Poor Miss Blankenship! That cataracts operation was unfortunately a bit of a waste of time and money it seems. The death of Don’s secretary may well be this season’s lawnmower incident, being that it was an unpleasant event that was later wrung by the writers (and the other SCDP staff) for laughs, fortunately this was a much less gory affair, with the longtime Sterling Cooper employee keeling over at her desk while the company’s top brass were in a meeting with Fillmore Auto Parts.
I’m going to miss the old girl, but it was inevitable that she had to go at some point, and at least she left on a high – she may have ‘died as she lived; surrounded by the people she answered phones for’ but she also provided an excuse for some magnificent physical comedy as the secretarial pool wrestled to get the body past the meeting room window without being noticed, and for Bert Cooper to deliver one of his most inspirational speeches yet (incidentally this is now one of my new favourite things) – his emotional response to her death perhaps confirming the revelations about him, Miss Blankenship and Roger from Sterling’s Gold. It was only Harry who let the side down by continuing to be Harry – not only did he complain loudly about them wrapping the body up in his blanket, but later on was seen joking about the situation with the other guys in the break room (“Cause of death: Don Draper”) – I don’t think impressionable Harry should be allowed to hang out with Stan and the gang.
In fact this was a very gynocentric episode as the other women (well women and girl) in Don Draper’s life were busy facing their own dramas (fortunately none as final as Miss Blankenship’s). Peggy’s was probably the least interesting as she had to deal with the romantic tensions of a ‘writer’ introduced to her by her lesbian friend. Of course he turned out to be a massive hypocrite, berating Peggy for working in advertising and supporting a company with a racist employment record (Fillmore Auto Parts weren’t as innocent as their charmingly befuddled behaviour in the meeting suggested), but then after Peggy forced him to abandon an article that would get her fired he unsurprising got very sexist. To be fair to Peggy, she did attempt to raise the racial issue with the other SCDP creative staff, but was inevitably shot down over her suggestion to get Harry Belafonte in to sing the Fillmore jingle. At the risk of sounding sexist myself, what really struck me about Peggy this episode was her look – the confident, glam woman we’re now presented with is a long way away from her shy and dowdy look in season one.
Joan finally got a more meaty storyline this episode, as not only did she have to deal with the news that her husband would definitely be shipped out to Vietnam, but also being mugged when with Roger, and a subsequent rekindling of their relationship. I suppose Miss Blankenship was creating gossip in the SCDP offices even post-mortem as this all sprang from Roger and Joan going to an old haunt to reminisce and take stock after her death and then finding on the way home that the neighbourhood had changed for the worse. He may not be the most physical of the men in Mad Men, it was still strange to see Roger give in so readily to the mugger. Although it’s not like he came out of it too badly, he may have lost some money, his watch and Joan’s wedding ring (all of which can be replaced as he pointed out to her), but he did gain a passionate kiss from her after it was over.
While Roger and Joan were falling into each other’s arms again, Dr Miller and Don’s relationship got rather more strained. At the start of the episode they were in bed together taking a long lunch break, by the end they’d had a fair amount of tense discussion, mainly about Dr Miller being uncomfortable around kids (it’s not, as she pointed out, that she doesn’t like them, but rather she chose not to sacrifice her career in favour of having one). This all came about from Sally turning up unexpectedly at SCDP, having been caught on a train into the city without a ticket. Of course you can’t really blame Sally for trying to run away as Betty once again really knew how to make the troubled girl feel wanted by coldly informing Don on the phone that she wouldn’t pick Sally up until the next day. So Sally was provided with the opportunity to be spoiled rotten by her dad, and to try and convince him to let her stay with him full time (after her breakfast making mishap I really want to try making french toast with rum for myself now). And when Don told her she couldn’t stay she went nuts (which really is a perfectly reasonable reaction to having to spend time with Betty), and ended up falling flat on her face in the office hallway. Most of my thoughts about this storyline revolved around how great an actor/unusual a child Kiernan Shipka is – she managed to pull off transitions from contrite, to mischievous, to creepily grown up (when she tried to reassure Don about her making breakfast by saying ‘Oh daddy I do it all the time’ in a bizarre monotone), to full-on Exorcist style tantrum when she was about to be handed back to her mother. I did also think that although Meagan was very nice to Sally, I’m sure she was lying about ‘falling over all the time’ herself, it’s hard to picture the impossibly glamorous receptionist being less than elegant and that the chorus of women of SCDP (well Peggy, Joan and a few others) who stood silently watching Sally run away from Don through the office and then Betty picking her up, seemed weirdly judgemental of the whole thing.
Really, it was solid but pretty much a filler episode – I couldn’t help but think that the shot of Joan, Dr Miller and Peggy getting into an elevator together at the end seemed to want to create more meaning for the episode (as it did highlight the female focus) than was really justified. Although it was nice to see Miss Blankenship go out with a bit of a bang, even if I will be mourning her for weeks to come.
