‘Mad Men’: A night to remember

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After this episode, it would be difficult to argue that things are going well for any of the major characters on ‘Mad Men.’ I suppose you could posit that things are looking up for Harry Crane, whose fledgling television department ends up with more than one person in it, or that perhaps Father Gill might feel that he’s making some progress toward saving Peggy Olson’s soul. And it’s good news for Duck Phillips that no one knows he’s hitting the bottle again, nor has he drunkenly fallen asleep behind the wheel next to someone else’s wife like some people we know. But these examples would certainly stretch the definition of ‘major character.’ And, really, how likely is it that these strands of positivity will continue? It’s just a matter of time before everyone’s individual illusions of control drop away like so many Bridges to Nowhere. Or statements about Bridges to Nowhere.

This was a deeply uncomfortable episode for me to watch. Others have made the persuasive argument that this discomfort pervades the whole second season and is possibly responsible for the show’s erratic ratings. Although Season One certainly comprised some tension-filled subjects, it did strike me as, overall, more lighthearted. Perhaps that’s overstating the case; let’s just say Season One was less troubling. Still, I hadn’t found any episode this season too unsettling to watch –- and, indeed, watch twice –- but this one was hard to get through on the first viewing, and I dreaded seeing it a second time.

Two reasons come to mind. First, Betty Draper loses what we shall politely call her “stuff” in this episode, and I suppose I identified with young Sally and Bobby, whose nicely controlled worlds are shaken. Second, I’m having a difficult time getting a fix on Don Draper. Does he mean the things he says to Betty? What does he want? What does he fear? This isn’t a complaint –- rather, these questions keep me engaged in the show –- but I could see how it might all be too depressing for some people. And if you’re already watching “The Shield,” well, how much tension can one viewer take, particularly when “The Daily Show” was on vacation all week?

We open with Betty Draper on a hard, early-morning ride at the horse ring; riding and alcohol appear to be the only avenues open to her for dulling her anxiety over Don’s philandering. Well, riding, alcohol and vomiting in Don’s new car. The atmosphere remains tense in the Draper household following Betty’s discovery of Don’s affair with Bobbie Barrett in last week’s episode. Matters come to a head at a dinner party the Drapers hold so that Duck Phillips and Roger Sterling can meet Crab Colson of the PR firm Rogers & Cowan. You see, at the office, the Sterling Cooper team is going after Heineken, and Don advocates for using promotional displays at suburban grocery stores since the upper-middle-class housewives will buy the stuff to seem sophisticated. Well, it turns out that Betty has bought Heineken for the dinner party, leading Don to emit a few I-told-you-so chuckles to Duck and Roger. Betty (wearing, by the way, a fabulous 1960s party dress) doesn’t know what’s going on and asks for an explanation. After receiving it, she carries on with the dinner party -– which is deemed a great success –- but afterward confronts Don about his humiliation of her.

Their argument leads to her revelation that she knows about him and Bobbie –- that Jimmy told her “everything.” Don denies it all and tries to bully Betty into admitting she doesn’t really know anything, but she stands her ground. And then she goes to sleep in her dress in Sally’s bed, serves breakfast the next morning in the same dress and, increasingly disheveled, spends the day drinking red wine and looking through all of Don’s suits and possessions for evidence of his liaison with Bobbie. She finds none, but she does cut her foot on a broken wine glass, and for a moment, she brings to mind Kim Kardashian. I’m glossing over this series of scenes, but they were disturbing. Later that night, Betty (showered, at last) wakes up Don, who’s sleeping on the couch, and says she doesn’t want things to be like this. He doesn’t, either. She says he never looks her in the eye or tells her that he loves her. He claims he does both all the time. He doesn’t, so what are we to think? Does he believe he professes his love and looks her in the eye, or is he just playing her so he doesn’t lose his comfortable existence? Or is it something else altogether?

It temporarily seems as if they’ve reached a sort of détente. Betty returns to immaculately dressed form and resumes proper housewife behavior. But no sooner has this happened than she sees Jimmy Barrett’s Utz commercial on television, and the next thing we know, she’s calling Don at the office and telling him not to come home, that she doesn’t want to see him. Does she mean just tonight or forever? The episode ends with Don drinking Heineken in the office kitchen. Bleak.

Also featured this week is a thread involving Father Gill and Peggy. Father Gill asks for her pro bono help in promoting a Catholic youth organization party; she demurs at first, but he pressures her into it. After producing a flier showing a dancing couple alongside the words “A Night to Remember,” Peggy is encouraged by Father Gill to explain her concept to the old fuddy duddies on the committee, who are a bit scandalized by the closeness of the dancing couple and the temptation-fraught slogan. Peggy defends her work, but Father Gill essentially sides with the oldsters, and Peggy calls him out for not sticking up for her, given that this is her area of expertise. He agrees, and she apologizes. While making copies of the new flier at her office, Father Gill asks her whether she has something she wants to talk about -– he’s noticed she doesn’t take communion. She deflects the question, leading Father Gill to ask whether she thinks she’s not deserving of God’s love. This breaks through Peggy’s protective exoskeleton, and she begins to tear up; luckily, the copies are done, so she can shoo Father Gill away. At the end of the episode, Peggy sits reflectively in her bathtub, and Father Gill rocks out on his guitar to some Christian tunes in his spartan priest’s lodging.

Finally, after a mishap involving one of Sterling Cooper’s television advertisers, Harry Crane gets permission to have some help in screening scripts of shows that their clients might sponsor. Roger doesn’t offer him any real resources, so Joan Holloway starts doing it. And she’s very good at the job, despite her past protestations that she’s never wanted a man’s job at the firm. The clients love her too. Joan’s doctor fiancé, however, essentially tells her she shouldn’t be worrying her pretty little head over such things. Oh, and make me a turkey pot pie, woman! Actually, he just demands a glass of water, but it’s the same vibe. Harry and Joan get the TV department back on track, prompting Roger to grant Harry an official hire at $150/week. Without a moment’s hesitation, he hires some wisecracking guy who will undoubtedly be worse at the job than Joan, and Joan’s professional life loses the sense of purpose it had unexpectedly acquired.

So that’s where we are, fellow viewers: Bleaksville in Bleaksbury Township in the Bleak States of America. Unlike you, I have a copy of the next episode, and I may have to violate my personal protocol and go ahead and watch it, even though it’ll probably just land me in a deeper existential hole, one where the world is suffused with regret and despair. Sniff.

-- Sarah Rogers