In the Draper household even the birth of a child is a gloomy affair. Betty finally had the unwanted offspring from last season’s one-off bit of comfort sex with Don, and nobody – apart from Bobby – seemed that thrilled about it. With this being the third time for them there was definitely a feeling of ‘been there, done that’ right from the moment Betty calmly announced to Don that the baby was on its way and that the kids had been very neatly packed off to Francine’s. At the hospital Don had to deal with an a first-time father who was excited to the point of being manic (I have no idea why he was so insistent when asking Don to witness his speech about becoming a good man for his new-son, or even why he snubbed Don in the hospital corridor the next day but it did seem to get Don out of his jaded reaction to the whole thing), and Lisa Simpson playing a nurse. Whereas Betty had the harder job of actually having to deliver the child, and for once having to show some real emotion in public – something it’s clear that she doesn’t approve of considering her telling Sally off last week for being ‘hysterical’ and the fact that the most animated she’s gotten in the past is allowing herself to have a quiet cry in private. Actually, it was quite distressing seeing Betty lashing out so much at the nurse helping her, so it was something of a relief when they pumped her full of drugs and put her in the foggy state referred to in the title. It’s perhaps a result of Betty’s uninspiring routine (as Gene put it during his dream cameo Betty’s ‘a housecat, you’re very important and have little to do’), that her dream wasn’t that imaginative, apart from featuring her deceased parents – including the first appearance in the series of her tyrannical mother, with an added black man (I’m probably being stupid and the man was somebody very important, but I didn’t pick up on who it was meant to be – your suggestions would be warmly received), it mainly featured her walking down her street, all in gloriously vivid colours though, and the cruelly satisfied smile she gave when crushing the caterpillar in her hand was interesting. And then, somewhat painlessly she came to already clutching the baby in her hands, a baby that she’s now insisting on calling Eugene, despite Don’s polite attempt to veto it. I must say that I’m with Don on this one, in addition to it being a horrible thing to call a child, Sally’s going to resent the baby for taking her Grandpa’s name – she’s already upset about the baby taking his room.
Speaking of Sally it was odd to think of her describing one of her classmates as a bruiser, and even more so that Betty and Sally’s teacher also used this description. I don’t think Miss Farrell really is good teacher material, as her hogging the limelight from her kids during episode 2’s May-pole dance demonstrated. On the plus side she did sympathise with Sally over Gene’s death but this did lead to her inappropriately phoning Sally’s dad to flirt with him. There was a definite connection between her and Don in the meeting at the start of the episode, as they both lost a parent at a young age, something Betty – who continues to childishly cling to her only recently deceased parents – couldn’t be a part of.
Pete Campbell was the other star of the episode, and he even managed to redeem himself by doing the right thing, albeit for the wrong reasons but he still deserves some points for trying. Spurred on by Ken Cosgrove parading the spoils of his cushy accounts, Pete struggled to increase the sales of the ailing Admiral TVs, and dealt with Duck Philips attempting to woo him over to a rival agency. Although he probably turned Duck down just because Peggy was invited too (which provided the opportunity for Pete to finally address the unresolved tension that’s been between them since he found out about their child at the end of season two, even if it was just with the petulant response of ‘Your decision affects me’), it was good to see him put the newly hipsterish Duck in his place – Duck’s turtleneck was fairly ridiculous, his use of the phrase ‘Have a nosh’ even more so. And it was great seeing Pete struggle with the notion of racial integration as it meant that he could find a way to sell more Admirals – the conversation with Hollis the elevator operator was a near excrutiating case of Pete putting his foot in it, and finally gave Hollis a chance to have more than one line – and Roger Sterling’s angrily refer to Pete as ‘Martin Luther King’ and that he should ‘drop kick him off the roof’ was both amusing and a great way to make Pete seem somewhat sympathetic for a change.
Money was the major concern at Sterling-Cooper this week as we got to hear Kinsey blathering on about Marx, and the Brits worrying over the expense of such luxury goods as paperclips and extra sheets of paper. This did have an impact on Sal as he was put on the defensive when questioned about the expenses for the Baltimore trip – why did Don’s bill cost $8 more, and when did he spend it as it seemed they went straight from the airport, to the restaurant and to the hotel, surely he didn’t need to spend the money on seducing the Stewardess he ended up with? It’s hard not to feel bad for Sal who, because of one bit of experimentation and actually having a good time for once, now feels he has protect himself and keep on Don’s good side at all times. Peggy also felt the impact of the monetary clamp-down as her claim for a well-deserved pay-raise was denied to her by Don. Although I should probably have been concentrating more on the plot at the time, I couldn’t help but notice how fantastic Peggy was looking in that blue checked dress, this new professional feminine look definitely suits her.
So all in all it wasn’t the best of episodes, but as Lane Pryce put it ‘It’s better to have a bit of Don Draper, than no Don Draper at all.’ What did you all of think of it?
