I love Mad Men. I love its witty dialogue, authentic sets, wonderful acting and winning blend of melodrama and high comedy. I love the show so much that I am spending my penultimate night of Wildcat Welcome week writing about this episode. But all that love will be put to the test if Christina Hendrickson’s Joan Harris actually leaves the show.
This was a big, event-filled episode with lots of plot developments and one severed foot, so I’m going to separate the show’s moments into the good, the bad, and the absolutely awesome.
The Good
- This episode revolved around the arrival of the partners from Britain’s Putnam, Powell and Lowe. These men, including the young potential Sterling Cooper partner Guy McHenry, were as stuffy and dry as you would ever expect British businessmen to be. From Guy’s ominous introduction to his American coworkers (“I know everything about you”) to one of the partners scolding Lane Price for not being pleased about his “promotion” to Bombay (“One of your greatest qualities is that you always do as you’re told”), these Brits were immensely entertaining. I also enjoyed how every American character was so stunned and dumbfounded whenever they listened to the partners, as if these men crossed a galaxy and not an ocean to arrive at Sterling Cooper.
- Though I’ve already stated how upset I would be if Joan left the show, I must admit that her plot line was very strong. Joan’s husband predictably did not attain the coveted Chief Resident position, so her dreams of becoming a rich Betty Draper-clone housewife are put on hold. Fine by me: Viewing Joan as a wife and mother would be as jarring as watching Don perform janitorial duties. Despite my selfish wish to see Joan stay at Sterling Cooper for the rest of her days, I truly sympathized with the woman when she emitted that dry sob during Guy’s toast. Kudos to Christina Hendrickson for selling Joan both as a sex goddess and a vulnerable, naïve mortal.
- The Draper household was depressing as usual. Sally would not go near her baby brother Gene because he reminded his big sister about their recently deceased grandfather of the same name. Behaving as the soulless ice queen we all know and love, Betty Draper decided to buy Sally a Barbie doll, giving it to her in the guise of a gift from baby Jean. It’s great how January Jones’s Betty Draper turns every maternal behavior into something feral and mean. She’s always spitting “Go watch TV” at her kids like some Gestapo officer and she was just thrusting that Barbie doll in her daughter’s face as if she was going to pound her with the box. As terrible a mother and person as she is, Betty has to be one of my favorite characters on the show since she really is the nightmare version of the perfect mom from every 1950s-’60s sitcom.
The Bad
- A couple of plotlines didn’t seem to go anywhere, or at least they just fizzled out with extraordinary speed. Case in point: the reconciliation between Sterling and Draper. If I ever get in a fight with a friend, I’ll know to take them to a barbershop because apparently that’s where all broken ties can be mended with no questions asked. And what happened to Don potentially being sent to England? Will that be picked up again?
- This isn’t really “bad” per se, but the ending scene in which Don tells Sally that it is a wonderful thing to have a blank slate was a bit laughable. I mean, this is Don Draper we’re talking about. All he seems to do is succeed at his job, sleep with beautiful women and look handsome while spacing out. Shouldn’t he be the last person to discuss how great it would be to start all over?
The Absolutely Awesome
- If I’m forgetting any important details about this episode, blame it on the party scene. Because when the world’s stupidest secretary ran over Guy’s foot with a John Deere lawnmower, my mind was blown. I can’t decide which part of the scene I enjoyed the most — the very conceit of keeping Lane Price at Sterling Cooper by having his replacement’s foot cut off, the decision to shoot the blood splattering all over the male copywriters instead of taking the expected shot of the secretaries getting soaked or the look on the secretary’s face as she was driving the lawnmower. I’m going to have to go with this last detail. I just love how she looked so determined to drive that lawnmower. She was probably thinking “I set out to make an ass of myself and that’s what I’m going to do, damn it!” What a shocking, funny and brilliant scene.
- Best line of the night: regarding Guy’s loss of his foot, one of the British partners laments “He’ll never be able to golf again.”
- Best scene of the night: Surprise! This award does not go to the lawnmower fiasco. Rather, I must bestow this honor upon the hospital conversation between Don and Joan. This moment may have been the first point in the series in which we have seen these characters interact. The awkward silence in the hospital gave way to Joan kissing Don on the cheek while Don tells her to get home to that “lucky husband” of hers. This goodbye was not only quite touching, but it also planted the seed for what must be one of the most appropriate and pleasing hypothetical affairs in television history. These two would be perfect for each other: Joan and Don are both incredibly sexual, very good at their jobs and so intelligent and charismatic that they seem to walk on air. These two need to get it on very soon.
Lingering Questions
- What role will Conrad Hilton play in the rest of the series?
- How would you characterize the relationship between Peggy and Joan? Loving pseudo-sisterhood or jealous rivalry?
- Who is this new copywriter in glasses (the one standing next to Pete as Cosgrove rode in on the John Deere)? Is he Crain’s cousin?
- Will we ever find out what happened to the original Bobby Draper?