If anybody missed Michael Ginsberg’s previous throwaway
comments about signals invading his brain as a sign of his growing mental
problems, the severed nipple he offered to Peggy was a definite confirmation.
The signs were all right there but I guess nobody at
Sterling Cooper and Partners saw it. When Ginsberg was railing about the
computers taking over and upset about the hum of the machinery, maybe it was
easy for everyone to tune him out as just a goofball. But cutting off a body
part a la Van Gogh is not. I wish he’d received some help sooner. I liked the
slow burn that built to the psychotic break. This dates back to the fifth
season of Mad Men when Ginsberg told
Peggy he was born in a concentration camp. The information was upsetting in
itself but the way he told it, likening himself to an alien because he was the
only one he knew with his origin, was haunting and poetic and dreamlike. That
scene always stayed with me but I had no idea it would come to fruition like
this.
After opening that box with the nipple, Peggy could use a
new job or at the very least, a vacation. After Ginsberg left on a stretcher,
she cast a furious look at the monolithic computer that was driving her
co-worker insane. Is that rage at what the creatives feel is pushing them aside
or something different?
With Ginsberg out as the agency’s rising creative force,
this may clear the way for Don Draper to return and save the day. He tries a
risky gambit, crashing a meeting with Phillip Morris, trying to thwart plans by
Jim and Lou to have a Draper-free company. It was thrilling in the moment to
see Don appear to again become the Don of old, presenting compelling pitches to
clients. The fear for Don is that it’s too late and that the new people from
Cutler Gleason Chaough have taken over Sterling Cooper from within and there is
no more place for the old guard.
Don did seem much more eager to repair his relationship with
work than to repair his marriage. Initially he and Megan seemed to be in a good
place but of course only the reappearance of a homeless and pregnant Stephanie
could bring him out to California a weekend earlier. Her presence, and her
deeper knowledge of Dick Whitman, perturbed Megan enough for her to offer the
pregnant woman a check for $1,000 to be on her way. Megan is only playing the
role of the bohemian so was she just discomfited by the appearance of an actual
bohemian woman?
All Megan’s scenes in this episode were a performance, the
more blatant of which was the flirty dance with the other guy at the party. (Am
I the only one who pictures the Laurel Canyon apartment in a treehouse? I kept
expecting it to crash down to earth with the footfalls of all the dancing.)
There was also a subtlety to what Megan was doing, despite the steamy
three-way, and I couldn’t tell if she was trying to make Don jealous to draw
him back into her life or push him away. I enjoyed Megan’s pissy dish-rattling
when Stephanie called.
Also not getting along on the marriage front are the
Francises. As usual, Betty is being an asshole toward her kids, threatening to
break Sally’s arm and causing Bobby constant stomach troubles. This episode
brings a new wrinkle to her character: a rift with Henry. The writing of this
was a little obvious, as Henry telling Betty not to think was cartoon-villainish
and Betty’s defense of her intelligence and fluency in Italian seemed like a viewer
speaking through the screen at Henry.
Betty’s not wrong, though. She’s an educated woman and
should not have to abide having her husband tell her to look pretty and keep
her mouth shut during a progressive dinner. She did that enough when she was
married to Don. Is her second marriage following some of the same patterns?
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