a complete piece of insufferable trash.  Even poor, blind Pete can probably tell that the situation he's putting himself in will never end well.  But he still buys the champagne and rents the hotel room anyways.  I'll say this for him: in his seemingly endless search for -- what is it, anyways? stability? love? fulfillment? -- he's persistent.  And that will probably be what does him in, in the end.  Now, it could very well be that this unrequited romance is just another bump on the road for poor old Pete, but it doesn't take a Master's degree in following TV storylines to start to see a throughline over these episodes.  And unless there's a major course correction in his life, I'm not so sure that things will ever be any better for him.

Along these same lines, I got a little chill when Pete was talking with Howard about his family history, and the early, accidental death of Pete's father came up.  I had completely forgotten about that.  With any further lack of caution and his increasingly more frequent affairs, or at least attempts at them, Pete stands a pretty good chance of losing his family.   The Campbell family and his in-laws already can barely stand him, as far as I can tell.  Will Pete be able to even muster up the strength to get out of bed in the morning if he loses the two, possibly only, real fans of his that he has?  I suspect we are going to find out this season, one way or the other.  I'd wager that Pete simply doesn't have the strength that Don did, to bounce back after his first family fell apart.  Even a man like Don, skilled in personal reinvention, almost didn't.

The other big happening in this episode is Megan finally giving voice to her desire to leave the advertising field, not to mention SCDP, in favor of her acting career.  It happened so quickly -- a tearful goodbye to the other copywriters, a lunch with "the girls," and she's not even coming back for her box of stuff afterwards.  After Megan's initial truth-bending about her audition callback, Don is surprisingly understanding, and I am choosing to believe he is sincere in this.  He's seen what having unfulfilled passions has done to Betty, and he understandably doesn't want his new wife to go down that road.  And perhaps even a little selfishly, he doesn't want to go through all of that again himself.  What this means for his recent career upswing, in conjunction with a Megan who has just found her copywriting and client-wrangling feet, remains to be seen.  But I think the looks on Don's face speak a thousand words:




Don and Megan's perhaps overly cutesy, but effective, Cool-Whip routine owned the room.  But after Megan's ill-timed departure, and Don and Peggy's disastrous (and stomach-churningly hilarious) second Cool-Whip demonstration:

Don and Peggy's exchange after this, in front of the awkward lab personnel, was particularly revealing as well.  Has anyone ever spoken to Don like that and not been fired?  The problem was, Peggy was right -- Don was mad at Megan, not her.  (Though seriously, Peggy, you really did blow the whole thing.)  The Cool-Whip contract will probably survive.  The strain on Don's marriage is a whole different story.  It wasn't that long ago that Don was saying that he only liked going to work so that he could be with Megan all day.  All of his recent success could reasonably be attributed to the synergy of both Don and Megan working together.  So, which Don will emerge from the rubble of this latest development?  That remains to be seen, and I'll be tuning in next week, for sure, to find out.

Previously:
Episodes 1&2 - "A Little Kiss"
Episode 3 - "Tea Leaves"
Episode 4 - "Mystery Date"
Episode 5 - "Signal 30"
Episode 6 - "Far Away Places"
Episode 7 - "At The Codfish Ball"

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"