Day 4.
I just finished watching season one of Mad Men, and I had this whole post planned out about things I wanted to saw about the show, but they've all been overshadowed by OMG, PEGGY WAS PREGNANT?! She was far enough along to deliver a healthy baby, and didn't even know? WHAT. How does that even happen? You would have to be in extreme denial; there's
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The parents thing confused me, honestly. Although I'd had a sense in S3 that something like that (actually, both of them) might be the case, I'd sort of given up on that theory as Mark's character developed. That line (I'm being vague in order not to make spoilers for those that might be browsing this!) seemed . . . unsatisfactory given what he said in Season 5 about them ignoring him and Mrs. Shepherd practically raising him. My instinct is that the writers were just trying to wrap up his family background story in a neat package, because they don't want to do anything else with it.
It's funny, usually this kind of thing throws me into a flat spin re: ATTL. I can agonize for hours days over trivial facts such that I wrote Callie and Lexie having a conversation about sex when they just did it on the show; or that Richard had to sign some job related papers when I was just about to post the chapter with Mark doing that. But, honestly, in this case, strangely, I don't care. I thought it was out of character for the character they've developed and contradictory. And, honestly, I prefer my version. ;D
BUT
Other than that, though, my reaction was the opposite of ambivalent, lol! I LOVED and ADORED Mark in this episode. I loved how he truly grew up through it; enough to be strong and a real father to Sloan and then show profound and very touching vulnerability to Teddy. I thought the show portrayed him (with the exception of a couple of off moments) as real and human and . . . yeah, I loved him &hearts
I also loved Alex and Lexie. I'm not sure whether Lexie was channeling her inner Bailey in that "give me a beer" scene, but honestly, they reminded me of Dan and Roseanne Conner (!) and I adored them too! Also, Meredith and Jackson - very funny.
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I had a feeling you would :) I dunno; I just wasn't feeling it with Mark this ep. I think I just need some time to..adjust?...to this Mark =/ I don't think it was done badly or anything, but...I dunno...
I don't know who Dan and Roseanne Conner are, but I agree, I LOVED the last scene with those two :D It definitely makes me more resolved they're heading in a Alex/Lexie direction. Mer and Jackson are now BFFs in my mind! :D
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Clearly you have less concern for spoiling your flist than I do ;)
That's what I meant - there's no connection, that's why it's unsatisfactory. (Personally, I'm putting in the irrelevant canon bucket along with his age being 38 ETA: actually, 36 isn't it? Oh, who cares - he's 40 as far as I'm concerned and I'm sticking with that.) And certainly, they're making it up as they go along. But my feeling (because I like to make some kind of sense of things, lol) is that they reached the end of the family arc with him in that episode and that odd statement was made to underline that clumsily. That's all we're getting, I suspect - no explanation (beyond the little in Season 5) of why he's almost pathologically damaged and self-loathing. (Unless they're rewriting things to the effect that his mom died when he was a kid and his dad's depression is what caused him to be neglected. Except . . . that's not what he said in Season 5, so . . . )
They were the main characters in Roseanne. The physician assisted suicide patient on Grey's played their daughter, Darlene. It was probably a weird comparison to make even if you knew who they were, lol ;)
Your icon is beautiful &hearts
(Yeah, there are a lot of &hearts &hearts flying around for him at the moment . . . I love him *sigh*, lol)
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I'm also gonna apologize for spamming this post with self-absorbed, over-invested ranting. I was kinda stressed last week and I should've waited until I wasn't (and knew what I thought) before speaking!
Still love Mark in that ep, though. That hasn't changed.
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Oh, no need for apologies! I meant to reply, but it's just the last couple days have been kinda busy, and then it SNOWED today (you know about that, though), and then I forgot, lol. But, spamming/ranting is always welcome! :)
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Okay - I'm just gonna do it here (the post I said I might make) because I can't be bothered to form my thoughts into a coherent structure about the whole episode.
It occurred to me that there's another way to view Mark's statement about his parents in a way that does connect it to what we already know about his background.
Firstly, we only ever actually saw him talk about his parents to the little girl in 5.09. No other character witnessed or heard this. Maybe (other than Derek and, more so, Mrs. Shepherd) no one actually knows the the details of his childhood. Maybe it's too difficult a subject to talk to even Callie or Lexie about in any depth . . .?
So, when he blurts out that his mom is dead and his father's never gonna get up off the couch, perhaps that's the most he feels comfortable revealing. And it's logical because (that was just the preamble, this is what made me change my mind):
he's still essentially waiting for his parents to turn around and tell him they love him / they're proud of him / he matters and it's never going to happen.
Which is kind of tragic, and the transition he makes when Derek reminds him he has a kid (Sloan) to being the one waiting for unconditional love, to the one giving it (even though no one has yet given this to him and, as far as he knows, may never) is an incredible, beautiful moment of growth.
*/ end of spam :)
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