Mad Men - "Dark Shadows" - 5/13/12

[TiVo'Brien]

It's a warm November in Gotham and loyalties are being betrayed right and left in this episode. Betty uses Sally against Don and Megan to betray Don's past to Sally. Don undermines Ginsburg's Sno-Ball campaign. Burt and Roger go behind Don's back by hiring Ginsburg to create a new campaign. Betty struggles not to betray her Weight Watcher's diet (she mostly succeeds). Henry begins to realize his loyalty to Lindsay might be costing him a career.

Lots of thing to digest. Discuss.

[betts4]

Keep going...

Roger betrays his soon to be ex's wish to have a 'clean' apartment with no memories, Campbell has erotic fantasies in the office about his train buddies wife, and Sally learns some more about the world of adults and the games they play.

[mwhip]

And Rory Gilmore sideboob!!

[DevdogAZ]

Originally Posted by mwhip

And Rory Gilmore sideboob!!

That was more than just sideboob. I was shocked there was no nipple showing in that scene.

I loved that Betty's plan backfired on her. She thought Megan wouldn't know about Anna, but instead Don had already told Megan, and then gladly told Sally as well. I wonder if that's going to lead to some holiday binge eating by Betty.

[Shakhari]

Interesting time with the whole Dark Shadows thing, considering the movie just came out ...

[vman41]

Originally Posted by Shakhari

Interesting time with the whole Dark Shadows thing, considering the movie just came out ...

And Megan dealing with being in the 1%.


With the Sno-Ball campaign, I got the feeling Don had to prove to himself that he still had it in him. With the turmoil that will erupt in a couple years, ads with cops geting hit with snowballs could have backfired.

The scene in the elevator with Draper and Ginsberg seemed familiar, didn't a past season have a similar confrontation where Don said he didn't think about the other guy at all?

[TAsunder]

Originally Posted by vman41

And Megan dealing with being in the 1%.


With the Sno-Ball campaign, I got the feeling Don had to prove to himself that he still had it in him. With the turmoil that will erupt in a couple years, ads with cops geting hit with snowballs could have backfired.

The scene in the elevator with Draper and Ginsberg seemed familiar, didn't a past season have a similar confrontation where Don said he didn't think about the other guy at all?

Didn't he do that to Pete once?

[TiVo'Brien]

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

.....I loved that Betty's plan backfired on her. She thought Megan wouldn't know about Anna, but instead Don had already told Megan, and then gladly told Sally as well......

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop when Sally asked Don if Anna was the one who called him Dick, but didn't ask anything else. Wow, Don dodged a 50 caliber identity bullet there!

Anybody recall if Dick Whitman ever did a legal name change? If not, isn't Sally's real name Sally Whitman? That kind of takes the bark off the old family tree, eh?

[zalusky]

Didn't Sally get an A+, I was wondering if the previews were showing Don and Megan at a school function with a big chart showing Anna Draper.

[trainman]

Originally Posted by TiVo'Brien

Anybody recall if Dick Whitman ever did a legal name change? If not, isn't Sally's real name Sally Whitman? That kind of takes the bark off the old family tree, eh?

I assume "Sally Draper" is what's written on her birth certificate -- as far as I know, that would be her legal, real name no matter whether or not her father was using an alias.

I'm interested to know whether or not there really was a feature on advertising agencies in the New York Times magazine on the Sunday before Thanksgiving 1966, and whether or not there actually was a smog alert in New York City on Thanksgiving Day 1966. (Didn't seem to affect the Macy's parade, though.)

[DeDondeEs]

I liked Roger's question about how Jewish the client was. "Fiddler on the Roof, are we talking cast, or audience?"

[Idearat]

Originally Posted by trainman

...and whether or not there actually was a smog alert in New York City on Thanksgiving Day 1966. (Didn't seem to affect the Macy's parade, though.)

Actually, it looks like there was a smog alert.

Quick Google search for Thanksgiving 1966: It was on November 24th.
Quick search of NYT archive for "Smog Alert 1966" came up with this from November 27th:

SMOG SWEPT AWAY BY COOL AIR MASS; EMERGENCY ENDED; 3-State Alert Is Called Off as Fresh Winds Come In After a Night of Rain HELP BY PUBLIC PRAISED Most Followed Restrictions, Heller Says--No Illnesses Attributed to Pollution Citizens' Aid Lauded Smog Swept Out by Cold Front; 3-State Emergency Alert Ended The Call Goes Out Reporting System Speeded Weather to Continue Good Winds Fairly Gentle

By MURRAY SCHUMACHThe New York Times (by John Orris) ();
November 27, 1966,

[ DISPLAYING ABSTRACT ]

The air-pollution emergency imposed here on Friday was ended yesterday after cool fresh air, rising Winds and a night of intemittent rain washed away the corrosive pall of smog.

If Friday was bad enough to be called an emergency, it's not a stretch to think that Thursday was a high smog day also.

[zalusky]

Originally Posted by Idearat

Actually, it looks like there was a smog alert.

All that smoking!

[avery]

Originally Posted by trainman

...I'm interested to know whether or not there really was a feature on advertising agencies in the New York Times magazine on the Sunday before Thanksgiving 1966,...

From Sepinwall's review of the episode:
"As happened with the protest from the season premiere, that was an actual New York Times Magazine feature on the ad game, including that photo of the partners from the agency Wells Rich Greene. (Full credit to Adam Bonin for finding that.)"

[ElJay]

Betty is something terrible. I think she and Pete should get together somehow.

[efilippi]

Did January Jones just naturally gain weight and then the writers wrote a story line to reflect it or did she gain weight just to stick to the script? The latter seems too much while the former doesn't seem right to me either. Just wondering.

[DevdogAZ]

Originally Posted by efilippi

Did January Jones just naturally gain weight and then the writers wrote a story line to reflect it or did she gain weight just to stick to the script? The latter seems too much while the former doesn't seem right to me either. Just wondering.

Neither. The "weight" is just special effects. She was pregnant and had a baby during the show's hiatus, but by all accounts, she lost the baby weight quite quickly. I wonder if Weiner and Co. crafted the Fat Betty storyline while she was pregnant and weren't sure if she'd be able to quickly lose the weight (hello, Leah), and then decided to keep that storyline even when it became clear the weight would have to be added artificially.

[stellie93]

What was Betty's line...."I have everything I want and no one else has anything better?"... or something equally selfish? No wonder Sally's messed up. Even if you think that way, who says it at Thanksgiving dinner?

Good thing Meagan isn't still at the agency coming up with better ads than Don.

[avery]

Betty Draper is wearing prosthetics – a fat suit! January Jones is still slender in real life.

The Weight Watchers/Betty storyline is kind of fun and very true to the mid-60s era. [WW was the the *new* thing when it came to dieting then... I remember my mother being on the program] For someone like Betty, with her modeling background and good looks, her internal torment must be unbearable. She's actually holding it together fairly well, considering.

[mm2margaret]

Best dialogue/lines/retort of the night:

Ginsberg: "I feel bad for you"
Don Draper: "I don't think about you at all"

[Bryanmc]

Originally Posted by stellie93

What was Betty's line...."I have everything I want and no one else has anything better?"... or something equally selfish? No wonder Sally's messed up. Even if you think that way, who says it at Thanksgiving dinner?

I think it was just a "high class" way of saying she couldn't imagine a better life than what she has, or that there's no one she's jealous of.

Completely false, of course, as she was dripping with jealousy for both Megan and Megan and Don's relationship, but I think that was the intent of the line.

[Mr. Soze]

Roger is as big a bastard as Pete, but at least he's funny. The scene with him and Ginsburg was awesome with all his Jewish stereotypes. It never occurred to me that Jane was Jewish either.

Insecure Don? More Megan barefoot, but she didn't look the slightest bit pregnant when Betty was watching her. And 73rd and Park? Nice!

And sweet fantasy, Pete!!

[Robin]

I've never understood the betty hate until this episode. Wow.

And sally came into her own as a manipulative bitch. I've never enjoyed her more!

[betts4]

I think it's a show of how the characters have grown and changed.

I would love for Don to come to work without all the hair stuff in his hair!

[Mr. Soze]

Originally Posted by Robin

I've never understood the betty hate until this episode. Wow.

And sally came into her own as a manipulative bitch. I've never enjoyed her more!

In the scene where Don was telling her about Anna, she actually looked like a mini-Betty, again reinforcing the Betty-as-a-child theme.

[TiVo'Brien]

Originally Posted by betts4

I think it's a show of how the characters have grown and changed.

I would love for Don to come to work without all the hair stuff in his hair!

In a few years "the wet head is dead" campaign will change all that.

DryLook

[cheesesteak]

This show would be Mad Men:CSI if Sally had called any of the grown women I grew up with in the 60s a liar.

Jeez. Roger can buy his ex-wife a new apartment on her whim but he can't defile her in it? Doesn't seem fair. It wasn't all his fault. She could have said no.

[kaszeta]

Originally Posted by TiVo'Brien

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop when Sally asked Don if Anna was the one who called him Dick, but didn't ask anything else.

I was wondering if this would come up, since I remember being a bit surprised that Don took the kids to meet Anna, and everyone called him "Dick Whitman" while he was there.

[DevdogAZ]

Originally Posted by cheesesteak

Jeez. Roger can buy his ex-wife a new apartment on her whim but he can't defile her in it? Doesn't seem fair. It wasn't all his fault. She could have said no.

I wondered about this. I guess that little pause just after they started making out where she said, "Wait," was supposed to be her way of letting him know she didn't want to continue, but then when he kept going, she did not protest. I wonder if that was supposed to be some kind of indicator of the times and culture, where a woman was expected to "be available" for her man, even if she didn't want to be.

[Bierboy]

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

... I wonder if that was supposed to be some kind of indicator of the times and culture, where a woman was expected to "be available" for her man, even if she didn't want to be.

"her man"? I don't believe he's been "her man" for awhile now....(nor has she been "his woman")