...Aaaaaand cue Sally Draper's drug habit. If this show was a soap opera, Sally would already be 18 and on a pole. I've grown to love these informational "move the plot along" episodes. I'm so thrilled that Joan finally stood up for herself and wonder what will happen now with Roger since she is going to be single again. Love those two together. Speaking of Roger, anyone else notice that he's got a ton of cash on him at all times? What's that all about?
Given the wealth these guys have, and that consumer credit wasn't commonplace in the 60's, I don't think there is anything odd about having $1,000 bucks (~6k in today's dollars) on hand. These guys made $5-$10 million a piece during the original SC buyout. I had a feeling Don was hallucinating during the scenes with the ex hookup, but I was dreading the thought that the show completely jumped the shark if the strangulation had turned out to be real. I like how they juxtaposed Don's extreme violence and lack of control with the back-story of the serial killer in Chicago. I also thought Sally was dead under the couch for a minute.
I loved this last episode. I don't think Sally is going to have a drug habit, its too cliche. Sally Draper is funny as shit. The girl is only 12 and she's killing it. I'm surprised that Spoiler They even did the cliche of the dream scene. The scene with Peggy and Dawn was absolutely awesome, Weiner is tapping on the big picture of the times more than he has in seasons past. And Roger carries cash with him at all times, large amounts of it because that's what the cool kids do. Spoiler The only real problem with this episode is the breaking up of Joan and her husband. There was nothing to ever like about the guy, and no reason for her to like him except for his false promise of security which he never fulfilled. This was predictable, we were all just waiting for how it was going to happen.
This is an interesting point. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I am just generally surprised by the cold-heartedness of characters on this show. Do people really abandon commitments so easily, whether you're kicking your husband out or banging your old fling on a street corner? Abandoning your child (Peggy and Pete), ending your lifelong marriage (Roger) for younger tail. Shit, the only character who seems to give a shit about his family (kids) is Don.
Are you suggesting that you think it was cold-hearted of Joan to kick Greg out? The guy raped her. And she finally acknowledged this. WHY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THAT? There wasn't even a mention of it on Jezebel of all places, not even in the comments. Her lines that were like "I'm glad the Army is making you feel like a man, because I'm sick of being the one who has to do that" and "You never were a good man, Greg, and you know what I'm talking about" were AWESOME. I actually cheered, alone, in my room. I thought that was a ridiculous bit of character development, in a good way. I was so proud of her. Especially since the whole episode was Chock Full O' Rape (TM) with the background of the Chicago rape/murders, and Ginsberg's whole Cinderella pitch (WHAT THE HELL? Also: foreshadowing? There is something weird about this character, and I'm waiting anxiously for the reveal) and Don's dream which wasn't rape but all about violence against a woman. (Not to mention that there was kind of a rapey vibe from the woman herself, she was straight up predatory, even if it was imagined.) This was a crazy dark episode. I was super disturbed and uneasy throughout the whole thing, and that image of Sally passed out under the couch because she knew that was how the 9th girl got away made me literally start shaking. That's going to haunt me.
I should probably rewatch the series each new season like I did with The Sopranos. I totally forgot about his rapist ways in her bosses office. I had no idea what she meant and figured they were trying easily get rid of him so they could set up her and Sterling. For a show that prides itself in going against the norm I still think her and Sterling together would be too cliche at this point. Am I the only one who sided with Meghan with her beef with Don's philandering? Though a tad childish, even with Don has been completely open with her (second life and all), I still feel like she has the right to be guarded and questionable about it. Dude has spent season after season cheating on Betty, he really could get more of what he deserves in the regard. Spoiler The whole strangulation scene was predictable from the start given Don's on going sickness and the murder theme through out. But honestly, Don hasn't really had to deal with much of a hidden side for a while. His second name/life thing died when real Don's wife died and it wasn't really causing that much trouble anymore by then. I think they could have had Don hide this murder like he did his previous life, with out changing the whole focus of the show to an American Psycho-esque escape from justice thing. Something daring they could have pulled off. But it was good as is.
My friend has a theory about Ginsberg. He sees a hierarchy of characters "graduating" to the next level into each other's lives. In other words, Ginsberg is Don, Don is becoming Sterling, and Sterling is becoming Cooper--as if to say "here's what Don would've been/would've pulled had he started in the 60s. I think it's pretty interesting especially since Sterling is becoming more and more useless and Don isn't being portrayed as the last minute go-to genius in the pitch meetings. ANd once my friend mentioned this theory, I see the parallels between the characters expanding in each episode. I like Ginsberg and also can't wait to see where that character goes. He's just a fireball. God I didn't even catch that and I watched it twice. That just added so much more to an already beautifully written show.
I think it's pretty cold-hearted to just end your marriage like that, yes. Though I share your appreciation for her character development, Joan is so incredibly inauthentic and shitty of a person that I can't really say I would cheer her on for anything at this point. Joan treats everyone on the show like shit, including her mother, and is generally an oversensitive, whiny brat. The only time I ever really empathized with her was when Roger ignored her on the street while waiting for a cab immediately after a booty call a few seasons ago. Which brings me back to my cold-hearted conundrum... Maybe cold-hearted isn't the right word... Perhaps.. Easy? I feel like the people on this show make extremely difficult and emotionally significant decisions (that have serious long term consequences)- including fiancee and au-pere (Pete) raping - far too easily.... "Ruthless"? Just as the characters on the Walking Dead are incapable of rational thought, I find that the characters on Mad Men are increasingly hard to empathize with because they lie/cheat/steal too much and generally abuse eachother's feelings with reckless abandon. Hard to tell if this is just for dramatic effect from the writers or supposedly indicative of the moral decay that pervades our society even then. It seems to happen all the time with virtually no consequence.
Meh, I think it's fine to end a marriage when the husband is a piece of shit. I actually think he's the only character on the show that has absolutely zero redeeming qualities.
I was actually surprised she stayed with him after he raped her. He was a dickhead and who cares, the kids not even his anyway. I'd rather see how it unfolds if Roger finds out its his.
Didn't she already tell him? I thought she explained to him it couldnt be rape boys because he was out of the country by the time they got Biz-ehh on that stoop. My memory if fuzzy it has been a while since Ive seen it.
Yeah, she did tell him. Then they went to the doctor who shamed the hell out of them, and then Joan went to get an abortion and got embarrassed when the other woman in the waiting room asked her how old her daughter was. So then Joan left, told Roger she took care of it,and then visited Greg so the math would add up a little bit.
I have noticed that Joan is a very divisive character along the lines of men/women. Most of the dudes I talk to have little sympathy for her, while most of the women I talk to are intensely sympathetic (me included). I think it's because a lot of us have been there. She's trying to survive in a world that tells her she's a sex object, so she trades on that, and gets boned (sometimes literally) over it time and again. Her standing up to her husband was not a cavalier, spur-of-the-moment decision aimed to hurt him. It was a realization that this would be her life forever, constantly disrespected and deserted by the one person she had clung to for support and security. There is no security in Greg, only future abuse and pain. With Kevin in the picture, she knows that's just not an option. She has her mother there as a big flashing beacon of what life will be like if she stays with a shitty military man. Time and again they've alluded to the fact that her father cheated on her mother incessantly and then left them. Telling Greg to leave is a way to hold on to the last bit of power she has left, which is determining just when she'll be left high and dry by a shithead of a husband. Just like cutting off a leg to prevent the spread of gangrene, she's making a hard decision, but the right one. Also, any person who has ever had a domineering, passive aggressive mother can attest to the fact that Joan could treat her mother way worse, and for just having a baby and getting dumped on by her douchebag husband, she is being almost angelically patient. If it were me, I would punctuate every sentence with stabs, done with a rusty fork coated in AIDS. That mother is lucky her daughter doesn't seem like the type to keep rusty forks.
I like Joan, she did the right thing. The bigger problem story wise is that there really was no basis for her to even like Greg besides the sense of security he might have. We quickly learn he's a creep, and then he's not even a good doctor. With everyone on the show, there are redeeming qualities, there never was with Greg. It is understandable how she hooked up with Roger, not only does he have money, he's funny. He gives a shit. It is good that they finally got rid of Greg the way they did. People with too much time on their hands say getting rid of Greg the way they did was Weiner commenting on the bloodlust fans had for him because no one ever liked him. At the same time the episode was couched in these murders that the ad people were looking at casually, while everyone else should have been freaked out about him. The audience wanted this man to go off to war and die, but Weiner brought him back and sent him away unharmed in response.
I think their whole relationship was just a commentary on The Times. Joan married him because she was supposed to be married by her age. I think she liked him just fine and that was good enough because the social and biological clock was ticking. She thought that was her only choice. When he went away, she had the typical awakening that she could make a fulfilling life on her own with work (even though she's a bit stifled there) and raising her kid more or less on her own. Now maybe she can find someone she actually loves instead of someone she expects to depend on. I think you could kind of see that switch when he kept saying "They need me," and her knee-jerk reaction was going to be "But we need you too," and then she realized "Wait...no we don't." I think that was the experience of a lot of women right around that time. That's actually interesting, because I reacted that way. When he got let off easy I found myself thinking "Noooo I wanted him to die in Vietnam!!" And then I realized I was being the morbid employees and Weiner was being Ginsberg. Damn you, Weiner. Damn you.
This post over at Slate made a point of mentioning that most of the characters on "Mad Men" have at least one redeeming quality that either mitigates or disguises their otherwise reprehensible ones. In Greg's case, I think it's rather obvious: he's a committed and dutiful soldier in a show where the main character is an egregious military deserter. Volunteering to return to Vietnam is a complete 180 from Don assuming an officer's identity to flee Korea. Whether or not that qualifies as "redeeming" depends on your own tastes.* I'm not bringing it up to defend him, only to point out with a certain level of glee how deliberate and complex "Mad Men"s narratives are. *Pete Campbell never served in the military, and we're not entirely sure how much veteran Bert Cooper knows about the full Dick Whitman Story. However, I'm willing to bet all the money in Roger Sterling's pocket that if he ever found out that Don deserted, that would be the end of their relationship.
I wouldn't consider Greg a "commited and dutiful soldier" because I don't think he either joined nor volunteered to return for the reasons one would attribute to being a good soldier. If you disagree I'll try to explain when I haven't been drinking all day. But OH MY GOD that would be a great plot point with Roger finding out. I bet they would do that. Maybe in conjunction with 'Nam protests?
I'm calling him a good soldier that in the most superficial way possible. Sure, Greg's complete motives for joining the military (failed surgeon with a wife to support) and volunteering to return (emasculation?) are not cut-and-dried; I didn't necessarily call the guy a hero. Likewise, Don's reasons for deserting Korea (a lucky case of mistaken identity) aren't completely attributable to cowardice. I'm just making the distinction between Greg and Don for the sake of reiterating that almost all of the characters in "Mad Men" are more complicated than you'll find in run-of-the-mill shows, which makes watching and discussing it much more rewarding.