Oct 182009
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379 Responses to “Open Thread: The Color Blue”
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Suzanne told Don early on that he was probably just like all the others…she must have had prior affairs with school parents, but flew under the radar. She's trouble for sure. I also don't believe that she didn't call their house.
I think there could be some tragedy in store for Ms Farrell — she may be good for Dick Whitman, but not for Don Draper. And Don Draper, the successful and much-admired businessman with the perfect life, is who he REALLY wants to be. That's why he came back to Betty…she's a trophy wife that he can parade around much better than the women Dick Whitman is actually attracted to. Don keeps his Dick Whitman-self hidden in a box, and currently only lets this part of himself sneak about in the "wee hours." Suzanne Farrell can never really have Don Draper, and that will lead to…?
Sally said “I heard her breathe.â€
Hmmm. Maybe. OTOH, how can you tell if it's a male or female breathing?
Also, hanging up — because of wrong number, playing games, whatever — was very common back then before Caller ID, *69 and all that. You realized you reached the wrong party (or one you really didn't want to talk to!) and you just hung up. Not like today when you know someone has your phone number on caller ID and you feel compelled to explain your mistake, even if it's an innocent one. Not saying it wasn't Suzanne, because it was really really easy to make a call like that, just in the off chance she'd get Don answering and then hang up without consequences. I remember back in those days it was only if you were getting very persistent, threatening hang-ups would you call the phone company and asked to have the calls traced. But that was a pretty big deal, and you only did it if you felt you were being harassed.
It was so much easier to be anonymous back then!
I'll throw in another hidden gem of subtle interaction and a wink from the writers to those who are paying attention, Don comes home to dinner, asks Sally how was school, wallflower Bobby actually gets to say something to his Dad, "How come you never ask me? "I do, but you take too long so I ask Sally first" Ouch!
Poor Bobby, the only attention he get's is negative, when being a punching bag for his sis, he gets flippantly punished by his Mom for doing anything more than breathing and now Don works the dismissive con job on him, little Booby has no voice, ahh, the hard partying 70's are awaiting him, 10 to 1 odds he won't survive them.
Sorry – must finish obsessing on my point about why I believe it was Suzanne calling their house. Sally said “I heard her breathe.” Hel-loooo! Why would that dialogue be there otherwise? Surely, Suzanne was stuck once Sally — perhaps unexpectedly — answered the phone. There was nothing she could say w/o getting caught. I think that given the more civilized phone manners of the day, someone merely getting a wrong number and hearing a child answer the phone would certainly have actually asked for the party they were trying to reach, politely apologized, and said “sorry, wrong number” before hanging up.
@ # 355 Elizabeth -
I agree, I believe it was Suzanne Farrell that called. When she told Don on the train that she didn’t…well, she seemed a little hesitant in her response. Besides, we’ve already seen her make 1 inappropriate call to the Draper home already, right?
# 350 – “I’ve known people who were rather young to be have been in protests during that era, but they went because they had older siblings who took them.”
RetroGirl, I went to my first anti-war protest, at the Pentagon, on my 14th birthday, in 1968.
The next year, at one of the Vietnam Moratorium marches in DC (either Oct or Nov) we marched past the old FBI Building on Pennsylvania Ave. and saw ol’ J. Edgar Hoover himself, scowling down at us, so we flipped him off!
@#353 – Re Sally’s age…
In Episode 12, Season 2, The Mountain King, taking place sometime in October 1962, Don answers Anna’s question that “Sally is eight and Bobby is five.”
In Season 1, Episode 3, The Marriage of Figaro, (early April 1960) Don brought home Polly the dog instead of Sally’s birthday cake–so that would put Sally at nine and a half years old
being born in April 1954.
Don ( J.R.) to Betty ( Sue Ellen ): “Darlin’, you gonna’ believe me or your lyin’ eyes?”
Interesting choice to name her character "Suzanne Farrell," who was "the most influential American ballerina of the late 20th century," as well as George Balanchine's muse. Is she Don's muse?
@#358 Madnesse: You are absolutely right…in fact didn't their whole flirtation really start there…with that first phone call?
Unless I missed it, nobody has mentioned the pillow talk between Don and Suzanne about the boy in her class that asked about the color blue and how he could be sure that what he sees is what every one else sees. Don’s response is: “…People may see things differently but they don’t really want to.” Does this mean people see him differently but they don’t want to? That he sees her differently? That he sees their relationship differently?
I don’t know what it means… but there’s something there. Thoughts?
He also mentions, in that same scene, that girls don’t wear their hair long and curly anymore. More reference (along with the Aqua Net symbolism) to the prim and proper/contained hair styles. Boy is that about to change…
Another theme of this ep. (and I think this was mentioned in another thread is some form): Memory. Paul forgets his great idea. Roger’s mother is losing hers. You remember a telegram, but not a phone call. Don forgets his key in his pocket.
As for Paul, I don’t think he was in awe of Peggy at the end. He seemed mad to me. I thought he assumed that she took his notes while he was passed out. I don’t think he wanted Don to know that he lost his great idea, but she pushed him to fess up. And then she overshadowed him again. He’s pissed.
And I haven’t even touched on Betty and the box… so much to think about this week!
350 ~ Retrogirl
Glen Bishop. I’ve joked that he will take Sally to Woodstock.
Any thoughts on the woman holding the candlestick phone in the photograph Roger referred to when he held up the picture and said to Yodabert, "Remember her?" Cooper's reaction was priceless.
Does anyone know if Don sends money to Anna, in addition to buying her house? If he does, that would explain the money in the drawer; it wouldn't do to have canceled checks to Anna Draper lying around the house, and back then sending cash through the mail wasn't the risk it is now. Although, I also agree with previous posts about Don being a person of the depression (the old "money in the mattress" thing).
@ #304 25framesaminute: My husband came up with the same slogan. We were both doing the, "I hate when that happens!" when Paul woke up hangover, unable to remember his great idea because he failed to write it down.
Re: the hang-up call: I think it was Suzanne Farrell. I surmise she'll call the house, Sally will pick up the extension, and overhear something she shouldn't. BANG.
"Don keeps his Dick Whitman-self hidden in a box, and currently only lets this part of himself sneak about in the “wee hours.â€
Do we really think that Don/Dick is a split personality? He's Don when he's good and Dick when he's bad? No, they're the same person, with Don a name and an opportunity to escape from his life as Dick. Don doesn't morph into Dick when the going gets rough. He's reinvented himself but he still is Dick Whitman acting the part of Don Draper. Dick is Don's secret life. We all have secrets, don't we?
So many posters have commented on how they're glad to be back in the "office" with scenes of campaigns, pitches and agency work. I agree. I get bored when we're away from SC for too long.
Suzanne could be the best thing or the worst thing that happens to Don. She's all that Betty isn't; but she looks like trouble to me.
I don't think "you're just like all the rest" has to mean "I know because I've done them all." It could just mean "A lot of fathers of my kids think they're God's gift to the unmarried teacher and get all bent out of shape when I let them know they have nothing I want." I think she's weird with Don because from the minute he shows up at the parent conference (which no other father has done) she knows he does have something she wants and is really conflicted about it. It's a lose lose for her and she knows it but she really really wants him. And is kind of mad at him for that.
Whatever the "truth" about her character may be, though, she obviously pushes a lot of buttons for viewers.
adwoman:
"For all we know he could be Batman." I don't think there's a split personality thing going on with Don/Dick, but I do think there's a dual-identity aspect to him, like Batman. Don is the ideal. Dick is flawed, ordinary. It's more than just playacting; Don is the realization of Dick's potential, made flesh. He's what Dick needed to overcome his self-limitations. He's the transformative catalyst, it's almost alchemical.
Question: If Don signed the contract with Don Draper, and it comes out that he is not, in fact, Don Draper, then that contract is null and void (I think). Now, with SC possibly being sold, how could that play into a story line–especially if Duck's firm buys them. Random thoughts…
#370 spike:
To me, the Don/Dick split represents the two sides of everyone's personality only Don's had a defining moment. We seem to want him to be all good (or all bad) and some posters think he's redeemed himself at times, but he is who he is. At times the drama is overdrawn and (in my opinion) overwritten. But Don had an opportunity to change the exterior of his life and took it; he didn't change his psyche. There's still the duality.
Timeframe — Don complains to Pryce that it took "two months" for his signing bonus (from Seven Twenty-Three) to come through. Ergo, it's late-September-ish.
@Pamela (#207): I figured that Betty didn't look to closely at the photos because she has no idea who "Dick and Adam" are. But she knows Don Draper (or at least thought she did), so seeing his name on a divorce certificate captures all of her attention. Given the way she first reacted to Helen Bishop, that doesn't surprise me in the least.
@60sdaughter (#288): "5G" Very nice.
Suzanne definitely has the Crazy Eyes (copyright Barney Stinson). I don't know that she'll actually slide into "bunny boiler" territory, but there's something not-quite-normal about her interactions with Don. I think that all of her moving around is probably due to her brother. He can't hold down a job because of his epileptic "fits", so the two of them have probably kept moving so that she can keep watching over him. In a way, she seems to be trying to protect Don from himself, as well. I honestly don't see what he sees in her, but it seems to make him… content in the moment, if not happy.
As for Betty, I was kind of glad to see Henry put her in her place. Everyone — Don, Gene, Helen Bishop — has been telling her to grow up for years now, and it never sinks in. She can act mature for a little while, but always seems to revert to her poor little rich girl baseline. That makes me feel so sad for her, because I don't think she's really gained the tools that would allow her to finish becoming an adult. Maybe this episode will finally be the catalyst that prompts her to do so.
It seems like only one other person on this entire forum recognized that Paul gave Peggy the "you little sneak" look during her WU pitch. He thinks she stole his idea that he "wrote down." It was clear as day.
Erika, that was definitely not "you little sneak." When I finish transcribing my interview, you can see exactly what Michael Gladis said about it.
I like the relationship between Don and Suzanne. There is tenderness between them ; when they have the pillow talk, Don smiles as I never seen him before, he holds his hand ; he seems to really care about her. Betty is a very beautiful woman but she is trapped in a life she hates and it spoils her relationship to her husband (and her kids), the housewife syndrom.
Suzanne said that she didn't care about Don's marriage and job but the first to say that he didn't care about the environment was Don, last week ; in a way, she is just following him
@364MitchM I was sorta thinking Bobby might grow up to be Big from Sex in the City, NYC exec, nice clothes, commitment issues, adultery but since he had a much milder upbringing than Don, he does it much more pleasantly. What sparked that thought was remember an ep in S&C where he and Carrie were singing "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and he said it always made him think of his parents who loved the movie and the song and who'd play it when they were getting ready to go out. NOt that Don and Betty would do that exactly, but it would place them in the same range, and you never know, maybe they get a little frisky when we aren't watching when they have the long time laspes between seasons . Just a thought
I read most of the comments above, but did not see this mentioned: In the scene where Betty is doing the laundry, the clothes are all pink, except for the robe.
Also, on the timeframe: They talk about kids going back to school, and I believe Halloween is even referenced at somepoint.
When I watched the episode a second time, I wondered why Alison Brie was listed in the opening credits.
And later I realized, Trudy Campbell was actually in the episode! You can see her sitting right next to Pete in the last scene when Roger is delivering his speech.
So this means one of two things:
1) There was a scene with a dialogue between Trudy and Pete that was cut.
or
2) the makers of the series are so obsessed with the little details that they paid Alison Brie an episode's salary for an appearance of a few seconds.
After watching it again, let me add that the same thing applies to Laura Regan (Jennifer Crane).
Isn't that crazy/great? How many would have noticed if these two were missing at the last scene?