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.