And I Thought it was Strange You Said Everything Changed You Felt as If You'd Just Woke Up: Mad Man, Season 2. Episode 9 , Six Month Leave

Oh Freddy Rumsen. In an episode where characters were gaining and losing my sympathies like wildfire, there was one person who I always felt for, and that was good old Freddy. I loved that even so drunk that he wet his pants and passed out, Freddy still knew the pitch by heart and could do it perfectly. I loved that Peggy felt so awful about losing Freddy, that she acknowledged the way he brought her up from the secretarial pool, and that she even said to Don, "But I love Freddy!" I also love Freddy, with his crazy Mozart playing zippers and all. It was tough for Don and even Roger to let Freddy go. Sterling-Cooper is certainly a haven for alcoholics, but even Roger has to draw the line somewhere. And he does, to Don's and of course Freddie's dismay, draw it at peeing yourself and passing out right before you have to meet with clients. Even as both Don and Freddy try to laugh it off, they both know that Roger is right. Times are changing, and being seen as a drunk old boys club is starting to become a little outmoded. Freddy, like so many other characters this episode, has woken up to what his life has become. The problem is, he has no idea what do with that life.

Don and Betty are also becoming cognizant of the realities of their lives and their marriage. Don, who starts the episode loyal and moral on behalf of Freddy, ends it admitting that he doesn't even feel bad about hurting his wife, just relieved to be able to lie a little less. And maybe to be away from her for a while. Betty on the other hand is clearly depressed and angry. The scene when he drops the kids off is great, with Betty realizing what kind of person Don really is. "Did you just come up with that?!" Don on the other hand, is becoming more and more himself. He mentions his father in conversation to Roger, and lets his cool persona slip when he slugs Jimmy in the underground casino. (They actually let Jimmy be for real funy for a second there too! "How'd I take that Floyd?!") Betty and Don may be busying themselves with work and strange tormenting of "friends" (I wonder how Sarah Beth and Arthur's lunch went?), but they are in same boat as Freddy. Fully aware of things they have been working so hard to deny, but without any idea what the next step is, or what they want it to be. Stranded on an island of reality.

Over all of this hangs the pall of a star's death, a woman who seemed to have it all and yet could not be happy. Like Don, Marilyn Monroe only seemed to have everything one could ever want. I liked Joan's reaction to her death because of all the Marilyn/Joan references throughout the show. I also liked that Roger knew her well enough to know what was really bothering her. "You're nothing like her." Joan's suspicion that using your sexuality to go through life may be an empty way to live has just been confirmed, and she to is standing at the precipice. She knows she wants something else, but she doesn't know what that something else is.

Which brings us of course to Roger. My dear Roger, a man of action surrounded by all of these paralyzed people. When Mona said he was in love, I was sure I had missed some super-hot reunion between Roger and Joan! But instead he is leaving his wife for Jane, a pale imitation of the woman he wants. By the way Jane was sniffing around Don, Roger may be her second choice as well. Roger may have taken action, but I think he knew almost immediately that his plan was not as good as he thought it was. He has made an enemy out of his wife, and also of Don. Don knows that Roger used him, using the info Jane gave him about his marriage to get him to say the things Roger wanted to hear, and then again to blame for the idea of leaving his wife. Of course Don would want Jane away from, because he now knows that she is not "a discreet person" as she claimed to be.


This was a great episode for the Roger lover in me, (if you notice all of my pictures feature that silver fox today!) and I think it really moved the story forward on a lot of fronts. So many characters standing, facing the truth and yet unable to move beyond the stasis of their lives. I think in upcoming episodes there will be no choice but to move, either back to the status quo or in some entirely new directions.