There’s one word that I think sums up this episode of Mad Men, and that word is boxes – a pretty mundane thing to use for an analysis but bear with me. From the many shots of the characters watching the news on television, to the off-screen coffin of President Kennedy, and even Betty and Henry Francis’ boxy looking cars when they met up at the end of the episode, the box-related images reflected what really makes Mad Men unique as a television drama – the fact that all the characters seem so disconnected from each other, it’s gripping without the usual histrionics that you’ll find in even the best dramas. Indeed, the two most warm-hearted moments of this week’s episode didn’t even have the characters sharing space on screen as they revolved around phone conversations.
The big story this week was President Kennedy’s assassination, and the chaos that followed it. Although it’s such a well-known event, with every little detail picked over again and again, I did find it fairly easy to disregard all this and just experience it through the eyes of the characters who were seeing all this for the first time – in particular Betty’s shock when she saw the footage of Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot. So much of the episode took place in front of television screens, whether in the character’s homes, in the office, in hotel rooms, and even in the kitchen of a restaurant. Of course, we learnt earlier on in the series that it was also time for the wedding of Roger’s daughter Margaret, but this all got pushed to the side somewhat (another thing I admire Mad Men for, as while most dramas will use a wedding as a big event to bring all the characters together, Mad Men hasn’t really relied on this, as previously demonstrated by the relative lack of attention to Roger and Jane’s nuptials).
Speaking of Margaret it’s still quite amazing how two characters as genuinely likeable as Roger and Mona (like everyone in Mad Men they both have their faults, but still emerge as being among the more sympathetic characters on the show) could spawn such a vile daughter. Her anguish about her wedding being ruined when watching the news about President Kennedy is sort of understandable, if rather selfish on her part, but the whole palaver earlier over her wanting to not have anything to do with her father’s new wife Jane, after Jane had bought her an expensive pre-wedding gift, and constantly threatening to call off the wedding was pretty irritating. It did lead to an amusing phone conversation between Roger and his daughter, where he threatened to call Margaret’s bluff and actually call off the wedding, and then the first of the two heart-warming moments where Roger and Mona chatted over the phone. It was nice to see Mona again actually, I didn’t realise that I’d missed her until her reappearance this week. But still the wedding went ahead, even if many of the guests didn’t show up, and a fair amount of the ones who did spent the evening in the kitchen watching the TV, and even Margaret had a good time. Unfortunately Jane had rather too good of a time, as we saw when Roger carried her back to their room slung over his shoulder. As Jane passed out instantly, it did give Roger the chance to give Joan a quick call (the second heart-warming moment), and it was interesting to compare just how more natural and easy-going his conversation with her was than that with his wife.
Elsewhere, Pete spent much of the episode in a sulk as Ken Cosgrove was promoted over him. I do pity poor Trudy having to hear him whine about how everything in his life is a monumental disappointment, perhaps the worst moment of which was when he decided to not go to Margaret’s wedding, supposedly because the staff at Sterling-Cooper had been saying offensive things about President Kennedy, but I’m not sure that’s the case – it did all reek of over-exaggeration, like a child who trying to convince their parents that they shouldn’t go to school makes up lies about how awful they get treated there.
Peggy meanwhile learnt about the Kennedy assassination while having a lunchtime quickie with Duck. And perhaps the most shocking thing about this was that for once I found Duck oddly charming and likeable, I guess it’s because he didn’t have much to do really, but I was almost happy that he and Peggy are in a (sort of) relationship together, even if it was undermined by the crassness of Peggy’s roommate’s comment about the whole affair – when Peggy corrected her assumption that Duck was married, her roommate merely added ‘Why are you seeing him then’. It seems that Peggy has gone from living with one lot of bad influences – her overly devout mother and jealous sister, to the complete opposite. Hopefully she won’t be effected too much by her new roommate’s fun-loving, immoral ways, although the signs are good so far – rather than spend the day of the funeral joining her roommate, and half their building, in the rather pointless task of writing sympathy letters to Jackie Kennedy, or her mother’s ridiculously over the top grief, she went into work alone to add the finishing touches to the now, potentially controversial hairspray commercial that we were treated to a live enactment of in episode ten. Although her plans to work alone were sort of interrupted by the appearance of Don, who felt the need to get out of the house, but after a brief, cordial chat they spent the rest of the time off doing their own thing.
It was hardly surprising that Don needed to get out, considering the fact that Betty permanently had the TV on, as befits the style of her parenting she even just left Sally and Bobby to watch the distressing news without discussing it with them, so it was up to Don to explain what was going on and reassure them. Betty must have spent a period of about three days just sat in front of the screen, not bothering to dress or put on make-up (she did look incredible even without make-up though), until Don forced her to accompany him to Margaret’s wedding. And judging by what happened he’ll probably wish that he hadn’t bothered as while at the wedding Betty ran into Henry Francis again, and being confronted with the sight of both Don and Henry stood side by side when she was preparing to leave, she was able to make up her mind about which man she would rather be with. Which lead to her telling Don that she no longer loved him, which really is fair enough considering how he’s treated her over the past three series, although as I’ve said before I did feel more for Don during this than I did for her, which you could argue is a weakness of Mad Men for not portraying the character of Betty so well, or a strength as it makes you see the point of view of characters whose actions you wouldn’t agree with in real life (I’m choosing to go with the latter), and a climatic meeting between her and Henry in a deserted parking lot in which they started to plan their future.
All in all it was a rather classy, gripping episode, which is hardly surprising considering it was directed by Oscar/Palme D’Or nominee Barbet Schroeder, and one that leaves us in an interesting place for the season finale next week.
