'Mad Men': The whole country's been drinking

In the middle of ordinary life -- fights with the boss at work, demoralizing demotions, affairs with inappropriate people and witnessing the last vestiges of a formerly intact marriage -- a shot rings out, prompting all to reconsider the fragile tenets of their existence.

Creator Matthew Weiner has always been cagey about whether he’d touch upon the Kennedy assassination in the third season of “Mad Men.” At times Weiner led interviewers to believe he wouldn’t. There’s no way of knowing what impulse was dictating his coyness at the time -- it seems most likely that he simply enjoyed the opportunity to be a big tease to the press, not that we can blame him -- but let’s all take a moment to rejoice that Episode 12, “The Grown Ups,” used the shocking murder of President Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, as structure and catalyst for the events of the season's penultimate episode. Weiner and episode co-writer Brett Johnson so adroitly stitched in the historical with the characters’ personal lives that the event, documented to mega-conspiratorial degrees and back again, was made new, almost as if it was unfolding now, especially for those of us who didn’t live through it.

The first character on “Mad Men” to experience the news of Kennedy’s shooting is Duck, of all people, and our after shave-loving friend promptly unplugged the TV to eliminate distractions for his “nooner” with Peggy. This is real life, of course. Every day something tragic leaks over the airwaves, the Internet, the TV and though we might not literally unplug the device, we intellectually distance ourselves from it in order to get through the day. The news first being absorbed by a minor character seemed like a meaningful choice -- this is how big information can disseminate. Maybe you found out that the plane had gone into the first of the Twin Towers from the guy who sold you coffee every morning.

At Sterling-Cooper the news first hangs over the office like a poison cloud that hasn’t yet settled. Pete, dejected from the news that Cosgrove would ascend to senior vice president in charge of account services while he’d languish as head of account management, went to Crane’s office to mope about it and ostensibly strategize for the future. The TV droned in the background -- mundane and omnipresent but not yet revelatory. In another part of the hive, Don barked at Price to let him hire an art director now that Sal Romano is gone.

Then it swiftly descended. The secretaries and various creatives, like frightened gazelles, herded into Crane’s office, changing the channel to the announcement. In one of the most powerfully dreamy scenes of the episode, Don drifted down the hallway, perplexed and alarmed at the shrill ringing of unanswered phones. In Ossining, Betty and Carla sobbed and smoked together as the news roiled out at them.

And then we got a much-needed moment of comic relief. Peggy, adding to her fine cadre of one-liners this season, THC-enhanced and otherwise, asked Duck: Did you give me a hickey? In all fairness, hickeys are embarrassing. No one wants to sport that badge of seduction past age 16. After Duck absolved himself of that particular trifling, he admitted that a particular news story was taking his attention. Together, they watched Walter Cronkite announce that President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Cut to Margaret Sterling sobbing in her wedding dress that her big day -- that she presciently didn’t want to carry on with anyway -- is now ruined. Indeed, the wedding planned for Nov. 23 is a disaster, to loosely quote Roger Sterling. The cake doesn’t arrive. There are no waiters. So many guests don’t show up that they consolidate tables. Cooper and Jane Sterling are glued to the TV in the kitchen, contemplating the banal monstrosity of Lee Harvey Oswald. To his credit, Roger gives a toast that’s wise, witty and perfectly attuned to the bizarre occasion. Later, he phones Joan and admits he doesn’t know how to react to Kennedy’s death. There is nothing wry or amusing to say about a mammoth figure killed in his prime.

While Pete Campbell plots with Trudie about leaving Sterling-Cooper, Betty begins to plot a departure even more grand in scope. Our first hints that Betty no longer takes comfort or strength from Don is cleverly bound in how they react to the assassination. He wants to hide the TV from the kids. He tells Betty to take a pill and lie down, which is also the way he’s tried to buffer the woes of their marriage. For years, he’s tacitly instructed her to look the other way, to not open that desk drawer, to sleep through it, succored by the emblems of a supposedly stable, successful life: the beautiful house, the beautiful children, the cocktail dresses and jewelry and daily maid and glamorous dates in the city.

At first, Betty swallows the pill and passes out, but later when Don tells her that everything will be OK, she challenges his rote platitude. How do you know, she asks. It was a telling question from Betty, who in the past has become angry when not shielded from harsh realities like planning for her father’s imminent death. Betty has always demanded to be coddled, protected and treated like a child -- but her questioning of Don showed her fledgling independence. She knows he has no idea whether anything will be OK. How could he or anyone know such a thing right now?

At Margaret’s wedding, Henry Francis arrived to an affectionate greeting from his date, a lovely young woman -- and phew, it was only his daughter. Betty and Don danced dangerously close to them and Don, interpreting his wife’s flittering eye contact as anxiety, tries to plant one on her. The Drapers have never burned with sexual chemistry, despite their daunting beauty together, but this kiss was particularly cold, even or especially in its perfection. It was the death of love, this kiss.

On the heels of another disorienting event -- the televised killing of Oswald -- Betty leaves the house by herself. It’s hard to say what Betty felt when she met with Henry and heard his appeals for her to leave her husband and marry him. Does she simply see a golden opportunity to get out of one marriage and land in another relatively painlessly? Is it just a matter of arrangements and convenience? How is love factoring in or is it at all?

She doesn’t know much about Henry, they’ve only had a handful of interactions, but his offers combined with her feelings of withdrawal are enough for her to tell Don that she doesn’t love him anymore. Maybe Betty has enough faith in love to know that it’ll grow with Henry. Better to exist in the opening possibilities than the postmortem of it.

Don, inadequate and clearly in denial, gives her the entirely insufficient advice to, once again, sleep it off. You’ll feel better tomorrow, he says, barely believing his own hollow words.

At the end, we get a fade-out of sorts with Peggy and Don, two consummate secret-keepers who most like to escape into their work, finding each other at the otherwise empty office. Call it a hunch, but it seems like Aqua Net might need a new campaign now.

In another moment with several meanings, Pete laments Kennedy’s death for aborting a cultural moment when everything felt like it was about to change. Pete doesn’t know that, if anything, the moment just swelled to something bigger and richer. Everything is still about to change and in more ways than he could’ve ever imagined.

--Margaret Wappler

P.S. Notably, this week's episode was delivered with a letter from Weiner stating that he would not be sending out the season finale to critics or pajama-clad Showtrackers. What explosive secrets lie in the intriguingly named "Shut the Door. Have a Seat"? What can be gleaned from this dull synopsis -- "Don has an important meeting with Connie. Betty receives some advice. Pete talks to his clients." -- scraped off the AMC website? The comments section, as ever, is open for wild speculation.

Photo: Sterling-Cooper denizens watching the news of Kennedy's shooting. Credit: Carin Baer

Comments

[J Smith]

Beautifully written!

[Joe Fusco]

I love your P.S. to the review, and the dull synopsis therein.

"Shut the door. Have a seat" is usually what you hear just before your life changes dramatically, and rarely in a pleasant way.

That phrase is a launch point for nearly all the characters' loose ends and story arcs in what I'm sure will be an explosive finale.

[Shirls]

I was 13 years old when President Kennedy was shot that cold day in Nov. of '63 and I felt like I was re-living it last night with mixed emotions. One thing's for sure, I never knew so much drinking took place afterwards.

[Kim]

I'm a Mad Men fanatic; your review is the most comprehensive and reveals all of the layers of this beautifully complicated episode. Keep up the great work! Your reviews will be read before NYMags, Slate, or EW's.

[JR]

I was ten years old when Kennedy died. Yet I remember it after all these years as if it happened yesterday. My, "Leave it To Beaver", belief that all things would work out died that day when I saw adults crying for the first time over something that was announced in the news. This episode brought it all back with all the reactions, the shock, the emotions. The way the adults tried to minimize their emotions in front of the kids was all too real. The TV networks covered the assassination for three straight days. Unprecedented.

In my lifetime there are only two other national events that comes close to bringing on the same emotions as that day in 1963. The fall of Saigon in 1975 and 9/11.

Kudos to the writers and director for recreating that day. If they intended to show how we all reacted and felt that day to a new generation of people who did not live through it, they certainly accomplished it with this episode.

[Rita]

Shirls, I was also 13 when President Kennedy was assassinated and I too felt like it was happening all over again. It is something we will never forget, as it changed everything. Hats off to Matthew Weiner for a fine great episode.

[Shawn]

So many questions to answer, its hard to imagine what the finale will be like. Will Sterling Cooper get sold? Will that weasel Campbell quit for Duck's firm? Is Betty out the door? Whatever happened to Sal? I dont think we've seen the last of him. Haven't really seen any references to Peggy's baby this season.

[LD]

That was a wonderful write-up of a somber, well-written episode. Perhaps I was a bit too "into" the episode, but I came away feeling the sorrow and pain felt by the characters. Very moving, indeed.

[Mark Mohr]

Another dark and deeply fascinating episode of "Mad Men." I found it fascinating that Pete Campbell and Harry Crane, two up-and-coming ad agency soldiers (one of them, Crane whose job specifically is about detailing television commercials and air time) were completely oblivious to the initial CBS bulletin of the JFK shooting being broadcast on the TV set directly between them. Obviously we have the benefit of hindsight here, but today, if you have the TV on (or you're watching online) and a bulletin graphic comes up interrupting live programming and you hear the word "shooting" you instantly snap to attention. Also, I found it quite revealing that Duck would rather have a quick nooner with Peggy Olson and THEN let her know that something big was going on in the news rather than instantly telling her when she walked in the door that Kennedy had been shot. The caring and benevolent Duck seems to have a very selfish side. Note how he unplugged the TV set rather than simply turning it off. Lots to dissect in this episode!

[Miss Kitty]

I thought the most poignant moment of the episode was when Bobby asked his father if they were going to the funeral.

[Mike]

I wasn't born when Kennedy was shot, but was working in an advertising agency in 2001. It's funny how much the Mad Men episode reminded me of September 11th--everyone gathered around televisions and watching in horror, then addicted to the news over the next few days. A forty year span, but the emotions and reactions were practically identical.

[MLA17]

I wasn't alive during the Kennedy assassination, so watching last night's episode gave me a sense of that's how it probably was. This episode was well done, everyone was in a daze, a lot of people's hopes ended on that day. It was great to see Betty and Carla sitting and smoking together while watching the TV. I loved that Betty and Henry pretended to not know each other at the wedding. I loved how you described Betty and Don's kiss as "the death of love." I'm curious to find out in next week's finale if Betty will file for divorce or if she will stay with Don. I wouldn't blame Betty for divorcing Don but does she have it in her to do so? What will happen with Pete? I do miss Sal as well, I hope we get to see what he's been up too. And great point, how come we haven't seen anything relating to Peggy's baby?? I enjoyed watching Roger and Joan talking on the phone, she definitely seems to understand him the best.
I will be going through Mad Men withdrawls next week as well as your recaps!!

[Jonny Mack]

What an eloquent write up. Thanks for that. It really helps put things in perspective. As for next week's title, it sounds like layoffs or firings, or divorce.

All I know is all my predictions came true... An episode early. Hand it to Weiner, he's brilliant. I didn't live through this event. But Sept. 11, 2001 was the catalyst for my own crumbling relationship and I expected that he would use this huge event much the same way with Don and Betty. Though I was expecting this season to end similarly to the first season, Don alone in the dark on Thanksgiving eve. Well, he's in the dark again... but it's six days earlier and with a whole episode to go...

The hints have been there. Ad campaigns that have symbolic merit: The dog food can that can simply be renamed -- It's just a label on a can. The ad campaign for the one medium that went away, the telegraph, as Don's team tries valiantly to sway the consumer from the shiny newcomer (the phone). I took that to foreshadow the end of Don and Betty -- though I may have mistook the school teacher for the phone instead of Mr. Francis... I guess Betty's reading "The Group" should have tipped me off.

And then there's the ad campaign that's eerily like the Zapruder film that won't come to light until the day after Thanksgiving when LIFE Magazine publishes a number of frames from it... I noticed Peggy was still working on it and she said it was scheduled to shoot right after Thanksgiving...

[mermcg]

I am 16 years too young for the Kennedy assasination, but I cried as I watched it unfolding during this episode of "Mad Men."

Just grand.

[it_worked_for_me]

@ Mark Mohr: "I found it fascinating that Pete Campbell and Harry Crane, two up-and-coming ad agency soldiers (one of them, Crane whose job specifically is about detailing television commercials and air time) were completely oblivious to the initial CBS bulletin of the JFK shooting being broadcast on the TV set directly between them. Obviously we have the benefit of hindsight here, but today, if you have the TV on (or you're watching online) and a bulletin graphic comes up interrupting live programming and you hear the word "shooting" you instantly snap to attention."
It's just like the two Northwest-Delta pilots who worked on laptops for over an hour while the should have been flying a plane. Pete and Harry were distracted by office politics. I believe they would have acted this way. The scene worked beautifully for me.

[Kim I]

Excellent review of an excellent episode.
I was Sally's age when Kennedy was assassinated and one of the things I most remember about that time was seeing my own mother sitting on the couch in our suburban living room, crying and smoking like Betty. This episode was masterful in its weaving of the news coverage (those TVs!) with the tumultuous events happening in the featured characters' lives. And to top it off, Weiner and Johnson nailed the shocking jolt of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald. Like Sally, I had to stay glued to the TV to try to make sense of the whole thing.

[Rebecca]

"Weiner and episode co-writer Brett Johnson so adroitly stitched in the historical with the characters’ personal lives that the event, documented to mega-conspiratorial degrees and back again, was made new, almost as if it was unfolding now, especially for those of us who didn’t live through it."

Well put - I was surprised to feel very much in the moment, tearing up, almost as if I didn't know what would happen, as if I were learning the details with the characters. Also resounded with the way Betty reacted when Oswald was shot (What is going on?!?).

One of the best written episodes yet. Great job covering it.

[Teresa]

This is one of my favorite episodes. Beautifully told narrative. I've always wondered what that day was like in 1963. I was pleasantly surprised to see the reaction of many of the characters to President Kennedy's assassination in that I didn't expect many of them to care so deeply.

I can't bear that there's only one more episode left in this season!

Great review. Thanks.

[Sue Zoon]

Duck is a POS in a tie. I knew that when he released his family pet into the dark night of Manhattan. Anyone who would do that to a family pet, after extolling his bond with the animal all day for hero points is a heartless SOB and POS. That he out his carnal desires before his humanity with Peggy is par for the course. Peggy has the WORST taste in men.

[SnapperCarr]

You heard it here first:

I predict Duck's agency buys Sterling Cooper from the Brits. That's the "shut the door" meeting.