My DVR didn’t record it. I don’t know why. It’s not there. I want to SCREAM.
It’s one of the episodes I’ve only seen once. I was dying to see it again. Dying. Dye. Ing.
It’s a pivotal episode. it’s as dark as Don gets, dark enough to make 5G genuinely scary at the end. It’s the episode that first drops the Dick Whitman bomb, and leaves everyone speculating (Roberta and I were on the phone, like, “Do you think it was real?” “Do you think he has a secret identity?” “But he can’t!”), and there were plenty of wrong speculations (TWOP was totally convinced Don was hiding the fact that he was Jewish). We meet the neighbors, including Helen Bishop and Francine’s scummy husband.
And I missed it.
FRAK!
February 5, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Carlton.
The scummy husband.
February 5, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Also the doorman.
February 5, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Yup.
(Lorenzo Music. BAM!!!)
February 6, 2008 at 1:57 pm
It was one of my fave episodes. just get it on itunes
February 6, 2008 at 3:12 pm
It is one of my favorites as well.
February 6, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I won the DVDs so I don’t need to do the Itunes, but I’m still waiting to receive them.
February 6, 2008 at 6:37 pm
The DVDs will be great, but who knows when they’ll be released? You can download the one episode on itunes for a buck ninety nine and have instant gratification.
February 6, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I’ve gotten the whole first season from iTunes, which I play over and over again, because of the rich layers throughout the whole season.
“The Marriage of Figaro” is pivotal because the first hint of Don’s secret is dropped; because his romance with Rachel is (sort of ) started; because you see his disenchantment with the venality and banality of his own and his neighbor’s domestication; and because Peter comes back from a predictable honeymoon, fresh lamb to the marital slaughter. We get to see one, only one happily married couple in the entire episode. Realism?
It’s ridiculous, of course, to ask for realism in what must be a drama that condenses action in order to keep with a theme and make a point, but as much as I love this show, I think TMOF is an episode that strains credulity more than the others.
Central to this is the romantic encounter between Don and Rachel on the roof of Menken’s. After one kiss, Rachel is asking Don, “Am I suppose to live my life running alongside yours?” After one kiss. One. Alright, it’s Jon Hamm, and it was a long, hot, steamy one, but still, my suspension of disbelief was sorely tested by that moment.
In some ways, MM is like a very well done 1960s pulp romance novel.
February 6, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I’ve thought about that one kiss issue often enough since I first saw the episode. I think it’s okay, actually, because the context of the era gives a person permission to project into what will happen next. True, casual sex has always been with us, but 48 years ago, it wasn’t assumed, and in fact, progressing into further intimacy would have carried an assumption like Rachel’s.
February 7, 2008 at 1:59 am
Then there must be a tinge of “nice Jewish girl” about Rachel Menken, like she’s never had an affair before–or at least never had an affair with a married goy before–because Joan is a prime example of casual sex occuring without a whole lot of investment. The fact that she easily tells Roger she’s got another life without him; “I go out and I have friends and I go to parties . . .” which may not be what Roger likes to hear, but what can he really do about it besides buy a bird? The fact that Joan is not willing to drop a weekend outing with her (unbeknownst to her) lesbian roommate to be available to Roger signals a lot of self confidence or at least considerably more life experience compared to Rachel.
February 7, 2008 at 9:42 am
TMOF is probably my least favorite episode of the season. Others may (and will) disagree, but I just find the entire show lacking in any significant plot.
a) we find out Don’s known by another name, but it’s really only a tease – nothing satisfying about the encounter on the train;
b) we see the women being catty about Helen Bishop;
c) we begin to experience’s Don’s own numbness and detachment from his family;
d) first physical moment between Don & Rachel.
With the exception of ‘a’, these are all fairly thematic elements that run through each episode in some way. Devoting an entire hour to them seems redundant.
In some way’s I think Ladies Room and TMOF could have been combined into one.
And on a stylistic note, there’s an opera (or at least operatic music) playing in the background when Don is shooting the home movies of his guests. Anyone know if it’s from TMOF?
February 7, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Don’t get me wrong, there’s much that I love about this episode.
I love Don drinking all the way through building the playhouse. I love him bringing a dog home, which makes him a hero in his daughter’s eyes and a scoundrel in Betty’s. I love the train reflected in his windshield as he sits in the dark. I love him telling a newly-arrived Glenn there’s a bb gun for him to play with in the back yard.
I love big pregnant Francine hitting on him as he heads for the shower. I love how most of the adults suffer through the boredom of this party together. I love the roaming threat of Helen’s scarlet-letter presence; she literally cannot go anywhere in that house or that neighborhood without causing suspicion.
February 7, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I think Rachel probably isn’t very worldly in the romance department; it’s the sacrifice a woman of her era makes to be worldly in the business department. But Joan is an exception, and indeed, such exceptions absolutely existed—Midge is another—but a woman who sleeps with a man could be expected to be “involved” with him. Some strings would be attached.