mad Men S03E12: Take A Pill And Lie Down
Where were you when Kennedy was shot? Oh that's right, you were 14,000 years from being born. But that is what this week's episode is all about, where people were when the 9/11 of the 60s happened. Kind of. It's also about a lot of other things, like how marriages are compromises to a point, and then sometimes the compromise is no longer worth it. And how the world as we know it hangs on the fragilest of strings, always, and the slightest wind can bring it crashing down. (Magic bullet wind, in this case. Also secret sex wind. And also shoebox full of mysterious photos wind. There are a lot of crazy winds at work here.) It was also about how there are Malcolm Gladewell's Tipping Points in life, past which there may very well be no return, and we have to sit in a dark room and drink our whiskey and consider our own role in what has happened to us, because we are not innocent, and some of us are less innocent than others. It was also about thwarted ambition. And the need to be part of something larger than yourself. The point is that this episode was about a lot of things, and it was great.
The heat is off in the Sterling Cooper building. Pete's secretary brings him the hot cocoa he asked for. Haha, Pete Campbell. Even better: he complains about the hot cocoa! He likes his hot cocoa to be made with milk, not hot water! Well, to be fair, we all like that. But some of us are man enough to KEEP OUR TINY BABY LADY MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT IT. Maybe if Pete Campbell had spent a little more time worrying about his job and a little less time deciding which treat the prince would enjoy, he might not have lost the Head of Accounts position to Ken Cosgrove. (Although, Pete Campbell never really stood a chance did he? Look at Ken Cosgrove's face, we are told.) On the plus side, now he will have plenty of time to fetch his own hot chocolate, and it will be made just the way the little king likes it.
Pete Campbell goes to complain to Harry Crane, and that is when it happens. John F. Kennedy is shot. So Pete Campbell can always say: "I remember where I was on that historic day when I heard the news: in someone else's office, mid-whine." And where was everyone else? Well, Peggy was busy F-ing Duck Phillips, so that's gross. "Tell us the story of where you were when you heard about JFK again, Grandma!" You know how grandkids always want to hear about the JFK assassination's affect on average American citizens going about their business. And Don was wandering around all angry, like "where is everyone, I'm kind of unbearable these days!" Eventually, though, everyone was doing the same thing, in the same place, watching Walter Cronkite (R.I.P.) on TV.
Except for Peggy, of course, who was still in bed with Duck Phillips. Yuck, Peggy.
The important question is: what will all of this mean for Roger Sterling's daughter's wedding?! She is such a crybaby! She should marry Pete Campbell. (Who is not going to the wedding supposedly because no one at work respects him but really because he doesn't want to see his sniveling soul-mate married off to another man. Probably!) In any case, the wedding proceeds according to plan, sort of, except that half of the wedding guests don't show up, and the other half watch TV in the banquet hall kitchen. The good news is that everyone gets to have the prime rib AND the skate. Yum! This horrifying national tragedy is DELICIOUS.
Of course, then Henry Francis shows up and Betty is all like "I'm excited, no, I'm mad, no, I'm excited, no, I'm mad." Don, of course, puts nothing together? He thinks that she is just sad about JFK or something? Well done, Don. For someone who is so perceptive and good at identifying human desire, he is not very perceptive and not very good at identifying Betty's desires! He kisses her and SPOILER ALERT she feels nothing.
Then Lee Harvey Oswald is assassinated, and now Betty is really losing it. Even Don seems incapable of blandly assuring everyone with deep masculine confidence that everything is going to be OK. The world seems to be falling apart at the seams. These girls know how Betty feels. She needs some fresh air. YEAH, I BET. She goes and meets Henry Francis in a parking lot and Henry Francis says that he wants to marry her? Whoa, relax, Henry Francis. We're all feeling a little crazy about the whole JFK thing, but you have spent, like, 45 minutes with Betty. And she's kind of a drag? A beautiful drag, but a drag nonetheless. "I could make you happy," Henry Francis says. Well could you make her less boring and less grouchy all the time? I doubt it.
Betty goes home and tells Don that she doesn't love him anymore. Don ignores her. OR DOES HE?! Well, he does. But HE ALSO DOESN'T! He goes upstairs into the darkness and he sits alone and he thinks about his life. And the next morning he wakes up and he goes to work and he drinks alone in his office. Suddenly, a pipe bursts and the office begins to fill with water. Don just sits there, drinking and staring into the middle distance. Now the water is up to his knees, and still Don does not move. Now the water is up to his waist, and Don lights a cigarette. Now the water is up to the middle of his torso and rising fast. Careful, Don, you are going to drown.
Get it? You get it.
Also: all season AMC has been posting photos from the latest episode on their website, along with one or two teaser photos of the next week's episode, and this is their teaser photo for the season finale?
Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for the season finale, but judging by this photo maybe I should be able to wait for the season finale because how it's just going to be Don Draper looking cool and mostly unbothered?! No, I can't wait, though. I just can't!
Posted by Gabe at 12:35 PM in Love-Watching, Recaps
Tags: Christina Hendricks | Elisabeth Moss | January Jones | John Slattery | Jon Hamm | Mad Men
When remembering where she was on that historic day, Peggy will have to cope for the fact that she was in bed. With Duck.
Score = 4
She will probably pretend she was at lunch and throw in a little double entendre about "the Duck was a little Gamey!"
vomit.
Score = 3
I know a nooner when I hear one.
Score = 0
"You're disgusting...but entirely correct", said Peggy. I love how Kinsey flat out refuses to leave Peggy's office while she's on the phone. Sorry sweetheart, it's the 1960's. Men do not enter offices without making a drink and having a cigarette and they CERTAINLY do not exit upon a woman's request. They either flat out refuse or rape them on the floor.
Score = 4
Just think how Duck is going to remember it. "Oh I missed it because rather than see if the shot president was safe, I had me some hotel sex. I mean if I waited I might have discovered that she considered presidential assassinations a turn off and... well... well, you know. So anyway, yeah I was smoking the ol' post coital"
Score = 1
This may sound silly but the thing that surprised me the most was that Trudy (Pete's Wife) sounded like she voted for Kennedy which would mean she was a closet Liberal. Could it be that Trudy in a mere 6 years could be on LSD in a field listening to Janis Joplin?
Score = 7
I loved when Pete was like "I got fired". No, you didn't. Now stop eating an entire casserole and work on making a baby with your wife. Ah, the American Dream!
Score = 6
Lyrics to I'm Fucking Duck Philips
I’m fucking Duck Philips/She’s fucking Duck Philips/I’m not imagining it’s you/I’m fucking Duck Philips/Around the corner at the Pierre, on the floor, on an unplugged TV by the door, on the bed, in the extraneous roommate's bathroom, on the unfinished Aquanet copy/I'm fucking Duck Philips
Score = 5
Man, this year's Mad Men pie:
Score = 0
Oh no, that season finale picture gives too much away! Don tries to bring skinny ties back and has a secret piece of paper in his jacket pocket!
Score = 3
Will he bring those ties back?
I sense a cliffhangerrrrrr
Score = 3
I do believe that's a pocket square; Don wears either the Presidential or the TV fold. The More You Know (about men's fashion accessories)!
Score = 0
What's up with Roger approaching the border of full on hate with Jane? Having said that, this week's Mad Men pie:
Score = 0
Sorry for the repost!
Score = 0
Loved the Zapruder references in the Aqua Net storyboards. Tagline suddenly changes to "Hold that can outrun a bullet."
Prediction: Peggy's going to get really horny at the mention of JFK's assassination from here on out.
Score = 4
I heard in the season finale Trudy leaves her whiny baby husband to go to community college so she can date the star quarterback of the football team.
Score = 8
and continue to be whiny.
Score = 1
This was the first time I realized it was the same actress. I was like, "PBBPBPBPBPBPTPB!" (that's me spitting out hot cocoa)
Score = 0
I think they did a great job with all the news footage, recreating both what it was like that day, and calling back 9/11 with everyone glued to their TVs 24 hours a day. I actually welled up a bit when Kronkite called the President's death, even though I've seen that footage numerous times.
Then a hint at the fallout, where people react to national crises by making extreme decisions that change their lives, as if they themselves had a near death experience.
It was well done, and I loved it.
Score = 5
Score = 8
I like it, but I thought that the scene after the wedding where Betty is looking at both Henry Francis and Don, and they are both looking at her, and she walks toward them was soooo animated GIF worthy.No need to retort; I know, I should learn how to make them myself.
Score = 0
Last night I realized Harry Crane looks like an exact hybrid of Clark Kent and Fat Elvis.
Score = 6
"I love the morning." - Duck Delahaye
Score = 6
JFK ruins EVERYTHING.
Score = 0
also, "After Roosevelt died, we bombed Hiroshima. That's how we got over it." simultaneously the best and the worst.
Score = 3
I liked how he followed that line with something about taking out Texas and then the rest of the south. I was not alive then, but I have heard that many people really did blame Texas, and specifically Dallas, for Kennedy's death. That seems like such a weird mentality today.
Score = 3
for those who don't know, the joke that Gabe makes about Sterling-Cooper filling with water references this.
NOW YOU KNOW.
Score = -1
One, Two! Two! Two typos!
Sorry.
Score = 0
keep fuckin that chicken, pegs. not duck.
Score = 1
To be all srsgum for a moment, I think you're selling Pete Campbell short. He definitely broke out of his manbaby box in this episode after JFK was shot. He's not skipping the wedding because they don't respect him, it's because he no longer respects them, in part for the hideous spectacle of the Sterling wedding. Just saying, I thought he had great character development in this episode. Also people talked earlier about the lack of any normal, relatable couple, and in this episode it seems like Pete and Trudy were it. Who knew?
Score = 6
I love Henry Francis, but this story doesn't work! The last episode ends on a hopeful note regarding Don and Betty and I thought they were going to stick it out. I wish the writers would have tried exploring their relationship together once Don's big secret was revealed to see if they could make it work or not.
Score = -1
It's so weird, wanting them to work it out despite knowing that Don has had it coming since he took on the persona in the first place. As much as it makes sense that Betty hates his guts and doesn't even want to bother trying it out, it's just so sad to see Dick Whitman without any control, drinking alone in the dark. Or maybe that's just me!
Score = 1
It's not just you, that's exactly how I feel. When Betty came in to tell him that she doesn't love him anymore, I was basically screaming "No Betty, don't!" at my tv, even though he totally deserves to be divorced at this point. Something about him (maybe that Jon Hamm is just a really sympathetic actor) just makes me want him to be happy.
Also, Roger needs to leave his whiny bitch, Joan needs to leave her rapist, and they need to live happily ever after together. Love them.
Great episode.
Score = 0
At least Pete Campbell can say "I remember where I was on that historic day when I heard the news: in someone else's office, mid-whine." I have to say, "I was watching Pete Campbell in someone else's office, mid-whine, on DVR."
Score = 0
Can’t we just have Peggy get knocked up by Duck, not tell him, get fat, abort the baby and casually mention it later on to get back at Duck thus changing the perception of Peggy from depravedly callous to Susan Smithy evil?
Also when the writers of this show came up with the Duck/Peggy storyline, do you think it’s because someone yelled fuckaduck out in a brainstorming session?
Score = 0