The same episode where Harry says of Don “That guy could be Batman for all we know,” is the episode where Don runs into someone on the train who calls him “Dick Whitman.”
Beautiful.
It’s hard to watch well-written television. Catch the subtext, foreshadowing, and motifs. Honestly, having this blog helps me do the thinking I need to do to fully appreciate the genius and subtlety of the show. Oh my gods I sounded like I was giving Matt Weiner a blowjob, didn’t I? But it’s just that good.
July 1, 2008 at 9:08 am
Oh my gods I sounded like I was giving Matt Weiner a blowjob, didn’t I? But it’s just that good.
I am forever absolved of needing to check in with you to gauge Have I crossed the line?
July 1, 2008 at 9:14 am
I think you guys need to create a category called “Blowjob”.
July 1, 2008 at 9:18 am
Somehow I’m a little freaked out about seeing all this under ‘foreshadowing’. Is it just me?
July 1, 2008 at 9:29 am
I’m really good at it when it’s about what other people say.
July 1, 2008 at 11:27 am
too funny.
July 1, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Foreshadowing:
Does this include:
Rachael leaving for a cruise for three months because she’s pregnant?
Peggy’s sister raising the Peggy/Pete love child (here after referred to as PPLC) as her own?
July 1, 2008 at 4:53 pm
AND…
Rachael’s sister raising the Don/Rachael love child (here after referred to DonRa) as her own?
I’ve alway considered that Don and Pete are the same person but at different stages. I think Don went through a transformation during his early career from irritating (like the current Pete) to suave. And this transformation, I think, is much more interesting than just taking another’s name.
And about that fur coat Don acquires through ‘horse trading’ to give to Betty….
Bet there’s a BIG story there! I think Don stole it. Which would be a perfect, since then his name AND his marriage are based on a lie.
July 1, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I really don’t follow you in terms of how these ideas are foreshadowed? But Rachel & Don’s lovechild? It’s a possibility, it’s a thing that people have discussed, but I’ll honestly be surprised if that turns out to be the case. I’d think she’d be more likely to go to Europe for an abortion if she’s pregnant, but as cosmopolitan as she is, I’m rather sure she uses birth control (probably a diaphragm).
And Don stole the fur? I honestly don’t think that’s a big story. Nor do I think it’s likely; Don is scrupulously honest in his business dealings, despite his dual-identity.
July 1, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I don’t know about that other stuff, but a Rachel pregnancy seems to have been foreshadowed, IMO. This is a discussion we’ve had before, and there are good arguments to suggest otherwise, but the more I think about it, the more likely it seems. Her sudden departure, the discussions on parenthood and how she was raised, Don’s childhood? It all points to something.
Plus the conversations she has with her sister always come back to a baby. On the telephone when she initially tells Barbara about Don, Barbara’s baby starts crying, and Rachel gets this horrified look on her face, like oh, shit, that is just too much to handle. Then when she and Barbara are at lunch, Barbara warns her about getting pregnant a la “A Place in the Sun,” which makes her laugh, but it also makes her lie about her relationship with Don in an attempt to change the subject.
In Nixon vs. Kennedy, when Rachel tells Don to get out, the subtext of that entire conversation is parenthood: “what about your children…” and “you want your children to go on without a father? You know how that felt.” There’s also this bit “…My father–can’t we be together here…” And then that little bit of business with her grabbing her stomach and saying she felt sick? At first I thought this was an actor’s choice, but her holding her stomach is a stage direction–it’s actually in the script.
In fact, almost every conversation she has with Don has something to do with parenthood, raising children, family ties, etc. Whether it’s her childhood, his childhood, her father, the two of them growing up without a mother, etc– it always comes back to family and how they were raised. There’s a definite theme with the two of them.
And while I do believe Rachel probably has a diaphragm on hand, I doubt she put it to use that night when they were on the couch together. After rebuffing him for so long, and then to finally consent? No way she stopped everything in the heat of passion to snap a diaphragm in place. Otherwise why stay on the couch? I mean, it’s a lovely sofa, but it’s just not the type of divan you have sex on. It’s narrow, slightly curved, with small armrests…Even back then there were better couches on which to make-out.
If Rachel were going to pause for a birth control break, why wouldn’t they just take it into the bedroom, where it would be a little more comfortable?
July 1, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Hull, that’s all really good insight.
And it all still works for an abortion. I’m with Deb on this one.
July 1, 2008 at 7:55 pm
You almost got me with the stage direction point. But I still think it’s far-fetched (Rachel being preggo at all) …
Could be personal bias, but I just don’t want to see every affair on the show result in a baby.
July 1, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Rachael’s pregnancy is also foreshadowed in the episode The Wheel, which takes place just before Thanksgiving. Abraham Menken has made a call DIRECTLY to Don’s boss AND owner of Sterling Cooper. There is this odd piece of specific information specifying that the cruise Rachael is taking is three months long. Cooper’s dialog is also unusual because he’s asking a question: “WHY IS THIS MN CALLING ME”? I think Abraham Menken has found out his daughter is pregnant, therefore the three month cruise to hide the pregnancy. And his phone call is like a father to father call.
If Rachael conceived during the encounter shown in The Long Weekend episode, she would now be approximately six months pregnant.
This is the episode where Peggy gives birth.
The episode title The Wheel, might also refer to the Wheel of Life, which includes birth.
When Season Two starts its valentines day 1962.
If Rachael conceived on May 30, 1960 she could have given birth on February 14, 1961.
The last time we saw Don at a birthday party it was for his daughter. Perhaps Don will unexpectedly see Rachael as she is on her way to her child’s birthday party.
July 1, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Hull, I’ve done quick breaks for the diaphragm back in the day; you might easily stay on the couch to maintain the feeling of spontaneity. Especially since it’s my experience, in pre-AIDS days, that men took birth control as women’s work, and something to resent. You’re on the couch, the woman stops for diaphragm, the man lays back on the couch pretending the interruption hasn’t happened. Or maybe she’s on the pill.
No way is she six months pregnant!
Your timing just doesn’t work. The long weekend referred to in the title of that episode was Labor Day. Roger and Don were in the office, it was the Friday before the long weekend: September 2, 1960. If she got pregnant that night, as of the day before Thanksgiving—November 23—she is exactly 12 weeks pregnant. That’s 3 months not six.
Which makes sense, because as of November 8, she’s not showing. Six months is visible. Six months is where they photograph pregnant women to get that “Madonna” look. We saw her in Nixon vs. Kennedy and she was exactly as slim as she was in Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
But if she’s 12 weeks pregnant, a 3 month cruise is not enough time to give birth. It IS enough time to get an abortion. But a weekend is enough time for that; an abortion at 12 weeks is not a big deal medically speaking. A woman getting a D&C might stay overnight in the hospital in those days (they were much more into overnight stays then), but not longer.
3 months is too little for giving birth and too long for an abortion. It’s about right to heal a badly broken heart.
July 1, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I’m not sure I want another baby, either. Besides, knowing what Rachel knows about him at this point, would she really choose to have Draper’s child? Sure, she’s got the resources to handle it alone, but it just seems…out of character? It would, however, be interesting to see how (or if) this show tackles a subject as thorny as abortion, though.
The whole love child thing always seems so overwrought, but it does happen. I’m reminded of an instance in my own family where my uncle, who’s very much like Don Draper in that he’s of the same era, good looking, charismatic, well-liked, professional, outwardly very respectable, was discovered to have maintained two families. He wasn’t a bigamist–he was married to one woman, and they had a daughter. But he also had a long-time mistress, who also had a daughter (just a year or two younger than his other daughter…) He somehow managed to raise both children and be involved in their lives. The mistress and her daughter always knew about his other family, and the wife eventually found out about them as well, but he lived this double life for about 20 years, and no one outside of the mistress ever knew.
One day, he showed up at a family gathering with this stunning young woman on his arm. He and his wife were divorced at this point, and he’s the type of older man who has no problem dating younger women because he’s gorgeous, in great shape, fun, debonair, generous, and charming, so we didn’t think anything of it. He introduces her to us as his daughter. And we were stunned. She wasn’t the daughter that we knew, but she knew who we were, and was actually thrilled to meet other members of the family. So, I guess it does happen.
July 1, 2008 at 11:14 pm
“Hull, I’ve done quick breaks for the diaphragm back in the day; you might easily stay on the couch to maintain the feeling of spontaneity.”
My god, Deborah, you’ve got remarkable restraint!
Because with me, if it starts on the couch and ends on the couch, with a man I’m desperately attracted to, but have put off for months, and he’s right there with his forehead pressed against mine, touching me, kissing me, pleading, and it’s been who knows how long since I last had some anyway because I work all the time? No way do I let it break up Bonanza–that is, unless I conveniently slipped in a sponge after seeing him in the office that afternoon, or there’s a bowl of condoms on the end table next to the sofa! But that’s all post-AIDS, today kind of sexuality. Who knows what it was like in 1960? 
Okay, the six month pregnant thing, WHAT? No way is that possible, John R. As of election day 1960, she would have been around 6-8 weeks pregnant. Was election day the 1st or the 8th? I thought it was the first Tuesday in November, which would have been 11/1/60. So, no real visible signs of a pregnancy, as Deborah said.
And Deborah, I agree with you. 3 mos. is too short for a pregnancy, and too long for an abortion. But it is long enough to have an abortion and clear your head of everything that just happened. I don’t know if I’d say it was enough time to mend a broken heart, though. Especially for someone who’d never really been in love, but was suddenly drawn into this very intense affair with a man with whom she was supposed to have a business relationship.
Who knows? I just think it’s all interesting and I can’t wait for season 2 to start. Even if I am proven wrong after all is said and done!
July 2, 2008 at 8:49 am
I looked up all the dates used in my comment; November 8 for Election Day, September 2 and November 23 for the day before Labor and Thanksgiving Days.
Anyone can be overwhelmed by desire. Anyone can make a mistake. But in 1960? Abortion was illegal, a “love child” was shameful, and birth control was considered the woman’s job. I suspect WAY more carefulness. And Rachel is a careful person.