'Mad Men': What's in a name?

It’s not a question you expect to be asking your partner after several years of shared life, but yet, there in the dull lights of their Colonial-style kitchen, where Don and Betty have sat eating countless meals, Betty found herself inquiring with genuine curiosity.

“What's your name?”

Not “When will you be home tonight?” “Can you talk to Sally?” or “Chicken salad or Swedish meatballs?” but simply, “What's your name?” As if they had met five minutes ago. In some ways, introductions were apropos. Betty, meet Dick Whitman, son of a dead prostitute and half-brother of suicide Adam. Dick changed into Don but he’ll always be a blood-deep hobo, a psychic gypsy.

It’s a wonder, what with Suzanne waiting in the car, that Don didn’t bolt right then, plunging headlong into a life of wandering with no ties to anyone, carrying Suzanne along as long as she could stand it, but maybe eventually landing out in California or wherever he could carve out a new life. It was the eve of Halloween -- a time for masks, discarded or new.

In Episode 11, “The Gypsy and the Hobo,” Betty finally confronted Don about the box of secrets she found last week. Given the dedication to slow-burn plotting that “Mad Men” tends to stand by, it was surprising to see this trump card played so quickly after its introduction.

Then again, no matter how much of a calculating princess Betty may be, she’s not the kind to sit on information for too long -- and she recognized her lack of options. The family lawyer barely batted an eye at the news that Don has led a secret life. His parting words of advice for Betty were for her to “go home and give it a try.” Words he’d tell his own daughter, mind you.

Roger Sterling also had a busy week managing his own blasts from the past. Bringing in Annabelle Mathis, a seasoned business maven who wants Sterling-Cooper to turn the tides against her father’s pony-gristing dog food company, allowed us to see more sides of Roger. He’s not just the wise-cracking, embittered, on-his-way-out perma-cad -- he’s the wise-cracking, embittered, on-his-way-out perma-cad who once had his heart smashed to pieces.

He met his one-time-Parisian-adventurer for a swank, French dinner but the set-up was obvious: Get Annabelle drunk and savor her frustration when he rejects her advances. The next day, after the focus group participants balked at their dogs lapping up the horsey chow and Don recommended ditching the company name, the two had it out after scattering the secretaries from the break room. Even after all these years, Roger wanted to wound the one who had so easily wounded him.

Quick aside: When Smitty naively wondered at the phenomenon of dog owners actually describing themselves when describing their pets, Don’s smart-alecky counter line was priceless. “Is this your first group?” Don sneered. That’ll teach our favorite ad-boho to silence the novice chatter next time.

Whatever inflictions Roger wanted to beset on Annabelle, he doesn’t feel the same about Joan. If anything, Joan’s a kindred spirit, a fellow survivor he wants to help usher through a dark passage in her life. Their phone banter was nicely played -- touched with significance but not overdone.

This episode was especially successful for weaving together three storylines that each felt substantial on its own. At times, “Mad Men” can seem too piecemeal or drifty, even as it doles out scenes of vivid poeticism, but in this episode, the three stories -- Joan and Greg, Betty and Don, Roger and Annabelle -- had their own rich tension.

In Joan’s world, we got another batch of troubled Morse code from the trenches of her dour marriage to the rapist-cum-failed-surgeon whom we love to hate. After Joan gave him sterling advice on how to interview, he responded curtly: “This isn’t a beauty pageant.” Greg is prepared to undercut her at every turn -- whether that’s twisting her feminine strength into some throwaway or making major life decisions like joining the Army without discussing it with her.

How much more will Joan take? We finally see her snap, if only temporarily, and smash a vase against the clod’s head. As he slunk into the room the next scene, no one was sure whether he’d have roses or a vase of his own. Instead, he had news about a life in the Army where they might go to West Germany or Vietnam -- you know, if that whole thing is still going on after his training.

Will Joan find herself stationed somewhere outside Saigon, tying tourniquets with her teeth, administering sage comfort to the dying mama’s boys on the line? Even Kinsey would be impressed with that.

For us, she’ll always be traipsing around Manhattan, in wool dresses with her hair upswept, sizing up the competition in the madding crowd.

“The Gypsy and the Hobo” was a reiteration of one of the guideposts of “Mad Men” -- that while the show is ostensibly about men, it’s the women who are the most formidable and deep characters. We all know Joan is a pistol not to be toyed with, but even Annabel handled her dose of karma with more dignity than most. Suzanne, who finally abandoned the car for a lonely walk home lugging her suitcase, would have had every justification to lash out at Don, if only for spoiling her fantasy, but she takes his call and tearfully asks if he’s OK. It turns out Suzanne isn’t going to go psycho on Don. Is it wrong that I’m a little disappointed?

For all their work, it was still Betty who had one of her best showcases yet, subtle though it was. As Don is leaking out the details of his past sordid life, looking alternately like a scared child and a grizzled, foolish man, Betty is practical in her reserve and pointed critiques but not uncaring. Her statement that Don lied to her every day is undeniably true, but when she heard about Adam, how he killed himself at least in part because Don would not acknowledge him, her compassion comes through. She told him that she was sorry and she gently, tentatively rubbed his back. In many ways, it was the best mothering we’ve seen Betty ever give. It was a familial love, pure and simple -- the kind that dictates that no matter what your mother, daughter, son or father does to disappoint you, that you will love them unconditionally.

-- Margaret Wappler

Related stories:

Episode 10: The boxes that bind

Episode 9: Frisky business

Episode 8: 'The Souvenir'

Photo: Don and Betty sort through the box. Credit: Carin Baer

Comments

[MaryD]

You don't really think that they sent army spouses to Vietnam, do you?

[richard]

Holloween costumes-excellent for the early 60's-gypsy for a girl and bum-not hobo-for the boy-i was waiting for don or betty to take a cork to the burner and rub it all over their son's face as we had done-richard

[Eluther]

"while the show is ostensibly about men, it’s the women who are the most formidable and deep characters."

Oh, come now, there's plenty of room on a show of this caliber to recognize and celebrate the formidable depth of many of the characters, female and male alike. There's simply no need to pick one side over the other. Case in point; while I agree Betty got a nice showcase at the end, she was hardly doing it in a vacuum - Jon Hamm was giving some of the best acting ever seen on the show, all gender aside...

[Margaret Wappler]

Oh MaryD, I don't know! But why not just go with it? I'm picturing Joan as something like Hot Lips from M*A*S*H -- of course, this would be dependent on her joining the Army as a nurse but considering we've already seen Joan's on-the-fly skills with severed arteries, I wouldn't put it past her.

[Elena]

That moment when Betty put her hand on Don's shoulder was an epihany for her....this was what she wanted from marriage and from life. Honesty. As ugly and sordid as it was. As many problems as it was going to cause. This was her husband. Don or Dick or whatever name he wanted to use. This was him. Her own family's dysfunctionality was nearly revealed when they went to visit her father last season but it was never fully confessed or realized..........simply left as the proverbial elephant in the room no one wanted to talk about.

Did this honest confession cause her to wonder what Don/Dick would say if she told him the real truth about her own family? Has there ever been an honest moment between these two or has their beautiful physicality always been enough? Are they both growing up at long last? You could tell she'd cried all night. There was a puffy-eyed sort of tenderness and vulnerability between them as he put on his Don Draper "costume" and went to work that was touching. He was able to be affectionate with the children and almost came back to give Betty a kiss but they're not quite ready for that yet. But there's a definite new understanding (respect, perhaps?) between them that can only come when we take off the masks we wear and allow another human being to see who we really are.

Jon Hamm deserves an Emmy for his scenes last night. That was raw, honest acting that is rarely seen anymore. Kudos to the entire Mad Men team. They knocked it out of the park last night.

[JR]

To answer MaryD's question, yes, Vietnam was considered an "accompanied" military tour until early 1965. American dependents were pretty much left alone by the Viet Cong until around 1964. In 1964, after the Viet Cong bombed a movie theater frequented by US servicemen and their families, American MPs began escorting American children to their school in Saigon and providing security at US family recreation areas. However, after the VC bombed the US Embassy and a restaurant used by military dependents in early 1965, Presdent Johnson ordered the families home.

No American family members were killed, but some were wounded in the theater bombing. There was an article featured in Vietnam Magazine earlier this year written by the daughter of an Army officer who described what it was like to live as a child in Saigon during that time before the war escalated.

[SanFrann]

Best episode yet - well, other than the lawn tractor disaster......well-acted and right in feeling as to emotions flying around.

[Cheryl]

Betty, I always knew there were some brains and a spine under that perfectly coiffed blonde head (especially after your fluent Italian a couple of weeks ago). She handled Don's 'box of secrets' with perfection. He was like a little boy who finally got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and we saw a maternal side of Betty as well. The next mornng, was that the first time we've seen Don kiss the baby? Does he actually have a new appreciation and respect for Betsy, their family and home life?

With her doc hubby away at basic training then presumably shipped off to Vietnam, Joan will have plenty of time to get back into the action at Sterling-Cooper, even if hubby says she won't have to work. Can you picture her living on an army base somewhere? No way!

I'm not so sure Suzanne won't still go psycho....time will tell.

[TV Obsessed]

Betty confronting Don really took me by surprised. I had expected the writers were saving it for the season finale, but if they brought it up already, who knows what else they have in store for us. John Hamm delivered an amazing, unbelievable performance. While he's in the running for an Emmy every year, I think he'll get one next year. Full review of the episode.

http://th3tvobsessed.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-mad-men-season-3-episode-11.html

[erica stephens]

What about the money? Betty says "you don,t understand money" What did that mean? Also,at no time does it dawn on Don that he left a woman sitting in a car outside his home? The woman just gets out and walks away?Betty continues to bore me to death!No wonder he cheats,she is soooo dull as an actress.

[erica stephens]

At no time do I ever feel sorry for Betty,the way January plays this role,I feel she desrves anything he can dish out.She is cold towards him,her children,the help,her brother and she has no friends.I grew up in that era and I don,t remember a woman like Betty.

[SJR]

Best line - at the end wehn the neighbor asks Don "who are you supposed to be"

[Simon Zoric]

Join the army? That Greg is such a putz!
Thanks so much for this blog, it is so well written and is the perfect place to debrief after each episode.