Yeah, that was either lame or brilliant. He sounded like a little boy talking about a toy in a store window. You can take it as bad writing to make Dick sound young and naive, or good writing to show one of Don’s early attempts at self-delusion.
Was I the only one who thought when Don walked into Anna’s house that the boy at the piano was their son? And I was surprised how casual everyone in New York was about Don disappearing for as long as he did. (Which was how long? A week?) I would think today people would be more concerned.
And I think Roger said that the deal with the Brits would make Don $500,000. That sounds like a lot for 1962.
Okay, so what was the significance of that brief scene that showed a woman (?) in the darkened office taking a cigarette out of a desk drawer? It looked sort of like Peggy, but not really when seen in profile. The scene doesn’t make any sense to me in the context of the episode. Could it be our closet gay dude cross-dressing after hours?
It was Peggy. I don’t think we’ve seen her smoking before this episode.
It’s Peggy- she’s feeling strong and powerful like she’s owning the place.
She feel like she’s arrived.
It almost seems to me like they are setting this up to be the final season. Don seems like he might stay in L.A. and there will be a merger, meaning who knows who stays.
My guess is that they wrote out the arc of the story to end after this season, not really expecting it to be so popular. Now who knows.
I quoted just the above sections because I believe it is no accident that the rape scene occurs in the same episode in which we see the fruits of Betty’s manipulation. Betty manipulated her [del]friend[/del] victim Sarabeth into screwing with Arthur because it is a way of asserting power, when she feels so powerless in her relationship with her husband. Calling Sarabeth as she dd, pretending compassion when in fact she wanted evidence of the suffering her mindfucking had caused, was her payoff.
Joan’s rape (which I inferred; I couldn’t watch it) was likewise motivated by her fiance’s desire to assert power over her. She had threatened him by trying to be on top, and the implication of a prior relationship with Sterling bothered him; he wanted to put her in her place in the most graphic way possible, in an environment where she dared not call out for help for fear of further humiliation.
Th entire episode’s about power dynamics. Consider also Don’s utter misery as he sees the ruination his infidelity has led him to and hs attempt to distance himself from the entire situation.
(Not that Don isn’t a bastard. I’m growing to hate him, and if he abandons his kids, I certainly shall).
Peggy rocks though. I love Peggy.
I don’t see Don abandoning Betty and the kids since it seems like he’s reinvented himself into the perfect life. If the merger does happen, the next season might focus on the struggle with Duck.
He’s functionally abandoned them already. Being good for a week without letting his wife (even though estranged) and kids know where he is is incredibly selfish.
I don’t care how unhappy you are. You don’t take your unhappiness out on the kids.
Remember the scene where Betty gave her daughter the new riding boots? It ended with her daughter saying “Mommy, you’re bleeding,” or something like that. Did anyone catch this? I didn’t see any blood – were they implying Betty may have had a miscarriage, or am I reading to much into this?
No, that’s how I read it.
So are they implying that she got pregnant while they were staying at her dad’s house?
I’ve never gone through the experience but I gather one doesn’t miscarry that casually. She was sitting on the couch having a conversation w/her daughter, and suddenly she was bleeding. Would she really have miscarried without having any sensation or prior warning? Not that I have a better explanation for what it might have been. I was just thinking a period leakage, but then she stood up and we got a very clear shot of her mid-section and her unsoiled riding pants. It was almost as if the bleeding was coming from her hip/back area, based on where Sally was looking.
I think the merger will fall through somehow. Roger seems to be all for it but I think he’s distracted with his 20-year old piece of ass. Loved the board member (was that Cooper’s sister?) and her parting comment at Roger: “Hope your children are well.” Roger: "I only have the one. Lady: “Really.”
I don’t think Roger’s support for the merger is necessarily in the best interest of the firm. Even though the whole board voted for it, Cooper seemed to have reservations he wasn’t expressing. I think if Don was there he’d make them see the error of their ways, even though his partnership share is “mathmatically irrelevant”.
Anna has a sister who her husband, Draper, really wanted to marry. the one with 2 legs!
So, did anyone else think of Anna as the same actress that played the one legged russian on the Soprano’s, she was the caregiver for Olivia and Uncle Jr. I think she’s the same actress.
I just started watching mad men, are there othere threads from last season, I need to get caught up!
I doubt very much that Betty was/is pregnant. I have a feeling her bleeding might be some kind of manifestation of her unhappiness and depression, sorta like her hand shaking at the beginning of the first season.
Different actress.
However, if you watch Desperate Housewives, Anna is the same actress who played the nun who tried to steal Carlos from Gabby.
I thought it probably was the same actress, but I didn’t check yet.
There are many more Mad Men threads, but unfortunately they are very hard to search for under the current search engine. We use to be able to search for “Mad Men” in the title but that functionality was lost in the upgrade.
I’m surprised the merger happened so smoothly. I thought Duck was being shifty, but I guess I just don’t understand how these things happen. It seemed like it was gonna be a hostile takeover. And I don’t get how Roger’s need for money should be a consideration. He made his bed, etc. etc.
Any ideas on what’s wrong with Anna’s legs? Polio? I’ve only known one person with polio, and her legs weren’t straight and stiff like Anna’s. Are Anna’s legs supposed to be prosthetics?
I like the actress much better as Anna than as the nun in DH. amarinth, thanks for identifying her. It was driving me nuts.
I know that for a woman to break an engagement back then was a big deal, but I wish Joan would do it. What her fiancee did to her [and did anyone notice how he held her face to the side while he was raping her?] made me so sick.
Add me to the list of people who adore Peggy. She’s got more balls than four of the guys on the show put together.
Seems to be a mix of fantasy fulfillment by proxy and schadenfreude. I can’t remember when she planted the seeds, but i think it was when her own marriage was already on the rocks– why not ruin someone else’s life to make herself feel better?
I didn’t get any indication that the rape was some sort of dream sequence. Like Skald said, it was all about power. Weiner set Joan up as a character who, even while subservient, had everyone wrapped around her little finger (and curvy body). He was showing that, as cute as as the idea is of some sort of sex goddess secretly running things (the woman behind every ‘good man’), her power was basically an illusion. I’m not even sure she could claim rape in 2008– he was her fiance, no major physical marks, she didn’t scratch him or yell out for help.