On Roberta’s insistence, I finally sat down and re-watched For Those Who Think Young last night. It still doesn’t work as a single episode. Overall, “I’m uninvolved.” But to review it in light of the entire season is definitely interesting.
From the AMC scrapbook
I think one of the most important symbols for this season, one we haven’t discussed much here, is Sally’s Valentine for her father. I know it reappears; twice I think”in A Night to Remember,* when Betty goes through Don’s things, and in either The Mountain King or Meditations in an Emergency, when Don is reviewing his life (help me out here, Basketcases!). As an object, it maintains a kind of season-long consistency for our characters. As a symbol, it speaks to Don in his best and worst moments.
Day 1: Don is “uninvolved” with the Mohawk presentation, but is interested in a barely-visible little girl in the illustration. That night, he receives the Valentine. Day 2: Peggy comes up with “What did you bring me, Daddy?” as a tag line. Perhaps not the finest tag line ever written, but a powerful connection, and a strong pointer to the importance of Sally’s gift.
In FTWTY the Valentine appears twice. Once, it is almost a critique of Betty’s attitude towards Sally and towards love”Sally has it while she is being criticized for eating and for being dirty, and Betty says that getting Valentines from everyone “defeats the purpose.” Later, Betty hands it to Don in the hotel room; the sincere and unconditional love of his daughter a contrast to his marriage.
Don carries Sally’s gift, her unconditional love, with him throughout the season. It is devastating to him in Maidenform, when he cannot bear to have her look at him, and it brings him home in Meditations in an Emergency.
I am pretty sure I am missing both some of the symbolism and some of the occurrences of it. What do you see?
*Checked, yes, it’s in ANtR in the desk drawer.
17 Responses to “"I love you Daddy"”
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I think the symbolism can be that well Sall does love Don no matter what. I mean sure he is lying to her and Bobby and Betty everyday, but I am sure once he tells them the truth, Sally probably wouldnt care, she loves him anyways….thats her Dad.
Briome, we don't have that information yet, but the past two seasons have started in June.
Except for Seasons One and Two, which started in July.
Really? Is my brain totally broken?
Go ahead and check the episode guide. That you wrote.
Tha macaroni is adorable! Sorry I don’t have anymore thoughts on that. When is the new season starting?
I wonder if part of the reason it means so much to Don, beside the fact that he loves his little girl, is that he needs the reminder that he himself is worthy enough to be loved. Is that too simple? It seems to me that Don tends to come back to the basics like the last show of the first season when slideshow of he and his family just enjoying fun times together…nothing complicated, just being together in loving moments. This affected him deeply and was the antecendent to him going home and hoping to go with Betty and the kids to her dad's for Thanksgiving.
I agree with Jan, I think its the kids more than Betty that bring Don home at the end of the season, Bobby he tells the truth to about his dad, Sally he can't stand to have look at him while he's shaving and didn't he hear Sally's voice when he was in the desert house with Joy? Right now Bobby and Sally are at the ages where they love their Daddy no matter what. Pure, simple, no-questions-asked love which is I think what Don is maybe searching for? He didn't have parents to give him that kind of love, he doesn't get it from Betty, but I think he realizes that he gets it from the kids.
**and Betty says that getting Valentines from everyone “defeats the purpose.†**
Heh. Betty’s going to be really condescending about her grandkids’ soccer trophies 35 years in the future.
Looking at that Valentine and thinking how timeless it is–could have been made in 1942 or 2002–a loving child's painstakingly hand made gift to his/her parent and realizing how the memories of these special creations linger long after the original works have disintegrated. Years from now, Don may find an isolated uncooked piece of elbow macaroni in the back of his desk drawer and remember this very special gift from his little Salamander.
And what a crunchy, stale, slightly paste-tasting rememberance it will be!
Matt also used it as a bit of a red herring. Here we are in the season opener and Betty says to Sally I’ll see that he gets it, so we can continue to wonder if Don and Betty are no longer together.
I’m with Jan and Kassy. Don’s got more than a little self-loathing going on, and it must move him immeasurably that these two people love him, even if they are his own kids. There is nothing in his childhood to condition him that loving one’s parents is unconditional.
I think he loves Betty as much as he can, considering the limited trust and knowledge in their relationship, and those kids are what anchors him to the life he’s fashioned. In my MM fantasy, Don comes clean to Betty and she completely understands and loves him all the more for his honesty. Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.
This post makes me think that in a way, "What did you bring me, Daddy?" could be the thought that has Don so stricken at the end of "Maidenform", and in many ways one of the questions that occupies Don throughout the season. When he refuses to hit Bobby, when he's reminded of his "reputation" by Bobbie, when he can't look Sally in the eye, I think in many ways he's obsessing over what he's leaving his children, what he has to give them.
And adding to Don's angst about his children could be his knowledge that he admitted to Rachael in S1 that he would be willing to run off with her, leaving his children behind. An admission that could be very troubling to him emotionally when he recalls it – especially when he has interactions with his children now.
I agree with those who say Sally’s unconditional love is essential and yet crippling for Don.
In a way, Don’s contributions to the Mohawk presentation sum up his internal conflict: he first pushes Peggy and Sal to give the ad and the stewardess some sex appeal, almost as a first instinct. (Remember Peggy asks what the man’s wife would think of a little bit of thigh showing, and Freddy says “Air travel’s too expensive to waste on your wife.”) This idea that men will buy this fantasy of cheating on their wives and such, is what Don thinks of first.
Then he receives his Valentine from Sally and endures a rather disappointing night with Betty. The next day, when Peggy and Sal present a sexy stewardess, Don isn’t into it — almost as if the Valentine and Sally’s unconditional love that does ground him so steadily in real life has changed him, converted him into a family man with a focus on more important things. Suddenly, sentiment, not sex sells. The creativity in their ads is, as he tells Peggy, about what he feels. And he no longer values a sexy stewardess on a flight from family and obligation, but to coming home to what he realizes he truly values.
For me, it represents his conflict which plays out in S2. I think it’s significant, too, that the campaign this revolves around is for an airline. Later in S2 we see dawn take flight, spend some time with the hedonistic jet set and then in the Mountain King he seems to commit to being the family man. He is “baptized” and returns home, “to a place where you know you are loved.”
Stella, I really like how you place Don's evening between stewardess thigh and the little girl. That's perfect.