Mad Men Episode 7: Men and Women Talking Past Each Other

[As is our tradition, we again are blogging about the latest Mad Men episode. We welcome your comments.]

While it’s natural for us to label this episode in terms of what we’d been saying for a while that this series is about— namely that things are not what they seem to be and people are not definitely not who they appear to be—it seems to fit. There also are several other themes running through the episode, including one that has people talking to each other but actually speaking past one another. There also are a few cleverly scripted moments of vagueness as well as some expert film editing in this episode, which we found the most explosive this season, although we understand if you felt episode 6, with the phantom lawn mower, was more explosive. Regardless, this was a well-done and beautifully crafted piece of work.

Two Sided: We open with scenes (later revealed as flashbacks) depicting who people really are: Peggy Olson in a hotel bed with an unnamed man (who later turns out to be Duck Phillips); Betty Draper sitting on her period lounge, having spent the night there, wondering where her husband spent his night; and Don Draper prone on the floor of a cheap hotel, rising to reveal a shiner and a sore neck. But almost as soon as Don begins rubbing that neck we cut to Don’s neck in a clean white shirt and stylish necktie, just the way Don wants the world to see him.

Huh? Once Don has combed his hair, adjusted his tie and brushed his nearly spotless shoes, he heads downstairs where his wife has had the living room redecorated, complete with an interior decorator. Thing is, it seem to be a complete surprise to Don. So here’s an inconsistency: How could the room have been redecorated without Don’s knowing it? Are the writers implying that Don is so disinterested in his domestic life that this was done without his knowledge? Are they saying this is Don’s dream life, where he descends from his room looking like he just stepped out of GQ and finds a gorgeous wife working on improving their Architectural Digest-like home? (Of course, a lot of people are saying this was definitely a dream, how else does one get an interior decorator to one’s home at around 8 in the morning?)

Connie and Don: Waiting for Don in his office, unannounced and seated at Don’s desk is Connie Hilton. Again, as last week, Connie plays verbal volleyball (see Notes below) with Don, wondering why he’s late and why he lacks both a bible and family photos in his office. “They’ll make you feel better about what you do,” Connie says. This just after Roger in the elevator up tells Don about how advertising is reviled by the public and a book by David Oglivy called Confessions of an Advertising Man is about to be published.

As we said, waiting in the confessional of Don’s office is Connie, who seems to be telling him about an affair he’s having. “You’re a married man, so you’ll have to use your imagination,” Connie tells Don before mentioning that he’s got a “wandering eye,” for the ladies apparently. But is this the case, since a few seconds later he tells Don that “my eye has definitely started to wander” (away from the Hilton advertising agency presumably) and he’d like Don to take on the account for his NY hotels. This is only the first a few strange conversations in this episode.

Of course the other obviously ironic bit in this conversation is the fact that Connie doesn’t realize that Don doesn’t need to use his imagination when it comes to relations outside his marriage. Perhaps this is what Don’s father, who appears later in Don’s pills- and booze-induced hallucination, means when he disparages Connie’s assessment of Don as a married man who’d need to use his imagination to understand Mr Hilton’s “wandering eye,” Don’s imaginary father says of Hilton: “You wouldn’t expect him to be taken so easily.”

Another Strange Conversation: Pete Campbell barging into Peggy’s office and “infecting her” with his anxiety. Man, did these two talk past each other or what? Why is Pete so worried about Duck? Is he concerned that Duck has designs on his little Peggy, both professional and personal? Is he worried that Duck will not respect his confidence, and tell Sterling Cooper that he (Pete) and Peggy have discussed leaving the agency for Grey? And why does Peggy feel it’s “Don against the world”?

Flashbacks and Weird Dialogue: Some brilliant editing, as soon as Roger, Lane the Brit and Bert Cooper put the moderate squeeze on Don to sign a 3-year contract, thereby satisfying Conrad Hilton’s lawyers, we cut to Don struggling to his feet in that cheap hotel room, surveying the mess they’ve made of his face. Then we quickly cut to Betty, in a flashback, lounging on her new favorite “fainting couch” not too subtlety rubbing her inner thighs. Next we quickly cut to Betty, in a different dress, entering the bakery, where she’ll meet Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley), the charming, handsome and divorced adviser from Gov Nelson Rockefeller’s office.

It’s here they engage in yet another strange conversation. Almost at the outset things are strange—each noting that they had wanted to bring a friend to the bakery (for the sake of appearances?) when we’re pretty sure neither had planned to do so. The other strange thing is that Henry tells Betty he can’t do much to stop the water tower project. Then he tells her he might be able to; then, at the meeting’s close he says he can’t help her. He also backs out on his promise to hike up to the site with her to take a look. Later he admits he only had an hour to spend with Betty and wouldn’t be taking the hike.

And then, more fine editing, as we switch to Don at a school outing with his daughter Sally to view an eclipse. Of course, the fetching school teacher Miss Farrell (Abigail Spencer) is there. Of course, the symbolism of an activity where you’re not supposed to look directly at what’s occurring in an episode where people are talking past each other seems to be apparent.

Cut back to Betty’s bakery sit-down with Henry Francis, and the introduction of the fainting couch. And then Betty declines to allow Henry to walk her back to her car. “It’s still a small town, you know,” she says. C’mon, Betty.

Then cut back to Don at the school outing and yet another strange conversation, this time with the teacher. She thinks Don is chatting her up, but he tells her, “nothing’s happening here.” Perhaps not, but with a bunch of kids and their fathers walking around with cardboard boxes on their heads, it’s hard not to think they are metaphorically closing their eyes to excessive drinking, to philandering, to Vietnam, to inequality among the sexes, to racial and religious inequality.

More Strange Conversation: The Duck-Peggy phone chat is yet another example of men and women talking past each other. Peggy basically tells him to buzz off, yet Duck isn’t buying. She vows to return the Hermes scarf he’s sent. Returning it will signal “a definitive answer” of no, I’m not interested, she says. Yet Duck says he’d believe it “if you’d already sent it back.” Despite her obvious desire to end what has so far been a professional relationship, Duck urges her to meet him at The Pierre, where he’s having meetings “all day.” She’s to meet him at suite 600 at 4:30. “I can’t do that,” she says. “You can and you will,” he says.

Of course, the main theme of men and women talking past each other is rammed home by Duck and Peggy in suite 600, after Duck’s first passionate kiss. “What do you want from me?” Peggy asks, seemingly oblivious. C’mon, Peggy, what do you think a man wants from you who has just planted a lip sandwich on you for 4 seconds (an eternity in TV time)? OK, let Duck explain it: “I wanna take you in that bedroom, lock the door, take your clothes off with my teeth, throw you on the bed and give you a go-around like you’ve never had.” Just in case you missed it, Peggy, that’s what se-duck-tion looks like.

For his effort, Duck is co-winner of this week’s Sally Draper Award for Straight Talk. He shares the prize with Bert Cooper. Bertram gets kudos for his directness with Don regarding his contract. After all, Bert knows that it’s not really Don signing that contract anyway, right?

Notes: Loved the way Connie and Don jousted. Connie scolds Don for coming in at 9:30 and the aforementioned lack of a bible and family photos. Don returns serve, maybe I am late because I was home with my family, reading the bible, Don says. Connie thrusts: Are you nervous, Don, because I’m having trouble talking with you? Then Connie drops his bluster and laughs. Ok, so this is just Connie’s way, or is it?—Following last week’s flurry of activity with Joan, we would have liked an update on the elegant redhead this week, but that was not to be. She was totally off the screen during this episode. – Loved that brief scene with the Junior League in Betty’s newly decorated living room, especially the line, directed at Betty by Francine (Anne Dudek): “It’s not adorable to pretend like you’re not adorable.” Sure, the older lady in the group says she knows Henry Francis, the adviser to Gov Nelson Rockefeller, but she feels “we have a better chance” with Betty calling Francis. Yes, Betty is gorgeous and young, but is there something this older lady is hiding? – Interesting tidbit from Pete Campbell, relaying to Don that, according to a friend of his who works with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s office that “orders are through the roof for helicopters, carbines and especially jets for Vietnam.” Pete tells Don that this intelligence should prompt his client, North American Aviation, to move away from its NASA work and spend big advertising dollars to get some of those Pentagon contracts. – The Pot Calling the Kettle Black: Bert Cooper on Conrad Hilton: “I met him once. He’s a bit of an eccentric, isn’t he?” – Interesting that Duck tells Peggy Grey is “a Penn Station toilet with Venetian blinds.” Should that description have tipped off Peggy that Duck is no longer trying to get her to come over to Grey and instead is solely interested in, er, ducking out with her? Of course Peggy is in a perfect position to go duck hunting. She’s just been reamed verbally by her favorite older guy, Don, for seeking work on the Hilton account, and she apparently lacks a father figure and thus likes older men (remember how last season she was one of the few people who said she liked Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray)? Or maybe Peggy just likes older guys linked in some way to urine. We recall that Freddy’s demise was his liquor-induced floor wetting in his Sterling Cooper office and of course Connie was the first to hear of Don’s urinating in the trunks of rich people’s cars. A prediction, as unlikely as it seems for a guy named Duck, he will be felled by some sort of water-related incident, provoking fans to remove the Duck moniker and call him by his given name, Herman). – As we said above, you gotta love the editing in this episode. Another gem has the alcoholic Duck in bed with Peggy saying he loves the smell of liquor on her breath. Then a quick cut to Don in his Cadillac, driving into the night while swigging whiskey. – Strong work from Robert Morse as Bert Cooper, turning off his character’s charming eccentricities to reveal a darker side that pushed/forced Don to sign a 3-year contract. Note he, like Connie, sits behind Don’s desk in this scene. So who will be the next unwanted occupant of Don’s desk chair? Peggy, Duck, Roger? – What’s Don smoking? Or was he feeling the residual influence of the 2 phenobarbital pills and booze that the young couple, Sandy and Doug, gave him in the car? After reluctantly signing his contract he tells Bert Cooper he doesn’t want to have any more contact with Roger Sterling. Not likely, Don, not likely.