Season 5 Episode 13: The Phantom

"April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain."

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

The season finale was both dense and satisfying. It did what great fiction is suppose to do: create mirrors of our humanity and inhumanity; layer meanings for depth; excite our senses to want more.

We learn from Marie, Megan's mother, that the setting is in April, when she has come to visit her daughter during Easter, a holiday her husband doesn't celebrate because he's an atheist. Easter, the holy day celebrating the raising of the dead, shows Don in the embryonic stage of becoming reborn, and perhaps not in a good way. We see him helping Megan get a job as an actress in a commercial, playing Beauty in a theme of Beauty and the Beast. Will Don become her Beast? By helping her succeed he may have knowingly helped her to leave to pursue her career, just as he helped Peggy and she left him. We are left with uncertainty when a young woman expresses her interest in him at a bar. He doesn't say he's married. He doesn't say anything. We are left to find out next season.

Phantoms are illusions, transparancies of ideas and ideals but also of the living and the dead. In this episode, Don's waking spirit is not the only apparation we see. Adam, Don's younger brother who also committed suicide by hanging, is seen at SCDP and at the dental office. Adam tells him that his tooth is not the only thing rotten to the core. But this is not Adam speaking: it's Don's conscience.

We also see the specter of Peggy by her absence. When the Topaz client complains about using the word "cheap" in a commercial with a young woman, he mentions that "you should get a girl's opinion. I used to take that as a given here." When Don does see Peggy, it is in a movie theater, home of the shadow world where illusions of human existence are projected in an empty room.

Megan is also shown in this other world light when Don watches her audition reel alone in an ethereal black and white silence: it's as though she is already dead.

Lane's spirit hovers at the company when Harry doesn't want to move into Lane's office and at the partnership meeting when his death benefit to the company makes SCDP profitable for the quarter. Joan also feels guilt over Lane's death, as she thinks that if she had slept with him perhaps he wouldn't have committed suicide. When Don visits Rebecca to offer her $50,000 as reimbursement for Lane's capital investment in the partnership, she accuses him of having "no right to fill that man with ambition." She thinks Don had a corrupting influence on Lane, when she finds the picture of the young woman in his wallet and also the visit to the brothel with the Jaguar client. She believes that ambition was the cause of his suicide, the pursuit of personal achievement which Don embodies.

Pete becomes a ghost before our eyes after Beth's electro-shock treatment erases her memory of him. She further describes his (their) affair as "a temporary bandage on a permanent wound." His physical fight on the train again reminds us of his false pride and self importance. But most importantly, that he is just like Howard but does not have the self awareness to realize it. When the episode ends, Pete is listening to headphones cut off from the world and his family. We don't know what he is listening to as he is no longer there. We can not follow him.

Roger also becomes spirit through his use of LSD again, but this time alone, standing naked, arms open to the world from the heights of a hotel room.

Don's guilt is from his manufactured persona, Lane's and Adam's deaths, his damaged familial relationships. His hard scrabble early life and his own accumulation of bad decisions has been glossed over by a successful career and wrapped in a handsome guy package. His guilt manifests itself in a painful tooth which is infected and needs to be removed. The tooth is a molar. Was it his wisdom tooth that was removed?

Season 5 Episode 12 - Commissions and Fees

"Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling" - Proverbs 16:18

This episode was a disappointment as it seemed like a clip show screened prior to the season finale. It was hurried and seemed to wrap up loose ends while trying to move the characters forward. Lane's suicide was not unexpected, only the method was a surprise. The humor of the car failing to start was a great piece of writing. The men laughing in the office prior to discovery of the body, and again, the entrance of Don and Roger laughing prior to learning of Lane's death seemed false and artificial. However, Lane's motive for embezzlement was revealed to be selfless and we actually see him as a sympathetic character: his tax problems are the result of liquidating stocks in order to capitalize SCDP; and we are reminded that it was his British connection that initially brought the Jaguar account in play, thus putting the agency on a firm foundation and as a force in the advertising world. Per his wife, played with exquisite flair and elegance by Embeth Davidtz *, Lane "never spent anything on himself" only on her and their son's expensive education. He thus becomes the sacrificial lamb to the God of Mammon Avenue. Lane's fatal flaw though is pride. In Ancient Greece, pride was a crime against Olympus as the self inflated individual can not be more important than the gods. Pride keeps Lane from being honest with his wife and his partners at the firm. He can not suffer the humiliation of exposure that he is not the man that he portrays.

Glen, played by the wooden (I can't tell if it's poor acting or just a creepy role) Marten Holden Weiner, is once again shown to be the tortured weird kid at his private school when he tells us that classmates urinated in his locker. Glen addresses the Draper women (Betty and Megan) on a first name basis, to show his equality and sexuality. But with Don, it is Mister: he respects the alpha male, but not the women. When Glen confides to Don and asks why "things turn to crap", Don's response is "you're too young to think like that". With Glen, we are given tantalizing bits that perhaps he too may go off the deep end. He takes Sally to the American Musuem of Natural History where dead stuffed animals are shown in dioramas. When Sally asks about the bison, he says "I hope it's a family that was killed." His book report is also on Nat Turner, the slave that started a rebellion in Virginia that resulted in over 160 deaths, both black and white. When the episode ends, Glen, the young boy with a budding mustache, is shown driving down the road with Don, the only father figure we have ever seen. But clues hint at a violent future for him.

Sally becomes a woman in this episode. When her blood is shed, we also see the blood mottled chin of Lane in death. Her knowledge of her period is humiliating for her, just as Lane's exposure as a counterfeiter was to him. But, we see her as a child not as a woman as she rushes home to her mother for comfort. This brings satisfaction to Betty, who has been jealous of Megan for her youth and figure and her influence over Sally.

The stars are also aligning against Pete. As well as Roger's long standing disdain, we now have Don aggressively pitching Dow Corning because he believes Pete thinks too small. Kenny also wants to sideline him if they land his father-in-law, which Roger calls a "whale" account. Dow Corning will bring them into the "big league" of advertising firms which is what Don wants: more prestige, more power, more pride.

Lane's suicide and Don's resulting guilt will propel the show to it's season conclusion.  Don has been on shaky ground for awhile both professionally and personally. Just when he's getting back into the game, he's dealt with a crisis of conscience. It will be interesting to see where it leads.

* I love Embeth Davidtz early (pre-nose job) role in Army of Darkness, Sam Raimi's time travel spoof of a horror flim, as well as her work in Schindler's List, Matilda, the sappy Bicentennial Man and artful Junebug. Her limited role in Mad Men does not allow her to show the vulnerability that she can bring to the screen. She really is an amazing and versatile actress.

Season 5 Episode 11 The Other Woman

"That place is my baby and I would prostitute myself for it" Walt Disney

Advertising and prostitution have been synonymous since J. Walter Thompson created the first "sexual sell" for the Woodbury Soap Company in 1911 ("The skin you love to touch"). The metaphor becomes real in this episode with Pete, the skilled salesman with no moral compass, metamorphoses into a panderer for an influential car distributor who will help decide on which agency lands the Jaguar account. The episode also explores the multiple roles that women have in society: wife, mother, co-worker, partner, prostitute and actress. It is also about the women close to Don who are and may be leaving him.

In the opening scene, the Jaguar creative team comes up with the brand idea that it's a "mistress that will do what your wife doesn't". During lunch with the married car dealer, Herb Rennet, Herb mentions to Ken and Pete of his desire for Joan. Ken's initial reaction is to reject it outright. Pete's is to run with it. In fact, it is Pete that makes the fantasy come true. Without him promoting and pushing the idea forward, what might have been considered guy talk during lunch becomes real. This display of raw male power, of trading women and sexual favors for business advancement, ultimately spoils the pleasure of winning for Don. For a brief moment, Don was becoming re-invigorated in his job. Yet the interference by Pete made him doubt if they won the account on merit or because of Joan's sexual favors. Pete has also destroyed one of Don's few core beliefs, which is motherhood. Pete prostitutes motherhood in this episode, which is symbolized by Joan.

Joan's ascension to partnership by sex instead of by her work ethic, job performance or loyalty also shows the moral corruption of the firm. Lane's advice on asking for partnership instead of cash is her way to be equal among the men. It also buys time for Lane to further hide his embezzlement from the firm. Joan is already perceived by the super's wife to be a "loose" woman as she doesn't have a husband any more. As a result the super's wife won't let her husband come over to fix the refrigerator. Peggy's pitch to Chevalier Blanc includes Lady Godiva, the legendary noblewoman who rode through Coventry naked on a horse to shame her husband and to save the populace. But Joan is not altruistic. Joan shames her husband (revenge) and saves the firm on the alter of consumerism for a percentage piece of the business. She becomes a partner where Peggy does not.

Megan's rejects Don's "mistress" theme for Jaguar when Don discusses it with her at home. But her visit to Don at the office where they have sex, is more in keeping with a mistress than a wife. Her friend Julia's performance on the conference table in her short dress and exposed underwear doing a sexy tiger dance also reinforces the perception that actresses are prostitutes. When Megan gets a call back to the producers of the play everything has to do with looks. We never hear her try out her lines. She is simply told to "turn around, honey".

In contrast to Joan, we have Peggy who did not use sex for advancement. Her prior relationship with Pete did not result in any favoritism or promotion. When she talks to Freddie, he treats her like a friend and equal. The same with her meeting with Ted. He treats her with respect for her work and offers her a job at a higher salary than she has asked for. He makes her feel better about herself. In her relationship with Don, Don has given her power, but not respect, especially in this episode when he throws money in her face.

From the male perspective, we have Herb who thinks he is a sultan in a harem when Joan comes for sex. In a Norman Rockwell tableau, Pete is a doting father reading to his daughter with no remorse for pimping Joan to a stranger. Pete, who wants to be sexually free, lies to his wife by suggesting he get an apartment in the city. Even the partners show no little thought for the consequences of their decision. Don is the lone outcast. Joan calls him the "good one" for being the only partner to not want her to prostitute herself. But Don is the embattled monarch trying to understand the changing roles of women. Don is the former used car salesman who has risen to the heights Madison Avenue but with old fashioned values. When Peggy gives notice to Don, he is the supplicant kissing her hand showing respect like a son or a servant to a monarch. It is at the same time quaint and vulnerable.

1. The car dealers name is Herb Rennet. One of the properties of rennet is that is coagulates milk, causing it to separate into solids (curds) and liquid (whey). Perhaps Herb is a metaphor for being the catalyst for the break up of the agency?

Season 5 Episode 10: Christmas Waltz

“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” Andre Malraux

Lying and deception are the hallmarks of advertising and also of this episode. A sub theme of unfulfilled longing also rises and ebbs throughout. The episode begins with Lane being notified early in the morning by his solicitor in England that payment for taxes are due or prison will result. By that same evening, Lane resolves his tax problems by counterfeiting a check with the forged signature of a counterfeit man, Don. This sets up the possibility of Don's true identity coming to light and / or to compromise Joan's relationship with Lane, who is also privy to the books. Lane's malfeasance takes place on Pearl Harbor Day, proclaimed by President Johnson on December 7, 1966, to commemorate the day in 1941, when the Japanese attacked the American Navy in Hawaii, which led to America's entry into World War II. Lane's deception to Walt, the banker, to increase the credit line by $50,000 will enable to pay for bonuses to the partners, which will solve Lane's debt, but may also be the first blow against the new and struggling agency in a "war" on Madison Avenue either from within or from without. That this came from a trusted employee, although a foreign one, and not a competitor or client, will hurt not only the firm, but those who trusted him.

An attack on advertising is also shown in the play that Don and Megan attend, American Hurrah, where a character is lying on the stage, ill from watching tv advertisements.

It is again brought up by Paul's adoption of the Hare Krishna Movement and rejection of materialism. Materialism is the sole reason why Madison Avenue exists, which is to peddle soap (product) to the masses. Paul's failure to find solace in religion fuels his desire to write science fiction (a Star Trek script) which he sees as his financial escape to an idyllic rustic retreat with Lakshmi. Lakshmi uses sex to keep Harry away from Paul is for the Movement, because Paul is so good at recruiting new disciples to it. Who better to sell religion, which is also a product, than a former ad man? Lakshmi's devotion is to her religion, not to an individual or to herself. Paul and Harry are still too caught up in their own skin in order to sacrifice themselves to another person, a religion or to a company.

Lakshmi and Peggy are also mirrors to Harry: they each give him the same advice, "tell him the truth" about how bad the Star Trek script is. Both are liberated females and have carved out their own strong identities in regards to sex and their roles in the world. This is in contrast to Joan and Megan, who mirror each other in their traditional relationships with men and those problems that can arise from those relationships. Both Joan and Megan resort to violence: Megan by throwing her plate of food against the wall when Don comes home drunk; Joan by breaking a Mohawk model airplane in the lobby of the agency when she is served with her divorce papers.

Harry practices deception with Paul, when he tells him the script is good and that the producers really liked it, but can't use it. Don does the same with Joan in the bar when he hits on her, to make her feel better and says resignedly when he fails, "poor me, I struck out." Both deceive because they care for the people they are lying to. It is not to hurt and but to help. To them, the end justifies the means.

Paul and Don both share a sense of ennui and of unfulfilled desire. Megan notices it and says "you use to enjoy your job before you met me." Don is also shown on the couch at work lounging and not working just before Pete comes in. When Pete tells him about the possibility of pitching the Jaguar account, he expresses no interest and Pete proclaims that in the past "you would kiss me on the mouth" if he had brought in a prospect like that before. Don feels that he is slowly losing his wife, as she is rejecting his way of life. Paul can't obtain his chosen wife, Lakshmi, because she is married to the movement. Both men are feeling disconnected.

Lane Pryce (a "priceless" name for an accountant) when he lies to his wife, it doesn't ring true because it is for personal gain, which is to make him look better in her eyes or to keep her from finding out the truth about his financial difficulties. It is not for her personal benefit and does not make her feel better; it makes him feel better.

At the end of the episode, Lane gives a speech to the staff about bonuses which no one understands and Cooper (the barrel shaped Robert Morse) has to explain to them in plain English (as opposed to proper English). When Pete mentions that the firm will be losing ad revenue from the Mohawk machinists strike because advertising will be cut back, but that they may land the Jaguar account, there is also befuddlement and more silence. Only when Don speaks does the staff respond and they rally by his clear and concise words to them about hard work to win an important account. It is only Don who can lead the firm through the tribulations ahead.

Season 5 Episode 9 Dark Shadows

"Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends" Alexander Pope

Fidelity is the skin that holds relationships together, both social and personal. Fidelity is looked at and tested in this episode; illustrated with short vignettes but not really explored in detail with some characters appearing selfish and petty while others react to being slighted and disrespected.

Early on, when Sally is creating the family tree, we are reminded of Don's disloyalty to his country when he assumed the identity of another in order to escape duty as a soldier. Don is the hollow man, the empty suit with a persona cut whole out of cloth (a draper is a dealer in fabrics or cloth). 

Don looks through Ginsberg's work late at night and decides to compete in a "creative" environment with him. When Don and Ginsberg's ideas are chosen to show to the client, Don intentionally leaves Ginsberg's panels behind in a cab. When the team lands the account, Don takes credit, but he wins the competition by default of omission. Don's use of power and authority is galling to Ginsberg when he finds out. He calls Don on it and says childishly, "I feel bad for you" and which Don replies "I don't think of you at all". This dismissal of Ginsberg, that he is so beneath him as an individual and employee, and not worth consideration, is based on Don's growing hubris and the fact that the younger Ginsberg and Megan are better at creative ideas than he is.

Roger chooses Ginsberg over Peggy for work on the potential Manischewitz account. When Peggy finds out, she is upset because she thinks that Roger feels she is not as good. Roger explains that he choose Ginsberg because Ginsberg is Jewish. Peggy says it is disloyal. Roger's reply, "it's every man for himself" slighting her more by not recognizing her as a woman.

(This sets up a possible future partnership with Peggy and Ginsberg, who now have a shared gripe against the principal partners, for them to leave and start their own agency).

Betty, finds a love letter from Don to Megan and becomes jealous. Her revenge is to try and break the bond between Sally and Don and at the same time, between Sally and Megan, by bringing up Don's first, now deceased wife ("go ask Megan about it"). When Sally returns and fains innocence to her meddling, Betty is upset and knocks things off the kitchen table. But Betty, instead of causing problems at the Drapers, has caused problems between she and Sally without realizing it. When Megan asked Sally "where did you hear that?" (about the wife) Sally's response was "from someone who doesn't lie." Sally learns the truth about her mother's true intentions which is to poison the relations between all parties. Betty is teaching Sally how to be an adult, but the inadvertent lesson is not to trust the words of her parents.

Other characters express a lack of fidelity in their relationships: Henry Francis says that he "choose the wrong horse to back" creating doubt about his commitment to Governor Rockefeller. Betty herself wonders if she made a mistake by divorcing Don to marry Henry. Pete is unfaithful to his wife by day dreaming about a sexual encounter with Beth Dawes. Pete also becomes angry when his new "friend" at the New York Times turns on him by not writing about the firm after an extensive interview. Megan tells Sally that she won't tell Don about their conversation, but tells him anyway. Roger obtains Jane's participation for a business dinner meeting by buying her an apartment, which he ruins for her by using his dominant and economic power over her for sexual gratification.

On Madison Avenue, everything is for sale, save faith, fidelity and loyalty.

Season 5 Episode 8 Lady Lazarus

A disappointing episode with too many rapid cuts between characters which did not allow the viewer to immerse with the development of the story lines. While I enjoyed the contrast between Megan's quitting the business and pursuing her acting career with Pete's personal family crisis of wanting to be single, neither story really mattered to me, which I attribute more to the editing / directing than the story telling. What I did enjoy is Peggy's growing self assurance (yelling at Ginsberg and Stan to let them know that Megan is talking, and the two of them responding like two cocker spaniels by snapping to attention; getting into an argument with Don (like a married couple) after the failed Cool Whip repartee goes south in the test kitchen). Peggy can hold her own. She enjoys her work and career and she thinks Megan is brave because she is pursuing her acting dream. What is touching is that Peggy is by far the braver woman with her personal work achievements and independence but is not aware of it. Megan, moves from the support of one father figure to another with her marriage to Don and is one of the least brave and the most girlish of all the women represented on the show. As for the men, I'm enjoying the metamorphosis of Roger who is leaving behind the pettiness and competitiveness of the firm and becoming an ethereal and spiritual guru like Bertham Cooper. This is in contrast to Don, who is becoming more staid, conservative and fossilized.

Howard, the life insurance salesman from the commuter train (and the reminder of Death), has started a hidden and double life with an apartment and young girlfriend in the city, leaving his wife alone at home (with an off screen child). When Howard's wife Beth (played by the doll eyed Alexis Bledel) locks her keys in the car, Pete gives her a ride home. She mentioned that she doesn't like the city as it is dirty and there are homeless people. Pete's response is that "you are not suppose to see them".  When Howard's wife and Pete have sex, they share a post coital tristesse and in their sad conversation she compares his eyes to pictures of the earth "blue and round and surrounded by darkness" and the earth as "tiny and unprotected". Her melancholy echos later when Pete talks to Stan and says the same thing. But his melancholy is not the same as hers. Hers is based on rejection by her spouse, the resulting loneliness and the meaning (or lack of it) of life. Pete's is lonely too, but his loneliness is because he is not honest. His life is composed of social maneuvering, mis-truths, false advertising, pitches to men for sales and for women for sex. Pete's isolation is self inflicted where Beth's is not. While Pete wants to have an honest relationship, he looks everywhere but home, to his wife who has been the most supportive and instrumental in the development of his career.

Megan wakes Don up at night and tells him she is not interested in advertising. She rejects Don's world forcefully. He is visibly hurt and later as he escorts her to the elevator, he forgets to get in with her as he says goodbye. As he waits for another elevator, the doors open and he looks down an empty shaft into the void. Is he looking at the emptiness of his life? His work? That Megan has left?

Don is also getting out of touch with the times and with youth "when did music get so important anyway?" he asks. Later, Megan gives him the album Revolver by the Beatles to listen to. And the episode starts to close with Don listening to the Beatles song, Tomorrow Never Knows. In closing, Don turns off the song before finishing, learning nothing from the experience.

1: The song lyrics to Tomorrow Never Knows, was based on the book, The Psychedelic Experience, by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. Their book, in turn, was based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

2: Maybe it was the skis that Roger gave Pete, but all of a sudden I got the impression that Megan's character was based (ever so slightly) on Claudine Longet.

Season 5 Episode 7: At the Codfish Ball

This episode opens and closes like a flower, with Sally, on the verge of becoming a young woman, talking to her young male friend, Glen, who is away at private school. The episode begins and ends with this artifice, and while as a whole did not gel for me, I have come to realize how much of this show is about the complex nature of women: their interactions with men and with each other. It is this depth of character that makes the show so enjoyable, even if the overall assembly is slightly flawed. This particular episode seemed choppy when put together, especially with the final scene of Sally commenting on the city (life in particular) as being "dirty", which sounded like an echo of her mother. But when looked back upon the intricate range of situations, emotions and reactions, it is indeed a flowering and living organism.

Sally, talking on the telephone, causes the grandmother to fall and hurt her ankle when she trips over the telephone cord. Later, we find out that Sally has blamed her brother's toy for the accident and has taken credit for calling the police (which she didn't). Sally's deception to her father (and extended family) to make herself more important (and blameless), takes credit for something that is not earned. This is mirrored in Don receiving the award from the Cancer Society for the newspaper advertisement that he wrote when they lost the Lucky Strike account. Don receives credit where credit is not due, and furthermore realizes that it is all a sham when he finds out that his betrayal to a client is considered dishonorable, as he broke the concept of trust. This is also the accusation by Megan's father, that she married a man with a beautiful apartment ("exquisite decadence") and wealth, but she did not earn it on her own; that she has sacrificed her personal goals to achieve social advancement by marriage. Sadly, even when Megan does deserve credit (for saving the Heinz account), she does not accept it. Megan walks in a twilight world of wife, co-worker and daughter, and is uncomfortable transiting through the roles.

In this episode, Megan's character is developed with more background about her French father, a left leaning author (and teacher?) who has a current relationship with a young graduate student; her alcoholic mother, who flirts with men in order to make her husband jealous and has an sexual encounter with Roger which Sally observes (but does not inform). Megan's mother is also a youthful competitor with Megan for the affection for Don's attention, which she notices, but he doesn't ("she touched you six times").

The role of the daughter is shown in varying conditions with Megan / Emile, Sally / Don, Peggy / Kathy. Megan disappoints her father; Don doesn't want Sally to grow up ("remove the makeup and boots"); Kathy doesn't want her daughter to be used by the boyfriend and is against her moving in with him. Emile's comment that "they spread their legs and fly away" is the summation. The rancorous relationship between child and parent is offset by the truthful and honest bond of sisterhood that runs through the episode: between Joan and Peggy, when Peggy goes to Joan for advice ("it's a proposal; go shopping"); between Megan and the wife of the Heinz executive ("I like you like a friend") and tips her off that the account is not going to be signing up with the firm; between Megan and Peggy, when Peggy tries to make Megan take credit for her work, but Megan declines ("this is the best it gets"). Even when Kathy, Peggy's mother is about to leave the apartment. While she disapproves of the living arrangement, she still gives advice (re: loneliness) "get a cat. Twelve years later when it dies, get another one". Sally is the only one who does not have a female confidante. Her role is still that of a child and has to rely on talking to another child, Glen, who as a male, can not be told everything she knows. Sally, who at the beginning of the episode wants to be an adult (Rogers' "date" at the ceremony) is deflated, disappointed and depressed by Rodger's and Marie's sex act. It is knowledge itself that is dispiriting. It is knowledge that makes this show so much fun to watch.

Season 5 Episode 5 Signal 30

This was a very interesting exploration about friendships. Don, in his new role as "family comes first" transformation, vehemently does not want to be friends with partners or subordinates. When he is talked into going to the "country" for the dinner party, the "rules" set by Trudy are "no talk about business or clients". As a result, the awkward socializing (visually expressed by the clashing coats worn by the men) is magnified at the dinner table, when it comes out that Ken is a sci-fi writer, no one cares nor understands nor is supportive of his efforts because there is no connection between them save business.

There is also the false friendship that Lane tries to have with the British Jaguar client, with pointers by Roger and Pete on how to pretend to be friends in order to win the business.

There is the failed seduction between Pete and the high school girl, as he tries to seduce her through a false friendship, but she is uninterested and eventually spurns him for Mr. Handsome who is younger and more direct.

The violation of trust between friends is broken when Ken doesn't invite Peggy to lunch and to tell him about meeting with a publisher and about his writing "the vow". 

The violation of trust is broken between spouses with the visit to the brothel. 

The outward surface of business friendship and civility is broken between the partners when the fist fight breaks out between Lane and Pete (perhaps the funniest scene for me since the Managing Director loses his foot in the tractor episode and gets fired because he can't play tennis anymore {or was it golf?}). 

The platonic friendship morphs towards the beginnings of a sexual relationship between Lane and Joan. Joan's response is get up to open the door for propriety, but it is also a visual metaphor for leaving the door open for a relationship between them.

There is also the complete humiliation of Pete in this episode. He can't score with a girl unless he pays for it; he can't fix the sink; and he can't fight. He is completely emasculated and as he says in the elevator, crying, he is nothing.

In contrast to the broken and damaged relationships above, the relationship between Don and Megan shows her to be a wife but not a mother. (I don't even remember her being in the same room as the kids this season). In the car, Don asks her to have a baby. She says impossible. As Don becomes family centric, my guess is that she will become more independent and either have an affair or leave him.

On a technical level, I really didn't like the editing. Good editing is not noticeable. I haven't looked, so I don't know if the editor is new or if it was done on purpose, but there were a lot of jump cuts that were jarring and reminded me that I was watching a costume drama. There was only one interesting edit that had Ken reaching for the doorknob to leave his office and cut to Lane in the same position opening the door to his office. There were also some tracking shots that I found gratuitous and unnecessary. 

As an aside: I'm 99% sure that the exterior shot that was used as Betty's home with her new husband (a large 3 story brownstone), is located on So. Figueroa down by USC in Los Angeles. Can someone confirm? I use to live down there years ago, and that's my memory. 

Great viewing!

Season 5 Episode 6 Far Away Places

At first, I thought this episode was pretty depressing. But upon reflection, it really was a powerful look at women and their multifaceted roles and relationships with men.

Peggy's relationship with her boyfriend starts the episode with him stating (indirectly) that she is the alpha male and he complains about this, as it violates the traditional roles of the sexes. When the pitch to Heinz goes awry, she leaves work to go to a movie, gets high with a stranger and has anonymous sex with him. But the sex act is her way of re-gaining her dominance in her world with men and she becomes the sexual aggressor by refusing to be submissive.

During the pitch to Heinz ("Home is where the Heinz Is" (where product replaces the human heart), Peggy tells the executive the "truth" that they don't know what he wants, that he knows but won't tell them, and just wants to complain. The executive in response, compares her to a daughter figure, that he dismisses by having her fired from the account. Peggy is not treated as a associate or on equal status as the men, which is echoed by Sally's phone call to Don to complain that she is treated like a second class citizen.

There is also the powerful underlying theme of motherhood that runs through this episode. Ginsburg was born in a concentration camp and reared in an orphanage. This is told to Peggy, the unwed mother, who gave up her baby at birth.

Roger goes to the dinner party with his wife and takes LSD with Prof Tim Leary. This sequence is about "truth and lies". What better person than Roger, who works on Madison Ave and deals with illusion, to appreciate the effects of the drug and welcome the ability to talk truthfully with his wife about their failed relationship. Roger sees himself both young and old and his relationship with his wife more father / daughter. When they finally break up, she says "you never liked me." His response, "I use to." Love was never part of the marriage.

There is also a reference to the 1919 World Series, which was the famous baseball gambling scandal that showed the frailty of men and broke the illusion of baseball as a "pure" sport. The mother theme is also echoed with the woman therapist, who advises the wife/ daughter in her relationship with Roger.

Don and Megan's road trip, dominated by the color orange (sherbet, her dress, Howard Johnson) is a disaster, echoing Peggy's pitch to Heinz. Megan tells Don what he doesn't want to hear: that she has multiple roles: a job with responsibilities to her co-workers, to him as a husband. However, he only lets her have these roles at his convenience. She chafes at being the submissive partner and wants to be an equal, which he doesn't allow her to be. The trigger is when she tells Don to call his mother (last episode we find that he was reared in a brothel and his mother a whore), which sets him off and he leaves her stranded at the motel. Don, being the petulant child, regret his decision to leave his wife (mother), and tries to find her without success, even calling Megan's mother. Driving home, he remembers a prior trip in the car with Sally and the kids in the back seat, and he tells Sally that they are going to their new home. When Don reaches home his finds Megan, they fight, and Don ends on his knees with his head on her womb, declares that he thought that he had lost her. She, reluctantly, assumes the mother role and comforts him.

The episode ends with Sterling, with a drawing of a woman in lingerie crossed out that has written on it "Do Over", tells Don that the firm is having problems because he's been on a love leave. Don by himself in the empty conference room, contemplates the future.

Rich and dense stuff.