Matt Weiner sums up Season 1; a bit about numb hands
Last Monday night Weiner, Hamm and Slattery were on Charlie Rose. This is where you want these guys, not on the View, not on Letterman.
The following is Matt Weiner. Charlie has asked what the viewers (us!) want from S2; what are they coming back to see:
I think they’re coming to see the continuing storyline. How is Don gonna deal with the fact that there are no repercussions in his life; are there repercussions. What happened to that marriage? At the end of last season, all of Betty’s psychosomatic illness was erased by the fact that she’s accepted the fact that he was unfaithful, and she told her therapist hoping that he’d tell Don.
Peggy had this meteoric rise to fame, but her denial of her weight gain and the fact that it was a pregnancy; she has to deal with the psychological reality of that.
So those are those things, and then there’s the part about the history. Which is people are saying like, when is the 50s going to end and when is the 60s going to start.
Few things. Meteoric rise to fame? Matt sometimes talks a drop faster than he thinks.
Love the bit about the history. It is part of what has us on the edge of our seats. We’re nibbling on each little nugget of what’s to come. It’s gonna be a long, long time before we see a bra burned, but we are scrutinizing for every baby step. It’s like we’re looking at them as they’re sleepwalking, and we know that the waking up isn’t gonna go smoothly, but they just have to wake up. Or some metaphor that’s better than that.
But it’s Betty’s hands that really grabbed my attention.
A friend of mine, a health-care professional, watched most of the first season last week (as did like a million other folks) and we discussed the numb hands. I remember there was a lot of conjecture on the boards (pre-BoK) about what illness it was an early symptom of… MS seemed to be the consensus. It’s been so long since those episodes were new to me.
I told my friend (and hadn’t yet seen this interview) that I believed Weiner was going with the purely psychosomatic cause. But I have to say that I’ve never truly liked it. I understand fully that people somatize. And Betty herself explained it perfectly in Ladies Room. (”It’s hard to hold on to anything right now…”) But I still think it’s a little intense for something this specific to have no medical cause.
But I am always glad to get Weiner’s verification on this kind of thing.
Then Deb sent me over to the AMC site to read an interview with Hilary Jacobs Hendel, the LCSW (same as our mom) who does the psychological consulting for the show (our mom doesn’t do that).
Well, Matt came to me with her hands being numb, and we talked about an appropriate interpretation of that symptom. It might be interpreted that she has a lot of unconscious anger with violent impulses. And that by numbing the hands it’s a way to prevent an unconscious fear that she would hurt somebody because she’s enraged. We speculated she had issues with her mom and she has issues with Don. And often fear and anger go hand in hand — fear of anger especially for women who are not supposed to be angry. When she interacts with Helen Bishop, there is a little bit of jealousy and anxiety of how this woman is surviving, how it is to be a single mother. Then we fast-forward to the end of the season and she has fear about confronting Don, and the risk of what might happen in a confrontation about his affairs.
And yet she takes that sometimes-numb hand and slaps Helen, which, right or wrong, I always felt was a sign of her getting healthier, and beginning to get in touch with her anger.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I knew that Betty was pbably secretly jealous of Helen. It wasn’t really just pity or worry about her own future.
August 3rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Helen Bishop rocked last season! Her smackdown of that snaky Carlton at Sally’s party was hilarious! I wish she’d made more appearances on the show. She wasn’t perfect and her son Glen was dealing with issues, to say the least. Still, Helen showed that the end of an (unhappy) marriage didn’t mean the end of a woman’s life!
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Don’t forget that Betty told Don that her hands never idle as she goes through her day and waits for him.
I like that it was psychosomatic. I think it was a nice fake out. “People are telling this Betty person it’s all in her head, I bet it’s real, and nobody is taking her complaint seriously… because she’s a woman.”
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes it’s a manifestation of… oh, something.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
so glad you mentioned this i’m giggly just watching it load:
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/07/28/2/a-discussion-about-the-television-series-mad-men
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Roberta, I agree with you that Betty’s smacking Helen was a good sign in terms of her emotional health. I immediately thought of her previous difficulties with her hands and said to myself, “Her hands sure do what she wants now!” (o:
I was happy to see her do it, for that reason, and because Helen deserved it.
Harry, thx for the link.
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Years and years (and years) ago, I had an idiot boss. She was infuriating. I did all the work, she was oblivious, blah blah blah.
One day she pissed me off royally. Don’t remember what it was… did she call in and tell me she was going to be a few hours late? I don’t remember. That day I made a few calls about jobs.
I was in therapy at the time. My therapist pointed out that it was a great remedy to my anger; my hands wanted to hit something (or really, my boss), and instead they picked up the phone and took positive action toward change.
Never forgot it.
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Maybe a little off the topic. But I wanted to respond to something Roberta said. Coincidental.
My brother today is complaining about the fact that he has been at the same dead end job for 19 years. He has been unhappy for years! He is playing with the idea of going back to school but he just can’t seem to bring himself to make a step.
I told him to go tomorrow, and sign up for 1 course (English, Math, Psych) something. That if he makes that one move he will find his job become more tolarable. Because while he is working the job, he knows he is also at the same time actually taking steps to do something else. Stop putting it off. I think he is gonna do it.
It is easier to tolerate something you despise if you are actively working to transition to something else.
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
My step-mom said she used to do the same thing Betty did. When she was little she had to watch over her little sister while her parents were out, so when they went to bed she would always keep her hands clenched into a fist because she was nervous or scared.
That’s not exactly what Betty has but it reminds me of her.
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I had a psychosomatic numbness in my hands and feet. It lasted several weeks. This was about 28 years ago. Ultimately, I knew what caused it, and I worked it through. But as a result, I never believed Betty’s symptoms were other than psychosomatic.
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Last year, I had a similar experience as Deborah’s – numbness in hands and arms. Went as far as seeing a neurologist (recommended by my regular doc) and getting an MRI, but thankfully nothing was found wrong. Ultimately, the doc said that it was stress-related. It’s incredible and profound how stress and other emotional factors can manifest in physical ways…
So I never thought that Betty was physically ill, particularly after she said her doctor found nothing physically wrong. It does seem like Weiner intended the symptoms to be psychosomatic, and that’s logical given what we know of Betty’s struggles at the time.
Ok! Stating the obvious done.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
“I was happy to see her do it, for that reason, and because Helen deserved it.”
I would disagree, Rondi. What did Helen do to deserve getting smacked? (if I were a lawyer I’d say “assualted”) All she did was confront her neighbor who acted strangely while babysitting her kids.
Furthermore, she acted like (and this is a phrase I use a lot) a normal person. She politely confronted Betty to ask her about the incident and made it clear that she acted inappropriately. So Betty, feeling humiliated (after being humiliated by Don earlier), acts out with the slap.
But lets not think that Helen was in the wrong for treating Betty like a normal person.
This is not to say I don’t sympathize with Betty’s plight – her storyline is one of the best ever, and I enjoy all the discussion about her on this board. She’s truly representative of the American woman of the early 60’s and doesn’t understand how to act in her changing world.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I agree — Helen is one of the few people who’ve acted parental in the way we define it today. “You stepped over a line with my child, and I don’t want to associate with you,” as opposed to giving adults carte blanche to strike her children like we’ve seen other parents do.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I guess I’ll play devil’s advocate.
From Betty’s perspective, she is completely innocent. She did the woman a favor, and now is being accused (sort of) of being a dangerous pervert. The slap was the 1960 version of You watch your mouth. Certainly not considered assault.
Now, combine that, which is almost rational, with the shame that Betty feels. Because she does know that it was inappropriate, and although she certainly never considered, until this moment, that it was either dangerous or criminal, she does feel busted. Exposed. By this woman who is nothing but a troublemaker. Betty defended Helen from the beginning, but also made Don go get the cake (and look how that turned out) when he and Helen were outside together. And that hussy is accusing her? How dare she!
Add to that all that Helen represents… everything that Betty both craves and fears the most. In a classic tarot layout, your hopes and fears are one thing. One card represents both. That be Helen Bishop. Slap that bitch.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Oh, I understand why Betty did it and why it made sense to her, and why she even feels betrayed by Helen, and I’ve even suggested Betty felt it to be okay because of the movies of that time, and that it was a very movie star thing to do… but I would have been creeped out in Helen’s place, too.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I love the shot of Betty sitting on Helen’s couch right after she sends Glen to bed (with her lock of hair). She’s sitting like a little girl, with kind of a bemused grin on her face. She identifies with this eight-year-old and her body language becomes that of a little girl herself.
Roberta – your devil’s defense reminds me of the final scene in Election when Matthew Broderick’s character is doing the voice-over/flashback, listing all the reasons he hates Tracy Flick, growing more agitated, until he hurls the cup of soda at her limousine. One of my all-time favorites …
August 15th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
There seems to be some confusion about “The Slap.” The Character of Betty is very sympathetic, which makes it easy to identify with her, but she is also emotionally confused. Helen on the other hand is marginalized as a scandalous divorcee who is weird for taking walks, but seems rational especially in contrast with Betty. Since Betty is the main character I think some people assume her point of view. In my opinion Helen was completely right to hesitantly confront Betty about the hair she gave Glenn. However Betty rationalized it, doesn’t change the fact that she was encouraging a kid to lust after her.
The slap itself seemed to be thrown in anger but without conviction. Betty then gives Helen a “How Dare You” stare and starts to walk away but quickly becomes embarrassed and runs out abandoning her cart. Betty is also the one who turn this confrontation in to a “public scene” by slapping Helen.
I find it hard to understand why Helen is a bitch in that situation.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I don’t know that anyone accused Helen of being a bitch, it was simply a matter of having some understanding for why Betty slapped her. Helen clearly did nothing wrong, and in fact, took measures to protect her child–discussed with the ex-husband, and laid down some rules about not to speak to Mrs. Draper.
I’m just saying that Betty, who genuinely feels that she did nothing wrong, could justify the slap. But underneath the surface, here is a woman (Helen) who not only represents all her own (Betty’s) hopes and fears, but then kind of ‘outs’ Betty as being, I dunno, a wack job? Betty feels deeply humiliated. And also is just beginning to get in touch with any sense of negative feelings, including anger. This combination is the cocktail that leads to the slap.