Rewatching Hobo Code: Part 3—Parallel Time

So here’s a thing about the brilliant structure of this episode; time is almost perfectly parallel in the flashback and in the present.

In both the Don Draper present and the Dick Whitman past, the period of time is one day, evening, and the next morning. We open with Peggy and Pete at the office at 7 a.m. The party at P.J. Clarke’s started at 3 p.m., and Don was already gone, so he got to Midge’s sometime in the afternoon, and his memories came to him in the afternoon or evening.

Flashback begins in the afternoon: The sun is up but the chores for the day, according to Archie, are already done. From there the flashback moves to dinner.

Present day, and it’s also dinner: with Elliot and Salvatore. Some time passes; Elliot and Sal have after dinner drinks, the party at Midge’s progresses. Time has also passed in the past; young Dick Whitman brings the hobo his bedding.

In the present, Don wakes Bobby; it’s the wee hours of the morning. The flashback finishes with the next morning, the hobo finishing chores and leaving. Now we’re back in the present and it’s also the next morning; Don has fallen asleep with Bobby, we see Peggy arrive at work, and later, the others arrive.

Structurally, this episode is brilliant on many levels. And here’s one more.