Throw everything out.
Don Draper: American Airlines is not about the past any more than America is. Ask not about Cuba. Ask not about the bomb; we’re going to the moon. Throw everything out.
Paul Kinsey: Everything?
Don: There is no such thing as American history, only a frontier. That crash happened to somebody else. It’s not about apologies for what happened. It’s about those seven men in the room on Friday, and what airline they are going to be running.
Salvatore Romano: So what does that mean?
Don: Let’s pretend we know what 1963 looks like.
~Three Sundays
That crash happened to someone else.
Bobbie Barrett: I keep forgetting the accident. It was terrible. And it keeps getting stranger.
Peggy Olson: Well, if you’re lucky, it will disappear.
~The New Girl
Don Draper to Adam Whitman, his long lost baby brother: I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.
~5G
Let’s pretend we know what 1963 looks like.
Bobbie Barrett: You have to start living the life of the person you want to be.
~The New Girl
Don Draper: I guess when you try to forget something, you have to forget everything.
~The New Girl
I know we’ve discussed themes throughout Season Two. But I think that as overarching themes go, Reinventing Yourself is a front runner. And sure, it started with Season One, but it seems to have reached beyond the Don/Dick situation. Again and again and again, we’re hearing about it. Vicky introduced herself to Roger as Marty Hasselbach’s wife. Salvatore is a husband. Duck tried to reinvent himself, and is fraying; he knows the old him is still in there, ready to leak out.
And so, with five episodes to go, it will be interesting to see what’s next. Betty has just taken a pretty damned big step.
And can we talk briefly about the brilliance of writing ‘ask not’ into Don’s ’speech’? Because when you’re feeling strong, when you’re feeling, I don’t know, epic, you naturally draw upon the words of one of the great speeches in recent history.
(And here’s part 1.)
September 25th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I think Betty is becoming more independent and is liking it, but she knows if she goes the adulterus route she will be just like Don, and she doesnt want that. I think Don will continue to fool around, but once he sees that Betty is independent he will start to accept it and eventually fall in love with her again. Matt Weiner has said in I dont know what interview or which magazine that Mad Men is about a man falling in love again. I think Don could be falling in love with Betty again. She stood up to him, and from what we know Don likes fiesty independent women. Betty has been irking this feelings for so long that I actually think she is entering a healthy stage in her life.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Russen, very cool thoughts. I hadn’t heard that Weiner line. I like.
You had some spoiler-ish stuff in your comment that many people wouldn’t have minded reading, but many would, so rather than delete your comment, I just edited it out.
I hope you understand.
September 26th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Its cool Roberta. Sorry for the spoilers guys
God I love this show!
September 26th, 2008 at 9:04 am
That is a terrific point, Russen.
As adults, we get treated, over time, the way we deserve to be treated. We are treated as well or as badly as we let ourselves be treated. We send signals to others (intimate friends as well as mere acquaintaces) about how not just how we wish to be treated, but about what type of treatment we will tolerate, and what type of treatment we will not. People have a way of picking up on these signals and responding in kind.
This isn’t meant to be a self-help lecture, but it brings me to a point about Betty that you touch on.
When we enter their world in 1960, Don is treating Betty how she allows herself to be treated. By looking the other way, deferring to him as a matter of reflex, orbiting him like a satellite, she is signalling to him that her fidelity is unfailing, regardless of his actions.
But Don, we come to learn, respects the women that challenge him, that force him to be better, behave better. If you coddle Don, he’ll walk all over you. If you stand up to him, he’ll become reflective and more considerate.
We’ve seen Betty slowly becoming more challenging of Don, but she’s been pushing the wrong buttons (corporal punishment for Bobby, etc.). With the Bobbie stuff, she’s showing steel.
To your point, Russen, this will get Don’s attention and perhaps help him rekindle feelings for Betty.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Thanks for your post Cooper. It kind of comes full circle if you think about it. Rachel challenged Don because she pointed out to him that he was arrogant, rude, and and an ego maniac. I believe its in the first couple of episodes in season 1. Once Don takes into consideration in what she says, he falls for her and ends up sleeping with her and makes boastful promises in which she finds out just to benefit him and not her. So she dumps (Good Job Rachel!! :)) Then with Midge, well she basically just wanted him for a booty call, and she knew that, but also Midge was street smart, wise, and she really didnt have to challenge Don because he probably saw something in her which reminded of him. But Midge didnt want to runaway either. She was quite happy with their relationship, and when Don finds out she has really true, probably love feelings for her bohemian friend he dumps her, which I think Midge could care less, she knew what their relationship was anyways. When Don meets Bobbie turns out HE was her conquest when all the while he thought SHE was his. Stupid Don! I truly think that now Betty who is coming into her own, and finally had a breakthough Matt Weiner promised us this seaon, I think Don will start to fall in love with her again, and realize that it is she who gives him stability, but his lying, greed, and overall persona of being a MADMEN badass is literally killing him, when all the while he thinks Betty is killing him, she isnt. He is killing himself!
September 26th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Reinvention is very much a part of global culture in the 1960s, starting with some pretty major events: Europe reinventing itself after World War II. Russia beginning to come out of the Cold War, inch by inch. The Vatican realizing it needed to be closer to the people with Vatican II. The black community transforming itself as the civil rights movement takes root. LBJ becoming a statesman and not just a politician.
It was much easier to wish the past away, because the world was not just ready to change, it was encouraging change. Don, and the others, are riding a wave.
September 26th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Throw everything out, for man with money/position, usually means the not-super-young wife.
Re-invention for men usually starts with the women in their life.
September 26th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I agree Rothschild, but I think Weiner is trying to show us that Betty now has the balls to stand up to anyone, and that she wants to re-invent herself so that people dont look down upon her, as a child. I am so glad the breakthrough Weiner had told us finally came true.
September 27th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Another huge reinvention during this time period was giving up ethnic identites and becoming white. People moved from ethnic neighbhorhoods to the suburbs, and it no longer mattered what ethnicity you were, as long as your skin was white (and depending on the suburb, not Jewish).
September 27th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Duck tried to reinvent himself, and is fraying
And it’s not just Duck who is fraying. We have seen again and again how the carefully constructed self reinventions - Don’s, Peggy’s, Bobbie’s, Sal’s, even Joan-as-dutiful-almost-wife - don’t always fit so well and the real person pokes through in unexpected ways - Peggy in the bathtub, Sal lighting Ken’s cigarette, Bobbie’s honesty at Peggy’s apartment.
Which all really makes Betty the most interesting character of Season 2, IMHO. Where everyone else is trying to live up to various roles (and in the case of Pete, having nothing beneath the surface to fall back on), Betty’s “reinvention” seems to be about finding the truth, who she really is. I’ve noted before she has lived the stereotypical upper-middle-class girl’s life, right down to the slightly bohemian trip to Europe. Now she is finding out that girl really isn’t her, and last week that she was willing to risk the facade for personal happiness or strength.
If Weiner really is starting to examine the changes the 60s wrought, Betty is really the starting point. The characters are learning the various types of conformity - down to a completely new identity for Don - aren’t nearly as fulfilling as they thought. Betty is the first to venture, ever so slightly, into the world beyond the conformity (how’s that for a profound Saturday morning thought?).
September 27th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Betty’s physical transformation/deterioration in A Night To Remember (and series kudos to Janie Bryant on designing a dress that saw that through) was one of the most stunning things I’ve ever watched on television.