This week’s Mad Men was all about secrets. It seems like everyone at SCDP is hiding something these days. The show was bookended with references to The Beatles concert, first with Don calling to tell Sally he’s taking her (was that Betty being happy?) and then with Megan delivering the tickets from Harry. And wasn’t it ironic that Megan (referring of course to the tickets) tells Don something to the effect of everything has worked out, when we know that almost nothing is going right.
First we have Don, whose very existence is threatened by an unexpected background check initiated by the firm’s new client North American Aviation. We see Don immediately run to Pete and it would appear that Pete knows Don’s entire secret. I mean, obviously Pete is aware that Don’s not really Don Draper, but are we to assume he learned everything from looking through the box or has there been a separate conversation at some point?
Betty, despite being rattled by the department of defense showing up at her house, doesn’t out Don, and while this was obviously at least partly in her own self interest, we definitely saw a more sympathetic Betty this week (and a nicer one – will this last?). And even though she says she doesn’t want secrets with Henry, obviously she’s still keeping Don’s secret to herself.
So it took Don what, ten years of marriage and 3 kids before he told Betty his secret, and that was only because she found out, but now he tells Faye after a few months? Is this going to come back to bite him?
I liked that Pete told Trudy he’s tired of dealing with liars and cleaning up their mess (meaning Don), when of course, Pete’s also living a lie, and feeling the baby kicking should have reminded him of that fact, huh?
What was up with the look Don gave Megan at the end? Hopefully we don’t have a repeat of the Allison fiasco.
Jon Hamm sure is getting good at fake vomiting. I wonder how many more times they can work in a Don Draper puking incident this season.
Next we have the secret that Lanes been keeping from his family. Mainly that he’s dating a waitress from the Playboy Club, when he apparently hasn’t officially ended his marriage. And how about Lane’s dad clubbing him in the head with his cane? I guess he meant business. So now Lane’s taking a leave of absence, but obviously keeping the reason a secret. Are we going to see Lane again, or is he going the way of Sal? Are we seeing the demise of SCDP?
Finally we have the secrets of Roger and Joan, and of course the question of whether Joan went through with the abortion. Mrs. thinks no, and they sure did seem to allude to that, and while I would tend to agree there’s the part of me that thinks this is what everyone is going to expect and the writers might take it in another direction. Either way I bet they string it out until the season finale.
And if indeed Joan did keep the baby, her secret would be an interesting parallel to Roger’s secret (the loss of the Lucky Strike account) in that both can only be kept for a short time. Roger has thirty days and Joan has until she starts showing and it’s going to be fascinating to see how this gets resolved.
And speaking of Roger’s secret, I like how he went back to his office, got drunk and started calling (drunk dialing?) contacts from his rolodex. Isn’t it appropriate that Roger’s contacts all appear to be dead? He’s been shown to be the old guard all season and here we see how out of touch he is having relied on the Lucky Strike account to keep him relevant.
Overall another great episode in my opinion even though no appearance by Peggy, which I think is the first non-Peggy Olson episode yet, right?
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