<p>Wow. Just, wow.
Is Jim Cutler a pervert or what? I mean, Roger and Don may be skirt chasers but Jim’s a flat-out dirty old man.
Grandma Ida scared me to death! Poor Sally! She did all the right things and it still turned out wrong. The fact that she said she just wanted to go home for once spoke volumes. (And I loved Bobby’s line "Are we Negroes?)</p>
<p>Can anyone provide some context for those injections that ‘doctor’ was giving? It’s obviously some form of speed, but I was unaware that was a thing in the 60’s, and among professionals?</p>
<p>
Oh, heck yeah. This guy is a take-off on Dr. Max Jacobson or “Dr. Feelgood” who was notorious for shooting up celebrities with speed-and-vitamin cocktails in the 50s and 60s. One of his early clients was singer Eddie Fisher and he later “treated” JFK and Jackie. In fact, the shots may have been a factor in her losing her baby in 1963.</p>
<p>There’s a reason we call em “The 60’s”! Even suave and perpetually gorgeous Cary Grant was big into LSD enlightenment… which was legal then too</p>
<p>Wow, I never realized that’s where Dr. Feelgood came from, thanks for the background info!</p>
<p>The Beatles have a song on Revolver about this guy and those like him: Doctor Robert. Paul said it was about a doctor in NYC.</p>
<p>My thoughts about this episode are scattered. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The creepiness of 1968 comes into the home. Really hard to watch scene. This is how they show the impact of events on people, by having them enter their lives obliquely rather than in a big discussion about society and the War. </p></li>
<li><p>I loved Betty’s reaction, which was highly appropriate. I loved the line about Megan being on some casting couch. It raises questions. She’s still dressed so I assume Betty and Henry were called by Sally, had time to come to the apartment and then Megan showed. I may be wrong, but we have no idea what time of night it is. What if she came home at 3AM? Where was she? I liked how the line draws a relation to the whorehouse at work and of Don’s past and Don’s ridiculous line to her about “kissing people for money”. That’s acting. Being a whore on the casting couch is a different thing. Note the shortness of the dress she wore. That dress was similar to the one intended to be a turn on for Don.</p></li>
<li><p>I wonder if we didn’t see something happen in Don. It’s hard to tell. We saw him draw the past and present together in one place far more than ever before. We see the literal relation of the dimple on the cheek to the secretary and the head scarf to Sylvia and the literal enactment of his mother beating him while one of the whore “knows what he needs” like in the oatmeal ad. We see that people who are nice to him are tossed out while those who are mean remain. Interesting idea in there.</p></li>
<li><p>But more importantly, we hear him tossing out half-phrases from the past, including “4 score and” and that has tons of meaning. I thought the setup was really interesting: Chevy has pushed them to the point of a crash, with 7 presentations in 6 weeks and no direct feedback. They’re going insane. Don converts that effort into a weird mess of thought about “how do you convince her” beyond advertising, which has roots in the work but which spun off into his obsessions. A foot in the door. A few sentences. It talks about advertising, yes, and his weirdness, yes, and social change, yes, as the final song says: “Words of love, so soft and tender /Won’t win a girl’s heart anymore /If you love her then you must send her /Somewhere where she’s never been before /Worn out phrases and longing gazes/ Won’t get you where you want to go.” The world and the characters are going somewhere they’ve never been before. </p></li>
<li><p>The reason I think we may have seen something in Don is his call to Sally. This is the first moment we’ve seen him talk to her all season. That says something to me, that maybe he’s back … as Sylvia told him she’d say to Arnold, that she’s been away but now she’s back. It takes a crash or hitting bottom to see something. But you never know if the change takes. Or how meaningful it is. He’s been away, chasing something in Sylvia that his past gave meaning to … and now it’s over and he’s realized that it always turns into a whorehouse. </p></li>
<li><p>I thought the best line may have been Ken’s when Don asks where he learned to tap dance and Ken says, “From my mother. No, from my first girlfriend.” Substitute sex or even kindness in there. Where did Don learn any of that? Not from his mother but from his first “girlfriend”. </p></li>
<li><p>Another scene I liked was Ginsburg throwing an exacto knife into Stan’s arm. Think about that: Ginsburg isn’t high but he does that. Weird. Hostile. Random.</p></li>
<li><p>Jim Cutler - Harry Hamlin - is an amazing character. What the heck is wrong with these account executives? Note he and Roger weren’t playing chess but checkers.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Latichever; I somehow can only imagine Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell but in the link you gave he certainly is good looking…just maybe not rugged enough for my liking, to be Mr. Darcy…still wish I could be in Minneapolis to see the play.</p>
<p>Lergnom, I’ve been waiting for you! I also had a hunch something happened to Don. He fessed up to Sally - Don doesn’t usually fess up - that he left the backdoor open allowing the stranger into the apartment. And he ends the episode on a high note, essentially telling Chevy to stick it. Taking back control – or at least planning to – as the creative director.</p>
<p>Loved the trippy scenes. Loved the edginess and tension in this episode. Betty had, what?, four lines in this episode? And two of them were zingers, one directed at poor Sally (“I earned the money for that skirt” “On which corner?”) and the other at poor Megan (casting couch.) Yowsa.</p>
<p>I don’t think he told Chevy to stick it. I think he said this is nuts. You guys deal with Chevy; I’m the creative director and I need to keep my head on straight and not be involved in the nuttiness. We of course won’t know how that plays out because they’ll skipt that part but I’m sure Ted Chaough can handle the creative aspects. The whole firm can’t be sucked into that vortex. It’s hard as a company to realize that when you’ve landed such a big account.</p>
<p>I think the leaving the back door open connects the various images. He was Sylvia’s back door man. He left cigarette butts outside her back door as a marker that he was there. That was dangerous, as she said … and it backfired because he exposed his children to danger through his own inappropriate, insane behavior. I think he at least realized that. </p>
<p>I thought the lines when Sylvia says “you loved Megan once” and Don cuts her off were telling. The issue isn’t love. And it wasn’t about Megan. It really was enacting the whore in the room that exists only for him when he’s there. We saw that: for some pop psychology reason he associates that kindness - the bowl of soup becomes the oatmeal in the ad with the taglien “you know what he wants” - with his first sex and so on. If it weren’t rendered with so many layers it would be stupid. </p>
<p>I think this episode is some sort of turning point but beats me what that would be.</p>
<p>I didn’t see any adverse expression from Megan when Sally said she was at the casting couch. Could it be true? Why was Megan so late getting home?</p>
<p>I realized I wasn’t clear: I think the pop psychology thing is that Don turns out to be looking not so much for love from mommy but love from his “first girlfriend” because she is the one who first showed him kindness, both human and sexual. This explains his whore complex; he wants a woman who isn’t really his, who belongs to someone else - like the whore belonged to Mac. It isn’t so much covetous of the person as covetous of what the idealized person gives; he sees her as the source of the goodness in his life. She’s literalized as the mom behind the bowl of soup or oatmeal. </p>
<p>There are some neat connections to advertising in there. We see car companies, such a huge pollution source, advertising how they’re green for you. Coke sells idealized moments and sentiment. So does Budweiser, which connects the industrially processed beer - made in giant vats - to horse drawn wagons. These are aspects of caring about you. That is what service is about. It is close to the ideal of advertising. Products like Chevy gave you freedom - see the USA in your Chevrolet - and now Mustang has that for this new generation. The Kodak carousel gave you the moments of your life. It all connects between Don’s weird mental and emotional condition and ads … a mad man for a mad age.</p>
<p>I loved the first 15 minutes of the episode (With the injections). Liked the next 15 minutes. Tolerated the third 15 minutes and was glad when it finally ended. I not sure why but it just seemed to go from great to weird to silly. (Just my opinion)</p>
<p>This was by far the most bizarre episode of Mad Men ever. I felt like I was the one who was high on drugs for most of the show. The title of the episode “Crash” as usual had a couple of probable meanings, the most obvious being poor Kenny Cosgrove being hurt in the car crash with the crazy Chevy guys, but more importantly Don’s abrupt descent culminating in his face plant (crash) when he finally came home.</p>
<p>I really hope that the final scene with Don washing his hands of direct involvement with the Chevy account and his silent elevator ride with Sylvia means that he is finally over his manic obsessive period. Don has always been an ambiguous character but I’ve never really disliked him until this season when he has been so frantic, irrational and detatched from the people who care about him. I really hope he has hit bottom and turned the corner this week and will be his better self for the remaining episodes. Remember the poster for this season of MM, with “light” Don passing “dark” Don, with light Don departing while the darker version is at the forefront, approaching the viewer?</p>
<p>I can’t agree that Betty’s remark about the casting couch to Megan has any truth to it as Betty just has too much resentment/jealosy toward Megan. She was just being her usual nasty self, who always seems to emerge at moments of stress. Remember, this is the same woman who asked her 14 year old daughter which street corner she earned the money for her new skirt on. It’s interesting that thin, blonde Betty is back. Apparently Henry’s remark that people would be seeing her now that he is running for office finally motivated her to lose weight and go back to her “bottle” blonde shade.</p>
<p>Megan had said that she was going to see a play and then meet with the producers to see if she could be in one of their shows. I would think that would involve an after-theater dinner and drinks (at Sardi’s?) which could easily result in her getting home at 2 am or later. If there was any suggestion at all of Megan being tempted to stray in any previous episodes I might be more willing to consider the possibility of a “casting couch” situation but instead we see her last week suggesting that she be “written out” of her soap for a few weeks in order to go away with Don. As a result, I really don’t think it would be consistent with her character development at all, for her to be doing the horizontal tango on a casting couch. Betty was wildly inappropriate in that scene and even Henry thought so. I’m really looking forward to Megan letting her have it with both barrels sometime soon ;)</p>
<p>Personal favorite moments in this episode:</p>
<p>Ken Cosgrove’s speed-fueled tap dance</p>
<p>Bobby Draper: “Are we negroes?”</p>
<p>Betty can be nasty but she has some grit and compassion–even if it’s mostly to save someone from being lost to the counterculture, i.e., hanging around that scuzzy East Village apartment to rescue Sally’s friend. Her reaction to Sally’s dress was typical of the 50s sensibility meeting the 60s. She’s a Grace Kelly type, and I can imagine the Princess having a similar reaction to her own wild daughters. Reminds me of my parents to me: “Get a haircut.”</p>
<p>I was a put off by the African American thief. It’s bad enough how these people treat minorities, but to make one a conniving criminal. was thst necessary. I’ll grant they gave some dimensionality to Don’s secretary, and I’d like to see some more of that–Peggy recruiting her from her clerical role–recapitulating her own quantum leap?</p>
<p>I’ll admit when I first saw “grandma,” I thought she might actually be related in some way to the real Don Draper, and she would bust Dick Whitman to Sally–who said she knows nothing about her father. Perhaps that part foreshadows some future revelations. </p>
<p>Sometimes I feel the whole thing is going to wind up crashing down on Don’s head–or him leaping out of a window, a la the credits. But one suicide for the show might be enough for Weiner.</p>
<p>I noticed in my web wanderings that people have been mentioning the robber’s race. I thought it was a creepy but interesting and telling counterpart and antidote to the MLK assassination episode. There you saw white people uncomfortable with their reactions but shocked in a good way and yet there was also that feeling of fear of race riots. With crime increasing and NYC headed toward its low ebb, the sense of insecurity was real. People seem to expect or perhaps want Mad Men to be more tailored to what should have been. But it isn’t. </p>
<p>And having her be black made sense because she used the back stairs and could pass herself off as a maid or other domestic worker. I assume she’d go up the stairs and check back doors.</p>
<p>What??? No one weighed in on last night’s episode yet???</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, you just did. But tell us what you think. </p>
<p>I’m still trying to figure out how Betty managed to greet her husband and go to breakfast with him without her infidelity being discovered. That was her motel room they slept in? Wasn’t it?</p>
<p>Cute seeing her treat Don sexually as he treats women. Learning from the master. </p>
<p>Comtrast that with Peggy, who cares about such things–torn between three lovers. I’ll miss Abe’s scenes with his adoptive father. </p>
<p>Why is it that every time I see Don and Megan’s terrace, I think someone is going to go off it? As Chekov said, “One shouldn’t put a gun on the stage, if no one is thinking of firing it.”</p>
<p>Sexy Betty is back! The scene with Peggy in the hallway with all doors closing on her was classic MM.</p>
<p>The episode was titled The Better Half and it kept with the doubling idea that seems to run this show and particularly this season. Megan literally plays twins. Roger deals with 2 kids twice - himself and his grandson and then tries to relate to his son with Joan. Peggy is literally at the end shown between Ted and Don. </p>
<p>My wife said while watching the start that Don makes Peggy feel bad. I said, “Wait. Ted will too.” He did. He expresses his anxiety over Fleischmann’s by both blaming her for being attractive to him and being inappropriate about his feelings toward her … only to pull it all back because Fleischmann’s liked his work. My boyfriend got stabbed and we broke up … sorry … back to work. All that Ted is more human stuff …</p>
<p>We had the blunt twinning of Don and Betty versus Megan and Arlene. One neat thing was the division or twinning within the Don and Betty scene when she talks about him before and after sex. Before he’s all the Uncle Mac pimp power guy who uses his smooth manliness and then after he’s more human … and Don’s reaction mirrors (as in reverses or reflects) hers. </p>
<p>One thing about the show is someone has to have a bad episode. Peggy stabbing Abe is a classic. I can imagine how the actors felt about doing that scene: really cool, knowing it’s a shock and then having to play it with the controlled terror required. One interesting thing about Peggy’s show is that she’s under pressure, Abe is under pressure and she sees how her bosses act when under pressure. Abe is spouting stuff about her being the enemy when he’s the one who gets stabbed and she agreed to move into what was then a fairly bad neighborhood for him. People don’t show well under some pressures. Pete doesn’t when confronted with his mother and so on.</p>
<p>Roger has a bad show. I loved Pete’s comment that two of the name partners are dead as door nails; the Sterling in the name is Roger’s dad. He’s a 4 year old who somehow equates Don’s son Bobby, who is 11, with his 4 year old grandson. </p>
<p>I was impressed with Betty. The first episode’s weird quest to rescue that girl seems to have led to purpose and some understanding. She seems motivated by Henry’s career; it gives her purpose, even if that’s to look lovely and then turn her husband on by being desirable to other men. But of course it was her intelligent assessment of Don and the way she controlled their reconciliation - which is what I saw it as - which stood out. There was one hilarious line by Don … is this what our life would have looked like? No, it wouldn’t because he was pretending to her and was disengaged from her and his family … </p>
<p>And that leads to Megan’s brave confrontation with Don. It harks to the beginning of The Inferno with its reference to getting lost in middle age. And to Sylvia’s statement that she’ll tell Arnold she’s been away but now she’s back. Thing with Don is that he’s never been able to be anywhere for long. I don’t understand the overall critical reaction to Jessica Par</p>
<p>Terrific episode, I thought - full of action and setting up of conflict to come. Betty shone! Here she really was Don’s better half - better at being a philanderer, manipulator and a cheat - and seemingly better at understanding herself in relation to the men around her. Ironically, the reason for this renewed Betty-mojo is as skin-deep as Betty herself: all it took for Betty to regain control is weight loss and going back to blonde. No reading of Inferno necessary for this real-life Barbie!</p>
<p>I agree that Peggy stabbing Abe was as startling (and classic MM as the lawn mower scene way back.) And Peggy getting dumped by Abe - who she and the ambulance medic believe may be dying - was also pretty dark humor that’s a MM trademark. </p>
<p>I’m trying to figure out where Pete’s headed. That story line has me a bit baffled… but Bob Benson… he’s like Zelig. He’ll take over the agency by the end of the series. Mark my words!</p>