Basket of Kisses

She does whatever she feels like, with no regard at all.

As a story is being told, you, as the story tellee, ride along with each turn it takes. Feelings and opinions form and evolve.

In some cases, you meet up with an unpredicted revelation (holy-CRAP-the-ventriloquist’s-friend-who-has-been-giving-him-advice-all-along-is-his-DUMMY) and then there is an instant readjustment of those previously formed feelings and opinions, as you apply the new knowledge to whatever you’d understood to be the truth.

On Mad Men there is so much happening, but happening slowly. Information is not always delivered straightforwardly. And in reaction I think that we, the viewers, form these opinions warily; we stave off making a judgment call for as long as possible. But you can’t just completely NOT emotionally invest.

(Tangentially–the characters themselves are, for the most part, distant from their feelings, and we see in them their tension as they struggle to maintain balance. And if you buy into what I’m describing, we, the viewers, are paralleling that; through the season we are stretched very thin and tight so as not to get overly involved, because there is so much we don’t understand. It is a fascinating dynamic.)

As we watched Season Two, we were most anxious to know about Peggy and the baby. We were getting tiny bits of information at a time. We were trying so hard to work it out. Okay, there’s a toddler in Anita’s home. Peggy is drinking. The state was somehow involved. She is distant from her nephew or is it her son. It wasn’t until The New Girl that it was all fully explained. (And as we’ve discussed here, not everyone was convinced, not even once they’d seen that Anita had been pregnant when Peggy was in the hospital, that the baby wasn’t Peggy’s. That’s how hesitant we are to commit to an opinion–Okay now I understand; Anita had a baby too. It’s hers. Final answer.)

Leading up to that moment, there was quite a bit of discussion (among the characters, and also here at the Basket) about Peggy being selfish. Anita thought so. And Anita kept at us. You’re not here with Ma enough, you never come to church, you’re hungover again. And we were also adding, wondering, …I’m here raising your kid while you run around carefree. And we weren’t sure. About anything, and that included her selfishness. We were thinking, Well, yeah. Maybe. Peggy wasn’t saying much, and so she wasn’t exactly wooing us to warm to her side. Peggy isn’t always that easy to like to begin with. And of course, as we kept reminding ourselves, we didn’t have all the facts yet.

Once we learned that no, Anita wasn’t raising Peggy’s baby, the cloud of mistrust about Peggy didn’t necessarily lift for us. And that is unusual. In a classic unfolding like I am describing, that moment would have brought us relief and hugs for Peggy. But we’d been uncomfortable for a long time. And of course, this is complicated. It pushed a lot of people’s buttons that Peggy gave up a baby. And also, perhaps to a degree, we had been influenced by Anita.

Those people in Manhattan? They are better than us. Because they want things they haven’t seen.

Plenty of people may still believe that Peggy is selfish. She has most certainly looked out for herself. She has made choices that most women, especially then, wouldn’t consider making–literally wouldn’t even know to consider it. Look at Joan and how she didn’t get that position in the TV department. Peggy would have fought for that job. Women today choose, more or less, between having careers, having babies, having both. Peggy didn’t have any examples of women making the kinds of choices she made, and yet her path continues to be clear for her; she sees it, straight in front of her. Hard, yes. She is not giddy over having given her baby away. But nor is she regretful.

So I just want to remind everyone that Anita has three children and a laid-up husband and a mom who dotes on her younger sister and insults her cooking. And she is an angry, bitter, disappointed woman. And I don’t blame her. But she is not raising Peggy’s baby.

I was in the laundromat and I took some coins off the machine and used them. I took the Lord’s name in vain three times and, and I’m so angry, Father. I’m so angry at my little sister. She’s causing my mother so much pain. She had a child out of wedlock. She seduced a married man. It’s a terrible sin, and she acts like it didn’t even happen. And I hate her for it. And I feel so guilty about it. But everyone keeps falling all over themselves trying to help her. And she goes on like nothing happened. Nothing at all. What about me, Father? My troubles. What about me being good, for what?

Perfect timing, Ma just left

In A Night To Remember, this is Anita’s opening line to Peggy. They sit and they chat, and Anita complains.

But here’s the thing. It is a warm exchange. And… clean. It did not teem with harbored resentments. “Perfect timing, Ma just left” was entirely inclusive; Anita was commiserating with her sister.

So I’m thinking, as nasty as her motives may have been when she did it, the confession that we witnessed in Three Sundays was good for Anita’s soul.

for I have sinned. It’s been two weeks since my last confession.

This is how Peggy’s sister, Anita, begins her confession. She then admits to taking money at the laundromat and also taking the Lord’s name in vain. Anita then pauses, seems to ponder what she wants to say next, and then speaks again, hesitantly at first:

And I’m … I’m so angry, father … I’m so angry at my little sister. She’s causing my mother so much pain … She had a child out of wedlock. She seduced a married man. It’s a terrible sin, and she acts like it didn’t even happen. And I hate her for it. I feel so guilty about it … but everybody keeps falling all over themselves, trying to help her, and she goes on like nothing happened. Nothing at all.

So much there. In very few words a volume of subtext, pain, accusation, revenge, jealousy, and denial.

(more…)

(in case you are super spoiler conscious…)

For Those Who Think Young.

According to Spoiler TV.

And okay, let’s not obsess and go at it like hawks. Let’s just enjoy it! it’s beautiful.

And speaking of obsessing, enjoying, and beautiful…

I call it, My New Wallpaper.

(And I mean, in my bathroom, not on my desktop.)

(Blog note: Roberta and I wrote really similar posts at about the same time last night, so I’m splicing them together. This is our first attempt at a joint post so let’s see how it goes. —Deborah)

The lovely and talented dansj pointed out that IMDb has some Season 2 episode cast up. Not surprising, as actors often enter that info themselves nowadays. On the other hand, let’s remind everyone again, that IMDb is not totally dependable, because anyone can contribute.

Keep in mind when perusing the pages that the main cast is on the main Mad Men page, episode pages only show guests, infrequently recurring cast, as well as writers, directors, and crew. (more…)