Weren't you afraid?
I re-watched Red in the Face not long ago”my least favorite episode”and found a lot more depth there than I’d remembered.
So, it’s dinner at the Draper’s. Roger is telling war stories and Betty is rapt. Roger says they were bored. “Bored?” Don asks. How about scared? At the end of Roger’s story, Don says with an edge to his voice, “Bet they gave you a medal.”
Don is angry at Roger long before Roger makes a pass at Betty; his anger has been building all day. But upon re-view, we know something that Betty and Roger don’t know; something the audience didn’t know on first airing; Don is a deserter. Don pissed himself with fear. And he knows, he knows, that Roger is lying when he says he wasn’t afraid.
Basket of Kisses: The unofficial blog of AMC's Mad Men. Where all the cool kids meet & greet to talk about Don Draper, Janie Bryant, Christina Hendricks, Jon Hamm, Matthew Weiner, & subtexty things.
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June 30th, 2009 at 5:28 am
Nice.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:23 am
New Amsterdam –
Don (to Roger): You guys stole all the glory.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I've got to schedule a "Knowing What I Know Now" Season 2 viewing marathon sometime in the next 6 weeks.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Least favorite? This was the funniest episode by far. Or maybe that's just with the commentary. Though I realize Mad Men is not a comedy, it's still nice.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Deb and I both felt that way–just didn't really appreciate the punchline, or the notion of there being a punchline. Plus it was tv/predictable, and not real-life predictable, which is so uncommon on Mad Men. But I also agree that the episode has a lot more depth than the punchline. The scene between Don and Betty in the kitchen is intense.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:54 am
It was surprisingly intense as a scene, you're right Ro. I was kind of surprised by Don's anger towards Betty.
I think Roger Sterling may be one of the most paradoxical characters on TV. He's so completely full of it and is a man entirely of entitlement and the Lucky Sperm Club, but yet you have to respect him entirely out of fear of the power he yields.
Even if he is a liar and full of crap.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I'm generally with Luisa (esp. the commentary).
As for Mad Men being a comedy, I agree that it generally isn't — in the sense I think Roberta means. But I also think Matt Weiner actually does different genres in various episodes throughout the first two seasons.
Also, keying off B.Cooper's New Amsterdam reference, it's possible that there are many ingredients in Don's stew. He is mad that Roger is lying, but there's also resentment or frustration borne of the fact that Dick was a deserter — and Roger was not.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
For me, just as intense as the first kitchen scene was the next night when Betty's slicing the roast beef or whatever, and Don comes by and says "You know it's just me tonight, right?".
Cutting and really mean.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Indeed, it just occurred to me that Betty's rapt attention to Roger's stories is a rather stark reminder to Don that he can't tell his war story to Betty and that such is a major cause of their then-simmering marital dischord. So add in some angry jealousy.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
B.Cooper (#8)
All the more mean considering it's the sort of contempt he usually reserved for Pete Campbell or Roy.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
So here comes my own Roger Theory.
I see Roger's war stories, like much else Don finds himself helping Roger maintain, as well-developed fictions. They are colorful and vivid, they even have the casual, lived-in feel of reality … but they are not real.
Nothing about Roger indicates a man who saw action. He has none of the sensitivity for others that seeing pain and death close up — as most men who fought in World War II unavoidably did — would leave in its wake. When he falls apart after his heart attack, we see naked fear in that gray face … but otherwise, it's the face of a bewildered child. Roger hasn't made many adult moves in his life; and I would bet my paycheck he's made none that benefit anyone but himself.
I think Don, having buried the violence and loss of one life and begun another from whole cloth, sees right through Roger in those war stories. I think he looks at the man and sees someone whose closest proximity to action in any war was high above it, perhaps as a pilot of some kind.
And I think Don's rage at Betty, later on — which did scare me — came from his annoyance at both her and himself. This woman, who finds liars (like Roger, like Don) so alluring.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
(Anne, see how this works is, that would like, be a post.)
(just saying.)
June 30th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I loved this ep, I can't believe it's your least favorite! I love the part where Betty is carrying Bobby with the cig hanging out of her mouth. "My eyes are burning! LOL
June 30th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Anne B: Loved your post. So insightful re: why Betty finds this type of man so alluring.
It made me think that perhaps her father was a similar kind of man. A charming, handsome man who spun a tale and kept the host or guest entranced with stories of war or whatever.
I see Roger as privileged; Betty as privileged; Don, not so much. Betty saw in Roger the same (or similar) background she had.
Their whole conversation about swimming in the moonlight reeked of a upper-class summer vacation that Don/Dick would never have experienced.
I thought his anger (very surprising and disturbing) sprang from all the repressed "I'm not good enough" crap that Don/Dick carries around all the time. He can control it all at the office, but at home, he's vulnerable.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I'm not sure I concur with the theory that Roger was outright lying. Embellishing because he's arrogant enough to think he has a shot at Betty? Yes. But lying, no.
After all, there were (and are) war heros. Having served his country would only embolden Roger's inborn sense of entitlement.
Don's envy at Roger's "accomplishments" would only highlight his own misadventures in the military. He didn't have to be lying for Don to be pissed at him.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
"Nothing about Roger indicates a man who saw action. He has none of the sensitivity for others that seeing pain and death close up — as most men who fought in World War II unavoidably did — would leave in its wake."
I don't know. I doubt that every man (or woman) who has experienced military combat would harbor sensitivity for others. I believe that each individual would react in his (or her) own way to memories of war. I would not be surprised that there are individuals, who have witnessed combat, would possess personalities similar to Roger.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:27 am
I don't believe the stories were made up. Roger is lying, to himself and everyone else, about not having been afraid.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
This episode made me believe that Roger cannot be alone at all. He pushed his company on Don, practically forced an invitation to dinner; then with the help of alcohol began discussing his WWII experiences. Betty has an intense need to be social; I actually do not believe she is shy. Just very appropriate to the time period.
Roger masks his vulnerability through humor and sarcasm. I was not surprised that in the following season he quickly became engaged to his mistress turned girlfriend Jane.
I love all of these characters.
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I hadn't watched Season 1 a second time until last week, when I also found your blog (which makes this post two months late, I know). I have to admit that Red in the Face is one of my favorite episodes of the season, now that I've seen it again. It reveals something incredibly sinister in Don: his propensity for vengeance. He claims to forgive Roger for the scene in the kitchen with Betty when Roger comes 'round with the bottle, but he plans and enacts such a calculated revenge. That grin on Don's face when he leaves Roger sitting with his ice water in the office is chilling, and it isn't until Roger's been dealt with that Don can face Betty without petty sniping about beef roasts. And Roger seems to understand exactly what Don's just done to him. I'd reckon that Roger never forgets that lesson either; his first mention of Don in S2 with Duck is less than flattering.
Vomit-on-command notwithstanding, I see this as a really telling episode for our understanding about what Don's capable of.
Oh, and thanks for this fantastic blog, ladies!
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Stella, thank you.
It is also interesting how Don is so cruel to Betty in this episode, assigning her 100% responsibility for what happened with Roger, then he turns around and assigns same to Roger.
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
We also know now that in the Mad Men universe, pissing yourself almost always has dramatic consequences.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
"Sal loves Joan Crawford."
ROTFL. I just love all the gay references and these people have no idea what they're saying.
August 25th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Wow, I just stumbled on this blog and it's great to meet others who are as obsessed as I am with this show.
You know, I'd forgotten that Don pisses himself in fear in a trench in Korea – and I just connected that to the way Don defends Freddy Rumson's, er, accident in Season 2.
Duh.
But this is what I love about this show – how the writers tie small details together across episodes and seasons. It's like reading a very good novel; you want to flip the pages back and reread chapters to catch the nuances and hints you might have missed.