Season 6 Episode 4: To Have and To Hold

"…to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth" - Book of Common Prayer, 1549.

Relationships, friendships, partnerships and marriages are frayed and coming apart in this episode. War is in the background on a macro basis and creeping into social conversations (dinner with Mel and Arlene) as well as the advertising world (Dow Chemical, maker of Napalm, is protested against by Columbia students, resulting in Dow sponsoring Broadway Joe on television, a variety show with Joe Namath and friends). The glass ceiling for women and minorities is also touched on (Kate's inability to go any higher in Spokane and Dawn's not seeing any other African American faces except the shoe shine man. Joan's realization that she has no real power (firing Scarlett but she is over ruled by Harry).

Kate, from Spokane and a top earner for Mary Kay Cosmetics, is a friend of Joan's and visiting New York for a job interview with Avon. When we first see her she is applying rouge to Gail's cheeks. It is the color of "rust" (decay) and Kate is trying to cosmetically cover up the look of age. The Broadway Joe variety show is also a cosmetic gloss for Dow Chemical: to make them look good in the public eye and to forget that Dow makes a chemical warfare agent that is destructive to vegetation, animal and human life.

Women's roles in business is also looked at: when Joan tells Kate that after 15 years "they treat me like a secretary", Kate responds "I don't care how they make you feel, it's right there for you for the taking." When Joan gives Dawn the keys to the supply room and the time clock, Dawn says, "I don't care if everybody hates me here, as long as you don't." Joan has the respect of women, but not of men. 

There are also marriage references and the dependence on men: Timmy, from Heinz, when he is leaving Pete's apartment, removes his wedding ring and says, "I don't need much of an excuse to come (visit) at midnight". Pete offering his apartment to Don for extra martial affairs, a reference to the 1960 film "The Apartment". Gail, when Kate is applying the rouge, "I need all the help that I can get" implying that she needs a man in her life to be complete.  Don cheating on Megan; Sylvia cheating on Arnie. Dawn is also the Maid of Honor for Nikki, and is asked about bridal magazines or events each time they meet. Dawn also complains how she's not meeting any eligible men and when Nikki suggests going to church, Dawn says she doesn't want to compete against the "harlots" there. An indirect reference to Sylvia and her faith that ends the show?

Women's rise to power in the series has been mostly by marriage or by sex or by physical appearances: Betty, Joan (sleeping her way to the top), Megan (from secretary to Don's wife), Jane Sterling (also a secretary at Sterling Cooper to corporate wife), even Gail, when Kate shows here the diamond bracelet watch she received from Mary Kay, says, "what did you have to do to earn this?". The SCDP partnership is also under stress with Harry's demand to be partner saying that he "earned" it, implying that Joan didn't by sleeping with a client and saving the company. She sacrificed her dignity for the sake of financial gain.

Peggy has been the only one who has not advanced her career by her sexuality: it has been by brains and creativity. But it was a shock to Don to see her outside the hotel room door after Don and his team pitched Project K (k for ketchup). He hears her speak his own words "if you don't like what they say, change the conversation." Don and Stan's friendship with Peggy has now been changed from friend / mentor to ruthless competitor.

Mel and Arlene's open marriage (when he propositions Megan and Don, he calls it a "chemistry experiment") is a direct assault on the traditional concept of marriage by separating love and lust. It is echoed in the cab when Kate and Joan are asked by the manager of the novelty themed soda shop, to find out which is the best kisser. Joan says she doesn't want to play that game. 

The color, scarlet, has historically represented adultery. Harry's secretary is called Scarletl. Harry brings up Joan's rise to partner alluding to her sleeping with Raymond to land the Jaguar account. When Megan finishes her bedroom scene with the actor "Rod" (I don't have to point out the significance of this name, do I?) she drapes a scarlet colored robe and goes to her dressing room. She has now become the adulteress in Don's eyes. This scarlet symbol hearkens back in literature to Hawthorne's 1850 novel "The Scarlet Letter" and Betty Davis's dress in the 1938 film "Jezebel". Don accuses her of being a whore, asks her if she washes her mouth out after (kissing) and tells her to go sleep with Mel and Arlene.

The center of the episode, is all about Megan or references to her French background: when we see her at the TV studio, she is wearing a French maid costume and reading, Emmanuelle (1967), a soft core pornography novel about a sexually liberated young woman. Above her on the wall are etchings of French dancers by Toulouse-Lautrec; a French bottle of wine is on the table at the restaurant when they have dinner with Mel and Arlene; Harry tells Scarlet to get a bottle of champagne to celebrate the Broadway Joe sale; Scarlett buys a French scarf for Clara as a birthday present; the French language song "Bonnie and Clyde" by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot is playing at the nightclub that Kate and Joan go to. The references are to remind us of Megan. Her simulated adultery is tame and artificial yet magnifies Don's actions when juxtaposed to his flagrant acts of adultery. His anger rings hollow because we know he is duplicitous. What's good for the gander is not good for the goose. He proposed to Megan on a whim when she was taking care of his children. But now that there are no children around, he doesn't know how to deal with her.

Sylvia has left a penny under the mat as a signal to Don that her husband is gone. Is he the "bad penny" that always turns up? A "bad penny" is a counterfeit coin, like Don. When he gives her the penny, there is a closeup of it changing hands, a visual reference for payment for sex.

Don tells Sylvia to take off her cross before sex. She says, "Why, does it mean something to you?" "No," he replies, "it means something to you." Don, the atheist with a broken moral compass is lost. Lost among the changing attitudes of the times and in his own spin of lies.