(S01E05)
"The story wasn't to my liking, but it shows an uncanny understanding of what other people like." - Roger
Am I a horrible, cynical person because I thought that Don was going to pull a gun out of his suitcase and shoot his step-brother? Oh, come on, you thought it too. The way they didn't show what he took out of his private, locked desk drawer, the way they set the scene in the hotel room with Adam talking to Don with his back turned, the way Don was waiting for just the right moment to reach into the briefcase. I thought the show was going to take a dark, Sopranos-like turn.
Luckily, even though Don has a lot of secrets, like affairs and a secret identity, murder isn't on his menu. But you can see how much Don wants to keep "Dick" in the past, so much that he even pays off his step-brother 5G (I was wondering if 5G was going to be a dollar amount or a hotel room number - turns out it was both!). It's interesting how he's so unhappy with his life that he's having an affair with Midge, wants to have an affair with Ms. Mencken, and is always contemplative and quiet, but he'll still spend $5000 (which is more than Pete makes in a year) to keep that life. Doesn't sound like his previous life was that great (when Adam tells him Don's stepmom died of stomach cancer, his reaction is "good."). I guess the summer house Betty wants is going to have to wait.
The part I most identified with in this ep was Ken having a short story published in The Atlantic. 1960 was a great time for short story writers, with a ton of outlets. It's not like that anymore, and that makes me a little sad. Pete and the rest of the Sterling Cooper guys aren't just angry that Ken had the story published, they're practically seething with anger, to the point of almost insulting him. (Paul tries to explain he's acting that way because he didn't know he was in competition with Ken too - Ken just says "you lost," ouch.) Pete asks Trudy to ask her former boyfriend to publish his short story (about a hunter who imagines a bear is talking to him), and Charlie wants to have an affair with Trudy. She declines, but he'll publish the story anyway ... in Boy's Life. The scene where Trudy tells him it's Boy's Life and not The Atlantic or The New Yorker, well, it's almost like Pete wants Trudy to sleep with her ex if it will get his stories in better magazines.
"Boy's Life - it will probably be next to an ad for an exploding cigars."
At the start of this ep we saw that Don won an advertising award, a plaque with a horseshoe on it. Before the scene even ends the horseshoe comes undone and turns over (nice quality job there), symbolizing that Don's luck might be running out. This episode we see that Peggy accidentally overhears him and Midge on the phone, he has to spend the money to get his step-brother out of town, and even when he's not off sleeping with Midge Peggy thinks he is (funny family photo of the Drapers - almost like an Xmas photo taken during a hostage situation). Come on Peggy, Don's not going to be sleeping with someone every time he goes out at noon. And Peggy, telling Joan about Don's affair... bad, bad move.
This show is getting juicier, more complex, and the characters have really taken form. It's one of the very few shows I'd get upset about if I were to miss it.
Five other TV shows where Sarah Palin should appear
Brought To You By ... - VIDEOS
Giveaway Monday: How I Met Your Mother season three DVD
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-17-2007 @ 1:09AM
The Deej said...
You're not the only one who was thinking of a gun
Reply
8-17-2007 @ 1:21AM
MadDeb said...
yes, I asked what does he keep in that locked desk drawer and my husband automatically said a gun. That would have really thrown Don's new life away. Interesting parallel with Pete and Trudy - she has the opportunity to sleep with Charlie and rejects it because of love (loyalty?) to Pete and Pete intimates that she should have done such a thing in order to get his article in NYer. Boy's Life reinforces that everyone sees Pete as a child, not an adult. I thought the other guys were jealous, not angry, that Ken got outside recognition that they all crave.
Reply
8-17-2007 @ 1:27AM
MadDeb said...
Also, interesting about the "private" bank accounts that men need/desire and Don having $5,000 locked away in his desk drawer. Do these women really have no idea about how much money they have in the bank or available for a major purchase? I remember an old Dick Van Dyke show when Laura had her own savings account and what an uproar that caused. That show was comtemporary to the period so I suppose MM is dead on, as usual.
Reply
8-17-2007 @ 7:33AM
Tele-Toby said...
With the show being the brainchild of Matthew Weiner who worked on 'The Sopranos', one could see this show veering off into that territory, but that scene between Don and his step-brother Adam made me think were entering a 'Columbo' episode. It had all the classic elements needed for one of those mysteries to kick off.
And a pesky police detective snooping around Don's life would have then harkened back to the inspiration of Columbo - Porfiry in Crime and Punishment.
But that would have narrowed the scope of the story to just that one element and I think Weiner has a lot more he wants to say about this strange, now alien world (in comparison to 2007).
Reply
8-17-2007 @ 10:29AM
khamel said...
i totally thought it would be a gun, i assumed he would kill his brother the second i saw his face when he got the note. this isn't the end of the don draper mystery man story, we're going to find out who the real don draper was soon enough (sticking with my gatsby story).
this was the best episode of the season. just watched it this morning. it was so well acted and well directed, just loved it.
pete is pimping his wife. he clearly didnt care that his wife slept with the publisher, he wants what he wants (a true blue blood family).
Reply
8-17-2007 @ 11:39AM
Katie said...
One overlooked element of the "mystery man" storyline (or "batman" storyline, as one character dubbed him) is that while Don/Dick and Adam were sitting at the diner, and Adam desperately asks 'did you even miss me?', after a very long pause, and that very stern, robotically contemplative stare that Don has down to a t, Don does finally crack out an ounce of emotion and says yes. Whatever the life was the he left behind, he does have a soul in him somewhere that at least allowed him to miss his half-brother. This show only gets better and better :-)
Reply
8-17-2007 @ 5:04PM
Jon88 said...
Katie -- I had a different reaction to the diner scene. Don took that long to consider the truth vs. what Adam wanted to hear, and then lied "Yes."
Loving this show, but absolutely can't watch it last thing before I go to bed. Thank you, DVR.
Reply
8-17-2007 @ 5:08PM
Jon88 said...
Katie, I saw the diner scene differently: Don took his time deciding between telling Adam the truth, and telling him what he wanted to hear. And then opted to lie "Yes."
Loving this show, but glad I'm timeshifting it. Wouldn't want to go to sleep with this fresh in my brain!
Reply
8-18-2007 @ 1:10AM
Katie said...
Jon88 - True, this may have been intentional deception on Don's part, but what would the motivation for his deception be? Don began and ended the Adam interaction the same way: cold-hearted and arrogant detachment. What could Don gain by pretending to have missed Adam for all these years?
If anything, I think it was a slip on Don's part, a display of legitimate inner feeling (rather than nearly all his apparent shows of emotion, which are wrapped in subtlety and personal gain). But it was a display which he later regretted as seen by the 5 grand at the end. We can disagree, but I personally got the sense that from one line, we were able to peer into whoever "Dick Whitman" is, or was.
Reply
8-18-2007 @ 2:08PM
Roberta said...
I loved the scene of hungover Don and Betsy, hacking up their respective lungs and stumbling around to get it together, like they've done a hundred other times.
The mystery of Don's past is certainly not solved. But whatever the truth is behind his answer to Adam's question, the whole thing is disturbing. He walked away from an eight year old brother who adored him, and the fact that this does not pull on his heartstrings now shows me that he was already pretty damn hardened by the time he left.
The overall dishonesty between men and women, as shown on this show, is startling. I think it's interesting that the relationships Don has with Midge and Rachel have more 'real' dialogue and honesty than any of the marriages seem to. And yet Don did shut down when Midge pushed him this week.
The money management is an extension of that basic dishonesty. My suspicion though, is that there were many women who did keep an eye on the finances, even acting as the family bookkeeper. I think this is something that helped leverage women in their outcry toward liberation; they noticed they were a lot smarter than they were getting credited for.
Also, keep in mind that this is the WASP slice of life we're peering into. My mom (we're Jewish) was a young mom in 1960 (she was 21), and I suspect things were not this stiff in her world. I keep trying to get her to watch this show...
Reply
8-19-2007 @ 2:54PM
draper said...
I finally got to see this episode. I couldn't wait to see it and I guess that's why it didn't quite meet my expectations.
The whole story about Don and his brother was kind of a let-down. Although I did enjoy the twist about the money, I too was expecting Don to pull out a gun even if it was out of character.
Pete is back to being a complete idiot but at least his storyline never disappoints. I hope we'll see more of his wife, she seems more interesting than I thought at first.
I like the fact that Joan knows about Don and Midge. That should give her some leverage, not that she needs any right now.
Anyway, this episode was just okay. I hope next week's will be better.
http://www.mad-men-tv.com
Reply
8-20-2007 @ 4:42PM
Jean said...
Is this the last episode? I've only read of six total. Will they renew it? Hmmm. And I, like many of you, assumed he was getting a gun out of the drawer. There's still much to be revealed about Don's background (namely that he's Jewish). Will that happen next week? Until then, the always funny Attention Deficit Theatre recap of the 5G episode is up. They get better and better:
http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/2043/50/
Reply