It Ain't Me: Mad Men Season 3, Episodes 3 and 4. My Old Kentucky Home, The Arrangments

So we have a late double post! Sorry about that. Now you know why I can't get paid to write this stuff!

The last two episodes of Mad Men have given us a lot of meaty character and thematic stuff to work with! "My Old Kentucky Home" brought us back to that well worn but always interesting trope of class and how it affects people. "The Arrangements was largely about parenting, and the way the decisions made by parents continue to follow their children throughout their lives. Since I skipped blogging last week, I am going to do things a little differently and just talk about where are characters are after these two illuminating eps!

Don- In "My Old Kentucky Home", we see how uncomfortable Don feels in his own skin and in places like Roger's country club. It was so amazing to see Don tell a real story, from his real life, to Connie, the man he met at inside the club. It was a rare unguarded moment where could see Dick Whitman, and how different his life was from the life he has created for himself in Don Draper. I think in some ways it also put in perspective his relationship to Betty, because no matter how much he is trying, he can never really be with her while he is keeping this huge secret from her. This country club world is her world, and she has no idea that it's not his. The fact that Don has to be someone else for her keeps an unscalable wall between them, even during tender moments like the kiss at the end of this episode.

In "The Arrangements", where we saw Don a good deal more than we had in the episode before, we are once again reminded why we love ourselves some Don Draper! There is always a pleasure in seeing that the impostor whose life is a lie has far more scruples than most people around him, and I loved his fatherly concern for Horace as he goes forward with his ill-conceived Jai Lai venture. I also loved how once Horace proved he really was too dumb and thought too much of himself to take that advice, Don was ready to "bill it to the kid" (Bert Cooper is going to be so mad about that ant farm!) Watching Don with his kids is also something that makes the viewers swoon, and even though he cannot bring himself to be as involved with them as he should (or wants to it seems), I liked how he told Bobby "There was a person in there." about the soldier's helmet, and the look of sincere sympathy he gave Sally after her sad outburst. If only he could have gotten up to comfort her!

Betty- If these two episodes reminded us why we like Don, they also reminded us of all of the things we don't like about Betty. In "My Old Kentucky Home" she can't even accept a compliment from Sally in a nice way, and shows us that her little back room dalliance with Captain Awesome might not be the only adultery she commits! (I suppose getting hit on while you are hugely pregnant might extra flattering though...). Her coldness towards her family was in full force during "The Arrangements". I thought it was incredibly interesting to see her father admit that he failed her by sheltering her too much, basically telling her that she needs to learn how to deal with life and stop acting like a child! (He was not the only parent in this episode to express that very opinion. Ho-Ho's dad felt much the same way when he said "We didn't know what kind of person we were making.") Unfortunately for him, and for the rest of her family, Betty is not ready to do that just yet. Watching her shut the door on her shocked and grieving daughter proved that.

Peggy- Peggy was on a streak of awesome for these two episodes! Trying weed, telling her sweet motherly secretary that she was going to be okay and get everything she wants, deciding to move to Manhattan because she "is one of those girls", Peggy is showing us a little of WHY it was so easy for Don to give up his old identity, just as it was for her to give up her child, in service of the greater good. Sometimes just deciding to become the person you want to be instead of the person you are frees and allows you to become better. We saw it with Don in the flashbacks he had with the real Mrs. Draper. At first, he was just so happy not to be Dick Whitman that the world was full of possibility! And look where it got him. Worlds away from where he came from, where he was running from. I think Peggy is finding the same thing. Though she carries a terrible burden, giving up that child has gotten her exactly where she wanted, and she knows she can go even further. I bet her new roommate is going to be really annoyed when she finds out that Peggy isn't actually very fun though.

Roger- Oh Roger. Even though he is a black face wearing, cheating, pompous man, I almost wanted to believe him when he said that people were just jealous of how happy he was. But I am pretty sure the fact that just a few scenes before he was singing to his 20 year old wife in black face, something that would be taboo just a few years later, and was at least offensive even at that time, shows us that he is becoming exactly what Don says, "a fool". Roger is the old guard, and he is retreating into denial to try to forget it.

Joan- Ugh, the Joan stuff is just killing me. At her first dinner party for her husband's colleagues, poor Joan realizes that her Doctor isn't all he's cracked up to be. With references to his killing a patient with a mistake ("everybody gets a bad result sometimes...") and the ever more remote possibility of his becoming chief resident, it becomes clear that Joan is undervaluing herself in every arena. How can she not see that SHE is the catch in this relationship, not the other way around? Her incredible ad for Peggy's roommate shows us that she could be right up there with Peggy and Don writing great copy! There seems to be nothing that she cannot do, besides of course break free from the conventions of her time and give herself a chance to be something! Betty's dad's words ring true for Joan as well as his own daughter.."If you'd even known what was possible..."



Other thoughts:



-The real world is closing in on our characters, and watching Sally watch news reports about forced integration and trouble in Vietnam makes me anxious to find out how the show is going to treat the tumultuous times that are coming.



- How could I forget about Sal and Trudy? Ugh I feel so bad for both of them, with Trudy slowly realizing that something is very wrong between them and Sal trying so hard to pretend there isn't. It is even sadder given the fact that of all the married people on this show, these two seem to actually like being with each the most!



-Even though the commercial was a failure, I am glad that Don is going to hire Sal to direct again. They are bonded together by secrets now!



-Stoned Peggy during "My Old Kentucky Home" was great. As was finding out what we already knew deep inside: Paul is a pseudo-intellectual covering up a Jersey accent.



-Pete and Trudy were kind of cute doing their little dance. Kind of sad too, but I feel like we are getting hints that their relationship is becoming a little more functional.



-Poor Sally. I know that Don wanted to go to her but felt like it would be betraying Betty, but man, it was so awful to see her lying in front of the TV in her little ballet uniform! Grandpa Gene bought peaches for her and everything!



-Next week: things are going to be said. Also, Sally's acting up, and it looks like her hot teacher is about to get in the mix. Bummer for Betty.