Yeah, I agree. I got the impression that Ken was embarrassed at the attention NOT upset that his wife was telling his bosses about his 2nd career. I don’t get at all why people think she’s an idiot. Everyone has known for years that he likes to write fiction.
I did really like how much of the episode got peppered into his new story at the end.
Some of Ken’s dialogue threw me: when Pete is showing him the hi-fi and says, “I expect there to be a tiny little orchestra in there,” Ken deadpans “that *would *be amazing.” Then Pete says so-and-so “could lie down in that!” and Ken again deadpans, “why would he want to do that?”
It *seemed *that Ken was being a humorless literalist; one would *assume *he was just poking Pete with a stick, but that’s not how the actor played it at all.
(We saw Signal 30 in driver’s ed, too!)
No, but it was clear to me from Ken’s body language that this was something they had discussed. And it was clear to me from Cynthia’s body language that she knew that Ken didn’t want her talking about it but that she had decided to go ahead with it anyway.
I don’t really consider it a “mistake.” It’s not like she accidentally let something slip. She was clearly overriding Ken’s wishes, because … because she thought that everyone else would be as impressed by Ken’s career as a scifi/fantasy author as she was.
See, that’s what makes her an idiot. That she was so bullheaded as to refuse to understand that in the company she was in, those people would not have the same view of Ken’s accomplishments as she did.
There are worse things than to be enthusiastic. But the failure to understand that Ken might have very good reasons not to want his employers to know. Ken lives in a world in which your colleagues are not necessarily your friends. Cynthia is either extremely naive or willfully stupid not to at least follow Ken’s lead on this.
From Ken’s reaction to Roger’s lecture, it seemed pretty clear to me that Ken didn’t have as strong a hand as he did before. Ken’s expression to me said, “Yeah, my work has slipped a bit lately.”
And maybe she’ll spill the beans again?
It doesn’t matter what dreams anyone has. For now, Ken needs his job and he needs his avocation. And it’s Ken’s to boast about if he wants to, not Cynthia’s.
Didn’t see it that way- the deliberate nature of it. I agree he was feeling awkward that she was telling. I can imagine him telling her not to tell, but I thought she just thought he was being modest. I don’t think she understood the problem.
It was Wilt Chamberlain, wasn’t it? Didn’t look big enough for him to me.
Right, he was just as awkward telling Peggy about his writing and Peggy don’t give a shit.
I do not understand why you are not willing to call what Cynthia did a mistake. Clearly she was not malicious. It was just poor judgment. Her tone and smile made it clear that she absolutely adored his writing and her enthusiasm got away with her. Also I do not think you can infer as much about their previous communications on the subject from their body language as you are thinking. Ken could just as easily be embarrassed because science fiction and fantasy do not have the best reputation and also because any brief summary of his story would make it sound silly to anyone not a science fiction fan. It is not as if he is writing for the New Yorker or Harper’s which would have earned him more acclaim.
As to the strong hand thing: I do not believe Ken has slipped in his work. But he was dealing with Roger who is frankly a numbskull and a drain on the agency but cannot be fired so he might have decided it was too risky to point out again that he has brought more business in than Roger as Roger might fire him out of pique. He, Ken, would want to hold the card of his greater productivity in reserve for a time when he really needs it. Since he so readily abandoned his science-fiction pen name and moved to realistic work it seems likely that he was already thinking of doing so. Why start a right over something he was ending anyway?
Then at the end when Ken is writing in bed, he pulls this into his story. I thought that was a very clever connection. It shows how Ken gets his ideas from all over. To have TWENTY stories that someone wants to publish is a huge accomplishment.
The makings of a 60s sci-fi author.
ETA: I dug the Beethoven in the credits clearly being fuzzy from an LP.
Something else occurs to me. The 45 minutes of this episode that I saw made it seem that it was mostly about Pete. If that is true then Ken’s reaction to his dressing-down by Roger is a commentary on Pete’s character. Pete would have been exploded at Roger and angry with Trudy and self-pitying of himself and probably gotten into a confrontation he could not win. Ken by contrast acted like he was chastened by the rebuke but is neither self-pitying nor angry and does not go off on his wife. Instead he solves the problem by changing his pen name and genre which as I said above he was probably already trying to do. Ken is the one sane (or at least emotionally healthy and mature) man at the agency. That is why he is not a main character by the way: not enough drama but plenty of commentary on the self-destructiveness of Pete and Don.
Well, he’s from *rural *Vermont.
IIRC Pete was 26 in season one, which would make him about 32 this season.
She’s a senior in HS; even if she isn’t 18 she’s probally 17 which is the age of consent in New York.
Which makes his hitting on a 17 or 18 year old even skeevier than I was making it.
The fact that the girl was over the age of consent doesn’t make Pete any less of a skeeze; she’s still a kid who’s half is age.
Absolutely classic! That’s an episode for fans, for sure. I have wanted to pull the large stick Pete has up his ass ever since day one at Sterling Cooper!
Lane is my favorite character this season. The fight scene was the funniest, and I loved Bertram saying, “This is medieval!”. HAHAHAHAHA!!! How 'bout Don jumping up to close the drapes?? 
What else was funny was how all (us) Americans burst out laughing at their fellow partner’s “loss of account and his wife called my wife” story! But Pete’s responses were incorrigible. Fuck him. You talk like that, pal, you’re getting the fisticuffs.
I burst out laughing as hard as hell when Lane kissed Joan. That was the highlight: He tells her she could do his job, she fixes his hair, he leaps at her. Classy Joan stands, slowly opens door and sits back down again, closer to him. Just that said, “I forgive you, but watch it.” And Lane with, “I simply can’t stop embarrassing myself today,” or something like that. PERFECT!
Also loved how Don holds the door for Pete, who Pete verbally accosted in the taxi last night, and sobs. Don didn’t hug him either. “What was I supposed to do? Jump in? Punch Lane?” Wish Don wore the plaid blazer to work the next day.
Favorite episode so far this season, next to the premiere.
Did I notice a look of disappointment by Lane when Joan didn’t lock the door and come back to the couch?
But you don’t have any problem with Roger & his wife, or Don, or Henry. Why?
Because they are all grown women married to those men? And not young high school girls being hit on by a screwup who is hoping to use them to make himself feel better?
Cynthia was just proud of her husband, and excited for him. I watched the episode for a second time last night. The other dinner guests actually prod Cynthia for most of the information she gives, and they all seem fairly interested. Ken just feels awkward, and Push You Down is right - Ken is always awkward about his writing. He’s not angry; he’s just embarrassed, and probably mostly because he thinks the others will make fun of him for writing sci-fi. Once he sees that they’re actually kind of into it, he seems pretty proud when telling Don about the robot and the space bridge.
It’s also worth noting that Pete absolutely hates everything about Ken, and is jealous and resentful of him. He practically blew a gasket when Pete got his first story published, and there’s no way he’s forgiven Ken for stealing his thunder at SCDP and refusing to schmooze his own father-in-law. Given all that, who knows what Pete actually told Roger about Ken’s activities; it probably had very little to do with the reality.
I like Christopher Robin Davies’ reading of the situation as a further commentary on Pete. It’s kind of like when they were made co-heads of accounts, a position which Ken accepted with aplomb and which Pete responded to by throwing a giant temper tantrum.
Regarding Don and Megan, Don genuinely seemed really happy to see Pete and Trudy’s child. He barely gets to see his youngest, and Don always seemed to like being a father, so it doesn’t surprise me he wants a child with Megan, who I do think he’s genuinely in love with. I don’t think it’s really hard to see why, either; she’s young, beautiful, smart, and good with kids.
Perhaps your relationships have been vastly different from mine, but wives spilling the beans has been par for the course in my life, especially after they get to drinking.