The episode starts with Don on the train and we find out that he is not really the Don Draper we know as someone calls him by the name of Dick Whitman and names the platoon he was in. Don plays along while looking over his shoulder to make sure that noone overhears him and it sets the tone for the episode which seems to be the secrets the various characters seem to be keeping and the face they present to the world like everything is okay.
Pete comes back to the office from his honeymoon and it's hard to believe that he was missed that much to get as much a hero's welcome as he did. In the elevator he tells his guys a gentleman never kisses and tells and I scoff at Pete considering himself a gentleman. Anyways, he continues to try to convince them that marriage is the bomb by saying "he gets to go home to dinner". Next thing we see him exchanging very charged glances with Peggy clearly recalling their night together before he got married. He tells her she looks nice and also tells her he is married now and it can't happen again and Peggy lets him know she understands. Yea, Ok Pete. It was so hilarious seeing him pawing and begging for Don's approval and Don dismissing him like an annoying dog. haha.
It's Sally's birthday party (so hard to believe Kiernan Shipka was that young when Mad Men started) and Don and Betty get to play host to the couples in the neighborhood including the divorced mom, Helen Bishop who has been judged already. Don who seems to have picked up mistress #2 with Rachel Menken by kissing her and letting her know he is married just always seems uncomfortable when he's home.
He's building the dollhouse and one of Betty's friends makes a comment "What a man!" as a compliment to Don and Betty agrees knowing deep down that he is not all he is cracked up to be. The secrets continue as one of the husbands hits on Helen and when she steps out for a smoke with Don the wives alert Betty and Betty sends Don to get the cake. Don never comes back in time to cut the cake, he instead exposes his misery by attempting suicide on train tracks. He gets home very late with a puppy as a gift for Sally. Betty is not pleased but it's one more secret added to this unhappy household, Betty beginning to realise she is drifting further away from her husband and Don basically just tried to end his life.
Altius says:
The third episode of Mad Men begins with a shocker. Don is on the train on his way to
work when he meets an old acquaintance who calls him by the name “Dick Whitman”
and Don answers (!). A few minutes later, Stan and Peter are discussing Don
when Stan says, “Draper? Who knows
anything about that guy?” and boy is that statement apt. I thought we’d
established Don as a brilliant ad man and devoted family man who clearly has a
problem keeping it in his pants. So who the hell is Dick Whitman and why does
Don answer to that name? Unfortunately, this being Mad Men, we won’t be told in this episode and we’ll have to wait
for some elucidation. However, the fun is in the journey right?
Speaking of not being able to keep it in his
pants, Rachel Mencken, heiress of Mencken’s department store, is back this
episode and she and Don continue their not so light flirtation. Their
flirtation progresses to a passionate kiss this time however, Rachel quickly puts
the kibosh on it when she discovers that Don is a married man. In a state of
disappointment and high emotion, she asks that Don remove himself from the
Mencken’s account in order to avoid any further awkwardness between the two of
them. I have a feeling that we definitely haven’t seen the last of Rachel.
Weasely Pete Campbell is back from his
honeymoon and he wastes no time in disabusing Peggy of the notion that there’ll
be a repeat of his pre-wedding indiscretions. Peggy has definitely got the
better end of the deal here but the look on her face is like somebody kicked
her dog. I’m going to need Peggy to do better here. Of all the men in New York,
she’s got to be able to do better than Pete Campbell.
Back in the Draper household, it’s Sally’s
birthday and Don and Betty are throwing a small party for her and the
neighborhood kids. However, practically from the moment Don wakes up, he starts
knocking back the beers, swiftly escalating to the hard stuff. I mean I get it.
I wouldn’t particularly want to be sober around a bunch of hyper children all
under the age of 10 either but Don is really
going at it. Something tells me that the drinking has just as much to do with
the mysterious “Dick Whitman” as well as self-medicating in order to deal with
so many children though….
Betty invites scandalously divorced Helen
Bishop and her son Glen (real-life son of Mad
Men creator Matthew Weiner) and their appearance at the party causes an
unsurprising stir. The women are threatened by her existence and subject her to
several not-so-subtle digs, while the men seem strangely titillated by her mere
presence. The creepiest of them all being the husband of Betty’s bitchy friend,
Francine. He ostensibly offers to do a good deed by offering to take Glen out
to play football etc. with him now and again. However, Helen sees right through
his overtures and has no problem putting him in his place. I cheered.
Besides kissing yet another woman who isn’t his
wife, Don saves his assholiest moment for the end of the episode. Betty asks
him to go and pick up Sally’s birthday cake, which he does begrudgingly, but
instead of bringing the cake back home, he keeps on driving right past his
house and goes MIA for several hours. Betty is understandably worried sick
until she realizes that he’s gone missing on purpose. She is humiliated in
front of the other parents and I really do feel for her when Don shows up hours
later with a dog (really?!) in tow for Sally and their other, silent, son
Bobby.
In later Mad
Men seasons, I convinced myself that I’d always hated Betty but watching
this episode made me wonder why I ever felt that way? I hate myself for
subconsciously seeing her as the “nagging wife” because this episode reminded
me that boy, did she ever have a reason (s).
Until next time folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment