Mad Men Discussion Thread

[Cindy B]

Refresh my memory - who is Anna in California to Don "Dick"........

The mind is a fragile thing

Thanks!!

She (Anna) plays a pretty prominent role in last Season (I think) when Don goes to CA. He is shown fixing her house, working on cars and being "Don" without any pretenses.

He is shown in a certain section of town with a bunch of guys just looking at cars and he seems at home with all these neighborhood guys. He's more Dick Whitman instead of Don Draper there.

Anna has polio and stayed single after Don divorced her

 

[NotUrsula]

The interesting thing is what will happen to the Long Beach house when Anna dies? I think that Don perhaps still is on the title, and probably not as Dick Whitman.

Patty is a huge threat if she gets into Anna's papers and figures out that "Dick" is a deserter. (He was smart not to try to use the real Don's degree, and I'm sure that he had his name legally changed at some point, but he's still a deserter, and that was still something that could have landed him in Leavenworth for years.) Anna's friends and family apparently know him as Dick Whitman, and she has explained him somehow (probably as a relative of her late husband.) More shocks loom down the road.

Joan's storyline is getting v-e-r-r-r-y interesting.

 

[redlight]

She (Anna) plays a pretty prominent role in last Season (I think) when Don goes to CA. He is shown fixing her house, working on cars and being "Don" without any pretenses.

He is shown in a certain section of town with a bunch of guys just looking at cars and he seems at home with all these neighborhood guys. He's more Dick Whitman instead of Don Draper there.

Anna has polio and stayed single after Don divorced her

Anna appears in season 2. Yes, Don is more comfortable with himself with Anna as Dick than he is as Don.

 

[Mimi1965]

Yeah-it seems Joanie has had 2 abortions so far

This whole episode was weird to me

 

[Pig Pen]

This whole episode was weird to me

I agree. I will have to watch it again to get the full effect but I didn't enjoy it as much as usual. Maybe it was the location change. I remember disliking the episode a few years back when Don was traveling on business and met up with some hippie-like characters. I think he ended up having a psychedelic experience with drugs?

 

[7165red]

Sun. night show was under par. I hate seeing Don's decline and didn't want to see him hit on the young girl. I hope Matt Weiner brings us back to the agency. This one of my favorate shows but this season seems to be lacking. AMC-Men has a great official site. I think you all will enjoy it.

 

[Pakey]

Sun. night show was under par. I hate seeing Don's decline and didn't want to see him hit on the young girl. I hope Matt Weiner brings us back to the agency. This one of my favorate shows but this season seems to be lacking. AMC-Men has a great official site. I think you all will enjoy it.

I'm really disappointed this season also. I can't quite put my finger on the exact problem with it but it just doesn't feel as sharp. The characters all seem so disconnected. I'll stick with it but I'm not eagerly looking forward to Sunday nights the way I have in prior seasons.

 

[eeyore65]

I am also missing the agency. One of the parts I really enjoyed was the actual advertising discussions and the office banter. That seems to be lacking this year. I also miss seeing Don's home life with Betty - dysfunctional as it was - it gave a peek in to the era that I liked.

I felt like Sunday's night episode was like a foreign movie, where nothing really happens. It is tough to describe what actually happened.

 

[NotUrsula]

Oh, I think that a lot happened. It was an expository episode, and I think that what we saw will be very important for explaining things that are about to happen.

Don is now about to be completely alone. Anna was his last family now that he has lost Betty and the kids; her death is likely to send him into a tailspin that will threaten the survival of the agency.

Joan is becoming more pivotal. Her marriage is a disaster and she knows it, and she's feeling terribly guilty about the fact that she doesn't respect her husband. I think that deep down she's actually hoping that he won't return from Vietnam, and I think that she is also hoping that she won't get pregnant. There is also a lot going on between Joan and Lane; they have to work closely together because he is the managing partner, but he doesn't respond to her as most men do, and it confuses and frustrates her. I think that Weiner is pulling a switch on us here -- in the early seasons Peggy was the "modern" woman to watch, but I think that the female character most likely to end up out in front of the women's lib wave might actually be Joan, especially if she does get pregnant and Greg dies. Joan as the modern single mom -- it is just the sort of twist Weiner loves to drop on an audience.

Lane's marriage breaking up is going to free him in many ways, but it means that all three of the younger-generation partners of the firm are now divorced men. (Yes, Roger has remarried, but I think that Jane isn't going to last, either -- she's going to go down in flames pretty soon one way or another.) Their all being divorced is hugely significant in the business world of 1965 -- in those days there tended to be a corporate prejudice in favor of "stable" married men. Their marital state is going to have repercussions in terms of getting and keeping accounts.

 

[eeyore65]

Joan is becoming more pivotal. Her marriage is a disaster and she knows it, and she's feeling terribly guilty about the fact that she doesn't respect her husband. I think that deep down she's actually hoping that he won't return from Vietnam, and I think that she is also hoping that she won't get pregnant. There is also a lot going on between Joan and Lane; they have to work closely together because he is the managing partner, but he doesn't respond to her as most men do, and it confuses and frustrates her. I think that Weiner is pulling a switch on us here -- in the early seasons Peggy was the "modern" woman to watch, but I think that the female character most likely to end up out in front of the women's lib wave might actually be Joan, especially if she does get pregnant and Greg dies. Joan as the modern single mom -- it is just the sort of twist Weiner loves to drop on an audience.

I thought that Joan started to look at her husband a little different when he was working on her hand. Like he was someone that could be nurturing and take care of a child. She looked to me like she was thinking that maybe she misjudged him.

I agree about the episode moving the story along, but so much of it was subtle and needs more time to play out. I do love that about Mad Men, but still miss some of the other story elements in earlier seasons.

 

[Mimi1965]

Last night was back to a great episode!
I love the last scene-pretty much sums up the agency

Peter is laughing and hanging out with all the gray haired old farts

Peggy is laughing and heading out with young, creative "on the edge' young people her age-much more "in tune" with young people-which is what the ad agencies all went after in the 60's

 

[mefordis]

It is so strange seeing them interact with one another knowing they had a child together. And that Peggy sees the child regularly (gave it up to her sister). It's kind of heartbreaking to me.

I think Peter has something for Peggy.

Last night was back to a great episode!
I love the last scene-pretty much sums up the agency

Peter is laughing and hanging out with all the gray haired old farts

Peggy is laughing and heading out with young, creative "on the edge' young people her age-much more "in tune" with young people-which is what the ad agencies all went after in the 60's

 

[NotUrsula]

Peggy didn't give up the child to her sister. Her sister just happened to be pregnant at the same time. Peggy's baby DID go up for adoption, and she probably has no clue where he is. Matt Weiner cleared this up in an interview with the Chicago Tribune two years ago:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/10/mad-men-peggy-b.html

Pete did (does, maybe?) have a thing for Peggy, but Peggy doesn't reciprocate it. She got over that a LONG time ago. Peggy's banging-her-head-on-the-table issue is probably just the whole memory of the surprise baby/mental hospital situation -- I don't think that she likes it when that memory rears its head. I think she might end up dating Abe from the Happening closet -- I'll bet anything he's Jewish, and that would be a big leap for Peggy-the-Catholic-girl-from-Brooklyn.

I loved it when Pete said, "I'm going to be a father?" That horse left the barn two years ago. I think that Pete *does* wish that he could find his son, but in 1965 you just couldn't do that once a child was adopted -- and Trudy would be crushed, in any case. I think that Pete does love Trudy now; Peggy was his vision of himself living on the wild side. (The funky twist that might have happened was Pete and Trudy starting to adopt and accidentally encountering his son in an orphanage, but I think that would have been too obvious -- Weiner never goes for any plot twist that predicatable, it seems to me.

 

[redlight]

I don't think that she likes it when that memory rears its head

Peggy does not ever want to reminded about the child.

You're right that she didn't give it to her sister. That was clear when they showed that Peggy's sister was pregnant at the time Peggy was in the hospital.

 

[jaoconnor]

I'm a little disappointed in the season thus far.

I miss the old Don & where are the Betty scenes!

 

[Maddle]

Peggy didn't give up the child to her sister. Her sister just happened to be pregnant at the same time. Peggy's baby DID go up for adoption, and she probably has no clue where he is. Matt Weiner cleared this up in an interview with the Chicago Tribune two years ago:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/10/mad-men-peggy-b.html

Well! that's all news to me! It really was unclear - I thought Peggy's MOTHER had the baby...there are two baby's out there at Mom's house, aren't there? If I hadn't read that article you just referenced, I would've been sure of it....but I guess I'm wrong.

I didn't think Peggy was in a mental institution, was she? I thought it was just a long hospital stay after the baby's birth, (typical for that time period.) I know Don came to visit her, it's one of the secrets they share, but I thought it was in the maternity ward. No?

Love this show!
Maddle

 

[FloraFauna]

I like Trudy's character a lot. She seems like a strong woman--one that will hold her family together.

I wonder why the last scene of the episode showed the elderly couple in the hallway talking about pears?

 

[Mimi1965]

That last scene-with DON looking on-maybe to show he'll never be in a long lasting relationship.....and that long lasting couples constantly argue? LOL!


I also remember Peegy's sister having a mini rant about her giving up the baby-maybe when that Priest was on the show(??)
And there was a scene when Pete tried to have sex with peggy-much later-and she tells him that the baby was adopted

 

[NotUrsula]

I didn't think Peggy was in a mental institution, was she? I thought it was just a long hospital stay after the baby's birth, (typical for that time period.) I know Don came to visit her, it's one of the secrets they share, but I thought it was in the maternity ward. No?

Oh, no -- it was a psych ward. She was there for about 3 months, I think.
(When Don called her mother to find out why she had disappeared, her mother told him she was quarantined because she had TB. Don smelled a rat and went looking for her, and found out where she really was.)

The story was that she refused to accept that she had had a child at all, so the doctors had her involuntarily committed. ("The State of NY says so...") Don told her to say whatever the Drs. wanted her to, so that she could get out. She did, and he gave her her job back.

As a PP said, she not only doesn't WANT to remember the baby, she really doesn't remember the baby -- she has totally blocked out the episode, and the "Twilight Sleep" that they gave then makes it plausible -- if she was "never pregnant" and doesn't remember the birth itself, then as Don said, it didn't happen. (Twilight Sleep induces amnesia.) She knows it happened because the doctors told her so, but she doesn't actually remember it -- it is like it happened to someone else. What she remembers (but doesn't want to remember) is being in the psych ward, and having to say that she knew she had a baby in order to get out.

 

[gometros]

Pete did (does, maybe?) have a thing for Peggy, but Peggy doesn't reciprocate it. She got over that a LONG time ago. Peggy's banging-her-head-on-the-table issue is probably just the whole memory of the surprise baby/mental hospital situation -- I don't think that she likes it when that memory rears its head. I think she might end up dating Abe from the Happening closet -- I'll bet anything he's Jewish, and that would be a big leap for Peggy-the-Catholic-girl-from-Brooklyn.

I was thinking wouldn't it be funny if Abe's last name was Hoffman

Catholic girl in love with a Jewish boy from Brooklyn? Been there, done that. It was called the Brooklyn Bridge. Great series that got cut too soon.