Admit it. When Betty confronted Don in the second half of last night’s episode, in addition to the shock and awe of what you were watching, you had to wonder: how does this show go on from here?
Basketcase Jordan verbalized it at 10:43 p.m. in the Open Thread. A certain term was invented for episodes like “The Hobo and the Gypsy.”
As worrisome as it may be, it’s a valid question. Although I have faith the show did not indeed cross in invisible barrier from which it cannot return, it may be primarily that: faith.
Faith in Matt Weiner that we’re still on the original path. Faith that – as Keats would say – his pen has not yet glean’d his teeming brain. Faith that the auteur of this masterpiece did not jump the gun (or anything else) by placing a major event largely anticipated to happen at, perhaps, the final show of the series in 2019, in episode 33.
As delicious and as exquisitely executed as it was, it’s hard to contemplate where we go from here. Now, as the tumultuous part of the era is bearing down on our show, a change of tone is needed to match the change in zeitgeist. I can imagine a fundamentally different show being called for to cover the mid-decade, and it will be fantastic to watch.
I’m not going to list all the shows that have had seemingly premature plot developments early on and subsequently sucked as a result. Mad Med is Secretariat – it’s heart is bigger, it’s strides are quicker, it’s shadow longer, than anything we’ve ever enjoyed.
We’ve got lots to cover and lots to see from these characters. They are us. Our story goes on. Keep the faith.
64 Responses to “Our "Uh-Oh" Moment”
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I had an interesting idea when I was watching this episode after seeing Don's face after Betty reveals she knows his secret. Although Betty knows his secret, his life is still intact. He still has his career, his kids, his mistress, and his wife. He still has a lot to lose, and so do a lot of people.
What if the end of the series is going to be Don committing suicide, possibly by jumping off a building? It occurred to me that the show's opening may be foreshadowing the conclusion of the series, implying that Don will not be able to resolve these issues and they may eventually overtake him. What do you think?
Whichever, I don't think we're going to get a Suzanne Farrell bunny boiling scene.
I don't think Miss Farrell is as coocoo bananas as some have labeled her in comments: if she were into the "I won't be ignored" mode, she could have escalated the Don and Betty showdown into a nuclear meltdown by ringing the doorbell.
Miss Farrell slipped away into the night, and when she and Don finally meet again, her first concern is for him, and only then the practical question of whether or not she would lose the job she loves.
But I'm not worried about Matt and company filling the next two episodes. Another lesser show could have ended the season with guy decimated by a lawnmower: Don Revealed is the beginning of a new story in their marriage, Joanie is back in the picture, Peggy and Duck up in the air, there's always a plot point to made from Pete and Roger's fucked-up marriages, will they stay or will they go? with the British, Bryan Bratt cruising the parks, and for gosh sakes, the Kennedy assasination! — plenty of stuff to play out over the next two episodes, and I'm ready to be smacked gobless by another totally unexpected cliffhanger at the end of the season.
I just wish I knew what the name of this episode is. The Gypsy and the Hobo? The Hobo and the Gypsy? The the Gypsy Hobo and? A Hobo and a Gypsy walk into an Advertising Agency?
and yeah, I'm not worried. It's surprising to me how all over the internet I read soap opera conjecture about this show (Pete and Trudy are going to adopt Peggy's baby!) when it's not aiming for that at all. Did Don and Pete's relationship become less interesting after Pete knew Don's secret? No. Don and Bert's? No. So why Don and Betty?
Boy meets girl.
Boy gets girl.
Boy loses girl.
Boy gets girl back.
Might take awhile.
I think this whole ep was misdirection, to make us fear that the end of the Draper marriage was coming this week. So that when it does come in the season finale, we'll be more surprised. Betty couldn't leave last night, especially when she saw Don's tears over Adam. But they laid the groundwork when the lawyer said Betty couldn't win in filing for divorce – unless she had proof of Don's adultery. And Danny Farrell is still waiting in the wings to give Don a call and accidentally give Betty that proof – the perfect way for that card to bite Don in the butt, as so many predicted.
When Kennedy assasination day finally comes in the season finale, I can't see how they don't parallel it with the end of the Draper marriage. The Drapers were the "ideal" American couple, and Kennedy represented the "ideal" American era. Kennedy's death was the end of the Don Draper era of American life- and how better to symbolize that than to have Don finally lose his ideal American family life, as the S3 finale cliffhanger after Kennedy dies? They can certainly get a year or two more of storylines from that.
And really, after a whole season of waiting for November 22, 1963, what else other than a "final" Don-Betty breakup can best symbolize the chaotic future that followed that day?
It seems to me since the first episode that all of the characters have been living on borrowed time. If Weiner wanted to portray the heyday of the privileged life of White men in modern New York, he would've chosen the early or mid 1950's. I mean, Don had been living this life of office golden boy, philanderer and life co-optor for almost 10 years (he & Betty got married in 1953). But the 1960's were chosen because it was close enough to the end of an era, but still vibrantly entrenched in it to properly set it up.
I think Betty has given Don the best gift she could by exposing him. He will be able to finally achieve the cleansing he wished for when he walked into the ocean last season. He will be ready to roll with the tumult coming his way in the '60's & 70's and persevere without the baggage he's been carrying from the 30's & 40's.
Betty, on the other hand has not been picking up on the hints of the changes to come. She is still the housecat – unhappy in her irrelevance, but too pampered to act & change it.
Peggy & Pete are set to face the future – Peggy will jump in with relish, Pete, perhaps acting more subconsciously, in which he seems to make his best decisions. Joan has a lot of restructuring to do – some now, some later, but being the best manager on the show – she'll be awesome. I can't wait to see her in 1969! Roger, however, is not going to wear well in the ensuing years – he is so stuck in the past. Even his actions in 1963 are embarrassing. The best he can hope for is fossilization like Cooper, but I don't think he'll even be that lucky.
It's interesting how there has been a lot of talk of the past in the last several episodes, almost eulogizing the present era and making way for the changes to come.
Things I hope to see
Don and Roger being buds again
Sal returns because a project come up andhe is the only one that do it
We learn more about Peggy & Pete's baby
Lane stays after SC sells
more of MoneyPenny – he seemed to be fliritng with one of the girls before the lawnmower scene.
would like to see Betty and the kids move into the city, Betty gets involved with civil rights or something
Don actually spends time with Bobby and Sally
More Joan and Roger even if flirting, maybe Jane will want out after Margaret's wedding.
Ken actually has a date at the wedding
Duck returns – he is such a great nemisis for Don
Betty and Suzanne interact at a school function or something
that's all for now
We must get Sal back.
Also there was some hint that Bert Cooper may not be around
I'm not at all worried. I thought the reveal was brilliantly handled last night, but I've been waiting for it since at least the end of last season — half-hoping Don would tell Betty when he came back at the end of last season. I was and have been and am anxious to explore their relationship now that the truth is out. As many of us have fretted during this season — their marriage as it was is played out. Their scenes, Betty's dissatisfaction, Don's self-absorbed oblivion…That's gotta change, that will change now that the secret is out. I'm not convinced they'll divorce, but I wouldn't necessarily be disappointed if they do. I think it largely depends on how Suzanne and Danny play their business cards. I maintain that Don has yet to lose *everything (like MW suggested he might by end of season), and we've still got two episodes to go. Job and family? Family and Hilton? His wealth and reputation? His hat and his car? Who knows — the worst part is I'm already dreading the next nine Mad Men-less months.
I would not want to see Bert Cooper leave, but there was hint of that in Color Blue.
Personally I find Don/Bettys story overhyped. I feel uncomfortable with all these posts stating that all MM fans are in awe of Don/Betty. I already think their marriage has been over-written in S3. Betty finding out about Dick Whitman is one of the last cards they had left to play. They played it well but now I can't see where else their story can go aside from the possibility of divorce. What else is there besides parenting, infidelity and two people clinging to a married life that satisfies neither of them? That story has been playing on a loop for a long time now.
I think there are plenty of interesting stories to tell with Peggy and Pete and Sal and Joan and Kinsey and the Civil Rights movement and new wave culture and the British invasion, etc. I'd love to get back to the advertising world and the changing times, which have taken a backseat lately. Sterling Cooper is still a dinosaur agency. It needs to be revolutionised. When that revolution starts there ought to be endless amounts of new story to tell.
The show is not called 'The Drapers', though lately it feels like it should be. Until now I thought the rest of the characters were actually important. But now Don/Betty have had their big climax and…the show is over? Is this really all that some fans care about?
I'm not concerned at all. I have total and complete faith in the vision of Matt Weiner. Weiner's in the same vein of The Simpsons production team, Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek, Ronald D. Moore from Battlestar Galactica and David Chase from The Sopranos: their visions are so complete and artistically realized that I have to believe they must know what they're doing.
I know Weiner must have a grand plan in place. I suspect this revelation to Betty is just the beginning of something much larger in the Mad Men universe.
Also… I can't imagine Mad Men going on for longer than seven seasons. If this show is about the subtle yet enormous changes that went on in America in the 1960s, the decade's peak moment of change was 1968. There's a certain creative end point for the show — the mindset involving shifting away from the earnest, innocent world of pre-JFK's death to the nastier, more realistic and somewhat cynical America after Vietnam.
We've got a long way to go, I suspect.
# 17 Marina_Joan – well when Don told Betty that he switched ideintities she said – Isn't that illegal? and we did have Don meet that guy from Sing Sing in the hosptal. was that foreshadowing?
Two episodes left in the season…it has to end with a cliffhanger stunning enough to keep the buzz going over a 9-month hiatus…but how can they top the lawnmower and the big reveal?
Both S1 and S2 closed with a pregnancy revealed — first Peggy's, then Betty's. The predictable route would be Suzanne discovering she's expecting a little Draper, as several Basketcases have suggested. The suspense would be how Don would react, whether Suzanne's brother would try to blackmail him, and how Sally would act out when finding that her favorite teacher has been dismissed.
There could be some fireworks at the Sterling wedding if Jane reveals that she's going to give Roger a chance to do fatherhood right the second time around. We won't want to miss Mona's reaction to that happy news. And Joan's — no baby in her immediate future of Greg is shipped off to 'Nam.
Finally, Sterling Cooper will undergo another big change if PPL finds a buyer — will Don have to report to Duck at Grey?
I have always loved MM because the plots have never taken any kind of a predictable turn – right from Peggy's pregnancy in S1 (which I thought was a clumsy attempt to hide an actress's real pregnancy – clearly I am not observant enough). Any other show would have made Don's secret the entire point, if not of the show than of his character. MW had him exposed 2/3 of the way through S1 and the only remaining question about that secret is whether Betty will deal with it or flee.
But the thing is, as I said in another post, Don and Betty's problems were not solely centered on his false identity. Betty's hands did not go numb because Don is really Dick Whitman, any more than Don's cavalier attitude toward monogamy is a result of his switching of dog tags. These characters, and I mean everyone on MM, are far deeper and more complex than nearly any ever written for television before, so the secret is only one layer among many.
MW is exploring an entire time period in this show, through very specific characters. There is an idea in drama that universality comes out of specificity. You don't have to be a New Englander to see the humanity of Our Town, or a fan of the Confederacy to understand the power of Gone With the Wind. I have been a Betty fan from the very beginning because I thought MW and the MM writers were succeeding at a nearly impossible task – creating an interesting character out of the biggest cliche in modern American pop culture – the bored housewife.
Well Betty may be bored, but it's because she studied Anthropology and can't use her education; because her husband considered her a trophy and, until last night, treated her as one throughout their marriage; because she had the obligatory children and they're really not that interesting to her.
Don's secret explained part of the reason why there was a communication gap between he and his wife, but the secret is really just a plot point to explore the dynamics of a marriage, or how an ad campaign is sold, in 1963. I have no doubt MW has many more plot points up his sleeve as the huge changes of the 60s really get rolling. Don and the crew at SC still have to navigate that rocky road, and I am not sure that they all can.
In fact, perhaps we should see Don's secret as representing the repression and conformity of the immediate post-war period, when everyone wanted to get back to "normal," even though the "normal" that proceeded from that desire didn't really exist before. Nobody has lived that American ideal better than Don – complete with the casual philandering that was still considered a man's prerogative in those days. Bert's "who cares" was in relation to Don's true identity, but "who cares" will be a mantra for an entire generation (maybe including Sally) that's about to chuck their parents morality. Hell, by 1968 Don would be considered a hero by many for finding a way out of war, no matter how deceitful.
S1 closed with a birth, not a pregnancy… I'm pretty sure all viewers were well aware that Peggy was pregnant as the episodes progressed. That she somehow never figure it out (morning sickness, drastic weight gain, etc. ?) is one of the few problems I have with that particular season.
#24 when I said S1 ended with Peggy's "pregnancy revealed" I meant in respect to it being impossible for her to continue denying it once the baby was born. Yes, we viewers noticed the obvious signs, but the baby's father somehow failed to notice. The suspense at the end of S1 was if she would be able to resume her career and keep the secret. Evidently she got good mentoring on both scores from Don.
What I particularly loved about the confrontation is how subdued it was — after 3 years of build up — the lighting was dark, there was no screaming and no throwing things, but it had an element of suspense to it — would Don flee and run off with Suzanne? Would Suzanne somehow get into the house? Would Don kill Betty? (of course I recognize that Matt Weiner is not likely to kill off a major player like Betty, but there was just a moment when they were in the study where I was not sure what Don was going to do, and again when he was alone in the kitchen with the box). Don was a pitiful broken mess unable to pour his own drink and dropping his cigarette on the floor. As moving as it was to watch him come clean about his past, I didn't feel particularly sorry for him as so much of his mess is self-created and his mistress was hiding in his car while all this is going on inside Casa Draper. I thought at points Betty's attitude was almost motherly toward him, both in a loving way (the way she smoothed his hair when he told her about Adam's death) and in her stern "we're not done yet" as she left the table to comfort her real child, the crying Baby Gene. And what Don needed at the moment was not a lover (i.e., the forgotten Suzanne, hiding in Don's car and then carrying her suitcase alone in the night) but a mother figure.
Where do we go from here? Who knows? The minute I think I have this show "figured out" or at least have established in my own mind a recommended course of action for these characters, the show goes someplace else. Until last night, I was firmly in the "Don and Betty need to get a divorce because it would be good for the story" camp and now I am not so sure. How does Betty adjust to the fact that Don is not "some football hero" but actually a criminal who stole an officer's identity? How does Don adjust to the fact that Betty is not some prom queen but actually a pretty shrewd character? What if anything do they tell the kids? Suzanne can't just go quietly into that good night… that would be too easy, though a "Fatal Attraction" rip off would seem beneath a show of this caliber.
I'm thrilled and see it as only opening up new possibilities for the future seasons. I mean, how many more "Don dodges discovery of Dick" stories can we do? How many more dark haired, free spirited mistresses, who make up for what he's lacking in his marriage, stories can we pursue? I've been frustrated this season because I've felt much of what Don/Betty have been through has been a re-tread of Seasons 1 & 2.
The playing field is leveled now. Betty has power. Don is free. The marriage can sink or swim on it's own merit (and given that some of MW's episode can push story forward like dog years, I"m not so certain we won't see major shifts still).
Regardless of what happens with Don/Betty, the reveal of this is a major landmark for the show. If Betty doesn't turn Don into the authorities, he has an accomplice to keep his secret and life safe- whether they are together or not.
How will this impact him at work. He has a 3-year contract. Will he still be as edgy and confident? What other stories can we concentrate on and move, if Don's home life settles a bit?
25 hmm, I thought the suspense at the end of S1 was whether Betty had taken the kids and gone for good. I don't think this show really needs cliffhangers between seasons, anyway, everyone's going to tune in to see what year they jump to, you don't need a "who survived the bomb in the swimming pool".
I could see the show focusing more on Sally, skipping ahead a few years for next season. How do Don and Betty control her if she gets into the counterculture, and how does Don tell her to be a good girl when he's been so bad for so long? I think Sally and Bobby uncovering Don's secret is potentially more devastating to the family than Betty's discovering it.
The explosion of the social revolution of the 60's can make generation gaps much more interesting: Roger and Jane could be fascinating if she want to explore the new music and drugs and Roger's only interest is retreating deeper into his country club lifestyle.
And what about Joan? She could be on the forefront of the women's liberation movement. Such a strong intelligent person, with many talents. I could see her and Peggy reconnecting and being a very strong team.
Pete could be the biggest surprise of them all. His talent for recognizing cultural changes and being excited by them, as well as actually feeling regret for bad things that he's done, could serve him very well in a time of such upheaval.
I think Mad Men has endless possibilities, and can't wait to see where it all leads!!
# 19 falafel Says: : "The show is not called ‘The Drapers’, though lately it feels like it should be. Until now I thought the rest of the characters were actually important. But now Don/Betty have had their big climax and…the show is over?"
Thanks for your comments – I agree and have tried to shy away from the keyboard (several times) when I was really fed up with the lack of Sterling-Cooper time.
Personal opinion here, it wasn't necessary to take 70% of the season's screen time to explore the Draper marriage leading up to the bombshell. It's been ticking all this time (wonderfully) and I would have been just as satisfied with 30%, including the BIG Secret revelation – leaving the lion's share for SC.
Other areas of "why did we need this" are the Henry Francis & Suzanne Farrell bits. BUT — I've entrusted my faith in the writers/actors because I am ultimately (HUGELY) entertained by what they present.
What was the line from 'Gladiator'?…… "Are you not entertained?!"
Well….Hell Yeah! I am.
Honestly, they could quantum-jump to the 70's for Season Four and focus solely on Peggy and Sally's stories — and I'd still tune in.
It's all good. There's way more story to tell.
(just a lil' less Draper-ish please)
# 29 – "I could see the show focusing more on Sally, skipping ahead a few years for next next season. How do Don and Betty control her if she gets into the counterculture, and how does Don tell her to be a good girl when he’s been so bad for so long?"
In another BoK thread, I speculated that in Season Four, the show will probably jump ahead to the mid-1960s. Someone had wondered if we'd be seeing Father Gill again.
Given the changes in that period in the Catholic Church, this would provide the show to focus some on Father Gill, Peggy and her family within that framework.
As for Sally, if there's a way to show her edging into "counterculture activities" (or, at the very least, into a rebellious early adolescence) while still using Kiernan Shipka in the role, that would be great – since she is such a wonderful actress.
And, for the show overall, the mid-1960s would be a perfect timeframe, what with all the innovative advertising that came out in that era.
My boyfriend came up with a pet theory today that I find fairly appealing.
This mysterious Bob guy that Roger calls about a job for Joan… what do you suppose are the odds that he works at Gray? This would mean, potentially, that Joan and Peggy will both end up at the same agency by next season. This seems double clever from a writing perspective: we get one location in which to consolidate Joan's and Peggy's stories, and we also get more Joan/Peggy scenes, which are always a delight.
I know there's not much evidence to go on here, but it seemed like a smart possibility.
# 29 Lisa – that is an interesting idea but if they skipped too far ahead would they have to replace the current Sally and Bobby with older actors?
If there should be any Emmys given, the young lady playing Sally should be up there as well. Her scenes with Granpa Gene were great not to mention when he died. There are more moments, she holds her own with this crew.
Things that have yet to happen:
1) the sale of Sterling Cooper by PPL
2) Roger’s daughter’s wedding
3) Whatever happens with the Hilton account
4) Whether “Bob” gives Joan a job
there is more to go.
The series is at least half over. This isn’t premature. It would be a bad thing if show lasts until 2019.
I think Roger will die in the last episode of S3 – at his daughter's wedding.
We are who we are when we walk in the room. (Bert Cooper) Sentient beings use micro-variations of persona depending on the context. Are not we all different in the workplace than at home, church Sunday morning or pub Saturday night? MM and all the stories we like, take this everyday modus to the extreme, for both good and bad outcomes. Becky Sharp or Rhett Butler did not exist, but they should have, just a little bit.
Don Draper is the “what could have been” or “there for the luck of the draw go I” for myself and every pre-aware male person who would admit it. Like a nightmare that we are so glad to wake up from, and realize that we did not go to the dark side.
That’s Mr. Cooper to you Farnham. There’s plenty ahead for MM, or did you all forget what happened in the 60′s before Woodstock and Manson…
I'm with falafel, there's lots more to this show than Ossining. But there is a part of me that is wondering if I'll get burned again like I did with Battlestar Galactica, which had 2 1/2 brilliant seasons and then slowly went down in flames for another year and a half, predicated on a whim of Ron Moore's (the "final five"). I like to hope that since Weiner doesn't have to invent a culture, he can keep the show believable and true, but it's possible it could lose its way.
Then again, it could be like The Wire, which changed it up completely every season and never sucked. (Well, ok, season 5 was questionable, but still worth watching.)
Weiner is creative, but he's not God. It's not a matter of faith, it's a matter of taste. I might like what he does and I might not, but if not, I won't rend my garments, I'll just stop watching.
I had that thought for a brief moment and then I thought this:
- this is a new beginning for this plot-line, it’s not an ending. Starting next week we begin anew to figure out what this lie means. Were Betty and Don really in love? Will they need to start over again? Will this break them up?
- it’s beneath Mad Men to keep this going for 7 seasons and have the show end on a note like last night. This show does not hinge on Don and his secret, but on a search (by all characters) for the authentic self. This search will continue – secret or not. It annoys me when people reduce the show to “Don has a secret” when the show is so much more.
- His secret has been revealing itself slowly over 3 seasons – first Pete and Bert found out, then he meets up with Adam, Don reveals pieces of himself to Rachel, Connie etc… it’s just another revealing point – but not the end – merely a continuation.
- Any show can artificially drag on a secret or plot line forever. Here we get to see what happens with the consequences of this secret – which frankly are just as interesting.
Those who watch Lost know that everyone thought they wouldn’t get characters off the island till the very end, yet they did it at the halfway point of the series, and it saved their show. They had lots of story left to tell after getting past the point that was supposed to be the end, and Matthew clearly has the same game plan. I’m more at a loss as to how he’ll fill out the next two weeks after this, than how he’ll fill out the next 2-3 years.
Last month, the daytime drama, “Guiding Light,” went off the air. Between it’s radio and TV incarnations, it ran for 72 years.
Mad Men, won’t have a run that long, of course, but the show’s quality is light years ahead of a “soap opera’ (and most primetime fare, too). And, as far as I’m concerned, Matt Weiner can take the show pretty much anywhere he wants to, plot-wise – and still keep millions of loyal viewers.
There are numerous plot points yet to play out:
- What happens to Sal?
- When/how will Trudy discover the truth about Pete & Peggy’s love child?
- Will they take Duck Phillips up on his offer to move to Grey?
- Will Freddy Rumsen come back to SC?
You get the idea …
Until Mad Men came along, my favorite TV drama was Homicide: Life on the Street, which ran on NBC for 7 seasons (plus a primetime movie later).
I loved Homicide for the same reason I love Mad Med. Both shows offer believable characters & stories, they’re exquisitely crafted and the writing is superb.
Mad Men isn’t going anyplace and I’m fine with it going any place Matt & Company want to take it!
I think if you reread the Vanity Fair piece on Mad Men that focused on Don & Betty’s Dysfunctional Paradise…it makes sense why this was done now. These two are f*cked up in the worst way as a couple and as individuals and mostly they did it to each other. And are also victims of the times and upbringing. They can’t be happy and this adds another layer to explore, I mean will this change anything? Will Don be faithful? Will Betty? Does this drive Don crazier now that Betty knows and has power over him? And how much does she exert that power…she hates the town and friends. Maybe by the time next season rolls around, they won’t even be in Ossining.
I think that, despite the buildup around the “Betty and The Box” scenes (she started going after that locked drawer last year, remember), there is better dramatic material in what a person decides than in what he — or she — hides.
And, for the record, what we haven’t seen yet:
* How Don handles being an asset of Sterling Cooper, and for how long
* What the sale of S-C will mean to Don, Roger, and Bert
* Whether Betty and Don actually stay together
* How Betty and Don handle the subject of his “other life” with their family
* Whether Peggy and Duck remain an item; what it means for S-C
* How and when Sal reappears
* Whether Anna reappears in Don’s life
* The assassination, the passage of the Civil Rights Bill (which would be a bigger boon for Betty than for Carla, btw), and the effect these have on the lives of our friends
* Whether Joan divorces her rapist
* How Roger and Mona’s story ends
* What happens to Pete
… and so many others.
When I watch Mad Men, I try to resist speculation. The beauty of this show has always been in the surprise: things often happen that I don’t expect, and I am never disappointed.
There are places I could go to find spoilers, hints, etc. I never do. That one hour on Sunday night packs the best dramatic rush of my week. Mad Men is miles away from jumping anything … except the competition.
Do I trust Matt? The other writers? The actors? Are you kidding? I’m a writer myself.
“And who are you supposed to be?” That was the best last line of any TV program I have watched in years. Hands down: they nailed it.
This kind of assured work is the hallmark of a series at the height of its powers. I am delighted just to be along for the ride.
If this year is about change, then the Don and Betty change can't happen overnight. It continues to happen. Aren't we all learning that "Change" isn't just a one-event thing? We need to keep adjusting?
I want to see if/how they take over the world together.
#33 Matthew Weiner doesn't seem to be too attached to his child actors, so if the story jumps ahead too far, I don't think he'd have any issues with getting new actors. Kiernan is a great little actress, so I'm sure she'll have plenty of work no matter what happens with Mad Men! It would be nice if she could still play the role, since she is so good.
There has been a big focus this season on Don and Betty's parenting, and the influence of Grandpa Gene and Carla, so it seems like there's story being set up for future episodes. There was such a shift in the "children should only be seen and not heard" feeling to the US becoming a culture of youth. Seeing that play out in a family dynamic, especially one we know so well, would be very interesting.
#31 – LOVE the idea of Peggy's very traditional family and church being explored during the really radical times!
Ok so when Don gets to the door and hears…. "Daddy? Daddys home"
I looked at my Wife and said Honey he is really in the stew now and its starting to get warm!
I could not help but every 5 to 6 seconds grabbing my wifes hand and saying he's caught and is about to get in much deeper when the Gal-Pal comes up to the door! My lovely wife said "No she will just slip away quietly"
how do you girls know that? I would have been sucking down Pepto and trying not to faint if I were Don! (but then again …I'm not)
I don't know Donny Brook … I think that it is safe to assume that this show will not "jump the shark". I do however agree that the show could "loose its way"
#27 Aran …I think that you are correct! Betty holds ALL the cards. She can be an accomplice or turn Don in if he makes her mad or neglects to take out the trash, has an an affair (that she knows about) or …. you get the picture!
We're still quite a few years away from the counterculture. It's only 63. Even if season 4 jumps to 65, the anti-war movement will be in its very early stages.
I think it's going to take Betty some time to process all of the information from the box and Don's story. The discovery of the Whitman's Sampler box ist not an end, it's a begining.
@ 32 Adam- Something that I have mentioned to other friends who watch "Mad Men" is that everyone doesn't have to be in the same place. I don't see why you can't have more episodes like "My Old Kentucky Home." You have different locations, and cut between them. Here's what's happening at Sterling Cooper, then a scene of Joan, then a scene of Sal, followed a scene of Betty. Not that this would happen every episode, but you get the idea. Basically, a version of season 7 of "West Wing," when you had three different story lines in 3 different locations.
Another thing that favors a bigger jump ahead in time is that, from the producers' POV, they would no longer have to have infants on the set to play little Gene (identical twins for a single role, due to the very limited amount of time a baby can be on set during the course of a day) and could instead hire a single young actor to play him at age 2 or older. That's why TV shows don't like to have baby characters around for very long and will age them as quickly as they can get away with, or at least keep them off screen.
But could Kiernan play older than she is? I guess with child actors, you just don't know how they're going to grow. By the time they start filming again, she could look (and sound) a lot more mature.
Did anyone else notice that Don fudged one of the details when recounting his story to both Betty and Anna? Both times he made it sound like it was the Army's mistake and he just went along with it, instead of admitting that he had an active role in the switcheroo. I wonder how they'd have taken it if they'd known the whole truth. (Actively stealing someone else's identity, I'd figure, is a more serious crime than merely not correcting someone else's error.)
This show has a lot of characters. It's almost an embarrassment of riches, really, in terms of who they could focus on. Even if we're mostly done with Don and Betty for the time being, and their story recedes to the background, there's still plenty to cover. I'm still kind of flabbergasted that we've known about Peggy and Duck, to name one example, since Seven Twenty Three, and four episodes have gone by without a word about it. That couldn't have been just a one-nighter…could it?
I agree with some on this thread. For me, Betty and Don are NOT the show and the problems I have had with this season is that it´s been too focused on the Drapers.
This is not the end because this particular storyline is over. There are plenty to watch and plenty to experience.
For me, less Betty and Draper-household is actually a good thing, because I feel that the other characters and their much needed progress had to stand back for the sake of the Draper´s.
I think it was an amazing showdown between Don and Betty and Don remains to be one of my favorite characters. But not everyone have the same reason for watching the show.
Some of us must have felt "the show is over" at one or another point than this episode. Joan leaving. Sal leaving. Brits taking over. Pete becoming a rapist.
You name it.
But I think there is still nice things to watch.
I like Sally, Donny, etc, I just feel Mad Men has narrowed its scope this season. 70% or more of S3 has been about Don/Betty's marriage. Sterling Cooper has been reduced to a subplot. For the last two weeks the SC story has simply been "some random campaign that thematically echoes Don and Betty's story". I'm a bit miffed that advertising is now contantly being used as a little thematic prop where as in past seasons advertising has been used as a much deeper exploration of human nature and 1960s society; its desires and its propaganda.
Personally, I'm a bigger fan of Pete and Peggy; who I "thought" were main characters, though they've had so little screentime in recent episodes. Elizabeth and Vincent are still 2nd and 3rd on the cast list every week but it really doesn't reflect their involvement in the story. I'm starting to lose faith that these characters are important as individuals or whether they are now just subplot fodder, no longer allowed any major thrust in the A stories. Because the A story is now, permenantly, the Don/Betty story.
With Pete and Peggy I don't feel like "their time" has even started yet. They could take the story in brand new directions if they were allowed to do something major, which they haven't been allowed so far in S3. Peggy is a proto feminist and Pete has an instinctive vision of where the future is headed. The writers have given Pete and Peggy these qualities, but the story hasn't yet used them to make waves. For the moment Pete and Peggy's progressive ideas are surpressed by Sterling Cooper, an agency that is on the wrong side of most cultural changes.
Maybe Pete and Peggy will jump ship? Maybe that is their S3 transition, with Duck urging them to move up in the world. If that happens I have to have "faith" that Weiner will follow their story. But it is hard to have faith now. I've found it so disappointing that when people leave Sterling Cooper – like Sal and Joan – Weiner doesn't bother to follow them. Yet he does follow Don everywhere he goes, even the west coast, and he follows Betty's solo story every single week. Why are Don and Betty the only ones who are given a consistent episode-to-episode storyline these days?
As well as seeing more focus on the workplace, I'd like to see much more of other characters homelife and social life. It was great to have a Joan/Greg home story this week, but why is it only once in a blue moon we check in with these characters? Why do we need to spend so many boring scenes every week on establishing Don/Miss Farrell's affair, yet they only need ONE scene to establish Peggy/Duck and don't bother with any continuity of this relationship afterwards? It all feels very imbalanced with some stories being overwritten and others being underwritten/discontinued.
It's so rare that you have super-high expectations for something, only to have those expectations exceeded massively. That's how the Don-Betty scene played out for me. I only got to see it last night, and I cannot recall ever watching anything and feeling so purely and fully…satisfied.
OK, enough with that.
In terms of where they go from here, it strikes me that the storylines have been drawn to allow a possible jump well into the future for S4. What if we ended up in 1969 with:
– Joan (a war widow) with Roger (jilted by Jane in 1965)
– Pete (childless, divorced, head of Accounts) working with Peggy (single, searching, Creative Director) at their own agency, while they balance their personal and professional relationship
– Don running SC (under new ownership) with the B-team of Kinsey and Cosgrove, having lost Hilton as Connie's personal influence held less sway at his company
– Sally, now 17, at Woodstock
– Bert R'ing IP
– Don and Betty…who knows?
I'm not suggesting (nor hoping) any of this will happen, but it's all plausible and requires little or no leap of faith based on things that have already happened. I'm sure most people here could come up with similar scenarios for 1967, 1971 or whenever.
Point is, maybe the big cliffhanger during the upcoming "offseason" won't be what happens but when it happens.
it’s the speciality of Mad Men to introduce something big, put it aside for some time, and then bring it back into the forefront only when we’re not expecting it
This is true. I guess I should have faith in that. I remember being frustrated in S2 that the show never touched upon Don's feelings about Adam's suicide. By the time S3 came I had given up hoping, so Don's grief did come when I least expected it.
I noticed Peggy and Pete in the episode blurbs, but I'm afraid to hope for anything major happening in their stories. I think "Will Pete and Peggy ever mention their baby again?" has become my new "Will Don ever grieve for his brother?" issue.
"Nobody knows anything."
- William Goldman
I've got pretty much total faith in Matt W at this point; I'm glad he resolved the Don/Dick mystery w/ Betty and look forward to where he goes next.
This armchair critic does agree that even with the amazing payoff this week, there was too much Draper household drama (I won't call it soap opera, though I suppose I could). If this resolution ends up giving us more time at the agency next season, all to the good. There are so many interesting characters, and the show is at it's most entertaining, compelling and funny when the agency is humming.
While Dick Whitman initiated the deception with the dog tags, the Army itself compounded the error when – apparently – Graves Registration did not follow protocol to ID the deceased by dental records and FINGERPRINTS! Dogtags were notoriously unreliable for identifying wounded or killed soldiers because the soldiers themselves sometimes swapped tags (strictly a no-no but it happened) and the enemy were known to either remove or switch tags of the deceased.
And, for now, Betty is an accomplice after the fact. We know Anna won't turn him in, Pete has no traction, Bert doesn't care. While it makes for great suspense-building (will the Army find out or not? will "Don" end up in Leavenworth for life?) it would not surprise me if Dick officially goes to his grave as Don. Many a revealed secret never has the impact one would expect.
Like someone upthread (sorry, couldn't be bothered to scroll back up), I do not seek out spoilers of where the plot is going. While I love reading everyone else's speculations, I'm happy to just tune in every week and see what happens. I do the same with "Lost". I've had a love/hate relationship with that show, and stopped watching for about half a season, but it's wrapping up and I'm hooked again and can't wait to see how it all plays out.
I trust MW & Co. to not let this show founder. Bryan Batt was told before they started filming, I believe, that there would be a scene when he was found out, and that was years ago. I think there is a plan, and I'm going to assume it's a good one.
I wouldn't want the show to go on until 2019, because I think it is very difficult for any show to sustain the type of quality that this show has for that long. I adored "The Wire", and while I hated to see it go, I think it was time. What helped is that they had one of the best series finales ever. While I miss McNutty, Bubbles & the whole hee haw gang, I know where they were headed, and can imagine what they're up to.
I'm a longtime lurker at this site but I feel that I have to comment on this issue. It seems to me that, far from being at a plot impasse, we are now somewhat liberated to see these characters take on the enormous changes of the mid and late 60's. Won't Don, in all his dapperness, seem awfully straight in 5 years? What will growing awareness and identity politics mean to Peggy, Joan, Betty, and to all those secretaries? How will Sal break free of his closet? How would SC move into the graphic future, assuming it could get a little more hip?
I hope there is a future because I can't wait for a little awareness, dare I say, conciousness, to breeze through those walls, internal and external…
@ 43 Sir Hillary Bray- I agree with you about everything except one. Pete and Peggy having a personal relationship. Peggy has made it clear she no longer has any romantic interest in Pete. I could see them working together quite well. They do get along professionally.
Seeing Sally dressed as a gypsy was so cute. There's no question she's going to be part of the anti-war movement/counter-culture. The only question is how she gets involved. Maybe a new family will move into the neighborhood with a daughter Sally's age, and an older sibling.
By reading the tiny blurbs for the final two eps of the season, it looks to me like Peggy and Pete will be back in the spotlight soon enough. Besides, it’s the speciality of Mad Men to introduce something big, put it aside for some time, and then bring it back into the forefront only when we’re not expecting it- i.e briefly introducing Henry and Connie in “Kentucky Home” and then waiting several weeks to make them major players.
So while we’re all focused on the immediate stuff now, plot elements from several weeks ago will probably have the biggest impact on the last two eps, in Matt’s typical bait-and-switch fashion.
falafel mentioned the "British Invasion" in #19. How can that be skipped? It was a huge cultural moment. the Beatles started to get regular air play right around newyears of '64( a fascinating article at http://www.forgottenhits.com/home scroll down for article link on left side of page) and they were on Sullivan on Feb. 8th. and the "invasion" was launched. Everything British suddenly became popular from clothes to cars…and can't forget Bond, James Bond :0)
What if this gave SC, so well placed to capitalize on all this with their British owners, a big shot in the arm and they aren't sold but set to work selling MG's and G-9 jackets?
@ #10 ER “What if the end of the series is going to be Don committing suicide, possibly by jumping off a building? It occurred to me that the show’s opening may be foreshadowing the conclusion of the series…"
The show's opening is exactly what I keep coming back to every time I watch another episode. Many posters have said that everything on the show signifies something – which would include the opening. I go back and forth interpreting it literally (jumping off a building) and metaphorically (everything falling away, melting away).
Some people mentioned in the open thread that this episode has a Hitchcock feel. Don revealing his double identity has definite shades of Vertigo. Something I've noticed about the colors Don's women are wearing. We see Betty wearing mostly gray and Suzanne in a lot green shades.
In Vertigo, Kim Novak's elegant icy-blonde character, "Madeleine," wears an all gray suit for most of the movie. Hitchcock and Edith Head did it on purpose because gray is a very odd color on a blonde and creates an off-putting effect. Novak's earthy, brunette character, Judy, first appears in a green sweater-dress outfit, and like our jogging Miss Farrell, obviously sans brassiere.
We've all mentioned how color is a significant on the show, especially last week. There was a lot of discussion about Betty's blue-green evening gown at the end of "The Color Blue," when she's half listening to Don's speech but mostly contemplating about what she knows and what her future holds. Betty's dress also has a chic bow in front at her belly.
When Peggy goes to see Don in "The Fog" about a raise after lunch with Duck, she's wearing a blue-green plaid dress. She gets confronted by Pete after she thinks about her future at SC and as a working girl looking for a personal life. She wears the same dress in "Seven Twenty Three" when she receives the Hermes scarf from Duck. She once again is contemplating her future when Pete barges in. Peggy's dress also has a chic bow in front at her belly.
Wouldn't it be great if they ended the season on Nov. 21 and then began season 4 in 1965 or something?
@ 55 Adam- I'm not sure how I feel about the show skipping the 22nd, but I love the idea of starting season 4 in 65. It lets them cover Beatlemania, the anti-war movement, and some of the urban riots.
1965 also marks the beginning of a public LGBT rights movement, with pickets at the White House and Independence Hall (which occurred every July 4th thereafter until the Stonewall riots of 1969 made them obsolete). I could easily see Sal joining a nascant "homophile" movement, as it was referred to back then, but only in the background (he could make the signs!) at first.
MM has been MW baby for what 7 years ? It has been said many times and in many places that he has the entire series arc already planned out. He not only knows how Don and Betty got to Ossining by Winter 1960, he knows how their story will end. Everything that is shown in the show is deliberate. MW planned this reveal a long time ago. I have complete faith that this episode represents a beginning, not an end.
Pete and Peggy will become more important in the years ahead. Peggy as the new career women succeeding in a man's world and Pete as someone who will understand the seismic changes in the cultural zeitgeist. They stay at SC.
Whatever you think of Don and his many flaws, he is chameleon. He will still have the ability to grasp the meaning of the situation and react correctly. Whatever happens, we will find Don at or near the top of the hierarchy.
I firmly believe we are being set up for the disappearance of Dr Harris. He will be an early casualty of 'Nam. Joan will be forced to once again become a career women. Only this time, because of the societal changes taking place around her, her talents will not be wasted in the secretarial pool.
Harry Crane will continue to play a very important role at SC, but he will be increasingly out of touch with the reason for his importance. If there is one character who can be considered clueless it is Crane.
Sal will land on his feet. He and Kitty will eventually separate due to the awakening of his true nature. He will return to SC in some form.
Roger and Jane will eventually divorce. It will be a mutual decision. Roger will come to consider her a child and Jane will come to regard him as old and out of touch.
SC will be sold. To whom I don't know. I think Lane Pryce will want to stay, but will not be able to.
S4 will open on the morning of the Beatles arrival at Idlewild Airport. Securing tickets for their Ed Sullivan performance will be a minor plot point in the premiere episode.
At the conclusion of S3/13, late July 2010 will not come fast enough for me.
This show has me hooked like no other before. I am a sucker for the marriage of Don and Betty succeeding, (is it because they represent my own parents?) and was pretty hopeless until this past episode… but am now completely torn.
On the one hand, now they can be free of the secret; and Betty definitely has power and maturity- which Don craves in women like Rachel. His saying, in the kitchen: “I’m not going anywhere”, even though he WAS going to Norwich, was tremendously reassuring.
On the other hand, he didn’t come completely clean about his affair, sitting out in the car, living in walking distance. Another issue is the 500k he received as a partner with SC, which seems to never be revealed to Betty. (I wonder if he has a secret bank acount, alluded to in Season 1.)
I can foresee that when Betty finds out about Suzanne, she may blackmail Don into a divorce and get the bulk of his assets, leaving him vulnerable to the next owner of SC. He now has a non-compete, and may be Duck’s underling.
The romantic in me craves a scene in which Don really faces Betty’s departure- and sees her with another man. I would love to see jealousy and regret from him.
I know that MW knows John Cheever and stories of the corruption behind the American suburban “beautiful” life. But it has been done so many times before, like in Revolutionary Road and American Beauty. I get it- the lovely facade of the perfect marriage hides utter corruption. But I would love to see the redemption of a marriage- ie “the Painted Veil”. That would be new and different television.
@ 58 rl1856- I don't think Harry's clueluess, just inept. He saw that television was going to be important, and once he found about reviewing scripts to make sure there was no problem with the ad, he found someone to do it. Harry knows what needs to be done, he just has trouble doing it. I've been in a position similiar to Harry's, it's not fun. That's why I feel the need to defend him.
A question out of curiosity-do you think Sal and Kitty will stay friends? He clearly has feelings for her. After the dinner with Ken, he felt remorse that he hurt Kitty's feelings. He didn't marry some stranger to keep people from suspecting, he married someone he had known for years. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
I was surprised that Don had described his stepfather – Uncle Mac – as being kind to him. Yet, in (1.10) “The Long Weekendâ€, Don had described his stepfather to Rachel Mencken in a different way:
â€"You told me your mother died in childbirth. Mine did too. She was a prostitute. I don't know what my father paid her, but when she died they brought me to him, and his wife. And when I was ten years old he died. He was a drunk who got kicked in the face by a horse. She buried him and took up with some other man, and I was raised by…those two sorry people."
Don did not have any kind words to say about his father Archie, his stepmother Abigail or his stepfather Mac. Yet in last Sunday’s episode, he had kind words for Mac. To whom had he told the truth – Rachel or Betty?
DRush – I'm hazarding a guess that it's not a lie, it's just that everything is relative. Compared to the treatment he received from everyone else around him, maybe Dick felt that Uncle Mack was "nice to him" (meaning perhaps he didn't beat him). It was such a sad statement from Don, sounding just like the way a little boy would say it. Kinda broke my heart
Uncle Mack can be "sorry" and "nice." By "sorry" I don't understand "cruel," I understand impoverished, uneducated, small-minded, pathetic, and everything Don left behind.
Uncle Mac probably hit Dick less than his real father did. And probably called him "whore child" less than his stepmother did. But Dick didn't want to grow up to be like him. He wanted something else.