Monsters of Television

” … because you broke your own rules.”

Speeding motorcycle.

Maybe it’s just because I watched the entire Extras series again recently but this episode kind of reminded me of a dramatic version of that episode of When the Whistle Blows when the Japanese corporate representative came into the factory. It was a bunch of white people cramming to figure out how to woo a high-powered, very traditional Japanese contingent while “the entertainment” did nothing but awkwardly offend said contingent.

Was Roger ‘aving a laugh?

Of course not. This is Mad Men afterall, where no one with a large part in the episode is allowed to smile, laugh, or enjoy themselves. For that, you have to become background (see Peggy riding a motorcycle in circles). Not only is that true of the series but it’s especially true of this episode, one the draws almost exclusively on concepts of shame and embarrassment as well as honor and loyalty. There were scenes this week that were so awkward, I was reminded heavily of a Ricky Gervais work where I constantly yell “shut up just shut up now!” at the television.

In related news, somehow, Betty has been upgraded from horrible mother to absolute fiend.

It’s been a while since we visited the Household-Formerly-Known-as-Draper and Betty has increased her venom while we’ve been away but only for her daughter. The growing pains of Sally Draper have always been a little harsh but Betty treats her every offense as attempts on Betty’s reputation, like intentional shots at her mother. Sally, however, as we can see in every season so far, is a product of media. How often have we seen her planted in front of the TV while Betty half-heartedly minds her children? Just as she is growing up, not only is she going through the normal questions and confusion inherent in all children her age, but she is also dealing with a spate of sexualized women in media as Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Gilligan’s Island dominate nightly schedules. Just as media hopes, Sally is beginning to find herself in what she sees on television, but, without proper guidance on media-minded critical thinking, she is starting to implement what she sees on television (and partly in her environs — we don’t know how much exposure the children have to Don’s dating life) into her identity.

The bottom line is that cutting her hair is not a dig at Betty. But she slaps Sally anyway, duel-style, as punishment, one that both of her husbands feel as being harsh. They hint at Betty being a child all the time, particularly in this episode with the child psychiatrist (Betty looking longingly at the dollhouse is especially obvious) but she’s escalated from being petulant and immature through the innocence spectrum to irrationally severe and ruthless. Strangely, the embarrassment Betty suffers from Sally touching herself (in public no less) is treated with less severity than the hair-cutting incident. Though it could be that it was late, Betty was tired, and just about to get her rocks off herself that blunted her rage, it is interesting that something that might actually affect Betty later (she insists the mother that returned her home was going to gossip) receives far less punishment than a mishap with scissors.

Don’t get me wrong, though. Betty’s condemning of Sally’s masturbation (in totality, not just in public) is still ruthless but maybe stems from a harsher time in respect to sexual liberation. As Sally comes of age during the late-60s, she will probably be the poster child for Free Love with her mother being so unnecessarily harsh on her discovering herself. This transformation will probably only be abetted by her submission to a psychiatrist that offers the exclusive confidentiality Betty’s therapist never offered. The miles of shame Betty has forced Sally to walk all these years as mother tried to keep her daughter in line under the “Painting a Masterpiece” philosophy can be worked through, especially since Sally was escalated to four times a week immediately. Sally has dishonored the family but individual self-discovery might be her path to salvation from the punishment her mother has forced her to endure. When Sally walks into the doctor’s office at the end, I couldn’t help but feel it took some amount of courage for her to walk in and, we can only assume, dish.

The other side of the episode focused on agency stuff, a side of the show I’d hoped they would spotlight a little more since they moved into their new office. Pete is able to bring in Honda, a company toying with the idea of making cars (hope it works out for those guys), for a meeting that could put SCDP in the running to be their new agency. Everyone is on board except for Roger, the lone Pacific WWII vet in the office. Roger still harbors resent for his former enemy, some 20 years after the war ended, and stands by a promise to duty to never deal with the Japanese again. Pete, of course, thinks it’s only about Pete, that Roger is trying to sabotage anything Pete tries to bring in, but it’s probably more about military conditioning (you can’t really kill people you feel lukewarm about) than anything else. While Roger rants and raves, the rest of the partners decide to move forward anyway because, as Pete later sums up, “[They’re] trying to build something here.” Beggars can’t be choosers.

So the office prepares their surroundings in order to accommodate their Japanese visitors. The worldly Cooper (hey, remember him?) leads the way and helps the silly white people learn about their cousins from across the Pacific. Everything goes swimmingly until Roger finds out what’s going on and barges into the discussion, spitting so much vitriol and epithets against the Japanese that he essentially sinks the possible partnership into the ocean. They have dishonored the people from Honda (in stunning, crash-and-burn, blaze-of-glory, super-awkward-fest style) and their competition (who have positioned themselves specifically as Draper’s competition) suddenly have more of a shot than SCDP does. That is before Draper rises to the challenge.

Remember the staged event Peggy and Pete pulled off earlier in the season with the turkeys? Draper was furious about it but his language was very specific. He asked Peggy how they could pull this off without his approval. It’s not necessarily that Don disapproved of the stunt, just that it needs to go through him first before it goes out. With SCDP certainly out of the running, he decides to bring the other agencies down with him. His subterfuge to plant the idea with his competition of breaking the hard-fast rules set by the Japanese for these presentations. Producing a full-length commercial would bankrupt SCDP for the rest of the year but it would do the same to their small competitors. His plan to goad the prideful into falling on their own swords while he stands tall in his presentation (subtly accusing the Honda of breaking their own rules) is conniving, manipulative, and just what was needed out of Draper. Though he said he was inspired by The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, he embodied Japanese-neighbor Sun Tzu a little more. He is still a reluctant hero for his organization but is willing to knock it out of the park if he has to.

But what about poor Roger, stuck in his ways? After his heart attack earlier in the series, he remarked often about how he didn’t want to be regarded as old despite the fact that he often brings up his experience and “wisdom.” Recall a similar conversation Roger had with Don and Betty over dinner about how Don’s generation was less respectable. Here, he announces that Pete doesn’t understand because he didn’t have the War. As the first name in SCDP starts to recede into obscurity, his role reduced to wining and dining his clients, falling into the background with Cooper, this was almost evidence of that fight into the dark. When Roger has to swallow his pride after the company moved on without his blessings, his demand that Cooper leave the office with him is a bit symbolic of his status of respect yet separation. He is slowly becoming a ceremonial figurehead while Don acts as the figurehead the outside world respects and with whom the outside world wants to do business. Even the mid-20s creative Don hired for Pepsi all those years ago regards Don as a genius and to be the reason SCDP functions as it does. Can Sterling go quietly into the night?

One last note on Peggy: how hilarious was it that she was riding around in circles on the set? And does anyone else get the feeling that Joey is a figment of Peggy’s imagination? My only evidence is that no one at SCDP seems to recognize his presence and his remark that he could “so” get Trudy pregnant felt anachronistic. Not that Mad Men needs Peggy to be schizophrenic but it would be an interesting fold. Just a thought.