What I Saw: Mad Men Season 5, Episode 5
It was the Summer of Pete's Discontent.
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Richard III
But if by "our house", they are talking about Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, then those clouds are still cloudying up the sky and the "bosom" of SCDP located in the Bank is not Deep, no not Deep at all. Although if the bosom that we are discussing is Joan's, then "DEEP" it is. And did you notice Lane's interrupted stares at Joan's bosom when she was comforting him after Pete's Fight Club Party? Oh Yeah, Lane is not like Roger Sterling at all.
Pete's Party
I feel sort of sorry for Pete. Name one person on this show who actually likes him. OK, Trudie and Tammy like him. But no one else does. I think that sometimes, in a flash of self awareness that Pete manages to bury "in the deep bosom of the ocean" of his consciousness, Pete understands this. And it bothers him no end. Pete keeps reaching out to the oddest people to find something or someone who might like him, and Pete fails. Pete went for Peggy and a German au pair girl in the first Season. A lot of this episode revisits Pete's first season in Mad Men.
There is his competition with Ken Cosgrove. In Season 1, Pete found out that Ken had published a story and was an actual Author/Writer, a profession that was once held in high regard in the 20th century. Pete was discontented until he could get a story published in a Boy Scout's Magazine. Then Pete could be an author too. Didn't Trudie arrange for the publication of Pete's short story? It wasn't as though anyone would have published it without connections being made and influence peddled (rather like the rich boys who ended up in their State's National Guard Airwings instead of being drafted to Vietnam and that makes Dr. Lt. Harris' love of the Vietnam even funnier).
Now, in Season 5, Ken Cosgrove is a Real Author, he has had over 20 short stories published and is making a collection of them into a book. Andre Norton, beware! Pete has a partnership, bought for him by Dick/Don in SCDP, and a house in the suburbs and a baby. Pete is still not an Author of anything that he wishes to acknowledge, recall his disavowal of Tammy. By the way, I do not think that Pete ratted Ken's other career out to disgruntled and unacknowledged Author, Roger Sterling. I think that Don/Dick did.
The first season of Mad Men was about Don/Dick's discontent with his "authored" life as Don Draper, and his fear of being found out as a Whitman, some of whom not only farm but hunt students from the top of Texas' Towers. Now Don/Dick is content with his newly "authored" life and his wife, and Pete is in a roiling discontent. The rifle that Pete got in the first season in exchange for a wedding gift is discussed at the party that Trudy and Pete throw for Don/Dick in acknowledgement of his monetary contribution that included Pete in the SCDP formation.
Pete goes to a Driver's Education Class at the Cos Cob local high school and flirts with a high school senior there. From the gun to the car, Pete finds another lethal instrument to handle. Pete watches the driver's education wreck films with the same smile that he wore when he pointed his gun in his office in the first season. Pete also rattles off the killing driver's statistics to the guests at Trudy's dinner party. I wonder if Pete saw James Dean's wreck in class. Wasn't that the high point of driver's ed classes back then?
The Wreck of the James Dean Porsche
Pete's flirtation with the high school girl is rather sad. He is only half exerting himself, he can do the wounded-guy-needs-a woman's-healing-touch-give-me-a-pity-fuck-please rather well. Later, when Prince Handsome from High School arrives and sweeps Princess High School off her feet and onto the school desk for a good feel, Pete is just as covetous of Prince Handsome's biceps as he is of Princess High School's Derrière. He wants the promise of it all. Recall the Call Girl's Act, "You are my King." Pete doesn't want to be the husband or the first love of a high school girl, he wants to have it all, including the Love or Like that he can't engender in anyone else, other than Trudie and Tammie.
Remember also, the Call Girl's spiel about Pete's skinny muscles (compared to Prince Handsome's biceps). Pete is one of those guys who can lift more than they appear to be able to lift in life, or so the Call Girl says. But remember, she wants a big tip, and no, not that kind of Tip. Weak, weak, little? Pete.
Pete is not what he wants to be or where he wants to be. I don't think he even knows what or where that is. Maybe at the end, we'll see Pete in a California Ashram dropping Acid and speaking of the Divine God in the Wine Vines. Pete is learning how to drive, California is next. Don/Dick only visited there after the death of his first wife. Maybe Pete can get "wrecked" on the West Coast.
The Analysis of the Lobster Men
This is one of the best pictures in Mad Men.
All the men are wearing bibs, the Big Babies. And those bibs carry meanings from "deep in the ocean". The Lobster Tails look like Penises. And the Lobster claws look like Nut crackers. Or Ball Breakers.
All the men are married. Two of them are discontented with the old Ball and Chain, aka the Nutcracker. ::Pete and Roger::
Two of them are contented with their Lobster Tail Pullers. ::Don/Dick and Jaguar Man::
They all end up at a Whore House to get their Tails Cleaned, except for Don/Dick who is suddenly confiding about his childhood. He did not grow up in a Whore House unless his Step Mom worked there part time. I don't know why he is telling that story about his life. But Don/Dick does like to make up his own stories like that other published author Ken Cosgrove/Hargrove/Algonquin.
Who
Who is the most Hated at SCDP?
Harry Crane or Pete Campbell?
I say Pete for the most hated. Harry for the most disliked.
The Sayings of Bert Cooper
Bert calls the Fight Club's joust between Pete and Lane, "Medieval". I think that Bert has been watching The Game of Thrones.
Interview with Vincent Kartheiser, who plays Pete, about this episode.