A few people have told me they really liked my post a few weeks ago about about an episode of Mad Men, even people who don't watch the show. The next episode was all about parents and children.
Gene was acting irresponsibly with his grandkids even though they liked it. Then he discussed his funeral arrangements with his daughter Betty even though she didn't want to. "I don't understand why you like talking about this when you can see so clearly that it upsets me. It's selfish and morbid. I'm your little girl and I know it must be horrible to be looking at whatever you're looking at but can't you keep it to yourself." And then Betty doesn't do any better with Sally when they found out Gene died.
Don has a few moments of reflection looking at a photo of his parents and then putting Gene's cot away and getting out the crib for his new child.
The office life was about a client's son wanting to irresponsibly invest heavily in jai lai. The guys in the office act like kids in a candy store and only Don acts like a parent, by having a problem with this. In fact he brings in the client (the father) who says the son is a disappointment and has to make his own failures if he's ever going to learn. Don also solves the issue of who's going to direct the ad by treating the employees like children, "I could go on but I shouldn't have to". Don acts like Sal's father giving him confidence to direct his first ad and Sal acts like a nervous child about it with his wife (and there's more going on there).
Peggy is all child in this one, first with her sister and mother and those relationships are screwy and then as the teenager first moving out with trying to find a roommate and having the other kids (her co-workers) tease her and then with Karen the new roommate as she pretends to be someone else so she'll be liked.
This was another episode where every scene easily mapped to a theme and interestingly Don was all parent which I think is a running theme this season. But last week's episode I have more of a problem with, maybe that's why it's titled The Fog.
The best I can come up with is it's about the American Dream and how these characters think of it, but I can't sync everything up with it.
Peggy tells Don he has everything she wants and in great quantities and he says "Yeah I guess I do", but most of the rest of the episode seems to put that in doubt (as if we didn't know that already). His great job that he's so good at is now a pain. He has a penny pinching boss and if he misses half a day of work to have a baby, the whole company stops without him. He tells his British boss to think about the men's morale not just his own, but then Don doesn't really think about Peggy's when she asks for equal pay.
His wife Betty is having their third child, but he tells Dennis the prison guard he already doesn't spend enough time throwing the ball around with his son. Later on he says he probably won't sleep for the next 6 months but in the last scene he doesn't move at all when the baby cries at night (that would be Betty's job). In the opening conversation with the teacher he says he knows that the death of a parent can affect children and later on he says bad parents are no excuse for being a criminal.
Betty while drugged (in a literal fog from the title) says he's never where you think he is and accuses the nurse of having slept with him. In her dreams she's trying to break out of her prison of a life, trapped in a loveless marriage and raising kids she doesn't seem to want, but she captures the caterpillar before it turns into a butterfly and her dead mother tells her to close her mouth before she catches flies (which she does, adorably). He father describes her as a house cat, very important with nothing to do, but she wants more even if she doesn't know what.
Pete and Peggy are wooed by Duck to move firms. Duck seems happy in his new job and Pete and Peggy are shown not to be in theirs. Pete yet again whines that the offer isn't just for him, he seems to have to share everything with others. I've seen some comment that his work storyline showed him being a progressive thinker on race, ahead of his time, but I don't see it that way. He's starring at Admiral TV's flat sales figures but he needs someone else to point out that the cities they're doing well in have large black populations (are great jazz towns). He does take some initiative to turn this into a sales plan but what he calls "his research" is nothing significant. His conversation with the Hollis the black elevator operator was wonderful, but it pointed out his cluelessness about anyone else. Pete was generally interested in getting info from Hollis but was oblivious that Hollis was fearful of his job for just talking to him. Pete brings up the American dream of buying a house, car and TV, but I'm not sure he recognized Hollis' stare as indicating that might be white American dream. Pete is also unsuspecting that Admiral might not want to become a company selling to Negros.
This is 1963 and racial tensions are building in this show. I had to look up Medgar Evers who was referenced a few times. It will be interesting to see how the characters deal with it. Don was disapproving of Roger's blackface routine a couple of shows ago, but he's not championing equality for anyone. We present day viewers might be surprised by Pete's use of the word "Negro", but by having Bert use "Colored" Pete is the progressive. Peggy brings up the "equal pay for equal work" law and this offsets with Betty's role as housewife and what would now be called a horrific child birth experience.
The last significant amount of time was with Don talking with the prison guard. Dennis admits his fears of becoming a parent and they bond for a moment, but when Don passes him in the hallway at the end Dennis looks away. I'm not sure what this means. He was pushing his wife in a wheelchair and there was no baby, but he was smiling beforehand so it didn't seem like they had lost the baby. It just seemed like the connection to Don was over now and I don't really get that.
There were also two scenes with the teacher. The first made sense in the context of Sally dealing with Gene's death and Don and Betty as parents. The second though, she calls the house at night and has a conversation with Don while she's have a drink and her bra strap falls out. In a previous season this would suggest she's another woman coming onto him, but I don't really get that sense. Is this supposed to show Don's growth that he's not interested in her?
Overall, The Fog is probably just Don's life. Previously he was confident in what he was doing, even it wasn't so good. He was good at his job and liked it and had the facade of a family and slept around and drank and partied all the time. Now he's questioning what he wants and doesn't see these things as he used to. Does he want to be a good parent? Does he want to be a good husband? What does he want from work?
There were a number of scenes where Don struck me as being out of character. His British boss said he's not usually this emotional. He doesn't realize his keys are in his hand when Betty says she's in labor. When she comes home he asks Betty if she wants something to eat and while she starts to get up, he says he'll get it. Earlier he's shown cooking a snack for himself and shares it and a moment with Sally. He opens up a bit with Dennis (I have that dream of being in prison) and (after a jarring cut from Betty's dream) is shown shaking the cigarette machine. He tells Betty she looks beautiful in the hospital when she doesn't. He was actually being supportive and then she says she wants to name the child after her father that hated him.
"Everything is going to be fine." Don said this line tonight to Betty, to Dennis, to Sally, to Peggy, and maybe to others. I'm suspecting it won't be.
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