In Babylon, when Roger tells her that before meeting her he was ready to leave his wife, she play-slaps him. But the intention of the slap was, Don’t you ever talk about leaving your wife.

And in Marriage of Figaro, she says that Lady Chatterly’s Lover is “another testimony to how most people think marriage is a joke.”

by rkl

Mona Sterling, to Joan and Don: “Don’t you two make a handsome couple?”
Joan Holloway: “Honestly? I don’t go for handsome.”

— Babylon

Inspired by the new trailer showing Joan making out with someone…do you suppose he’s handsome?

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.

Later that day her copy is sold and the old boys club pours her a drink. And this combination of events brings out the most confident woman in the world. She already had shown us she has balls (‘We have manners!’) but on this day, it’s all just perfect.

And then Pete cruelly rejects her.

Next episode, Shoot. She rips her skirt and borrows an outfit from Joan. The next day is the exquisite scene between the two of them in which Peggy exhibits, again, balls of steel. And does appear undaunted by the fact that she’s getting fat (and being observed as getting fat).

And also, she’s now aiming towards an actual career goal.

In Long Weekend, she tells the bitch where to go.

Pete: Peggy, dear, I think I understand what this is about, but you’re not being professional right now.
Peggy: I cannot believe I am in this conversation.
Pete: You think this is easy for me?
Peggy: I don’t know. I don’t know if you like me, or if you don’t like me. I’m just trying to get along here. And every time I walk by, I wonder if you’re going to be nice to me, or cruel.
Pete: Cruel? What am I supposed to say? I’m married.
Peggy: Yes, I know. And I heard all about how confusing that can be. Maybe you need me to lay on your couch to clear that up for you again.
Pete: That’s some imagination you’ve got. Good thing you’re a writer now. What do you need me for?

(Maybe she’s thinking he’s right. What with the Relax-a-Cizor and all.)

So, more focused on career, and those wide eyes are growing sharper and sharper.

Indian Summer

Let’s see. She is asked by the guys to test and write about the “PER: Passive Exercise Regime” weight-loss belt. This becomes both a professional and personal journey. Her marketing instincts are shrewd, asking right off the bat if she is allowed to change the name. That shows a real nose for the bigger picture. Testing this product, as we all know, led her to the discovery of self-pleasure. What is also quite significant is that Don would not let her back down. She went, in one episode, from a woman who hadn’t masturbated, to a woman who was presenting, to a roomful of men, a product that had this pleasure factor.

Later, she approaches Don for a raise. And gets it. And gets permission to break it to Joan, which is a scene I’d pay to see.

And in the same episode she goes on a blind date. This is harder to get at. Her confidence, most times disarming, crosses over into transparently pretentious (and so perhaps it was her lack of confidence?) with this guy. He gets rude, she gets up, he tries to apologize, she’s not having it.

(The confidence theme comes back in the Wheel.)

So, in different forms, we are seeing her get a sense of her own worth.

Now, we haven’t solidified timelines, but Indian Summer is, I believe, October, and of course NvK is early early November. So what we didn’t see was perhaps a month of Peggy as acting ensign copywriter. But Weiner clearly wanted to show us that this is who she has become.

One thing we haven’t gotten much of a look at is the women’s grooming process. We see them all look so perfect (or, occasionally not, like Carol the day she got fired and Francine freaking out over Carlton’s affairs).

For the most part all we see is the occasional lipstick application. But we don’t see what it takes to get Joan’s and Betty’s hair so flawless, or Helen Bishop’s face looking photo-ready.

Although as I write this, it occurs to me that neither do we ever see the meals being made. This, I believe, is quite deliberate. The women who do ‘nothing’ all day serve these multi-component meals. (Meat, potatoes, vegetables, probably salad and fresh-baked rolls and always dessert.) I am always aware of it. Especially in the case of Trudy, the newlywed, who may well spend the better part of her day planning and preparing Pete’s dinner (it takes awhile to get the rhythm, right?). Washing and ironing the tablecloth and napkins. And by the time he is home, she’s relaxed and ‘lovely’, but I bet that requires a full behind-the-scenes revamp.

So maybe it is Weiner’s intention that we never see it. Never see either; the grooming or the meals. The housework. Maybe the statement is that no one sees it. That it is so invisible and unappreciated that he can’t even bring himself to expose it.

Yet.

Hat tip to our own Hullabaloo, who pointed out an EOnline scoop that we can all get excited about. Watch With Kristen says:

Sexy Joan has an honest-to-goodness boyfriend this season. As for the launch date of season two, we only know it’s sometime in July 2008. However, I can tell you that, just as the story of season one ended on a holiday (Thanksgiving), season two begins on another nonreligious holiday. Guesses?

First guess is Dan’s, who thinks it must be Valentine’s Day, and damn, I gotta say, it’s the perfect answer. Matthew Weiner said February or March, and in the realm of non-religious holidays that leaves Valentine’s Day, President’s Day (yawn), and Mardi Gras (which is religious but not really celebrated that way). Valentine’s Day is the perfect way to give us an update on everyone’s relationship status. Like, Don and Betty, Francine and Carlton, Peggy and Junior, Pete and Trudy, Roger and Mona, Margaret and Wristcutters Anonymous, Carol and Salvatore.

Roberta’s thoughts about Joan reminded me of this quote:

Joan: “That sandwich is making me sad.”

Something poignant about a person who is moved to sorrow so easily.

“I like redheads. Their mouths are like a drop of strawberry jam in a glass of milk.”

Forgive me, MM writers. I love you all.

But this episode, about which I have so much more to say, seems to have a big fat continuity issue.

Thursday #1
It is the end of the workday. Roger speaks to his wife about the weekend plans. He is then told by Bertram Cooper that the Nixon boys are coming in at the end of the week. Joan has a bag packed and is taking a train with her roommate Carol for a weekend away. No mention that she is taking a Friday off, but okay so far.

How do I know it’s Thursday? Don says to Peggy, trying to make sure she’s not working too late, “Just because tomorrow’s Friday, doesn’t mean I expect to be pulling your head off the keys in the morning”. (God, that line is a mouthful!)

That night, it’s drinks for Don and Roger, and then the disastrous dinner at the Draper’s.

Thursday #2
The next morning, Roger offers Don a bottle and an apology. At lunch Pete exchanges a chip-and-dip for a 22-caliber rifle.

At 4:30 there is a meeting to prep for the Nixon meeting.

That night Don comes home in time for dinner; this time it’s enough roast beef to feed the whole office.

That same night, Trudy removes Pete’s recently restored testicles.

Friday
The next morning, Don approaches Hollis for a favor. During the day, Pete spins his tale of hunting to Peggy, Betty slaps Helen, Francine pays a visit.

And of course, the lunch, the stairs, and the punchline.

And there they were; the Nixon people. End of the week, as scheduled.

I decided that it’s two Thursdays and a Friday, because there was nothing that felt ‘Friday’ about the middle day. Don went home on time. Although maybe the roast beef means Friday. So maybe it’s two Fridays.

Oysters, martinis and cheesecake is definitely a Friday lunch.

Either way, major fuck-up. What, they didn’t think they’d have detail-obsessed fans?

So, before tonight’s airing of Marriage of Figaro, I thought it was time to write up some random thoughts on re-watching Ladies Room.

There’s a deep, soulful emphasis when Joan says “That sandwich is making me sad.” I really think that we’re going to learn more about Joan. (File that under Season 2 Speculation: I think Joan gets major backstory and I think it’s going to be full of sadness.)

In the realm of general sexism, we have Don telling Betty, “Leave the dishes for the girl.” “The girl.” Because, y’know, she’s a thing; specifically a thing that does dishes. “The girl,” by the way, is eight. Not to young too be the maid or anything. Yeesh.

But this is mostly Betty’s episode. When she’s with Mona in the ladies room and she can’t hold her lipstick, her remark is “It’s hard to hold onto anything these days.” The first time I saw this episode, I didn’t notice the “hard to hold onto” connection. The psychological meaning of Betty’s numbness is even clearer than I’d thought.

(By the way, anyone know the name of the actress who played a ladies room attendant; who said “If their purses get any smaller, we’re going to starve”? She reminded me very much of Yvette Freeman (Haleh on ER), but it’s sometimes hard to recognize actors through the period clothing and hair. IMDb and TV.com both come up blank, so if you know who it is, PUH-leeze tell me.)

Later, Betty talks about her fears regarding the accident: She’s not afraid of death, but of loneliness. If Sally were scarred, she would never marry and live her life alone, and this is what Betty can’t bear to consider. Loneliness. Not having a man. Not having a perfect appearance. Shit, I’m in Roberta territory here, stunned at what goes on behind Betty’s facade.

And one more thing about Betty: In the psychiatric session, she takes off the watch Don gave her. You know: The watch to make her happy, the now-you-have-everything-you-don’t-need-a-shrink watch. That watch.

“‘Ya know I can’t believe I even thought about getting back together with you! We are SOOO over!”
~Rachel, re-breaking up with Ross on Friends (Episode 4:01; The One With the Jellyfish)

In a discussion about the possible origins of the term ’self-worth’, Rondi commented about the anachronistic “1960, I am SO over you“.

First of all, Rondi, don’t second guess yourself. This one is absolutely undebateably out of step with the era. Is it POSSIBLE that a woman in 1960 could have put those words together in that sequence? Sure, it’s technically possible. But it screams Today. It screams it so loudly that I wonder if it was deliberate.

There have been some language glitches throughout the series… (even if, as Monique R pointed out, self-worth turns out not to have been among them). But this, this I am SO over you business, seems too obvious for Weiner not to have noticed. Remember, he’s not us. He doesn’t see it once on TV. Or five times, if we’re obsessive. He spends time with the script, and then he watches the words come to life, and then he’s around while it’s being edited. AND he’s a self-professed fetishist when it comes to the accuracy of this show. It’s hard to imagine this one getting by him.

So I now engage in a bigger question; what is the viewpoint of the show? What is the voice? Was this moment a mistake, or was it a nod to now?

Last summer I performed in a workshop; a first iteration of an original musical about the Manson Family. (You heard me right; a Manson Family musical.) It was written by Brad Forenza, a young man (good friend of mine) in his 20’s.

Brad and I discussed at length the issue of era-accurate vocabulary. He had naively included phrases, expressions and actual words that were out of step. A real gone cat (too early); It sounds lame (way too late, not dissimilar from I am SO over you), yuppie (not invented and its evolution is too well known). Even dickhead needed to be called into question.

We discussed what the voice of the show should be. If it was to be modern, if he wanted the viewpoint of the story to be a look backwards from here and now, he would need to somehow establish that; be boldly anachronistic.

This was handled quite uniquely in the Tony award winning musical Spring Awakening, in which all the dialogue is appropriate to its late 1800’s German setting. But the music is rock music, and the lyrics and staging are current (actually, more punk than now). They sing into hand-held mikes and rock out like stars. The lyrics clearly establish this ‘out of time’ quality so that the audience knows, without question, that it is deliberate. Lyrics like: “It’s like, just kiss some ass man“, “I don’t do sadness“, and “I go up to my room, turn the stereo on…” leave no one wondering if it was a mistake, only wondering, perhaps, why.

But that’s live theater, and musicals at that. You have a lot more artistic license. Mad Men has extremely ‘period’ vocabulary. So if Weiner did this deliberately, he also did it subtly. And I am wondering why.

In the New York Times Center interview, he offers us a clue.

As my sister pointed out in her live blog that night,

Weiner’s most important quote, he says: “This is not one of those movies. This is not The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. This is about the people who watch those movies.”

Weiner talks about this very scene (from Long Weekend, btw):

She (Joan) says, I want to look like Doris Day in Midnight Lace and I want to be Kim Novak in anything.

(This is me quoting Weiner, who is paraphrasing from the episode.)

(Carry on.)

Just take the names out put in whoever it is now… nobody’s playing an attitude…the clothes change…

but it’s really take Doris Day out and put Keira Knightley in.

There are two themes that keep repeating. One is that all of these characters are really alive, not just caricatures. The other is that while in many ways we, the royal we, the global we, have changed so much since 1960, in many ways we really haven’t. Perhaps this was a little wink from Joan that she’s not so different from us, after all.

I think Matthew Weiner and his peeps are doing a tremendous job of not giving the show an appearance of self-awareness. But it is storytelling, and we, now, are the audience. And it is through that funnel that the show can be so startling. So if Weiner used one very anachronistic line to underline that to us, I’m okay with that.

Weiner just talked about a technique he uses to keep it real, which is to ensure that Betty has a closet. Even though she shops a lot, he says, you will see the same outfits repeated.

He said that she wore the same dress for the family portrait that she wore to her first day seeing Dr. Wayne; it is what she would choose. Sunday best.

I would just like to point out that the only other time I have ever seen this (with the exception of a particular pair of earrings on a soap opera years ago; I’ll come back later to describe them) was on thirtysomething, a show that I loved as much as I love this one. Hope had a very specific wardrobe that rotated and she always looked good but never too good, like an overwhelmed young mother with a hippie streak would really dress (also with some favorite pairs of earrings). I had never seen that before or, or since, until now.

We’ll keep an eye on Joan, but I do suspect Joan would spend a lot of money on new dresses all the time. And I’m sure she has lots of sources of income to support it.

Addendum:

Okay, so a hundred years ago, there was a character named Megan on One Life to Live, played by Jessica Tuck. She has giant blue eyes, round and really an incredible blue. The character frequently wore a pair of earrings with big round blue sparkling stones that sat close to the ears (as most earrings on soap operas do). I was mesmerized by the effect; how they reflected her eyes. And the directors obviously were too, because soap operas never ever EVER (at least back then; I don’t watch them anymore) repeat wardrobe elements. Ever. But these earrings next to Megan’s face were magical.

On a personal note, around the same time period I met a young girl who was just a really hot young thing, and she had my coloring, with bright round dark brown shiny eyes. And she had a pair of earrings with round black stones set in silver, and it had a similar effect.

It took me years to find the right earrings for myself. I do have a pair now, and I’ve never pulled it off quite the same as Megan or Stephanie, they certainly do make my eyes pop.