What you are now, we were once: Mad Men, Season 3 Episode 7, Seven Twenty-Three

This was a rough episode for Don Draper. It was as if he was embodying Joan's quote about the unpredictability of life from last week. He woke up, looked great, felt great, shined his shoes, knew exactly where to move that lamp, and made his way to the place where he always shines brightest, Sterling-Cooper.

And when he got there...Conrad Hilton was waiting for him! Best day ever Don! However, the shine comes off pretty quickly when it is revealed that Conrad Hilton is going to be a pain in the ass. He reminds Don that he's not that young anymore (These young people give us energy!), chides him for being late, not having a bible or family photos, and worst of all gives Sterling-Cooper and Putnam, Powell and Lowe their moment to lock him down. Suddenly, Don doesn't have all the power anymore.


Don is being reminded of his ineffectuality everywhere he goes in this episode. The teacher that he lusts after (even as he tries to tell her, "Nothing's happening. We're just talking.") pegs him as just another suburban dad, burning off boredom by hitting on anything in a skirt and getting drunk all the time. Don, as we all do, wants to see himself as different from the men in his neighborhood. Different from everyone really. Don is a man who left his entire life behind and is living out his own fantasy. Self-made man in every sense of the word. He created this character, Don Draper, and this character is bullet-proof. Smart, handsome, great at his job, ethical, kind, can get any woman, can charm any man. But...maybe not? Maybe instead of turning himself into a fantasy, he somehow became, just a man? A man with a family and a job and boring things to do on the weekend and stuff he doesn't want to have to deal with all around him. All of a sudden Don Draper is no longer what he wants to be. So he finds himself asking, who would Dick Whitman have been?

The teacher's appraisal of Don is a little harsh (because let's be honest, there is something extraordinary about him), but not as harsh as the one he makes of himself. When the drugs the beatnik robbers give him kick in, he hallucinates his father, telling dirty jokes, looking like the epitome of everything he ran from, calling him a bum, a liar, and someone who doesn't even work for a living. He even acknowledges the fact that "he can't be tied down", and for a moment at least, sees that as a negative instead of a badge of honor. Don is seeing everything he ran from, everything he did not want to become, but also the failings of his own character. He wanted so much to become someone better than his whore-mongering, abusive father, but has had to make so many little compromises, tell so many lies to do it. And in these moments, where he's not even sure who he is, he's also not sure it was worth it.


The question for Don is, what happens when fantasy becomes reality? Dick Whitman could not even conceive of the life he was going to have as Don Draper, but when he imagined it, I am sure a cold bitchy wife and an old man blackmailing him into a contract were not in the equation. He just knew he wanted something better than what he had. Except now he wants the same thing. He wants better than Don Draper. He wants to move to London, to be powerful, to be a terrible husband with a happy wife, to be a father when he feels like it and a Lothario when he wants it. And because he can't have these things, these superhuman wants and needs, he feels impotent, old and trapped. "I signed it."


Trapped. That is a word that truly describes the way Betty Draper is feeling. New baby (that did not magically fix her life), fighting children, a closed off husband, even a decorator that doesn't want to hear her ideas! She is looking for her own small ways to get the hell out, for a while at least. With Henry she is getting a little thrill, a taste of real power, not "the guys down at the office really love my lyrical prose about Kodak" power, but "I advise the Governor on all matters" power. And he is a man attracted to her fragility, instead of repelled by it (as I am willing to bet Don once was as well). But Betty's not all dizzy spells and fainting couches, as her conversation with Don re: Roger's phone call revealed. I have to say, I LOVED the exchange between her and Don about the contract. Don- "I have all the power. They want me but they can't have me." Betty-"You're right. Why would that has anything to do with me?" Oh snap Betty! She knows that Don's contract with Sterling-Cooper is a proxy for his contract with her. "What, you don't know where you'll be in three years?"



Just as Don's ways as a husband have sent his wife looking for another man to make her feel special, his ways as a boss have sent Peggy into the arms of Duck. Literally into his arms. The whole Peggy and Duck sleep together thing came completely out of left field for me, but the more I think about it, the more I kind of like it. Here's why:

-Peggy could really use a good go-round.

-Duck was a character that I actually liked, despite his pathetic jealousy of Don.

-After Don said to Peggy. "You're good. Get better. Stop asking for things." She screwed him over with his rival (it would kill him to think about Peggy and Duck together, work wise or otherwise!) and THEN Bert Cooper pretty much said the same thing to him!

-As a lead up to the Duck/Peggy sex, we got a Peggy/Pete scene that kind of made me some kind of secret Peggy/Pete shipper. I know this is not the kind of show that is supposed to have shippers, but come on! "Stop coming in here and infecting me with your anxiety!" Maybe these two crazy kids can make it work.

-Peggy looked pretty into it. And I want her to be happy.

-It's not like Duck is unattractive really...he's just older than her. I mean he's no Roger, but I'm sure he does all right for himself.

So go Peggy! I hope Duck wasn't just using a really hard sell just to get you to be disloyal to Don and leave Sterling-Cooper though.

Stray thoughts:

-No more contact with Roger Sterling!!! I better get plenty more contact with Roger Sterling.

-Bert Cooper about Conrad Hilton "I hear he's a bit of an eccentric." Roger had the best look ever in response to that.

-Betty was an anthropology major at Bryn Mawr! There are layers to her we have not seen yet.

-Is that teacher crazy? I am getting a possible Fatal Attraction vibe from her.

-Vietnam is still hovering around the edges. We know it's coming.

-That fainting couch does look terrible there.

Next week:
You know better! Don't even ask. Sally's got a temper?