Joan and the professor: Mutual users and a Mad Woman deal.
This is one scene that has flown under the radar a bit. So we all know Joan's workplace story, no synopsis needed. What I thought was really interesting is that she's using this meeting with the prof as mutual usery, the way most Mad Men deals are done yet doing it in her own way.
She's not out for the thrill of the chase with roping in a client; she's using that template however to help her own self. Usually the Mad Man does deals to reach a bravado regarding outward success, and a secondary use is it being an underlying motive for his own self. So here she's half and half, splitting the Mad Man idea; skipping over the outward bravado as motivation for what she will achieve with the meeting, yet going with the Mad Man ideal of using something to better herself.
So basically they meet, and it's a business deal, just without contracts or money. She needs him on the topic of effective business dealings/strategy/meetings because she knows she can't go to the guys at work because she needs to do it on her own. The prof needs her for inside info from someone actually in the topic of which he is writing. They both will profit fom each other.
And profit she did, as we see later as she "wins" the phone conversation with the difficult client rep. And it's kind of office-Don in a way in looking for a contrary means to win. Most men would bash each other apart, Don does the whole outside the box thing, often with pitches. Joan is employing that basic concept, going outside. So she engaged in a business deal of sorts, just not motivated by outward bravado, but instead internal motivations to better herself and not doing so by going through the box, i.e. the office people, to figure out how exactly this is done effectively.
Given that, what's funny is where the prof says, what is there to trade, and of course given her work history she immediately assumes what she does and she put the wall up. He tells her, that like her, he just wants insider information for his study, writing etc. Nice, subtle twist. That's the business deal right there, information trading by two parties in their own self-interested needs. Very Mad Men.
Her whole thing was going outside the office and the Mad Men there, the familiar environment she's used to, for good and bad, and on her own venturing into unfamiliar territory; which is not something Joan normally does.
That's why they have her slip walking in front of the campus boys on unsure ground, that shot wasn't incidental.
This series has always had, one of many, underlying themes of travel; for example the references and symbolism of suitcases, the emphasis on air travel, Don countless times just getting up and leaving in the middle of meetings and they all just look at him etc. It's about escapism which also happens to be one of the core foundations of the Don Draper character.
The idea of Utopia can be thought of as either a real achievable thing by mankind, or, an idea that is more a defense mechanism created in the mind of mankind when there are no answers and is not in fact possible. Shouldn't Don therefore be all about the idea of the Cali symbol of Utopia, sunlight, freedom, travel and a host of other symbols? Right now he isn't.
Roger is in his own Utopia of sorts, the idea of is any Utopia possible found through escape being a common underlying in MM. Here, the pathway of escape is of drug use and drug use being a way to at least feel a Utopia. Roger is always going to be himself in the grey suit but he's gone down the hole of escaping. Roger is white haired watching his own generation's extinction; a man who fought literally against the idea of human extinction. However in season 5 and 6 it seems the man himself who is all about it is Don, yet, he had increasingly grown to want to be found while Roger is increasingly escaping, running since he first dropped acid. They're both now growing into quite the contrary of their own self as when we first met them.
So speaking of opposites, here Peggy was old school fighting new school: fighting the mouthy kid who has learned it's ok to disrespect what has come before him for no reason other than the sake of doing it (it had nothing to do with the toilet), and Peggy gets in a fight with youth. Remember her line, (was it the pilot episode?), but it was season one she says, "I'm from Bayridge, we have manners". That's the first thing I thought of with that scene, that was old school Peggy. Now look where she is because she went new school last year with her choice of man. And incidentally, slamming the door in the kid's face was totally Betty.
Then more air travel with Don. And more conflict. He's leaving what is supposed to be the escape, Cali. But remember how happy he was to go to Cali when Anna was still with us? After Anna it's different, as Megan is not Anna. The life isn't like it was when he strolled up to his "own house" in Cali with Anna's smile at and real heartfelt even if goofy laugh at him when he showed up on occasion. It was different than Megan. Instead of bonding over blue paint and (in my opinion) signing his name on a contract when he would never sign a contract in life, at the bottom of the wall with Anna, now it's... coyotes sadly howling at night. Echoes in a canyon Megan says. So much for the reality of Utopia. So he's leaving.
During his leaving, the air travel scene, after confiding basically his disappointment at the idea of Utopia, Cali, Megan etc (who has always been nothing but a prop of an escape from Betty), he lifts the shade and now light comes right upon him.
Where is he headed back to? Joan fighting for her self. Peggy fighting for her self. Even Ken fighting for his own self. Know what's the common denominator in all these character fighting? They care about their own self. People engaging in reality. He's certainly not heading back to Roger even tho Roger is, assumedly, in the geographical area but who knows at this point. I thought the whole plane scene was about Don leaving the light of Cali in order to see the actual light of his reality.
Peggy drops to her knees, in my view it's her facing unhappiness when she had chosen to go with a Utopian kind of individual in a man who insisted he was great. That's what Utopians like him do; insist and convince you they're greatness but only lead you to hurt if you buy into them, like a Shaman. Peggy is engaging in regret, the same as Don. Those often have parallel story lines.
Peggy tells the truth, "you're all a bunch of hacks who are full of %$#&.". At the same time Don is physically coming home to that same truth which has underneath been the whole basic symbolic concept of where his character and basic struggle is in the past two seasons; coming home to truth within his own self and now outside. We thought his bringing the kids to the original home was a climax. No, we found out that he's finding out he still has more to go.
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Joan and the professor: Mutual users and a Mad Woman deal.
This is one scene that has flown under the radar a bit. So we all know Joan's workplace story, no synopsis needed. What I thought was really interesting is that she's using this meeting with the prof as mutual usery, the way most Mad Men deals are done yet doing it in her own way.
She's not out for the thrill of the chase with roping in a client; she's using that template however to help her own self. Usually the Mad Man does deals to reach a bravado regarding outward success, and a secondary use is it being an underlying motive for his own self. So here she's half and half, splitting the Mad Man idea; skipping over the outward bravado as motivation for what she will achieve with the meeting, yet going with the Mad Man ideal of using something to better herself.
So basically they meet, and it's a business deal, just without contracts or money. She needs him on the topic of effective business dealings/strategy/meetings because she knows she can't go to the guys at work because she needs to do it on her own. The prof needs her for inside info from someone actually in the topic of which he is writing. They both will profit fom each other.
And profit she did, as we see later as she "wins" the phone conversation with the difficult client rep. And it's kind of office-Don in a way in looking for a contrary means to win. Most men would bash each other apart, Don does the whole outside the box thing, often with pitches. Joan is employing that basic concept, going outside. So she engaged in a business deal of sorts, just not motivated by outward bravado, but instead internal motivations to better herself and not doing so by going through the box, i.e. the office people, to figure out how exactly this is done effectively.
Given that, what's funny is where the prof says, what is there to trade, and of course given her work history she immediately assumes what she does and she put the wall up. He tells her, that like her, he just wants insider information for his study, writing etc. Nice, subtle twist. That's the business deal right there, information trading by two parties in their own self-interested needs. Very Mad Men.
Her whole thing was going outside the office and the Mad Men there, the familiar environment she's used to, for good and bad, and on her own venturing into unfamiliar territory; which is not something Joan normally does.
That's why they have her slip walking in front of the campus boys on unsure ground, that shot wasn't incidental.
This series has always had, one of many, underlying themes of travel; for example the references and symbolism of suitcases, the emphasis on air travel, Don countless times just getting up and leaving in the middle of meetings and they all just look at him etc. It's about escapism which also happens to be one of the core foundations of the Don Draper character.
The idea of Utopia can be thought of as either a real achievable thing by mankind, or, an idea that is more a defense mechanism created in the mind of mankind when there are no answers and is not in fact possible. Shouldn't Don therefore be all about the idea of the Cali symbol of Utopia, sunlight, freedom, travel and a host of other symbols? Right now he isn't.
Roger is in his own Utopia of sorts, the idea of is any Utopia possible found through escape being a common underlying in MM. Here, the pathway of escape is of drug use and drug use being a way to at least feel a Utopia. Roger is always going to be himself in the grey suit but he's gone down the hole of escaping. Roger is white haired watching his own generation's extinction; a man who fought literally against the idea of human extinction. However in season 5 and 6 it seems the man himself who is all about it is Don, yet, he had increasingly grown to want to be found while Roger is increasingly escaping, running since he first dropped acid. They're both now growing into quite the contrary of their own self as when we first met them.
So speaking of opposites, here Peggy was old school fighting new school: fighting the mouthy kid who has learned it's ok to disrespect what has come before him for no reason other than the sake of doing it (it had nothing to do with the toilet), and Peggy gets in a fight with youth. Remember her line, (was it the pilot episode?), but it was season one she says, "I'm from Bayridge, we have manners". That's the first thing I thought of with that scene, that was old school Peggy. Now look where she is because she went new school last year with her choice of man. And incidentally, slamming the door in the kid's face was totally Betty.
Then more air travel with Don. And more conflict. He's leaving what is supposed to be the escape, Cali. But remember how happy he was to go to Cali when Anna was still with us? After Anna it's different, as Megan is not Anna. The life isn't like it was when he strolled up to his "own house" in Cali with Anna's smile at and real heartfelt even if goofy laugh at him when he showed up on occasion. It was different than Megan. Instead of bonding over blue paint and (in my opinion) signing his name on a contract when he would never sign a contract in life, at the bottom of the wall with Anna, now it's... coyotes sadly howling at night. Echoes in a canyon Megan says. So much for the reality of Utopia. So he's leaving.
During his leaving, the air travel scene, after confiding basically his disappointment at the idea of Utopia, Cali, Megan etc (who has always been nothing but a prop of an escape from Betty), he lifts the shade and now light comes right upon him.
Where is he headed back to? Joan fighting for her self. Peggy fighting for her self. Even Ken fighting for his own self. Know what's the common denominator in all these character fighting? They care about their own self. People engaging in reality. He's certainly not heading back to Roger even tho Roger is, assumedly, in the geographical area but who knows at this point. I thought the whole plane scene was about Don leaving the light of Cali in order to see the actual light of his reality.
Peggy drops to her knees, in my view it's her facing unhappiness when she had chosen to go with a Utopian kind of individual in a man who insisted he was great. That's what Utopians like him do; insist and convince you they're greatness but only lead you to hurt if you buy into them, like a Shaman. Peggy is engaging in regret, the same as Don. Those often have parallel story lines.
Peggy tells the truth, "you're all a bunch of hacks who are full of %$#&.". At the same time Don is physically coming home to that same truth which has underneath been the whole basic symbolic concept of where his character and basic struggle is in the past two seasons; coming home to truth within his own self and now outside. We thought his bringing the kids to the original home was a climax. No, we found out that he's finding out he still has more to go.
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