Sunday, September 5, 2010

MAD MEN
Season 4
Episode 7

1 comment:

Greg said...

SO.... we begin with 2 men needing Peggy. And neither in the way a woman wants to be needed or wanted.

Duck is inventing the idea of a "marriage" in order to woo the girl. Don is needing her for reasons of utility.

Peggy is needed by two men who are drunk. And she is also needed by her lame boyfriend, for reasons other than her. Everyone wants a piece of Peggy from Duck, to Don, to her boyfriend and family, to the new creepy art director, to her new artsy friends who don't care about her work. But she's never wanted in the way anyone would want to be wanted.

Is Peggy going to be the next to crack? Is the idea of cracking a theme this year? Peggy finally did crack a little, in the fact that she cried in the women's room like we thought she'd never do. Then, Don cracks as well.

There seemed to be another theme of marriage and avoidance. Don looks at his pic with Anna, which in position and posture is close to the idea of a wedding pic. He doesn't call Cali. Peggy has the guy dining with the family, and she is clearly avoiding him and it. Don and Peggy are both avoiding, yet together.

They decide to tie themselves to work in order to avoid. They're both avoiding personal responsibility when it comes to relationships. They're both avoiding metaphors with marriage. Yet they engage in a marriage of sorts when they argue like a married couple in that heated moment. That almost vicious argument was more analogous to couple fighting than work fighting. But, they end up tying themselves to each other. They tie their hand together at the end regardless. Relationship analogies?

Suitcases are about travel yet they both stay home, yet away from home.

Another Mad Men exploration of the idea of 3 in the idea of there are 3 kinds of suitcases. Similar to the idea of 3 classes of people we saw in the Kentucky Derby episode last year, among other examples of the idea of 3 we have seen before.

Another idea of 3 is that we found out Don really did visit her in the hospital, and they're bonded in that way; and Pete has a place in each of them in Pete's knowing of what she did, and Pete's knowing what Don did regarding Korea.

Again like a couple, they not only fight, but they bond as well. Don tells her about growing up on a farm, his Dad, Uncle Mack, Korea etc. He never does this. But he does now, with Peggy.

In the very end, she sleeps on the couch in the office, just like we've seen Don time and time again. And in talking over the account at the end, did you notice she critiques him in the same way he critiques everyone?

Their whole thing is backward. The whole episode begins as a metaphor of a marriage and obligation and frustration, and yet ends up as a first date if you think about it. It's backwards. They begin with the necessary evils and obligations and arguing, and end with the fun and interest and innocence of a first date. Their night ends with his head innocently in a knowing girl's lap. That's all the man wants even though he probably doesn't know it yet.

But then maybe he does, gently taking her hand similar to the pilot episode when she took his. In the pilot she did so because she thought it was her duty and thought it was right. But here Don does so because it's right and more importantly because he wants to, and something he should have and did not in fact do, with Allison. Did Mr. Draper learn?

One of the basic motifs of the show is lines drawn and differences. They have a line drawn between them in their differences, yet like anything that spins around and around that eventually comes back where it began ( I feel another motif of the show but that's just me), they time to time come together just for a brief moment.

His taking her hand, I was reminded of the U2 song "One" with the line, "We're one but we're not the same"