Mad Men recap: The Reluctant Rehabilitation of Don Draper

In Jacques Demy's Model Shop, the 1969 movie that Don Draper is watching at the beginning of last night's Mad Men, Los Angeles is the setting and a main character of a story about a man whose relationship with a wannabe actress is rapidly falling apart. Instead, he meets another woman -- the same character played by the same actress (Anouk Aimée) from Demy's 1961 film, Lola -- who he quickly becomes obsessed with. So it was no real surprise when Don got a desperate call from Los Angeles, his hardly-a-marriage marriage reached its breaking point, and women suddenly started throwing themselves at him again.

It's April 1969 and Don is still stuck in work limbo five months after being put on leave. More importantly, it's episode 3, and the show still hasn't pointed Draper towards his destiny. Fear not, because 'Field Trip' got all the show's oars in the water and catches up with some of our most beloved and loathed characters. (Betty! Harry!)

Don still literally has nothing going on, but he's still getting dressed up to harass the newly promoted Dawn to fetch him typewriter ribbon and keep him in the SCP loop. His only business-related call is from Megan's agent, who shares the awkward news that Megan made a spectacle of herself after a recent audition, stalking the director at his Sunday brunch with Twilight Zone's Rod Serling and melting into a puddle of tears. (BTW: there apparently is a spec Mad Men script where Draper actually meets Serling...)

Don heads west to surprise Megan and survey just how bad the situation is. Short answer, it's bad. Megan is honestly thrilled to see him, but after some 'extra special hankering' on the sofa that is clearly foreplay for the discussion that follows, Don opens up his playbook for How to Upset An Insecure Wife and follows it to a T. She's already vulnerable, telling him 'it's sunny here for everyone but me,' and when she grows suspicious of his probing questions about her career, he sneaks in the always effective retort, 'Stop acting like a lunatic.' She kids(?) about slitting her wrists in the bath tub and sarcastically mocks his concern by calling 'Daddy.' To be fair to Don, she's kind of acting like a lunatic. Or just someone who is very much alone, who is facing professional rejection every day, and who is not living the life she hoped with the man she loves.

Megan tries to turn the tables on him, as she understandably suspects that when she is in L.A., the Don will play. As soon as she accused him of infidelity, you knew that he was going to play his only ace and tell her the truth about his forced leave of absence. But he hadn't thought it all the way through, because if he's not working, why isn't he in L.A. with her? Which is what she asks him while she chokes back a sob. Upset, she sends him packing, saying, 'This is the way it ends. It's going to be so much easier for both of us [now].'

Two months after Valentine's Day, Peggy's life hasn't exactly improved. The CLIO nominations were just announced and she was totally overlooked. Even her brilliant Rosemary's Baby spot for the hospital got nothing. Making matters worse, Ginsberg's Playtex ad earned the lone CLIO mention from the agency -- a poor showing that was likely guaranteed by the fact that Lou Avery didn't submit any work that he personally didn't develop. Lou Avery: what a gem. The way he speaks to Peggy -- 'Who put a knot in your pantyhose?' -- and all women, for that matter, is his most definable characteristic. Allan Harvey, the actor who plays Lou, is so good in the role that I fear he's drifting into Bob Gunton territory (and Lou Avery is this decade's Warden Norton from The Shawshank Redemption). I'll never be able to see Harvey as anyone else but a dickish, disagreeable character.

Lokasi:

Share :