What I Saw: Mad Men Season 5, Episode 12
SCDP has undergone an amputation, so to speak. And that check is what caused the gangrene that brought Lane Pryce low. Or hung him high.
We saw it coming:
Lane was hanging around in doorways all the episode long. Here he is in Don's doorway.
Here Lane is in Joan's doorway. Notice the clock, it is 15 minutes to Lane's Doomsday.
Here is Lane, hanging his head in his own doorway.
And here is Lane, hanging out for the last time at SCDP in his office doorway.
Was anyone surprised? Lane had been haunting the hallways of SCDP all season long. Lane was like Peggy working hard on an all nighter. Lane was like Anna Draper's ghost coming in SCDP to say good bye.
There were other ghosts too.
Sally and Glenn went to the Natural History Museum to see the ghosts of Animals and Times Past.
And Sally and Glenn said good bye to their childhoods.
Glenn had his beard mustache hairy upper lip.
Oh you Ladies Man, Glenn! We know that you didn't do your biweekly shave because you were so busy. We know that you left those scraggly hairs on you upper lip to woo Our Sally. Gross! We and Sally weren't too impressed. You'll have to do better. Ever realize just how much Glenn resembles Michael the Martian?
They even dress alike.
And Sally said good bye to her childhood.
White boots and her shoulder bag and her Mystery Date with Glenn.
I swear that I thought that was Michael at first, even though I knew that it would be Glenn.
The Ghosts of Childhood haunt us all. One reason why Lane took the "Hang'em High" (was that one of the movies that Megan was reading out loud at the restaurant?) route out was that Horrible Man, His Father, The Bully. Bullies also figured in Glenn's story too.
But Lane, like all suicides, had to get vindictive to the Living.
First Lane plotted his End.
Lane did his Homework.
Glenn and Don did Homework too, but more about that later.
How to spite a Clueless Wife and get back at SCDP who ruined your life? Ruin Theirs!
Mrs. Pryce bought Lane a Jaguar for all his hard work. A racing green Jaguar that turned Lane's stomach and his face green with nausea.
A Jaguar for the Jaguar account that made SCDP one of the Big Time Advertising Agencies, and some of that was Lane's hard work that wasn't appreciated. How does an Unappreciated Man get some acknowledgement? He kills himself in a Jaguar car that his wife bought him.
Some one will be paying attention. Some one will connect the ironies. SCDP wins Jaguar and then one of the partner kills himself in a Jaguar. Now that is Advertising! Even Dim Rebecca will see the irony. You go Lane! No one can say that you weren't an Ad Man and a Mad Man to the End.
Look at the inside of that Jaguar. It is like an astronaut's capsule' control panel. Lane is going to be an astronaut like Our Beloved Mrs. Blankenship.
"Control! Ignition! Lift Off!" Only the Suicide Mission was Aborted. There was an electrical malfunction, Cape Canaveral. Back to the Suicide Countdown.
So Lane decides to fall down---he has fallen down financially, integritywise. Now Lane will just fall down in his SCDP office. Keep the blame focused, don't go pulling Rebecca into it.
Lane leaves a resignation letter behind. And now we go back to Pete's comments on the train to his lover's husband who is in Insurance. After two years, SCDP's insurance pays the company for a partner's suicide. But what if the partner resigns before the suicide? Does SCDP still get the money? There is that $50,000 loan from Chemical Bank that must be repaid. And Lane might have left a few more little treats for SCDP's Financial Affairs Officer (Joan?) to discover.
Lane came in with PPL who bought the old SC Firm. PPL and the Brits never have had an easy time with the SCD people. Will the Lawnmower hit the Foot again?
There is Sally's Bitter/Sweet Moment.
The bitterness of the coffee is tamed by the sweetness of the sugar.
The sweetness of having women friends and doing adult things like gossiping and going to the movies and shopping. Girls just wanna have fun.
And then there is the Bitter of Being a Woman. Women are different, they have some added responsibilities.
Sex and Motherhood, why does it have to become so complicated?
I could say that Megan was the Sweet and Betty was the Bitter, because they are.
I loved the look of Triumph on Betty's face when she called Megan about Sally. Betty won this round.
Don/Dick is a Rudyard Kipling sort of Hero. Don/Dick gives Lane the old "Rah Rah and Carry On" speech:
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
Don/Dick has done exactly that in his life and in his recent acquisition of the Much Desired Car Account. Triumph is fleeting, you move on. Defeat is fleeting, you move on. Funny, Don/Dick is the American, and Lane is the Brit.
Don/Dick brushes off the Joan besmirched Jaguar Account and gets his Elephant Gun and goes hunting for Bigger Game.
Don is after the Dow Chemical Account.
After Don/Dick gets a backslapped compliment from another Mad Man, Don's Discontent is Back. Don's Discontent is like Pete's Discontent, it drives them on to bigger things. Just as Ken Cosgrove's Discontent drives him on to Dow if he can cut Pete out of the business.
Look at the interior of the barbershop. It is glorious and almost holy. Notice the Pope over the Mad Man's shoulder. Will Don/Dick be blessed with Bigger Business?
Don goes home and does his Homework on Dow. See grown men do Homework, but few of them do Housework, ask Megan and Betty.
So let's all be Bery Bery Quiet! Don/Dick is hunting Wabbits!
Glenn's Homework is a paper on the Nat Turner Rebellion. That made me think of other slaves and Sally. Sally used to read to her grandfather, Gene, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
That book was about slaves and grown ups being grown ups and "licentious". There were quite a few suicides and homicides in that book. And it was about a great World Spanning Empire, rather like Rudyard Kipling's poems. So now we know that Glenn is a Reader too.
Glenn's other Homework is to go after all of Don/Dick's Women. First there was Betty, who proved more than Glenn could possibly handle, then there was and is Sally, and now Glenn has wormed his way into Don/Dick's apartment and met Megan. Megan might be getting some late night hung up phone calls from now on. Watch out for the Usurper, Don/Dick. It is not just Michael the Martian, it is also Glenn.
Glenn tells Sally the sad tale of his bullying at school. Lane was bullied by his Wretched Father, Dick was bullied by his Stepmother, and Henry was bullied at his school. And look where they all ended up. Well, don't look at Lane.
But what does all that bullying make a Man when there are moments like this?
It is that moment of Respect and Trust by a Mentor that makes a Person.
Glenn knows this. What does all that bullying mean, when Glenn got to drive Don/Dick's Cadillac back to school?
Sally knows this too.
Lovely Call back.
Say what you will, Don/Dick knows how to Mentor when he wants to. Just ask Peggy and Glenn.
I was staring at the wall at Dow where they had some of their advertising posters hung.
Ever Politically Correct (and some one has to be in this day and age), I went in for a closer look.
Interesting to note after the conversation in the boardroom where napalm and World War II and the Korean War were discussed.
Scarlet is becoming an interesting character.
Here she is in her eponymous color.
And she is carrying the SCDP Books. Is this a call back to Sally's maturity?
And here is Scarlet in Joan's old seat in the Partner's Meeting and Scarlet is wearing Joan's old color.
Has Joan acquired a protégé at SCDP? Is Joan no longer The Lone Woman?
Screen Caps by Me because I do them.