Posted by Kathy Lyford
Cynthia's comments after the jump.
The distance between Don and Betty may be growing but at least they have one thing in common - they both spend the better part of the episode fending off unwanted advances, one more successfully than the other.
After Don Rickles-like comedian Jimmy Barrett (not a real person) manages to insult the folks from Utz potato chips (a real product), Don goes into overdrive to fix things. Poor Lois gets caught in the crossfire and gets fired - setting up something I've been wishing for since the show began: Joan is now Don's secretary, at least until a suitable replacement can be found. Oh, the mind reels at the storylines that could emerge from that pairing.
Unfortunately, while trying to convince the comedian's wife/manager to apologize to the clients, Don falls back into his old ways and before getting down to business with Mrs. Barrett, he gets busy with her. In his defense, she did throw herself at him. But, for the first time we see genuine guilt from Don. Credit Jon Hamm, once again proving himself worthy of an Emmy, for wordlessly saying so much in the scene at the Draper's kitchen table.
Don finally wrangles an apology out of the Jimmy Barrett (pictured left, played by Patrick Fischler), by nearly getting violent with Mrs. Barrett. This makes me wonder what else we may eventually discover about Don's past... and his relationship with Betty. Remember after the incident in season one with a drunken Roger when Betty asked Don if he wanted to bounce her off the walls? Hmm.
Poor lost Betty. Arthur may not know much about riding horses, but he certainly seemed to have Betty pegged when he called her "profoundly sad."
Oh and let's not forget Harry, who finally found his spine (with the help of his wife). While putting out feelers for a job at CBS, Harry stumbles on a great idea and pitches Belle Jolie lipstick a sponsorship on a controversial episode of "The Defenders." (In a nice touch, "The Defenders" episode in question is titled "The Benefactor," which is also the title of this "Mad Men" episode.) Belle Jolie takes a pass, but Harry lands himself a raise and a promotion. Sterling Cooper is taking on television, folks.
Cynthia's comments:
This episode had me at the "God, I miss the '50s line" from Roger Sterling -- soon followed up by "God, I miss the blacklist" from the CBS ad sales exec.
I'd be lying if I tried to claim any real grasp of what was going on in this seg. It felt like one of those episodes that is unspooling a lot of threads that we'll pick up later, long after we've forgotten about them.
The actor who played Jimmy Barrett was absolutely fantastic. I wanted to throttle him (the character).
The silhouette touch in the scene with Draper and the comic's sleazy wife/manager at the bar set was pure genius. What an effect -- like something out of a Look magazine photo spread -- and it probably cost next to nothing.
I agree with Kathy that the big scene with Sleazy Wife was chilling and disturbing. What exactly did he do with his hand once he went up her skirt and had her immobile, pressed up against the table? I'm thinking that if she had the balls to try to squeeze him for a $25,000 "mea culpa" bonus, he was going to show her just what it feels like to have one's balls (or comparable body party) squeezed.
Just when you think Don has had enough and is ready to pack in his personal rat race, he goes and does something like that -- something to indicate his ruthlessness and his strange sense of loyalty to Sterling Cooper. He was going to salvage Utz as a client, no matter who he had to hurt, or pimp out in the case of Betty. The goosebumps on my arms were the size of dimes after that scene. I kept expecting him to whack Jimmy across the face at the table for so unabashedly trying to slither into Betty's pantyhose. But sadly for Betty, Don doesn't seem to love her as much as he loves the firm.
In trying to understand this episode I think there's significance it what seems like a throwaway cliche delivered by Don: "We all work for someone." What exactly that means, I don't know but it seems to play into the seg's title, "The Benefactor."
Everybody's doing stuff at someone else's not-so-gentle urging in this episode. Harry's wife prods him into asking for a raise. Don prods Betty into putting on her brightest smile and flirting mercilessly with a client. Don prods Sleazy Wife into submission, with force. Duck Phillips prods Don into wringing the apology out of the craven comic, etc.
The only one who seems to flex her free will muscle in a big way is Betty, when she turns down her slightly-creepy suitor at the stable even as she's confessed to her friend that she's had dreams about him. "Steely" seems a good way to describe Betty so far this season.
Other things that stuck with me after one sleepy viewing of this seg late Monday night:
**Why was Don in a mostly empty movie theater watching a foreign film? (After a little Internet research I'm guessing it was Robert Bresson's 1962 pic "The Trial of Joan of Arc.")
**What's up with Betty and her equestrian kick? She's so serious and tough-minded about it.
**Did Don really want Sleazy Wife to talk dirty to him in the contempo sense in that phone call scene?
**"My people are Nordic" -- that line from Betty made me laugh out loud.
I just know there were lots of crumbs dropped on the path of this year's storylines. The return of the Belle Jolie exec and his brief encounter with Salvatore was highly intriguing. I'm guessing it won't be the last we see of him.
And I also agree with my esteemed colleague that the idea of Joan and Don working together is kinda atomic, when you think about it in id and ego terms.
In a credit to Vincent Kartheiser, I found myself missing Pete Campbell in this episode. I like the actor who plays Harry Crane -- and I loved the device of using an actual, infamous "Defenders" episode -- but to Kartheiser's credit -- there's no one I'd rather see Don pick on than Pete.
Also, not enough Peggy this week. I'm sure we'll catch up with her soon. After all, she still has a lot of 'splainin' to do.
The distance between Don and Betty may be growing but at least they have one thing in common - they both spend the better part of the episode fending off unwanted advances, one more successfully than the other.
Don finally wrangles an apology out of the Jimmy Barrett (pictured left, played by Patrick Fischler), by nearly getting violent with Mrs. Barrett. This makes me wonder what else we may eventually discover about Don's past... and his relationship with Betty. Remember after the incident in season one with a drunken Roger when Betty asked Don if he wanted to bounce her off the walls? Hmm.
Cynthia Littleton is deputy editor, news development at Variety and a veteran television reporter.
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I'm very surprised that you characterize a man forcibly pulling a woman's head back by by her hair and shoving his hand up a woman's vagina as, "nearly getting violent with Mrs. Barrett." People should call that rape. This is why men think that women enjoy rape. Because women don't see rape when it happens to other women.
Posted by: E.Nowak | August 28, 2008 at 02:31 PM