Season 6 Episode 3 The Collaborators

"No lover, if he be of good faith, and sincere, will deny he would prefer to see his mistress dead than unfaithful." - Marquis De Sade

The reference to Munich, is the key to this episode, aptly named, The Collaborators. When Pete asks, "what's Munich?" Roger explains that "we gave the Germans whatever they wanted, and they just wanted more." * The collaborators here are: Trudy, Sylvia, Joan, Peggy, and SCDP when the partners (save Don) pimped Joan to Raymond for the Jaguar account. Germany takes the human form of Don, Pete, Raymond, and Ted, Peggy's boss at her new firm. Each party needs the other in order to survive as it is a symbiotic relationship, however damaged. Sometimes the result is rebellion (Trudy ending the relationship with Pete); or self destructive silence (Joan entering Don's office and pouring a glass of Beefeater gin (a symbol for England / Jaguar) and only saying, "they're here"). For Peggy, it is an uneasy alliance, where she can economically benefit but possibly destroy her friendship with Stan by going after the Heinz account.

On a macro level, we have in the background, the taking of the USS Pueblo ** crew and ship by the North Koreans in International waters. Also the Tet Offensive, a military campaign by the North Vietnamese against the US and South Korea forces during a ceasefire that was agreed to by both sides. These two events at the time were important in US history (in hindsight) and both were seen as violations of trust between international parties. There is also a mention of Jim Garrison, the DA from Louisiana, on a tv clip with Johnny Carson. Garrison believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the sole shooter of President Kennedy and that there was a conspiracy to murder the President. This belief shook the faith in the US Government by many of the populace at the time. ***

When we find out that Trudy has only played the innocent and naive wife and that she was quite aware of Pete's infidelities, we are shocked. We thought that Pete was getting away with it. So did Pete. And we realize how the appearance of a happy marriage was more important to her that a real marriage when she says "there's no way for me to escape; to be an object of pity while you get to do whatever you feel like". She has lived with his indiscretions without complaint, but now she is forced to confront the truth. Pete, too, realizes the illusion when he speaks to Bob Benson "it's all about what it looks like." Pete has now "donned" the public mantle of a philanderer. He and Don are now the same sad figures in terms of their relationships with women.

We should have seen Pete's fall coming: at the start of the episode, Pete offers to give Brenda tickets to the play, Hair, and she says, "all my forays into Manhattan have been a disaster." After they sleep together in his apartment, she emerges from the bathroom and says, "you're out of toilet paper." Her statement become real: the "s**t hits the fan when she comes over to his house beaten by her husband and Trudy finds out about the affair. Pete asks Bob Benson to go buy him some toilet paper. Bob agrees and becomes his new collaborator, replacing Trudy.

Trudy has been indispensable for Pete's career. She is the one who talked her father in helping Pete by moving his control of advertising of his company to SCDP. It will be interesting to see if she will now be part of his or the firms' downfall.

When Megan is talking to the maid and Sylvia enters, it is in the laundry room. This is where Megan starts to "air her dirty laundry". When she later confides to Sylvia upstairs about the miscarriage, it is not because she is a woman (although that is part of it) but it is because they are both Catholic. Megan says, "I knew what I wanted to do. I was so relieved that I didn't have to do anything." Here Megan is talking about having an abortion, but Sylvia doesn't agree with her. This is why Megan does not join them for dinner and tells Don, "I'll be better by the time you come back".

The unseen blood of the miscarriage, Brenda's bloody nose , the blood soaked rag. Even Peggy's feminine hygiene product, given to her as a prank, reminds us of sex, motherhood and birth.

When Don gives Sylvia money, it is as though he is paying for sex, and she seems to enjoy it. When Don has flashbacks of his mother, it is when they move into the brothel where his aunt lives with Mack, his new "uncle". Don (or rather his true name, Dick) stands in the hallway with his mother who is pregnant with his soon to be brother. Don looks with interest at one of the prostitutes. Later, when his is watching his mother through the peephole with Mack, the prostitute calls him a dirty little spy and says "you get your own room, that's how things work around her." Don's mother becomes a prostitute because she has no other option available to her to take care of her family. She "collaborates" with Mack. Don, due to his young age, is helpless to help. He is also attracted as he grows into his sexual self and is conflicted with the role that his mother has taken on: as mother and whore. It is this blend of motherhood, sex and money that swirls around Don.

* the agreement by the Western Powers was the tacit approval for Hitler to invade Czechoslovakia. 

** the crew was released in December 1968. The ship is still held to this day by the North Koreans.

*** Garrison's writings influenced the 1991, film JFK, by Oliver Stone.

Postscript: when Peggy has a meeting with her copy writers it is about the Clearasil account. In real life, Elizabeth Moss, who plays Peggy, starred in a Clearasil television ad when she was a young girl. Clearasil re-released the ad due to the shows success. It is still on today. Having Peggy talk about the Clearasil account, becomes an in house joke.