"It's the business of sadists and masochists, and you know which one you are." —to Peggy.
"It's hard the way she breezes past me." —to Don, about notifying him when Dr. Fay arrives.
"She looks chubby in the pictures." —about Sally.
Our dear Miss Blankenship, we hardly knew thee. It was an enjoyable time, and you served the offices of SCDP well, gracing us with your obnoxious voice and old lady nosiness. Your untimely and inexplicable death was unfortunate, but your final moments on the Mad Men television hour provided us with some of the funniest lines this season. I believe Roger said it best: "She died like she lived, surrounded by the people she answered phones for."
Ida Blankenship dropping dead on Don's desk was about the least dramatic thing that happened in Sunday's episode, "The Beautiful Girls." But amid the flurry of activity, there was something about this episode that just didn't wow me. It's an unfortunate product of being one of the best dramas on television; expectations are always high, and every episode can't be "The Summer Man." I think, above all, it failed in its lack of subtlety, something of a Mad Men trademark. Its message about women's positions in the 1960s was overbearing at times, and just plain depressing for some of my favorite characters. But I appreciate the authenticity, and look forward to seeing these very strong women (Joan, Peggy, Dr. Fay) navigate the murky equality climate.
The show's most oppressed girl currently is young Sally Draper, Don's daughter. Miss New Haircut shows up at Daddy's office, escorted by a woman who found her on a train after she had run away from home. Daddy is not pleased. Ah, but poor poor Sally. It's hard to stay mad at her for long no matter how outlandish she behaves, and seems to be hard for Don, too. I would not want to live with my disturbingly prim, downright crazy mother and her new politician husband either. Sally asks Don if she can live with him, to which he and everyone replies, You can't. It was mostly sad to see Sally slowly but surely losing her innocence. She understands the life she has now. And she doesn't want it anymore. She keenly observes that Fay knows where things are in Don's apartment, guessing that she's been there before and rightly assuming that Don likes the pretty blonde doctor.
Her high jinks brought up conflict between Don and Fay and their blossoming relationship. Boy are they cute. I'm glad the show is making it not so easy for the pair to become a happy couple; in dramatic television, it usually increases the odds they are going to stay together. The lovebirds make it through the Sally ordeal, but not before the revelation of Fay as just another Woman who can be bossed around by Don. Lacking a secretary, Don asks Fay to bring Sally back to his apartment and…sit with her. He has a company to run. Then he asks Fay to talk Sally down from a screaming tantrum in the middle of Don's office. Personally, I thought the episode showed just how little Don can do on his own, but mostly it belittled Fay by likening her to all of the other women Don has had do things for him. She notices it and is more than peeved. She eventually stands up to him, which is why she's a great character, and the two are again on their way to a happy romance (I hope).
But I cared about all of this much less than I cared about my most favorite development of the night: Joan and Roger, back at it. She's still torn up about her Vietnam-bound husband; he is clearly bored (still trying to sell his memoirs? Give it up, Sterling.) and hates to see Joanie upset. After he sends two ladies over to her apartment for a massage gift, she is warm to the idea of staying in the same room as him. They go get cheesecake at a place they apparently used to frequent when Roger was having an affair with her during his former marriage. This scene was very sweet, and for a moment even I, the couple's biggest cheerleader, was convinced they were going to remain platonic, cheesecake-eating pals. And then they got mugged. By a black man. And Joan is very shaken up, so naturally she feels the time is right to rekindle their sexual relationship. Whatever the reason, I don't care, I'm excited for the return of Joan/Roger.
The Peggy storyline bored me, and was the culprit of most of the show's in-your-face, out-of-the-blue Women's Rights theme. Maybe from a different angle I would have appreciated her earnest effort to discuss the status of herself and other females in the workplace. Instead, I grew tired of her scolding that man she kissed at the party. I never really understood where her self-righteous anger was coming from, or why she was taking it out on him.
Looking forward to next week, "Hands and Knees." Four more episodes to go!
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.