My favorite film ever is Humoresque, (1947) and I had a great line from it in my head as I was watching all of this, where John Garfield says to Joan Crawford, " It makes me laugh how much alike we are... we're sparring around like two wrestlers looking for a hold".
I've been big on the idea of a carousel motif from when we saw the maypole dance which to me was a visual of a carousel, solidifying the whole carousel thing from the famous Kodak pitch. I always felt that was a major thematic foundation of this whole thing. Quite the carousel here we had. Around and around, life itself spinning, with those against each other looking for a hold yet on a spinning surface.
In it's most basic we had Don leaving his current, going to his past and circling back around to his current. It's his still confusing and lost search for home in his spinning life.
Peggy is circling around from the upper to the lower back to the upper idea, also circling from Abe to Ted to Abe to Ted to no one.
Duck keeps circling back, in and out and it's ironic to see him on Memorial Day weekend when MacCarthur was on tv. Duck surely is one old soldier who will not in fact fade away. He keeps circling back into these peoples' lives.
Betty has circled around to Don to spar before victory. She got herself to the point of being wanted in a smarmy way, building her confidence in the beginning. Then the shorts and car thing coupled with her words to him, she sparred with Don seeking her hold. And won. What did she win? Probably just good old fashioned revenge. Revenge is how she got power. She got her power, then threw it away once she had it. Now that's power.
The whole episode was a carousel in that the ride began with butter v margarine in the ring and spun around to end the episode with butter v margarine to close.
Lots of sparring for control here, clearly an analogy of outside their walls. Here you have a merger which now is featuring issues of power and relevance to each individual. They all want their own way, which is contradictory of what a merger is supposed to be. Peggy and Abe's merger is featuring a struggle of Peggy wanting want she wants vs the alleged morality of the poop on the floor life. She merged, and now wants out. Pete merged, and now wants out. It's originally supposed to be about all for one, but really no one is happy with that, and it's about each individual fighting for the idea of their own self, fighting to gain what it is they want rather than succumbing to a merge or truce or draw.
Which leads to the stabbing motif. Betty stabs Don. Joan stabs Roger. Pete wants to stab anyone at the agency. Duck is out for his own apparent new career but it's not like he doesn't have a problem sticking the knife in an old workplace. Peggy of course literally stabbing Abe who she has finally had enough of in this merge.
We've had a lot not just here but this whole season of breaking, then togetherness, then breaking again; people sparring against each other for power and balance and answer on a carousel that is simply spinning around and around and....
In a time where coming together is the big fad, they all want and attempt merge; but don't want to be the one to give in. Remind you of anything? Current events?
"It makes me laugh how much alike we are... we're sparring around like two wrestlers looking for a hold".
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My favorite film ever is Humoresque, (1947) and I had a great line from it in my head as I was watching all of this, where John Garfield says to Joan Crawford, " It makes me laugh how much alike we are... we're sparring around like two wrestlers looking for a hold".
I've been big on the idea of a carousel motif from when we saw the maypole dance which to me was a visual of a carousel, solidifying the whole carousel thing from the famous Kodak pitch. I always felt that was a major thematic foundation of this whole thing. Quite the carousel here we had. Around and around, life itself spinning, with those against each other looking for a hold yet on a spinning surface.
In it's most basic we had Don leaving his current, going to his past and circling back around to his current. It's his still confusing and lost search for home in his spinning life.
Peggy is circling around from the upper to the lower back to the upper idea, also circling from Abe to Ted to Abe to Ted to no one.
Duck keeps circling back, in and out and it's ironic to see him on Memorial Day weekend when MacCarthur was on tv. Duck surely is one old soldier who will not in fact fade away. He keeps circling back into these peoples' lives.
Betty has circled around to Don to spar before victory. She got herself to the point of being wanted in a smarmy way, building her confidence in the beginning. Then the shorts and car thing coupled with her words to him, she sparred with Don seeking her hold. And won. What did she win? Probably just good old fashioned revenge. Revenge is how she got power. She got her power, then threw it away once she had it. Now that's power.
The whole episode was a carousel in that the ride began with butter v margarine in the ring and spun around to end the episode with butter v margarine to close.
Lots of sparring for control here, clearly an analogy of outside their walls. Here you have a merger which now is featuring issues of power and relevance to each individual. They all want their own way, which is contradictory of what a merger is supposed to be. Peggy and Abe's merger is featuring a struggle of Peggy wanting want she wants vs the alleged morality of the poop on the floor life. She merged, and now wants out. Pete merged, and now wants out. It's originally supposed to be about all for one, but really no one is happy with that, and it's about each individual fighting for the idea of their own self, fighting to gain what it is they want rather than succumbing to a merge or truce or draw.
Which leads to the stabbing motif. Betty stabs Don. Joan stabs Roger. Pete wants to stab anyone at the agency. Duck is out for his own apparent new career but it's not like he doesn't have a problem sticking the knife in an old workplace. Peggy of course literally stabbing Abe who she has finally had enough of in this merge.
We've had a lot not just here but this whole season of breaking, then togetherness, then breaking again; people sparring against each other for power and balance and answer on a carousel that is simply spinning around and around and....
In a time where coming together is the big fad, they all want and attempt merge; but don't want to be the one to give in. Remind you of anything? Current events?
"It makes me laugh how much alike we are... we're sparring around like two wrestlers looking for a hold".
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