At the last minute of Mad
Men, I was sure Don would tell his fellow partners to jump in a lake. After
all, he had an offer from a rival ad agency and the demands for him to stay at
Sterling Cooper and Partners were strict: working for the guy who replaced him,
never being alone with clients and as Joan spat out, the killing blow: “Except
for client events, there is to be no alcohol in the office.”
Why would Don stay somewhere he’s clearly barely tolerated
when he has a path out? Maybe his whole awkward day of hanging around the
office broke him down. Unfamiliar faces greeted him and so few seemed happy to
see him again. He got a chilly greeting from Joan and Peggy told him they don’t
miss him (but would she really rather work for Lou with idiot secretary
Meredith?). He had to sit all day in the creative office, eating and sandwich
and flipping through magazines, while the partners figured out how to deal with
a prodigal son that they never wanted to see again. When he handed Dawn his
coat and hat, the only place she could put it was in her own office because he
has nowhere to go. If he’s to stay, Don will be ensconced in the office of a
man who hanged himself. Roger argued that Don is a creative genius but as Joan
said, “This is working” without him.
It was telling that when the very busy Dawn said she
couldn’t personally deliver his typing ribbon and paper (Honestly, Don, I know
you’re an executive but can’t you just buy it yourself? You have nothing better
to do), he petulantly told her of course he didn’t make plans because he
assumed she was coming over. Don had come to depend on her company, one of the
few things to make him clean up and put on a suit. He’d also come to depend on
Dawn being the only one at the agency he could order around and with her new
position, she just doesn’t have time for him.
Maybe Don is accepting the new rules at Sterling Cooper
because it’s a little stability, perhaps something to keep him sober, as the
rest of his world falls apart. A surprise visit to Megan in California quickly
turns sour as, already annoyed at Don for inserting himself into her career troubles,
she figures out he’s been fired and lying to her about it for months. Like his
brutal honesty at the Hershey’s meeting, Don tries to tell the truth but has
yet to master telling it at the right time.
There’s a parallel here between Don’s attempts at sobriety
and his attempts at being honest. In both cases, he is learning as he goes and
making mistakes along the way. As people sometimes find alcoholics are no fun
when they get sober, do people like Don’s lies and stories better than his
truth? Both times he’s come clean to people, it’s caused him to lose something
dear. What most people would take from that is that maybe they shouldn’t have
lied in the first place but with someone as used to deception as Don, in life
and in the inherent BS of advertising, maybe the lesson he’ll take is that he
should just keep on lying so people will accept him. Better to keep Dick
Whitman buried.
On the titular, literal field trip, Betty is feeling as
rejected as her ex-husband. It’s both sad and hilarious to see her make an
effort to chaperone Bobby’s field trip and have it blow up in her face. Dressed
in her best political wife suit and big sunglasses, making catty comments about
her son’s teacher, she is out of place on the farm but is still trying. And
what does she get for it? Her son trades away her sandwich, leaving her hungry
and sulky for the rest of the day.
It’s laughable to see Betty that angry, even hours later,
over a sandwich and refusing to eat dinner. She took what could have been a
wonderful day with her son and wouldn’t let go of the one little thing that
marred it. But it’s also very sad because this is a woman who is still dealing
with some deep issues of loneliness and depression. Her marriage to Henry
helped for a while but she seems to be backsliding into what Glenn once called
“profoundly sad.” In Betty’s mind, a traded away sandwich equals the inevitable
estrangement of her children. It’s only a matter of time before the youngest
turns from her, she says. Betty and Don are unmoored and believe they are
losing everything.
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