‘Mad Men’: Six-month leave

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Since the beginning of the show, I haven’t known what to make of Freddy Rumson. He’s seemed like a bit of a placeholder character –- perhaps he would develop over time and become critical to some future development in the show; perhaps he existed as an atmospheric foil, the complete alcoholic who allows the (currently) functional alcoholics in the office to justify their own drinking; perhaps he was in the show just so he could leave and move the plot along. Well, it turns out he was there for all of those reasons, but mostly reasons two and three. This episode resulted in his ouster and Peggy Olson’s subsequent promotion to full copywriter. So long, Freddy. Thank you for keeping that place warm.

You see, during the team meeting right before a client meeting, Freddy lost the thread of his day and urinated in his office while still wearing his pants, then passed out. It was a scene almost as mortifying as Katie Couric’s interview of Sarah Palin. The team salvaged the meeting, but Pete Campbell, concerned about Freddy’s welfare (by which I mean ‘concerned about Pete’s rapid ascent through the firm’), brought the matter to the attention of the higher-ups at Sterling Cooper, and Roger Sterling decided that it was time for Freddy to go. The way they did it in those days was to encourage a ‘six-month leave’ to go dry out, but it’s understood that the individual in question isn’t coming back. And it turns out that’s not the only big decision Roger makes in this episode, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

For those keeping track at home, you could say that this week was good for Peggy’s career and good for Pete’s career, and everything for everyone else is still following a trajectory reminiscent of Lehman Brothers’ 2008 stock price. Things are especially bad for Marilyn Monroe, whose death is the big news of the day and has all the women in the office weeping.

First, Don Draper is living in a hotel, though he has one constant in his life: the hacking cough he wakes up with every morning. Incipient lung cancer, perhaps? Emphysema? His secretary, Jane, tells him that she might have made a mistake -– Don’s daughter Sally called the office to ask when her dad was coming back from his ‘business trip.’ In other words, Jane now knows that something is up in the Draper household. Don says he’s at the Roosevelt, but he wants Jane to keep this on the down-low and also not to shoot concerned looks at him. Later in the episode, she buys him some new dress shirts –- from Menken’s –- because his are looking worn. Don makes an appearance at home to, if you will, keep up appearances, and he and Betty seem to come to an agreement that he’ll pretend he’s doing client work all week out of town and will return on the weekends. She’s not ready to let him officially come home or to decide once and for all what she wants.

Betty, meanwhile, spends most of her days drifting around in a housecoat, drinking during the daytime, letting Carla take care of the kids, and undertaking important projects such as defrosting the freezer and lining drawers with cheery paper. She forgets that her friend Sara Beth is dropping by to borrow a dress, and, discovered in her housecoat, she feigns illness. While Sara Beth looks through the dress selection, she reveals that she keeps thinking about Arthur Case from the stables. Betty tells her she shouldn’t talk to him so much. I include that line because it might be relevant to what follows, and I had a hard time comprehending what follows, even after two viewings. And let me point out that I, unlike nearly everyone affiliated with Sterling Cooper, was completely sober. So I’m just going to detail the events, perhaps with some interpretation, and then hope that you can shed light on things.

Betty and Sara Beth are scheduled to have lunch on Thursday. Before then, Betty goes back to the stables, timed so she’ll run into Arthur, whom she’s been avoiding. From afar, she sees him flirtatiously interact with a woman who has brown hair (and who is thus not his fiancée, Tara) but who is not Sara Beth (I don’t think). Betty then says hello to Arthur and asks whether he’s seen Sara Beth lately; he says he did a few days ago. Betty implies that something is amiss in Sara Beth’s life and that she’d be so happy to know Arthur was concerned about her. Arthur seems surprised and (I think) flattered. Betty invites him to their lunch on Thursday. When Thursday rolls around, Arthur shows up at the restaurant and meets Sara Beth; she’s pleasantly surprised; they flirt; and Betty, at home, takes the phone off the hook and ditches the lunch. So what exactly is she doing? Something cruel to Sara Beth and/or Arthur? Is she trying to create a scandal? Or is she actually trying to spice up Sara Beth’s life? I am at a loss.

Back in the world of Sterling Cooper, Don and Roger take Freddy out on the town to break the bad news to him. (Don, it should be noted, disagrees with Roger that Freddy should be pushed out; Roger tells Don that his loyalty is a problem.) Freddy resists the shove and points out that Roger’s dad drank more than Roger and Don combined. Perhaps that’s why Roger’s dad isn’t around anymore. Roger and Don pepper Freddy with encouragement that he can dry out and get a new start somewhere, and Freddy gamely tries to be optimistic throughout the evening, but the optimism is shallow and ephemeral. The three go to an underground gambling operation, where Roger tries to get Don to reveal what’s going on in his personal life. It turns out that Jimmy Barrett is at the club, however, and Don punches him out, later referring to this as a classic “Archibald Whitman” (i.e. his father) move. After they’re kicked out, Roger and Don see Freddy into a cab, where Freddy asks Don what he’s going to do –- ‘If I don’t go into that office every day, who am I?’ Don tells Freddy goodnight; Freddy tells Don goodbye.

Roger and Don repair to drink still more at another bar, and Roger finally gets Don to reveal that he’s staying at the Roosevelt. Don also says that he doesn’t feel bad about his current situation -– mostly, he feels relieved. Interesting. Roger asks whether he fell in love, and Don says no, but that would have been easier, because then he’d know what to do. Throughout this conversation, Roger gives Don advice from the perspective of the older, sometimes-wayward married man who manages to still stay married. Don, however, remains glum, and questions the premise. ‘It’s your life,’ he says. ‘You don’t know how long it’s going to last, but you know it’s got a bad ending.’ He says he guesses you just keep moving forward, since this can’t be all there is. Little does he realize that he’s actually giving Roger advice.

Back in the office, Don chastises Peggy for not telling him about Freddy’s mishap and for having to hear it from Pete. And then he promotes Peggy to full copywriter since Freddy is ‘taking a few months off.’ Peggy storms into Pete’s office to dress him down for tattling, but Pete is unrepentant, muttering a few generalities about ‘those people’ (heavy boozers) and what their tendencies are.

Don is sleeping on his couch when Mona Sterling bursts in, accusing Don of being responsible for Roger’s decision to leave her after 25 years of marriage. Don is, in this case, justifiably confused. She says that Roger is leaving her for a secretary as the result of Don’s encouragement –- i.e. ‘It’s your life; you have to move forward.’ Mona storms back out, brushing off Roger outside of Don’s office. I’m not quite sure why all of this is occurring in the office, actually -- wouldn’t Roger want to break this sort of news at home? Don watches as Roger puts his hand on Jane’s shoulder, and Jane, crying, runs off. That’s right! Roger is leaving Mona for Jane! Don looks at Roger with disdain and tells him he wants Jane off his desk. I suspect Roger’s daughter will go ahead and elope -- otherwise, that’s going to be one awkward wedding.

-- Sarah Rogers