Not-so-live blogging “Meditations in an Emergency”
Meditations in an Emergency
Like in life, I’m a slow learner here. First viewing, I was pretty disappointed with this as a finale. It felt more like an episode that could have run at any point in the season. I just didn’t feel the urgency of what was happening for some reason. I’m all, “Where’s the Kodak pitch?”
But upon a couple more viewings, I’m coming around to it more and more. The writing is superb (duh). The parallel crises. The performances – so crisp. It definitely gets under your skin. So here we go … the final, erratic Season 2 installment of my foray into not-so-live blogging.
DOCTOR’S OFFICE
Bambi. What’s this? Someone’s born? Someone dies? They haven’t spoken a word and already I’m confused …
Opening scene in FTWTY – Don at a doctor. Opening scene in Meditations – Betty at a doctor. I remember Mr. Weiner saying that the only doctor to treat any patient with compassion was Peggy’s ER doctor in The Wheel. This one’s not overtly a jerk, but pretty paternalistic nonetheless. No, strike that. He’s a putz.
HARRY’S OFFICE
Love how Harry is developing into one of those myopic jerks. He wrangled the TV buyer job, but only because S-C couldn’t give a shit about TV … yet.
PETE’S OFFICE
Pete’s so turned a corner. He’s learning how to be human. His personal interaction skills are slowly catching up with his intuitive gifts. I’d suspect it’s equal parts script direction and VK’s interpretation.
“I don’t want you blaming creative.” Probably was Pete’s Plan A.
HORSE STABLES
Don tells her what she’s been waiting to hear, and I think Betty genuinely appreciates the words. But she’s not moved. What’s her endgame? At this point, she’s actively courting a miscarriage, and not prepared to share the pregnancy news with Don. Has she really moved past her marriage?
“I’ll make arrangements.” Ouch.
DUCK’S OFFICE
“What’s your poison?”
Pete: “We’re merging … being merged with.” This comes up again later in the scene with Lois. They say merge like it’s French or something. Was this an odd word back then?
“That’s why God put non-compete clauses in contracts.” An obvious telegraph to the showdown later. I was a bit disappointed to see such a blatant tell … odd for MM.
DON’S HOTEL ROOM
Who’s Don about to call?
S-C OFFICE/DON’S OFFICE
Don notices the haircut – the ladies here called it … he’s dreamy.
“I don’t think there’ll be a point in hiding in the stairwell or diving under the desk.” Enter Pete. “On second thought …”
I love that Pete doesn’t drive. Why is that?
I know MW said Don was not just deflecting here, that he was genuinely complimenting Pete. But my first reaction was that it was legitimately both. What was Don going to say – “Remember how you nailed me 23 months ago on that ‘Don’s a deserter’ thing?” Who thinks Don was thinking about Pete when he slithered into Joy’s convertible?
The little speech about waiting until Pete’s ready, I think, is also Don learning to deal with this youth thing – this culture that isn’t his own. It’s taken all year (or more) for him to figure out that youth is not just a threat, but an asset.
ROGER’S OFFICE
Half-million dollars … not sure what this is in today’s dollars, but back then it had to be serious f-you money.
Like how Roger downplays his enthusiasm … “Cooper and Alice jumped on it …”
“We don’t know what’s really going on … you know that.” Another one of those lines that encapsulates the whole damn show.
BEAUTY SHOP
First thing I thought was how much fun the set designers must have had either finding that interior, or building it … real classic. Calling cool-insight-on-the-commentary-on-S2-DVD. Next June.
“She’s being smug because she has a bomb shelter.” HA!
S-C HALLWAY
Sal’s the one that gets her to sing …
How much fun did she have giving that speech? “Redundancies.”
She’s placing her faith in these knuckleheads …
THE STREET
Great shot of Betty looking at those mannequins …
BAR
Betty’s quite the alkie … wonder how that will play out. Well, I’m sure.
What kind of men’s room in this? A couch? That Senator from Idaho could have a really wide stance in here.
So if I’m interpreting this correctly, the only thing separating me and this guy is about 8 inches in height and a great head of hair?
PEGGY’S MOM’S HOUSE
We’ve been down this road before, but Father Gill is most certainly well-meaning, and executing his training correctly. But he’s just not getting that Peggy’s not wired in a way that is going to respond to that approach. He may be young, but he’s not reading her properly, which is why she rejects his efforts. Wonder if we’ll see Fr. Gill again – Colin Hanks was mui impressive.
DRAPERS’ KITCHEN
Each time I view this episode, I am more interested in Betty opening up that fridge and chowing … it’s so satisfying to watch her eat, for some reason. I think the guy asking her name after sex drove home the point in her mind that the fling was superficial. Important and somewhat necessary for her, but superficial.
CAMPBELL’S APARTMENT
“If I’m going to die, I want to die in Manhattan.” Ha HA!
He virtually declines her love for him, and she doesn’t realize it.
S-C CONFERENCE ROOM
“We buy time and space.” Boy if Don’s a dinosaur, Duck is reptilian sludge.
“You can either honor your contract, or walk out there and start selling insurance.” What kind of insurance, Duck? AFLAC!!!
PETE’S OFFICE
Great comment earlier about this being Peggy’s confession. And MW suggested it was a double confession. Fascinating.
But what I take from this is that it represents Peggy’s rejection of what I call The Draper Doctrine. Forget it. It didn’t happen. Move forward.
All season, as we pieced together the gap in time after Peggy gave birth leading up to the beginning of S2, Peggy was shown to have this unwavering devotion to Don, and, so we were led to believe, to the advice he gave her in the hospital. But here we see her facing what happened – confessing, if you will – and dealing with it.
She’s almost 15 years Don’s junior and has surpassed his level of emotional maturity.
MONTAGE
I love that Peggy believes in God – and that she’s still Catholic. It would be so easy for a character with such a progressive attitude about her career and life to turn her back not only on the Church but on the entire thing. She’s come to the conclusion that there’s a huge difference between practicing her faith and buying everything that comes out of a priest’s mouth.
The gun/phallic thing with Pete is funny. But I never looked at it as hinting at suicide. First of all – have you ever tried to shoot yourself with a rifle?
DRAPER’S KITCHEN
So the whole season has boiled down to this. Like I said, a bit anti-climactic the first time around for me. The showdown all season between Betty and Don greatly mirrors the CMC itself – in a way I’m sure that will be revealed further when we all re-watch these episodes.
Betty stared Don down, brought their relationship to the brink of destruction, and then a peaceful conclusion. But of course the Cold War went on for another 25+ years, didn’t it?
Whew! What a season, eh? I’d suggest that it was probably of higher quality on average than S1. However S1’s highs were much higher, IMO. I didn’t see an episode as brilliant as Hobo Code, Babylon, NvK, or The Wheel this season. But that’s no complaint. S2 was often great, and will probably result in another Best Drama Emmy, with greater acknowledgement of the supporting cast (Moss, Jones, Hendricks, Slattery, Kartheiser) as well.
Here’s to Matt Weiner, for creating this amazing universe that keeps us rapt and studying each episode as if it were delivered to us on a tablet.
Here’s to the cast, for putting all the color into those stunning scripts – and setting the bar impossibly high for themselves.
And here’s to Roberta and Deborah, for giving us a place to kibbitz.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Love some of your insights, particularly the Draper marriage as the Cold War. They can’t stand each other, can’t give up on each other.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
“Pete’s so turned a corner. He’s learning how to be human. ”
Pete has always been human – virtues and flaws.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
“I love that Pete doesn’t drive. Why is that?”
A lot of people who grew up in NYC never learned to drive. Public transportation in the city is all you need. I still have a number of friends in NYC who don’t have driver’s licenses. They use their passport for ID.
I live in Center City Philadelphia now and I haven’t driven a car in over two years. I love it. I don’t miss having a car one bit, but I know how to drive.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I love what you say about Peggy and Don.
Pete doesn’t drive because he’s a Manhattanite, simple as that.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:21 am
Native New Yorker here — I grew up riding the subways everywhere and still carry a non-driver state ID instead of a driver’s license. The one time I had a learner’s permit, I never followed through on lessons.
So I’m nthing what others are saying about Pete.
October 31st, 2008 at 3:07 am
AFLAC! LOL.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:13 am
What you said about Peggy and Catholicism was right on. And I wonder whether Matt W. wanted her feelings to reflect what many American Catholics were going through in that decade, which in some ways, was brought about by the birth control pill. Catholic women couldn’t go along with what the Church taught about birth control, and decided to go against that part of the Church’s teachings. Today, in general, Catholics in the U.S. take what they like about the church and leave the rest. Well, maybe not Opus Dei Catholics…
A few years later (1968), Roman Polanski in Rosemary’s Baby (not just a horror movie and one of my favorites) used Catholic themes— the Pope’s visit to NYC and the new philosophy that God was dead.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:19 am
The scene with Peggy and Father Gil take place in the church, no? Like in the basement, the place with a kitchen and “fellowship hall,” as we called them when I was a kid? They’re gathering supplies in case people come to take refuge from fear, or the bombs, or whatever? And Peggy’s mom baked something.
That’s how I read that scene.
I loved how it showed Father Gil’s sincerity and tone deafness. I never doubted his sincere concern as a priest for Peggy, but he doesn’t get her. And I love how Peggy chose to take her confession to the person for whom it really counts: Pete.
And we still don’t know if she “gave the baby away” to her sister or someone else.
The scene with Peggy and Pete in his office was an interesting parallel to the scene in the first season where he tells her about his hunting fantasy, and it turns her on. (Such an erotically weird scene!) Here they were honest with each other, and Pete’s tears after she left were heartbreaking. Maybe he wants a kid–maybe he wants a real, honest connection with someone–after all. Heather Havrilesky at Salon read the scene as Pete retracting his feelings for Peggy as soon as she confessed, but I don’t agree at all. Peggy gave him real intimacy there, and I think he knows it. He’s really growing up.
The look on Peggy’s face when Don offhandedly commented on her office and her haircut was perfect. He sees her. It’s a lovely relationship.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:20 am
Great recap B! I was thinking there is also a parallel/contrast btw the finale in S1 (and maybe all of S1) and S2. I tried to articulate this on the live thread, but it’s taken me all week to do so coherently. What it boils down is this: S2 is a lot more about being ‘real’. Recall how in ‘The Wheel’ Don buys into his own pitch and rushes home, imagining his ‘Kodak moment’ family, who is not there and he’s left alone and sad and not really knowing why. This year he does come home, to a very imperfect situation, but since he is now more like Dick Whitman than Don Draper, while uneasy, it is a reunion good enough for now. Same with Peggy. The confession was an awkward and sad (and moving) moment, far from her S1 wish that the whole baby situation go away; she is being her real self at a critical moment and she did not need to go bathe in the Pacific to get it. (Yay!). The whole seasons has given us increasingly frequent looks at the ‘real’ people in the show: Roger’s confession in the bar, Freddy Rumsen, Smith being gay…Then again “[...we] don’t really know what’s going on. [We] know that”.
Oh, and AFLAC? Made me choke on coffee (so I wouldn’t spit on the keyboard).
October 31st, 2008 at 11:21 am
Now everyone go watch FTWTY. It will totally freak you out.
AFLAC! cracked me up. Thanks.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:26 am
Oh, in the scene with Peggy and Pete in his office, when she takes a seat on his couch, my partner and I were both like, “no, not the couch!” That couch has witnessed quite a bit of their relationship, no?
And I didn’t take the shot of Pete with his rifle as hinting at suicide. That rifle, though hilariously and obviously phallic, also represents his conflicted attitude toward his independence and his marriage. It represents his taking a stand for himself and his autonomy within his marriage, but an immature stand, a little-boy stand, like playing at cowboys and indians. He returns the chip-and-dip, has his masculinity mocked because he’s running an errand for his wife, hits on the salesgirl unsuccessfully, and buys a rifle with the chip-and-dip money. Foolishly he takes the rifle home with him, and of course Trudy hates it.
But…Peggy really liked his hunting story.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:28 am
Inanna, you are right about the scene with Father Gill: Church basement.
You are wrong about “we still don’t know.” We do know. Anita gave birth to her third child shortly after Peggy gave her own child up for adoption. Since there is only one 18 month old baby in Anita’s home, and since Anita was pregnant at the end of 1960, Anita is raising her own baby, not Peggy’s. Weiner meant to tease us at first, but Anita’s pregnancy was meant to end speculation.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:47 am
“Who’s Don about to call?”
I like to think that he reflexively thought to call Betty, but realized that he really needed more than the CMC to make his “pitch” to her.
“Half-million dollars … not sure what this is in today’s dollars, but back then it had to be serious f-you money.”
I think someone pegged it at about 3.4 million in 2007 dollars.
“We don’t know what’s really going on … you know that.”
You’re right about the subtext, but it’s also two people who have been in the military talking to each other.
“She’s placing her faith in these knuckleheads ”
Hey, it’s not like she was a great secretary, either. But I liked the fact that another one of the women was taking an opportunity to get what they want at the office. Plus, it echoed a bit of the pilot — the switchboard as the “nerve center.”
“Betty’s quite the alkie …”
Quite the contrary; she got wobbly after one gimlet.
“But what I take from this is that it represents Peggy’s rejection of what I call The Draper Doctrine. Forget it. It didn’t happen. Move forward.”
A rejection of the first two parts, anyway. A key observation from you, B. — I don’t think anyone really jumped on that. Don’s confession was far more oblique.
“The gun/phallic thing with Pete is funny. But I never looked at it as hinting at suicide.”
I think I suggested elsewhere that the rifle may also have been an allusion to the hunter fantasy he laid on Peggy in S1.
Both season finales went for the ambiguous ending. This year, even holding hands with Betty, Don doesn’t really know where he stands with his family.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:10 pm
pete’s got his gun to keep away the commies, the hedonists, and probably his own feelings at this juncture.
news is that tom ford is using MM production designers for his new movie -a single man-based on the fabulous christopher isherwood book. a much better depiction of european expats in cali than the jet set. as a cali girl ive always resented the ny attitude against our west coast ways. what are u afraid of?
October 31st, 2008 at 1:23 pm
neorush, I like what Woody Allen said about it:
“I don’t like to get mellow, because when I’m mellow I have a tendency to ripen and then rot.”
October 31st, 2008 at 1:52 pm
That’s me point. We all ripen and then rot, so what’s it all about? I recommend Isherwood’s book The Single Man to all u literate Basket o Kisses folk. he does a BEAUTIFUL job with the themes of life and mortality under the cali sun. And that ending. Have to say, I didn’t see that comin! (HAHA)
October 31st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
given the average rate of inflation every year (3%) $500,000.00 then would be almost equal to $1.9 million now.
i’m such a nerd.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I get the feeling that Peggy worships Don as much as Pete does . . . but for only different reasons.
I think that this feeling of worship is something that both Pete and Peggy will have to overcome in order to grow.
November 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
Now everyone go watch FTWTY. It will totally freak you out.
Matt pretty much said that to me at the party. I haven’t yet.
It’s on tomorrow night, same bat time. But I’ll try to re-watch before that.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
I have a feel the “You … feeling something. That’s what sells.” line will sound entirely different.
November 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
It could be when Joan is making out on the sofa with her fiance’ and she “looks away” at the TV to watch Jackie Kennedy. Kinda the same look away we saw as she was being raped in Don’s office???
November 1st, 2008 at 8:20 pm
B. Cooper: “But what I take from this is that it represents Peggy’s rejection of what I call The Draper Doctrine. Forget it. It didn’t happen. Move forward.”
There was a great transition shot in “The Mountain King” that moved from Don in California in Anna’s house to Peggy in her new office in Manhattan. (This may have been discussed already here somewhere on the blog, but I haven’t come across it.)
I’m pretty sure it was the end of the scene where Anna was reading Don/Dick’s fortune from the Taro cards and he muses that he can smell the ocean from her house. As he says that, we see his POV and he is looking out the window behind Anna on the sofa and there are security bars on the window, but there’s sunlight behind them.
Cut to Peggy in her new office and it’s her POV looking out the window. The way that the shot is constructed, the reflection of the building across the street looks like bars on the window — and it’s dark (and it might be raining — not sure about that).
It was a great shot. And highlighting the moment when Don/Dick contemplates getting out of his cage … and a moment when Peggy is contemplating the one she is in….
And, I think you’re right — Peggy rejects The Draper Doctrine in “Meditations”. She is amazingly mature and insightful for a person her age. I know I sure wasn’t at that age!
November 1st, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Wow, I’m so happy I found this blog. It’s like having a DVD with 10 tracks of commentary, I swear. I never would have noticed that transition.
I wonder if I was the only one who really never saw Peggy as following a Don Doctrine? Because the thing with Peggy is even though she had a secret she handled it differently from the start. When Peggy was on the date with Kurt and she was lamenting about why she attracts the wrong men I was thinking, Peggy, it’s because you’re a transgressor and you have integrity and it’s going to take a while to find the right person to open up to, that’s all. It seemed to me that her secret was analogous to if someone had an abortion in 2008. It’s not exactly expected that you’re going to go to work and tell people. I don’t think she was morally obligated to tell anyone at work. But in her personal life Peggy’s only had her genuine relationships with her family and priest who all know her secret. Then the first time you see her reach out it turns out to be another transgressor and even though it never comes up, Kurt is not a person who would judge her or who would feel betrayed by the reality of it.
To me, Peggy’s been in total contrast to Don who has blithely built “intimate” relationships on lies and been blinded by wishful thinking that just having the outlines of a good life is what counts. Don doesn’t make the sacrifice. Peggy gives things up. Even telling Pete you know what I would have done? I would have made Pete feel sorry for me to distract him from his own hurt. Peggy totally rose above that impulse because it would have been a lie. She’s wiser than that. Don and Peggy both have to deal with this alienation because of their complicated realities that aren’t acceptable. But Peggy’s alienation is part of paying a price whereas Don’s is avoidance. All along Don’s been flaunting the family and popularity but they’ve been empty and Peggy’s been in her lonely apartment yet isn’t it fuller? But I don’t think Peggy has any choice in it, some people don’t have the stomach for anything but their own self actualization. I love that it’s so much a show about Peggy and that I have been able to feel like even though Peggy loves Don she is seeing his surface and then making her own guesses at how a person gets to that status. It’s like she’s filling in the blanks of Don with guesses at how to be that are totally better than what he thought up.
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:21 am
Elaine, interesting insight. I like “outlines of a good life” a lot. And also, I love you putting Kurt and Peggy together as “transgressors,” that’s so smart. Thanks.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
…… regarding the comment that Pete couldn’t shoot himself with the rifle – the scene jarred me …… I know someone who did kill himself with a rifle. I did take the scene as considering suicide, but I guess I was wrong. My friend did it by putting his toe on the trigger while sitting in a chair ……….
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Hi…Long time lurker, first time poster here. I was re-watching season 1 and in the very first episode, the Dr. that Joan sends Peggy to gives her a lecture on “fast” women. He tells her something along the lines that he is sure she(Peggy) is not a “loose” woman unlike Joan. Also, while the OBGYN is checking her out, Peggy does the whole focus on random object that Joan does during her rape scene…
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
That’s a good catch, Cindy (welcome) … another poster noticed that the music playing in the two scenes was the same as well. Creepy.
February 27th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Just a quick thought that’s been floating in my mind…When Don met Betty at the stables and asked to come back home Betty’s response to Don was almost identical to what Helen Bishop had told her about her marriage/divorce (“It hasn’t been much different without him” basically). I distinctly got the sense that Betty was trying to talk herself into believing that this was truth when she spoke it to Don. There was a nervous tone to it, her voice kind of broke or stuttered as she said it.
I believe that Betty really does want and love Don, but she’s gonna play her cards any way she can to her advantage. She’s not gonna give in so readily, and accept him back without making him realize that she doesn’t NEED him. She has handled her family affairs just fine since he’s been gone. He’s been so absent in their family life the past 4+ years that Sally only really notices when he doesn’t come home on the weekends. She doesn’t give him any hope to cling to except a swift business-like “I’ll call. I’ll make arrangements.” That’s her retaliation to Don’s needing time and taking it. But this time it’s on her own terms. She’s gonna make him wait on her now….
Ok, I rambled…I can’t wait for season 3!