Triptych

 
Usually, the last three episodes of each Mad Men season provide the viewer with a nice, neat (as neat for Mad Men’s scope as is possible) triptych of drama on which to wave the season goodbye.  In Season 2, you had Don’s trip to California in the “Jet Set” and “The Mountain King,” followed by the dramatic conclusion of “Meditations in an Emergency.”  The drama in those episodes coming from Don’s absence in the office and the pending sale of Sterling Cooper to Putnam Powell and Lowe, which was Duck’s attempt at a coup against Don.  In Season 3, you had “The Gypsy and the Hobo,” where Betty confronted Don and Don had to dump Ms. Farrell; “The Grown Ups,” where the show confronted the Kennedy assassination and Betty told Don she didn’t love him anymore; and of course there was the thrilling “Shut the Door, Have a Seat,” where Sterling, Cooper, Draper Pryce was formed.

Perhaps in hindsight the triptych of this season will make itself evident, but at the current moment, there is not a total feeling of “neatness,” that is to use the term in the Mad Men sense, which is a feeling of the season coming to an end, a pressure of drama that eventually must manifest itself in some surprise in the season finale.  That seems to be the description of how most shows work, but Mad Men is especially so, given how many characters and storylines are intertwined and brought to some kind of climax or revelation in their lives at each season’s end.  At the moment, though, there is no sense of neatness to the final trilogy of episodes and maybe that is because we are still waiting for the season finale, which promises to be as pressure filled as any season finale so far in the series.

“Blowing Smoke,” to me, was as understated an episode as you will get in Mad Men.  The themes were all there and they all felt like they were intricately connected, but you weren’t quite sure how to connect them in each instance; the themes being “changing the conversation” or changing your identity, determining worth, and the border of want vs. desperation/addiction.  Since all the themes in the episode seemed to simmer, this allowed the main action of “Blowing Smoke” to draw the attention it deserved – that action being the ad that Don took out in the New York Times.

What led Don to taking out the ad was a variety of things: failure at his meeting with Heinz and his subsequent desperation to get the account (“I could get a date with your mother right now if I wanted to”), the tease of the Phillip Morris account, the lack of effort exhibited by Pete, Ken and Roger and last but not least, Don’s encounter with Midge.  As soon as I saw Rosemarie Dewitt’s (slightly in love with her, wait until Wednesday’s Top Ten Women of Mad Men column) name on the opening credits, I was curious to see how they would use the character of Midge in the current landscape of the show.  Not only does Midge and her initial conversation with Don in the lobby echo the first season of the show (notably the pilot episode, titled “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’), but it also echoes Don’s initial meeting with Roger Sterling in the lobby of the old building.  However, in this case, Don and Midge have an actual history and Don reveals that he was perhaps in some ways hoping to see Midge when he decided to move to the Village. Don’s affair with Midge set the tone for the Draper affair that “works.” He respected Midge in some intellectual way and respected the identity that she had created for herself.  “The Hobo Code” was a perfect example of how Don could have easily fit into the bohemian culture, a culture that is in many ways a variation of the hobo culture that Don has grown and created himself out of.  Here, though we see how far Midge has fallen and how desperate she is for a little bit of money.  Don gives her a check for $300.00, but she needs the cash in order to get her fix.  However, her desperation gives Don an “afterimage” that he can see himself in, as well as his situation.  Don and the rest of the firm have been desperately seeking new clients, client’s that don’t even care about them because they have no worth at the current moment.  He has to “change the conversation,” as Peggy reminds him of advice he once gave her.  So, instead of throwing the painting out, Don looks at it and decides how to change his value and the value of the firm.  He writes a letter and places it in the New York Times as an ad for SCDP.  All of the partners are upset, which was somewhat jarring at first view as you would like to think that some of them (especially Pete after this season and perhaps Lane) would understand the forward thinking. Unfortunately, it causes Bert Cooper to quit the firm, while Roger is pleased everyone can no longer blame him.

Interestingly enough, it is Megan who understands what Don was trying to do as she says, “its about ‘he didn’t dump me, I dumped him’.”  And that is what Don was trying to do in yet another example of how he tries to rewrite identity. In this case, it was the firm as an extension of his identity.  We never want to be on the losing end of a relationship, so we sometimes construct ways in order to make it seem that we were not the one who was dumped, we were really the ones with the upper hand and even if we are dumped, then it was for some cosmic and mysterious reason, something that makes us interesting and appealing for whomever comes next.  You change the conversation in order to divert attention so no one realizes that you have taken the upper hand.  Now, we don’t know if Don has really taken the upper hand, but he took a risk and perhaps that risk will get him noticed as we come to the final episode.  The firm needs a big client. They can’t stitch together a few accounts.  Some people are guessing that it will be Conrad Hilton returning, while some are guessing by the title of the final episode, “Tomorrowland,” that it may be Disney who comes calling for Don’s service.

In the other storyline, Betty and Sally clash again.  And while Sally speaks with her therapist, we see that she is literally using the technique of changing the conversation to get the upper hand on her mother.  “She doesn’t care what the truth is,” Sally says, “as long as I do what she says.”  Instead of fighting Betty about what really happened, Sally as learned the art of changing the conversation, of biting your tongue in order to fight another battle.  Unfortunately, we see that Betty is just as apt at this as Sally is.  When the therapist tells Betty that she should be seeing a doctor who can treat adults, Betty changes the conversation back to Sally in order to emphasize that it is important that she still goes to see Dr. Edna.  And, later in the episode, after Betty has caught Sally spending time with Glen, she decides to change the conversation from that incident to moving out of Don’s home.  This crushes Sally and we see a very lonely shot of her laying in her bed in the evening sun of September holding the lanyard that Glen made for her.  All I could think of when watching this scene was Sally explaining that the idea of “forever” makes her upset to think about.  This idea of a child understanding forever, of using some experience of image (the butter label) to convey a vast concept is terribly moving to me.  Those are small experiences that you remember from childhood, for the universe has opened up for one small moment to your child’s mind and you begin to understand a size of things far greater than what you normally are able to comprehend. 

The other subplot that interested me, was Faye having to leave SCDP as a consultant due to Dr. Atherton wanting to do business with tobacco companies and the firms that represent them.  Now, as Faye makes it clear, she and Don can have a relationship that is out in the open. It’s hard to read how Don feels about this.  Faye took a risk for him to get the Heinz account. That risk didn’t work out due to extenuating circumstances, but it showed her devotion.  She wants to be with Don, but it is unclear if Don is ready for that, no matter how much he is trying to improve or wants to improve. Faye is a good match for him. She is a strong, smart woman.  But perhaps that’s not what Don wants.  But does he want Megan? No matter how much she empathizes with him in the aftermath of their intimacy both sexually and philosophically in “Chinese Wall,” you still never get the feeling that she’s exactly what Don wants either – that is something that Roger would do.

There were plenty more terrific small moments in this episode and now, replaying all the themes and action of the episode perhaps the classic Mad Men end of season triptych may be in tact.  All that’s left is that last piece next Sunday, which will perhaps change everything, for now, once more for all these characters.

Just Another Brick

At this point in the series of “Mad Men,” it seems somewhat redundant to say that a specific episode touches on the main themes of the show.  Nearly all of the episodes at least touch on a variety of the many themes that run throughout the entire series. I go back and forth debating over which of  the topics that the show covers interests me the most.  There is a part of me that is tremendously interested in the element of reinventing one’s self, in creating an identity from scratch and riding that identity for all it is worth no matter what kind of lies rise up, no matter how much fiction you have to create in order to shield your true self from the world when it seems like the stakes have gotten too high. However, last night’s episode, “Chinese Wall,” focused on the other theme that has always kept me interested in the show; that being the dynamics of the work world and how those dynamics and rules run over into one’s personal world.  This subject matter has of course been covered extensively over the history of the show and as recently and expertly as in Episode 7 of this season, “The Suitcase.”

Where “The Suitcase” focused only on Don and Peggy’s relationship with each other in the office and how that could potentially extend in some respects outside the office in a realm of unique (non-sexual) intimacy, “Chinese Wall” spread its scope to the varying members of SCDP and how the lines between work and personal/pleasure have been blurred over time and how they have continued to remain blurred.

At work we always struggle to give that personal side of ourselves to those we work with.  We want to appear amiable and make jokes like we would with out friends in our personal or “real” lives. Sometimes these people that we work with will become our friends and perhaps lifelong friends at that.  We work with them in the office and we spend time with them outside of the office.  The key is that both parties can remember what is involved with business and what is personal.  This understanding is what allows each side to reveal increasingly personal details, which is what friendships, at least good ones, are usually formed on.  However, we also want to achieve, we want to do better in our jobs to move forward with out careers; or, at the very least, we want to remain employed in order to avoid hardship.  This sort of movement will often require that we keep ourselves obscured from those that we work with so that they are left to wonder about who we really are and what we are really like, because we can’t care that much about this job, we can’t be that focused on it.  We don’t want anyone to know the secrets of our lives, or even the personal details because there is no guarantee that these people that we work with could use it in some way to gain leverage.  This is a place of work and at some fundamental level, your co-workers must be kept at bay.

Further, there are those instances when we work with someone that we are attracted to.  How is it possible to deny that attraction, whether it is physical or otherwise?  Would it be possible to pursue that kind of intimacy while working in a close environment, where one relies on the other in order to get work done?; where both sides have to continue on with their jobs, while knowing the secrets of the other, the motions and sounds each make in the heat of the dark.  Again, this hinges on an ability to keep business and personal separate, otherwise the passion that lies between two people can very easily become confused and perverted into an emotion that was not initially born out of the attraction.

In any event, work is a complicated place where we often create a second identity for ourselves that either keeps us removed, ties us to our co-workers in a semblance of unity or attempts to navigate the worlds of the personal and business, sometimes in a chaotic manner.

“Chinese Wall” exhibited how all members of SCDP have interacted with the world of business and the world of the personal.  The entire episode is framed around the birth of Pete Cambell’s daughter as well as the panic around the entire SCDP staff learning that Lucky Strike/American Tobacco has taken their account elsewhere.  There are countless episodes of business running over into the lives of those at the agency, including the start of the episode where Cosgrove’s dinner with his wife and his in-laws is interrupted by a friend from another agency informing him that Lucky Strike/American Tobacco has moved to said rival agency, which leads Cosgrove to plunge into the business world, alerting Pete at the hospital, who immediately alerts Don who is on a date with Faye Miller, a character and relationship that perfectly personifies the volatile mixture that business and pleasure can be.

The episode presents a variety of stances on the issue of the value of the business live versus that of the personal life and how those two virtues can be balanced.  Pete’s father-in-law explains that a job is just a job and that it is the people at home who matter: your wife and children.  Faye tells Don that she knows the difference between their relationship and the work that is done at the office.  Pete, Don, Cosgrove and Bert Cooper attend the funeral of a fellow ad man who his colleagues explain was devoted to his job but also to his wife and kids.  However, as the work stories are relayed it appears that the man was more devoted to his job than he ever was to his wife or children.  Don and Pete look on taking in what should be a cautionary tale. However, what they each take from the scene is left ambiguous.  Pete is also approached by Ted Chaough earlier in the episode with an offer to come to his firm.  With SCDP perhaps facing collapse without Lucky Strike, Pete has to weigh the options of providing for his wife and new child against pursuing the passion for work that led to the initial formation of SCDP.

The pivotal scenes of the episode (if you can even narrow them down) are the scenes involving Roger and Joan, Roger and Jane, Don and Megan, and Don and Faye.  Roger goes to Joan’s apartment because of the guilt he feels at not telling his colleagues at SCDP sooner about Lucky Strike dropping them.  He looks to Joan for solace as she has always been there.  She wants to talk business, the state of the company and why Roger didn’t tell anyone sooner, while all Roger wants to do his sleep with her to escape his troubles. Joan identifies that their romantic relationship would only be another problem and not a solution.  It is their business relationship that matters, that is two people who can professionally share things with each other. Joan puts a stop to the romance, which was originally born out of their office interactions and hidden passion.  Later,  Roger feeling defeated is at home with Jane, whom he married out of an affair created in the office and she shows him copies of his memoir that have arrived at their home.  Roger signs a copy for Jane, writing, “To my loving wife, Jane.”  This statement lacks any intimacy and is something that any author would write in a book as a matter of business.  Roger has never truly taken his work seriously. He has only used the office as a means of meeting women and continuing on a lavish lifestyle and he is left lonely and wanting.  The woman he thinks he loves he can’t commit to or maturely articulate his feelings for and the woman he is married to he feels nothing for.

Don on the other hand knows full well the terrible effects of mixing his personal life with business.  Don has always kept himself distant from everyone at work, even Roger (“you’re so damn mysterious”) but let his guard down earlier this season when he slept with Alison.  Yet, in this episode he makes two mistakes.  The first is asking Faye to help him get clients based on the information she receives from her clients as a consultant. Faye is rightly insulted that Don sees her as another part of his business, but as he tells her, SCDP is “all he has.”  Don later makes another mistake in sleeping with Megan when she comes to help him late at night. Megan shows an interest in the work at the company and even states that she wants to do what Don or Peggy does someday. Don is impressed by this as well as Megan’s aggressive moves to take care of him. There is a certain confidence that Megan takes on in this episode that seems to be inherent in all of Don’s lovers – it is a mixture of tenderness and firmness that is certainly a matronly trait.  It is hard to know what to make of the ultimate scene with Don and Megan.  Megan tells him she won’t be running crying from his office and tells him that their sleeping together has nothing to do with work, even though they are at the office and she has explained her interest in advertising.  How does one separate the two as Megan seems to suggest she can?  After this, Don returns home to find Faye at his apartment. Faye tells him that she got him a meeting with Heinz. Don feels ashamed that she used her connections to get him a meeting, but Faye explains that she wanted to do it. Faye is now accepting that their relationship can merge so closely that what is most important is what matters to the health of their relationship and that is keeping SCDP afloat, because that is what Don’s life is and that is what makes him happy.  This gesture certainly raises questions this about this new level of intimacy and posturing between Don and Faye going forward and how Don is going to either embrace or shun it. They are sharing more than one secret now, while Don is now keeping another from her.

Peggy is the only one who seems to be able to balance her work and pleasure.  She decides to sleep with Abe and appears to be falling for him or at least giving into the initial excitement of a romance.  At the same time, she is able to show Stan what is business and what is personal when she turns down his advances and then nails the Playtex meeting by using details from her personal life in her pitch – much like Don used to effortlessly do.

There is not right or wrong answer as to the balance of business and personal.  It is all about your situation, the people you are involved with, the weight that you can carry.  However, there will always be a line between those two worlds and the way you conduct yourself and view that line will say a lot about what kind of person you are and what you are capable of in a variety of ways – another prime example of how me must decide when to share and when to conceal.

Two more episodes left.