Watching Peggy change

In Hobo Code she was still a party girl (witness The Twist, and also ‘we all work so hard’). By Nixon vs. Kennedy, not only was she a tight-ass, but she had a reputation as such.

Ken: Draper has plenty of booze.

They look towards Peggy, working at her desk despite the party around her.

Ken: (continues) We could ask her to join us. That might soften her up.

So what happened?

Okay. In Hobo Code she finally gets to have sex with Pete again. And I’m sorry folks, goodness knows I am not a fan of Mr. Campbell, but it was kind of beautiful. Evidenced by the tenderness between them afterwards… even from him.

 

Greek is okay; Latin is RIGHT OUT.

Don, easing into the Kodak pitch:

…in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound.

Peggy, stiffly entering the Rejuvenator team presentation:

Women lose weight so they’ll feel good about themselves. Healthier, more attractive.

Rejuvenate has a Latin root which literally means the return of youth.

The Rejuvenator give you the flush and glow, not only that you might have after hours of exercise, but certainly as a young girl.

Isn’t it nice to feel that way whenever you want.

Combined with a sensible diet…

the Rejuvenator.

Youll love the way it makes you feel.

Don’s response:

First of all, no Latin. You sound like a valedictorian.

The scene of Peggy’s presentation is endlessly fascinating, line by line, moment by moment (as is well, every scene in this series). Don and the guys force Peggy to be tough and manly, but there is a gentle quality as well; this is by no means a hazing. Peggy herself is dressing more and more like the German marketing researcher, and holds it together well, but there is such a feminine, even girlish quality to her.

As for the Greek versus Latin… is it just another writer’s trick (not Don and Peggy, but Weiner and co.) that is simply music with words, that we are not meant to notice? Is it one more way to compare Peggy and Don?

Are the two moments (and references to ancient languages at the opening of a presentation) unrelated? Please note they both say ‘literally’, so I’m gonna go with No. Are we saying that the same rules don’t apply to Don that apply to Peggy (which is fair; after all, you teach your students to color within the lines, while you yourself can Pollock all over the place). Peggy did present it like a valedictorian… more uppity than Peggy has a right to be. This echoes her date, just a few scenes earlier. Don presents anecdotally. An everyman. And maybe there’s your theme.

 

How to write

There’s a slick little line in Indian Summer which is almost a primer on good writing. It’s towards the beginning of the episode, when Don first walks into the office, he says, “Peggy, will you bring me a glass of ice water? Someone forgot to tell the sun it’s October.”

That line
(a) Establishes that it’s a heat wave, which is a major theme of the episode.
(b) Establishes Don. It is exactly his voice, his wit, his style of speech. If you’ve never seen the show before, you know a little something about Don from hearing his opening line. Furthermore, Don is unfailingly polite to Peggy, he never says “bring me,” only “will you bring me” or “please bring me.” Plus, Don is so much a boss that the heat is someone’s forgetfulness. It’s the language of a man in charge, directing the world to his will.
(c) Brings Peggy into the office just a couple of minutes later (presumably she had to go somewhere for ice) so that they can realize she’s the right person for the Relaxiciser account.

In one line. Brilliant.

 

The Whedon Connection

Whedonesque, your source for all things Whedon, congratulates Mad Men for its Golden Globe win.

That’s because two Whedonverse stars are on the show. Vincent Kartheiser (Pete) was a major character (Connor) on Angel season 4 (and had guest appearances in season 5), and Christina Hendricks (Joan) had major guest shots on Firefly as Saffron, and a small (tiny) part in Angel season 1 as an Irish barmaid.

What Whedonesque failed to mention, but Roberta’s eagle eyes noticed, was Adam Kaufman, who played Bob Shaw, the air-conditioner salesman who penetrates Betty’s imagination in Indian Summer. He played heartbreaker Parker Abrams in Buffy’s fourth season.

Coolest of all to the lover of detail is Andy Umberger, who is Betty’s shrink, Dr. Wayne. He has appeared on all three of Joss Whedon’s series, on Buffy as D’Hoffryn, who is Demon in Charge of Vengeance Demons (a tough job with major seniority), on Angel as Dr. Ronald Meltzer (a seriously creepy one-off villain in season 1) and in a small role on Firefly as captain of the Dortmunder in the pilot.

 

Set it and Forget it.

In Indian Summer, Don and Rachel are in bed together. In the previous episode, Long Weekend, they had slept together for the first time. Here, we see that they have gone on as lovers, and they discuss things that reveal the kind of lovers they have become. (This is one of those wonderful bits of writing that assumes us, the viewers, to have intelligence. We don’t need every detail. We really do know how these things work; what kind of promises are made and felt.)

(Another example of that is in the Wheel, when we find Harry living in the office. I have a friend at work who is trying desperately to watch this show, but is confused by AMC’s suckful out-of-sequence episode-skipping sloppiness, and when he saw this scene, he asked me if he had missed an episode. No, I assured him, he hadn’t. Weiner simply didn’t fill in every blank for us. We don’t know if Harry ‘fessed up on his own or if Jennifer found evidence; all we know is Harry is without his wife and it’s bad. But I seriously digress.)

Don & Rachel. She is so happy, and so struggling. She tells Don it’s hard for her, but she also feels badly because it must be even harder on him.

Don: “I don’t think about it. I mean, I try not to.”