Mad Men: Mystery Date
I don't talk about Mad Men a lot here, but I decided to react this time.
Please note that this post will contain spoilers. A lot of them.
First, let's talk about Don. My initial reaction was that he was actually raping the woman, and I skipped. Apparently it got worse after I did so, based on some of the reactions I've read at some of the forums. I'm glad it was a hallucination, and that it was really about him trying to suppress himself rather than some deep dark desire to rape women. Then again, we know he's been violent before - not THIS bad, but when he heard about Henry Francis the first time, he got pretty scary towards Betty, and he leave Bobbi Barrett in a hotel room with her hands tied. And that's all I have to say, except I'm glad I skipped and I'm glad I didn't end up watching the episode with someone like I was going to, had we not gotten back from Easter Dinner too late.
I loved that Joan finally threw Greg out, and that she pointed out what he did to her towards the end of season 2. I always wondered how she stayed with him, but now I think he must have pushed the "I want to be a better man" button a few times before she finally realized, at this instance, that he'd just keep running. I wonder what Roger will make of this.
I liked Dawn and Peggy, and while the ending of that wasn't what I'd hoped, I do think we'll see more of them. I saw parallels between the two instantly - as Peggy said, yeah, their situations are a bit different, but both of them were the subject of (negative) curiosity and expected to have certain ways and do certain things. I even see a bit of Joan and Peggy there, honestly. There's this potential for friendship, but there's also a disconnect. I wasn't sure if the purse incident was because Peggy was more racist than even she realized, or if she was trying not to be racist by taking her purse - I can see it going either way. (Although if it was the latter, she would've looked less racist had she just said "oh, my purse" and taken it. There's a million reasons why she might've wanted to take it with her - there's not many reasons as to why she'd hesitate, look at Dawn, look at the purse, and walk away.) I hope that this doesn't set them back, however, because I'd like to see more female bonding at SCDP. Then again, I don't think we've had any male bonding since season three - it used to be Sal, the sort of wannabe beatnik guy whose name I always forget, and Harry, but now it's just Harry and Ken, and sometimes Pete when he's not busy hating one or both of them.
A lot of people seem annoyed with Megan - am I the only one who saw her point? And she knows full well that Don cheated on Faye with her. She didn't bring it up, but she knows. I don't really like Megan, but I saw her point there.
I still want to know what Roger is doing with his money. I briefly speculated during the episode that perhaps he'd been kicked out by Jane, hence carrying all of that cash. I also wonder if he has some sort of gambling or drinking problem, but if that were the case, why would he give it to Peggy so freely?
This brings us to Sally. I think this episode was really her loss of innocence more than anything else. From the way she spoke to Don in the beginning, it was immediately obvious that she was entering her teen years. The way she spoke, her attitude, and even the way she stood. Yet some of the things she said and did were quite childish - saying she was a nice person, for instance, and refusing to eat her lunch. When she was reading those articles, she looked like she was the little girl we met in the first season... but a very jaded little girl. And it's horrible, but I think we can all relate on some level to that loss of innocence.
I thought that this was a very good episode, if very intense and dark. However, I'm glad I didn't watch it at 10:00 last night after a very pleasant Easter Dinner.