Season 6 Episode 9: The Better Half

"It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are."

- Roy Disney

The episode is called "The Better Half" and the main characters are given sexual, emotional and work choices within their triangles: Don with Betty and Megan; Betty with Henry and Don; Peggy with Don and Ted; Peggy with Abe and Ted; Joan with Bob and Roger; and Joan with Bob and Pete. Megan also has the distinction of playing two roles on the TV show, a brunette and a blond against Arlene, a bi-sexual, who chooses pleasure between a man and a woman (or perhaps both at the same time).

There is no surfeit of conflict here: it begins and ends with Peggy between the two creative heads Don and Ted. She does not take sides and is criticized for it by Don, and later by Abe who calls her "complacent". Peggy later accidentally stabs Abe but does not blame her, yet calls her the "enemy". Roger and Pete are bookends to each other and are both estranged from their families; Betty and Don rekindle their sexual attraction to each other; and every time we see Don with Megan, we hear police and / or ambulance sirens, signaling trouble. 

At summer camp, Bobby teaches Betty and Don a song, "Father Abraham had Seven Sons." When they sing, they raise their right arms, which is the symbol of the raised fist, a gesture used to signify unity, solidarity and resistance. It was most famously used in 1968 (the year of the episode) during the Summer Olympics, when the African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, stood on the platform and received their gold and bronze medals with their fists raised and heads bowed while the Star Spangled Banner played. At the time, this gesture was a symbol of Black Power for African Americans. Their non-verbal communication became front page news around the world.

We are also given an abundance of political references to external conflicts: when Duck Phillips is talking to Pete about a potential job, Pete asks a question instead of answering one. Duck calls it a "Yankee wrinkle" a reference to a New Englander from a Southern perspective. The Civil War is also brought up when Arlene is rebuffed by Megan and says "status quo ante bellum, everything as it was" a reference to a time before the (Civil) war. Race too is referenced with the mention of the Planet of the Apes movie, a parable about race relations in America, and when Abe reminds Peggy that the neighborhood youth (criminals to Peggy) were brought to America in slave ships. And as Abe becomes more radicalized, he calls a NYPD officer a fascist and voices his solidarity with the May strikes in Paris (France) and the Prague Spring (Czechoslovakia) against the Soviet Union. When Don comforts Megan on the balcony, she is wearing a t-shirt with a red star, which is the trademarked symbol of Macy's department store*, but the red star has also been associated with Socialism and Communism since 1917**. When Abe agrees to move from their neighborhood and sell the building, he says "not everyone is a pioneer." While we take this to mean a reference to their failed attempt to gentrify the neighborhood, we should not forget that the "pioneer" movement was an organization for children modeled on the Scout movement and run by the Communist Party. The Vietnam War is also obliquely mentioned when Joan reminds Roger that Kevin's father is an Army doctor "a hero over there" and the nurse that Bob Benson recommends to Pete is "Army trained."

The conflicts of East and West (Cold War and Vietnam War), Black and White (race relations in America), Culture and Counter Culture (Tradition and non tradition) and the rising emergence of women breaking the glass ceiling in corporate America are the recurring sub themes of the show. And while we shouldn't give too much weight to these signs and symbols, we should acknowledge them as cultural shadings for the overall development of the plot and tension between the characters.

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* When R.H. Macy was a sailor, he received a star shaped tattoo. He used this symbol as branding when he opened his eponymous store in 1858.

** Megan's father is also a Socialist / Marxist.

Season 6 Episode 8: The Crash

My heart leaps up when I behold

A Rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the man;

And I wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.      

- William Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up" 1802

When Peggy quotes Wordsworth's poem with the line "The Child is father of the man", she is giving us an idea of the structure of the episode. Wordsworth wrote how a child sees the world, so sees the man, i.e., our experiences in our youth, shape our perception and emotions in the future as adults. When Don sees Peggy comforting Ted, in his drug induced state he is reminded of his illness as a teenager. Amee Swenson, a prostitute in the brothel, takes care of him during his fever and coughing* attacks, spoon feeding him soup. Don's memory of this reminds him of the Granger Oatmeal ad campaign that he previously designed, showing a Norman Rockwell type illustration of a mother feeding a small boy. Don finds it "in the archives" i.e., his memory. When Ken performs the song and dance routine, Don asks, "where did you learn that?" Ken answers, "My mother, no, my first girlfriend". Here is the key to Don's attraction and conflict with Sylvia: it reminds him of Amee Swenson, the mother figure / prostitute who was also his first sexual experience. Amee also betrayed him by telling his family of their experience resulting in the young Don being beat with a spoon by the step mother. 

Peggy is also the mother figure / girlfriend in this episode, first comforting Ted, then being sexually attracted to Stan. Peggy's advice to Stan, to experience grief and not bury it with drugs and sex is what Stan (and Don) should be doing, but don't. It is the road not taken, as she and Ginsburg quote Alice** to give us a literary equivalent to the surrealism they are experiencing in the office.

Christian symbols pop up: "I hate how dying makes saints out of people" when describing the death of Frank Gleason; Ginsburg comparing Stan to St. Sebastian (death by arrows) and then throws a Xacto knife to his arm; Stan says that he's come up with 666 (the numeric symbol of the Beast in the Book of Revelation) ideas for Chevy: Sally reading Rosemary's Baby***. However, the symbols seem more cultural flotsam than a meaningful plot line.

We also find that Wendy, who offers herself sexually to Don and then she sleeps with Stan, is Frank Gleason's teenage daughter. She is the mirror to Sally and we can only assume that she is using sex, as mentioned by Peggy, to dull the emotional loss of her father. Sally is also beginning to be aware of her sexuality and dressing provocatively. Betty asks how she earned the money to buy the skirt "from working on a street corner?".  We have the tension pitting the jealous (and protective) mother with the daughter and morphing Don's memories into the mix that combines the confusion of emotions of mother and girlfriend.

When Ida robs the apartment, she tells Sally that's she's Don's mother. Ida is a counterfeit mother to a counterfeit son. And even though it's preposterous, Sally believes her, because she doesn't know her father. Ida also becomes the embodiment of advertising, as discussed by Don and Ginzburg, which is to say anything to get your foot in the door. And when she steals, what does she steal? Time from Don (watches)****.

The Crash, starts with a car crash and ends with an emotional one. Wendy uses divination of the I Ching to arrive at Don's silent emotional question: "does anyone love me"? Don's self realization leaves him cold to Sylvia, Megan and to his co-worker and rival Ted, who he dumps the responsibility of the Chevy account on.

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* Don's coughing and smoking makes me think that the show may end with Don dying of lung cancer.

**
“Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which road do I take?' she asked.

'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat.

'I don't know,' Alice answered.

'Then,' said the Cat, 'it doesn't matter.” 

-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

*** In the book and movie, the husband is an actor (like Megan) who "prostitutes" himself to Satan and pimps his wife to have his child. Betty says that Megan was on the "casting couch" (prostituting herself) in order to get a role on Broadway. The implication is that Megan is "preparing" Sally for sex .

**** We also learn that they work in the "Time Life" building.

Season 6 Episode 7: The Man with a Plan

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men*

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

Modern Translation 

The best laid schemes of mice and men

Go often awry, 

And leave us nothing but grief and pain, 

For promised joy!

- Robert Burns, from his poem, To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough, 1785

Don's brilliant plan that landed the Chevy account becomes real and the (painful) merger of the two firms is played out (perhaps represented by Joan's cyst which was benign but painful?). The effects and repercussions of it shake the identity and insecurities of several characters. We are given a preview of the conflict during a meeting with the partners. Bert Cooper reads a draft press release about the union where he says, "and in closing" and stops: he's missing the ending. He doesn't know it and neither do we because it's ambiguous and changing.

Chaos reigns as Ted's firm moves in. Space is tight, compressed and claustrophobic. People are let go (Roger lays off Burt Peterson to protect himself), jockey for power (Joan and Moira) or maneuver for territory (Peggy gets a windowless office with a hand made door sign that says Chief Coffee Writer and Harry complains about being moved again to a smaller space). The creatives with the two firms could also not be more different: Stan and Ginsberg represent the hip, smart, pot smoking creative team for SCDP versus the white shirt and tie, whispering to each other CGC team. The only two people who seem to enjoy the merger is Roger and Jim, who both act royal and imperialistic. During the commotion of the office, there is also an odd moment when movers bring in a "modern" chaise and it is carried up the stairs. We later see it in Roger's office when he fires Burt. Burt can't figure out how to sit on it and asks if it's a bed.**

Don is the primary focus in this episode and his world goes upside down. In fact, we are told this twice: once, when he says to Sylvia that he wants her to please him, she replies, "I can stand on my head and do that at any time". And again, in the plane while flying up to visit the Mohawk Airlines, Ted tells him, "you think you're right side up, but sometimes when you're flying you're upside down". The merger has caused Don's world to become unsteady. We see Don's jealousy of Ted when he gives up his chair for Moira and when Ted asks the secretary taking the meeting notes a question she makes "goo goo" eyes at him. Don doesn't like it. And on the plane trip, Don looks disgusted and says that it doesn't matter what he says to Mohawk, because "you just flew your own plane to see him". Don is not the alpha dog any more.

When the episode begins and the elevator door opens to Arnie"s and Sylvia's hallway, we see a suitcase and a hat in the middle of the floor. We hear Sylvia yelling, but we never hear Arnie. It's as if he's not there. The conversation is one sided and she says "you are not taking care of me, you are taking care of yourself". When she calls Don at work and wants to see him, he does the same thing to her, symbolically locking her up in the hotel room (when he takes the key) and effectively putting her into solitary confinement with no food or entertainment (before hotel rooms had TVs). This becomes apparent when he cruelly takes her book, The Last Picture Show***, away to read on the plane. Don has gone to a dark place. We have not seen him treat a woman like this before.

So where is Don during the merger? Absent without leave. As one of the key figures and partners, he doesn't care. He's more interested in playing mind and sex games with his mistress than running the agency. Sylvia finally tires of him when she imagines him dead.**** Only then, does Don feel anything. Sylvia's problem is that she confused sex with love. Don doesn't know the meaning of love, only the meaning of sex. The most important thing to happen to the firm and he is not there, mentally or physically. Don's secretary is also absent. Don repeatedly looks for her. When Peggy says that she spoke to Dawn on the telephone, Ted says "which one? Black or white?."

Other absentee players: Pete and Pete's father who is a ghost in his mother's memory. We learn from his mother, who appears to have Alzheimer's, that he, like Pete, was a womanizer and also had an apartment in the city. We realize how detached Pete is from family and not just with Trudy: he didn't offer his brother the chance to take SCDP public and lies to his mother repeatedly about dates and events. He has become her caretaker because he could not admit that he is separated from his wife due to adultery. He also lost his accounts due to adultery. He sees his position at the firm as tenuous and missed the Mohawk meeting because of his mother. Pete is caught in a hell of his own making.

The Man with a Plan, has many guises: Pete's swinging bachelor pad has become a small cramped apartment that he shares with his senile mother. The plan to go public fell apart and the partners will not become millionaires. Arnie's plan to become the first American heart transplant surgeon doesn't pan out and he wants to move to Minnesota. Don's plan for the company merger is realized, but Don didn't realize the affect it would have on him or others.

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*John Steinbeck, in 1937, named his book "Of Mice and Men" from this stanza. The book was about unfulfilled dreams and plans that go horribly wrong.

** The chaise longue is a LC4 Villa Church and designed in 1928. For years Le Corbusier claimed exclusive credit for it. However, Charlotte Perriand, who worked with Le Corbusier in his architectural practice was the actual designer. It has only been in the last few years that she is being given proper credit for many of his iconic pieces. This piece of furniture, like the women of the time and shown in the series, are mostly uncredited or invisible. For more information on her please visit:

http://designmuseum.org/design/charlotte-perriand

*** The book is about loveless sexual alliances in a small dying town.

****Don's death is also alluded to by the dying Gleason when he speaks to Ted from his hospital bed. He quotes Sun Tzu (The Art of War) "if I wait patiently by the river, the body of my enemy will float by". 

Season 6 Episode 6: For Immediate Release

"I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit."
- Anna Jarvis

The episode opens on a Saturday with Joan, Burt and Pete talking with a banker about the value of the company. If the stock of SCDP is offered on the stock exchange, the partners will become rich. The underwriter says to Joan, "your papers are spotless, my compliments to the chef." After he leaves and while sharing a drink together, Pete says to Joan, "everybody wants you" and hints that they should sleep together. She rebuffs him but says when she is leaving, "don't forget, it's Mother's Day tomorrow." 

The roots of Mother's day began as a pacifist movement and goes back to post Civil War. It was an effort to reunite families that had been divided by the warring sides. But it wasn't until 1914 that Congress made it a holiday due to the efforts of Anna Jarvis. Jarvis, however, when she died in 1948, regretted that it became a holiday due to it's crass commercialization. 

Except for Megan, there are no children shown in this episode. And all the women shown who are mothers, Joan, Trude, and Marie, are not seen as "mothers". The women want to be seen as professional (Joan) or as sexy and desirable (Daisy, Megan, Maire, Peggy, Trude). Marie tells us that she hates it when her grandchildren call her to wish her a happy Mother's Day. She also offers her the flowers that she received from Megan to Dr. Rosen as a gift to his wife. The only woman who played the traditional role of mother wasn't even shown: it was Hazel, the TV sitcom that Ted wanted to watch, but "couldn't get the reception." Motherhood had left the building.

Peaches' story about the dog who had a litter in an oil stain in their garage, where each puppy "had a nipple" had Don rejoin, "I love puppies". Motherhood is sexualized by the men. Roger tells Daisy that his mother died so she will have sex with him. Pete tells Trude, "we'll maintain every other aspect of our marriage, except what matters" when Trude denies Pete sex. Marie tells Roger to "forget my name" when he's a no show for the dinner with Herb and Peaches. She thinks it's because she's not attractive because she is a mother / grandmother. 

Fathers take it on the chin here: Don is oblivious; Dr. Rosen borrows wrapping paper from Megan as he is putting something together at the last minute; Dr. Rosen's son is going to take Sylvia for a walk in the park; worst of all Pete and Pete's father-in-law, Tom, meet at a brothel (party house). Tom becomes incensed with this (guilt?) and pulls his advertising business from SCDP. He tells Pete that Trude, "is his Princess" and Pete "is not fit to be a father". Tom is so wrapped up envisioning his daughter in the traditional mother role that he can't identify with the fact that he and Pete share a common interest in having sex with prostitutes. 

Relationships are juxtaposed and compared: Pete and Trude / Roger and Daisy. Don and Megan / Peggy and Abe. Peggy is back down in a windowless apartment building which she shares with a junkie who defecates in the hallway and street kids who hang out on the stoop throwing firecrackers. She fantasizes about Ted* when she kisses Abe. She wants out of there. She's told us in this episode that she doesn't like change and it is a shock to her when the two firms merge. Peggy and Pete's trajectory are going down while Don and Roger are seen going back up. The two advertising firms merged by necessity. It was a successful "Hail Mary" pass that worked at the last minute: they landed the XP 887 (Chevy Vega) account, a car that was later to be shown to have a history of design problems that resulted in numerous product recalls. 

* A literary joke: Ted is reading "Something" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It could have been called "Anything" as Emerson never wrote such a work.