Weiner just went through enormous gyrations to pare the cast of the non-core members who have proliferating. The characters might head in all directions at the end of the season, but looks like we’re going to start season one all over again just forwarded nine years in time.
That’s not a perfect analogy, because Pete and Paul and Sal won’t be there (or will they…) but getting back to Don, Betty, Sally, Roger, Peggy, and Joan will help the bloated storylines. Who knows. Maybe even Bert will finally have an episode!
The show’s made a lot out of the parallel between Don lying to sell himself as Don Draper at the same time he worked at an ad agency lying to sell product. If he moves to CA to start a fresh, lie-free life, I doubt he’ll continue in advertising. (Maybe he’ll open a bordello?)
Anyone know how Korean War deserters were treated? There was an interesting bit on Fresh Air a few weeks ago about WWII deserters and how they were generally treated leniently. And of course Vietnam deserters were eventually pardoned. I wonder happened to the Don Drapers who turned themselves in.
I think you guys are working from different interpretations of not being able to judge someone the way you have been. He’s interpreting it as meaning that Sally’s no longer allowed to judge Don at all, that she has to stop her practice of evaluating him and usually finding him wanting, while you’re taking it to mean that the way she judges him has to change because the context has shifted.
Exapno, present actions matter. But only really little kids use the present moment as their only criteria–Daddy just gave me ice cream so he’s awesome, Daddy just put me in time out so he’s horrible. Even pre-school kids will factor in past incidents when deciding how they feel about someone–Daddy just put me in time out, but he gave me ice cream yesterday and played with me this morning, so he’s a pretty good guy. Even that early, our world is shifting from black and white to shades of gray. The more we grow, the more context we use in our evaluations and the more shades of gray our world holds. Even when we don’t agree with someone’s actions, we’re more apt to understand those actions, to be able to forgive that person and move forward.
Except Sally doesn’t really have any context for Don, only what she’s experienced first-hand. No stories from him, no grandparents to watch him interact with, not even any old pictures to give her any clues about who he is and why he acts the way he does. Her view of him is a lot more black and white than her view of, say, Betty. Seeing that old house, a whole lot of gray just poured in, and now she has to look at him through them and come up with a new view of him.
I think what he told Megan was more telling: “We were happy there.” He wants to be happy. As you pointed out, California has been a place where he has been happy. However, earlier this season he was bewildered at his California trip going wrong. I think he was trying to convince himself that California would make him happy… and wasn’t too successful with himself.
Even so, where he was at in his head when talking to Ted and then Megan about wanting to go to California, obviously changed over the course of the episode. His wake-up call with Betty started him in changing his mind, so he resigns himself to staying in NY and working on his (and his kids’, by extension) problems.
Then SC&P pulls that rug out from under him. Where we leave him then, is interacting honestly with his kids in what might be the first time ever for him. His kids are in NY, and that’s all he has to work for now, so I don’t think he’ll be going to California. Megan might (let’s hope), and he might actually follow through on being bi-coastal like he suggested. But I think Don’s head will still be in NY – even if it’s not in advertising.
Read any history of abused children and understanding and forgiveness are slippery notions that have virtually nothing to do with the backgrounds of the abuser. It simply doesn’t matter if the abuser was abused.
I’m not saying that Sally was abused, although emotional abuse is hard to define. She has no reason to like or trust her father at this point. Most importantly, she is 14. And we keep being given parallels to Don at 14. Has his growing awareness of his parents’ and stepparents’ situations ever made a difference to his life? Has he ever forgiven? Clearly not. Understanding has to precede forgiving, but doesn’t necessarily cause it. There are few happy endings in life.
If Weiner is implying that a talk about Don’s bad childhood will make a particle of difference to Sally’s feelings toward him, he’s asking too much of me. I don’t believe it for a second. Teenagers are not supposed to understand and forgive their parents’ actions. And parents can never use their own histories as excuses. I’m surprised that any of you are accepting that. If Weiner is instead implying that Don will be a new person, that’s a television possibility and we can only judge by what we see next season.
I doubt it. I’m sure he has a contract with SC&P, and it would have a non-compete clause. He’d be free to go if they’d FIRED him, but absent egregious misconduct like Lane’s embezzling, firing him would require buying out his portion of the business, which I suspect is ample–maybe a sixth. I expect his suspension means he won’t be drawing a salary and won’t be engaging in firm business, but he’ll still be sharing in the profits; he’s reduced to a silent partner for the nonce.
I think the guy Duck brought in was a replacement for Pete, not Don. They made a big deal about Peggy stepping into his shoes; to the point of literally showing her taking over his office.
And remember Sally was suspended for *underage drinking * (which I found hard to believe until I remembered that this was before photo ID, and the drinking age was only 18 then). Granted we’ve seen no evidence that Sally actually as a drinking problem or is even on the road to one, it’s still something that’d terrify Don & Betty.
I don’t even think they can reduce him to a silent partner; sure they can deny him any direct role in running the firm, but they can’t stop him from showing up to partners’ meetings and voting. Of course they can apparently form a quorum without him to say nothing of simply outvoting him. Not that Don’s ever shown much interest in going to the meetings.
That was last season; Pete can drive automatics, but not standard. He also really hates driving.
BTW I’d like to apologize for the random Man of Steel comments in the middle of my last post; I was tired & must’ve hit pasted without realizing it. :o
They wanted him to drive it all around the floor. That was a huge atrium. You’ve seen how reckless they are. They wouldn’t have cared if he had knocked everything down.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen an executive at the firm handle both creative and accounts. There has always been a bright line between the two, and early on Pete almost got fired for crossing that line. Ted is creative. He doesn’t do accounts.
Yes, “Betty” is derived from “Elizabeth”, just as “Sally” is derived from
Sarah," but there was a scene in an earlier season in which Don said that Sally’s full name is “Sally Betty Draper.”
Yes, they’ll need another creative guy to fill the vacancy that Peggy leaves when she moves up.