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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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.