SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen this episode, you can find a recap here: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/mad_men/three_sundays.php
This is the episode where we learn that Don's facade may be cracking, and Peggy just might have him beat when it comes to emotional disconnection and compartmentalizing!
As usual, it was Don and Betty who were the most compelling for me in this episode. They were pretty cute together in the early scenes, cuddling in bed and dancing in the living room. But issues with Bobby (who Mommy does not seem to like!) come between them rather quickly. They each take the opposite sides than you might expect from the outside. Betty seems to truly believe that hitting Bobby is the only answer for his naughty ways, and pushes Don into action. After throwing Bobby's toy at the wall and having a shoving match with Betty, Don confides in both Bobby and Betty about his abusive father. It is nice to see Don attempting to form the kind of real connection he has been missing with his family. (Even as he succumbs to the questionable charms of Bobbie Barrett again.) However, there were more than a few scenes where I just found Betty to be horrid, so sometimes I am with Don in wishing he had a smarter, better, more understanding wife! (Not that I am trying to excuse his cheating or general sexist attitude, it's just with quotes like "Do you think you'd be the man you are today if your father didn't hit you?!" she comes off as more clueless and mean-spirited than ever!) Betty and Don continue to navigate their relationship, and it seems like they are both just discovering that the person they married is (sometimes literally) not the person each of them thought.
This is the episode where we learn that Don's facade may be cracking, and Peggy just might have him beat when it comes to emotional disconnection and compartmentalizing! Peggy spends two of the three Sundays with her family, meeting a nice young priest (Colin Hanks) and using her advertising savvy to help him write a punchy sermon. We are definitely supposed to see that Peggy has a real talent when it comes to advertising, much in the same way that Don does. She knows when to play the tough broad, and when to be the sweet little girl "researching china patterns" and the like.
With the priest, she does seem to take some pains to let him know she isn't the devout worshiper that her mother and sister are, and he seems to enjoy talking to someone who isn't a complete sycophant. When her sister hears that Peggy helped him, she is visibly annoyed. I have to say, I wasn't sure about how to read the confession scene between the sister and the young priest. She may have gone there for the specific purpose of souring the pleasant relationship between he and her sister, but I can definitely understand her anger towards Peggy. There does seem to be some jealousy that Peggy gets to live her cosmopolitan lifestyle and "do whatever she wants", but I also feel like she had a point. There have been very few scenes this seas
on where you would ever guess that Peggy had had a child, including times when her child was present.
on where you would ever guess that Peggy had had a child, including times when her child was present. When Father Gill gives her the Easter Egg "for the little one", he seems to be feeling exactly as I do about Peggy. He may have thought that he liked her, but knowing how she completely ignores her child makes him realize could never look at her in the same way again. With all of the parallels with Peggy and Don, I wonder if her knowing that her secret isn't exactly safe will change her cold and calculating ways. Last season, when Don found out that his secret was not as earth shattering as he feared it was, he began to realize the price he'd paid to keep it wasn't worth it. For, Peggy it seems, giving up a child she never even wanted was well worth it, as her career is advancing and her talent is being noticed. Right now, she is seems to be paying almost no emotional price it. It will be interesting to see how having her secret discovered by even one person will change her.
As usual, it was Don and Betty who were the most compelling for me in this episode. They were pretty cute together in the early scenes, cuddling in bed and dancing in the living room. But issues with Bobby (who Mommy does not seem to like!) come between them rather quickly. They each take the opposite sides than you might expect from the outside. Betty seems to truly believe that hitting Bobby is the only answer for his naughty ways, and pushes Don into action. After throwing Bobby's toy at the wall and having a shoving match with Betty, Don confides in both Bobby and Betty about his abusive father. It is nice to see Don attempting to form the kind of real connection he has been missing with his family. (Even as he succumbs to the questionable charms of Bobbie Barrett again.) However, there were more than a few scenes where I just found Betty to be horrid, so sometimes I am with Don in wishing he had a smarter, better, more understanding wife! (Not that I am trying to excuse his cheating or general sexist attitude, it's just with quotes like "Do you think you'd be the man you are today if your father didn't hit you?!" she comes off as more clueless and mean-spirited than ever!) Betty and Don continue to navigate their relationship, and it seems like they are both just discovering that the person they married is (sometimes literally) not the person each of them thought.
Over in work-land, Duck's contact with American Airlines is fired, so Pete's willingness t
o whore out his own father's death is for nought. Duck doesn't get the dressing down that we (and Don) might have hoped for, but he does show himself to be a bit nice than we might have thought a few times during the day. But before they learn that bit of disappointing news, everyone at Sterling-Cooper comes in on a Sunday, and it is fun to see the casual fashion they are sporting. We hear a little jealousy from Joan about Peggy "making more than any of us" and get to see Sally in her father's office for the first time, making comments about Joan's breasts and getting drunk on some one's rye! I don't think Betty would like that if she knew!
o whore out his own father's death is for nought. Duck doesn't get the dressing down that we (and Don) might have hoped for, but he does show himself to be a bit nice than we might have thought a few times during the day. But before they learn that bit of disappointing news, everyone at Sterling-Cooper comes in on a Sunday, and it is fun to see the casual fashion they are sporting. We hear a little jealousy from Joan about Peggy "making more than any of us" and get to see Sally in her father's office for the first time, making comments about Joan's breasts and getting drunk on some one's rye! I don't think Betty would like that if she knew!We get a glimpse of my beloved Roger, paying for it with a pretty escort that Pete and Ken brought in for a client (lovely). Both he and Don seem to be paying for sex one way or another, as Don's dalliances with Bobbie seem to be power plays on both parts. Roger does mention his health, so maybe he is just making sure he can still keep up with the ladies once he goes after them! We also see him with his family (his wife his played by his real-life wife, Talia Balsam, who was also once married to George Clooney. Lucky girl, I have to say!) which I liked. His daughter is engaged and resisting a big wedding, and his poor wife goes on and on about the beauty of her wedding day in heartbreaking little monologue that the daughter seems to be pretty sure is all BS. And of course we get his quote on his love of the chase " "Don't you love the chase? Sometimes it doesn't work out. Those are the stakes. But when it does work out, it's like having that first cigarette." He was talking about advertising, but oh, his poor wife.
So many thwarted goals, so many unmet expectations. A much better episode than the preceding one, and some tantalizing previews for next week!
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